Slashback: TIPS, FatWallet, MPlayer

Slashback with words on the demise of TIPS, MPlayer's newest add-in, Revolution OS on DVD, Wal-Mart blinking first in their fight with FatWallet, and more. Read on for the details.

Facts is facts, Ma'am. joebeone writes "WalMart has backed down [AScribe.org] from it's DMCA claim in the FatWallet case[1] after FatWallet countered that facts are uncopyrightable (at least in the US). Let this be a lesson to those who would use the DMCA to unjustly intimidate websites into removing content. I definitely think that Boalt Hall's Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic deserves some major credit for sticking up for the little guys who don't have the litigatory resources that companies like WalMart have.

[1] WalMart claimed that their day-after-thanksgiving sale prices were copyrightable."

Maybe they just changed the drop location. An anonymous reader writes "There was one small ray of light in the Homeland Security Act. A provision inserted in the bill killed the Justice Department's TIPS initiative. You'll recall that TIPS was the DoJ's proposal to create a domestic spy network using ordinary citizens. And I was hoping to join up and inform them that John Ashcroft wears women's underwear. Oh well ..."

Best way to play back "L.A. Confidential." An anonymous reader writes "The best media player for *nixes, MPlayer, has just gotten better with the ability to play Windows Media Player 9 (WMV9 and WMA9) files. When Sorensen playback was added the only remaining codecs were the Window Media Player ones. Now that this is complete, Linux finally seems to have a complete solution for multimedia playback. It just remains for the mainstream distros to include this gem."

Measure three or four times at least, cut once. jdevons writes "The Owner-Builder Book that I reviewed a while ago has been updated. The author reads slashdot regularly and included many of the ideas and suggestions offered in the slashdot comments ..."

Jeff, Rob and Chris in their Hollywood makeup. updog writes "The film Revolution OS, which has been discussed on Slashdot here and here, is now available on DVD at Netflix (btw, it's interesting to note that this Netflix version is sub-licensed under the guise of pay-per-view television, and the director J.T.S. Moore wasn't even aware of its existence until recently.)

A 2 Disc Special Edition DVD will be available in January 2003, and will include additional interviews, bonus material, and better video quality over the Netflix version. You can make sure that you're notified when it's released by requesting info here. Finally, I've written a review of the Netflix version of the DVD, which you can read here."

Next year's stocking stuffer, maybe? An anonymous reader writes "nvmax.com is running a story/press release explaining how Dynamism.com is teaming up with the Zaurus Open Source development community to bring the Sharp Zaurus SL-C700 to English!. I need to get one!"

What I want is C-64 style Aztec. retro128 writes "For all of your old schoolers out there, Tierra Entertainment has released a re-make of King's Quest II, which includes original art, completely redone music, and a few extra things not seen in the original game (some early screen shots hinted at a town, which did not exist in the original). What's remarkable is that Tierra has no affiliation with Sierra whatsoever, and is driven by two developers who wish to remain anonymous. I've played their re-make of KQ1 and it's up to snuff. Check out the main page or go straight to the good stuff."

Comments

Who needs TIPS

[dynayellow]

When we've got the Total Awareness Network. Let the computers do the work!

Man, remember when we were worried about Carnivore?

Re:Who needs TIPS

[Anthony Boyd]

Man, remember when we were worried about Carnivore?

Yeah. Good times, good times.

Re:Who needs TIPS

[dubious9]

No, no, no, comrade. In Soviet Russia, government fears YOU!

Re:Who needs TIPS

[mcmonkey]

What we really need is the Total Information Tracking System program. Yeah, what this country needs is more TITS. And redundant systems to be on the safe side--we should have 2 TITS side-by-side.

I always feel much better when I'm facing 2 TITS.

<ob Smirnoff>In Soviet Russia the tits suck you!

I miss TIPS

[Skyshadow]

Considering what I've been reading the last few weeks about this new Department of Information Awareness, I think I miss TIPS. Bad to worse and all -- TIPS was at least simply a formal structure for Americans to report on one another. DoIA, on the other hand, seems more like a full-out spy organization targetted towards the American people.

I am perpetually shocked at the willingness of Americans to give away the rights for which their ancestors suffered so much.

