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but...? yes? and? but what?

you, sir, are a dumba@s.s.

The Dead started a movement in music that is very similar to the open source movement, and readers of /. would be wise to know about it as it offers parallels to the software industry. The model is now being followed by literally hundreds of "jam bands" (see JamBands.com).

The model is simple: play lots of concerts, improvise so every concert is different, allow people to freely record and trade your concerts. You get free publicity, and if you are any good people will buy tickets for your shows and buy your albums.

Another band called Phish used this same model. Without any radio or MTV play and no hit singles this band now regularly sells out 20,000 seat venues. They just sold 75,000 tickets for the new years show where they were the sole performers (they could have sold more but the place wouldn't hold any more). These guys are all millionaires and people trade their MP3's all day (and DAT's and CD-R's through the mail too). They have an official policy regarding MP3 trading since they even have their own MP3's available for download for fee!

You wanted to know how many other bands encourage the trading of their music, look at this, the bands that allow taping list. Note that these are bands that allow fans to record their live concerts and trade the recordings. Some of the big bands on this list are Perl Jam and Dave Matthews Band. There are many other small bands that are using MP3 for publicity that don't explicitly allow fans to record the live concerts.

This site, Sugarmegs is devoted to trading MP3's of live concerts and is fully condoned by all of the bands. The bands traded are Grateful Dead, Phish, and many other bands that allow trading of their music under the same model such as Widespread Panic, Medeski Martin & Wood, Moe., and others.

There is a lot of free music out there and it's not all hippie jam bands. There are many jazz artists that allow recording and trading such as Branford Marsalis, John Scofield, Medeski Martin & Wood, Bill Frisell, and Ken Vandermark. Almost all bluegrass is tradeable and some of the major bluegrass festivals have special sections for people to setup microphones (Merle Watson Memorial Bluegrass Festival, for instance).

There is a movement in free music (and subsequently free promotion of artists!). Much like free software, not all copying of music is copyright infringement!

Burris

I got my mindstorms kit a while back but i havent played with it a lot recently. I know 300 bucks (canadian ;) is a lot to spend but i think it was completely worth it since i have quite an investment in a lot of other technics lego kits. Now i am able to use all those pieces to make tonnes of stuff!

I tried using the RCX software which came with it (under emulation on my mac) but it was deplorable.. not just slow, i found it icky to use. I tried using RoboLab (the software used in the educational market from Dacta) but that was graphical too! I finally chose NQC and so far have found it the most useful. Theres just something about whipping out a bunch of code and compiling it ;) rather than dragging a bunch of icons together and hitting 'SEND' (imho).

the last thing i remember making is a garbage dump truck which used sensors to pickup and empty a garbage container, then drive away.. (wasnt my idea, i saw it on the web) but it was my implementation. The next thing i want to make is a wicked sports car with a rack & pinion steering and a gear box. Check out Ben's Lego Creations for ideas. He has some really neat designs.

i also recommend the new david baum book (he made NQC) for general programming and lego design issues. I love this book. Check out his site.

cheers,
nitin

If you use windows try Mark Overmar's RCX control center. It's a keen IDE with a bunch of other kewl features like remote control, var watches, and more!

lowest common denominator in mind.

There's a MacOS version of NQC, which is free. And
ROBOLAB has a Macintosh version, but you'll have to pay for it.

You will need a cable for the IR tower, which you can order from Pitsco LEGO DACTA (800)362-4308. It's part number 4119830, $15.

-Jonathan

Not catering to the lowest common denominator of the computer-using world

Any software company wanting to address the entire linux market must create an app that addresses some lowest common denominator.

Wrong. You mean the greatest common factor.

MS-Windows, in contrast, defaults to a "lowest common denominator" that works nearly everywhere

Here's an essay that explains why people misuse "least common denominator" in a way that shows how dumb they are. Here's more math background if you're still confused.

• Not Quite C, a subset of C for the Mindstorm system
• l egOS, an RTOS to replace the normal OS in the Mindstorm control brick. This uses friendly familiar Linux-ish development tools like the egcs compiler.

Look here.

All the software on the CD is uncompressed and unencrypted, so you can easily copy their "firmware" even if you don't use the Windows software. There are several alternatives to "RCX code" available on the net (and they're needed!), the most popular of which is probably NQC, one of those that use the standard firmware. It includes the download abilities. There's also a free replacement OS, legOS, that you can use if you want to cross-compile directly for the Hitachi CPU using GCC. Again, communication tools are included.

Remember that you can wire your unused services to a network honeypot, a collection of things which are attractive to an intruder. This could be as simple as running The Deception ToolKit on all servers, configured to give DTK the services which that server is not using. Or your network may be configured to redirect all requests for improper server/service combinations to honeypot machines. You can alarm the honeypots to alert you to what is happening. At the same time you're wasting the time of the attackers.

The article didn't mention whether they used the Mindstorms kit...

"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."

Here is some more information about setting up TrueType fonts on Red Hat.

Check out this article on installing Linux securely. It focuses on RH5.x, but can be applied to just about any distro.

If you're thinking of a different speech, which one?

If you have access to a good newsagent or a University library (or any reasonably sized metropolitan library I suppose) track down their New Scientist collection. There is an article in the 10th of April issue covering RSI from a slightly different angle than normal. There's an interesting theory that RSI is not caused by physical damage to the wrists/hands, but rather caused by blurring of the brain's distinctions between the fine motor control areas for the hands.

The strain is in the brain Too much typing can leave you in agony. But rather than damaged muscles or tendons being to blame for RSI, says Bob Holmes, things might be going wrong in the brain

It seems that when you spend a lot of time moving your fingers in very precise, accurate ways your brain can blur them together: you lose fine control over time. This effect has been shown to take place in monkeys made to earn food by `typing' (aside: presumably they put them on Usenet...), and there seems to be some evidence of it occuring in humans. Particularly susceptible, as you might expect, are keyboard operators and musicians.

There is a tiny tidbit from some while ago on the New Scientist web site -- unfortunately they don't appear to have put up the article I'm talking about. If anyone's sufficiently interested I daresay I could type in a couple of short extracts for review.

Here are a couple of links which you might find interesting (tracked down from the broken NS links...):

• Repetitive Motion Injuries--Annual Reviews of Medicine (1995):

  Repetitive motion injuries have presented clinicians with a significant challenge over the past two and a half decades. Acceptable treatment of inflammatory disorders is well established, but compressive neuropathies and nonspecific complaints of numbness, tingling, and discomfort in the upper extremity present vexing dilemmas. Current research and experience point to multilevel problems, including posturally induced muscular imbalance. Although surgical solutions to these problems are sometimes indicated, conservative approaches successfully treat many individuals and have narrowed the scope and indications for surgical intervention. These approaches include ergonomic changes at the workstation, postural changes, and muscle stretching and strengthening to correct imbalance.

• Stretching and Flexibility -- Everything you never wanted to know. Apparently this is a frequently recommended treatment.
• The Lancet also has a couple of hits for `RSI' and `repetitive strain': the usal username/password will get you the `free' version of the site.