Speaking about Yahoo, a major problem appeared from nowhere recently.
Yahoo merged with MSN, each allows their contacts to be added and work in basic terms of functionality (no file transfer) and I was actually happy for it. I liked/supported Yahoo messenger for years but the truth is, MSN basically have more people using and at the end, you would be running Yahoo messenger for 2-3 people.
The nightmare begun when both companies set the feature to ON. While using a 3rd party client, I was basically stuck since a Windows Messenger user, using original messenger added my Yahoo IM contact to his contact list. Client went into endless loop, every time I login, it said "bla bla has added you to his MS Live contact list but your client doesn't allow,update to latest". I am glad it didn't basically crash.
I also added a Yahoo contact to my MSN (official OS X) contact list thinking he must be using original Yahoo messenger. (ex Yahoo). I was wrong and guy had to install Yahoo messenger to his machine, reject my request and uninstall. So single click can couse lots of hassle:)
All 3 companies are ignoring a great publicity or even chance to become de-facto standard by not opening their specs. Imagine a completely open, GNU licensed oscar.c source code. Or AOL employees get a sourceforge account to help GAIM. That would end up in ICQ/AIM making their way into everything you can imagine.
(I feel sad for not mentioning Jabber but sadly it is real life)
Slate is owned by Washington Post and MSNBC'es "MS" comes from Microsoft. They do every kind of possible compatibility tricks disallowing other systems rather than their Win32/IE combination too.
Slate was always kind of "independent", we must admit it. I have seen/read many anti BillG/Windows stuff there.
Firefox 2 is a major update to a browser which is used on millions of machines and started to be choice of companies. I don't favour it on OS X (feels like Windows) but it is the truth.
See where Firefox 2 release is buried on their "Technology News", you will figure it is owned by Microsoft in its full extent.
Just months ago, those fascist were suggesting to update their IE to Mac OS X using people while there is no such thing exists anymore. Just to "punish" us for not using their OS. Not to forget MS Media Player 7 was causing major problems on OS X Tiger (10.4,latest) too.
North Korea may have been blocked Internet to its citizens but also Internet citizens blocked South Korea by their own wish.
Large ISPs,webmail providers stay "politically correct" and they don't give option block entire countries but once you "train" them for spam, they manage to block entire South Korea by community process. As result, if you are a Korean independent user/company, don't even think of using your ISP mail system. It will be simply blocked.
Korean spam was so evil that I remember setting up very funny filters just to stop them before Yahoo mail introduced spam features. They are still functioning and busting Korean spams moving them to Trash.
The zero effort against Spam by Kornet and Hananet are known even by end users like me.
Just look at a random rule I have set years ago: filter #3 If...
Body contains "charset=KS_C_5601-1987" Then...
Move message to Trash folder
Lets say, even if South Korea govt. makes a radical choice and install millions of dollars worth security devices to those ISPs by force, remove thousands of zombies, block the famous (and damned) port 135, it will take YEARS for people to stop filtering South Korea by their own will.
I remember reporting Kornet spam back in 1999 via Spamcop,net , half bounced,half not cared 7 years passed and I reported 3 spams just today via spamcop.net . Nothing changes.
I am using a "iFeel" mouse from Logitech for over 5 or more years. On windows and OS X I have always used their drivers and reading posts on Slashdot and download sites makes me check if I am really using a Logitech.
If you are thinking Logitech does bad quality products because of Slashdot and download site comments, you are wrong on your concerns about future quality.
It started to look like a fashion to hate logitech because they are popular and still in business.
People having $3160 to pay for a media centre has already bought a high end LCD/Plasma and considering even SD plasmas/lcds come with HDMI, there is no reason to whine about HDMI compatibility.
Studios doesn't want you to watch unencrypted content which would be in a secure safe as "master" just 5 years ago. That is the deal. Think the Blu-Ray, HD-DVD like "source" of a commercial computer program. They got amazing specs including sound.
