Yes this system is fine until the provider decides or is pressured to change their storage policy, then all your recorded programs get deleted with you unable to back them up because of DRM. Even if the network was the provider this could happen if someone threatened action like the Scientologists over South Park.
It actually spearheads technical features more than most other groups - how many DVDs beside porn use the multi angle view function! (So I have been told anyway!)
I am all for stamping out child porn, it is sick and damaging. But like many others I do wonder if the action taken here and elsewhere is using this as a pretext for a wider intrusion on people's rights.
Even if the Government does not currently read everyone's mail the fact that ISPs store the email for a long time (forever?) means that eventually once all ISPs comply they will.
So don't send anything that you wouldn't be happy for the Government to read unless you use a web based account from a cybercafe terminal (where you can't be tied to an IP), and wear a disguise so you can't be ID'd from CCTV. Oh the paranoia.
We recieved a very quiet batch - the speakers were not connected! That aside I have very few issues with Dell, they are normally fairly reliable, have ok performance and the PCs look ok.
I guess looking back at this post Dell PCs are pretty average, nothing to write home about but are acceptable.
Never had any serious warranty issues though - we just report the fault and get a new part/PC the next day. This is probably the only reason that we keep with them, to us "up time" is the most important factor and many other companies will agree on this point.
The UK get a lot of Japanese "Grey Imports" too, Skylines and Supras being popular. Dealerships refuse to service them though but most of these cars get so modded they have few original parts beside the engine block anyway!
The phone on the spare desk in our office is one digit different from the local PC World store, as we answer the phone "Information Systems Department" it can confuse callers who will then not believe they have called the wrong number. So we often advise them of "offers" at the store - 10% trade in on any electrical item for a PC, "yes of course we will accept blenders or toasters". Hours of free fun!
"Mutually Assured Destruction works on that basis. I don't have to win, I just don't have to lose."
MAD is fine until you have a nuclear armed regime who ARE insane enough to do it. Where the people unquestionably follow a psychopath (North Korea). Or where they believe that they will all have an amazing afterlife so don't care about this one - Iran? (Although I am not totally convinced on that one, I think the leadership is extreme but certainly not all the people. But it is the leadership who will "push the button").
There is quite a tradition of European joint ventures:
Sepcat Jaguar Panavia Tornado Euro Fighter Airbus Concorde
BUT, there is always the problem of design by committee, when each player wants a slightly different role from the equipment, eg. Air superiority VS ground attack roles. (Obviously this only applies to the military aircraft not Airbus and Concorde!)
Also remember vital military equipment is nearly always built by the lowest bidder (who subsequently always has cost over-runs)!
Microsoft has to wait for hardware to advance enough to run Vista - their roll out schedule relies on AMD/Intel being able to keep up with Moore's Law. Not to mention 1gb graphics cards for the full desktop effects.
The key to this is the DVD sent in the mail (a standard retail DVD?). You get the film delivered just that same as buying from a store or online BUT you ALSO get a copy that you can watch after 40 minutes of downloading. This is video on demand and yes that downloaded content will be DRM'd up to the gills and why not? You are still getting a "hard" copy that you can play anywhere (region coding aside), it is just the (near) instant play version that has restrictions. What is the big deal? Unless of course you want movies without having to pay for them.
BTW the article states "Security measures will make it impossible to e-mail the film to somebody else". Most mail severs would have a cow if you tried to email that size of attachment anyway. I would use Bit Torrent for sharing large files - not that I do of course!
--
This message has been brought to you by the word "Whilst" (for all you "whilst" haters - Yes, you know who you are!).
I have no doubt that advances will be huge but this should be tempered by the "accuracy" of past predictions.
I am still waiting for my flying car and personal jetpack promised in the fifties. Cheap re-usable spacecraft. Flights from New York to Tokyo in under 3 hours. Cure for cancer anyone?
I am keeping my fingers crossed of course but not holding my breath.
Honda NSX - as fast as a Ferrari, almost as good looking as a Ferrari, much more reliable than a Ferrari (and doesn't have to sit idling for 20 minutes before you drive it to be sure not to wreck the engine!) and costs less than a Ferrari. The defence rests.
MS is a reactive company (I'm sorry but extra graphical bells and whistles in Vista doesn't count) it adds features of it's competitors in order to compete and usually wins due to it's existing market share.
IE is the perfect example - nothing changed on it since it "won" the browser wars, "no need for improvement because it is perfect" was the MS line. But then Firefox came along (yes I know there is also Opera and others BUT Firefox got the market share), suddenly a new version of IE is on the horizon (but only for limited operating systems to encourage us to upgrade to Vista).
If MS controls a market sector it has no reason to innovate "we're #1 so why try harder?" syndrome. This is not an anti-MS rant because this is a wider trait with most monopolising companies.
