There are small compaies out there, like the one I work for, who are working to change this. Granted, we are still held down by trying to price our product close to the big boys, but I think we deliver a much better product. We are deploying IPTV over both ADSL2+ lines and fiber to the home, with over 200 channels of mpeg encoded and multicasted tv watching goodness. Along with telephone service and high speed internet.
Companies like mine are agile enough to roll with the punches and implement new technology faster when it is our best intrestes. Sure the Bells will eventually impleemnt this same technology, but how long will it take? By the time they do what we are doing now, we will have moved on to the next big thing. Sure you can get burned by this early adoption, and it has happened, believe me.
The biggest problem we face is getting people to let go of their "We want Bell" perceptions. I'm not talking about the slashdot crowd here. I'm talking about Joe Punchclock, we can tell them all day long that our product is better and attempt to explain why, but Megabits and IPTV and all that jazz means nothing to him. He just wants his porn, TV and phone service to work, and for some reason this means the has to go to the "big boys" for these services.
I didn't expect a quick and easy answer to this one, and I didn't get it. I only hoped someone might have figured it out.
Forcing my users through a proxy server is not going to be an acceptable answer, although the google toolbar may be. I may also think about recommending Pop Up Killer (http://sourceforge.net/projects/puk/).
The only other solution that I thought of was taking one of the pop-up blocking host files that you find out on the internet and putting that in my dns to point those domains to localhost.
I'm a pretty big Linux advocate, and have been for years. But I have only now settled on my distribution of choice (Gentoo, but that is beisde the point). Back when I was trying out Debian I really got on board with the whole GNU/Linux thing.
Then I actually thought about it. The whole aim of Free Software and the GPL is to make the work you do avaliable to others so that they might build upon that work and make something great. All I have ever known the GPL to ask for is the source to be made avaliable and please give credit. Nowhere have I ever seen *anything* about how you should "name" your project. Should every project that is based on another have to include the original project's name in it's name?
It really seems to me that "they" (who is the they that is referred to so much in that faq anyways?) saw that "Linux" was becoming very popular and progressing to an actual force instead of a niche OS. Then they noticed the name GNU wasn't anywhere to be seen, and why should it be?
"Hey! this Linus guy is gonna get all the credit!" "We should start a campaign!" "Yes a campaign would be nice!" "The name must be GNU/Linux." "Oh yes it must!" "We should issue a FAQ!" "Good idea, let's make it freakin' boring and anal too!!"
Last night I discovered Mozilla's cookie management features. I think that alone is enough reason to switch over. Not to mention the better speed, standards compliance, tabbed browsing and other stuff.
you are very correct Gorilla. My post did sound a bit like I was saying that the Internet *would* be to blame if a "sure thing" blockbuster flopped. That is definately not what I wanted to say.
I guess it could really come back to the age old piracy argument "if they stop putting out shit, then I will pay for it."
They think that spiderman *suffered* from internet piracy? Jeezy Creezy how many box office records did it break?
Until a "sure thing" like Spider Man or Attack of the Clones sees *wide spread* piracy on the net and then flops like a Michael Bay crapfest, they have nothing to say. Maybe then they can cry foul, I have no sympathy for a movie's suffering when it was the fastest to hit $100 million (!!!!) *ever*.
INAL but the only leg I can see that Blizzard has to stand on is their assertation that bnetd "stole" their code. But we all know that was all but impossible, short of them breaking into blizzard.
But on the part about bnetd making money. Shouldn't they be able to? They wrote the software simply to be "compaitable" with the Battle.net system. And anybody that has ever used Battle.net will agree, the Battle.net service is pretty crappy. They built a better mousetrap, would you be willing to pay a nominal fee to play on a battle.net-alike system that actually *works*? They saw a need and filled it, that is the American way.
I think this case will boil down to weather or not Blizzard (and all game companies) have the right to dictate how and where their games are played. Personally I feel that I am buying a product and they can take this "liscense" stuff and get bent.
I know there are alot of people downloading whole movies from the internet, but is it really that big of a problem? People have been downloading pirate software for as long as I have had internet access, and the software industry is fine. I remember the advent of mp3s and the initial downloading craze, and the music industry is still kickin'.