$3160 is considered "cheap" in high end stuff. I know people paying $2000 just for the UPS of the HD Projector they use, imaging the projector price;)
With a userbase marking your post troll, they don't feel the "urge" to QC. See, I post with "karma bonus" only to Apple stories as a Quad G5 Mac owner for same reasons...
You can trick the NY Times personally but you can't do it from a front page of a widely popular commercial site.
I think it is the reason.
Slashdot can't send thousands of users with a fake referrer to NY Times. That link you provided is for people using RSS readers and subscribed to NY Times RSS feed.
I think they should talk with NY Times web team to allow slashdot readers with referrer=slashdot without needing login. They can arrange it for sure, this isn't a "no name" site.
It would be nice for NY Times for statistics too. I bet they currently have to tweak the statistics for "fake" RSS links from Slashdot.
About "no ads" version: It would be like NY Times mentioning Slashdot and sending people to some other domain (slashdot sux? I forgot) which doesn't have Slashdot ads which makes this site work/pay for the costs. That also means hundreds of thousands users.
I am not apologising for NY Times or trying to start a discussion about advertising, I just say my end user point of view and plain guesses.
That "blog" doesn't uncover anything interesting, yes a free mail service has ads and new Ajax etc. stuff needs CPU/RAM to handle unlike old webmail. Big deal...
It is posted to blog right after Yahoo opens the API and create some good media.
Yahoo mail could be irritating (I cancelled plus after figuring no APOP or IMAP) but it is a very popular webmail internationally.
Check http://www.senderbase.org/ and look at their place in legit (non spam/zombie) providers. Where is Google?
Is Google playing "evil" games now with some anonymous blogs?
Who is that guy claiming a thing which any serious power user/developer will laugh? "why do Windows filesystems suck so?" (older entry)
No, Windows file systems, especially NTFS 5+ (2k,xp) does NOT suck. They are very modern systems and I am a OS X user saying it. Go ask any developer who isn't zealot, they will say too.
I mean why this Anonymous Blog entry submitted by AC poster is front page of Slashdot?
There is one mail service needing much more popularity and users, http://www.fastmail.fm/ , now THAT is a webmail/imap service worth reviewing.
Free POP3 like keeping mails (including deleted) forever and analysing private message text to display ads?
No, thanks.
It lacks IMAP option for paid users I agree but they have a reason for it. It seems like they need a huge mainframe farm to handle that many users which are connected 24/7 over IMAP.
They allow a Russian guy to register wunderground.mobi , here comes the dotcom cybersquatting again.
Check http://pc.mtld.mobi/whois/index.php , put wunderground.mobi to search box and see the result yourself. While on it, check slashdot.mobi , it is taken too.
Weather Underground is one of the oldest sites on web (they started with Telnet/Gopher!) and they have a dedicated mobile (WAP) version at
So, a Russian guy can get that wunderground.mobi yes? What guarantees there won't be some "Enter your credit card details for plus access" on that page?
Cybersquatting in 2006, great. The question is: They are that naive or is this on purpose?
It offered me pure web browsing on a Nokia 7650 which has (in real life) 2 MB of memory, running Symbian series 60 OS.
They can charge for sure.:)
Lets not get into fact about it costs like 2 high quality mobile games or something. If this thing ships for usual $30 (not sure), it will cost half of a decent console game and it will offer you Slashdot on your TV;)
Opera is in business for devices for ages. They are the standard company for browsing on devices.
Their "Opera Mini" which is shockingly only 96kb in most advanced version (MIDP 2.0) is some hit on mobile nobody could have imagined. I really hope one day they offer those download numbers at least the ones from mini.opera.com .
I like Macworld, trust them on product reviews but their apologising (?) for Apple is a fanboy response not suitable for a independent, professional publication.
Also the Mac community who keeps attacking the messenger started to bug me seriously as a Mac user who is concerned about own security.
