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Slashback: Nerves, Unis, Subtitles

Slashback tonight brings updates and amplifications on file-swapper hunting in Australia, Blender's progress since going open source, the badly subtitled LotR rips mentioned a few weeks ago, and more. Read on for the details.

Yes, does that come with insurance? An anonymous reader writes "Channel 4 news has a small report on the way that financial institutions are moving their computer systems and data backup out of central London to establishments such as The Bunker and Sealand."

Suddenly, those places seem a bit like less of a novelty and more good plain sense.

Copyright vs. Presumptive Scanning, part VXIIIXIX AnElder writes "The SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) now reports that 'Recording companies have asked the Federal Court to allow their computer experts to scan all computers at the University of Melbourne for sound files and email accounts, so they can gather evidence of claimed widespread breaches of copyright.' Are libraries next? "Counsel for the companies, Mr Tony Bannon SC, said industry studies of piracy had found public institutions such as universities and libraries were the biggest repositories of unlawful sound recordings."

Speaking of brand integrity. increment writes "The Engrish TTT Captions Site that was mentioned earlier here has apparently received a cease and desist order from AOL/Warner Bros and taken down their hilarious bootleg screenshots of The Two Towers. You did know that AOL is the parent company of New Line Cinema, right? AOL probably contends that humorous captions 'degrade their brand integrity,' though they should be grateful for such a vivid illustration of the poor quality of bootlegs. A few mirrors of the site can still be found around the net."

What about robotic juicers for the home? CallNElvis writes "Here's another interesting (translate that to "Cool! I want one") site lazydrinker.com showing a tabletop automatic drink pouring machine. It seems to be a little more polished than the last one posted here. The site includes a pretty cool mpeg of it in action."

Blend it into Knoppix, please :) 3-D modeling program Blender was converted from a proprietary license to the GPL last October. What's been going on since then? An anonymous reader writes "A couple of days ago, Blender 2.26 was released. This is the first open source version, and has all the features of the previous proprietary version, except physics support in the gamekit, which was not owned by NaN, and could thus not be opened.

Blender is 'the vi of 3d-modeling,' and was Freed by the community, when NaN (the company creating blender) went broke. It is platform independent (with roots in Unix), scriptable, has a steep but rewarding learning curve, ingenious but nonstandard user interface, and can be used to make games, 3d-web-thingies (there exists a browser plugin) and of course images, animations and models (which among others, can be exported to POV-ray)."

Mandrake keeps moving -- give it a whirl. An anonymous reader writes "The Mandrake 9.1 testing cycle is coming to an end. I haven't noticed any big fan-fare for testing this version, but I noticed that RC-1 is now on many of the ftp mirrors found here.

If you like the distro, don't forget to join MandrakeClub where you can help the company and have a say in what packages they include in their user-friendly distro."

210 comments

  1. Blender's user interface by PD · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've heard some people say that Blender was hard to use. They don't know what hard to use means. They should try this version.

    Looks like Blender is going multi-lingual! cool.

    1. Re:Blender's user interface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aye lad, that version will put hairs on your chest.

  2. robotic juicers? by kingofnopants · · Score: 5, Funny

    May I be the first to point you to this penny arcade strip on the topic: Penny Arcade

    --
    Disco Stu was talkin' to you.
    1. Re:robotic juicers? by unicron · · Score: 4, Funny

      It is a comic strip. Gabe and Tycho have reiterated dozens of times they are NOT journalists. It is designed to give gamers and the like a good laugh. The Juicer comic is funny. If you read it thinking it didn't have the quite the journalistic merit that CNN does, then you completely missed the point, and more likely than not, you suffer from some advanced form of mental retardation.

      --
      Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
    2. Re:robotic juicers? by extra88 · · Score: 2

      Many slashdot editors are PA-lovers, (how do you think I found out about it?) I'm sure timothy was referring to that comic (and now a T-shirt!) But hey, I'm not here to knock a link to the comic, spread the love! On toast!

    3. Re:robotic juicers? by SealBeater · · Score: 1

      So, uhh, when are we going to get plans for this stuff? I want a robotic
      bartender.

      SealBeater

      --
      -- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
    4. Re:robotic juicers? by unicron · · Score: 3, Funny

      Try to act like real gamers? What the fuck are you talking about? Oh, I get this, they're posers and you're straight atari 2600 OG playa, huh? I guarantee you they play more games that you and I combined + all our collective friends. That's ALL they do.

