Production costs have gone way up since the 1980s. Many Speccy games were written by students or people working at home (I know, I was one of them) with maybe some help from a friend doing the graphics. You'd then go to a game company, they'd _maybe_ retouch the graphics and hire (eg.) Rob Hubbard for a couple of days to do the music. Total cost: $8,000
Even the 'pro' games were done by one programmer and a graphics guy who'd be shared shared between three projects.
These days a game needs about 20 people working full time for a couple of years, often hiring motion capture studios with gymnasts/actors, etc., along the way. Game development budgets are now in the tens of millions (low-end Hollywood range).
Apart from stealing a load of bandwidth and wasting about a couple of years of productivity (deleting four million spams adds up), he set up a load of fake websites to steal Facebook user's passwords (which is how he sent the spam).
Is that your definition of 'harmless fun'? Seems other people don't agree with you...
The Hobbit is a pretty slim book compared to The Lord Of The rings. Padding it out two two movies isn't a decision being made by the director, you can bet on that.
It's a bean-counting decision, the director is being ordered to pad it out with fluff. Expect plenty of jolly japes (ie. more dwarf tossing and skateboarding elves)
Plus there's the time lag. I'd be OK with two parts if they released them a couple of months apart but what are the chances of that...? Slim and none.
3) Doesn't seem to suffer from 'windows rot' like XP (where it gets slower and slower over time)
Give it a chance, it will...
4) Better UI with more hot-keys and short-cuts, makes for more efficient usage
Rubbish. Even if there are a couple of new keys it's completely negated by the new Explorer. Where did the explorer toolbar go, I really miss the "up" button (and all the others too - cut,copy,paste,delete all with a single mouse click)? Why doesn't f5 refresh the explorer view any more? Why did they change the way backspace works?
5) Up to date technology support
Not sure what that means. I assume it means "works with SSDs". Balance that against all the devices which stopped working (my Soundblaster Extigy, my SpaceMouse...)
6) PnP just works, better drivers, smoother hardward support (device stage)
I'm pretty sure PNP is no better than in XP.
7) Easier/better network management, especially wireless
I find it much more confusing than XP and getting publicly accessible file shares to work still eludes me.
9) Can run the latest versions of Windows Live Essentials and the soon-to-be-released IE9, and the list of software that relies on Win7 features will keep growing
Translation: Microsoft is writing some software which checks for Win7 on startup in an attempt to get people to upgrade.
Nobody outside Microsoft is writing Win7-only software yet.
10) Smoother multi-tasking and UI due to refinements in the kernel and GUI subsystems
Does Aero let you do anything new or is it just prettier?
11) vastly improved Media Center, vastly improved Media Player, "Play to" feature, easier sharing, etc.
You really must tell me where those are hidden. I'm seeing the same crappy old Windows Media Player.
12) Far less "naggy"... doesn't interrupt you, nag you, and bother you all the time.
LOL! I don't remember XP nagging me, ever.
Windows 7 nags constantly, eg. it's currently telling me I have no network access (so how am I typing this, exactly? Hmmm....)
Slashdot Mirror
Yep. A special 3-inch disk (which were much better made then the 3.5" PC ones)
Production costs have gone way up since the 1980s. Many Speccy games were written by students or people working at home (I know, I was one of them) with maybe some help from a friend doing the graphics. You'd then go to a game company, they'd _maybe_ retouch the graphics and hire (eg.) Rob Hubbard for a couple of days to do the music. Total cost: $8,000
Even the 'pro' games were done by one programmer and a graphics guy who'd be shared shared between three projects.
These days a game needs about 20 people working full time for a couple of years, often hiring motion capture studios with gymnasts/actors, etc., along the way. Game development budgets are now in the tens of millions (low-end Hollywood range).
That's photovoltaic power. Photovoltaic cells are rubbish, yes, the conversion efficiency simply isn't good enough yet.
Using panels to heat water is still a very good idea though.
whoosh!
It's just business as usual at the USPTO.
Nope. It might be in equilibrium with the wind.
The bottom line is that *NOBODY* should be allowed to earn "very significant revenues” by being a social parasite.
What damages? What damage was done by this guy?
