It's not like that in the US at all. I know hardly anyone close to me who listens to people like Van Buuren and DJ Tiesto (I own several of their CDs and some vinyls:D). I think it's great what they do, still releasing 12" and CDs, and some hardcore and trance (electronic) music sites even offer downloads but they are not DRM'd to shit. Only one hardcore producer I know of does that, and maybe it's not his fault. But the only thing I dislike is CBR MP3, and I would prefer WAV/FLAC/lossless format files because that would be just like buying the CD (and you should get JPG covers to print too). LAME VBR APS or APE MP3s would be more acceptable for me also.
All good stuff if you're into electronic music, which at least in this state (MA) and this region, is NOT the case at all. I want to live in Europe where that's all they play.:(
Also did I mention that most American electronic music is total garbage equal to everything else thats get hyped up? BECAUSE IT IS.
Also, I'm very surprised to see this happening in Japan. It's really cool to see (and me being part Japanese). But again I don't think M4A is the way to go about selling music online. LOSSLESS DAMNIT WITH NO DRM
The only reason you pay extra for anything is because you were suckered into believing about the legendary pirate boogeymen that "ruin the industry and drive up prices!"
Hahahahaha. Maybe that's true. I'm not as Linux-centric/fanboy as I can see most people on Slashdot are. I just hate the idea of activating everytime I upgrade hardware on a PC, because you could reinstall Windows and still have to activate or you could just keep WIndows the way it is and still have to activate (talking about retail copies). I'll keep my warez'd corporate versions of Windows kthx.
The same javascript trick for Microsoft downloads (that works for Firefox on Windows) works for Firefox for Linux, because XPI is luckily OS independent style.
I hope Microsoft replies to your email, jonfr.
"Genuine Microsoft software is published by Microsoft, properly licensed, and fully supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner. Using genuine Microsoft software offers you greater capabilities and easy integration with the widest variety of hardware, software, and services. It also provides confidence that you will receive the latest product features, updates, and ongoing improvements to keep your PC performing at its best."
Easy integration of hardware with legitimate software? MY ASS
I have the same question, being a Sears employee. I bet we get tons of fraudulent returns, sometimes you can't know.
The only good thing is that we have return tracking system, and a 90 day return policy (30 days for electronics). Before February the return policy was that you could return whenever you want, and we had people who would "buy" a lawnmower in the spring, bring it back in the winter, and get a snowblower. Then return the snowblower for a new lawnmower. And this could keep going. And I'm sure the people who used to do this with Sears are pissed now, but they have no right.
And if they do that with appliances, it's just horrendous for the salesman whose only source of income is the selling of the appliances. There is no hourly pay, they earn full commission.
I think we need to make our policy even more stricter. And every retailer should. I'm thinking like, no "I don't need it" returns, or "It didn't fit my needs" returns, but only for small things, not like appliances.
We even have people who return clothes they used once. For a wedding, I've heard of people doing this. The bride's mates, bride, broom all pick out their clothes for the wedding that will be probably in just a few days and then a few days after they return all of it! They restaple the tags onto the clothes even if they have dry cleaned it. We don't want customers to get so mad and cause a scene in our store so we do take those stupid returns but people should have morals. That (and I could give quite a few examples), and thieving (including associate theft, coupon abuse, discount abuse, etc), are the reasons retailers go out of business and get bought out by others (e.g. Sears being bought by K-Mart).
Overall it's horrible. And I wonder if K-Mart is any better since they were able to buy Sears. Maybe there are some security procedures they do that are better than what Sears does (cameras, guards are in the security room watching, associate id checks for everything done on register, bag/tape EVERYTHING bought, and a few other things).
I work at Sears and we try our best to prevent fraud and just last week someone came in and used a fraudulent credit card to buy $1600 worth in gift cards and sell them. The cards were reported to be used in NY and I'm in MA. So I think it's pretty bad.
