I don't think New Zealand will be that much better than Australia, for long.
I, too, am an Australian citizen, and I can see myself leaving the fascist country that Australia is becoming within the next 5 years. Australia used to be a wonderful country until John Howard. Anyway, Canada and Sweden are looking pretty good, at the moment.
Did you know that Australians are eligible for refugee status in countries that comply with the UN convention relating to the status of refugees since the sedition laws were passed? If voicing your political opinions could potentially see you prosecuted under the sedition laws, then you can seek refugee status.
Until 1967, it was limited to European WWII refugees, but that constraint has been lifted.
I was in Italy recently, and was quite surprised to find out that I had to supply identification before any internet cafe would let me use their computers - apparently a government requirement.
I was surprised because I knew this sort of thing was required in China so that the government could track what people were looking at, but I didn't really expect it in Italy. (then again, I don't know too much about Italy)
I'm not a sys-admin, but from what I've heard, they're simply just over-worked. I suppose time management could help with that, but isn't that a bad way of fixing the problem, as opposed to just hiring the required number of admins?
Actually, Google is currently an exception to this. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt combined own enough of the company to have full control over it without being challenged.
I don't know the exact details, because there's something about two different classes of stocks, or something. The above is the effect of the way the shares are currently held, though. If you want more info, I'm sure you can find it with a bit of help from Google.:)
Microsoft are starting to blatantly rip-off their customers. Not that they weren't already, but now it is going to be obvious even to the computer-illiterate.
Ubuntu Linux is increasingly becoming a quite acceptable replacement to Windows, for the majority of home users who just want web browsing, letter writing, and email. Currently, a lot of these users probably just have friends/relatives who copy Windows for them.
Presumably, Microsoft will now be putting less effort into preventing security flaws and more effort into catching all of the shit that flies through security holes in their software. At least, they now have a $50/user per annum incentive to. This means those users who previously freeloaded on Windows will either have to pay up, or find an alternative. Owning Windows without Microsoft's anti-virus software will probably become a recipe for disaster. After all, if Microsoft didn't think it would cause problems for people, they wouldn't be selling this "fix what comes through" software, right?
Most casual users are not going to want to pay hundreds of dollars every three years for the latest Windows, PLUS $50 per year for their anti-virus software. Ubuntu is picking up pace, and it won't be long until the mainstream media picks up on it. If Google were to come along and give Ubuntu a bit of a push and recommendation around Vista release time, this conversion process would become easy.
I see this whole thing as Microsoft fighting casual piracy by forcing people to subscribe, as well as Microsoft forcing more money out of all their users. If it were possible for copyright laws to suddenly become perfectly enforced, I think we would see a much larger opposition to things like the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, and a lot more computers running operating systems like Ubuntu.
Well, it's not really all that different to the upgrades that chair makers force you to buy after they send their vandalism team around to break your chair.
I agree that this is a gimmick and certainly isn't the "next big thing", but I disagree that it is only because "people like what they're used to." I think if something were designed that really was better, inertia (people liking what they're used to) wouldn't stop it from eventually catching on.
First of all, mice with scroll-wheels already are 3-dimensional input devices, so this isn't much of an advancement. The only improvement here is that the third (scroll-wheel) dimension becomes as mobile as the other two dimensions. This product will fail because that advantage is out-weighed by the fact that:
a. The third-dimension goes back to 0 unless you keep your hand in the air. (tiring!)
b. It will be significantly less precise because people cannot keep their arms still in the air while holding it, and because it won't be able to figure out its position as accurately as a desk mouse would be able to.
c. People do not want to wave their arms around in the air, holding a device. That's stupid. (disclaimer: Gloves *might* work, one day...)
I agree that this is a gimmick and certainly isn't the "next big thing", but I disagree that it is only because "people like what they're used to." I think if something were designed that really was better, inertia (people liking what they're used to) wouldn't stop it from eventually catching on.
First of all, mice with scroll-wheels already are 3-dimensional input devices, so this isn't much of an advancement. The only improvement here is that the third (scroll-wheel) dimension becomes as mobile as the other two dimensions. This product will fail because that advantage is out-weighed by the fact that:
a. The third-dimension goes back to 0 unless you keep your hand in the air. (tiring!)
b. It will be significantly less precise because people cannot keep their arms still in the air while holding it, and because it won't be able to figure out its position as accurately as a desk mouse would be able to.
c. People do not want to wave their arms around in the air, holding a device. That's stupid. (disclaimer: Gloves *might* work, one day...)
Will AOL/Yahoo give me a cent for every email that I get from one of their users, if I "promise that the email will get through"?
All this is going to do is ensure that personal emails receive less priority than commercial emails. That's the opposite of what most people want. Anyone with an AOL or Yahoo address should probably get a GMail one, instead, now.
1 in 62 is a lot higher than I'd have expected, but then again, I bet the unscrupulous sites that distribute spyware get a LOT less than 2% of all hits. I imagine the only unscrupulous sites that do get a large percentage of the internets hits would be porn sites.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think New Zealand will be that much better than Australia, for long.
I, too, am an Australian citizen, and I can see myself leaving the fascist country that Australia is becoming within the next 5 years. Australia used to be a wonderful country until John Howard. Anyway, Canada and Sweden are looking pretty good, at the moment.
