so, are they (vidprof) upset over the alleged defamation and trademark violations or are they just pissed off that their scam has been exposed on the interweb and their business model is now and forever ruined?
too bad they don't have one called "public perception and the power of bloggers".. their business is hosed unless they can get their hands on "ethical and legal selling practices of tutorial videos".
you honestly believe microsoft had anything to do with only one of the (these) nineteen? directly, perhaps.. but indirectly or when teamed with another large and/or monopolistic company microsoft had a hand in at least half of them...
and perhaps microsoft's victims were downplayed by the editors of CIO; considering microsoft is one of IDG's (CIO's parent, also owns ComputerWorld, PCWorld, among others) largest advertisers.. ad dollars is what greases the wheel of commercial rags...
>> 100,000,000 bytes of Wikipedia to a record-small 16,481,655
is there even 16,481,655 bytes of actual useful information in that first 100,000,000 bytes?
if they edit and condense down to relevant, verifiable, unbiased facts and information, they should easily be able to fit that first 100 million bytes (and then some) on to a 1.44 floppy disk (hell, compression may not even be needed).
this "bone:" It can be extended, say, 10 years at a time for a small renewal fee. This way, works that really have economic value can be protected for ridiculous terms...
define "small". if it's not enough, the big companies will just pay and pay and pay... (and jack prices up, and up, and up).
they don't get anything from me. stats scripts, bugs and other junk gets filtered and/or blocked, in and out.. when i run across one i haven't seen before, it gets added right away and they'll only log one or two hits and that's it.
stats which one can opt-out of or avoid altogether are only slightly more accurate than the RNC surveying only republicans to see if the "general public" likes the prez or not; or checking only microsoft's server logs to come up with browser market shares...
total time spent on a site is almost as worthless of a statistic as page views.
google (search) is the often cited example of a popular short-visit site... but googlemail and even grooops are pretty "sticky"; many people leave their googlemail open 24/7..
on the other side, you've got the "sticky" sites like this one right here, woot during woot-offs; and even yahoo's "game channel", which auto-refreshes and may be open for several hours at a time as you keep tabs on 'the game(s)'.
>> Oh dont worry it works. If not they'll just delete any evidence to the contrary!
well at least you can take comfort in knowing that if they deleted your post, they actually read the dang thing.
now the question is: if you have an obscure, little-used version of windows with many known compatibility issues... why didn't YOU verify compatibility before forking over $500-600 for the phone and leasing your soul to at&t for the next two years?!
i think apple should've held off on ALL windows support for the iPaperweight for the first six months.. if there's people stupid enough to pay $600 for a cell phone, there's bound to be some willing to go a step further and spring for a $1500 computer, too..;) after all, the iPod originally did spur Mac sales a bit... with all the iHype here, why would this be any different?
>> They're just trying to minimize profit loss, and I don't blame them.
well, if printer manufacturers would just sell their hardware (and consumables) at a price that reflects the actual cost to produce (each item type) there would be no lost profits.... this whole 'make the money on ink' is bullshit.
>> Apple store employees were applauding for us as we entered the store this morning. Really people.. APPLAUSE? WTF. It's a fricking phone,
they were applauding because you're...
>>...spending $2k on [four] phones
first, we have the early adopters that always pay a premium for what they want.. then there's the apple customers that always pay a premium for what they buy..
add the two together and you wonder why the employees of the company that just soaked you for 2 grand are applauding for.. you just paid one of their paychecks for the month!
$500-$600 (PLUS a two year contract! from, ahem, at&t..) for a friggin phone? no thanks. i'll take my freebies any day (have paid a total of $50 for the four phones i've had, dating back to the old analog "bricks"; those old phones still have all these fancy new ones beat as far as range goes)... a phone is a phone, that's all I need.
