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User: QuietLagoon

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Comments · 4,128

  1. OK then, so the limit is on Comcast Slightly Clarifies High Speed Extreme Use Policy · · Score: 2, Funny
    A customer is exceeding their use limit if they: download the equivalent of 30,000 songs, 250,000 pictures or 13 million emails in a month.

    Let's see. At about 50 megabytes per song (I use lossless compression), that is 1,500,000 megabytes or 1,500GB per month limit. OK, so if I use only 1,000GB per month, I'm OK, right?

    (am I the only one who has noticed that Comcast still has not given a hard limit, that the limit is still as vague as it has ever been?

  2. Re:where is the problem? on Jeremy Allison On Microsoft, OOXML and Standards · · Score: 1
    This has nothing to do with buying votes from the ISO. This has everything to do with standards bodies being ignored because they're irrelevant.

    If the ISO standards process is so irrelevant, then why is Microsoft buying votes to get their mediocre software approved?

  3. Retail? on Is Apple Doing All It Can to Beat Vista? · · Score: 1
    The basic premise of the article is that Apple does not have a large retail brick and mortar presence. Yet the reporter does not offer any sales figures to demonstrate the percentage of computers sold via brick and mortar vs. online shopping. Nor does the reporter mention that notebooks are taking an increasing portion of computer sales, and Apple is making significant gains in that area.

    The NYTimes has often been very sympathetic to Microsoft. With all the innuendo in the story, I have to wonder if Microsoft's invisible hand is behind this story....

  4. Re:where is the problem? on Jeremy Allison On Microsoft, OOXML and Standards · · Score: 4, Insightful
    if they don't change it, then don't approve it as standard

    The problem is that Microsoft (in an implicit admission that its software is sub-standard) is using the profits from its cash-generating Windows monopoly to buy votes in favor of its submission.

    In other words, to paraphrase Ballmer, Microsoft could submit a ham and cheese sandwich for ratifcation, and it would be approved.

  5. Re:Yeah - so? on Gates Successor Says Microsoft Laid Foundation for Google · · Score: 1
    and it took a concerted effort by Microsoft to destroy those companies via Internet Explorer 3 and Outlook Express.

    Correct. The Microsoft emails released during the anti-trust trial show Microsoft executives stating that Internet Explorer could not build the marketshare on its own, that the marketshare of the Windows monopoly needed to be [illegally] leveraged in order for Internet Explorer to win.

  6. TDA - do the right thing on Ameritrade Security Audit Finds Privacy-Busting Back Door · · Score: 1

    Provide at least one year of credit-monitoring services for your customers whose data were compromised.

  7. Re:Yeah - so? on Gates Successor Says Microsoft Laid Foundation for Google · · Score: 1
    In some ways, Microsoft's dominance was handed to them by the faltering competition.

    Let us not forget the illegal per-processor licensing terms that weakened the competition, causing them to falter.

    However, my main point was: if Microsoft did not exist, there would have been another company or other comapnies to fill the void. I do not subscribe to the belief that without Microsoft we all would be living in caves.

  8. Re:Yeah - so? on Gates Successor Says Microsoft Laid Foundation for Google · · Score: 1
    If there had been no Microsoft, the internet would be what USENET was back in the day: something used by geeks and scientists and not much else.

    How can you say that there would have not been any other company to take Microsoft's place if Microsoft did not exist?

    What about all those companies that Microsoft killed off through illegal business practices because Microsoft could not compete with them legally?

    Don't you think that the people who worked for Microsoft would have worked for some other company?

  9. Specious at best on Gates Successor Says Microsoft Laid Foundation for Google · · Score: 1

    What a bunch of self-serving egotistical drivel.

  10. The paper trail is not used for the count... on Paper Trails Don't Ensure Accurate E-Voting Totals · · Score: 1
    The paper trail is used for an accurate recount, as a way to double-check the original count should there be any concerns about tampering.

    TFA is merely a means to divert the discussion away from the real problem here: without a paper trail, it is too easy to tamper with the voting machines and not be caught.

  11. Not only easier to subscribe on TV Torrents — When Piracy Is Easier Than Purchase · · Score: 1
    it is actually trivially easy for users to subscribe to their favorite shows.

    It is not only easier to subscribe, but without the DRM it is easier to use as well.

    Why is it that paying customers are subject to more hassles and more difficulty in use than those who do not pay? Who came up with that business model?

  12. Re:Clear download list on exit on A Preview of Opera 9.5 · · Score: 1
    Type "opera:config" in address bar then click "TransferWindow" and setting "Keep Entries Days" to 0 achieves the results you want.

    Been there, done that. That's not a UI, that is knowing the internals of Opera configuration capabilities. If Opera is to be thought of as anything but a series of tweaks and kludges, then the ability to remove file transfers should be placed where it is more appropriate: on the Advanced|History section of the Options dialog. FireFox does this, what is taking Opera so long to catch up?

    Instructing someone to use opera:config is a blatant admission that the UI is not done.

  13. Re:Clear download list on exit on A Preview of Opera 9.5 · · Score: 1
    In Opera already, tools > delete private data > tick only "clear history of file transfers" , click "Delete" > Done.

