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There's also something nice about not having 30 cubic feet of space in a dorm room taken up by VHS tapes, cds, encyclopedia volumes, DVDs and other so called meatspace products. I doubt that you can accurately say that everyone or at least a critical number of people value a jewel case that's 5x the thickness of a cd taking up so much room. Trying to reduce the bulk of meatspace products?

• VHS? Try Hi8 instead; the tapes are much smaller, and the resolution is remarkably better.
• CD and DVD cases? There are CD wallets for that.
• Encyclopedia? Why bother? Britannica is already online and supported by ads.
• Mouse pad? Use a trackball.
• CD/DVD/etc? Try reading free books online. In fact, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells[?] is what led me to start collecting those blasted Precious Moments figurines, but that's another node.

I propose that if there is a solution to this. Abolish all forms of MPEG format.

This could be a good thing for free software. Two words: Ogg Vorbis. Even the early beta encoders beat MP3 in quality at the same bitrate, and it's only going to get better. Recent LAME builds support encoding to both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis formats.

PPC is the processor used in IBM's RS/6000 machines

RS/6000 (or whatever) machines use a POWER architecture processor. POWER is a high-end multiple-chip processor designed for big iron; PowerPC is a microprocessor derived from the POWER architecture, designed for embedded systems.

fly all the way to jupiter and still don't know how to use bladeenc

Better yet, use LAME Audio MP3 Encoder. Despite the name, it's reported to have better subjective quality than bladeenc. And if you can't figure out how to use it, here's a cheat sheet:

lame -h -v -m m rpws_010104.wav

Since they're stored in an SRAM chip, should they be able to just read them out?

It's tamper-proof. Whenever the battery voltage changes, the SRAM holding the keys clears itself. This has come to be known as "Capcom Suicide."

24 bits per spot means that it has to differ between 2^24 (16777216) different shades of grey

Or 256 shades in the blue layer, 256 shades in the green layer, and 256 shades in the red layer, as modern scanners do.

...from the MPAA. Hollywood doesn't want you burning DVDs of even your own home movies. Hollywood wants to be the exclusive provider of all content that appears on US television screens. And Hollywood has already secured this, with traditional analog television broadcasts ceasing on January 1, 2006; it's very possible that all digital broadcasts will be pay-per-view, with all television time logged and the data sent to the mothership.
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?

Why not use DVD-RAM?

DVD players and DVD-ROM drives cannot read DVD-RAM discs. Don't let the name fool you; it's like those old PD drives that could read CD-ROMs and read and write 650 MB phase-change discs. Good for backup and CD mastering but not good for distribution to end users.

but with the (eternally) soon-to-be-released recordable DVD formats

These will be loaded with so much copyright control (DVD CCA is also the 4C Entity) that the only files you'll be allowed to store are works you create yourself and works created before January 1, 1923 (in the US at least). This means that you will need to be in a band to store music on your DVD-R, and you can only store your band's music. And you definitely won't be able to encrypt files on DVD-R, as decryption of works you didn't create is a violation of 17 USC 1201.

CEO, CIO, CTO, etc. are not acronyms. They're just abbreviations. An acronym is an abbreviation that also fits within the phonotactic structure of a language so as to be pronounceable (e.g. "SHIT" for "Specialized High-Intensity Training[?]" or "INDOT" for "Indiana Department of Transportation").
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?

...LinuxBIOS or some other embedded Linux kernel.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

Just think, why bother booting the whole OS when you just need to get your Tetris fix

...when you can run it on a Game Boy? Seriously, just about the only platforms that have Tetris are Nintendo, Wintendo, DOS, and Macintosh. The Tetris Company has not licensed TETRIS® on UNIX® systems.

But that's not counting Tetris-compatible games that don't bear the TETRIS® trademark, such as Quadra and TOD: Tetanus On Drugs.

It would be more useful to be able to do something like playing GTK Tetris while your new distro is installing.

Not Tetris. The Tetris Company has not yet licensed the TETRIS® trademark for use on a UNIX® system or clone. This didn't stop tetriscloners from doing their job though; they simply changed the name to something like "Bricks 2000", "Bedter", "Quadra", or "Tetanus".

If you really want to impress the sheeple[?], use the TOD engine. With features from The New Tetris, Quadra, and Tetripz, plus split-screen support and cross-platform compatibility thanks to the Allegro library, it's sure to impress.

GTK+ is already on WintenDOS 9x/NT. See also WinGIMP.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

PDAs owner will now be able to participate in the KDE/Gnome wars

Even NES emulator owners can participate with the GNOME vs. KDE: Battle of the Desktops ROM.

Indeed, a language that did bounds checking on arrays (and completely didn't support pointers) could have avoided this problem

Pointers are necessary for vector support, which is one of two conditions necessary for Turing completeness[?] (the other is conditionals). If you can't point into an array, you can't move the head over the tape.

If by "pointers" you meant "pointer arithmetic," on the other hand, I see your point. The Java and Scheme languages do not support pointer arithmetic.

anything that says UNDER CONSTRUCTION

What if the site is about something else that's under construction, such as a software package? What would a building construction company do?

clear 1X1 pixel gifs used for spacing with alt tags that say "spacer"

I agree here. Ditch the spacers except in Netscape 4.x which can't render CSS; even then, a spacer's alt tag should be alt=""

don't use javascript to display text

How do you generate dynamic content if you aren't paying big bux0r$$$ for access to a cgi-bin folder? The only way is through client-side EcmaScript or Java technology.

websites that play music

So are you saying that web-based interfaces to the Napster service are unacceptable? Sometimes, the music is the content, but I see your point when the music is there just for flashturbation[?].

websites that try to determine your browser type and give you messages about needing a different browser - deal with what I have. You're in no position to require me to do anything.

Even piece-of-crash Nutscrape 4.x?

more than one animated gif on a page

I agree here. Animation should be used with moderation; even then, it should be done using PNGs and EcmaScript (or MNGs in 6.0 browsers), not GIFs.

I'd like to add one more: right-click traps[?]. See also the Right-Click Trap Shit List.

That is why div tags and CSS exist. You don't need spacers. Read the CSS2 and HTML 4.01 spec.

And watch your audience complain when CSS gives Netscape 4.x a bluescreen. There has to be different content served to Netscape 4.x users and IE/Mozilla users.

No, it is completely NOT necessary with css.

Unless you're selling DVDs, you don't have to worry about CSS issues.

Oh, that CSS. Cascading style sheets. The one that crashes Netscape 4.x, one of the most popular browsers on the Net (because Mozilla won't run well on their 32 MB machines). If you're using CSS layout, you may want to use a DeCSS filter to remove the formatting for those who are behind Nutscrape.

That's because some of them probably know about it and are still using old Netscape as a stealth Personal JavaServer to get around "no servers" TOS restrictions. "Well, I was just running Netscape!"
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

If you write your Occam's Razor[?] essay, please post it on Everything 2.

I maintain a list of web sites that use the infamous right-click trap[?]. Nissan.com goes into the shitlist in the next site update.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

I maintain a list of web sites that use the infamous right-click trap[?]. Nissan.com goes into the shitlist in the next site update.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

Hmmm... I wonder, does Microsoft have a license to use Apple's TrueType patents?

Yes. MS got a license way back in the Windows 3.1 days in a cross-licensing deal that involved MS's PostScript-like TrueImage technology.

Ever heard of a good opensource game? Freeciv? LOL.

What about TOD? or Hampsterdeath? or Tux Racer? Or any of the many cross-platform Allegro games? Or the entire GNOME Entertainment collection? I forgive you for not having looked hard enough.

A copyright license is a form of contract. One who modifies or distributes GPL licensed code agrees to the terms of the contract.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

Since when does using a precompiled library make you responsible for distributing it and publishing source?

Since the libraries do not become preinstalled on Windows systems. Since the user (who most likely just escaped from the zoo that is AOL) doesn't know how to download the libraries from OSDN SourceForge and install them. Therefore, you must include the libraries in your distribution, and because you are distributing binaries, you must also distribute the source for the cost of media, shipping, and handling.

Title 17, United States Code, provides statutory damages of $200 to $100,000 or more for copyright infringement, even when there are no actual damages.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

I don't pay for Linux, I dnld it and use it for free.

In some parts of the world (including most of Europe AFAIK), an Internet connection is still billed by the minute. Even then, a connection fast enough to download a multi-CD distro in less than a day (shipping time) may cost more than the distro costs at cheapbytes.com.

"Full featured" software can still be fast and small if the developers know what they're doing.

Why not pick up the phone?

A long-distance call to the other side of the planet still costs about fifty U.S. cents a minute, as opposed to local calls, which cost two cents a minute in some countries or a flat monthly fee in others. I don't know about you, but I'd rather local-call my ISP than long-distance call my friends across the pond.

I use ICQ so I don't have to check my email every 5 minutes.

That's why you have a script check your mail (playing gotmail.wav if you have any) and put it in a cron job to run every five minutes.

Microsoft delays release of Windows 2000, and the Linux community screams in delight that it must really suck, despite the pretty-damn-stable RC builds

Were the Win2kRC? releases available to the public? (No, I'm not talking about d.net's RC5 brute-forcer either.) The Mac OS 10 beta and Linux 2.4 beta are both OutNow. The 2.4-test releases are betas; this article is about Linux 2.4 RC1.

No wait, every Microsoft operating system release is a public beta.

Thanks to this "portable" language, it's near impossible to get Freenet to work on Linux.

Get Freenet to work? Or get a specific client to work (granted, it is the official client)? You could always use another client written in C, or you could use gcj to compile the Java(TM) language code into a native app.

I've been unable to compile or run any programs written with allegro over the last 6 months (since I first started trying) ... DOSisms ...