>> I have not yet seen a mapping program what will organize your stops
microsoft streets & trips has had this feature a number of years. use it all the time.
it also has just about all the other features people have mentioned in other comments (mark an "avoid" to reroute a generated path, for instance), and then some. all the mapping apps (online or off) have some routing quirks, and streets & trips is no exception, but aside from the business/attraction directory part being a bit weak, it's actually a pretty decent program -- included on many new (windows) computers as part of works suite, and fairly inexpensive to pick up at retail.
i've found that ALL of the free-to-use online mapping tools like google maps, mapquest, etc. are ALL missing some feature or another that's included in streets & trips -- and since it's on the PC instead of online, there's no ads to put up with, no "privacy policy" to worry about, and it's considerably faster, too..
The real question is have is how is this supposed to make them money?
that's easy. money is what shovels the shit in corporate america... so i suspect that in exchange for bending over for hollywood, they're going to get better rates from networks and ondemand distributors for their 'cable tv' operations.
MY question is: is this going to be limited to their own hsi service, or are they going to deploy it across their entire backbone.. which would affect A LOT MORE than just at&t's hsi consumers.
only 1 million victims?? i do believe there are far more than 1 million addresses in these scumbags mailing lists. *everyone* who's gotten spam out of one of these botnets is (also) a victim... not just the poor saps who got winjacked(tm).
they do such a good job at filtering the internet coming INTO their countries, why can't they turn it around and filter the JUNK (spam, phishing, scams, etc) going OUT?
(granted, the usa is the worldwide leader in spam production, but a lot of it does originate from places like china)
There is a difference there. OS X and the Mac are both made by Apple. However HP doesn't make Windows. They require you to purchase it, but they don't make it. you license OEM versions of microsoft software, including windows, from the MANUFACTURER, not microsoft. so, in a sense, it IS the manufacturer's product.
END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR MICROSOFT SOFTWARE
IMPORTANT-READ CAREFULLY: This End-User License Agreement ('EULA') is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or a single entity) and the manufacturer ("Manufacturer") of the computer system or computer system component ('HARDWARE') with which you acquired the Microsoft software product(s) identified on the Certificate of Authenticity ("COA") affixed to the HARDWARE or on the associated product documentation ('SOFTWARE').
granted, microsoft has total control over the terms in which a manufacturer can license windows, they also offer many incentives and other deals to "encourage" manufacturers to exclusively offer systems bundled with their operating system... the problem is that microsoft didn't get reined-in back around 1993-94 (pre-Win95) when it would have been a hell of a lot easier. microsoft tactics, and greedy manufacturers giving into them, haven't changed much since the early days.
the only way to "fix" the problem, i think, at this stage of the game, would be a total prohibition on bundling software with a computer system. whatever someone wants to run on their computer, they have to buy retail (or choose free open source). this would force microsoft to lower prices; when faced with a bill for 199 for full version windows, 399 for office, 49 for a dvd-compatible media player, etc. on top of the (now, slightly lowered) cost of hardware, 'joe user' may just opt for less expensive alternatives. it would also force both microsoft and competitors to develop software (especially operating systems) than can be easily installed by anyone regardless of knowledge or experience. a bit drastic? perhaps. but big problems demand a 'big' response.
granted ipv6 will take a little time for adoption around the world..
however, you can basically add dynamic dns services (such as dyndns.org) to the list of industries and businesses that microsoft is trying to takeover/monopolize/etc through bundling extra features in windows that have absolutely nothing to do with the core functions of an "operating system".
holy free ram batman!!! finally, the days of 400mb+ ram usage are over! (highest i experienced was 744mb)
i was all but ready to dump firefox for something else because it was just getting way out of hand.
i dunno if it's actually version 2.0, or the upgrade disabling a few incompatible extensions (one of which could have been the culprit) that did it, but at this point in time, i don't really care! i finally got my computer back without having to shut down firefox to use it for something else.
was was surprised to see my "must have" extensions still intact, and even an update to phoenity theme (although its "go" button needs to lose the text when using "small icons")... and that in-form spell checker is sweet (doesn't even bitch about my refusal to use caps and proper punctuation!;)
it's not even in the new "more" tab where they've hidden groups & froogle now.... which is why i use http://www.google.com/intl/xx-elmer/ instead... web/images/groups/directory -- the four google searches i use the most, all one click away from each other.
