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Slashback: GameBand, Nexia, Lunarocks
Not a paperweight. 13Echo writes: "CSI, the manufacturer of the Dreamcast broadband adapter, is extending its reservations option by another week. They wish to meet a goal of 1,000 units before production will start. A rough Babelfish translation can be found here. This device is very beneficial in Dreamcast home-brew software development, and is also supported in the various Linux and BSD distributions on the Dreamcast. It is available for pre-order from this page at NCSX, or other import shops at a price of US $49.00. If any other Slashdotters are interested, now is the last time that we will be able to get one of these things. I've already placed my order with NCSX."
How about sell moon bits to sponsor the trips up there? Anonymous Coward points to this AP report which begins: "Four grains of moon dust brought to Earth by the first manned lunar mission were stolen from a space exhibit in Sweden, a museum official said."
Will the stolen moon rock madness ever end?
The race is on, Apple. SailorBob writes "The NexII got good reviews on slashdot (Review: Nex II CF MP3 Player) a while back and now a newer version named the NexIIe is shipping. Some nice functionality has been added such as drawing power from the usb while copying files and being able to hook to an external AC adapter. They've also told me via e-mail that they're considering adding Ogg Vorbis support, which wouldn't be a problem after the fact since the player can be updated for new formats with a firmware update."
Graphomania has a name, and it is Orson. Binestar writes "Author Orson Scott Card has released his latest book, Shadow Puppets. As usual, the first 3 chapters are available online. He's definitely one of my favorite authors."
Just kidding, folks -- just kidding. Afraid to play video games in Greece? Elonka indicates this BBC story (Court Allows Greek gamers to play on), excerpting: "In reference to the recent law enacted in Greece which bans all computer games, a court in northern Greece today threw out the case against two internet cafe owners who were arrested for allowing clientele to play Counter-Strike and online chess. The court said the law was unconstitutional."
Monsanto should invest in helicopters and lawyers for a whole new revenue stream. dwprice writes "A Saskatchewan farmer loses a patent infringement case when it turns out patented canola is growing in his fields and he didn't pay for it. He claims it blew into his field." When this farmer, Percy Schmeiser, lost the first round, I figured it was a simple lapse of sanity and would be overturned on appeal. No such luck.
Best TV news I've heard in a while. Masem writes "Offical word has been announced that Futurama will be shows on Cartoon Network (most likely as part of the Adult Swim Comedy block) starting in Jan 2003, according to Cartoon Reasearch. No indication of new episodes, but CN will have all 72 episodes that have been made."
how long did that greecian law last? that was a joke from the start.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
I paid Lik-Sang $120 + high shipping charges about 6 months ago to get one! And now, nobody on eBay is going to give me $150 for the thing!
"Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
2004 - Hand over $20,000 for a few specs of moon dust.
2008 - Wait a bit, go on moon trip for $20,000 and bring back a big round ol' rock the size of a new iMac and photos of you having low-grav sex with loved one (or the stanger in seat 3F. Yeah, row 3. You'd be up in first class, of course).
Hmmm... let me see.
now they need to pick up Family Guy. That show is fricken hillarious. Honestly, how can they cancel a show that went up for an emmy last year?
The NexII got good reviews on slashdot (Review: Nex II CF MP3 Player) a while back and now a newer version named the NexIIe is shipping.
You can keep your Nex II and even your Nex IIe.
I, and several others are waiting for the obvious successor: the IIc.
On of the best monsanto quotes of all time....
"We have always said we will not profit from people doing illegal things"
They might have always said that, but it was probably just to cover there ass when they were busy dumping waste from there factories. yada yada yada...
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
"loses a patent infringement case when it turns out patented canola is growing in his fields"
They don't call it rapeseed for nothin.
I remember seeing something that stated that there was no way that the farmer being sued by Monsanto could have the density of genetically-enhanced corn he did in his field accidentally. Has anyone else seen this argument?
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
CompactFlash cards are hardly any faster than a USB interface to begin with so firewire would be pointless. all computers have a USB 1.1 interface. how many have firewire?
most people don't use these things with a microdrive (half the battery life). A 512mb CF card is currenty 180 bucks.
Nex IIs not nearly as convenient as something with 10gigs (ipod wins there!) but they are much lighter and cheaper.
Note: I really like my Nex II, it is by far the best CF player out there.
