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"Can There Be Open Source Love Letters? or just endless forks of each other, never truly heartfelt, never truly satisfying?"

See Nina Paley's "The Cult of Originality": http://blog.ninapaley.com/2009/12/28/the-cult-of-originality/

In particular, the "I love you" cartoon near the end.

This means Silverlight will dynamically adjust the video and audio bitrate so that even users on less-than-fast lines can stream Silverlight video content.

I doubt that Silverlight is anything special in that regard. I would be stunned to learn that it used anything other than a standard codec like vc1 and just switches between a couple of different bit-rate streams that were pre-encoded.

This being said, the DRM probably isn't as needed by the Netflix itself but the content providers.

Nope. Netflix lurves DRM. They will force it on viewers even when the producer does not want it. Hell, they won't even let the producer put up a message at the start of the movie to tell viewers they can get a DRM-free copy.

Why would I pay Netflix when they won't bother to support my OS? If they want my money, they can port their software to my OS, or they can package Wine with their software, and support that.

They would also have to change their policy on DRM-free content before they get any of my money. I'm willing to pay for TV, I'm even willing to watch their ads. I'm not willing to facilitate an effort to make DRM the norm.

But with GNU you have the right to modify and redistribute and I kinda doubt Netflix allows that to occur so if it were licensed under GNU they would be in violation.

Not only does netflix require that all shows they distributed be tried down with DRM, they even forbid the author from including a blurb at the start of the movie telling viewers were to get a DRM-free version.

It doesn't matter to Netflix, it matters to media companies, and if you want to make their content available you have to play by their rules.

Netflix was the one demanding DRM for `Sita Sings the Blues', which ultimately kept the film out of the `on demand' line-up even though it's in Netflix's DVD-rental library.

When Netflix approached the author (and copyright-holder) and asked for a streaming deal, the response they got was `yes, but only if there's no DRM'. Netflix wouldn't budge.

http://www.ninapaley.com/NinasAdventures/NewAdv11. htm

OGG MAKE MORE OGGs! Ogg live forever!

She actualy used to have her strip published in the "toons" a weekly paper full of cartoons published here in ames.

anyway, I always figured her for the reactionary type. Annoying those people. Here is a self portrate she drew of herself. Interesting.

Nina's Adventures - "Ecollusion"

Nina's Adventures - "Ecollusion"

Seriously - if you're not shooting blanks, and you sleep with a woman, you're taking the full financial risk of any progeny that may be developed. Them's the legal breaks. The alternative - that the law permit a male be able to force a female to have an abortion against her will, Just Doesn't Work in any ethical scheme, no matter how twisted, I can dream up.

If you don't want kids, and you posess a Y chromosome, get thyself snipped. It's the best birthday present you'll ever give yourself. And if your partner doesn't want kids either, it's the best present you can give her too. For less than $500, it's a hell of a lot cheaper and safer than asking your partner to have a tubal ligation.

Here's some recommended reading for both for those who don't want kids, and for those who do, but can't understand why we don't. (I particularly liked Why books are better than babies.

Another website for your perusal: alt.support.childfree.moderated archive.

Finally, to the Epopt, who said that folks who described having children as "pointless" as "obsessively self-centered": a reminder that obsessive self-centeredness can be as much a trait of breeders as it is of the childfree. (Woo-hoo, I get to re-use a link from yesterday's post!)

(But - in the Epopt's defence - while I resent his implied characterization of the childfree as selfish, he's quite right in one thing: if you have to ask, you'll never understand. That goes for both sides of the "to sprog or not to sprog" debate. While I understand the reasons for spawning on the surface, I'll never grok in fullness the desire to sprog. A few years ago, I broke off a 5-year relationship because we were each dumb enough to get into it before realizing that we just couldn't agree on this subject. We've remained friends - she's got 2 kids now and is ecstatic about it, and I've got none and am equally ecstatic. Had we continued our relationship, it would have been hell. She'd curse me for the child I'd never give her, or I'd curse her for the one she saddled me with. Eech.

As one who probably would be tempted to "throw 'em away" if I ever ended up with one, I took the responsibility for making damn sure I'd never end up with one in the first place. Better for me, better for my companion, and better for a putative kid not to exist at all than to have me as a Dad!

I'm a firm believer in the "if you don't like 'em, don't have 'em" school. Naturally, if you do like kids, go nuts. After all, someone's gotta breed more geeks to make up for those of us who prefer DOOM's "Knee-deep in Dead" to the Mommy Track's "Elbow-deep in baby shit!" :-)

I'm currently living with my best friend. We've known each other for >10 years, and I've asked her out during that time, but she wasn't interested. She still ain't. Never will be. (You know the old saying, "if a woman don't sleep with you in the first 10 years, she probably never will?") Apart from the occasional hug of sympathy when Shit Happens, we've never laid a finger on each other. Certainly nothing sexual.

Now that we've hung out for 10-odd years, I can see it's just as well - a year or so ago, she told me she wanted to have kids someday, something which I find horrific. (Hey geeks, if you think women are buggy, try kids! If your pet dog knocked things over everywhere it went, and spent two years pissing and shitting all over itself, and thought that puking on your shoulder was a nice way to say "hello", you'd probably have it put down! Somehow when sproggen do it, it's considered "cute". Sigh.)

"So where's the sex?", I hear you cry. Gentlemen (and ladies, hey, these roles can just as easily be reversed), evolution provided you with all the equipment you require for orgasm. A hint: mix genitals and hands. Your built-in feedback system should take care of the rest.

Back to my platonic friend, roommate, and for lack of a better term, love o' my life. Having her around has been a breath of fresh air. Someday she'll find Mr. Right and move on. But in the meantime, my rent's been cut in half, and I have a dinner companion whenever I want one. When the day comes that she moves on, I'll happily revert to bachelorhood.

Happily? Yeah, happily. Fact is, there ain't too many women out there who don't want sprog, so the odds of me finding Ms. Right are pretty much nil. So I'm outa the gene pool. Big deal. Because of this, I can go to LAN parties, play Quake and Rainbow Six 'till all hours of the night, enjoy some smut when the urge strikes, and if I feel like "going caveman" and not bothering with showering or shaving for a 3-day coding binge, hey, so be it. Life is so hard.

So let's see the suburban minivan-driving, it-seats-6-sproggen crowd top that for a lifestyle? "Sorry, we can't make it to the opera tonight, couldn't find a babysitter. Quake? It scares the kids when I turn the subwoofer on. Pr0n? I get the real thing from my wife... um, but only on her terms. Code? I remember coding all night for the hell of it. Once. Now every time I get deeply into a problem, I'm interrupted by a shriek that could shatter jello. Bratleigh wants the bottle again, either that or I'm gonna be up to my elbows in baby shit... again. But hey, at least I found a girl. I'm happy. Really."

Want companionship? Someone to love? Find a good friend and make the most of it.

Wanna fuck? Wanking is cheap, readily-available, and it's guilt-free.

To put it another way - love and sex are the evolutionarily-developed bribes to make you go through the hassle of finding a partner and raising umpteen sprog to propagate your genes. But you're a homo sapiens, fer chrissakes. That's Latin for "thinking (wo)man". You've got a huge-ass brain. Why not use it to figure out a solution that gives you the joy of being with someone you love, the pleasure of all the sex you want, and the freedom that comes with not having sproggen? Where is it written that you have to sprog, and/or that you have to get your love and sex from the same source? If you can get 'em from the same source, great (and having a good friend is a good way to start anyways) - but don't worry if you can't.

As a final note - for anyone who suggests that being childfree is somehow "immature" or "selfish", might I recommend the comics of Nina Paley?