Menace the average modern American with anything halfway alarming -- terrorism, crime or any other of today's various boogeymen -- and in place of their forebearers' bravery, idealism and resolve, they will show cowardice, surrender and an astounding aptitude for cognative dissonence. They will gratefully trade their liberties for even the illusion of security, and will gladly indenture themselves to anyone who claims to offer them safety. How far we've fallen from the day when men like Washinton, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt fought for and to protect the central ideas of American Democracy.

How we've betrayed the bravery of our heritage.

I believe that if America stands for anything, it's the rights which it is supposed to guarantee its citizens. Strip that away, and what are you left with? Nothing more than a location on a map and base nationalism. To give away our hard-won rights is disgusting cowardice, and to strip them from others is nothing less than treason.

Re:I miss TIPS

[dynayellow]

The political demagogue is powered, today as he was in ancient Rome, by the mob. The mouthbreathers.

The mouthbreather doesn't care about freedom of speech; his opinions are the popular ones. If the popular opinion changes, so will his. The mouthbreather doesn't care about freedom of the press; he just wants to be entertained.

What the mouthbreather really wants is to get through his day, safely, and have it be exactly the way it was the day before.

In "Easy Rider," Jack N's character says something along the lines of "People 'round here will go on and on about freedom, but if you show them a man who's really free, they'll hate him."

Re:I miss TIPS

[rasche]

As an European (non eastern), I'm
quite surprised Americans allowed something
like TIPS or the whole Patriot Act to
happen in the first place.

Always thought the American constitution
allow enough power to the authorities
to defend the country and safeguard the
freedom of its citizens.

Re:I miss TIPS

[Wyatt Earp]

"How far we've fallen from the day when men like Washinton, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt fought for and to protect the central ideas of American Democracy."

No. Burr, Hamilton and Davis fought for Democracy.

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln fought for a Republic. FDR fought for a Socialist system and broke the Constitution everywhich way in the 30s.

Lincoln also violated the US Constitution so much more than the last 5 administrations have.

Maryland under Martial Law, Newspaper Editors thrown in jail or deported, etc.

Re:I miss TIPS

[Lord Omlette]

Every night, good red-blooded Americans turn on their teevees and see their leaders telling them that they are free and they live in the best country in the world. As far as these people are concerned, their "hard-won" rights are still there!

Re:I miss TIPS

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

It's like this...

It hasn't been up to the people to insure their freedom for about 200 years. It's up the the courts and ultimately the Supreme Court to strike down unconstitutional laws.

Congress passing oppressive laws is nothing new. Fortunately, the Supreme Court striking them down is nothing new either.

Re:I miss TIPS

[benzapp]

This is certainly true. The most brilliant system however is the federal system which underlines the republic. Since the FBI was created in the wake of the fraud that was World War I, the federal government has systematically overstepped the boundries placed upon it by the constitution.

I am not going to spend too much time discussing my personal historical feelings, but maintaining virtually autonomous states seems redundant to most people, including most Americans. But, when the revolution comes, the state governments will continue even if Washington DC is nuked off the face of the earth.

The founding fathers very well knew the size of the United States, and knew that while they were creating a New Rome, their empire would suffer the same fate. Instead of fracturing in haphazard ways as did Europe with the collapse of the empire, the United States is completely capable of functioning without a central authority.

What the bureaucrats don't realize is how truly irrelevant they are. Their days are numbered. I believe a violent revolution will not occur in the US, but will evolve much as the evolution of Europe. Soon, Washington DC will become completely irrelevant to the average citizen, just as Rome became irrelevant to the citizens of Gaul as France was born. Any student of US law will realize the radical differences between California and New York will only amplify in time. There is already a radical difference in behavior, speech, mannerism, dress... Hell, California is already larger than many, if not most, European nations. Just a thought.

Re:I miss TIPS

[ChronosX]

Your quote got me thinking about something I once read by H.L. Mencken, a well known political journalist, who was active in the first half of the last century. He simply said, "The average man doesn't want to be free. He wants to be safe".

This prompted me to do a little more research into the man and found he had quite amazing insight into the mind of the government and the people. For example, I found another marvelous passage that seems to apply well to this very situation as it did many decades ago:

If the American people really tire of democracy and want to make a trial of Fascism, I shall be the last person to object. But if that is their mood, then they had better proceed toward their aim by changing the Constitution and not by forgetting it.

Re:I miss TIPS

[Twirlip of the Mists]

But, when the revolution comes, the state governments will continue even if Washington DC is nuked off the face of the earth.