      --
      Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
    5. Re:robotic juicers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Boy, where's Autonymous Toaster when you need, er, it?

    6. Re:robotic juicers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahh, good old Penny Arcade.

    7. Re:robotic juicers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just remember that true gamers only have a minute to post to slashdot, look for updates, then get back to playing games.

      I hate to say it, but they actually have jobs, therefore they cant possibly play as many games as me, I dont care how many lan parties they have, they dont have nothing on us obsessive gamers.

    8. Re:robotic juicers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats the worst comic I have ever seen.

      Im all for artistic expression, but its not funny, nor witty, nor very artistic.

      Its more like the trolls here on slashdot.
      Gay.

    9. Re:robotic juicers? by packeteer · · Score: 1

      When you have even a slight chance of claiming that gaming is your job you wont stop. I bet that they can pull off 20+ hours of gaming a day where as anyone else would get sick after 16. :-P"

      --
      unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
    10. Re:robotic juicers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Playa? You fucking nigger.

  3. What about student privacy? by DFossmeister · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They want to scan their email too?

    We all have seen the clauses in the Terms of Service that say that email is not private, that this is univerisity owned equipment and such. I can understand if they were going to scan incoming email for attachments, but it would appear that they want to scan the student's personal computer too!

    My bet is that if they scan the student's computers that they are going to find more porn than music...

    --
    No Not Again! Its whats for dinner.
    1. Re:What about student privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no problem, most of that porn is infringing somebody's copyright anyway!

    2. Re:What about student privacy? by toddestan · · Score: 1

      No kidding about privacy. They can't just walk in and scan a student's personal computer. If they tried that on me I would tell them to go to hell. Even with a warrant I would still tell them to go to hell (who do they think they are, the police?) If it meant me getting kicked off the school net so be it, even though getting back on after being banned is easy (changing your MAC address usually does the trick)

      Now if they hooked themselves up to the school network and browsed people's shares that would be different. I also suppose it would be okay to scan the university-owned machines for caches of files on them, but scanning students email (even when it resides on the university mail servers), is going over the line.

      Atleast my school doesn't do that. And I have enough sense now to not share files to just anyone over the network. Zonealarm is great for this, as I can specify the IPs of people that I allow to see my shares, and to everyone else my computer is effectively invisible.

    3. Re:What about student privacy? by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My old school (UPenn) has really fantastic terms of service for this sort of thing. I think most colleges probably do. This is about some external entity forcing the school to violate its own terms of service. Of course, my school did have clauses that allowed it to comply with court orders and not be liable to the students. I can't blame them for that.

      One of the coolest things in the ToS was that computer lab workers were expressly not allowed to prevent people from viewing pornography in computer labs. This is because, of course, it's not up to the lab worker to decide if something is porn/art/science.

      --

      There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
    4. Re:What about student privacy? by kennyj449 · · Score: 1

      All the more reason to run ZoneAlarm or Tiny Personal Firewall on the Winblows computers, or to use a properly configured *nix on your desktop.

      Of course, I can see a lot of students just unplugging their ethernet wiring on the day the RIAA comes to do the scan... and if they do a scan, there may be some potential for a lawsuit in retaliation.

    5. Re:What about student privacy? by Anonymous+DWord · · Score: 1


      "I don't know what this is, but I know I like porn!"

      --
      "If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
    6. Re:What about student privacy? by rogueuk · · Score: 1

      i'm an ITA (information technology advisor) at UPenn. We always get some shady looking people in the computer lab sitting in the corner where they can't be seen looking at porn. and nothing we can do about it..as long as they don't make a scene or anything

    7. Re:What about student privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I worked in the school lab, I always had people asking how to use uudecode. 99% of the time it was porn.

    8. Re:What about student privacy? by Anonymous+Slacker · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Unless there is a clause in the school's ToS in which they claim any computer that connects to, access files on or is accessed from the school's network or any computer on the school's network is now property of the school. The University I graduated from had this. By my brief estimation, they were responsible for half of the pr0n on the internet. (predominantly male population on the campus network sitting around in their dorm rooms with no better use for their time than to surf the web -- thereby assimilating each and every server which hosted the sites they visited into the school's network)

      I'd never heard of the aforementioned clause being enforced, but it did create some interesting speculations on the part of the few of us who bothered to read the ToS.