Subscribe to the Allegro mailing list; there may be someone willing to help you get Allegro working. It worked without a hitch on my Red Hat 6 and Slackware 7 boxen.

I don't care whether or not a fellow is Jewish. I just don't like a big nose, as it signifies dishonesty.

Well, most GNU/Linux distributions come with a sh*tload of games in both GNOME and KDE. And they often have higher fun factors than Fake III Arena or whatever FPS-of-the-month the sheeple are buying. Also, most Allegro games (such as TOD: Tetanus On Drugs and freepuzzlearena) recompile seamlessly on Linux.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

IIRC, DirectX 8 loses the DirectDraw API, replacing it with Direct2D, a shell around Direct3D.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

Binary executables are relatively small.

And UPX (an executable packer) makes them even smaller on DOS, Linux, Win32, and several other targets.

It would be nice if the game developers would actually use a cross-platform engine to begin with,

I've had good luck with Allegro 3.9.33. It's a cross-platform 2D gaming library; there's an add-on package to make it interface with Mesa3d or OpenGL. You wouldn't believe how easily it is to recompile a Linux Allegro game for Windows or DOS.

See, I haven't contributed anything to the Linux community at all

If you feel guilty, you could

• Write software for the GNU/Linux system.
• Write documentation for the GNU/Linux system, especially if you speak human languages other than American.
• Buy a boxed GNU/Linux distribution. This funds development of the GNU/Linux system.
• Donate to Free Software Foundation. This funds development of GNU, the POSIX layer that runs on Linux (and on HURD). You can even specify FSF on your United Way "specific request."
• Buy a computer from VA Linux Systems or Penguin Computing. This supports hardware manufacturers who are not in bed with Microsoft <cough>winmodems</cough>.

MP3s are an open standard.

Warning: Open does not necessarily imply free; for instance, the Apple Public Source License is not a Free Software license.

Anyone can download CDex w/ LAME for free and roll their own MP3s.

And infringe several United States patents (and foreign counterparts) in the process.

that to people who aren't programmers, compiling the source is a very tough and confusing thing to do.

Only for packages that haven't been properly supported in the configure script. For most packages, ./configure; make; su -c make install works just fine.

And RPMs? A bunch of arcane names and errors with dependencies is certainly not "user-friendly" or "easy".

Apt-get handles dependencies automatically, and IIRC, recent apt-get can act as an RPM wrapper.

This really isn't Flash, but .swf files

And what else did you think swf stood for? None other than Shockwave Flash.

Jesus fucking Christ on a popsicle stick

Let's analyze this. Jesus is commonly called Christ. Fscking oneself is another term for masturbation. Why would Jesus be shoving a Popsicle® stick up his ass?

Now, with that out of the way:
Besides, ink on dead tree isn't going anywhere. For long format fiction it's still a far better experience that etext

Especially because etext refers to books in public domain, especially those published by Project Gutenberg. eBook is the term for those proprietary, copy-controlled, encrypted-out-the-ass electronic texts of works still under copyright. And don't count on any more literature expiring into the public domain, as Disney buys 20 more years of copyright for everything every 20 years, effectively putting everything written on or after January 1, 1923, under perpetual copyright.

Now to address the other side of that: I know CRTs suck cock. That's why I do most of my reading on an LCD. Subpixel text rendering using individual color channels for finer anti-aliasing can make a good LCD look almost as good as paper.

Richard M. Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation Inc., wrote a dystopian piece about pay-per-view eBooks called The Right to Read.
Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo.

Such as the freedom not to buy it in the first place?

Does not apply. The return policy does not allow "unbuying" what has already been bought without prior knowledge of the terms.

and SETI is an incredibly worthless disinformation campaign run to keep Earth in the dark about the presence of intelligent life outside of our solar system

And distributed.net is incredibly worthless disinformation campaign run to keep Earth in the dark about the presence of unbreakable strong encryption, correct?

Flatland, like most popular works of classic literature written before 1923, is available from Project Gutenberg. It's also available from Project Nodeberg (Everything's partial PG mirror) here.

Sadly, nothing written on or after January 1, 1923, will ever expire into the public domain because of atrocities like the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Every 20 years, Disney buys another 20 years of copyright in every major jurisdiction.

A WYSIWYG editor that will run from a terminal screen

What do you mean "terminal screen"? A WYSIWYG editor won't easily run in the VGA's text mode, as WYSIWYG editors require proportional fonts.

Sorry, guys, but vi and emacs both suck bigtime for former Windows users!

I agree with you on vi(le); try pico, joe, jed, etc. But Emacs isn't that hard. The seven commands you need to know for Emacs are

• open: Ctrl+x Ctrl+f
• save: Ctrl+x Ctrl+s
• quit: Ctrl+x Ctrl+c
• start selection: Ctrl+space
• cut: Ctrl+w
• copy: Alt+w
• paste: Ctrl+y