Shorter, more frequent commercial breaks (short enough to make it inconvenient to even try to FastForward) that are less annoying. Or make the commercials worth watching (SuperBowl caliber) if they are longer. I don't mind a commercial here or there in a program, it's the 6 minute long commercial breaks with 4 minutes of programming squeezed between that really bugs me.
Turning off FF will just piss me off. If they get that passed, then I think that there should be a function that is "Pause at the end of the commercials," so I can go pee while the crap commercials are on, but come back to the beginning of the resumption of the show that I'm trying to watch.
... and he wants to sell all of it soon to pay for his 'lectro-shock ther'py
What's in it that would make me want to buy it?
on
Office 2007 Delayed Again
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I mean, really! 99% of the users wouldn't use anything that isn't in Office 2000. The only reason would be for file formats (more MS proprietary, as well and XML and OD), but still 99% of the users still wouldn't ever NEED to use them. I think a new Office version is a dead horse. Somebody shoot Steve B. and Bill G.!
We can't show you how to make a good living out of FOSS. But nobody can't show you how to make a good living out of selling flowers, polishing flagpoles, or making Germany flags. But ths does not mean it can't be done.
Making money from FOSS is more like planting a field of free flowers and having a flower stand that advertises "free flowers from this field of free flowers, picked for you for only $10 a bunch." Yes, you can make a living from it, but it isn't easy. I guess if you plant the flowers well enough (i.e. easy enough to get to), most people are going to pick them themselves. If you plant them within a brier patch, then they will be more likely to either get their flowers elsewhere or have you pick them for them. But if you pick them, then you have to get through the briers. "Ouch!"
The best thing to do is find a flower that people can't get elsewhere, that they don't want to pick themselves, that you don't mind picking yourself, and you make a reasonable living doing it.
I know that there are people doing it. I just would like to get the right formula. That's the whole secret, though, isn't it?
What is it about these studies? A physicist does this study. Not a statistician, not a mathematician, not an economist. Like the forces of nature have anything to do with the price of rubber chickens on ebay. I new I should have done that study on whether or not there was bacteria on Uranus!!!!
Even if many of us continue to use non-free systems such as Windows XP, it is nice to know we have a choice. And we WOULDN'T have that choice anymore if Richard and many others had not stood up when they did.
As far as I know, in Stallman's world, there is no place for WindowsXP. "Live free or die!" Don't get me wrong, I would be very happy if there were no WindowsXP. But, my understanding is that Stallman wants to break down all proprietary walls.
I wonder what Stallman thinks of Software-As-A-Service. It's not really proprietary, other than you don't give out your code. It's a service, which he feels should be paid for. So would it exist in Stallman's vision of the future? What has he said about SAAS? That is the direction I would like to go with a small company.
I have worked for companies that develop proprietary software. I strongly support the use of FOSS, and I use it whenever I can. I wish that it were easier to make a living developing FOSS. I'd be right there on the front lines with RMS. I do have to feed my wife and children, and keep them in shoes in the winter. Please show me a definitive way to make a good living with FOSS.
Are you suggesting that having just two companies competing against each other for market share
I think there is a more fundamental problem, and probably an advantage for Google, if they play it out like they usually do. Microsoft's arrogance makes them vulnerable. My view is that MS will take Yahoo and corrupt the good that is there with the bad that is in MS. I've never seen such bad search results from a search engine as from MS, bar none. I also hate the way they do their ads. If they plan on taking their technology and putting it into Yahoo (because they think they have all the answers), then they will loose the loyal Yahoo crowd. Will they go to MS? Not if they leave because of the bad changes they make to Yahoo. They would then go to Google.
Personally I think that the only reason people use MS for their search is that they use MSN as their home page because they don't know how to change that, and they just plain don't have a clue about options. EVERYONE that I tell to use Google for good searches has abandoned MSN for any good searching. Sure they will still use it from their home page for quick searches (because they use MSN for mail, etc, so they use MSN explorer to see all the extra stuff they get there). But for anyone that wants to get good results, they usually don't use Microsoft powered search technology.