i use the wiki though too, and it's the first place i go when i know there'll be (or SHOULD be) an article on something. it's even starting to become a useful reference for the really important things in life, such as LOST episode summaries...
why not quit screwing around with the names and artwork of mozilla packages and just put the "real" thing, including name & artwork, in a new "supported, non-free" repository...
there are enough dsfg-compliant alternatives (epiphany, evolution, K-whatever, etc) out there to include in the regular "main" repository.
bitch all you want about the recent star trek movies... but they still can't compare to the class of suckage that was ST:V.
but trek should go forward, not backwards. just from a logistics standpoint, how will they construct "technology" that looks older than TOS? card board & duct tape? with a shuttle pod made from a radio flyer?
ds9 was excellent. sisko & kira were the best "one-two punch" of any of the series. avery brooks ("hawk" from the spenser:for hire tv series) fit the actor to the role (of captain) better than any of the others, even patrick stewart. its premiere, movie-length episode (emissary), surpassed anything the franchise has put in theatres (with the exception, perhaps, of ST:IV).
as deep space nine was different in that it was focused on a space station instead of a space ship; voyager also differed in that there was no "federation" to call for backup; and like ds9, it was also an excellent series. imho, these were the best two series in the franchise -- the ones that weren't just TOS-redux.
enterprise had potential, but the TPTB mukked everything up: starting with dropping 'star trek' from the title and progressing through each and every storyline inconsistency... and bacula was a huge disappointment, imho, not even coming close to fitting the role of a star trek captain.
as far as a starfleet academy-based "prequel" goes.... spock graduated around the time that kirk entered the academy (both ocurring in 2050). so if the premise is their time together at the academy, it'll be an even shorter series than enterprise was, or a single movie tied around one specific event they both participated in. the novel 'aftershock' is about the only existing thing to draw from, and if 'the crew' was busy with that plotline during kirk's first acadamy year, that doesn't leave much time to "create" something new to squeeze into the timeline for cadets spock & kirk to get mixed up with.
mccoy and ulhura where in the academy around the same time as kirk (they were a year ahead of him).. so that *might* work. no sulu or checkov though, as they didn't start at the academy until several years after kirk graduated. also keep in mind that kirk entered the academy at age 17, so you'd have to go A LOT younger and find some (early) 20-something actor with no talent to play the role. reference: http://pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Startrek.htm
as much as i'd rather see trek move forward, if they go backwards.. the most interesting part of enterprise (even if its delivery wasn't that great either) was the retelling of carbon creek in episode 2 of the second season (originally in a trek novel from the late 80's or so, iirc). a movie or series based upon the vulcan's life on earth in the 1950's would be a hoot. eliminates all ties to the future and "known" trek universe (less chance of contaminating the 'timeline', so-to-speak). so in my book, this would be the next best thing to just starting after ds9 or voyager.
mgadiag.exe still 'phones home' to verify your windows and to obtain the download code (being a diagnostic tool, it also displays some additional license information).
it's no different than running the manual verification using the 'alternate tool' (i.e. the method, still available, that firefox users had to use before microsoft released a netscape/firefox plugin version of the activex checker). http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=50344 (genuinecheck.exe at microsoft.com)
the only thing this will bypass is the installation of the verification activex (or plugin)... so you're still being subject to the 'body cavity search' -- the only difference is that you get to choose when you drop your drawers...
unless the scanners on the trucks are scanning tags on the contents of the bin.
a tag itself on a bin is no big deal provided it's only holding a number that cannot be traced to a particular person or house by itself (without the corresponding customer database from the rubbish hauler). that'd just be an electronic version of a serial number that's stenciled on bins here (in the areas that rubbish haulers provide bins to their customers).