Did you know that Australians are eligible for refugee status in countries that comply with the UN convention relating to the status of refugees since the sedition laws were passed? If voicing your political opinions could potentially see you prosecuted under the sedition laws, then you can seek refugee status.
Until 1967, it was limited to European WWII refugees, but that constraint has been lifted.
I was in Italy recently, and was quite surprised to find out that I had to supply identification before any internet cafe would let me use their computers - apparently a government requirement. I was surprised because I knew this sort of thing was required in China so that the government could track what people were looking at, but I didn't really expect it in Italy. (then again, I don't know too much about Italy)
I'm not a sys-admin, but from what I've heard, they're simply just over-worked. I suppose time management could help with that, but isn't that a bad way of fixing the problem, as opposed to just hiring the required number of admins?
Do you think interviewers will resort to the same technique (maze) to rat out those CS grads that don't know the difference?
If Steam were a service that just let me download the game from Valve, minus the DRM, I'd have bought HL2 without thinking twice.
Instead, I did as you did, and have yet to have even tried HL2. Don't they get it?! They are LOSING MONEY!
Actually, Google is currently an exception to this. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt combined own enough of the company to have full control over it without being challenged.
:)
I don't know the exact details, because there's something about two different classes of stocks, or something. The above is the effect of the way the shares are currently held, though. If you want more info, I'm sure you can find it with a bit of help from Google.
Microsoft are starting to blatantly rip-off their customers. Not that they weren't already, but now it is going to be obvious even to the computer-illiterate.
Ubuntu Linux is increasingly becoming a quite acceptable replacement to Windows, for the majority of home users who just want web browsing, letter writing, and email. Currently, a lot of these users probably just have friends/relatives who copy Windows for them.
Presumably, Microsoft will now be putting less effort into preventing security flaws and more effort into catching all of the shit that flies through security holes in their software. At least, they now have a $50/user per annum incentive to. This means those users who previously freeloaded on Windows will either have to pay up, or find an alternative. Owning Windows without Microsoft's anti-virus software will probably become a recipe for disaster. After all, if Microsoft didn't think it would cause problems for people, they wouldn't be selling this "fix what comes through" software, right?
Most casual users are not going to want to pay hundreds of dollars every three years for the latest Windows, PLUS $50 per year for their anti-virus software. Ubuntu is picking up pace, and it won't be long until the mainstream media picks up on it. If Google were to come along and give Ubuntu a bit of a push and recommendation around Vista release time, this conversion process would become easy.
I see this whole thing as Microsoft fighting casual piracy by forcing people to subscribe, as well as Microsoft forcing more money out of all their users. If it were possible for copyright laws to suddenly become perfectly enforced, I think we would see a much larger opposition to things like the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, and a lot more computers running operating systems like Ubuntu.
Well, it's not really all that different to the upgrades that chair makers force you to buy after they send their vandalism team around to break your chair.
Oh wait...
Do you feel that your right to do that really needs to be protected? I don't foresee anyone trying to stop you from doing that.
Damnit! Sorry about the formatting.
I agree that this is a gimmick and certainly isn't the "next big thing", but I disagree that it is only because "people like what they're used to." I think if something were designed that really was better, inertia (people liking what they're used to) wouldn't stop it from eventually catching on.
First of all, mice with scroll-wheels already are 3-dimensional input devices, so this isn't much of an advancement. The only improvement here is that the third (scroll-wheel) dimension becomes as mobile as the other two dimensions. This product will fail because that advantage is out-weighed by the fact that:
a. The third-dimension goes back to 0 unless you keep your hand in the air. (tiring!)
b. It will be significantly less precise because people cannot keep their arms still in the air while holding it, and because it won't be able to figure out its position as accurately as a desk mouse would be able to.
c. People do not want to wave their arms around in the air, holding a device. That's stupid. (disclaimer: Gloves *might* work, one day...)
I agree that this is a gimmick and certainly isn't the "next big thing", but I disagree that it is only because "people like what they're used to." I think if something were designed that really was better, inertia (people liking what they're used to) wouldn't stop it from eventually catching on. First of all, mice with scroll-wheels already are 3-dimensional input devices, so this isn't much of an advancement. The only improvement here is that the third (scroll-wheel) dimension becomes as mobile as the other two dimensions. This product will fail because that advantage is out-weighed by the fact that: a. The third-dimension goes back to 0 unless you keep your hand in the air. (tiring!) b. It will be significantly less precise because people cannot keep their arms still in the air while holding it, and because it won't be able to figure out its position as accurately as a desk mouse would be able to. c. People do not want to wave their arms around in the air, holding a device. That's stupid. (disclaimer: Gloves *might* work, one day...)
Will AOL/Yahoo give me a cent for every email that I get from one of their users, if I "promise that the email will get through"?
All this is going to do is ensure that personal emails receive less priority than commercial emails. That's the opposite of what most people want. Anyone with an AOL or Yahoo address should probably get a GMail one, instead, now.
Maybe he will be marked for forced disappearance.
1 in 62 is a lot higher than I'd have expected, but then again, I bet the unscrupulous sites that distribute spyware get a LOT less than 2% of all hits. I imagine the only unscrupulous sites that do get a large percentage of the internets hits would be porn sites.