Many of you may know of the Craftsman Lifetime Hand Tool Warranty where you can return any tool and get a replacement (even a new one) for free for your lifetime of course. Luckily people don't abuse this much but I don't doubt there have been times of course. You could easily grab one off the replacement section and get a new one to replace it with and then go to the register.
We changed our policy in February because of the "renting" population. People would come buy a new lawnmower in spring, return it in the winter and get a snowblower, and keep doing this.
Now we decline used merchandise with no receipt no matter what. There are also so many times when the best we can do is give a gift card because money is so different compared to a Sears gift card. Most of the time this is when the customer has no receipt, and certainly there are times when customers try to return things that they took off the shelf.
It's interesting how our loss prevention team is sort of buckling down now since it has gotten really bad in just last few weeks.
There was another time where people were manipulating for cash. These people came in, brought in big bills only, like 50s and 100s, and they made their moves fast, an example like this. One person came in with an 100, picked up a small item worth about $2, then went to the register to pay. It's not unusual for us to give $98+ change back although sometimes we need to call to get that money, but what happened was the person handed 100, and the cashier grabbed about $98 out of the register and handed it to this person. The person quickly grabbed another 100 and said "Now you have $200, give me ten 20's." The cashier got confused and we lost $100 but the kids were caught by the police and we probably got our money back.
The last example I can give is changing gift cards into money. So called customers actually have succeeded in this. They come to the store and buy something that's just a little over their maximum, pay with their gift card, and then whatever the difference is with cash. Then they mess with the receipt they get. They remove certain parts, one even told me that her kid ripped it up and she had to tape it. Her kid was right there was probably far uncapable of doing it so perfectly, as to rip the part where it says about cash used, and gift card used. So we almost gave her $100 but we found out, and we made her leave the store.
How about every Internet Explorer version? and more importantly other programs that everyone hates but is forced to use. For most of these listed I have alternatives.
Acrobat -> pointlessly slow and annoying. Use Foxit Reader Realone/RealPlayer -> Do I have to explain this one? Use Real Alternative. QuickTime -> Use QuickTime Alternative. Windows Media Player 7 and up -> Use MPC, Winamp, or foobar2000. iTunes -> Same as above. Flash -> I cannot stress how pissed I get when I go to a Flash website and it has to load its RAM hogging shite on it. I wish there was some alternative. I don't have a slow computer either. Usually I just set the quality setting to low when a website SURPRISINGLY has a pointless Flash menu or something of the like. It's good for those animations like of cartoons and such, but otherwise pointless and they should stop using it for EVERYTHING anyway.
I remember when I had AOL for a long time, and I had to convince my parents to switch to broadband when it came about. Took a bit of time.
Finally the day came when we called and cancelled. The bitch on the phone kept offering deals. I assume that all the people at AOL are trained to do that with angry customers. I told her to stop the bullshit and cancel the account. Finally she did.
My biggest problem with AOL was that every time a new version came out, it took up even more RAM, and that doesn't seem to be ending. That stupid application has to be running for a person to get online, even on AOL broadband! It's not like these always-online broadband companies. AOL has its own protocol and it's all closed. No Windows dialer can dial into AOL, which I would've preferred when I had AOL.
If AOL adds support for dialing with 3rd party dialers (for all OSes) then a lot of geeky kids that are my age who have no choice but to beg thei r parents for another ISP will not care anymore. And for AOL broadband, it's gotta be an always-online connection without the stupid AOL program.
I like how when I'm on my Comcast connection, there is nothing on my computer related to Comcast. I assume most broadband companies are just like this. This is how AOL should be.
But that does not mean I would ever go back to their service. There's no way in hell.
Slashdot Mirror
LMAO
I concur with the coward above!
