Slashdot denizens seldom read the actual article behind a story to check for consistency, and you want someone to actually venture out to stand in line at a courthouse?
Like any responsible data company, they don't want you to lose important data... so they back it up. Independently. Into offline storage. And when you click the "delete forever" button, your message is not magically removed from media that is not connected to the system.
I'm not buying it. Here's a way to test your theory. Delete an email message with a large pdf attachment. Wait a few days and contact Google. Tell them you had a hard drive failure and a message you deleted contained the only copy of your Ph.D. thesis. Beg, plead, cajole. Offer them anything.
I'll bet you a beer you won't get the message back. Google's long-term data retention policies have nothing to do with altruistic measures to protect users from data loss.
And that's why you should always encrypt your emails.
I tried that for awhile, but people kept calling me to ask about the random-text missive they just received.
giant full-color ad banners and bloated interface
on
Preview of New MSN Hotmail
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
All the screen-shots show a cluttered interface with giant, full-colored banners at the top and right side. Currently, the banners feature links to provide feedback for Hotmail beta. However, they're complete with cheesy stock photos of happy office people, so you get a good idea of how this app will look when MS starts selling this real estate for flash-based ads.
I switched to gmail a few months ago and it's taken me awhile to adjust to their tag and search paradigm. However, once I got over the illusion of control that comes from tediously sorting mail into folders and learned to rely on search for finding old messages, I became amazed by how much time I used to spend on administrative overhead for emailt. I find myself tagging fewer and fewer messages now. I just dump them into the archive, and seldom have more than five messages in my inbox. Finding old stuff with couple of search terms works beautifully, and replies I receive for ongoing conversations cause the entire conversation to re-appear in the inbox. It works very, very well. I read and respond to email faster as a result, also.
My biggest gripes with GMail is their poor contact management, but it's been worth the hassle. Also, they've yet to implement a couple of fundamental capabilities, like adding a 'mark as read' action to filters.
This way of dealing with email was hard to get used to, but turned out to be very liberating.
It's not $40 in lost sales if there are 8-10 customers willing to pay the extra cost for every customer who is not. If this ratio is greater than 10:1, then they're making more money.
I'm certain they have people analyzing exactly what price point maximizes revenue.
Serenity grossed $10.1 million opening weekend. It cost around $40 million to make. I read somewhere that Whedon was promised two more features if Serenity tops $80 million. It's going to be a stretch
If IBM considers $775M adequate compensation, then the $75M MS credit is irrelevant. They don't have to use it, and can choose not to.
If they want to take a poke at MS, though, they could set up an amnesty program, such that when any company is being muscled by the BSA, funds from the $75M are used to bring that company into compliance for past use, possibly in exchange for adopting IBM software in the future.
PC games just seem to have richer immersion. I'm not sure why. For FPS, a lot of that naturally comes from the speed and precision of using a mouse for input and having a bunch of mappable keys, though with all the buttons on current console controls, this is becoming less and less the case. A lot of games benefit from having a full keyboard, regardless.
We usually play console games sitting on the couch, but PC games at a desk. PC games seem to excel at online competition, console games have big edge when competing against others on the same unit.
I think PC games will still be around for a long time, but the release schedule for major games seems increasingly inverted. Games used to be developed and released first on PC, then ported to console. Now things are becoming the other way around.
The biggest need I have in this realm is for a UPnP media player that runs under linux and can play streams from a Windows server. I'd be happy with one that only supports audio, but so far no dice. I'd like to interface with Real's Rhapsody from a Linux box.
There seem to be plenty of UPnP servers being developed under Linux, but no clients.
Are there proprietary codec issues that are hindering this?
Same here. I had to pass on buying a Sony digital camera when I factored in how costly the memory stick would be. So I ended up with a Canon and have been very happy.
Good FOSS projects seem to need more polished marketing. Firefox has made a good first step in this direction, but I have inevitably encountered resistance to adopting FOSS solutions in various workplaces, including small companies.
