Quiscalus - Slashdot User

Comment They haven't a clue anymore. (Score 1) 271

by Quiscalus on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @09:00PM (#19154571) Attached to: Microsoft Says Your Phone is Your Next PC

The thing that was said by the AC was that "Microsoft no longer knows what the hell their next product is. How many different "the next PC will be..." announcements are they going to make?"

Submission + - Microsoft to pay more Royalties for MP3 use

Submitted by

peripatetic_bum

on Sunday February 25, 2007 @10:42AM

peripatetic_bum writes: "Just in, Microsoft has lost a ruling in which it could face up to 1.52 billion dollar charge (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/technology/23pa tent.html?ref=technology) for its use of the MP3 format.
What I find really interesting is that this ruling could be applied to APPLE. What I find even more interesting is that this might finally push OGG vorbis format (http://www.vorbis.com/) into the mainstream, especially if Microsoft and Apple don't have to pay for it?
Is this another way for Open Source to make sense to Business?
Thanks
g"

Submission + - Successful Software Gee(k)zers today?

Submitted by

_7miracles

on Sunday February 25, 2007 @10:22AM

_7miracles writes: "Some facts:

1. 70-years-old U.S. tourist, a U.S. military veteran, kills masked and armed costa rican mugger with bare hands , by jumped out of the van and putting the gunman in a headlock. If somebody does not know how the headlock looks like, see it here. The headlock pressure broke the attackers collarbone, and he died from asphyxiation. Costa Rican authorities said they wouldnt press any charges.

2. A 65-year-old woman from North California fought off a mountain lion attack using a ballpoint pen to stab the animal and saved the life of her 70-year-old husband. .

3. 82-year-old man fights back with metal cane against the man who splashed three strangers with Zig Zag lighter fluid and set fire to the hair of two of them in the downtown area of Seattle.

4. 74-year-old Carmel Callan from Florida fights back against seven men who attacked her with a gun . She just looked and saw the gun, and then just acted The 52, 74-year-old grandmas Irish instincts took over The attack has her shaken she still refuses to show fear. She just whirled around Her husband went inside to grab a walking stick, but by that time Carmel had single handedly scared off the attackers on her own.

5. Grandmother, 75, from North Carolina, Fights Off Attacker . At night of 02/01/2007, she fought off her attacker, who was attempting to rape her, bit his lip and called police. Interesting that the attacker is now out of jail on a $50,000 bond. South! They happen to release even convicted killers. Dont worry, just couple times. Human errors. Somebody (I dont recall who exactly) called it an integral part of local enchantment.

6. A 66-year-old man from Brazil saved his 8-year-old grandson from the grip of a 16-foot-long anaconda by beating the snake with rocks and a knife for half an hour . The boy had to be rushed to a hospital and needed 21 stitches on his chest where he was bitten.

7. 91-year-old patient of a hospital in Southern California fought back when 18-year-old stranger attempted to smother him by pillow during sleeping

8. An 80-year-old widow from Dorset, U,K., angina sufferer, used a ceremonial sword to fight off two six-foot raiders who burst into her home. . The sword was a pre-World War I army officers dress sword which belonged to widows late husbands father.

9. 61-year-old Pat from Michigan fights to get Wii for her 8-years-old grandson, Jake, diagnosed with leukemia . She spent the wee hours fighting the crowds looking for a Nintendo Wii game console. She was looking inside JC Penney, and then visited nearly every big store in her area: KMart, Meijer, Grand Haven, The Lakes Mall, BestBuy, ToysR'Us, and finally lined up outside EB Games in a 30-degree chill on Black Friday. The store had not more than couple of games consoles, and there were nearly 50 people in line. Bays chances were minimal in comparison with the much younger gamers in the upcoming 10-yard sprint to the counter, and she took a misstep and crashed hard into a doorside display when the entrance doors were finally opened. The crowd surged past her to the counter, but a clerk helped her up and pushed forward through the crowd to the counter. She emerged minutes later with one of the stores two Wii game consoles. Asked what the console would mean for Jake, she answered in a whisper, Everything.

10. Retiree, 77, from Sarasota fights $31,000 cell phone bill . A 77-year-old Oliver DeSofi, a retiree from FLorida, has won a two-month battle with a cell phone company over a $31,000 bill for calls he says he never made. More than $21,420 in roaming charges appeared on his Cingular Wireless bill in November for more than 4,000 calls he never actually made.

11. 96-year-old driver from Scotland, who has been driving since 1924, fights to keep licence after 20mph police chase .

12. How geezers fight against poverty? Well, Warren Buffett does not necessarily fits here, even taking into account his age. After all, he did it since his young age during whole life! What about 84-years-old Ingerborga Mootz, housewife and widow from Germany? When her husband died, he left only 40,000 Deutsche Marks worth of shares of one German company, and the granny made much more money out of that amount. Her stock rose by 100% in value during 1997, and the next year brought her a 200% increase in value. The old lady does not do anything fancy, and just buys and sells stocks of leading financial institutions. Now she is already worth 500 thousand euros, and her target is to make a million.

Do you know some examples of 90-years-olds, successfully coding using modern programming languages?"

Submission + - Xbox Live Marketplace Digital Rights MISManagement

Submitted by

Divalent

on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:38AM

Divalent writes: "For over fourteen months, Microsoft has been aware of a problem that is presented to a user if they attempt to play an XBL arcade game or a game with premium paid downloadable content on any other machine than the one it was originally downloaded on. (See forum thread begun on 12/18/05)

MS has not come forward and publicly acknowledged the problem. Their representatives on the forums have even gone so far as to say, despite it's frank illegality, that those that had consoles stolen or replaced, in or out of warranty, from retailers will not have the workaround solution applied to their accounts unless they have explicit proof of said replacement. This means if your box breaks out of warranty, you cannot simply trash it and head to a store and buy a new one. You must somehow show continuity and PROVE to Microsoft that your old box is broken and has been replaced by the one you say it has been replaced by. Whatever happened to content being tied to your Gamertag, an ID that is uncopy-able and can only be logged onto one console at any one time? Where was the mention prior to launch of tying content to Gamertag AND the first console used to download the content before launch? That little detail wasn't even brought up until the Fall Update in October '06.

Currently there is a group of users who have had enough of this mismanagement of the growing segment of users with this problem. It is felt that Microsoft has its choice of a myriad of solutions such as Apples (de)authorizing protocol for iTunes. You can get a synopsis of the problem at Parallax Abstraction's blog on the matter here along with his recommendations of what to do. Included in the suggestions, whether you've personally been effected by the problem or not, is the urging to sign a petition that asks Microsoft to change the Digital Rights (Mis)Managment scheme currently in place."

Slashdot Top Deals