It's not like that in the US at all. I know hardly anyone close to me who listens to people like Van Buuren and DJ Tiesto (I own several of their CDs and some vinyls :D). I think it's great what they do, still releasing 12" and CDs, and some hardcore and trance (electronic) music sites even offer downloads but they are not DRM'd to shit. Only one hardcore producer I know of does that, and maybe it's not his fault. But the only thing I dislike is CBR MP3, and I would prefer WAV/FLAC/lossless format files because that would be just like buying the CD (and you should get JPG covers to print too). LAME VBR APS or APE MP3s would be more acceptable for me also.
:(
Trance music downloads in 192kbps MP3.
Hardcore music downloads in 192kbps MP3.
All good stuff if you're into electronic music, which at least in this state (MA) and this region, is NOT the case at all. I want to live in Europe where that's all they play.
Also did I mention that most American electronic music is total garbage equal to everything else thats get hyped up? BECAUSE IT IS.
Also, I'm very surprised to see this happening in Japan. It's really cool to see (and me being part Japanese). But again I don't think M4A is the way to go about selling music online. LOSSLESS DAMNIT WITH NO DRM
The only reason you pay extra for anything is because you were suckered into believing about the legendary pirate boogeymen that "ruin the industry and drive up prices!"
LMAO at pirate boogeymen!
Hahahahaha. Maybe that's true. I'm not as Linux-centric/fanboy as I can see most people on Slashdot are. I just hate the idea of activating everytime I upgrade hardware on a PC, because you could reinstall Windows and still have to activate or you could just keep WIndows the way it is and still have to activate (talking about retail copies). I'll keep my warez'd corporate versions of Windows kthx.
The same javascript trick for Microsoft downloads (that works for Firefox on Windows) works for Firefox for Linux, because XPI is luckily OS independent style. I hope Microsoft replies to your email, jonfr.
"Genuine Microsoft software is published by Microsoft, properly licensed, and fully supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner. Using genuine Microsoft software offers you greater capabilities and easy integration with the widest variety of hardware, software, and services. It also provides confidence that you will receive the latest product features, updates, and ongoing improvements to keep your PC performing at its best."
Easy integration of hardware with legitimate software? MY ASS
Um...no need for WINE but of course it's useless if you are all-Linux. And this is old news -- once again Slashdot is late.
I have the same question, being a Sears employee. I bet we get tons of fraudulent returns, sometimes you can't know.
The only good thing is that we have return tracking system, and a 90 day return policy (30 days for electronics). Before February the return policy was that you could return whenever you want, and we had people who would "buy" a lawnmower in the spring, bring it back in the winter, and get a snowblower. Then return the snowblower for a new lawnmower. And this could keep going. And I'm sure the people who used to do this with Sears are pissed now, but they have no right.
And if they do that with appliances, it's just horrendous for the salesman whose only source of income is the selling of the appliances. There is no hourly pay, they earn full commission.
I think we need to make our policy even more stricter. And every retailer should. I'm thinking like, no "I don't need it" returns, or "It didn't fit my needs" returns, but only for small things, not like appliances.
We even have people who return clothes they used once. For a wedding, I've heard of people doing this. The bride's mates, bride, broom all pick out their clothes for the wedding that will be probably in just a few days and then a few days after they return all of it! They restaple the tags onto the clothes even if they have dry cleaned it. We don't want customers to get so mad and cause a scene in our store so we do take those stupid returns but people should have morals. That (and I could give quite a few examples), and thieving (including associate theft, coupon abuse, discount abuse, etc), are the reasons retailers go out of business and get bought out by others (e.g. Sears being bought by K-Mart).
Overall it's horrible. And I wonder if K-Mart is any better since they were able to buy Sears. Maybe there are some security procedures they do that are better than what Sears does (cameras, guards are in the security room watching, associate id checks for everything done on register, bag/tape EVERYTHING bought, and a few other things).
I work at Sears and we try our best to prevent fraud and just last week someone came in and used a fraudulent credit card to buy $1600 worth in gift cards and sell them. The cards were reported to be used in NY and I'm in MA. So I think it's pretty bad.