I hope that some day MS learns from the open source community, not by giving their software away but by not being afraid to open up a little bit. But whilst they control the market they do not have to be proactive do they?
Only if Linux and other open source products make major inroads into MS sales (20%+?) will we see any change of direction from MS and then it may be more of a PR stunt than actual change (plus of course adding a few features that OSS already has that most users never get a chance to use).
Frogs really seem to get a raw deal, between this and being slowly boiled to prove a point, who'd be Kermit?!
Seriously though, I believe that you are right that there has to be a moderating factor on capitalism. Companies are treated as individuals and as such are subject to the same laws as the rest of us, in addition to this there are other corporate/consumer laws to regulate various industries.
On the whole, the system works but it can always be tweaked. It is all a matter of balance, at the moment it is arguably in favour of business over the consumer. But swing too far the other way and businesses suffer affecting profits (yes companies DO have a right to make profit!) thus leading to broader economic problems.
Lobyists do seem to have more voice than the voters and that has probably been a major factor for the current position.
Regulatory bodies only work if the red tape is minimal and they have a clear impartial mandate (hence they seldom work).
Whilst much of industry looks to hire youthful IT staff rather than older workers, it has the ironic effect of putting people off a career in IT. As not many people want to work in an industry where finding a job when you are past forty is difficult.
Encouraging older workers will also encourage new young workers. BTW. I fall somewhere between these two groups.
The positioning (and pricing?) of the Reveolution has always meant that you will buy it plus one of either Sony or Microsoft's consoles. At least it has for me.
Sports/driving/FPS from Sony or MS and inovative, quirky and fun games from Nintendo.
I will skip the obvious joke about the title of this post.
It is always a balancing act when selling to overseas markets. Cost/inconvenience incured due to Local regulations VS Profit. It is very simple - if Apple (or any other company) find that they have to bend over backwards for a country and this makes it unprofitable then they will pull out. Unless this action would affect other product ranges or have a knock on effect on other international markets.
In the end it comes down to Profit just as it always has.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes this system is fine until the provider decides or is pressured to change their storage policy, then all your recorded programs get deleted with you unable to back them up because of DRM. Even if the network was the provider this could happen if someone threatened action like the Scientologists over South Park.
It actually spearheads technical features more than most other groups - how many DVDs beside porn use the multi angle view function! (So I have been told anyway!)
I am all for stamping out child porn, it is sick and damaging. But like many others I do wonder if the action taken here and elsewhere is using this as a pretext for a wider intrusion on people's rights.
Even if the Government does not currently read everyone's mail the fact that ISPs store the email for a long time (forever?) means that eventually once all ISPs comply they will.
So don't send anything that you wouldn't be happy for the Government to read unless you use a web based account from a cybercafe terminal (where you can't be tied to an IP), and wear a disguise so you can't be ID'd from CCTV. Oh the paranoia.
"8. Can fast forward over 25 minutes of movie trailers."
Just wait for the next gen disks with locked trailers!
We recieved a very quiet batch - the speakers were not connected! That aside I have very few issues with Dell, they are normally fairly reliable, have ok performance and the PCs look ok.
I guess looking back at this post Dell PCs are pretty average, nothing to write home about but are acceptable.
Never had any serious warranty issues though - we just report the fault and get a new part/PC the next day. This is probably the only reason that we keep with them, to us "up time" is the most important factor and many other companies will agree on this point.
BUT A+ is going a bit far.
The UK get a lot of Japanese "Grey Imports" too, Skylines and Supras being popular. Dealerships refuse to service them though but most of these cars get so modded they have few original parts beside the engine block anyway!
The phone on the spare desk in our office is one digit different from the local PC World store, as we answer the phone "Information Systems Department" it can confuse callers who will then not believe they have called the wrong number. So we often advise them of "offers" at the store - 10% trade in on any electrical item for a PC, "yes of course we will accept blenders or toasters". Hours of free fun!
The results are not that shocking - sorry I'll go now.
"Mutually Assured Destruction works on that basis. I don't have to win, I just don't have to lose."
MAD is fine until you have a nuclear armed regime who ARE insane enough to do it. Where the people unquestionably follow a psychopath (North Korea). Or where they believe that they will all have an amazing afterlife so don't care about this one - Iran? (Although I am not totally convinced on that one, I think the leadership is extreme but certainly not all the people. But it is the leadership who will "push the button").
There is quite a tradition of European joint ventures:
Sepcat Jaguar
Panavia Tornado
Euro Fighter
Airbus
Concorde
BUT, there is always the problem of design by committee, when each player wants a slightly different role from the equipment, eg. Air superiority VS ground attack roles. (Obviously this only applies to the military aircraft not Airbus and Concorde!)
Also remember vital military equipment is nearly always built by the lowest bidder (who subsequently always has cost over-runs)!
