Netscape 4 is awful, and marks the point at which I refused to develop for it any more. Minor-release versions of Netscape introduced a slew of compatibility issues, requiring not only compatibility between different browsers (IE4.x, NN 4.x), but also within minor versions of Netscape (4.xx, 4.yy).
I still refuse to support Netscape -- it's a dead browser, built upon a far more promising OSS engine (Mozilla) and bundled with a bunch of applications I don't need / want. I like Opera 7.xx a lot, simply because it offers high degrees of compatibility with IE and is available free. However, I don't think it'll ever truly catch on because it's adware, and requires users to shell out $40 to reclaim the space wasted by the ad.
Netscape is dead. Bust out the shovel, bury it and move on.
I can just see it now: pulling up to the fuel station, asking the station attendant to fill 'er up, and watching as he pulls down his pants, defecates in my tank, then fills it up with banana peels, rusty cans and empty Chinese cans, Back-to-the-Future-style.
My greatest concern here is that, if I submit my number to the Do-Not-Call list, a telemarketer who might otherwise not know my phone number will be able to harvest my phone number. This this fear unfounded, or is it addressed by the Do-Not-Call list policy?
Where are these items found? I know what Automatic Updates is, but the two items you mentioned aren't anything I've ever worked with before.............
Installed it, no problems thus far. Windows 2000 Advanced Server, but I use it as a personal workstation, not a server. Actually fixed a problem I was having with UserEnv, and my profile not being closed when I logged out of the network or something. SP4 fixed it right away, which was nice.
Cable TV still costs money, too. So which would you say is the better value: $50/mo for broadband, which can be used for many things (research, entertainment, communication); or whatever your monthly fee is for CATV (mine is $40 for AOLTWC, but YMMV), for a medium dedicated to entertainment only, and for whose content you need to wait for and have no control over?
Finding, downloading, checking and burning doesn't take a lot of time if you're not obsessed with it. Find a reliable BitTorrent site, scour KaZaA, do a Google search for a website; click the link; wait for it to download and do other things (go to work, eat dinner, watch TV, etc) while it finishes. Same deal with burning it, if you really want to archive it on physical media. I value my time, too, which is why I don't waste it sitting in front of my monitor, waiting for stuff to download.
VCD vs VHS: Yes, but VHS degrades over time, takes time to scan through to get to a desired location, and is a dying format whose hardware I no longer bother to use.
---------------------
My point here is that $1200 for such a marginally benefit is absurd. But feel free to go ahead and drop the cash, if you want to. Me? I'll wait until the price comes down, the quality of the TiVo burning improves, and the DVD format is standardized.
First of all, you might not like EverQuest now, but it seems as though the tweaks Sony has made to the system haven't discouraged its legions of existing users from subscribing. So, despite your unhappiness with the Year 2 and on state of affairs, it would appear as though Sony did the right thing, from a business standpoint.
Second, you're assuming that Star Wars Galaxies is going to be any good from Day 1. I guess we'll have to wait and see what the masses think...........
Unless you're speaking as an individual who is privy to the terms of the contract, stop jumping to conclusions. In all likeliness, the contract includes Windows, Office and support, at the very least. Never mind the fact that several of the Microsoft server applications require per-seat licenses, in addition to server licenses -- the Army could be factoring those into the purchases as well.
At some point, you have to make the decision to stop pinching pennies and pay more for corporate-level services and applications. Yes, I'm sure the Army overspends aplenty, but I'm sure the service and support they get is pretty good, too.
... you can download the ISOs of your favorite TV programs (from any number of websites or P2P networks), burn it to CD with your existing burner (VCD format), then toss it in your fairly-new DVD player and watch it on TV? Savings: $1200.
Granted, the biggest issue here is sophistication: you need to know how to convert the media to VCD or whatever, how to burn files to CD-R, where to go to get the ISOs, etc. But as with all things, Linux especially, the more technically savvy you are, the less dependent you are on commercial software.
The guys at ArsTechnica wrote an awesome article last year, comparing the Honda Insight to the 2003 Honda Civic. I didn't come across it until a few days ago, and I have to admit that it really got me thinking about a hybrid, whenever I decide to purchase a new car. HTH.........
Isn't the carpool lane supposed to reward drivers for reducing their fossil fuel emmissions?