I'm not sure how you define "function" in this context. If it comes to war-- which is what I assume you're talking about, what with the "nuked off the face of the earth" thing and all-- the several states will be utterly defenseless. An occupying force could march into any state capitol in the country, gun down the legislature, and take control with virtually no organized opposition.

And let's not forget something that's even more critical than defense: the economy. Our economy is managed-- to the extent that it's managed at all-- from a central bank in Washington. That bank issues all U.S. currency, and backs it. If it disappeared... well, chaos.

And finally, just to pick one example of many, one that, as a restaurant owner, is near and dear to my heart, we have the USDA and the FDA. There are essentially no state-scale systems for the inspection, grading, and certification of foodstuffs. If the Federal government were to evaporate, we'd be back in the days of unregulated food production. Could we live with it? Sure. But I sure as hell wouldn't want to.

The Federal government is far from irrelevant.

Oh, and your thing about "a radical difference in behavior, speech, mannerism, dress?" Utter crap. There are essentially no cultural differences between any two points in this country, notwithstanding differences that are based on factors that transcend geography, such as race or ethnicity. You can get on a plane and go from Miami to Houston to Phoenix to San Francisco to Denver to Omaha to Chicago to Detroit to Boston to Richmond to Atlanta and back to Miami and not find any significant differences between any of them.

Re:I miss TIPS

[Blkdeath]

The best way for a totalitarian regime to maintain power is to involve the population in their own oppression. The people in power have the work of rooting out potential subversives done for them, while the people under control believe they're doing something great for their country by rooting out those subversives who threaten the nation's stability.

This reminds me of that age-old joke about the cold war, set in Russia;

The police arrive at a man's house, shove him aside, and proceed to dig up his entire garden! The man stands calmly by, watching as they dig and dig, tossing clumps of soil aside and back again in a fervent search. Finding nothing, they grunt in disgust and leave.

The man walks to his neighbor's house and says;

"Thanks! So tomorrow I phone and tell them you have secret documents stashed in the logs in your woodshed, right?"

Re:I miss TIPS

[Twirlip of the Mists]

You think they'll detail enough troops into Denver to deal with the Colorado National Guard?

Why not? Drop an infantry division or two into Colorado-- or, more likely, bring them up through the Rio Grande valley and into Colorado from the south-- and you'll have a fight on your hands.

So, there are no Federal Reserve Banks in Denver, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, et cetera?

Sure, just like there are branch offices of the FBI, the ATF, and so on. But if you remove the head, the body dies. Federal Reserve banks can't act autonomously.

We are NOT the same as Easterners.

Do you speak English? Do you read and write with the same letters everybody else uses? Do you marry, and raise children in family units? Do you eat three meals a day, with knives and forks? Do you attend church, mosque, or synagogue-- or not-- depending on your preferences? Do you bury or burn your dead? Do you dance or sing? Do you cut your grass? Do you drink alcohol or smoke tobacco? Do you cook your food before eating it? Do you eat, essentially, the same foods that people from "Los Angeles or Boston" eat?

Sorry, but "we buy groceries six weeks at a time" doesn't qualify as a significant cultural difference. If you had a different language, or different customs, or both, that might mean something. But what kind of car you drive doesn't amount to a hill of beans from an anthropological point of view.

MPlayer

[lunatik17]

The most likely reason why most ditros don't include MPlayer is because in order to fully utilize it, you need to compile from source. A lot of the optimizations have to be configured at compile time and the developers are against binary distributions of MPlayer. Even though I prefer it above any other media player, I think they need to address this issue before most distros will adopt it.

MPlayer

[dolby2]

I have tried Mplayer and I must say I find it rather buggy. A good alternative is xine, which has made great improvements in the lastest releases. But as always try for yourself:

xine: http://xine.sourceforge.net/
mplayer: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/

WMA 9 code from aviplayer/avifile

[gupg]

I think its important to point out that avifile was first to get the windows media player 9 codecs to work. Its another great multimedia project. Check it out at:
http://avifile.sourceforge.net/

WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving

[nezroy]

Actually, I think this was a partial success for Wal-Mart (from their point of view). With the threat of the DMCA, they got the prices removed so their competitors could not undercut them. They then backed down AFTER the post-Thanksgiving sale, costing them little to nothing to do so, and avoided the cost of actually having to pursue the lawsuit. Other than the relatively small press-coverage on /. and the single blurb on WSJ, they take almost no bad press over the whole affair. I'd say they accomplished exactly what they set out to do.