Congress will never enact a line-item-veto, nor get rid of these attachments to bills. That is because they cannot guarantee to the corporations that buy them (the congressmen and senators) that they can get something passed. You can't line your pockets if you can't get elected. You can't get elected if you don't have campaign contributions. You can't get campaign funding if you can't guarantee getting a bill passed for some group/corporation. You can't guarantee if you can't deliver crap through the back door. Evil men have taken a well designed system (what the founding fathers created) and perverted it into a sickening mess.
The only way to get rid of the current corrupted system is to vote out EVERYONE in Congress, and vote in just about anyone who's platform promotes campaign reform, line-item-veto, Congressional term limits, and (my one of my personal favorites) no salary raises for congressmen currently in office (they only go into effect for the next guy to take the office - nobody in government should be in charge of their own salary). Then if they don't follow through, recall or vote them out in the next election.
The new Steve Balmer chair throwing game
on
Wii-mote In Action
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· Score: 2
I can just see Balmer in his office playing with his Wii (don't laugh just yet - but that does sound appropriate), and having to set the sensitivity so that when he does his chair throwing motions, the virtual chair doesn't end up on the moon. Maybe there needs to be three levels of sensitivity.
When Gates and Ballmer are no longer at the top, and they start to sell of their billions in MS stock, you will see it's price drop to less than half it's current price. There are three factors that will make that happen:
Gates and Ballmer are the driving forces at MS. If you take the two big sharks out of the tank, the rest of the fish calm down because they are not as likely to be viewed as lunch. With them gone, Microsoft may be less likely viewed as agressive as they have been in the past.
The public view is that Gates is Microsoft. When he's gone, shareholder confidence will decrease.
Supply and demand. If they sell, supply goes up, and certainly the demand will be less (see numbers 1 and 2 above).
I didn't compare coffee to pedophilia. In fact I didn't even mention coffee. I did say that our society makes excuses and rationalizes any kind of action for their own purposes. Where the heck do you come up with the idea that I compared coffee to pedophilia? And, I wasn't confusing my statements with anything. I only commented on justification and rationalization. Damn my tendency to be correct!
Interesting how every week there is a new study that proves something is actually good for you (in some way or another, but usually not completely good for you) so that people can be justified in their actions. One day there will be a study that points out that pedophiles are less likely to contract AIDS and STD's than non-pedophiles, so if you are prone to pedophilia, you will be healthier (as long as you don't get caught).
People will justify their actions through rationalization right up to the day they die.
Simple
If Microsoft would release any and all interoperating software and specifications under the GPL, then a huge community would be there to make it happen. It would probably take no more than two months to get everything solid, and Microsoft wouldn't have to dish out a penny for the development effort. Quid pro quo - We'll you do your development if you give us the specs and let us release the code under GPL.
Ooops, I think Lucifer just got hit in the head with a snowball!!!
The thing that companies don't realize in foreign outsourcing is the long term impact on their business:
Outsource jobs to save money.
Lay off employees
Less domestic money available due to high unemployment
Less business coming into the company
Companies fail because there is no one "buying" their goods and services that they were so eager to lower the costs by foreign outsourcing
Let's cut off our noses to spite our faces. Let's shoot ourselves in the foot. Heaven forbid we do something with long term positive effects when short term effects will be to put lots of money in the hands of a few at the top so that they can oppress the masses more and become richer.
There truly needs to be legislation restricting the outsourcing of jobs to foreign workers. Otherwise we are going to see bad times ahead for the majority of Americans.
Intel's current CPU strategy:
Nobody want them. The new CPUs are coming, so that gets rid of your loyal customers. AMD is kicking your butt, so you don't get the loyal AMD customers to buy your CPUs. So drop the prices so that you can clear off your shelves of the CPUs nobody is buying anyway, and you can force AMD to lower their prices. You loose profits yourself, but you leverage your action to hurt your competitor.
I don't envy the first guy to test those wings. All the scientists in the world could show me all the data they wanted, but until I saw someone (or I guess something) actually flying with those things, I'd keep my feet firmly planted on the ground.
The only pressure that Microsoft feels from sheep (uh..., I mean, customers) is when the masses start using a technology where Microsoft isn't very near the top (like Google, eBay, etc.). Once Microsoft has acquired a top position, MS dictates what the customers want because people are stupid. MS doesn't make any effort to give people what they really want because it doesn't have to. Most people think that Microsoft will deliver something they will have to use no matter what, and they bend over and take it in the rear, smiling. If Microsoft said it would double all paypal and ebay rates, most people would just cave in.
