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Slashback: Solidity, Sneakiness, Recovery
Vivid Video, take note: NickElm writes: "The 3Dwm project, already featured twice before on Slashdot (the last time little more than a year ago), is still alive and kicking and making steady progress. This summer, we added CSG support, full VNC interaction, and our first real application (a 3Dwm clock). To top it off, Xybernaut recently donated two wearable computers to the project, perfect platforms for this kind of thing. 3Dwm packages have existed for Debian for quite some time, and we were just now adopted by Mandrake as well. What are you waiting for, download it and try it out for yourself! Still far from a complete user environment, but we're getting there..."
Do you want your iTunes iBack, little iBoy? pinqkandi writes "Apple has released some tips on getting back your data lost by the iTunes Installer for Mac OS X. If you haven't written to the partition where the loss occured, you should be able to get it back with Tech Tool Pro or Norton Utilities. Apple's tips warn to NOT use a Volume Recover feature in these utilities, but instead use their tools to recover lost data. Also, boot from a CD before recovering data, and also follow your utility's maker's directions. Unfortunately, no free utilities are listed for the recovery."
The sort of details you'll find on page 17 in small print. ARP writes "A while ago RatedPC brought us some scoop of HP's upcoming Digital Entertainment Center de100c. At first this unit seems to be a perfect addition to home theatre systems right? Well, you better forget about it if you think you are going to use it to share music or make your own CDs from your MP3 collection. What HP hasn't told us is they have been seriously whipped by DRM (Digital Rights Management). An internal FAQ has revealed that users will be unable to use CD-RWs to burn off their own CDs. You will need to buy "Digital Audio Discs" and royalties from these discs are distributed to artists via the RIAA. And you can't transfer your songs to your PC either. Without a doubt RIAA's foothold has extended much above just this. Don't be surprised if it won't play your MP3 collection because they are not digitally signed. The problem is that RIAA will be riding high on HP success with this product and their grip will be firmer when it comes to controlling what you will do with your music."
A similar problem affects the otherwise very cool-looking Terapin video recorder, which I would pick up in a heartbeat if it worked with regular CD-Rs. The HP website talks about burning tracks to CD, but makes no mention of such restrictions; I hope this is simply bad information, but it seems quite likely that "burning to CD" in this case will mean burning to industry-sanctioned CDs with their accompanying surcharge. Can anyone provide further information?
I don't get the reference to Vivid Video.
What does a major porn distributor have to do with 3Dwm?
Apple is offering users who lost data using the initial version of the iTunes 2.0 for OS X installer both reimbursement for purchase of Norton Utilities and/or data recovery services.
g i? ubb=get_topic&f=45&t=000637
http://newforums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.c
I can't say I'm totally suprised by the move from HP. With their upcoming merger with Compaq, there is no doubt that they are worried about possible legal action from others while they are vulnerable. This move by them for DRM is really only to protect themselves. I don't like it, but I can't really blame them.
As for the 3Dwm, great idea! I hope you guys keep it going. Something like that could be very good for UIs in the future.
And the Apple stuff. Hmm. Not an Apple user myself since Elementary School, so I won't seriously comment.
Which is what any data recovery pro could have told you.
But many modern systems are sold with only one partition. and there is the added question of virtual memory systems such as used in Mac and windows. The Mac OSX setup, based on BSD, should not have this as a big issue, if they use the typical swap partition.
(and some people wonder why you would not put it all into one large partition!)
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I managed to get v2.0.1 later this weekend and re-installed, just to be on the safe-side, and in case there were any other changes.
The improvements like the EQ, crossfade and faster burning are nice. It doesn't crossfade when burning, though, which stinks - but otherwise you couldn't track-change. You can burn MP3 CDs now, too.
A costly upgrade for some... ;) But pretty darned nice if it works out, which should be for the majority of the people.
Hey, give Apple a chance - they're a little new to this Unix thing. Heh. MacOS X fully rocks.
It's nice that they're doing the right thing.
"Unfortunately, no free utilities are listed for the recovery."
Well, for what it's worth, us Mac users are already used to paying out the nose for stuff. I happen to have both Norton Utilities and TechTool Pro actually, and I don't know a Mac user who doesn't have one or the other. They're excellent resources in a pinch.
For those of you who claim that with "Apple's stuck-up attitude about it's OS" that it should come with these sorts of utilities, understand that Norton Utilities for the Mac is much different from Norton "Let's baby the infantile user" Utilities for Windows. TechTool Pro and NU bring out the power users in the Macintosh community. Oh...and IAAPOBIHAMAW. (I am a PC owner but I have a Mac at Work)
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
He offered to reimburse me for the purchase of nortan utilities, and to have it sent to DriveSavers (apparently a company that recovers data from harddrives) on Apple's dime.
While the whole situation sucks, at least steps are being taken in the right direction. Anyone have confirmation of the account? How about accounts of other companies taking similar steps. I am quite curious.
There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. -- Dr. Who
This is not a problem, it's a blessing, as at $1000 HP will sell few of these. Then we can all point to the RIAA's DRM component as the reason for lousy sales (it's certainly a major reason I wouldn't buy one, even at half the price). To make this work, everyone here should write HP a nice snail-mail letter politely telling them that you were interested in the de100c until you learned of the DRM crap.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Pros: Looks pretty and fits in with the rest of my entertainment system, neato little remote, able to d/l new music (marginal in my skeptical opinion)
Cons: I gotta buy a $6 (?)dollar blank disc so that Britney isn't robbed of her royalties, potentially "signed" format preventing me free movement of my files from the device, to my PC, to my iPod, whatever. Also, broadband link to my music collection, potentially showing them, what music I have, and what I'm listening to (marketing anyone?)
Here's my solution. Buy yourself a cheap old box (I a P3 350 on ebay for under $100), throw a big HD and a CD-RW on it, and hide it in your entertainment system. Not as pretty, sure, but cheap, and no big brother RIAA.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
The HP recorder probably only writes to the "CD for audio recorders" - the ones they sell for standalone CD->CD consumer audio devices. Nothing new for that market segment.
The media generally costs twice as much as normal CD's, even though it is basically identical - the extra is for the RIAA tax that is placed on the media.
BBK
...Which is precisely what they do with their printers. They give them away, sometimes even losing money initially, but wait... people need... toner! Yeah that's it, we'll charge an arm and a leg for finely ground plastic!
To be semi on-topic, I can't believe that HP's new mp3 device is so limiting. It seems that the old HP would have gone with what people really want, and not bow to the RIAA and all this digital protection crap. Look what happened with Napster: You used to have one mp3-sharing company to kill, now you have 50 small, flexible, and no-one-person-owns-me mp3 sharing networks/programs. They really shot themselves in the foot on this one!
Viva la resistance.
Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.
So I clicked on the link looking for enlightenment, and all it was was some porn site.
Then the boss walked in...
Then the popups started popping up.
"Yes, I was doing my job I was reading Slashdot and the article linked...
"...Oh, never mind"
Stand Fast,
tjg.
the thing to do here is to go into stores and badmouth it to the sales reps, tell them that they'll get a bunch of returns and it is a bogus system because the customers can not use the device the way they think they could.
Now sales geek do _not_ like dealing with customer returns from angry customers, and likes to know about insider secrets so that customers will think he has a clue.
So talk up the bad points - special HP only CD Media, etc.
"yeh, you can't use the regular blanks, you got to use their special cd blanks. and it can only be played on their machine, no place else. It is as bad as the ink cartridges. A real dog man."
make this stuff go the way of the DIVX format. (remember that?)
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
First of all, you might be interested to know that 3DWM is now available for Mandrake Linux (RPMs, here).
Second, some thoughts on how the iTunes fiasco can hurt Apple. Not only does this further embarass the company but also goes to say that their bug fixing department can't really be trusted too much. This was a rather large bug and suggests that not too much testing was done. If Apple becomes known for releasing buggy software that crashes your computer then they might dig themselves even deeper graves in the tech industry.
Onto the third subject, he says that you cannot transfer files from the HP Digital Entertainment center to your PC. Two things. One, the device has USB ports. Something tells me that people will find a way to hack it. Second, the part about not being able to use CD-RWs (you have to pay for special RIAA approved discs) is probably also hackable in some way shape or form. The RIAA will never win.
the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
I used to have a high opinion of Norton Utilities-- until I paid through the nose for a version (6.0 something) that didn't boot my iBook (500 Mhz) because the install disk didn't have a recent enough finder (I needed 9.1)-- and that I was unable to get it working in OSX. My problems were unrelated to the iTunes fiasco.)
Does anybody know how how to burn a bootable Norton Utilities CD (with System 9.2)? Is it posssible to do this using the Apple CD Burner program?
Not after the RIAA did the deal to make sure the iTunes deleted all those naughty MP3 files of N'Sync and Britney! Stop it! Take the hint! Bad! Bad!
(Then again, deleteing a disk full of N'Sync and Britney tunes * IS * a good thing)
"Old Rallydrivers never die - they just fail to book in on time"
Pardon my ignorance, but it's my understanding that the only difference between regular CDR's and CDR-Audio (outside of the outrageous price difference) is a "few bits" that are burned onto the media to tell the device, "Hey, I'm a CDR-Audio disk".
Accordingly, wouldn't it be possible for someone to write a utility that will write those "few bits" onto a regular CDR and solve the problem?
Or am I missing something here?
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
I know it's not the same, but it does feel similar to what the MPAA tried to pull with Divx. Divx of course failed because customers didn't want to buy crippled equipment, and rightly so. Perhaps HP will face a similar response here.
Region coding is another example of crippling for profit, but unlike say Divx, it didn't affect the majority of customers. In the major markets of US and Japan, only a few would seek to play DVDs from outside their native region. Europe was more badly affected, and DVD still hasn't taken off in Australia really, due to the paucity of region 4 releases outside the big titles.
HP's crippling though would become apparent everytime one tried to record on it. What is Digital Audio Media, other than a disingenuous choice of name? I'm presuming it's the same as the (expensive) CD-Audio disks, which or course are just CD-R with magic mark on it for the benefit of (presumably) the RIAA.
Similar shenanigans killed DAT as a home medium, but maybe the other features of the HP device will win out. Recording aside, it does look like a nice piece of kit.
The best stuff is always rejected. Anywho: there's another 3DUI project in the works using the Quake engine, up on Source Forge. It's a Win32 shell replacement for now with the possibility of integration into a Linux distro later; if it survives.
Any spoon would be too big.
these discs are distributed to artists via the RIAA
that is probably not exactly correct, according to this account at salon.com, the artists are the LAST people that are likely to see any of this money...
First off, anyone deep in the mp3 world would never ever buy something like that. You already have several devices that are worlds better and cheaper. and finally..... The mp3 user already has a computer and a CD burner is $59.00 at Best buy.
No DRM crap, and no content control.
If you really want that integrated device do a searxh for linux and CAJUN on google and build one yourself for less, without DRM, and get higher quality playback (esp if you use a SB Live or better Sound card)
Nice try HP, I'll keep using my audiotron and my PC which does more and was less money with the network wiring,100base switch and wall plates for the Cat5 cable.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Actually, region coding has resulted in the wide availability of DVD decks altered defeat region coding (and Macrovision) in Europe and Australia. (Although it seem Phase II DVDs are designed to make this impossible by requiring the drive itself to enforce region coding, not the DVD player firmware).
I had hopes for the HP unit, but hearing this I will avoid it like a Hand Addressed Envelope full of white powder.
:-)
We all know that this stuff is simple with a linux box. Why dont we get together, and build up a mini-distribution and software for a roll your own version of this.
Find a smallish PC box that can do reasonable audio in and out, tv out, cdrw, IR for remote control. The software is there, it just has to be put together to make it appliance simple to use.
Make it so simple to install, setup, and use that even a windows user can do it
Are you paranoid if you know that they just want to know everything you say and do?
* One Microsoft-bought double-agent at Cupertino: $4million
* Two covert lunch meetings with top RIAA officials: $120
* Steve Jobs' Facial Expression: Priceless.
The only thing that could possibly make it better (for the bad guys, you troll-modding trigger-finger amateur 'moderators'!) would to have the installer play the 'sosumi' System 7 beep
(for those not hip to the jive: Apple promised recording company Apple Records Inc. that it would never, ever record any sounds sohelpthembunny, but they did anyway, so they named the sound 'sosumi'.
)
- undoware.ca
If you have to hack it to make it work as it should, then RIAA has already won.
It's a case of winning a battle but loosing the war.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Unless they wear webbed gloves...
Rumors are that CD-Audio format media benefit from some strip of data that enables them to be used in regular, standalone CD recorders. Is this true? What is the actual difference between these and regular CD-R's? Is there a program to convert them, or is it on a hardware level?
The front page of 3dWM's website asks, "Why Not?" The reason not to is given by their own promotional material. They note that the command line is 1-D, the desktop is 2-D, and their product is 3-D. Well, not quite. It's still being displayed on a 2-D device (a monitor), and it's still controlled and manipulated by a 2-D device (a mouse). 3-D user interface paradigms hold promise when the parts that interface with the user are actually 3-D (think: volumetric displays; hand-mounted, motion-sensing pointing devices). Otherwise, getting things done becomes more difficult and less intuitive.
"More information" indeed. I can't believe no one's mentioned this yet, but...
Chapter 10 of 17 USC (federal copyright law) requires that all manufacturers and importers of digital audio devices in the US incorporate Serial Copy Management System or similar systems into their devices, and pay royalties into a central fund. These royalties are then distributed to the American Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, music publishers, lyricists, and directly to "interested copyright parties" which includes copyright owners (potentially studios) and artists themselves.
In return, the public is granted the right to make unlimited copies of music on digital audio devices, though of course they may not circumvent copy protection if it is turned on. (The law does not require that all artists enable it.)
Note that "digital audio devices" do not include general-purpose computers. Sorry, all you peer-to-peer fans. Thank the Audio Home Recording Act. (Not the DMCA.)
See the full text of the law yourself.
Everyone should know this, right? Maybe I only think so because I'm writing my thesis on the topic. 8P
-B.
(Semi-obscure time zone reference there.)
The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
like all of you here who are so for the break up of MS. I don't like Bill Gates' business practices any better than you do, but what I hate is the federal gov't becoming involved in an industry that depends on inovation.
If you love something, set it free, if it comes back, it is yours forever, if the fed gets it, it never was.
Never has there been a bigger life sucking entity than the US Fed govt. They produce nothing, yet we gladly give them more money to produce even more nothing.
The bottom line is if they suceed in breaking up MS, then who knows what is next. Some lame ass congressman or senator finds out that Linux is free, and not subject to federal taxation, declares that it is evil on the basis of so and so.....
sound familiar, it should.
This country is founded on the free market system. Let the market work as it should.
If you think the HP device is a unique device, just wait. Before long, all consumer electronics will have to pass the "Copyright protection test" where the various industry leaders vote on how big a piece of the pie they are intitled to. Think back 30 or so years when the IBM clone first came out. If that where to happen now, it would be killed by legislation and copyright infringment litigation.
So the next time you start getting excited about MS being broke up, remember that your pet ox is the next one in the goreing queue.
The digital-audio disc requirement shouldn't be surprising; it's a consumer electronic device; since it's not a PC, it's not excluded from the existing legislation on this.
But if it doesn't play non-signed MP3's it will go nowhere. I'd be surprised if that turns out to be true, though.
(ok, I know this is flamebait...)
* You'd pay a predefined tax every time you bought an empty bottle
* The water would be poisoned in such a manner that you could drink it but you couldn't let friends have a sip
* You couldn't transfer the water from their bottle to a different container (people in uniforms would knock down your door and throw you in jail)
* You couldn't *describe* a manner in which to extract water from their bottles and put it into a different container (again, you might get thrown in jail)
* The government would be lobbied so that all manufacturers of bottles of any type must conform to the rules the RIAA sets out, namely not allow the transfer of contents between bottles. This might even extend to straws or spigots. It would also obviously impact containers that were never specifically intended or designed to contain water.
* You might not even be able to resell the bottled water if you didn't use it, or found you didn't like it
* The price of water would go through the roof
* The water would taste like crap anyway, all the good springs having long since run out of business
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?