I was just going to post about this very same thing. It's all well and good that people want to get to work faster, but if everybody is able to use the same High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, its effectiveness in speeding up traffic is going to be greatly reduced.
I say that, if people want to get to work that much faster, they have to do something about it. Raise the bar a little bit -- make HOV participation low enough so that it doesn't become a perk only for the Richie Riches driving in their lumbering SUVs; but set it high enough that people can't simply plunk down for a $5 placard, which would flood the lane with commuters.
And what better to do that than making HOV lanes accessible to those who have invested in low-emissions vehicles? LEVs are still fairly expensive, although they do have a few things going for them: 1) prices are starting to fall in line with regular cars; 2) the bodies are starting to look more normal, rather than like something out of the Jetsons; 3) several states have tax rebates / credits for people who purchase LEVs, ranging from $1k - $3k. So why not make it even more attractive by adding another benefit to the list: lower commute times?
I don't think they do, insofar as the big labels are concerned. I've bought exactly 9 albums since 1998, all of which have been electronica from smaller labels (Hommega, Flying Rhino, Global Underground, etc). Why the hell should I pay for music that I can hear when I turn on any radio station during the morning drive to work and hear ad nauseum or, if I really like it, just snag from KaZaA for free? I'm certainly not going to shell out $10-$15 for the CD, especially when the profits from my sale are paying the salaries of middlemen, and not the compensating the artist.
Why would a Windows user care about the command line? Seems like the whole point of Windows is to put more emphasis on a GUI than arcane textual commands.
Because in addition to being a great, skin-friendly audio player, Winamp now supports video too. It's allowed me the uninstall Windows Media Player (WIMP), which has pissed me off to no end with their EULA crap, and instead use Kazaa Lite codec packs.
And now that they've retrofitted Winamp 2 to support video with the release of v2.91, I've rolled back to using that, since there are a lot of cool plugins for that, and I'd rather have the lower CPU requirements. I still know a lot of people who use WiMP, but most of my friends who know about Microsoft's EULA fiasco have opted to use some version of Winamp instead for their video needs.
Frankel has changed the way I work / play. Just look at his resume:
Winamp, a quality spyware-free application that has allowed me to dump Windows Player for a far more robust, cross-platform alternative.
Gnutella, which I don't currently use but is a phenominal piece of software that has picked up where Napster left off, and has helped to keep the debate on the music industry's relevance in the public's mind.
WASTE, which I didn't get a chance to inspect for myself before it was pulled, but sounded like a wonderful way to securely communicate / interact with small groups of trusted users.
This guy is a true innovator, and if he does AOL, they're all the worse off because of it. This guy has proven he can create bleeding-edge software several times already....... now I'm wondering what his next brainchild will be, and how it will change the media landscape if he does decide to go OSS.
Open-source hacking may be better for the community, but it don't pay the bills.
Selling one's company for $86 million certainly does, though. I think he's stayed on this long to continue working on the project he loved...... I don't think it's about the money any more. So does exist the possibility he'll go OSS, or perhaps form another company, cherry-pick his former co-workers at NullSoft and finance the operation out of his pocket. I bet he's waiting to see what the terms of his noncompete mean, and whether they're something he can get around.
The rewards will range from free access to paid content to sweepstakes entries toward cars and big-ticket cash prizes. The value of the prizes will depend on how many customers Altnet can attract and how much the company can persuade them to offer.
Riiiiight. Thanks but no thanks -- earning access to paid content and the possibility of winning cash prizes isn't enough of a reason to allow BDE to make money using MY hardware and MY connection, whilst potentially affecting the stability of my system. Howzabout I keep on using Kazaa Lite instead?
I played the single-player version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and it left me rather underwhelmed. However, this multiplayer version is quite a bit of fun........ I would have been happy to pay something ($15 - $30) for it, given the fact that it's not pay-for-play.
That being said, how is it possible that they were able to make such a cool game and then offer it for free?
Slashdot Mirror
Get me a vial of modafinil instead!
Go right ahead and view the Windows Media file on Linux. You have their permission, I'm sure.
That makes about as much sense as putting a screen door on a submarine.
Just so long as it's your submarine they're putting the screen door on.
