Of course this is only a correction to the article if you belive that this still means Pandora is available to all the world, as some US citizens seem to belive... Sorry for spilling my guts like this but I'm profoundly tired of that particular issue, and I realise not everyone in the US like that.
Excerpt from pandora.com
We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.
People always go on about how aliens can be totally incomprehensible to us, but that is just plain untrue. They operate on the same reality, under the same laws of physics and logic, as we do. If they are succesfull enough to reach the stars, then their psychology must conform to those laws; and that makes it similar to ours. Self-preservation, reproduction, social interaction: those are the things any succesfull intelligent species must base their psyche on. There may be more, of course, but these are the absolute minimum concepts all alien minds must have. It seems you have created your own belief system concerning alien lifeforms, It's though arguing against that, not because you're nessecarily right in your beliefs, but because your beliefs are not based on any scientifical method, but on what you logically feel must be right.
MS, used to be "good" used to be the underdog taking on IBM and Big Iron. Bringing affordable computing to the little guy, breaking the Vender Lock In (tm)...
Hehehe, good one, for a second there I almost thought you were serious;)
"Whoever battles monsters should take care not to become a monster too, for if you stare long enough into the Abyss, the Abyss stares also into you."
--Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, chapter 4, no. 146
how about these quotaions instead:
on Microsoft marketing:
"There won't be anything we won't say to people to try and convince
them that our way is the way to go."
Bill Gates
"If you can't make it good, at least make it look good."
Bill Gates
from "Programmers at Work" by Microsoft Press, interview with Bill
(found on comp.os.os2.advocacy),
Interviewer: Is studying computer science the best way to prepare to be
a programmer?
Gates: No, the best way to prepare is to write programs, and to study
great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the
garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of
their operating system.
On code stability, from Focus Magazine
"Microsoft programs are generally bug-free. If you visit the Microsoft
hotline, you'll literally have to wait weeks if not months until someone
calls in with a bug in one of our programs. 99.99% of calls turn out to
be user mistakes.
...
I know not a single less irrelevant reason for an update than bugfixes.
The reasons for updates are to present more new features."
Bill Gates
"Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority."
Bill Gates, Jul, 1998
"We had planned to integrate a Web browser with our operating system as far back as 1993"
Microsoft (27 Jul 1998, filing its first court responses to federal antitrust)
"Microsoft Products are Generally Bug Free"
Bill Gates
The opposers
"Microsoft does not innovate. It buys, imitates, or steals. It makes things difficult for software developers, and thus eventually for users."
Richard Brandshaft, San Jose Mercury-New
"Like medieval peasants, computer manufacturers and millions of users are locked in a seemingly eternal lease with their evil landlord, who comes around every two years to collect billions of dollars of taxes in return for mediocre services"
Mark Harris, Electronics Times
"A few weeks ago, a member of the audience at a [Bill] Gates speech in San Francisco asked simply this of the world's richest businessman: ''Can you make a list of things you won't be doing?... I just want a little piece of something to pass on to my kids 20 years from now.''"
San Jose Mercury News, 26 Oct 97
"Appeasement, said Winston Churchill, consists of being nice to a crocodile in the hope that he will eat you last. At the moment, the biggest crocodile in the world is Microsoft, and everybody is busy sucking up to it."
John Naughton, the London Observer
"Every time you turn on your new car, you're turning on 20 microprocessors. Every time you use an ATM, you're using a computer. Every time I use a settop box or game machine, I'm using a computer. The only computer you don't know how to work is your Microsoft computer, right?"
Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
"Microsoft's biggest and most dangerous contribution to the software industry may be the degree to which it has lowered user expectations."
Esther Schindler, OS/2 Magazine
(all from this site [quotesandsayings.com]
And if you would like more of the same stuff
[schnada.de]
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
Sir Winston Churchill
Virtual Reality is actually in use today.
It's being used by architects to inspect their yet to be buildings. It's also used in the medical industry as well, apparently it's particulary useful as a mean of viewing strings of DNA in.