We live in a society where people think that they have no choice but to bow to Microsoft. That is the power of their monopoly.
If TorrentSpy is successful in their lawsuit against the MPAA, then the evidence that the MPAA has against TorrentSpy will be thrown out, thus destroying the MPAA's lawsuit. If I were TorrentSpy, that is exactly what I would have done to fight the MPAA lawsuit. Even if TorrentSpy wins, it will not be much of a victory for anyone but TorrentSpy. Well, maybe it will be a big thorn in their side for a while.:)
Microsoft is a sideshow made for Bill and Steve to separate people from their money (no holds barred). I can't help but think of VISTA as the fat, bearded, two-headed lizard-lady/contortionist. It has every freakshow charm all wrapped up into a single pretty package that people will pay money for and then wish they hadn't.
I've got to give Bill and Steve their due for being the richest Carni wizards in the history of the world.
Slashdot Mirror
and we can end this debate quickly. Though it may take them a while to get there. Right?
Turning off FF will just piss me off. If they get that passed, then I think that there should be a function that is "Pause at the end of the commercials," so I can go pee while the crap commercials are on, but come back to the beginning of the resumption of the show that I'm trying to watch.
... and he wants to sell all of it soon to pay for his 'lectro-shock ther'py
I mean, really! 99% of the users wouldn't use anything that isn't in Office 2000. The only reason would be for file formats (more MS proprietary, as well and XML and OD), but still 99% of the users still wouldn't ever NEED to use them. I think a new Office version is a dead horse. Somebody shoot Steve B. and Bill G.!
Making money from FOSS is more like planting a field of free flowers and having a flower stand that advertises "free flowers from this field of free flowers, picked for you for only $10 a bunch." Yes, you can make a living from it, but it isn't easy. I guess if you plant the flowers well enough (i.e. easy enough to get to), most people are going to pick them themselves. If you plant them within a brier patch, then they will be more likely to either get their flowers elsewhere or have you pick them for them. But if you pick them, then you have to get through the briers. "Ouch!"
The best thing to do is find a flower that people can't get elsewhere, that they don't want to pick themselves, that you don't mind picking yourself, and you make a reasonable living doing it.
I know that there are people doing it. I just would like to get the right formula. That's the whole secret, though, isn't it?
What is it about these studies? A physicist does this study. Not a statistician, not a mathematician, not an economist. Like the forces of nature have anything to do with the price of rubber chickens on ebay. I new I should have done that study on whether or not there was bacteria on Uranus!!!!
As far as I know, in Stallman's world, there is no place for WindowsXP. "Live free or die!" Don't get me wrong, I would be very happy if there were no WindowsXP. But, my understanding is that Stallman wants to break down all proprietary walls.
I wonder what Stallman thinks of Software-As-A-Service. It's not really proprietary, other than you don't give out your code. It's a service, which he feels should be paid for. So would it exist in Stallman's vision of the future? What has he said about SAAS? That is the direction I would like to go with a small company.
I have worked for companies that develop proprietary software. I strongly support the use of FOSS, and I use it whenever I can. I wish that it were easier to make a living developing FOSS. I'd be right there on the front lines with RMS. I do have to feed my wife and children, and keep them in shoes in the winter. Please show me a definitive way to make a good living with FOSS.
I think there is a more fundamental problem, and probably an advantage for Google, if they play it out like they usually do. Microsoft's arrogance makes them vulnerable. My view is that MS will take Yahoo and corrupt the good that is there with the bad that is in MS. I've never seen such bad search results from a search engine as from MS, bar none. I also hate the way they do their ads. If they plan on taking their technology and putting it into Yahoo (because they think they have all the answers), then they will loose the loyal Yahoo crowd. Will they go to MS? Not if they leave because of the bad changes they make to Yahoo. They would then go to Google.
Personally I think that the only reason people use MS for their search is that they use MSN as their home page because they don't know how to change that, and they just plain don't have a clue about options. EVERYONE that I tell to use Google for good searches has abandoned MSN for any good searching. Sure they will still use it from their home page for quick searches (because they use MSN for mail, etc, so they use MSN explorer to see all the extra stuff they get there). But for anyone that wants to get good results, they usually don't use Microsoft powered search technology.
