Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • L' Eomot Inversé (3/9/2012)


    Stefan Krzywicki (3/9/2012)


    Steve Jones - SSC Editor (3/9/2012)


    Stefan Krzywicki (3/9/2012)

    Part of the problem is the ridiculous extensions of copyright and the attempts of companies to eradicate "fair use". To make matters worse, some companies refuse to sell some of their product. Whatever happened to things like "The internet makes production so cheap" they said the same thing about CDs and DVDs before that "that nothing will ever go out of print and you can get anything you want."?

    I agree on copyright. I would like to go back to the 14+14 the US started with. That's plenty of time, IMHO, for an artist to make money. If you haven't by then, let someone else build on the work.

    In terms of sales, that's free enterprise. No company should be forced to sell a product. Support it and be responsible, yes, but sell, no. Companies tend to collude, whether actually or just an internal decision, but they tend to sell at the highest price they can. Look at tablets. The iPad is arguable overpriced, but less capable products on Android still sold for similar prices. Those companies didn't want to sell for less. Why would they? If they can get $500 for a tablet, why bother?

    However there are companies, like Amazon, that will try things like the $200 Fire tablet.

    Competition works fine when it comes to commodities, but when you're talking about movies or music, who does it server to keep a work locked up? It hurts the artist and the consumer and creates ill will for the company. It is even worse when the original artist is dead and corporations keep works locked up. Making these things available on the internet is so cheap it is practically free, but we still see older works kept off the market or international artists kept out of local markets.

    In some jurisdictions there is a rule that if a patent is neither exploited by the holder or offered for use by others on reasonable terms (whatever that may mean) is ceases to have force. I think we would do extremely well to have an equivalent rule for copyright (and have the rule extended in all jurisdictions both for patent and for copyright).

    It would certainly be nice to stop the practice of purchaing patents to prevent competition.

    --------------------------------------
    When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
    --------------------------------------
    It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
    What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
    You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

  • It would certainly be nice to stop the practice of purchaing patents to prevent competition.

    It's can be hidden at that level, although purchases of the complete company can sometimes get some attention.

  • Me again, Threadizens . . . could use some help here, if anyone has any ideas.

    Thanks in advance!

    +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    Check out my blog at https://pianorayk.wordpress.com/

  • Well, if this is true about which email provider you use, I need to start using gmail. I am currently a Yahoo-er! :blush:

    The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking

  • mtillman-921105 (3/12/2012)


    Well, if this is true about which email provider you use, I need to start using gmail. I am currently a Yahoo-er! :blush:

    I use hotmail, mainly. Also have gmail. And I think I have an email address with the cable company (cable modem), but I've never used it. That's not on the list, so it's hotmail + gmail + null (assuming an outer join from e-mail providers to that list). Concat Null = Null, so I don't count! Or would it be an aggregate function and ignore the null, which would make me gmail (max) or hotmail (min), at least alphabetically? Or an average of the two, which means I'm technically proficient, but use a Compaq, know to reboot my router, but have problems with spyware?

    Now I'm just confusing myself!

    - Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
    Property of The Thread

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

  • I have hotmail forwarding to my gmail, because I'm lazy. I think that makes me lazy.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
    Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

  • mtillman-921105 (3/12/2012)


    Well, if this is true about which email provider you use, I need to start using gmail. I am currently a Yahoo-er! :blush:

    I have them all.

  • Closed the gmail account the other week. I never wanted it, never intentionally created it, it just appeared one day as part of a google revamp. Two mail addresses on custom domains, one on work domain, one via the university, one from my ISP (that I never even use), and two from clients.

    I think that's enough.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Jack Corbett (3/12/2012)


    mtillman-921105 (3/12/2012)


    Well, if this is true about which email provider you use, I need to start using gmail. I am currently a Yahoo-er! :blush:

    I have them all.

    They aren't Pokemon, you know.

    --------------------------------------
    When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
    --------------------------------------
    It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
    What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
    You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

  • GilaMonster (3/12/2012)


    Closed the gmail account the other week. I never wanted it, never intentionally created it, it just appeared one day as part of a google revamp. Two mail addresses on custom domains, one on work domain, one via the university, one from my ISP (that I never even use), and two from clients.

    I think that's enough.

    I like that with GMail, you can forward all those emails to a single inbox, have it clear where they're addressed to, reply as any of those email addresses and have it all easily web accessible.

    --------------------------------------
    When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
    --------------------------------------
    It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
    What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
    You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

  • Decided a while back that I wouldn't touch a gmail account (Goodle's Ts &Cs and privacy policy were totally unacceptable).