I guess the big quesiton is, how much of the entire consumer base is downloading and not buying. Yeah, we all know somebody who is uber-1337, and likes to brag about how he doesn't pay for anything. This person is usually very immature and just generally annoying. But take me for example. Here at work I have access to all the bandwith I can handle, a cd burner and an Internet full of illegal movies. But do I horde them, laughing the whole time because I am getting away with something? No, I don't even bother because it is not worth my time.
Also, I hear about how digial copies are so pure, and just as good as the original. Heh, I hate to break it to everyone, but a divx movie that I might download from any of the many sources on the internet, is nowhere *near* what I would consider DVD quality. Hell, it's barely watchable quality. Not to mention the fact that I will have to view said movie while sitting at my computer desk. Well you don't *have* to watch it on the computer, but they alternatives aren't much better.
I can make a crappy vcd out of the file I downloaded. But it will take god knows how long to convert the movie into vcd format, plus the fact that it will be generally pretty crappy. Oh I guess I could hook up a computer with a tv-out to my tv. An easy thing to do, but I'm just too damned lazy.
Basically, the movie industry is going through the same thing that every industry does when it becomes painfully evident that their revenue stream is in jeapordy.
Don't listen to the cynical bastards Taco. Being married is fun. I'm coming up on my first year as a married man and it has been the happiest year of my life. The only problem is that we only have one computer with internet access, so that kinda causes some strife. But not too bad.
Oh and guys, the divorce and marriage hell jokes are funny and all. But it's gonna take hearing the same one (and they are all the same) all of five times before he is sick of it. When somebody is getting married the last thing they want to hear about is how bad yours was. If it was as bad as some people let on, they never should have gotten married to them in the first place. Sorry to be so serious, I just remember how much that crap annoyed me a year ago.
You've got a point there, but for Linux to be truly successful on the desktop the distro that will take that honor will have to stop worrying about what the Linux geeks think and market their product to the masses instead of preaching to the choir.
Mr. Volz does bring up some valid points, but I think his best points are about the ease-of-use of Linux. If we want Linux to succeed on the Desktop of "normal" users, it is going to have to make up alot of ground. Such as the file association thing, hell I'm not sure how I would do it. But then again, how many "normal" windows users know how to do that?
Back to the "too big" topic, I agree. Most, if not all, distros have several installation classes. Why not have a "newbie" installation class that just installs the basics. Either KDE or Gnome (the distro company would have to decide, I'm not taking sides), with a generic look so that new users can get support with out having to describe how their desktop is set up. Also, the default installation shouldn't install apache, MySQL. The average user won't know how to use these, hell probably won't even know they are there.
There can't be two diffrent *default* configurations. If you have to disable certian unwanted features after installation, that configuration is, by definiation, not a "default".
Midway stopped making pinball machines
on
Is Pinball Dying?
·
· Score: 1
I remember reading in EGM about a year ago that Midway has decided to stop making Pinball machines. They said that left like only one company left in the US that makes 'em.
Point taken. I really was not telling people not to use Outlook, per say. I was really only trying to point out something I think is a better alternative. Thought other people would like it too. I'm glad to know you can turn that crap off, I never looked into it. I'll have to let people know that. Yeah, it's not really a hack, not much of a virus either. I thought it was more of a distributed mail bomb.
I know I shouldn't reply to AC flamebait, but I'll try not to go insane. The bloat I am referring to is the pure size and memory usage of outlook. I see Outlook as a bloated, insecure peice of crap, just my opinion. I thought others who are stuck using windows for their emailing might feel the same way, and offered an alternative. Check it out, if you don't like, fine, go back to outlook and get yourself a virus.
God, I can't believe that anybody would not allow *any* attachments! I've got a quick and easy solution for everybody that is worried about ILoveYou and it's deritivies. Don't use Outlook! I used it alot up until the other day. Yes I still do my email in Windows because my Linux box is usually not working right, or I'm reinstalling it to try a diffrent distro or something. I just downloaded Kaufman's Mail Warrior the other night, great email program for windows. It's 668K! All the functionality of Outlook with none of the bloat!
I read the allegedly copyrighted post. I also noticed that the Microsfot copyright notice was included in said post several times. Since noone is claiming that they wrote this document, and obviously giving full credit where is it allegedly due, are they not in the clear? Like I said, I don't know much about all this copyright jack, but from what I do understand, credit to the source was given. So it seems to that Microsoft really doesn't have a leg to stand on. What do ya'll think?
Slashdot Mirror
can I be as cool as you when I grow up? Please teach me your ways!!!
