I agree. Messages like : ERROR IN 8372JFIIRK92328894-324438756780 dont have any value to end users or that stupid MS error reporting crap. Does anyone know if MS have ever fixed a specific problem via the error reporting?

Free as in Free Beer?

"...I'll have a large Big & Tasty meal and a McMillerLite."

I think thats the point of the article. ASCAP seeking royalties for outrageous reasons. Same case in the Guitar hero game. My Friend was a bar owner, but chose to play free over the air local radio. Wait a minute!! - ASCAP collected their royalties from the radio stations! Why, really, should ASCAP be seeking additional royalties from him? That issue could be debated forever. I'm just sayin' that just because there is a law for something doesn't make it right.

Obviously your a good boy and give your money out willingly without really knowing where it goes, just because someone tells you to. I made up this ridiculous story by actually being there and having it happen to a very good friend and business owner over the course of two years! Y'know what fixed the whole thing? Ordering a new jukebox and two pool tables for rent. The amusement company wasnt getting a renewel on the contract, so they reported the bar owner to ASCAP. As soon as the bar ordered a new Jukebox, the harassment stopped and there havent been any direct dealing with an ASCAP representative since. He did not in fact pay licensing fees direct to ASCAP but thru the amusement company. There aren't any laws governing this, only loopholes to allow ASCAP to be the bully.

A few things have been said comparing RIAA with ASCAP, and I agree that they are both the "industry" part we'd all like to eliminate or govern better.

so which one is worse? IMHO ASCAP is worse because they deal in all the venues - The production and manufacturing, the retail markets and the public performance places (bars, restaurants, retail stores, concert venues, malls etc). They take cuts from every part of the line including the last in line, the establishments that offer music as a service to a consumer. If you're a small business owner, with a nightclub with DJs or bands or even a store that wants to play his local radio station over his PA, you might as well figure on spending a lot of money because surely you will have an ASCAP representative knocking on your door telling you you are required to pay an outrageous fee to a PO box somewhere in Kansas. They'll bully you for months then weeks then days and threaten you with lawsuits and send you legitimate looking licensing pamphlets with absolutely no pricing and very little information about the laws or levels or types of licensing. You'll get the same info when dealing direct with ASCAP (the ONLY public point of contact direct to ASCAP is ONLY through their website- of which is also vague and semi-threatning). You'll get ink-jet printed price-sheets handed or mailed to you by these ASCAP representatives. Haggling will get you better prices, to which RED FLAGS are customary. If you do not pay, the bullying continues, lawsuits are threatened, youre forced to feel obligated to pay for something you have no idea is even a tangible item or not. If you're a small business owner, you are only dealing with the representative, the next level up is an ASCAP lawyer. Your lawyer will most likely say they have a legal right to demand the money from you, neither you nor any combined effort would be able to survive an ASCAP lawsuit.

You may be bullied also by your local amusement provider (the company that provides jukeboxes and pool tables for rent).

-- my sig had an Aerosmith lyric in it, but I was forced to remove it or pay a licensing fee.

"you can't put that thing down for an hour can you? If you love that thing so much why don't you have a baby with it?"

If it's a boy I think they should name him Barry Black!

This guy was way over thinking this. If two people share a pizza and there is at least one cut that goes directly through the center then the freaking thing is cut in half! It doesn't matter if any of the other cuts are wacky, and you certainly don't have to try and figure out the area of each individual piece trying to determine how to take turns one slice at a time!

Gilligan likes Maryann's coconuts.

IMHO I think amazon will ultimately get rid of DRM on movies and books. It happened with amazon MP3's. Maybe, maybe not, but I can only think that companies continually implementing new DRM schemas are flogging a dead horse. It doesn't deter anything.

ok, but think of the useless electronics gadgets you may have purchased over the years. If you havent thrown them, chances are they're paperweights also, but you still might have gotten a fair amount of use from them. Don't deem a tech product unworthy because of progress of technology. Those companies are counting on you to spend that 300 bucks not so they can impose their Barnyard King DRM tactics, they just put out a useful device hoping that consumers will buy it and they will have budgets to improve it. Were also seeing some crazy things happen with DRM over the last few years : A lot of companies are letting go of DRM and letting you move your files from device to device, while others are slow to change or have added newer methods of DRM. The fact of the matter is that DRM and price shouldn't be the De-facto deal breakers, It should be if that device suits your needs or not. If you own the hardcopy book, and you want it on your device right now you will have to pay. Is that such a bad thing? I really dont think so. Now, if you told me I couldnt move my purchased MP3 collections on my PC to my MP3 player, I'd Have a problem, because the files are unchanged, But if I were to demand that my Disney VHS collection be available to transfer free of charge to another format such as DVD or Xvid, I'd be nuts, because the technology used to play the DVD/Xvid movie is way better than VHS. The E-book devices give a similar scenario - a hardcover book and a e-book file are not of the same format. the content may be similar to the end user, but the technology used to produce and display the content are completely different. Same scenario with Vinyl & Casettes to CD - Most everyone re-bought the albums they had on vinyl and didn't complain because it was a much better format.

Gilligan Likes Maryann's Coconuts.

To the questions of suicide or putting down your dog: NOW. DO IT NOW. You will most assuredly put the rest of the world at ease.

After posting i went window shopping (with firefox/ubuntu) for voip/skype type phones. Seems there are many phones out there that would have features similar to what you are looking for, with the exception being it isn't a land-line phone, it's a VOIP phone.
But they do:
Sync to your pc for VM, Contacts, logs, etc.
many are expadable to 4-8 handsets
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&safe=off&q=skype+handset&cid=6368542560501381677&sa=title#p
if you're worried about power, get a UPS. if you're worried about 911, it's no different than mobile 911 really.

If you're worried about living in your moms basement, well...

Certainly this would be a great opportunity for VOIP phones, which is a market waiting to either grow: where we'll see everyone back to Land-line style phones in their homes (not likely to happen) or bite the dust: the mobile phone world has taken over as the preferred method of consumer communication, leaving the 20-somethings saying stuff like "what's a land-line?".

What's an E.T?