That being said: "Firware upgradable and can support future formats" is getting really old from all digital music players. I can honestly say that I have seen over 20 players (CD, CF, HD) that proudly make this claim in their marketing jargain -- yet guess how many have came through??? It's about like me saying that my cars tires will support the ferrari. Yet, technically it could happen -- but more realistically those tires will spend their lifetime on my 87 nissan sentra.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Are you kidding? CF is much faster than USB 1.1.
I pop the CF card out of my Nex II and put it in a Lexar Firewire CF writer (whopping $50), and it writes around 3 MBytes/second sustained.
With a 512MB card, it really matters. If you already have firewire for video editing, it makes sense to use it for CF too. Great for dumping pictures off the CF card from the digital camera as well (4MBytes/sec read).
Frankly, I'm more concerned about Monsanto using these heavy handed tactics to control the worlds food supply, than I am about M$ Palladium. We can live without computers, but with increasing patents covering basic food (corn, canola, tomatos, ...), I can see a time when all food will be covered by some patent. Think M$ is evil with their monopoly? Think what would happen when a few companies own patents on most of the food you eat.
Cross contamination of GMO with natural crops is a real concern, and farmers of organic crops are starting to sue GMO producers. Some related articles at cropChoice.com
Monsanto got Fox news in Tampa to pull a story and fire the two jounalists who researched it because it was about health problems from rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormone [a Monsanto product]) in cows milk, and it's been one of the most under reported news stories. Here's a Google search. So they are very willing to use intimidation and the courts to further their control. Hmmm... Sounds all too familiar.
They're always "considering adding support for $whatever". That's just PR-speak for 'we don't care -- yet'. I really want a vorbis-only player for which none of my money goes to the mp3consortium, but I guess that's just as likely to happen as world peace. Barring that, the only way to my money goes over de-facto implemented vorbis. No "but..." or "future upgrade" or anything. Either you do it, or you don't get my money. (yeah, yeah, small loss -- whatever)
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Yeah, another Bean story. Nothing particularly magical in this one. Except that the possible fallout that will give rise to the inevitable next book. This forwards the story of Bean's physical growth. Between that and a few spoilerish things (below) the next book promises to be more interesting. This is just gearing up for that book.
Oh, and you'll probably be as disappointed in the resolution to the final fight scene as I was. It was telegraphed from a million miles away. Can't remember exactly, but it's possible that you can figure it out from the first three chapters (would need to reread to double check).
There is a little bit of development of the Bean and Petra characters, but it didn't flow. Really felt forced. Part of that is OSC's obstinancy in not saying "Bean is now 12 years old, he's now 17 years old..."
Perhaps the best part of the book is that it has me tempted to go reread Ender's stories. After I finish a few other books I picked up.
SPOILERS:
Bean and Petra get married. Artificial insemination.
Achilles steals a few embryos.
Achilles gets killed.
Bean and Petra don't retrieve embryos. Obviously waiting for the next book.
India freed from China.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
You're nuts. Good CF cards are an order of magnitude (maybe even close to two orders when reading) faster than USB 1 (1.1). Of course, they aren't when you use it with a USB card reader.
Anybody know what's up with cartoon network? I mean do they really need an adult swim cartoon segment. This is just gonna screw SO many parents over when they can't let the kids watch cartoons 24/7 anymore. I suppose babysitters will be making more tho ;)
I gotta say, what is it about Card that he gets
more moralistic with every book? Used to be, the
Ender books were just about little kids fighting
wars, having their minds broken, and killing other
little kids. Now there's all this stuff about
religion and the joy of marriage - why?
I'm the stranger...posting to
Step 1: Buy GM Canola
Step 2: Plant in crack in competitor's parking lot.
Step 3: Call Infringment Police
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
The court essentially declined to believe somebody stole onto the property in the dead of night to nefariously plant GM canola on the guy's land, which pretty much left deliberate infringement of the patent as the only explanation.
MHO. YMMV. Any resemblance between this post and real persons, or reality in general, was accidental.
Yes you can. The network is still up, and in most cases, you can play the games. But there aren't many people online anymore.
PSO V2 is still popular, but isn't nearly the way it was a year ago.
Hmm... A google search for 'monsanto patent Saskatchewan' pulls up lots of good information. Note that the first result looks to be the involved farmer's own website.