Re:WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving

[Neolithic]

they take almost no bad press over the whole affair. I'd say they accomplished exactly what they set out to do.

This is why FatWallet needs to keep pressing the charges of the 512(f) provision and not let Wal*Mart settle out of court. Wal*Mart committed a very real crime and Wal*Mart must suffer the consequences of their actions. The DMCA must be shown to be a bad law.

Scenario: I threaten you with a gun for your money. Even were I to give the money back and say, "Sorry, no hard feelings," I would still go to jail.

Fuck Wal*Mart and fuck the DMCA.

Re:WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving

[bluephone]

Scenario: I threaten you with a gun for your money. Even were I to give the money back and say, "Sorry, no hard feelings," I would still go to jail.

Of course you'd go to jail. I hold a copyright on the Intellectual Property of threatening people with guns for money.

Re:WalMart backed down after Thanksgiving

[erroneus]

Then of course I would sue you... ... you realize that I hold the patent on the process of extracting money from a victim while using threat of death or bodily harm while displaying the instrument of said death of bodily harm in view of the victim.

QFG2.

[garcia]

As great as the KQ series was I really preferred Quest for Glory II.

There was nothing like going out and fighting forever until you were SO strong nothing was a match for you...

EGA games *always* need to be redone... They were our classics.

KQ

[_ph1ux_]

I remember playing kings quest way back when - having to load different floppies etc...

That game got me so hooked on computer games i still cant pull myself away.

hmmm.... maybe this isnt a good thing. It's like having nostalgia for my first hit off Whitney's crack pipe. oh wait, she's too rich for crack - and I'm too poor for games these days.

Isn't it a little late for Wal-Mart to back down?

[Scooby Snacks]

I mean, the damage is already done. These were sale prices from a week ago. They got them removed. (Well, several big-name retailers did.) Then, they decide to give it a go to try to find out who did it. FatWallet showed some backbone, so Wal-Mart backed down and decided to cut their losses rather than have this go to court.

Pardon me, but I don't think that Wal-Mart's "seen the light" or become a good guy in this regard.

Wal-Mart's Bluff

[vaguelyamused]

One wonders if Wal-Mart's bluff on this was simply a ploy to have the prices taken down before the sale and while planning all along to back down later. Obviously they accomplished their goal, getting the prices taken down from the site before the sale, and even if FatWallet hadn't fired back they would have no reason to expend legal effort and expense of pursuing their copyright claim any further. Obviously the information in question is no longer of any use to anyone.

It would probably cost Wal-Mart less to just pay FatWallet's legal costs rather than go to court. In the end it seems even if FatWallet wins the legal battle they still have lost the war. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Wal-Mart does the same thing next year supposing FatWallet posts their sale prices early again.

Re:Wal-Mart's Bluff

[Anonvmous Coward]

"One wonders if Wal-Mart's bluff on this was simply a ploy to have the prices taken down before the sale and while planning all along to back down later."

If that's true, then they shot themselves in the foot. When the next major retail holiday rolls around, nobody (including FatWallet) will be inclined to take anything down.

Re:Wal-Mart's Bluff

[vaguelyamused]

That maybe true, maybe not, if they can get a federal court to grant an injunction against the site by trying to charge them with DMCA again they will be required to take the prices down. If they settle with FatWallet this year the case will not enter case law as there is no judgement and they may still be able to get an injunction on the same grounds as the subpoena this year. Even if they don't get an injunction any site that is threatened by Wal-Mart and their huge legal department may be advised by their own lawyers to take down the info until the case is settled. And Wal-Mart wins again.

Hopefully you are right and someone stands up to them next year, we'll see.

Re:Wal-Mart's Bluff

[StevenMaurer]

Everything you said was true, except for the last part. If it happens again next year they probably won't be able to pull the same stunt.

Whatever that judge is who allowed the subpeona to go through on this patently bogus claim must be pretty red-faced right about now. As news of these kinds of shenanigans gets out into the wider legal community, you'll likely start seeing fewer attempts, because judges can come down pretty hard on frivolous lawsuits.

Re:Wal-Mart's Bluff

[CerebusUS]

Everyone is missing this rather crucial point:

Walmart never backed downs about the prices, they backed down on their demands for FatWallet to turn over the names of the people who posted the prices.

While that implies that they didn't have grounds for a DMCA claim, it doesn't prove it.