    Not sure which of my email "things" counts as an account, it could be 4 or it could be 5; between them I have 21 email addresses (I tend to have different addresses for different things - that way (a) I know who has been leaking my email address to the spammers and (b) I can throw away an address I no longer want). I use a mixture of mail clients and web mail servers to get at my email (which I use depends where I am, what machine I'm on, and what else I'm doing, not on which account or email address I'm using).

    Tom

  • Stefan Krzywicki (3/12/2012)


    GilaMonster (3/12/2012)


    Closed the gmail account the other week. I never wanted it, never intentionally created it, it just appeared one day as part of a google revamp. Two mail addresses on custom domains, one on work domain, one via the university, one from my ISP (that I never even use), and two from clients.

    I think that's enough.

    I like that with GMail, you can forward all those emails to a single inbox, have it clear where they're addressed to, reply as any of those email addresses and have it all easily web accessible.

    Yahoo has that too. BT used to have that (you had to set up forwarding instead of the web server pulling stuff in from remote mailboxes) and now has taken it further (as has Yahoo, in fact BT now uses Yahoo to do it) and will optionally suck email in from remote servers rather than needing forwarding from each server. I can't remember where I first came across it, but certainly it was a long time ago (before gmail existed, I'm sure). I don't think that feature was available in the bad old days, before internet email adopted the current address format (including domain name format), but it can't have been all that long after that that it turned up. People wanted what BT used to do way back when professional societies first provided email addresses without actual mailboxes, that would just relay incoming mail, the ISPs were began to block external smtp access because there was too much address forgery going on, and more than half the mail clients out there ignored the Reply To header; back in those days what people wanted seemed to happen pretty soon; and it was natural then to want to be able to do it without setting up forwarding, since you might not know where you were going to want to pick the mail up, so that happened next.

    Tom

  • L' Eomot Inversé (3/12/2012)


    Stefan Krzywicki (3/12/2012)


    GilaMonster (3/12/2012)


    Closed the gmail account the other week. I never wanted it, never intentionally created it, it just appeared one day as part of a google revamp. Two mail addresses on custom domains, one on work domain, one via the university, one from my ISP (that I never even use), and two from clients.

    I think that's enough.

    I like that with GMail, you can forward all those emails to a single inbox, have it clear where they're addressed to, reply as any of those email addresses and have it all easily web accessible.

    Yahoo has that too. BT used to have that (you had to set up forwarding instead of the web server pulling stuff in from remote mailboxes) and now has taken it further (as has Yahoo, in fact BT now uses Yahoo to do it) and will optionally suck email in from remote servers rather than needing forwarding from each server. I can't remember where I first came across it, but certainly it was a long time ago (before gmail existed, I'm sure). I don't think that feature was available in the bad old days, before internet email adopted the current address format (including domain name format), but it can't have been all that long after that that it turned up. People wanted what BT used to do way back when professional societies first provided email addresses without actual mailboxes, that would just relay incoming mail, the ISPs were began to block external smtp access because there was too much address forgery going on, and more than half the mail clients out there ignored the Reply To header; back in those days what people wanted seemed to happen pretty soon; and it was natural then to want to be able to do it without setting up forwarding, since you might not know where you were going to want to pick the mail up, so that happened next.

    Yeah, GMail "sucks it in" without requiring forwarding.

    --------------------------------------
    When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
    --------------------------------------
    It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
    What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
    You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

  • Stefan Krzywicki (3/12/2012)


    GilaMonster (3/12/2012)


    Closed the gmail account the other week. I never wanted it, never intentionally created it, it just appeared one day as part of a google revamp. Two mail addresses on custom domains, one on work domain, one via the university, one from my ISP (that I never even use), and two from clients.

    I think that's enough.

    I like that with GMail, you can forward all those emails to a single inbox, have it clear where they're addressed to, reply as any of those email addresses and have it all easily web accessible.

    Other than the web-accessible, I have that with Outlook.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • GilaMonster (3/13/2012)


    Stefan Krzywicki (3/12/2012)


    I like that with GMail, you can forward all those emails to a single inbox, have it clear where they're addressed to, reply as any of those email addresses and have it all easily web accessible.

    Other than the web-accessible, I have that with Outlook.

    I used to use oulook exclusively back in the days when I could use remote desktop to get into my desktop (over a VPN from my laptop, or from one of our servers on customers premises, or from a machine controlled by a trusted partner, from a foreigner [usually customer, sometimes supplier] desktop that I could wipe). Now that I can't (no permanent IP address any more) I still use outlook more than anything else (on my laptop) but sometimes other clients and sometimes webmail.

    Tom

Viewing 15 posts - 34,681 through 34,695 (of 66,712 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply