Slashdot Mirror

Time to expand my musical tastes.

BTW, Richard Cook and Brian Morton have just released the 6th edition of their popular Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. At $17.50, for over 1700 pages of small-type reviews, it's a pretty fucking terrific deal. The 5th edition was invaluable to me -- and I already knew a ton about jazz. I imagine it'd be exponentially more valuable to a newcomer.

FYI.

crib

I think yes and no. I just read this account of some first experiences with using it, and one complaint was that even if the store recognized that you've purchased a song before, it wouldn't let you d/l it again. It did allow the user to purchase it again, reminding the user that it already had done so.

As long as we're on the subject, take a moment to set these morons straight about the realities of marketing, business partnerships, "coalition building," and the absurdity of platform-bashing. I'd keep flaming away there myself but I'm too flabbergasted by the uncharacteristic silliness I'm seeing on Kuro5hin in the wake of what appears to me as a promising turn of events. A healthy dose of SlashDotting is what those wannabes need right about now.

The Register
Scripting News
K5
What was the point of this again? For everyone to list their favorite sites? (Note, the list above is not my favorite sites, just some large ones that can cause /.effects.)

Slashdot is probably the most advanced of web-based fora,

Personally I think I prefer kuro5hin's comment moderation system. Slashdot does it with a serial system where a minority of selected users' votes are added together. K5 lets everyone vote in parallel and averages them. I think some people rate a lot, but most people rate to correct when they think something's been rated unfairly.

On the other hand k5 doesn't get nearly as much trolling, so I don't normally order the comments based on the ratings, anyway.

John advertises his business and responds to queries over at K5. $65/mo for a FreeBSD jail, $75/mo for a Linux virtual machine running under (I think) VMWare. He gives discounts to free software developers.

There are lots of positive testimonials .

The GIF patent expires on June 30, 2003

Not if Unisys bands together with Fraunhofer, Charlie Northrup, and big pharmaceutical manufacturers and demands that the U.S. Congress enact a Cher Patent Term Harmonization Act.

that's only a month away

Try two months, which is more than enough for intense lobbying. How long did it take to get USAPATRIOT passed?

As others have posted, this article is a verbatim copy of the Kuro5hin article. When I asked Hemos to respond I got modded down to from 0 as an AC to -1. I'm not trying to be mean to Hemos, but it is reasonable to want to know what happened and how this occurred. I again invite Hemos to respond.

Or ripped from k5. Plus any other optional combinations of "old" and "dupe".

Sure, go ahead, mod me down, who needs karma anyways?

Oh wait...

unless he is the "a reader" that submitted the story

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/4/27/5153/73626

note the word-for-word plagiarization/ lifting

just trying to keep it honest

I think a lot of Slashdot readers maybe didn't get a chance to use Audiogalaxy, so they don't realize just how superior to other file-sharing programs it was, and why.

This is an excellent, detailed article on its merits. I highly recommend it. But briefly, this is why I found it best:

A. It was webbrowser-based. The actual client ran by itself (and it was a wonderful little tool, non-obtrusive and efficient), but the search engine could be accessed from any webbrowser. You could add songs to your queue from a friend's house, for example. The system kept track of everything that was traded on Audiogalaxy, so rare tracks could be found whenever you searched for it, and it would just wait on your queue until someone started sharing it again.
B. Related to the above: you could find almost anything on the system. I would read about a cool song somewhere, and an hour or so later I could probably listen to it. I am interested in a huge variety of music (especially from outside the US), and it constantly had what I wanted. The variety was amazing.
C. It was convenient. Very few ads, the system was fast and responsive, the client was minimal. I usually used it while on a 56K connection, and it still worked well (certainly better than Napster, etc. ever had).
D. It had a gigantic userbase. The variety and scope of the music shared was amazing. It had a decent recommendation system. I tried out all sorts of new types/genres of music. The system made it all convenient. Audiogalaxy managed to massively expand my taste in music, and it seemed to do the same for all of my friends, too.

I know some other P2P apps are starting to get to where Audiogalaxy was more than two years ago. But they still have a long ways to go, and I am not convinced one of them will ever manage to achieve such a gigantic library of music. Audiogalaxy was, in many ways, truly the 'celestial jukebox' that we had all been waiting for.

The issue at hand is not whether or not Verizon can identify customers based on reports of copyright infringement. Of course they can, and ISP can. The issue is that someone without investigative authority has convinced a court to order the release of this informaiton. Would the community be ranting about the death of privacy this much if the subpoena had come from the FBI?

Also worth thinking about: is it a violation of your privacy when your ISP hands over your information when served with a warrant/subpoena that was obtained after showing a judge that they have reasonable suspicion that a crime is taking place?

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III

Why do I have the distinct feeling that, in the not-so-distant future, most companies will receive their funding from anonymous people in brown paper bags left on the street corner...the funds in small denominations, unmarked, and non-sequential serial numbers.

Trust me...the day I win Powerball several organizations are going to receive anonymous donations.

I just feel that trying to battle the MPAA in the lobying arena is not very fruitful. The real power of voters is in their vote. We have to change the way governments make desicions before we have a chance against big business. This whole problem is here because of a black market that the MPAA created through their virtual monopoly. A free market would make everybody happy IMO. I, for one, would rather buy 4 CD's for $5 each than one for $15. It seems to me that the MPAA needs to fire their economists.

• Make a Bonfire of Your Reputations

And to show that I walk the walk, I invite you to read my recent article, "Living with Schizoaffective Disorder" parts I, II and III.

• Make a Bonfire of Your Reputations

And to show that I walk the walk, I invite you to read my recent article, "Living with Schizoaffective Disorder" parts I, II and III.

• Make a Bonfire of Your Reputations

And to show that I walk the walk, I invite you to read my recent article, "Living with Schizoaffective Disorder" parts I, II and III.

As of today, the doubling time of weekley (not cumulative!) deaths from SARS is less than a week in Hong Kong.

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/3/13/23423/4648


Lex Talionis is a morally bankrupt code (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by A Proud American on Thu Mar 13th, 2003 at 11:29:39 PM EST
http://www.kuro5hin.org/user/A Proud American/diary

Why should we be happy when the spammers get spammed? Ponder this.

Lex Talionis, the principle of an eye for an eye, is a morally bankrupt code of law we've been moving away from for the past few thousand years, thankfully. It can't deal with the complexities of the modern legal order, and it ignores all proper justifications for systems of punishment: rehabilitation, prophylaxis, etc. It makes an assertion of rigid judgment in an attempt to avoid judgment itself. We can't live in a world without judgment.

Ask yourself this: should we rape the rapist? If not, why not? (Ignore for a moment that we essentially do rape rapists by committing them to so-called "maximum security" prisons where they get systematically brutalized and raped by guards and other inmates.) It's not a morally tenable position to lower ourselves to the level of brutes just so we can vindicate some idea of retribution.

Therefore, ask yourself why we should be happy when the spammer gets spammed? No one should have to endure the pain and annoyance of spam: it's the scurge of the online world. Not even the spammer, who may be in his business because of factors outside his control like debt or bills for an illness in the family, etc. We should be outraged when anyone is spammed, and we should put the full force of the state and the law against the perpetrator no matter who the victim! Picking and choosing among which victims to protect is something the legal order of former barbaric times did. I'd be disgusted if our government returned to those days.

Spam = bad. Victimization = bad. Why do people conflate the two? What kind of giddy moral superiority to you get from seeing anyone hurt?

Please do not lie sir! Security through obscurity is no security at all!

This vulnerability exists. Not only will your b0xen become r00tified, but you will contract AIDS and hemophilia! Upgrade now, before it's too late!

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Slashdot troll community when everybody confirmed that the troll community has dropped off the map yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of their original creativity. Coming on the heels of a recent realization which plainly showed that trolls are retards, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Trolls are not creative, educated, and is exemplified by repeated trolling attempts using the same old troll. You don't need to be a Psychologist to predict that the majority of trolls on the Slashdot website have no future. The crayon writing is on the wall: trolls face a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for trolls unless they learn to be more creative. Things are looking very bad for trolls. As many of us are already aware, trolls continue to lose appeal.

The "*BSD is dying" trollers are the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its original amusement and creativity. The gradual and unpleasant repetition over a long time only serves to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: trolls are retards.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

All the good trolls have ditched Slashdot. Such figures as Signal_11 have gone away to leave the retard trolls behind. How many creative trolls are there? Let's see. The number of creative trolls is roughly nil. Therefore there are far more retards than creative trolls.

Due to the suckiness of trolls, abysmal creativity skills and so on, good trolls have left Slashdot and went to Kuro5hin.

Fact: Trolls are retards.

For those interested in losing weight, I've found a mini-howto on the 'net that's worth looking at. It's more empirical than scientific, and has an enlightening personal story attached. It reinforces the less-calorie diet praised by the medical journal article. See this: The Fat Bloke's Guide to Becoming Less Fat

This doesn't seem very likely since Apple's assets total about 6 billion.

We can always quite literally pull the plug.

Read The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect , which was mentioned here weeks ago. Great story, and shows how a machine can obtain and surpass human intelligence without the opportunity for us to "pull the plug."

That said, I believe "the singularity" is at least 5 years off, but no more than 20. If you take care of your body (perhaps even if not), it'll happen within your lifetime.

Context for this can be found here.

See here for the translation/explanation of this post.

While Slashdot users put in a soda fountain, Kuro5hin users make mead by hand.

Xix.

but you can still see the comments there here.