I'm not sure why this is, but when I show the decision makers a potential solution, the idea seems to be well-received until mentioning that it is free and open source, at which point interest seems to diminish. Recently, I was unable to get much consideration for pdfcreator, and it looks like we'll be buying a half dozen licenses of Acrobat, even though we just need each user to be able to generate a few (sometimes encrypted) pdfs each week.
I'm not sure why this is. Is there a perception of lower quality? A desire to have an official support channel (even though current support for most purchased software is atrocious)? Perhaps it's a mistaken, subconcious association between FOSS developers and hacking.
If it doesn't already exist, someone should set up a slick marketing website advocating FOSS solutions with materials for advocates to use in their workplace and content aimed toward purchasers who could use better education regarding what FOSS can provide.
If you'd bother to use google, you might make a fool of yourself less often as a juvenile troll.
Ed Foster at InfoWorld has written quite a bit on the BSA and Microsoft. Here's one example. The rest you can find yourself, or just continue trolling. I really don't care.
Based on anonymous tips, typically from disgruntled employees, the BSA can force a company to allow the BSA to perform an on-site software audit on behalf of its members. Audits usually result in the BSA demanding large payments for unlicensed software, plus penalties. Companies have found that losing receipts, packaging, etc. is no defense.
These tactics are firmly established in a number of court precedents, to such an extent that fighting the BSA in court is usually futile and only adds expense.
Even if a company is diligent in paying for software licenses, the cost of compiling documentation and escorting auditors can be expensive.
About once a year here in Chicago, the BSA runs radio ads against software piracy, along with encouragements to employees to call their anonymous tip line.
Now it may be completely ethical and legitimate for the BSA to act in this way, but it basically affords them governmental enforcement authority.
If you look at the power wielded by the BSA, of which Microsoft seems the biggest beneficiary, it's clear that for all practical purposes, Microsoft is the government.
I'm surprised an anti-Dell site is not on the list.
The experiences I have had lately from Dell in getting hardware repairs made under service contract are some of the worst experiences I have ever had dealing with any company. And I've talked to a number of folks who have had similar experiences.
Ten years ago, Dell was one of my favorite companies.
The first season of the new Battlestar Galactica was fantastic. However, the last episode broadcast in the UK (which has already aired the entire season) was promoted as the 'series finale' (as opposed to 'season finale'), and many folks on Sky One's message board seem to interpret this to mean the show won't be re-upped. I'm not sure how well the SciFi Channel showings are being received, but given that the last episode leaves you seriously wanting more (along with having a cliffhanger ending), I'm concerned that the show won't be continued.
The rub for me is that most competing PVR services are owned by companies that are also content creators or which have close ties with content providers. Look at the contractual relationship between Comcast and Viacom, for instance, or even DirectTV and the NFL. So I'm very suspicious of Comcast offering PVR service with my cable package while Viacom is lobbying congress for extensions to the broadcast flag.
I think it comes down to a question longevity. If TiVo dies, then I expect these other providers will begin crippling PVR features. However, after the broadcast flag becomes effective, Viacom may start pressuring Comcast to deploy DRM restrictions, at which point TiVo becomes the hero, and shores up market share.
Regardless, things don't look good for TiVo in the long term. Their hardware is a loss-leader that is entering the commodity realm, free software implementations of the same features are improving rapidly, and we seem to be converging on effective web services that can serve the data I currently pay a subscription fee for.
Why does "Wired" have to play it up like it's some cool new thing? Because piracy now is mainstream, and everyone wants to get into the action?
If you had read the Wired article, you would find that the reporter states that the current practice of piracy distribution can be traced back to 100 or so people operating C-64s in the 80s.
TiVo doesn't do any filtering. All the original ads are captured by the unit and it is up to the user to select playback speed based on context, so this isn't any different from recording with a VCR and fast-forwarding through commercials, just more convenient. If you fast forward with a VCR, you usually see an icon overlayed on the screen indicating the action. Is this 'IP theft', also, since the original broadcast is being modified?
This should tell you something - only a license that plans to restrict your rights in some unpleasant way requires a clickthrough. Seriously - I always get the willies from having to clickthrough to accept anything.
That's interesting, because the last time I installed firefox, it required a clickthrough acceptance of the GPL. I didn't get any willies at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot denizens seldom read the actual article behind a story to check for consistency, and you want someone to actually venture out to stand in line at a courthouse?
