No, he should have great ideas about marketing because he can't program. That has always been his strong point. Let the engineers figure out what to actually do with it. The question is how do you sell it, and to whom?
Cox is the only provider that is willing to admit that they have a 3 strike rule, that I know of. Other providers may have secret 3 strike lists, but they aren't admitting it for the most part. Comcast has promised to work with the RIAA/MPAA in shutting down "habitual offenders", but they are the only ones I know of with a formal agreement.
According to Wired, Verizon does not have a 3 strike rule.
Whether or not they can be reproduced at negligible cost was never the issue. My point still stands. And your "half the petrol" doesn't hold up either. Newer processors may use less electricity, but it isn't half. (I know you were actually referring to hardware requirements being less, but in this case, petrol and electricity, are the consumable resources being used by the products.)
Did you contact their customer service and explain this to them? A friend of mine had a similar situation (he travels for work a lot and would log in and play games in different locations every week) and after talking to customer service, they made a note of the fact he travels frequently and hasn't had any issues (or at least any that he has talked about with me) since.
I work at a large University and we have a ton of software requirements for submitting government grants and such. These must be submitted using MS Office (government requirement) or you get no grant money. Also, we have campus wide agreements with Microsoft so we can use any MS OS or version of Office with no additional cost to us, so we do. We also have a long list of vendors who give us educational discounts, making most commercial software very affordable. So based on compatibility, requirements from third parties, and cost it is really a no brainer to use the commercial packages available to us. If any/all of this changes I will have to reconsider the software we use, but for now it is easy and affordable the way things are. (Plus I am also the go-to guy for software issues. I don't want 75 people calling me everyday and me having to explain how to do something they have done a million times before in the old software, but are unsure how to do it in the new software. My time is better spent on other issues.)
It's not that bad. OP wanted to buy a product that came out 5+ years ago for which newer replacements exist. I replied in kind. What is so different? I even made it a car analogy just for Slashdot.
All I said was that MS is a software company, and they need products to sell. I never said one positive thing about MS or Vista. But feel free to tell me what I really mean as you seem to know better than I do.
"Where can I go into a shop and buy a PC with the previous incarnation of Windows?"
Where can I go to a car dealership and buy a brand new 2004 model car? Where can I go buy a new 8-track tape player?
"And if Vista is such a success why is MS moving to Windows 7 already?"
Let me give you a hint:software companies sell software. If you stop making new software you have nothing to sell.
When you explain that the alternative may be a $250,000 fine, the $50,000 doesn't seem as bad anymore. The one positive thing I can say about the RIAA trials is now my supervisors take licensing and such a little more seriously.
Principles are great and all, but you can't eat them or pay bills with them. If you starve to death, what good are principles then?
Dealing with morons that have a higher position than you is part of life. You have to pick your battles carefully or you will be fighrting for nothing all the time.
If I quit every job I had every time someone higher up decided something stupid, I would be permanently unemployed.
It's called "work" for a reason. If it was fun, it would be called "fun", and financial compensation would not be required...
I do this stuff for a living, but still do not see the need (at my job at least) for this capability. It sounds like it could create more problems than it solves. How often do you need to flash the BIOS? For as rare as it happens (unless you have a special case scenario, or lots of servers in very remote hard to reach places) I would say that it warrants a visit to the physical site. Otherwise you are inviting disaster making it doable remotely. Remote access to servers, big yes. Remote flashing of BIOS, big no.
Hey, thanks for answering my question with a genuine useful answer!
I guess it has been a few years since I flashed a BIOS. That said, what a dumb feature. I think physical access should be REQUIRED to flash a BIOS.
Yes, I know how to use Google. Click on the "helpful" link you posted and see if any of the links on the page answer my question. Hint: most of them ask the same question I did, and either A)got no answer, or B)the answer was to make a boot floppy - which I already knew about. So the question remains. I don't want to have to dig through pages of worthless Google links that all ask the same question I do with no answer. So I asked Slashdot, figuring some geek here would know the answer off the top of their head. See how this thing works now?
Google is not ALWAYS the answer, just most of the time...
I have not seen a BIOS flashing program that runs from within Windows. Every one I have used required some sort of boot disk to flash the BIOS. Are there now versions that can run under Windows? If so that is a big problem - it allows remote execution. You used to need physical access to flash a BIOS.
You don't need to remove the actual BIOS chip itself. Using a jumper to go back to the default password, or removing the CMOS battery (not soldered to the board and completely removable) will do the trick. Unless you were commenting on the systems with a backup BIOS, in which case you wouldn't need to remove the chip itself either. You would simply re-flash the bad BIOS with the backup good one. So not sure where removing the BIOS chip comes into play...
Slashdot Mirror
You forgot to add that they will also make your product a tasty melamine flavor too!
No, he should have great ideas about marketing because he can't program. That has always been his strong point. Let the engineers figure out what to actually do with it. The question is how do you sell it, and to whom?