      --
      "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!" -Rush
    9. Re:What about student privacy? by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah. I was an ITA too. Once spent a few hours getting paid to help some guy figure out how to better organize his porn collection.

      --

      There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
    10. Re:What about student privacy? by Charm · · Score: 1
      day the RIAA comes to

      Who are the RIAA? Perhaps you mistake the rest of the world for America. In Australia it is ARIA.

      --
      -- RTFM:Slackware::Beer:Saturday
  4. Another robotic dealie... by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Here's another interesting (translate that to "Cool! I want one") site lazydrinker.com showing a tabletop automatic drink pouring machine.

    Here's something similar, but not at all safe to look at if you are at work. This is great for you really really lazy folks.

    --sex

    --
    Very popular slashdot journal for adul
    1. Re:Another robotic dealie... by RatBastard · · Score: 4, Funny

      When I'm to lazy to do THAT myself, kill me.

      --
      Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
    2. Re:Another robotic dealie... by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 0, Redundant

      I think that this is a bit more on-topic. Robotic juicers for the home, indeed!

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    3. Re:Another robotic dealie... by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 1
      Awesome relavent cartoon ;-).

      --gal

      --
      Very popular slashdot journal for adul
    4. Re:Another robotic dealie... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I don't know. There is just something about hot women and well-oiled machinery...

    5. Re:Another robotic dealie... by Uart · · Score: 1

      and I thought my mind was in the gutter... ;-)

      I'd rather have a robot that got me drunk, thank-you-very-much.

      --

      Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
    6. Re:Another robotic dealie... by OneEyedApe · · Score: 2, Funny

      This actually reminds me of a story (or series thereof), where some guy would get really drunk, invent strange things, and forget about it once he was sober again. One time he invented an extremely vain robot with 14 senses and a clear exterior, whose only purpose was to open beer cans. Then they stopped making beer cans.

      And no, I don't remember who the hell wrote this.

      --
      Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all....
      --Thomas J. Kopp
    7. Re:Another robotic dealie... by glenstar · · Score: 1

      Um... why does a Sybian cost almost 1400USD?

    8. Re:Another robotic dealie... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think it would be funny to have a robot that got you drunk and then took advantage of you once it got that done. Get the best of both worlds.

  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. Ahem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...the badly subtitled LotR rips mentioned a few weeks ago...

    The word is poorly .

  7. Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Unis stands for Universities? Strange.

    I was getting hungry, too bad.

    1. Re:Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One Uni. Two Unis. Here in Oz we go to "uni"

    2. Re:Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its like the 18th time I've seen "Uni" here today. And never once before.

    3. Re:Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only those of us that have money, according to John Howard's facist dictatorship.

    4. Re:Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well it would help if you could spell simple words such as fascist... you get in on your merits, then work your arse off. I'm not pro-Howard - if I was on the dole instead I'd get rent assistance...

    5. Re:Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know, it's irritating. Continental Europeans use it a lot (and some Brits), but from what I can tell it seems to have started in Australia. We don't call it that in Canada - we just say "hell" (no seriously, we usually say "U" before or after a specifier).

      "Uni" always looks weird to me, and makes me want to commit some unspecified act of comic violence to the speaker. I mean, uh, it looks weird. Did I think that or type it?

    6. Re:Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing Canadians or Yanks say ever irritates Australians

    7. Re:Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      tell the yankee he's a wanker who likes the bog

    8. Re:Unis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wanker we understand, but the bog?? where did you get that from? We're not complete fucktards in Orstrayleeya y'know... mate.

  8. Futurama Professor censored on Cartoon Network! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Moderators, I'll save you the trouble of reading this, this post is just way off topic.

    Has anybody been following futurama on the Cartoon Network lately? In two separate episodes, Professor Rupert Farnsworth (sp?) was censored while saying "Sweet Zombie Jesus!" - arguably one of the funniest expletives in the show. Specifically, the word "Jesus" was removed (replaced with silence).

    I am shocked and outraged! Who's responsible for this, damnit!!

    1. Re:Futurama Professor censored on Cartoon Network! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the german version, he said it. HA! Another proof that Europe is superior to the US!

      But The Man wouldn't let us watch the Star Trek nazi episode...

    2. Re:Futurama Professor censored on Cartoon Network! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Not sure about the Cartoon Network but that sort of censorship in cartoons has been going on for quite some time in the U.S.A. There are quite a few modified Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and many early cartoons that were censored due to post explosion Blackface scenes, black maid shots, statements, etc... Most of them enforced because the black community thought it offensive. NAACP and other groups lobbied to have them censored. Actually I remember many of these cartoons and when they re-run them today, much is missing.