I own a Quad G5, do my entire work on Macs, there is no PC around and while posting to Apple stories, I unclick "No Karma Bonus" since I know what will happen. Mac zealots are the biggest security risk to OS X/Macintosh. In fact first real virus/trojan/worm strange thing (Oompa) coding lamer openly admitted that he coded it just to give "Maccies" a lesson.
As there is no windows media (official) option for other operating systems and even on win32 wmedia has problems with browsers other than IE, they had to buy Flash solution to support them while having windows media technology in hand.
The famous incompatibilities of windows media finally costs them something.
Thanks to them and Real networks policies before Helix project, embedded video standard is Flash now.
Copying down to Flash based (on2 VP 6 codec in fact) video! I really hope they had to pay millions for that thing. Their stupid hate to other Operating Systems of choice finally cost them something.
Their idea was "lets support windows media on windows systems running IE only, let those nerds (linux) and Maccies pay for not choosing our OS" for all these years.
Now: They have to use Adobe Flash while having million/billion dollar spent Windows Media in hand.
Good riddance!
Also they want MS "Live" sign in (good old passport's new name) and I have to warn people using anything than IE/Windows combination: DO NOT get an account. At one point you may end up without ability to close it because it may ask you to install a newer IE on OS X. IE on OS X doesn't even exist anymore!
It happened to me just weeks ago. I got PDF screenshots in hand.
They moved Netscape.net mail owners to AIM mail, promising a more modern interface with server features such as IMAP.
I have logged into Netscape a bit later to see what is new. They really did some cool stuff, Flash/AJAX like dynamic stuff which is more like the new Yahoo mail beta. It supports IMAP (including SSL IMAP) unlike Yahoo who doesn't support even if you pay them. Their SMTP is TLS encrypted etc. too.
More important of all, it supports OS X Safari which Yahoo beta doesn't.
As their new method of doing things, they opened a forum and blog. Guess what? It is full of Netscape.net mail users, yes that old simple and zero spam control thing PROTESTING AOL because of the move.
Don't misunderstand, lets say if you have mcbrids@netscape.net e-mail, that mail stays. They don't force people to have aol.com/aim.com e-mail which has disgusting image. They just can't stand to "AOL" word at the site/domain!
They move people to IMAP based, very modern and all browsers supported webmail system, give them 2 GB for free and yet people want their old technology netscape.net mail system back. Just because of the "AOL"' word. Just imagine the feedback if Google and Yahoo offered free IMAP with all browser compatible flash interface even with SSL. I am sure their sites would get slashdotted first time in history because of people opening accounts.
At least we now have good ammo against Google and Yahoo, we should use arguments like "Even AOL supports IMAP!" to fix their non explainable obsession with POP3.;)
I really want to meet with the guy who modded you Insightful. "God knows where" is Stanford.edu, Sony doesn't force people and I am sure you were never in their potential customer list.
Go play with some command line and turn off that tungsten bulb you forgot on, it possibly eats more than a PS3 without doing anything.
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking about Yahoo, a major problem appeared from nowhere recently.
:)
Yahoo merged with MSN, each allows their contacts to be added and work in basic terms of functionality (no file transfer) and I was actually happy for it. I liked/supported Yahoo messenger for years but the truth is, MSN basically have more people using and at the end, you would be running Yahoo messenger for 2-3 people.
The nightmare begun when both companies set the feature to ON. While using a 3rd party client, I was basically stuck since a Windows Messenger user, using original messenger added my Yahoo IM contact to his contact list. Client went into endless loop, every time I login, it said "bla bla has added you to his MS Live contact list but your client doesn't allow,update to latest". I am glad it didn't basically crash.
I also added a Yahoo contact to my MSN (official OS X) contact list thinking he must be using original Yahoo messenger. (ex Yahoo). I was wrong and guy had to install Yahoo messenger to his machine, reject my request and uninstall. So single click can couse lots of hassle
All 3 companies are ignoring a great publicity or even chance to become de-facto standard by not opening their specs. Imagine a completely open, GNU licensed oscar.c source code. Or AOL employees get a sourceforge account to help GAIM. That would end up in ICQ/AIM making their way into everything you can imagine.