Apart from stealing a load of bandwidth and wasting about a couple of years of productivity (deleting four million spams adds up), he set up a load of fake websites to steal Facebook user's passwords (which is how he sent the spam).
Is that your definition of 'harmless fun'? Seems other people don't agree with you...
The other messages may be 'worthless' but they're not selling fake penis pills or marijuana.
Did you read the article to see how this guy sent the spam? He stole people's passwords via fake websites.
"...similar to all of the worthless messages"? Not so much.
Difference is: The spammer did it intentionally. Malice aforethought.
So what does that mean in terms of justice? He's not going to pay up so what happens next? Does he have to sew a billion mail bags?
You're right about the USA, of course. An expensive suit, a good haircut, a fancy lawyer, and even somebody as guilty as OJ can get away with murder.
Getting users to download an "antivirus" every time they see a page like that is a BAD idea.
How medieval of you. These days we get maggots to eat it.
I know ISPs that do this. You can activate extra ports online at any time so it's easy for geeks to do their thing.
So long as the "I'm clean now, let me back in!" part is easy, then, yes.
They haven't actually done this yet. Save your sarcasm for if/when they do.
Give it a try. You won't believe the difference it makes.
The Hobbit is a pretty slim book compared to The Lord Of The rings. Padding it out two two movies isn't a decision being made by the director, you can bet on that.
It's a bean-counting decision, the director is being ordered to pad it out with fluff. Expect plenty of jolly japes (ie. more dwarf tossing and skateboarding elves)
Plus there's the time lag. I'd be OK with two parts if they released them a couple of months apart but what are the chances of that...? Slim and none.
I still remember putting my first LOTR DVD into the player and being greeted by an advert for the extended edition - "Available next month!!"
There's milking, and there's ripping off.
I've never quite understood the haters, either.
Dwarf tossing? Skateboarding elves...? Ick.
(But yeah, it's a pretty damn good representation of the book even if it isn't true to the details)
The hundreds of news stories about this trial seem to have swamped the juicy links and made them vanish.
Is this an 'anti-Streisand' effect?
ie. They're going to milk this for all it's worth.
Pretty soon Bittorrent use will get you disconnected from the Internet.
Not to mention that with all that 'net neutrality' stuff ISPs are going to make torrents go at one byte per second.
Well, there are lots of reasons to upgrade, imho:
1) Far more secure
2) Far more stable
Windows XP was never unstable for me.
3) Doesn't seem to suffer from 'windows rot' like XP (where it gets slower and slower over time)
Give it a chance, it will...
4) Better UI with more hot-keys and short-cuts, makes for more efficient usage
Rubbish. Even if there are a couple of new keys it's completely negated by the new Explorer. Where did the explorer toolbar go, I really miss the "up" button (and all the others too - cut,copy,paste,delete all with a single mouse click)? Why doesn't f5 refresh the explorer view any more? Why did they change the way backspace works?
5) Up to date technology support
Not sure what that means. I assume it means "works with SSDs". Balance that against all the devices which stopped working (my Soundblaster Extigy, my SpaceMouse...)
6) PnP just works, better drivers, smoother hardward support (device stage)
I'm pretty sure PNP is no better than in XP.
7) Easier/better network management, especially wireless
I find it much more confusing than XP and getting publicly accessible file shares to work still eludes me.
9) Can run the latest versions of Windows Live Essentials and the soon-to-be-released IE9, and the list of software that relies on Win7 features will keep growing
Translation: Microsoft is writing some software which checks for Win7 on startup in an attempt to get people to upgrade.
Nobody outside Microsoft is writing Win7-only software yet.
10) Smoother multi-tasking and UI due to refinements in the kernel and GUI subsystems
Does Aero let you do anything new or is it just prettier?
11) vastly improved Media Center, vastly improved Media Player, "Play to" feature, easier sharing, etc.
You really must tell me where those are hidden. I'm seeing the same crappy old Windows Media Player.
12) Far less "naggy"... doesn't interrupt you, nag you, and bother you all the time.
LOL! I don't remember XP nagging me, ever.
Windows 7 nags constantly, eg. it's currently telling me I have no network access (so how am I typing this, exactly? Hmmm....)