Sounds similar to the new British Type 45 Destroyer entering service in 2009 to support the new carriers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_45_destroyer
Microsoft has to wait for hardware to advance enough to run Vista - their roll out schedule relies on AMD/Intel being able to keep up with Moore's Law. Not to mention 1gb graphics cards for the full desktop effects.
Every day is a bash Microsoft day at Slashdot! But then sadly it is as easy clubing baby seals.
The key to this is the DVD sent in the mail (a standard retail DVD?). You get the film delivered just that same as buying from a store or online BUT you ALSO get a copy that you can watch after 40 minutes of downloading. This is video on demand and yes that downloaded content will be DRM'd up to the gills and why not? You are still getting a "hard" copy that you can play anywhere (region coding aside), it is just the (near) instant play version that has restrictions. What is the big deal? Unless of course you want movies without having to pay for them.
BTW the article states "Security measures will make it impossible to e-mail the film to somebody else". Most mail severs would have a cow if you tried to email that size of attachment anyway. I would use Bit Torrent for sharing large files - not that I do of course!
--
This message has been brought to you by the word "Whilst" (for all you "whilst" haters - Yes, you know who you are!).
I have no doubt that advances will be huge but this should be tempered by the "accuracy" of past predictions.
I am still waiting for my flying car and personal jetpack promised in the fifties. Cheap re-usable spacecraft. Flights from New York to Tokyo in under 3 hours. Cure for cancer anyone?
I am keeping my fingers crossed of course but not holding my breath.
Honda NSX - as fast as a Ferrari, almost as good looking as a Ferrari, much more reliable than a Ferrari (and doesn't have to sit idling for 20 minutes before you drive it to be sure not to wreck the engine!) and costs less than a Ferrari. The defence rests.
MS is a reactive company (I'm sorry but extra graphical bells and whistles in Vista doesn't count) it adds features of it's competitors in order to compete and usually wins due to it's existing market share.
IE is the perfect example - nothing changed on it since it "won" the browser wars, "no need for improvement because it is perfect" was the MS line. But then Firefox came along (yes I know there is also Opera and others BUT Firefox got the market share), suddenly a new version of IE is on the horizon (but only for limited operating systems to encourage us to upgrade to Vista).
If MS controls a market sector it has no reason to innovate "we're #1 so why try harder?" syndrome. This is not an anti-MS rant because this is a wider trait with most monopolising companies.
I hope that some day MS learns from the open source community, not by giving their software away but by not being afraid to open up a little bit. But whilst they control the market they do not have to be proactive do they?
Only if Linux and other open source products make major inroads into MS sales (20%+?) will we see any change of direction from MS and then it may be more of a PR stunt than actual change (plus of course adding a few features that OSS already has that most users never get a chance to use).
Dammit! Knew I was doing something wrong! :-)
Frogs really seem to get a raw deal, between this and being slowly boiled to prove a point, who'd be Kermit?!
Seriously though, I believe that you are right that there has to be a moderating factor on capitalism. Companies are treated as individuals and as such are subject to the same laws as the rest of us, in addition to this there are other corporate/consumer laws to regulate various industries.
On the whole, the system works but it can always be tweaked. It is all a matter of balance, at the moment it is arguably in favour of business over the consumer. But swing too far the other way and businesses suffer affecting profits (yes companies DO have a right to make profit!) thus leading to broader economic problems.
Lobyists do seem to have more voice than the voters and that has probably been a major factor for the current position.
Regulatory bodies only work if the red tape is minimal and they have a clear impartial mandate (hence they seldom work).
Whilst much of industry looks to hire youthful IT staff rather than older workers, it has the ironic effect of putting people off a career in IT. As not many people want to work in an industry where finding a job when you are past forty is difficult.
Encouraging older workers will also encourage new young workers. BTW. I fall somewhere between these two groups.
I thought the TV show was called Firefly. :-)
At least if this show comes out then Firefly might get a second season off the back of it (and probably be better too).
Microsoft's lawyers, "All your code are belong to us"
(Sorry, someone had to say it)
The positioning (and pricing?) of the Reveolution has always meant that you will buy it plus one of either Sony or Microsoft's consoles. At least it has for me.
Sports/driving/FPS from Sony or MS and inovative, quirky and fun games from Nintendo.
I will skip the obvious joke about the title of this post.
It is always a balancing act when selling to overseas markets. Cost/inconvenience incured due to Local regulations VS Profit. It is very simple - if Apple (or any other company) find that they have to bend over backwards for a country and this makes it unprofitable then they will pull out. Unless this action would affect other product ranges or have a knock on effect on other international markets.
In the end it comes down to Profit just as it always has.
Or sell them via the UK ebay site www.ebay.co.uk. PayPal handles the Pound to Dollar exchange and shipping would not be too high either.