(I feel sad for not mentioning Jabber but sadly it is real life)
Slate is owned by Washington Post and MSNBC'es "MS" comes from Microsoft. They do every kind of possible compatibility tricks disallowing other systems rather than their Win32/IE combination too.
Slate was always kind of "independent", we must admit it. I have seen/read many anti BillG/Windows stuff there.
Firefox 2 is a major update to a browser which is used on millions of machines and started to be choice of companies. I don't favour it on OS X (feels like Windows) but it is the truth.
See where Firefox 2 release is buried on their "Technology News", you will figure it is owned by Microsoft in its full extent.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032118/
Just months ago, those fascist were suggesting to update their IE to Mac OS X using people while there is no such thing exists anymore. Just to "punish" us for not using their OS. Not to forget MS Media Player 7 was causing major problems on OS X Tiger (10.4,latest) too.
North Korea may have been blocked Internet to its citizens but also Internet citizens blocked South Korea by their own wish.
Large ISPs,webmail providers stay "politically correct" and they don't give option block entire countries but once you "train" them for spam, they manage to block entire South Korea by community process. As result, if you are a Korean independent user/company, don't even think of using your ISP mail system. It will be simply blocked.
Korean spam was so evil that I remember setting up very funny filters just to stop them before Yahoo mail introduced spam features. They are still functioning and busting Korean spams moving them to Trash.
The zero effort against Spam by Kornet and Hananet are known even by end users like me.
Just look at a random rule I have set years ago:
filter #3
If...
Body contains "charset=KS_C_5601-1987"
Then...
Move message to Trash folder
Lets say, even if South Korea govt. makes a radical choice and install millions of dollars worth security devices to those ISPs by force, remove thousands of zombies, block the famous (and damned) port 135, it will take YEARS for people to stop filtering South Korea by their own will.
I remember reporting Kornet spam back in 1999 via Spamcop,net , half bounced,half not cared 7 years passed and I reported 3 spams just today via spamcop.net . Nothing changes.
I hope one day you post similar feedback to Google over "data kept forever, mail is never really deleted, analysed for advertising purposes"...
You know.. Gmail..
I am using a "iFeel" mouse from Logitech for over 5 or more years. On windows and OS X I have always used their drivers and reading posts on Slashdot and download sites makes me check if I am really using a Logitech.
If you are thinking Logitech does bad quality products because of Slashdot and download site comments, you are wrong on your concerns about future quality.
It started to look like a fashion to hate logitech because they are popular and still in business.
People having $3160 to pay for a media centre has already bought a high end LCD/Plasma and considering even SD plasmas/lcds come with HDMI, there is no reason to whine about HDMI compatibility.
;)
Studios doesn't want you to watch unencrypted content which would be in a secure safe as "master" just 5 years ago. That is the deal. Think the Blu-Ray, HD-DVD like "source" of a commercial computer program. They got amazing specs including sound.
$3160 is considered "cheap" in high end stuff. I know people paying $2000 just for the UPS of the HD Projector they use, imaging the projector price
They don't even need Windows AV, ClamAV which is free/donationware would catch that virus.
/ 24449
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx
With a userbase marking your post troll, they don't feel the "urge" to QC. See, I post with "karma bonus" only to Apple stories as a Quad G5 Mac owner for same reasons...
If you go out of battery while listening or (worse) syncing without journaling, it may create real problems with filesystem on it.
7 249
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=10
It is real pain to fix a non journaled filesystem especially if you don't have commercial tools.
I just tested youtube URLs on official Yahoo messenger and there is no such thing happening.
;)
Perhaps this complete story submitted and accepted is great for Google?
Google is not evil so such things can never happen yes?
You can trick the NY Times personally but you can't do it from a front page of a widely popular commercial site.
I think it is the reason.
Slashdot can't send thousands of users with a fake referrer to NY Times. That link you provided is for people using RSS readers and subscribed to NY Times RSS feed.
I think they should talk with NY Times web team to allow slashdot readers with referrer=slashdot without needing login. They can arrange it for sure, this isn't a "no name" site.
It would be nice for NY Times for statistics too. I bet they currently have to tweak the statistics for "fake" RSS links from Slashdot.
About "no ads" version: It would be like NY Times mentioning Slashdot and sending people to some other domain (slashdot sux? I forgot) which doesn't have Slashdot ads which makes this site work/pay for the costs. That also means hundreds of thousands users.
I am not apologising for NY Times or trying to start a discussion about advertising, I just say my end user point of view and plain guesses.
If we speak about a device with limited CPU/memory, Opera would be purchased/installed without question.
In fact even if I buy a Mac mini for my plasma display, I would install Opera 9 OS X on it while I stay away from it on my desktop.
They really know how to code for limited devices.
I used netfront on PSP (latest firmware), it lacks one very important feature: Unicode/International display. It could be PSP's fault.
I was commenting about how Google manages to give away pop3 for free by analysing the message text.
;)
If Yahoo had such policies, I wouldn't be a Yahoo user since '98 when accounts were introduced.
There is a problem.
That "blog" doesn't uncover anything interesting, yes a free mail service has ads and new Ajax etc. stuff needs CPU/RAM to handle unlike old webmail. Big deal...
It is posted to blog right after Yahoo opens the API and create some good media.
Yahoo mail could be irritating (I cancelled plus after figuring no APOP or IMAP) but it is a very popular webmail internationally.
Check http://www.senderbase.org/ and look at their place in legit (non spam/zombie) providers. Where is Google?
Is Google playing "evil" games now with some anonymous blogs?
Who is that guy claiming a thing which any serious power user/developer will laugh? "why do Windows filesystems suck so?" (older entry)
No, Windows file systems, especially NTFS 5+ (2k,xp) does NOT suck. They are very modern systems and I am a OS X user saying it. Go ask any developer who isn't zealot, they will say too.
I mean why this Anonymous Blog entry submitted by AC poster is front page of Slashdot?
There is one mail service needing much more popularity and users, http://www.fastmail.fm/ , now THAT is a webmail/imap service worth reviewing.
Free POP3 like keeping mails (including deleted) forever and analysing private message text to display ads?
No, thanks.
It lacks IMAP option for paid users I agree but they have a reason for it. It seems like they need a huge mainframe farm to handle that many users which are connected 24/7 over IMAP.
I remember they agreed on crime.org in a meeting. (Simpsons, Duh)
They allow a Russian guy to register wunderground.mobi , here comes the dotcom cybersquatting again.
Check http://pc.mtld.mobi/whois/index.php , put wunderground.mobi to search box and see the result yourself. While on it, check slashdot.mobi , it is taken too.
Weather Underground is one of the oldest sites on web (they started with Telnet/Gopher!) and they have a dedicated mobile (WAP) version at
http://m.wunderground.com/
So, a Russian guy can get that wunderground.mobi yes? What guarantees there won't be some "Enter your credit card details for plus access" on that page?
Cybersquatting in 2006, great. The question is: They are that naive or is this on purpose?
It offered me pure web browsing on a Nokia 7650 which has (in real life) 2 MB of memory, running Symbian series 60 OS.
:)
;)
They can charge for sure.
Lets not get into fact about it costs like 2 high quality mobile games or something. If this thing ships for usual $30 (not sure), it will cost half of a decent console game and it will offer you Slashdot on your TV
Opera is in business for devices for ages. They are the standard company for browsing on devices.
Their "Opera Mini" which is shockingly only 96kb in most advanced version (MIDP 2.0) is some hit on mobile nobody could have imagined. I really hope one day they offer those download numbers at least the ones from mini.opera.com .
When we speak about devices, phones,consoles,PDAs: Opera is the king. Just look at this page:
http://www.opera.com/products/devices/gallery/
I mean they don't need any kind of favour to stay in business.