I haven't been posting to /. much lately - I'd thought it was just me, but it looks like we do seem to have lost rather a lot of the intelligent, thoughtful old guard lately. While there are a few thoughtful responses above, and most of the moderators seem to have done the right thing, the number of even >1 moderation inane comments on /. in this case is way higher than it ought to be.

Guys, next time you see anything relating to global climate change, go read some of the actual science on it (Google will be happy to help) before posting here, ok?

...but not to worry. It is the proverbial 'Does the tree make a sound in the woods' question, every answer is right and wrong :) good read, wish you hadnt posted as AC so more would see it linked here.

Which raises an interesting question: Should /. 'ask' permission to link?

I think they most definately should.
With broadband connections in New Zealand, traffic in excess of your allocated traffic cap costs around 20 cents per megabyte (depending on the ISP). Given that a 2mbps downstream / 256kbps upstream connection from paradise.net.nz only comes with a 1 gigabyte international traffic allowance, someone running a site off their home cable connection that gets slashdotted is going to be in for a big bill.

Kuro5hin has a great writeup on the subject here.

In these times when the major media corporations suck at the tit of the ruling political party and largely publish only those items that the ruling political party wishes to be published

No, you've got it wrong. The media corporations aren't subservient to the government, they control it. It is they to whom the government gives its allegiance, because it is they who control the amount and nature of popular exposure any candidate will receive during an election run. And because the media corporations are corporations, and thus interested primarily in their own bottom line, they almost certainly sell their influence over the candidates to other corporations. This relationship has gone on long enough that it's highly symbiotic: the elected officials, and thus ultimately everyone in government, depends on the media corporations for favorable public exposure, and the media corporations (and any corporation that does business with them) depend on the government for favorable laws.

This is why the government answers to the corporations and not the people: because today there is no real difference between the corporations and the government anymore.

Yes, it's difficult to make that case convincingly, I think. But here's a first attempt (typed in a hurry, relies on people Googling for more information - in any event it simply isn't possible to give people a good education in US/UK foreign policy in 60 seconds. For that, you need to read Chomsky or Pilger or someone like that).

Did you know that k5 reported this item earlier in the day?

See the challenge by Rusty from Kuro5hin

Here's his audio clip

See the challenge by Rusty from Kuro5hin

Here's his audio clip

I boycott Dr. Seuss Enterprises because it submitted an amicus brief supporting the Bono Act. A K5 user once pretended to channel Dr. Seuss:

graal:
"Some are glad,
Some are sad,
And some are very, very bad.
Why are they sad, and glad and bad?"

pin0cchio:
"I'll tell you why they are so sad:
The Congress passed a law that's bad.
The public domain has been sacked
by what they called the 'Bono Act'.
And this made Eric Eldred shout:
'Let's get the courts to throw it out!'
But in their ruling, the Supremes
Told Larry Lessig, 'In your dreams.'
The public seemed to've lost the fight
For limits on the copyright.
But all is not lost, to be sure,
And you can help put reason back:
Just ask your rep and senator
To pass The Eric Eldred Act."

The K5 piece has a number of useful responses.

The K5 piece has a number of useful responses.

An in-progress discussion on the exact same topic with the exact same submit text, done by the same person, can be found at K5, here.

An in-progress discussion on the exact same topic with the exact same submit text, done by the same person, can be found at K5, here.

( Read More... | 37 of 47 comments ).

I'm interested as to why someone who has "nothing to hide" should be worried about mass surveillance by their government?

( Read More... | 37 of 47 comments ).

I would add to your list The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. It's an interesting look at an AI programed w/ Asmofs 3 laws of robotics...Also throws in the usual questions about the meaning of our life and what not
While it's a good read I would suggest that you keep the advisory in mind, there are some very gruesome scenes in the story

Kuro5hin has an article on Russian news reports derived from intercepted coalition communication. They even tell you how to do it and where to buy the equipment.

I'm really saddened by the recklessness of the Bush administration, endangering not only Iraqi civilians, but also British and American troops.

The main thesis of Tim Bray's original post was that he didn't like having to choose between either storing all his data in memory (i.e. DOM) or using a callbacks(i.e. SAX) when processing XML. The problem with this kind of thinking is that although it may have been true two or three years ago that the only way to process XML was via DOM or SAX this is no longer the case.

There are more classes of APIs supported on multiple platforms for processing XML such as pull-based APIs and cursor based APIs which are represented by the System.Xml.XmlReader and System.Xml.XPath.XPathNavigator in the .NET Framework. Similar APIs exist in the Java world as well as Python from what I've heard. This is besides the current push in some quarters for programming languages that natively process XML (i.e. intrinsicly understand an XML datamodel or datatype).

Tim Bray's original problem was that he doesn't have a pull-based API for XML parsing in Perl. I pointed out in my kuro5hin diary how the pseudo code he showed as being his ideal for processing XML already exists in C# and .NET Framework. This article on XML.com points to other people who also point out that such pull-based APIs for processing XML are available on other platforms and languages as well.