The only way to get rid of the current corrupted system is to vote out EVERYONE in Congress, and vote in just about anyone who's platform promotes campaign reform, line-item-veto, Congressional term limits, and (my one of my personal favorites) no salary raises for congressmen currently in office (they only go into effect for the next guy to take the office - nobody in government should be in charge of their own salary). Then if they don't follow through, recall or vote them out in the next election.
I can just see Balmer in his office playing with his Wii (don't laugh just yet - but that does sound appropriate), and having to set the sensitivity so that when he does his chair throwing motions, the virtual chair doesn't end up on the moon. Maybe there needs to be three levels of sensitivity.
Mod me -4 and informative for trying to open the moderator's eyes, but this isn't even funny. Just trite!
Everytime MS has tried to be a pioneer, they ended up like Custer at Little Big Horn. Look at Bob....
I didn't compare coffee to pedophilia. In fact I didn't even mention coffee. I did say that our society makes excuses and rationalizes any kind of action for their own purposes. Where the heck do you come up with the idea that I compared coffee to pedophilia? And, I wasn't confusing my statements with anything. I only commented on justification and rationalization. Damn my tendency to be correct!
Interesting how every week there is a new study that proves something is actually good for you (in some way or another, but usually not completely good for you) so that people can be justified in their actions. One day there will be a study that points out that pedophiles are less likely to contract AIDS and STD's than non-pedophiles, so if you are prone to pedophilia, you will be healthier (as long as you don't get caught).
People will justify their actions through rationalization right up to the day they die.
Simple
If Microsoft would release any and all interoperating software and specifications under the GPL, then a huge community would be there to make it happen. It would probably take no more than two months to get everything solid, and Microsoft wouldn't have to dish out a penny for the development effort. Quid pro quo - We'll you do your development if you give us the specs and let us release the code under GPL.
Ooops, I think Lucifer just got hit in the head with a snowball!!!
The thing that companies don't realize in foreign outsourcing is the long term impact on their business:
Let's cut off our noses to spite our faces. Let's shoot ourselves in the foot. Heaven forbid we do something with long term positive effects when short term effects will be to put lots of money in the hands of a few at the top so that they can oppress the masses more and become richer.
There truly needs to be legislation restricting the outsourcing of jobs to foreign workers. Otherwise we are going to see bad times ahead for the majority of Americans.
Interesting how a company that started out with a multi-colored Apple logo has changes to pretty much do black and white.
Fashion!?!?! - What color will be the new black? Ever see a fashion designer that didn't look like they got dressed in the dark?
Intel's current CPU strategy:
Nobody want them. The new CPUs are coming, so that gets rid of your loyal customers. AMD is kicking your butt, so you don't get the loyal AMD customers to buy your CPUs. So drop the prices so that you can clear off your shelves of the CPUs nobody is buying anyway, and you can force AMD to lower their prices. You loose profits yourself, but you leverage your action to hurt your competitor.
So, what should AMD do?
I don't envy the first guy to test those wings. All the scientists in the world could show me all the data they wanted, but until I saw someone (or I guess something) actually flying with those things, I'd keep my feet firmly planted on the ground.
We live in a society where people think that they have no choice but to bow to Microsoft. That is the power of their monopoly.
If TorrentSpy is successful in their lawsuit against the MPAA, then the evidence that the MPAA has against TorrentSpy will be thrown out, thus destroying the MPAA's lawsuit. If I were TorrentSpy, that is exactly what I would have done to fight the MPAA lawsuit. Even if TorrentSpy wins, it will not be much of a victory for anyone but TorrentSpy. Well, maybe it will be a big thorn in their side for a while. :)
Microsoft is a sideshow made for Bill and Steve to separate people from their money (no holds barred). I can't help but think of VISTA as the fat, bearded, two-headed lizard-lady/contortionist. It has every freakshow charm all wrapped up into a single pretty package that people will pay money for and then wish they hadn't.
I've got to give Bill and Steve their due for being the richest Carni wizards in the history of the world.
No respect for GNU/Linux, and now a coup!! Poor guy!!!
Or should I say V146R4?