The popular folk lore is that the case and verdicts are ridiculous. From a casual observer who did look into it somewhat extensively a year or so ago, I actually wound up leaning towards Monsanto's side.
I don't remember why now, though. I think that the claims that 'the wind did it!' rang quite false when looking at the information provided in court.
The Nex II can use a microdrive, but with a 1GB microdive, the Nex II is about the same price of a 10 GB IPOD.
As far as the defense of the wimpy USB connector, it is not suitable for regular transfers of GB of data. It is slow. I can barely stand to use it for my Nomad.
Perhaps someone can tell me why I should spend more on the Nex II, when it is little more than sub standard interface dongle.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
The problem is that the money won't be spent on actually inventing new products because the company won't be able to make back the money selling the product. Look at prescription drugs. While there is no doubt that a lot of crap happens with patents and prescription drugs, good drugs would never be invented if there wasn't adequate IP protection for them. The cost of developing and testing drugs is far too high. Companies need to be able to recoup their costs from R&D.
You notice the problem that it is much easier to analyze inventions and copy them than it is to hide the invention. Why would anybody innovate products that require significant R&D then?
Software is much better looked at as an exception to patent law than the direct example of how things should be done. The extreme rate of development and low cost of research in software (and obviousness of a lot of it) are not congruant to many other fields.
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.
That guy was such a wuss. Why the heck did Card explain away his betrayal in two lines?
The wall was cool thought, especially the way that the girl became little more that a brick in the wall once it got reallt started. Yes, I had to make a lame Pink Floyd reference.
I'm the stranger...posting to
I think we can all agree that if any fictional character ever *deserved* to get laid, it was Bean.
I'm the stranger...posting to
I'm not sure Apple needs to feel threatened by the NexIIe just yet
Um, let's see:
Nex IIe:
Player- $115
5 gigs of storage (ten 512mb cards)- $1800
iPod:
Player w/ 5 gigs of storage- $300
Yeah, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that Apple doesn't need to feel threatened just yet; maybe it might have something to do with the fact that the Nex IIe costs SIX TIMES MORE!
c-hack.com |
Earth rocks don't have little labels on them saying "Moon Rock", though.
I have been pwned because my
Will the stolen moon rock madness ever end?
In a related note, did anyone else see the story about Buzz Aldrin punching that flat-earther in the nose? Oh, sorry, my mistake. He wasn't a flat-earther, he was one of those nuts who say that the Moon landing was faked. Seems this clown approached Buzz in public and asked him to swear on a Bible that he walked on the moon. Buzz put up with him briefly, then popped in the snout.
The Moon landing was a fake? No, actually it was a feint and a jab! Hey, Buzz, smack him once for me, would you?
--Jim
However, I'd be very surprised if suborbital flights didn't become available to paying customers at semi-realistic prices (~100,000 USD) before 2008.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
I figure you could argue criminal trespass and sabotage (to the existing crops). Possibly more.
Heck, these days the farmer could probably claim the patent owners were Genetic Terrorists bent destroying natural grain fields. Hrmmm. With cases like this that suddenly doesn't sound so far fetched.
Mind you, IANAL.
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Speaking of going to the moon, don't tell Buzz Aldrin that no one's been there!
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
A couple random shots at drug companies, I remember reading these, I didn't look up any hard numbers on these, so take witha grain of salt, or try looking up yourself and not be as lazy as me:
People everywhere can be scum. When you have opaque tech, or opaque enough to the average person (drug companies, car mechanics, OS vendors) you have a better opportunity to be scum.
if you know where one lives let us know and we will find out !!! :)
Shiat like this make that starving African countries' leader seem VERY SMART.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I'm not sure Apple needs to feel threatened by the NexIIe just yet.
However, once the NexIIgs comes out... (explanation)
One of the big problems with this device is it's still using USB which is much slower than iPod's FireWire.
USB, or USB 1.0? USB 2 is about as fast as FireWire, and USB 1 is still fast enough to move a pocket-player-quality (128 kbps) MP3 song in four seconds, or several whole albums in less than the time it takes to play a game of Klax.
Will I retire or break 10K?
If adult swim would just pick up Invader ZIM, I'd be about the happiest Cartoon Network viewer out there. I love that little green guy!
You forgot one point:
Each successful drug must pay the R&D cost for 10 unsuccessful drugs.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.