There are small compaies out there, like the one I work for, who are working to change this. Granted, we are still held down by trying to price our product close to the big boys, but I think we deliver a much better product. We are deploying IPTV over both ADSL2+ lines and fiber to the home, with over 200 channels of mpeg encoded and multicasted tv watching goodness. Along with telephone service and high speed internet.
Companies like mine are agile enough to roll with the punches and implement new technology faster when it is our best intrestes. Sure the Bells will eventually impleemnt this same technology, but how long will it take? By the time they do what we are doing now, we will have moved on to the next big thing. Sure you can get burned by this early adoption, and it has happened, believe me.
The biggest problem we face is getting people to let go of their "We want Bell" perceptions. I'm not talking about the slashdot crowd here. I'm talking about Joe Punchclock, we can tell them all day long that our product is better and attempt to explain why, but Megabits and IPTV and all that jazz means nothing to him. He just wants his porn, TV and phone service to work, and for some reason this means the has to go to the "big boys" for these services.
I'm very happy with my current job, sure there are some problems, not being paid enough, management, but overall I'm quite pleased.
I didn't expect a quick and easy answer to this one, and I didn't get it. I only hoped someone might have figured it out.
Forcing my users through a proxy server is not going to be an acceptable answer, although the google toolbar may be. I may also think about recommending Pop Up Killer (http://sourceforge.net/projects/puk/).
The only other solution that I thought of was taking one of the pop-up blocking host files that you find out on the internet and putting that in my dns to point those domains to localhost.
I'm a pretty big Linux advocate, and have been for years. But I have only now settled on my distribution of choice (Gentoo, but that is beisde the point). Back when I was trying out Debian I really got on board with the whole GNU/Linux thing.
Then I actually thought about it. The whole aim of Free Software and the GPL is to make the work you do avaliable to others so that they might build upon that work and make something great. All I have ever known the GPL to ask for is the source to be made avaliable and please give credit. Nowhere have I ever seen *anything* about how you should "name" your project. Should every project that is based on another have to include the original project's name in it's name?
It really seems to me that "they" (who is the they that is referred to so much in that faq anyways?) saw that "Linux" was becoming very popular and progressing to an actual force instead of a niche OS. Then they noticed the name GNU wasn't anywhere to be seen, and why should it be?
"Hey! this Linus guy is gonna get all the credit!" "We should start a campaign!" "Yes a campaign would be nice!" "The name must be GNU/Linux." "Oh yes it must!" "We should issue a FAQ!" "Good idea, let's make it freakin' boring and anal too!!"
Last night I discovered Mozilla's cookie management features. I think that alone is enough reason to switch over. Not to mention the better speed, standards compliance, tabbed browsing and other stuff.
bah...
strait used in the above post != correct
strait != a real word
you are very correct Gorilla. My post did sound a bit like I was saying that the Internet *would* be to blame if a "sure thing" blockbuster flopped. That is definately not what I wanted to say.
I guess it could really come back to the age old piracy argument "if they stop putting out shit, then I will pay for it."
They think that spiderman *suffered* from internet piracy? Jeezy Creezy how many box office records did it break?
Until a "sure thing" like Spider Man or Attack of the Clones sees *wide spread* piracy on the net and then flops like a Michael Bay crapfest, they have nothing to say. Maybe then they can cry foul, I have no sympathy for a movie's suffering when it was the fastest to hit $100 million (!!!!) *ever*.
INAL but the only leg I can see that Blizzard has to stand on is their assertation that bnetd "stole" their code. But we all know that was all but impossible, short of them breaking into blizzard.
But on the part about bnetd making money. Shouldn't they be able to? They wrote the software simply to be "compaitable" with the Battle.net system. And anybody that has ever used Battle.net will agree, the Battle.net service is pretty crappy. They built a better mousetrap, would you be willing to pay a nominal fee to play on a battle.net-alike system that actually *works*? They saw a need and filled it, that is the American way.
I think this case will boil down to weather or not Blizzard (and all game companies) have the right to dictate how and where their games are played. Personally I feel that I am buying a product and they can take this "liscense" stuff and get bent.
Mmmmm, yeah.
I know there are alot of people downloading whole movies from the internet, but is it really that big of a problem? People have been downloading pirate software for as long as I have had internet access, and the software industry is fine. I remember the advent of mp3s and the initial downloading craze, and the music industry is still kickin'.