Netscape 4 is awful, and marks the point at which I refused to develop for it any more. Minor-release versions of Netscape introduced a slew of compatibility issues, requiring not only compatibility between different browsers (IE4.x, NN 4.x), but also within minor versions of Netscape (4.xx, 4.yy).
I still refuse to support Netscape -- it's a dead browser, built upon a far more promising OSS engine (Mozilla) and bundled with a bunch of applications I don't need / want. I like Opera 7.xx a lot, simply because it offers high degrees of compatibility with IE and is available free. However, I don't think it'll ever truly catch on because it's adware, and requires users to shell out $40 to reclaim the space wasted by the ad.
Netscape is dead. Bust out the shovel, bury it and move on.
I can just see it now: pulling up to the fuel station, asking the station attendant to fill 'er up, and watching as he pulls down his pants, defecates in my tank, then fills it up with banana peels, rusty cans and empty Chinese cans, Back-to-the-Future-style.
My greatest concern here is that, if I submit my number to the Do-Not-Call list, a telemarketer who might otherwise not know my phone number will be able to harvest my phone number. This this fear unfounded, or is it addressed by the Do-Not-Call list policy?
Where are these items found? I know what Automatic Updates is, but the two items you mentioned aren't anything I've ever worked with before.............
Installed it, no problems thus far. Windows 2000 Advanced Server, but I use it as a personal workstation, not a server. Actually fixed a problem I was having with UserEnv, and my profile not being closed when I logged out of the network or something. SP4 fixed it right away, which was nice.
Cable TV still costs money, too. So which would you say is the better value: $50/mo for broadband, which can be used for many things (research, entertainment, communication); or whatever your monthly fee is for CATV (mine is $40 for AOLTWC, but YMMV), for a medium dedicated to entertainment only, and for whose content you need to wait for and have no control over?
Finding, downloading, checking and burning doesn't take a lot of time if you're not obsessed with it. Find a reliable BitTorrent site, scour KaZaA, do a Google search for a website; click the link; wait for it to download and do other things (go to work, eat dinner, watch TV, etc) while it finishes. Same deal with burning it, if you really want to archive it on physical media. I value my time, too, which is why I don't waste it sitting in front of my monitor, waiting for stuff to download.
VCD vs VHS: Yes, but VHS degrades over time, takes time to scan through to get to a desired location, and is a dying format whose hardware I no longer bother to use.
---------------------
My point here is that $1200 for such a marginally benefit is absurd. But feel free to go ahead and drop the cash, if you want to. Me? I'll wait until the price comes down, the quality of the TiVo burning improves, and the DVD format is standardized.
Pull out the duct-tape and expect the herd to move in and trample everything.
What exactly do duct tape and herds have in common?
First of all, you might not like EverQuest now, but it seems as though the tweaks Sony has made to the system haven't discouraged its legions of existing users from subscribing. So, despite your unhappiness with the Year 2 and on state of affairs, it would appear as though Sony did the right thing, from a business standpoint.
Second, you're assuming that Star Wars Galaxies is going to be any good from Day 1. I guess we'll have to wait and see what the masses think...........
Unless you're speaking as an individual who is privy to the terms of the contract, stop jumping to conclusions. In all likeliness, the contract includes Windows, Office and support, at the very least. Never mind the fact that several of the Microsoft server applications require per-seat licenses, in addition to server licenses -- the Army could be factoring those into the purchases as well.
At some point, you have to make the decision to stop pinching pennies and pay more for corporate-level services and applications. Yes, I'm sure the Army overspends aplenty, but I'm sure the service and support they get is pretty good, too.
... you can download the ISOs of your favorite TV programs (from any number of websites or P2P networks), burn it to CD with your existing burner (VCD format), then toss it in your fairly-new DVD player and watch it on TV? Savings: $1200.
Granted, the biggest issue here is sophistication: you need to know how to convert the media to VCD or whatever, how to burn files to CD-R, where to go to get the ISOs, etc. But as with all things, Linux especially, the more technically savvy you are, the less dependent you are on commercial software.
Apparently Verizon won't be charging any fee for number portability. That might light the fire under the other telcos to do the same to remain attractive...........
The guys at ArsTechnica wrote an awesome article last year, comparing the Honda Insight to the 2003 Honda Civic. I didn't come across it until a few days ago, and I have to admit that it really got me thinking about a hybrid, whenever I decide to purchase a new car. HTH.........