It is Microsoft which is a joke on mobile browsing and thank God, they couldn't even take off on that area.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sony PS3 Opera ships too.
Thanks about that publication link,I think it is bad news for my idling colour laser printer ;)
About the "stunt", yes, I think I am a bit old fashioned and still trying to get used to Web 2.0
If there is a single "neutral" IT publication about Macs, I will pay for it. No kidding...
s _and_macbook_wifi_hacks
:)
Daringfireball even tried to "Challenge" with Secureworks about this issue. The "language" of URL may give you a clue.
http://daringfireball.net/2006/09/lies_damned_lie
I said "neutral" btw, not some sites/blogs calling me a "Maccie" or jump up and down with happiness when Oompla.Loompa story broke.
I like Macworld, trust them on product reviews but their apologising (?) for Apple is a fanboy response not suitable for a independent, professional publication.
Also the Mac community who keeps attacking the messenger started to bug me seriously as a Mac user who is concerned about own security.
I own a Quad G5, do my entire work on Macs, there is no PC around and while posting to Apple stories, I unclick "No Karma Bonus" since I know what will happen. Mac zealots are the biggest security risk to OS X/Macintosh. In fact first real virus/trojan/worm strange thing (Oompa) coding lamer openly admitted that he coded it just to give "Maccies" a lesson.
Think about it.
As there is no windows media (official) option for other operating systems and even on win32 wmedia has problems with browsers other than IE, they had to buy Flash solution to support them while having windows media technology in hand.
The famous incompatibilities of windows media finally costs them something.
Thanks to them and Real networks policies before Helix project, embedded video standard is Flash now.
Copying down to Flash based (on2 VP 6 codec in fact) video! I really hope they had to pay millions for that thing. Their stupid hate to other Operating Systems of choice finally cost them something.
Their idea was "lets support windows media on windows systems running IE only, let those nerds (linux) and Maccies pay for not choosing our OS" for all these years.
Now: They have to use Adobe Flash while having million/billion dollar spent Windows Media in hand.
Good riddance!
Also they want MS "Live" sign in (good old passport's new name) and I have to warn people using anything than IE/Windows combination: DO NOT get an account. At one point you may end up without ability to close it because it may ask you to install a newer IE on OS X. IE on OS X doesn't even exist anymore!
It happened to me just weeks ago. I got PDF screenshots in hand.
They moved Netscape.net mail owners to AIM mail, promising a more modern interface with server features such as IMAP.
;)
I have logged into Netscape a bit later to see what is new. They really did some cool stuff, Flash/AJAX like dynamic stuff which is more like the new Yahoo mail beta. It supports IMAP (including SSL IMAP) unlike Yahoo who doesn't support even if you pay them. Their SMTP is TLS encrypted etc. too.
More important of all, it supports OS X Safari which Yahoo beta doesn't.
As their new method of doing things, they opened a forum and blog. Guess what? It is full of Netscape.net mail users, yes that old simple and zero spam control thing PROTESTING AOL because of the move.
Don't misunderstand, lets say if you have mcbrids@netscape.net e-mail, that mail stays. They don't force people to have aol.com/aim.com e-mail which has disgusting image. They just can't stand to "AOL" word at the site/domain!
They move people to IMAP based, very modern and all browsers supported webmail system, give them 2 GB for free and yet people want their old technology netscape.net mail system back. Just because of the "AOL"' word. Just imagine the feedback if Google and Yahoo offered free IMAP with all browser compatible flash interface even with SSL. I am sure their sites would get slashdotted first time in history because of people opening accounts.
At least we now have good ammo against Google and Yahoo, we should use arguments like "Even AOL supports IMAP!" to fix their non explainable obsession with POP3.
I really want to meet with the guy who modded you Insightful. "God knows where" is Stanford.edu, Sony doesn't force people and I am sure you were never in their potential customer list.
Go play with some command line and turn off that tungsten bulb you forgot on, it possibly eats more than a PS3 without doing anything.