When VR first emerged it was thought by many to be the next big thing for gaming, but not a lot of people thought about it being used in the industry.
I guess these days it's the other way round.
I think it's matured enough to be useable by now. People just need to find out how.
>If I want a digital camera, I'll buy a good digital camera. If I want a PDA, I'll buy a good PDA. If I want an MP3 player, I'll buy a good MP3 player.
To have all three of the above devices with me i need a bag.
To have one phone with me i need a pocket.
Anyway, the market has been going towards mulifunctional electronic devices for years now.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course this is only a correction to the article if you belive that this still means Pandora is available to all the world, as some US citizens seem to belive... Sorry for spilling my guts like this but I'm profoundly tired of that particular issue, and I realise not everyone in the US like that.
Excerpt from pandora.com
We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.
Hehehe, good one, for a second there I almost thought you were serious ;)
how about these quotaions instead:
on Microsoft marketing:
"There won't be anything we won't say to people to try and convince them that our way is the way to go."
Bill Gates
"If you can't make it good, at least make it look good."
Bill Gates
from "Programmers at Work" by Microsoft Press, interview with Bill (found on comp.os.os2.advocacy),
Interviewer: Is studying computer science the best way to prepare to be a programmer?
Gates: No, the best way to prepare is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system.
On code stability, from Focus Magazine
"Microsoft programs are generally bug-free. If you visit the Microsoft hotline, you'll literally have to wait weeks if not months until someone calls in with a bug in one of our programs. 99.99% of calls turn out to be user mistakes.
...
I know not a single less irrelevant reason for an update than bugfixes. The reasons for updates are to present more new features."
Bill Gates
"Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority."
Bill Gates, Jul, 1998
"We had planned to integrate a Web browser with our operating system as far back as 1993"
Microsoft (27 Jul 1998, filing its first court responses to federal antitrust)
"Microsoft Products are Generally Bug Free"
Bill Gates
The opposers
"Microsoft does not innovate. It buys, imitates, or steals. It makes things difficult for software developers, and thus eventually for users."
Richard Brandshaft, San Jose Mercury-New
"Like medieval peasants, computer manufacturers and millions of users are locked in a seemingly eternal lease with their evil landlord, who comes around every two years to collect billions of dollars of taxes in return for mediocre services"
Mark Harris, Electronics Times
"A few weeks ago, a member of the audience at a [Bill] Gates speech in San Francisco asked simply this of the world's richest businessman: ''Can you make a list of things you won't be doing? ... I just want a little piece of something to pass on to my kids 20 years from now.''"
San Jose Mercury News, 26 Oct 97
"Appeasement, said Winston Churchill, consists of being nice to a crocodile in the hope that he will eat you last. At the moment, the biggest crocodile in the world is Microsoft, and everybody is busy sucking up to it."
John Naughton, the London Observer
"Every time you turn on your new car, you're turning on 20 microprocessors. Every time you use an ATM, you're using a computer. Every time I use a settop box or game machine, I'm using a computer. The only computer you don't know how to work is your Microsoft computer, right?"
Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
"Microsoft's biggest and most dangerous contribution to the software industry may be the degree to which it has lowered user expectations."
Esther Schindler, OS/2 Magazine
(all from this site [quotesandsayings.com]
And if you would like more of the same stuff [schnada.de]
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
Sir Winston Churchill
I finally found a topic on slashdot that was too nerdy even for me :P
It's being used by architects to inspect their yet to be buildings.
It's also used in the medical industry as well, apparently it's particulary useful as a mean of viewing strings of DNA in.
When VR first emerged it was thought by many to be the next big thing for gaming, but not a lot of people thought about it being used in the industry.
I guess these days it's the other way round.
I think it's matured enough to be useable by now. People just need to find out how.
>Emergency Rations
That's what the husky dogs are there for, no really.
To have all three of the above devices with me i need a bag.
To have one phone with me i need a pocket.
Anyway, the market has been going towards mulifunctional electronic devices for years now.