If FatWallet backs down from their countersuit, the whole thing could just happen again next year. No precedent will have been set.

Re:MPlayer

[gid]

I use mplayer just fine on my little pos 1 ghz celery with a dvd drive and a pro savage 4 chipset. It's just a matter of tweaking settings.

The machine is a Shuttle Spacewalker SV24. MPlayer performance can vary greatly on what X output driver you're using, I think I was using the xv drive. Also if you're playing from a cdrom, you'll want to add something like cache=8192 to your config file.

Actually I haven't used that machine in quite some time, it's currently collecting dust for me in my room. :)

What I really want in mplayer now is variable slomotion and frame by frame stuff.

Re:MPlayer in distros

[lunatik17]

That is true, but it is also true of every other universal media player. It's the people using these proprietary codecs which are the problem, not the players.

For instance, if I wanted to watch a Sorenson Quicktime file, I have only two options: Codeweavers crossover plugin (which is excellent) and MPlayer. (I don't consider running the quicktime player through wine an option worth even considering. If you've ever done it you'd understand) I'm not aware of any other media players that support Sorenson, but if there are they'd be no better.

Any news on the rest of the FatWallet case?

[CarlDenny]

Are they still countersuing Walmart for damages, purgery, anything?

This is not a win unless they are hurt for their actions. They still kept FatWallet from getting the word out. They've still used the DMCA to stifle legitimate works. And it hasn't cost them a thing.

Perjury?

[Phanatic1a]

So what happens to Wal-Mart now that they've submitted the claim that their prices were protected by copyright under penalty of perjury? Surely even though they've withdrawn the claim, they don't get to "take back" the fact that they perjured themselves?

Aztec

[Idarubicin]

What I want is C-64 style Aztec.

Gee, if I wanted that, I'd dust off my C-64 and play. They built those things solidly...nearly two decades, and I've had to replace the power supply brick. And that's it. Granted, use has tapered off significantly over the last decade, and the joysticks that have suffered from heavy usage need replacement, but still...

There's something to be said for avoiding the hard drive as a point of failure.

WMV 9

[Anonymous Coward]

WMV 9 support! Porn addicts of slashdot rejoice!

Mplayer and Codecs -.MOV quicktime etc.....

[Nex6]

using RH8:

and apt4rpm i was able to get .mov and all the movie media file to work in mplayer.

using apt-get install MPLAYER and ALL its plugins including transcode.

then:

apt-get install xmms*
## this will install xmms and all its plugins which include the codecs that will make the sound work for the quicktime movies.

have fun.....

Nex6

ENOUGH with the freedom talk!

[Travoltus]

Freedom is for kooks.

If you aren't doing anything wrong, why are you afraid of people knowing what you're doing? We need total information awareness - privacy is only really NECESSARY for criminals.

You've got Monday Night Football. You've got your cheetos. You've even got your lagermeister. What more 'freedoms' do you need?

Big Brother is going to save us from the terrorists! I'll gladly sacrifice freedom for that!

Long live Ashcroft!

(moderators: please spot the sarcasm in this post.)

Re:Mainstream distros to include MPlayer?

[Per Wigren]

Mplayer can already play most files without using external win32-codecs... The only (significant) codecs that needs win32-codecs are RealPlayer, Sorenson v3 and WMV9... It already has native code to play all mpeg4/divx-files and wmv7/8 which is what 98% of all (.avi/.asf/.wmv) flicks on the net use anyway... And they are working on native support for both WMV9 and Sorenson v3...

MPlayer on Mac OSX

[n8_f]

For Mac users, you have to check out MPlayerOSX. This is my first time using MPlayer and it is awesome! Much better than vlc or the 3ivx decoder, performance is great on my G3/400. Finally, I can watch divxs with WMA audio tracks on my Mac!
It just doesn't seem fair how easy it is: no compiling, no tweaking, just install the package and it works. Still has some polishing (switching out of full screen stops the movie), but the source is all there. A must have.

MPlayer and recent (evil) legislation

[JessLeah]

MPlayer is a great project. I was absolutely astonished when I first downloaded it and played with its many features. But I'm terrified that any day now, They (you know, MS or Sorenson or Real or the RIAA or the MPAA or possibly all five) are going to slap the MPlayer guys with a lawsuit (yes, MPlayer HQ is in, what, Hungary? But look at what happened to our friend Skylarov (sp.?) in Russia) and b3wm, down goes the project, and it's officially verboten in the US (like DeCSS).