You can get smaller amounts of memory for the thing, you know. If someone has $200, they obviously can't get the ipod, but can get the NexIIe and a resonable amount of storage.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
When the Monsanto agent/sale rep/dealer shows up, he's packing a contract that is a half inch thick and written in greek. You start to read it, but it's not easy to understand, pretty soon your eyes just glaze over, and you sign the bottom line. Hiding somewhere in there is a clause that lets Monsanto reps have access to your land (even if its posted no trespassing) so they can check to see if you've kept up your end of the contract. Sound like any EULA you've ever read?
This farmer hasn't broken any laws. He's not accused of breaking any laws. All of this is because of a contract.
The Monsanto reps only had to find some traces of the genetic markers in his field. Traces do the farmer no good at all. Roundup is a herbicide that kills broadleaf plants, including non-modified canola. To get any value from the 'illegitimate' plants, the whole field would have to have been of roundup ready canola.(so he could spray the field, and not kill off his own crop).
In my opinion, this case legitimizes all the things we fear from abusive EULAs.It legitimizes giving up your rights to a contract that you can't be expected to understand. It legitimizes giving up those rights, even after the practical use of the contract expire (I've uninstalled MediaPlayer, but I can't unsign the Licence agreement). It legitimizes contract law over common sense.
Today its Monsanto. Tomorrow it could be Mircrosoft, or RIAA (ever read the small print on the cd case before you buy it?).
Oh Man, Sealab, Brak Show and Futurama in the same hour. That's gonna be sweet.
"It's less of a time machine than it is a.. dodge ball cannon."
Here's a copy of an email response I finally received after many emailings to the original company who are going to be making the BBAs:
/. lameness filter) /. lameness filter) URL;http://www.csi.co.jp/dc
Thank you so much for your E-Mail.
About you inquiry we would like to guide you as following.
1.We enciphered the country number(the number identifies
each country)and embedded that in Dream Cast(DC)
2.Since differences of voltage, we fear Broadband Adapter(BbA)
might be a cause of a fire.
3.We sell BbA only for collect on deliverly, but this way of
payment is available only in Japan.
Therfore the function itself of BbA is not adapted to DC
(overseas edition) as you have, and that is unavailable for you.
We feel sorry and have to apology, but because more than anything
else we don't hope to bother you(particularly reason 2.),
we decline your subscription.
We will be so glad if you agree above-mentioned reasons
and we hope this information helps you.
If there is anything more we can do for you, please don't
hesitate to let us know.
Best Regards,
---
Dreamcast (Hiragana/Kanji/Katakana redacted due to
---
CSI (Hiragana/Kanji/Katakana redacted due to
-=-=-
They make a good (if engrish-ridden) point. Different power requirements and different country stamps mean that you may be buying 49$ USD paper weights.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
USB is everywhere, Firewire isn't. I can take my Nex around to anyones house and be guaranteed 90% of the time to be able to plug it in. No need to purchase a firewire card (however cheap) and carry it everywhere. I can use it at work without having to open up the machine (i'm not allowed to).
I can transport a 4 meg MP3 to the player in a couple of seconds. Yes firewire has it's advantages, but I like the versitility I have and rechargable batteries solve the other problem almost as well.
I like the price of the NexIIe, but I'm not sure the interface is quite as good as Apple's iPod either. but I don't have either in my hand to do a proper comparison either ;-)
It isn't. But it's smaller, lighter and I'd rather run with it than an iPod. Mainly due to the fact I don't like the idea of shaking a hard-drive about for 2 hours non-stop (12 miles).
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
It sounds like they may use 100 volts instead of 120. You may have to pick up a transformer at the airport to use with it. I still have one I got when I was in Japan. It works both ways 120-100 & 100-120. If it uses a wall wart, you may be able to replace it with a 120 volt replacement that outputs the right voltage and current.
The truth shall set you free!
Well its a car player, but the PhatNoise Phatbox and Kenwood Audio Keg have done this. They've already added FLAX and Audible support and Ogg Vorbis support is in alpha test (freely downloadable for those who wish to try it out)
//m
Wait a bit, go on moon trip for $20,000 and bring back a big round ol' rock the size of a new iMac and photos of you having low-grav sex with loved one (or the stanger in seat 3F. Yeah, row 3....)
Did I hear correctly? Ymean any geek can have sex if they will go to the moon?
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
i stand corrected. it sounds like all of the CF readers/writers i've dealt with have been pathetically slow even when not USB.