Cox is the only provider that is willing to admit that they have a 3 strike rule, that I know of. Other providers may have secret 3 strike lists, but they aren't admitting it for the most part. Comcast has promised to work with the RIAA/MPAA in shutting down "habitual offenders", but they are the only ones I know of with a formal agreement.
According to Wired, Verizon does not have a 3 strike rule.
Whether or not they can be reproduced at negligible cost was never the issue. My point still stands. And your "half the petrol" doesn't hold up either. Newer processors may use less electricity, but it isn't half. (I know you were actually referring to hardware requirements being less, but in this case, petrol and electricity, are the consumable resources being used by the products.)
Well then, you have supplied your own answer to your previously posted question. So what was the point of asking it if you already knew the answer?
Certified or not it is still a used car. We were talking about new products that were made years ago.
Did you contact their customer service and explain this to them? A friend of mine had a similar situation (he travels for work a lot and would log in and play games in different locations every week) and after talking to customer service, they made a note of the fact he travels frequently and hasn't had any issues (or at least any that he has talked about with me) since.
How do you know they are not?
I work at a large University and we have a ton of software requirements for submitting government grants and such. These must be submitted using MS Office (government requirement) or you get no grant money. Also, we have campus wide agreements with Microsoft so we can use any MS OS or version of Office with no additional cost to us, so we do. We also have a long list of vendors who give us educational discounts, making most commercial software very affordable. So based on compatibility, requirements from third parties, and cost it is really a no brainer to use the commercial packages available to us. If any/all of this changes I will have to reconsider the software we use, but for now it is easy and affordable the way things are. (Plus I am also the go-to guy for software issues. I don't want 75 people calling me everyday and me having to explain how to do something they have done a million times before in the old software, but are unsure how to do it in the new software. My time is better spent on other issues.)
It's not that bad. OP wanted to buy a product that came out 5+ years ago for which newer replacements exist. I replied in kind. What is so different? I even made it a car analogy just for Slashdot.
All I said was that MS is a software company, and they need products to sell. I never said one positive thing about MS or Vista. But feel free to tell me what I really mean as you seem to know better than I do.
"Where can I go into a shop and buy a PC with the previous incarnation of Windows?"
Where can I go to a car dealership and buy a brand new 2004 model car? Where can I go buy a new 8-track tape player?
"And if Vista is such a success why is MS moving to Windows 7 already?"
Let me give you a hint:software companies sell software. If you stop making new software you have nothing to sell.
When you explain that the alternative may be a $250,000 fine, the $50,000 doesn't seem as bad anymore. The one positive thing I can say about the RIAA trials is now my supervisors take licensing and such a little more seriously.
Principles are great and all, but you can't eat them or pay bills with them. If you starve to death, what good are principles then?
Dealing with morons that have a higher position than you is part of life. You have to pick your battles carefully or you will be fighrting for nothing all the time.
Yikes! Much, MUCH worse than zombies!
I would love to be immortal. But only temporarily....
If I quit every job I had every time someone higher up decided something stupid, I would be permanently unemployed.
It's called "work" for a reason. If it was fun, it would be called "fun", and financial compensation would not be required...
I do this stuff for a living, but still do not see the need (at my job at least) for this capability. It sounds like it could create more problems than it solves. How often do you need to flash the BIOS? For as rare as it happens (unless you have a special case scenario, or lots of servers in very remote hard to reach places) I would say that it warrants a visit to the physical site. Otherwise you are inviting disaster making it doable remotely. Remote access to servers, big yes. Remote flashing of BIOS, big no.
Hey, thanks for answering my question with a genuine useful answer!
I guess it has been a few years since I flashed a BIOS. That said, what a dumb feature. I think physical access should be REQUIRED to flash a BIOS.
Yes, I know how to use Google. Click on the "helpful" link you posted and see if any of the links on the page answer my question. Hint: most of them ask the same question I did, and either A)got no answer, or B)the answer was to make a boot floppy - which I already knew about. So the question remains. I don't want to have to dig through pages of worthless Google links that all ask the same question I do with no answer. So I asked Slashdot, figuring some geek here would know the answer off the top of their head. See how this thing works now?
Google is not ALWAYS the answer, just most of the time...
I thought botnet zombies were looking for GIGGGAFLOPPPPSSSSS, not brains...
I have not seen a BIOS flashing program that runs from within Windows. Every one I have used required some sort of boot disk to flash the BIOS. Are there now versions that can run under Windows? If so that is a big problem - it allows remote execution. You used to need physical access to flash a BIOS.
You don't need to remove the actual BIOS chip itself. Using a jumper to go back to the default password, or removing the CMOS battery (not soldered to the board and completely removable) will do the trick. Unless you were commenting on the systems with a backup BIOS, in which case you wouldn't need to remove the chip itself either. You would simply re-flash the bad BIOS with the backup good one. So not sure where removing the BIOS chip comes into play...
Me too, but I could usually beat the computer in Archon.
And some sports teams are good, and some are bad, and some are average. What was the point again?