I guess the big quesiton is, how much of the entire consumer base is downloading and not buying. Yeah, we all know somebody who is uber-1337, and likes to brag about how he doesn't pay for anything. This person is usually very immature and just generally annoying. But take me for example. Here at work I have access to all the bandwith I can handle, a cd burner and an Internet full of illegal movies. But do I horde them, laughing the whole time because I am getting away with something? No, I don't even bother because it is not worth my time.
Also, I hear about how digial copies are so pure, and just as good as the original. Heh, I hate to break it to everyone, but a divx movie that I might download from any of the many sources on the internet, is nowhere *near* what I would consider DVD quality. Hell, it's barely watchable quality. Not to mention the fact that I will have to view said movie while sitting at my computer desk. Well you don't *have* to watch it on the computer, but they alternatives aren't much better.
I can make a crappy vcd out of the file I downloaded. But it will take god knows how long to convert the movie into vcd format, plus the fact that it will be generally pretty crappy. Oh I guess I could hook up a computer with a tv-out to my tv. An easy thing to do, but I'm just too damned lazy.
Basically, the movie industry is going through the same thing that every industry does when it becomes painfully evident that their revenue stream is in jeapordy.
Don't listen to the cynical bastards Taco. Being married is fun. I'm coming up on my first year as a married man and it has been the happiest year of my life. The only problem is that we only have one computer with internet access, so that kinda causes some strife. But not too bad.
Oh and guys, the divorce and marriage hell jokes are funny and all. But it's gonna take hearing the same one (and they are all the same) all of five times before he is sick of it. When somebody is getting married the last thing they want to hear about is how bad yours was. If it was as bad as some people let on, they never should have gotten married to them in the first place. Sorry to be so serious, I just remember how much that crap annoyed me a year ago.
You've got a point there, but for Linux to be truly successful on the desktop the distro that will take that honor will have to stop worrying about what the Linux geeks think and market their product to the masses instead of preaching to the choir.
Mr. Volz does bring up some valid points, but I think his best points are about the ease-of-use of Linux. If we want Linux to succeed on the Desktop of "normal" users, it is going to have to make up alot of ground. Such as the file association thing, hell I'm not sure how I would do it. But then again, how many "normal" windows users know how to do that? Back to the "too big" topic, I agree. Most, if not all, distros have several installation classes. Why not have a "newbie" installation class that just installs the basics. Either KDE or Gnome (the distro company would have to decide, I'm not taking sides), with a generic look so that new users can get support with out having to describe how their desktop is set up. Also, the default installation shouldn't install apache, MySQL. The average user won't know how to use these, hell probably won't even know they are there.
damn, guess I just read your original post wrong. I see where you are coming from. Sorry.=)
There can't be two diffrent *default* configurations. If you have to disable certian unwanted features after installation, that configuration is, by definiation, not a "default".
I remember reading in EGM about a year ago that Midway has decided to stop making Pinball machines. They said that left like only one company left in the US that makes 'em.
Point taken. I really was not telling people not to use Outlook, per say. I was really only trying to point out something I think is a better alternative. Thought other people would like it too. I'm glad to know you can turn that crap off, I never looked into it. I'll have to let people know that. Yeah, it's not really a hack, not much of a virus either. I thought it was more of a distributed mail bomb.
I know I shouldn't reply to AC flamebait, but I'll try not to go insane. The bloat I am referring to is the pure size and memory usage of outlook. I see Outlook as a bloated, insecure peice of crap, just my opinion. I thought others who are stuck using windows for their emailing might feel the same way, and offered an alternative. Check it out, if you don't like, fine, go back to outlook and get yourself a virus.
God, I can't believe that anybody would not allow *any* attachments! I've got a quick and easy solution for everybody that is worried about ILoveYou and it's deritivies. Don't use Outlook! I used it alot up until the other day. Yes I still do my email in Windows because my Linux box is usually not working right, or I'm reinstalling it to try a diffrent distro or something. I just downloaded Kaufman's Mail Warrior the other night, great email program for windows. It's 668K! All the functionality of Outlook with none of the bloat!
I read the allegedly copyrighted post. I also noticed that the Microsfot copyright notice was included in said post several times. Since noone is claiming that they wrote this document, and obviously giving full credit where is it allegedly due, are they not in the clear? Like I said, I don't know much about all this copyright jack, but from what I do understand, credit to the source was given. So it seems to that Microsoft really doesn't have a leg to stand on. What do ya'll think?