Isn't the carpool lane supposed to reward drivers for reducing their fossil fuel emmissions?
I was just going to post about this very same thing. It's all well and good that people want to get to work faster, but if everybody is able to use the same High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, its effectiveness in speeding up traffic is going to be greatly reduced.
I say that, if people want to get to work that much faster, they have to do something about it. Raise the bar a little bit -- make HOV participation low enough so that it doesn't become a perk only for the Richie Riches driving in their lumbering SUVs; but set it high enough that people can't simply plunk down for a $5 placard, which would flood the lane with commuters.
And what better to do that than making HOV lanes accessible to those who have invested in low-emissions vehicles? LEVs are still fairly expensive, although they do have a few things going for them: 1) prices are starting to fall in line with regular cars; 2) the bodies are starting to look more normal, rather than like something out of the Jetsons; 3) several states have tax rebates / credits for people who purchase LEVs, ranging from $1k - $3k. So why not make it even more attractive by adding another benefit to the list: lower commute times?
I don't think they do, insofar as the big labels are concerned. I've bought exactly 9 albums since 1998, all of which have been electronica from smaller labels (Hommega, Flying Rhino, Global Underground, etc). Why the hell should I pay for music that I can hear when I turn on any radio station during the morning drive to work and hear ad nauseum or, if I really like it, just snag from KaZaA for free? I'm certainly not going to shell out $10-$15 for the CD, especially when the profits from my sale are paying the salaries of middlemen, and not the compensating the artist.
MSNBotulism.
Why would a Windows user care about the command line? Seems like the whole point of Windows is to put more emphasis on a GUI than arcane textual commands.
Because in addition to being a great, skin-friendly audio player, Winamp now supports video too. It's allowed me the uninstall Windows Media Player (WIMP), which has pissed me off to no end with their EULA crap, and instead use Kazaa Lite codec packs. And now that they've retrofitted Winamp 2 to support video with the release of v2.91, I've rolled back to using that, since there are a lot of cool plugins for that, and I'd rather have the lower CPU requirements. I still know a lot of people who use WiMP, but most of my friends who know about Microsoft's EULA fiasco have opted to use some version of Winamp instead for their video needs.
Frankel has changed the way I work / play. Just look at his resume:
Winamp, a quality spyware-free application that has allowed me to dump Windows Player for a far more robust, cross-platform alternative.
Gnutella, which I don't currently use but is a phenominal piece of software that has picked up where Napster left off, and has helped to keep the debate on the music industry's relevance in the public's mind.
WASTE, which I didn't get a chance to inspect for myself before it was pulled, but sounded like a wonderful way to securely communicate / interact with small groups of trusted users.
This guy is a true innovator, and if he does AOL, they're all the worse off because of it. This guy has proven he can create bleeding-edge software several times already....... now I'm wondering what his next brainchild will be, and how it will change the media landscape if he does decide to go OSS.
Open-source hacking may be better for the community, but it don't pay the bills.
Selling one's company for $86 million certainly does, though. I think he's stayed on this long to continue working on the project he loved...... I don't think it's about the money any more. So does exist the possibility he'll go OSS, or perhaps form another company, cherry-pick his former co-workers at NullSoft and finance the operation out of his pocket. I bet he's waiting to see what the terms of his noncompete mean, and whether they're something he can get around.
Check out this article for a quick lowdown. Several areas seem to have taken this approach -- Englewood, CO, has a thriving tech center, as well.
The rewards will range from free access to paid content to sweepstakes entries toward cars and big-ticket cash prizes. The value of the prizes will depend on how many customers Altnet can attract and how much the company can persuade them to offer.
Riiiiight. Thanks but no thanks -- earning access to paid content and the possibility of winning cash prizes isn't enough of a reason to allow BDE to make money using MY hardware and MY connection, whilst potentially affecting the stability of my system. Howzabout I keep on using Kazaa Lite instead?
Long live the King [of Searching]!
I played the single-player version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and it left me rather underwhelmed. However, this multiplayer version is quite a bit of fun........ I would have been happy to pay something ($15 - $30) for it, given the fact that it's not pay-for-play.
That being said, how is it possible that they were able to make such a cool game and then offer it for free?