Slashdot Mirror
so, are they (vidprof) upset over the alleged defamation and trademark violations or are they just pissed off that their scam has been exposed on the interweb and their business model is now and forever ruined?
too bad they don't have one called "public perception and the power of bloggers".. their business is hosed unless they can get their hands on "ethical and legal selling practices of tutorial videos".
>>> voter-verified paper trail
one more thing to confuse the old people down in florida...
what do we need this for anyway? the hackers could do a better job at "voting" than the clueless idiots we have casting the ballots now.
Case was originally filed in Virginia --- wouldn't it be nice to see some opinions like that coming out of Eastern Texas (Marshall)?
you honestly believe microsoft had anything to do with only one of the (these) nineteen? directly, perhaps.. but indirectly or when teamed with another large and/or monopolistic company microsoft had a hand in at least half of them...
and perhaps microsoft's victims were downplayed by the editors of CIO; considering microsoft is one of IDG's (CIO's parent, also owns ComputerWorld, PCWorld, among others) largest advertisers.. ad dollars is what greases the wheel of commercial rags...
>> 100,000,000 bytes of Wikipedia to a record-small 16,481,655
is there even 16,481,655 bytes of actual useful information in that first 100,000,000 bytes?
if they edit and condense down to relevant, verifiable, unbiased facts and information, they should easily be able to fit that first 100 million bytes (and then some) on to a 1.44 floppy disk (hell, compression may not even be needed).
define "small". if it's not enough, the big companies will just pay and pay and pay... (and jack prices up, and up, and up).
they don't get anything from me. stats scripts, bugs and other junk gets filtered and/or blocked, in and out.. when i run across one i haven't seen before, it gets added right away and they'll only log one or two hits and that's it.
stats which one can opt-out of or avoid altogether are only slightly more accurate than the RNC surveying only republicans to see if the "general public" likes the prez or not; or checking only microsoft's server logs to come up with browser market shares...
total time spent on a site is almost as worthless of a statistic as page views.
google (search) is the often cited example of a popular short-visit site... but googlemail and even grooops are pretty "sticky"; many people leave their googlemail open 24/7..
on the other side, you've got the "sticky" sites like this one right here, woot during woot-offs; and even yahoo's "game channel", which auto-refreshes and may be open for several hours at a time as you keep tabs on 'the game(s)'.
>> Oh dont worry it works. If not they'll just delete any evidence to the contrary!
;) after all, the iPod originally did spur Mac sales a bit... with all the iHype here, why would this be any different?
well at least you can take comfort in knowing that if they deleted your post, they actually read the dang thing.
now the question is: if you have an obscure, little-used version of windows with many known compatibility issues... why didn't YOU verify compatibility before forking over $500-600 for the phone and leasing your soul to at&t for the next two years?!
i think apple should've held off on ALL windows support for the iPaperweight for the first six months.. if there's people stupid enough to pay $600 for a cell phone, there's bound to be some willing to go a step further and spring for a $1500 computer, too..
>> Please RTFA.....
t ic_Control_Components
>> Who said it was illegal?
>> They're just trying to minimize profit loss, and I don't blame them.
well, if printer manufacturers would just sell their hardware (and consumables) at a price that reflects the actual cost to produce (each item type) there would be no lost profits.... this whole 'make the money on ink' is bullshit.
and besides, isn't this company just wasting their time? "circumventing" restrictions in printer consumables was already ruled to not be a violation of the "it's Digital, Me Copy it Anyway" act? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexmark_Int'l_v._Sta
>> Apple store employees were applauding for us as we entered the store this morning. Really people.. APPLAUSE? WTF. It's a fricking phone,
...spending $2k on [four] phones
they were applauding because you're...
>>
first, we have the early adopters that always pay a premium for what they want..
then there's the apple customers that always pay a premium for what they buy..
add the two together and you wonder why the employees of the company that just soaked you for 2 grand are applauding for.. you just paid one of their paychecks for the month!