How will they sue the MPlayer people? Simple. They could sue under the anti-reverse-engineering clause of the DMCA. Or they could employ any number of other recent pro-corporate laws which are slowly making it illegal to reverse-engineer anything, even if it's necessary for you to do your work. (Remember, there is STILL no legal and MPAA-approved solution for playing your DVDs in Linux (let alone more obscure OSes like FreeBSD or OpenBSD)-- unless, of course, you count hooking up the output of your set-top DVD player into the video input of your TV tuner card...

Personally, I don't forsee any 'mainstream' Linux dists (if there really is such a thing in terms of desktop use ;) ) including MPlayer any time soon, for fear of being named as co-defendants in a possibly gruesome lawsuit...

Remember: MPlayer was created using reverse engineering. The SPA/MPAA/RIAA/MS/etc. folks are really really pushing (and paying off congresspeople, naturally) to make reverse engineering a criminal offense. It may already be... this is a dangerous area, a legal powder-keg waiting to go off.

At BEST, MPlayer will be a "gray market" program for the forseeable future-- if not forever. Again, yes, I love it-- but I worry for it. More properly, I worry for its creators...

Re:MPlayer and recent (evil) legislation

[JessLeah]

The way MPlayer development seems to progress is:

STEP 1: There is no support for codex X.
STEP 2: They add DLL support for codec X.
STEP 3: After a good amount of time spent reverse-engineering, they add native support for codec X.

It's the step 3 that's gonna really get them in trouble. Codecs only remain "DLL-only" in MPlayer for so long. After a time, the MPlayer guys figure out how to reverse-engineer the codec-- or someone else does, and the MPlayer guys adapt the code to their project...

Heck, the EULA for many of these DLLs may say "Only on approved operating systems", who knows... no one reads the things. Not even me. ;)

TIPS may not be dead yet...

[Platinum Dragon]

...only renamed.

This is the relevant section that supposedly eliminated TIPS:

SEC. 880. PROHIBITION OF THE TERRORISM INFORMATION AND PREVENTION SYSTEM.
Any and all activities of the Federal Government to implement the proposed component program of the Citizen Corps known as Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) are hereby prohibited.

All it does is prohibit the proposed program under the Citizen Corps known as TIPS. A strict reading of the language could leave a way to revive the program under a different name.

It may seem a bit legalistic and paranoid, but legalities like that are precisely how unpalatable programs are implemented anyway.

Re:MPlayer

[rendler]

Define 'buggy'. Over the last year I have had almost zero problems with using it, apart from the fact that it wouldn't play some unsupported file formats. And the only time when I've had it stop playing things on me is when the actual file was corrupted or not encoded properly.

On a side note I actually got to finally watch the Ellen Feiss ad last week to see what all the fuss was all about. But since I'm using a 166Mhz it was a bit slow, so I just used mencoder to transform the quicktime file into divx5. Got almost double the frames while viewing and no noticeable quality loss. Oh yea and smaller file size as well.

WalMart got what IT WANTED!

[Newer Guy]

WalMart got what IT WANTED! It managed to throw its corporate weight around and got its prices removed from FatWallet's web site. Now that the sale's long OVER WalMart relents??!! I don't think so... How do you spell B O Y C O T T ?

Total Poindexter Awareness

[Jeremy Erwin]

Call John Poindexter at his home:1-301-424-6613.

Tell him how you really feel by sending him a letter:

John M. and Linda Poindexter
10 Barrington Fare, Rockville, MD, 20850

source 1

source 2

Re:MPlayer

[MrHanky]

I agree that one should try both xine and MPlayer. However, I disagree that the latter is buggy. This is, of course, my personal opinion, based on how it works on my computer. The correct answer is: try both, see what you like best (actually xine works better on a few files here too). YMMV and all that.

The good news is that both xine and MPlayer are far better than any player I've tried on that other platform I boot into for games, although none of them have GUIs worth using. After getting used to using the arrow keys for skipping back and forth, F for full screen, etc., I must say: what the fuck do you need a GUI for in a media player anyway.

Being able to reconstruct the index of incomplete .avi's is nice too. No longer do I have to wait for the complete porn movie to download before I can skip to the juicy parts.

Roosevelt?