Many of you may know of the Craftsman Lifetime Hand Tool Warranty where you can return any tool and get a replacement (even a new one) for free for your lifetime of course. Luckily people don't abuse this much but I don't doubt there have been times of course. You could easily grab one off the replacement section and get a new one to replace it with and then go to the register.
We changed our policy in February because of the "renting" population. People would come buy a new lawnmower in spring, return it in the winter and get a snowblower, and keep doing this.
Now we decline used merchandise with no receipt no matter what. There are also so many times when the best we can do is give a gift card because money is so different compared to a Sears gift card. Most of the time this is when the customer has no receipt, and certainly there are times when customers try to return things that they took off the shelf.
It's interesting how our loss prevention team is sort of buckling down now since it has gotten really bad in just last few weeks.
There was another time where people were manipulating for cash. These people came in, brought in big bills only, like 50s and 100s, and they made their moves fast, an example like this. One person came in with an 100, picked up a small item worth about $2, then went to the register to pay. It's not unusual for us to give $98+ change back although sometimes we need to call to get that money, but what happened was the person handed 100, and the cashier grabbed about $98 out of the register and handed it to this person. The person quickly grabbed another 100 and said "Now you have $200, give me ten 20's." The cashier got confused and we lost $100 but the kids were caught by the police and we probably got our money back.
The last example I can give is changing gift cards into money. So called customers actually have succeeded in this. They come to the store and buy something that's just a little over their maximum, pay with their gift card, and then whatever the difference is with cash. Then they mess with the receipt they get. They remove certain parts, one even told me that her kid ripped it up and she had to tape it. Her kid was right there was probably far uncapable of doing it so perfectly, as to rip the part where it says about cash used, and gift card used. So we almost gave her $100 but we found out, and we made her leave the store.
Wow, comparing Baidu to the real Chinese Google here:
Baidu Google China
Look at the numbers: 28,300 compared to a measly 177 found on Google China.
How about every Internet Explorer version? and more importantly other programs that everyone hates but is forced to use. For most of these listed I have alternatives.
Acrobat -> pointlessly slow and annoying. Use Foxit Reader
Realone/RealPlayer -> Do I have to explain this one? Use Real Alternative.
QuickTime -> Use QuickTime Alternative.
Windows Media Player 7 and up -> Use MPC, Winamp, or foobar2000.
iTunes -> Same as above.
Flash -> I cannot stress how pissed I get when I go to a Flash website and it has to load its RAM hogging shite on it. I wish there was some alternative. I don't have a slow computer either. Usually I just set the quality setting to low when a website SURPRISINGLY has a pointless Flash menu or something of the like. It's good for those animations like of cartoons and such, but otherwise pointless and they should stop using it for EVERYTHING anyway.
and the list could go on and on
I agree with you completely.
I remember when I had AOL for a long time, and I had to convince my parents to switch to broadband when it came about. Took a bit of time.
Finally the day came when we called and cancelled. The bitch on the phone kept offering deals. I assume that all the people at AOL are trained to do that with angry customers. I told her to stop the bullshit and cancel the account. Finally she did.
My biggest problem with AOL was that every time a new version came out, it took up even more RAM, and that doesn't seem to be ending. That stupid application has to be running for a person to get online, even on AOL broadband! It's not like these always-online broadband companies. AOL has its own protocol and it's all closed. No Windows dialer can dial into AOL, which I would've preferred when I had AOL.
If AOL adds support for dialing with 3rd party dialers (for all OSes) then a lot of geeky kids that are my age who have no choice but to beg thei r parents for another ISP will not care anymore. And for AOL broadband, it's gotta be an always-online connection without the stupid AOL program.
I like how when I'm on my Comcast connection, there is nothing on my computer related to Comcast. I assume most broadband companies are just like this. This is how AOL should be.
But that does not mean I would ever go back to their service. There's no way in hell.