$500-$600 (PLUS a two year contract! from, ahem, at&t..) for a friggin phone? no thanks. i'll take my freebies any day (have paid a total of $50 for the four phones i've had, dating back to the old analog "bricks"; those old phones still have all these fancy new ones beat as far as range goes)... a phone is a phone, that's all I need.
>> I have not yet seen a mapping program what will organize your stops
microsoft streets & trips has had this feature a number of years. use it all the time.
it also has just about all the other features people have mentioned in other comments (mark an "avoid" to reroute a generated path, for instance), and then some. all the mapping apps (online or off) have some routing quirks, and streets & trips is no exception, but aside from the business/attraction directory part being a bit weak, it's actually a pretty decent program -- included on many new (windows) computers as part of works suite, and fairly inexpensive to pick up at retail.
i've found that ALL of the free-to-use online mapping tools like google maps, mapquest, etc. are ALL missing some feature or another that's included in streets & trips -- and since it's on the PC instead of online, there's no ads to put up with, no "privacy policy" to worry about, and it's considerably faster, too..
that's easy. money is what shovels the shit in corporate america... so i suspect that in exchange for bending over for hollywood, they're going to get better rates from networks and ondemand distributors for their 'cable tv' operations.
MY question is: is this going to be limited to their own hsi service, or are they going to deploy it across their entire backbone.. which would affect A LOT MORE than just at&t's hsi consumers.
"over 1 million botnet crime victims."
only 1 million victims?? i do believe there are far more than 1 million addresses in these scumbags mailing lists. *everyone* who's gotten spam out of one of these botnets is (also) a victim... not just the poor saps who got winjacked(tm).
why high-volume isp's are signing on to this scam....
fta: At least half of the fees go to the service provider
anything to make a buck. sheesh.
they do such a good job at filtering the internet coming INTO their countries, why can't they turn it around and filter the JUNK (spam, phishing, scams, etc) going OUT?
(granted, the usa is the worldwide leader in spam production, but a lot of it does originate from places like china)
granted, microsoft has total control over the terms in which a manufacturer can license windows, they also offer many incentives and other deals to "encourage" manufacturers to exclusively offer systems bundled with their operating system... the problem is that microsoft didn't get reined-in back around 1993-94 (pre-Win95) when it would have been a hell of a lot easier. microsoft tactics, and greedy manufacturers giving into them, haven't changed much since the early days.
the only way to "fix" the problem, i think, at this stage of the game, would be a total prohibition on bundling software with a computer system. whatever someone wants to run on their computer, they have to buy retail (or choose free open source). this would force microsoft to lower prices; when faced with a bill for 199 for full version windows, 399 for office, 49 for a dvd-compatible media player, etc. on top of the (now, slightly lowered) cost of hardware, 'joe user' may just opt for less expensive alternatives. it would also force both microsoft and competitors to develop software (especially operating systems) than can be easily installed by anyone regardless of knowledge or experience. a bit drastic? perhaps. but big problems demand a 'big' response.
granted ipv6 will take a little time for adoption around the world..
however, you can basically add dynamic dns services (such as dyndns.org) to the list of industries and businesses that microsoft is trying to takeover/monopolize/etc through bundling extra features in windows that have absolutely nothing to do with the core functions of an "operating system".
holy free ram batman!!! finally, the days of 400mb+ ram usage are over! (highest i experienced was 744mb)
;)
i was all but ready to dump firefox for something else because it was just getting way out of hand.
i dunno if it's actually version 2.0, or the upgrade disabling a few incompatible extensions (one of which could have been the culprit) that did it, but at this point in time, i don't really care! i finally got my computer back without having to shut down firefox to use it for something else.
was was surprised to see my "must have" extensions still intact, and even an update to phoenity theme (although its "go" button needs to lose the text when using "small icons")... and that in-form spell checker is sweet (doesn't even bitch about my refusal to use caps and proper punctuation!
perhaps google is to blame here. they removed "directory" from above the search box a couple years ago...