I'm not buying it. Here's a way to test your theory. Delete an email message with a large pdf attachment. Wait a few days and contact Google. Tell them you had a hard drive failure and a message you deleted contained the only copy of your Ph.D. thesis. Beg, plead, cajole. Offer them anything.
I'll bet you a beer you won't get the message back. Google's long-term data retention policies have nothing to do with altruistic measures to protect users from data loss.
I tried this for awhile, but then people would call me up to ask about the emails I had sent that were composed of random gibberish.
I tried that for awhile, but people kept calling me to ask about the random-text missive they just received.
All the screen-shots show a cluttered interface with giant, full-colored banners at the top and right side. Currently, the banners feature links to provide feedback for Hotmail beta. However, they're complete with cheesy stock photos of happy office people, so you get a good idea of how this app will look when MS starts selling this real estate for flash-based ads.
I switched to gmail a few months ago and it's taken me awhile to adjust to their tag and search paradigm. However, once I got over the illusion of control that comes from tediously sorting mail into folders and learned to rely on search for finding old messages, I became amazed by how much time I used to spend on administrative overhead for emailt. I find myself tagging fewer and fewer messages now. I just dump them into the archive, and seldom have more than five messages in my inbox. Finding old stuff with couple of search terms works beautifully, and replies I receive for ongoing conversations cause the entire conversation to re-appear in the inbox. It works very, very well. I read and respond to email faster as a result, also.
My biggest gripes with GMail is their poor contact management, but it's been worth the hassle. Also, they've yet to implement a couple of fundamental capabilities, like adding a 'mark as read' action to filters.
This way of dealing with email was hard to get used to, but turned out to be very liberating.
It's not $40 in lost sales if there are 8-10 customers willing to pay the extra cost for every customer who is not. If this ratio is greater than 10:1, then they're making more money.
I'm certain they have people analyzing exactly what price point maximizes revenue.
Serenity grossed $10.1 million opening weekend. It cost around $40 million to make. I read somewhere that Whedon was promised two more features if Serenity tops $80 million. It's going to be a stretch
If IBM considers $775M adequate compensation, then the $75M MS credit is irrelevant. They don't have to use it, and can choose not to.
If they want to take a poke at MS, though, they could set up an amnesty program, such that when any company is being muscled by the BSA, funds from the $75M are used to bring that company into compliance for past use, possibly in exchange for adopting IBM software in the future.
PC games just seem to have richer immersion. I'm not sure why. For FPS, a lot of that naturally comes from the speed and precision of using a mouse for input and having a bunch of mappable keys, though with all the buttons on current console controls, this is becoming less and less the case. A lot of games benefit from having a full keyboard, regardless.
We usually play console games sitting on the couch, but PC games at a desk. PC games seem to excel at online competition, console games have big edge when competing against others on the same unit.
I think PC games will still be around for a long time, but the release schedule for major games seems increasingly inverted. Games used to be developed and released first on PC, then ported to console. Now things are becoming the other way around.
The biggest need I have in this realm is for a UPnP media player that runs under linux and can play streams from a Windows server. I'd be happy with one that only supports audio, but so far no dice. I'd like to interface with Real's Rhapsody from a Linux box.
There seem to be plenty of UPnP servers being developed under Linux, but no clients.
Are there proprietary codec issues that are hindering this?
Same here. I had to pass on buying a Sony digital camera when I factored in how costly the memory stick would be. So I ended up with a Canon and have been very happy.
Good FOSS projects seem to need more polished marketing. Firefox has made a good first step in this direction, but I have inevitably encountered resistance to adopting FOSS solutions in various workplaces, including small companies.
I'm not sure why this is, but when I show the decision makers a potential solution, the idea seems to be well-received until mentioning that it is free and open source, at which point interest seems to diminish. Recently, I was unable to get much consideration for pdfcreator, and it looks like we'll be buying a half dozen licenses of Acrobat, even though we just need each user to be able to generate a few (sometimes encrypted) pdfs each week.