    That is not what I asked. Reread the subject of this message, paying particular attention to the words "on exit" at the end.

  14. Clear download list on exit on A Preview of Opera 9.5 · · Score: 1

    Does Opera 9.5 have a UI for this function yet?

  15. Another view... on NBC Universal Drops iTunes · · Score: 1
    Apple Escalates NBC Spat Over ITunes

    NBC Universal, Apple in Battle Over Content Available on ITunes

    Apple Inc. escalated a dispute with NBC Universal over the pricing of television shows by announcing Friday it would not sell any of NBC's programs for this fall season on iTunes.

    Earlier, NBC had told Apple that it would no longer allow its programs to be sold via iTunes at the end of the year. NBC Universal-controlled television programming accounts for an estimated 40 percent of the video downloads on iTunes.

    "We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers."

    Rather than cut off NBC programs in the middle of the season, Apple decided to stop before the new fall episodes premiere next month, he said.

    That would be a blow to fourth-place NBC, which could use the buzz provided by Internet sales for its programming -- not to mention the money.

  16. Your Windows monopoly money at work. on Microsoft Bought Sweden's ISO Vote on OOXML? · · Score: 5, Insightful
    First the movie studios and HD-DVD, and now standards committees are being purchased.

    Why can't Microsoft compete without buying the outcome of the game? Are their products that poor?

  17. Re:Back in 1994... on MS Responds To Vista's Network / Audio Problems · · Score: 1
    it's a BUG

    Microsoft seems to be implying that the performance slowdown is not completely due to a bug; on the contrary, that some of the performance slowdown is working as designed.

  18. Re:When is everyone going to realize? on The "Loudness War" and the Future of Music · · Score: 1

    Yes, but most non-profits are non-profits are not interested in , e.g., suing their customers.

  19. Re:When is everyone going to realize? on The "Loudness War" and the Future of Music · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Oddly, the last time I posted a nearly identical comment on a thread with a similar topic, my observation was rated as "Insightful".

    Go figure.

  20. When is everyone going to realize? on The "Loudness War" and the Future of Music · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    The record companies are not interested in the music, they are not interested in the quality of the sound, they are not interested in the artists and musicians.

    All the record companies are interested in is maximizing profits.

  21. Plausible denial... on NYT Confirms Movie Studios Paid to Support HD DVD · · Score: 2, Insightful
    . "We provided no financial incentives to Paramount or DreamWorks whatsoever," said Amir Majidimehr, the head of Microsoft's consumer media technology group.'"

    That does not rule out Microsoft providing financial incentiive to a HD-DVD intermediary organization who subsequently funneled the money to the studios.

    Your Microsoft Windows monopoly dollars at work, killing competition and preventing the consumer marketplace from deciding the better solution.

  22. Re:n00bs on FCC Puts 4.6 Billion Minimum Bid on Spectrum Auction · · Score: 1
    Why are they setting a minimum bid?

    They are not setting a minimum bid. TFA says reserve bid. The submitter misquoted the article.

  23. The reserve bid is old news on FCC Puts 4.6 Billion Minimum Bid on Spectrum Auction · · Score: 3, Informative
    with the FCC placing a minimum bid for the C-block spectrum being offered at $4.6 billion. That, coincidentally, was the amount that Google fronted as a minimum bid to endorse certain open standards for the spectrum being sold.

    An article from July.

    The company would like the FCC to embrace four additional conditions as part of the auction rules: open applications, open devices, open services, and open networks. Should the FCC agree to do so, Schmidt says that Google will jump in on the bidding at the FCC's $4.6 billion reserve price.
  24. Re:So THAT's what happened... on Comcast Hinders BitTorrent Traffic · · Score: 1
    BitTorrent traffic is a significant percentage of all internet traffic.. so they just decide to free a third of their infrastructure at a sweep? Do these people even realize that the reason bittorrent uses so much bandwidth is because so many paying customers USE it?

    Look at the BitTorrent traffic as the percentage of customers paying Comcast the monthly fee, not as the percentage of traffic. While I freely admit I am making up the following numbers, but just bear with me for discussion purposes... What if BitTorrent consumes 40% of Comcast's bandwidth, but BitTorrent is used by only 5% of Comcast's customers (i.e., accounts for only 5% of Comcast's ISP revenue). Wouldn't the loss of that 5% of their ISP customer revenue be worthwhile from an accounting viewpoint, if it indeed frees up an extra 40% of bandwidth, making that bandwidth available for profitable HD TV channels?

    The bottom line is that Comcast needs to make room for more HD TV channels on their cable, and the easiest, most cost-effective way to do that is to kill off the unprofitable BitTorrent traffic.

  25. Re:So THAT's what happened... on Comcast Hinders BitTorrent Traffic · · Score: 4, Interesting
    There is a looming problem with the amount of bandwidth available via the cable companies' aging infratstructures. Comcast has oversold the bandwidth its infrastructure can provide, now Comcast has to figure out how to deliver the promised bandwidth wile annoying the fewest (or only the least important) customers.

    Blocking BitTorrent traffic is an easy way to reduce traffic. It doesn't affect anything important (from Comcast's point of view).

    It is a short-sighted decision, at best, and is typical of Comcast's damn the customer approach to customer service.