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040330 pretty much sums it up.
it's not even in the new "more" tab where they've hidden groups & froogle now.
i use the wiki though too, and it's the first place i go when i know there'll be (or SHOULD be) an article on something. it's even starting to become a useful reference for the really important things in life, such as LOST episode summaries...
what would this...
;)
http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/
look like for windows?
why not quit screwing around with the names and artwork of mozilla packages and just put the "real" thing, including name & artwork, in a new "supported, non-free" repository...
there are enough dsfg-compliant alternatives (epiphany, evolution, K-whatever, etc) out there to include in the regular "main" repository.
problem solved!
bitch all you want about the recent star trek movies... but they still can't compare to the class of suckage that was ST:V.
but trek should go forward, not backwards. just from a logistics standpoint, how will they construct "technology" that looks older than TOS? card board & duct tape? with a shuttle pod made from a radio flyer?
ds9 was excellent. sisko & kira were the best "one-two punch" of any of the series. avery brooks ("hawk" from the spenser:for hire tv series) fit the actor to the role (of captain) better than any of the others, even patrick stewart. its premiere, movie-length episode (emissary), surpassed anything the franchise has put in theatres (with the exception, perhaps, of ST:IV).
as deep space nine was different in that it was focused on a space station instead of a space ship; voyager also differed in that there was no "federation" to call for backup; and like ds9, it was also an excellent series. imho, these were the best two series in the franchise -- the ones that weren't just TOS-redux.
enterprise had potential, but the TPTB mukked everything up: starting with dropping 'star trek' from the title and progressing through each and every storyline inconsistency... and bacula was a huge disappointment, imho, not even coming close to fitting the role of a star trek captain.
as far as a starfleet academy-based "prequel" goes.... spock graduated around the time that kirk entered the academy (both ocurring in 2050). so if the premise is their time together at the academy, it'll be an even shorter series than enterprise was, or a single movie tied around one specific event they both participated in. the novel 'aftershock' is about the only existing thing to draw from, and if 'the crew' was busy with that plotline during kirk's first acadamy year, that doesn't leave much time to "create" something new to squeeze into the timeline for cadets spock & kirk to get mixed up with.
mccoy and ulhura where in the academy around the same time as kirk (they were a year ahead of him).. so that *might* work. no sulu or checkov though, as they didn't start at the academy until several years after kirk graduated. also keep in mind that kirk entered the academy at age 17, so you'd have to go A LOT younger and find some (early) 20-something actor with no talent to play the role. reference: http://pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Startrek.htm
as much as i'd rather see trek move forward, if they go backwards.. the most interesting part of enterprise (even if its delivery wasn't that great either) was the retelling of carbon creek in episode 2 of the second season (originally in a trek novel from the late 80's or so, iirc). a movie or series based upon the vulcan's life on earth in the 1950's would be a hoot. eliminates all ties to the future and "known" trek universe (less chance of contaminating the 'timeline', so-to-speak). so in my book, this would be the next best thing to just starting after ds9 or voyager.
mgadiag.exe still 'phones home' to verify your windows and to obtain the download code (being a diagnostic tool, it also displays some additional license information).
it's no different than running the manual verification using the 'alternate tool' (i.e. the method, still available, that firefox users had to use before microsoft released a netscape/firefox plugin version of the activex checker). http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=50344 (genuinecheck.exe at microsoft.com)
the only thing this will bypass is the installation of the verification activex (or plugin)... so you're still being subject to the 'body cavity search' -- the only difference is that you get to choose when you drop your drawers...
the **aa, studios, publishers, etc. don't necessarily want __us__ -- they just want our money, and they will use any and every possible way to get it.
unless the scanners on the trucks are scanning tags on the contents of the bin.
a tag itself on a bin is no big deal provided it's only holding a number that cannot be traced to a particular person or house by itself (without the corresponding customer database from the rubbish hauler). that'd just be an electronic version of a serial number that's stenciled on bins here (in the areas that rubbish haulers provide bins to their customers).