I'm not sure why this is. Is there a perception of lower quality? A desire to have an official support channel (even though current support for most purchased software is atrocious)? Perhaps it's a mistaken, subconcious association between FOSS developers and hacking.
If it doesn't already exist, someone should set up a slick marketing website advocating FOSS solutions with materials for advocates to use in their workplace and content aimed toward purchasers who could use better education regarding what FOSS can provide.
If you'd bother to use google, you might make a fool of yourself less often as a juvenile troll.
Ed Foster at InfoWorld has written quite a bit on the BSA and Microsoft. Here's one example. The rest you can find yourself, or just continue trolling. I really don't care.
Based on anonymous tips, typically from disgruntled employees, the BSA can force a company to allow the BSA to perform an on-site software audit on behalf of its members. Audits usually result in the BSA demanding large payments for unlicensed software, plus penalties. Companies have found that losing receipts, packaging, etc. is no defense.
These tactics are firmly established in a number of court precedents, to such an extent that fighting the BSA in court is usually futile and only adds expense.
Even if a company is diligent in paying for software licenses, the cost of compiling documentation and escorting auditors can be expensive.
About once a year here in Chicago, the BSA runs radio ads against software piracy, along with encouragements to employees to call their anonymous tip line.
Now it may be completely ethical and legitimate for the BSA to act in this way, but it basically affords them governmental enforcement authority.
If you look at the power wielded by the BSA, of which Microsoft seems the biggest beneficiary, it's clear that for all practical purposes, Microsoft is the government.
I'm surprised an anti-Dell site is not on the list.
The experiences I have had lately from Dell in getting hardware repairs made under service contract are some of the worst experiences I have ever had dealing with any company. And I've talked to a number of folks who have had similar experiences.
Ten years ago, Dell was one of my favorite companies.
Yet check out the definition of an ampere, which involves "parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross-section, ...".
This would seem to constitute a physical reference that is impossible to generate.
The first season of the new Battlestar Galactica was fantastic. However, the last episode broadcast in the UK (which has already aired the entire season) was promoted as the 'series finale' (as opposed to 'season finale'), and many folks on Sky One's message board seem to interpret this to mean the show won't be re-upped. I'm not sure how well the SciFi Channel showings are being received, but given that the last episode leaves you seriously wanting more (along with having a cliffhanger ending), I'm concerned that the show won't be continued.
I'm also a TiVo subscriber and huge fan.
The rub for me is that most competing PVR services are owned by companies that are also content creators or which have close ties with content providers. Look at the contractual relationship between Comcast and Viacom, for instance, or even DirectTV and the NFL. So I'm very suspicious of Comcast offering PVR service with my cable package while Viacom is lobbying congress for extensions to the broadcast flag.
I think it comes down to a question longevity. If TiVo dies, then I expect these other providers will begin crippling PVR features. However, after the broadcast flag becomes effective, Viacom may start pressuring Comcast to deploy DRM restrictions, at which point TiVo becomes the hero, and shores up market share.
Regardless, things don't look good for TiVo in the long term. Their hardware is a loss-leader that is entering the commodity realm, free software implementations of the same features are improving rapidly, and we seem to be converging on effective web services that can serve the data I currently pay a subscription fee for.
If you had read the Wired article, you would find that the reporter states that the current practice of piracy distribution can be traced back to 100 or so people operating C-64s in the 80s.
I remember playing the original Wing Commander on my Zerox 386/20 with 2MB of RAM and a 70MB hard drive. It used the PC speaker for sound.
And we liked it.
I'm from the same era and would have to add Mel Gibson to the mix. You've got Mad Max and the Lethal Weapon series.
There's also Bruce Willis. I consider Die Hard to pretty much be the paradigm of a great lone action hero flick.
TiVo doesn't do any filtering. All the original ads are captured by the unit and it is up to the user to select playback speed based on context, so this isn't any different from recording with a VCR and fast-forwarding through commercials, just more convenient. If you fast forward with a VCR, you usually see an icon overlayed on the screen indicating the action. Is this 'IP theft', also, since the original broadcast is being modified?
That's interesting, because the last time I installed firefox, it required a clickthrough acceptance of the GPL. I didn't get any willies at all.