[Galvatron]

Would this be the Roosevelt that forbade private citizens from owning gold, and put Japanese-Americans in concentration camps? Not to mention the fact that he was the first (and now only) president to violate the tradition of stepping down after two terms, to aviod creating a massive cult of personality. FDR actively sought this, and indeed he switched running mates every four years, because he didn't want anyone under him to get too powerful or well known.

Or are you talking about Teddy? If the latter, I don't really remember him doing anything to promote freedom, except perhaps his whole trust busting thing.

Re:MPlayer

[matusa]

This is not not true, though it was in the past. They removed this crutch months ago. It was one of the two things (the other being fully GPL) which was preventing it from being so liked by distributions... Note that if you see how they implement some codecs (for example the ones requiring you to d/l windows dlls) makes distribution issues nasty..

I like mplayer because: speed, features, supported formats, MENCODER (lets you encode arbitrary video sources--save internet streams, DVDs, etc.)

Re: Damn DMCA

[Black Parrot]

> This legislation has been abused like a village bicycle!

Heh. My village had a girl nicknamed 'bicycle', for reasons that shouldn't need explaining.

Apple unofficially likes Crossover

[benwaggoner]

For what it's worth, I've had a number of Apple employees on the QuickTime team say nice things about Crossover. While it isn't officially supported, they're glad it's there, so Linux users can watch QuickTime stuff. They view the engineering effort of a full, official port to *NIX as WAY too big a project to be worth the results.

Sorenson says it's okay

[benwaggoner]

I've talked to folks at Sorenson who don't mind at all about decode support in MPlayer. After all, they sell ENCODERS, and having more decoders out there only grows their market.

Their new, just-announced Squeeze 3 is a really awesome encoding tool. QuickTime, Windows Media, RealMedia, Flash MX, and MPEG-4 support.

Re:MPlayer

[Sadfsdaf]

Change your VESA settings to allow non-root. This isn't an MPlayer problem. Also, it'd be a good idea to try -vo x11 or -vo xv (xv works THE best, with translucent subtitles and all, W00T), those two drivers work much better. I think that thinkpad has a Savage card, which xvideo is supported. Try doing xvinfo in console and see if the card pops up. If not, try changing your xfree settings /w xf86cfg -textmode (?). If you get xv working, try "mplayer -vo xv -fs -ao oss -dvd 1 -slang en" which will play a DVD fullscreen with translucent english subtitiles. It should also be able to play DVDs and DIVX better since more processing is offloaded to the video card. If your DVD still skips, check if DMA is enabled on the DVD.

Remove the $HOME/.mplayer directory

[msobkow]

I got burnt by this too. Shut down MPlayer. Remove the .mplayer subdirectory (rm -Rf $HOME/.mplayer). Restart MPlayer, and it recreates the .mplayer settings with default values.

Re:MPlayer

[Afrosheen]

Huh, that's unusual. You must have Mandrake 8.x which came with the 'it's just fine' gcc 2.96. The Mplayer guys were talking smack about it because Redhat bundled a version with 7.x that caused alot of errors when certain things were compiled. I documented how to compile Mplayer a long time ago on Mandrakeuser.org. The trick is to use --disable-gcc-checking as a commandline switch. It's hardly a secret since the readme file AND the commandline will tell you this when you try to build it. I think there's one other switch it needs but I've since forgotten.

BTW don't waste your time unless you really feel like building it. Penguin Liberation Front (plf.zarb.org) has all the mplayer stuff you need including the codecs in rpm form. Add it as an urpmi source and urpmi mplayer, it'll download and install everything.

Netflix and MPlayer...

[wowbagger]

First: Netflix BAD! Netflix SPAMS! NO USE NETFLIX!

Netflix has a history of spamming, and when contacted about the spamming does the spammy thing of listwashing the complainer. Obviously, you need to make your own choice, and if you choose to support a known spammer that is your right, but I strongly suggest that nobody use Netflix.

Second: Mplayer.

First of all, their site uses Mystery Meat Navigation - You don't know what the buttons do until you mouse over them (at least, you don't if you don't have Javascript on). I would have hoped for better from a FOSS project.

Second of all, unless I am mistaken (which I could very well be) MPlayer uses Microsoft DLL's and Wine to play WMAs. Thus the answer to "Why don't the major distro's include MPlayer" - doing so would involve distributing Microsoft copyrighted material, and would therefor make the distro Non-Free (as well as getting the distro vender targeted for termination by the Microsoft lawyer-drones).