      To be honest much of it was offensive! Most of the ones that were censored were the old classics that originally aired as movie theater shorts at about the time of WWII. My father grew up on Saturday Matinee's when one actually had to go to the theater on Saturday to see cartoons. This was before T.V.'s were in everyone's homes and radio was still the big new media. T.V. was out there but there was little programming and they were so expensive most people could not afford them.

      I suppose the Cartoon Network would catch Holy Hell if they didn't censor their toons. Then again, they could just be overly cautious and wishing to avoid a lawsuit.

      Lot's of parents plot their kids in front of the household baby sitter the good ole' T.V. Imagine walking in to the room and seeing some cartoon say "Sweet Zombie Jesus!". Now many of us would think absolutely nothing about that; but take someone from the USA south where religion is taken seriously. One phone call to Jerry Falwell and a team of lawyers decends on Cartoon Network!

      Being politically correct saves them from offending anyone and potentially getting sued. I know it sucks, but before this will ever change, folks need to get a hell of a lot more tolerent over a great deal of things.

    3. Re:Futurama Professor censored on Cartoon Network! by keyslammer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Lot's of parents plot their kids in front of the household baby sitter the good ole' T.V. Imagine walking in to the room and seeing some cartoon say "Sweet Zombie Jesus!".

      Except that this is during their "Adult Swim" cartoon time, throughout which parents are "strongly cautioned" about the adult content of the programs.

      There's lots of material during these shows that could be considered offensive, why single out "taking the Lord's name in vain?"

    4. Re:Futurama Professor censored on Cartoon Network! by mkldev · · Score: 1

      Same reason Comedy Central allows damn and said Lord's name but not damn when preceded by said Lord's name.... the same reason they allow bastard but won't allow s--t and f--k, ass but not a--hole. Somebody got a bug up his/her arse about a particular word, and somehow miraculously ended up as a network censor---the squeaky wheel gets the grease and all.

      --
      120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
    5. Re:Futurama Professor censored on Cartoon Network! by Isle · · Score: 2, Funny

      What about us who finds political correctness and censorship offensive?

      Doesnt our taking offense count somewhere???

    6. Re:Futurama Professor censored on Cartoon Network! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was additionally surprised that they even went to the trouble of removing it from the closed captions. Often the closed captions are overlooked. For example, the TV 2 hr. timeslot version of Predator retains a caption of "SHIT!" (though apparently someone thought this alien being able to speak English and even the appearance of its face is deemed censorable--but equivalent scenes are intact in the edited-for-TV version of Predator 2, so maybe they fall into the cut-for-time rather than cut-for-content category).

      Then again, when Tech TV showed Serial Experiments: Lain, the word "shit" was spoken several times in the dialog of one episode and once in the next (at least in the first airing of those two episodes my TiVo picked up), but in the captions (which they apparently perform live for their whole line-up of shows) it was omitted or, in the one instance episode I saw, replaced with "(beep)".

      Anyway, back to the off-topic, there was a slashdot story about Cartoon Network editing. To this point, their Standards & Practices forbid endorsing or degrading any religion in their programming, even in their Adult Swim block. All religious references and even iconography get removed (see question 9 of the interview).

      Adult Swim is edited for a TV-14 rating, not TV-M. Perhaps it should be called Teen Swim?

  9. Melbourne by Rinisari · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A neighbooring school, to where I shall be attending, had a like threat. What did people do? The college store suddenly had USB 2.0 and Firewire hard drives in stock. People copied everything to hard drives and stored them in a safe place in case the threat was real. It wasn't, but they were prepared.

    1. Re:Melbourne by bdaehlie · · Score: 1

      Must be a rich kid school...

    2. Re:Melbourne by peter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Temporarily encrypting everything was too difficult? Well I guess I can't argue with people who'd rather spend money than take time fiddling with computers, but I would've done tar | gpg > backup.tar, (nice innocuous name, no way anyone would get suspicious unless they actively suspected me of something, rather than just doing fascist inspections.)

      --
      #define X(x,y) x##y
      Peter Cordes ; e-mail: X(peter@cordes , .ca)
  10. (Correctly formatted, sorry) by rasafras · · Score: 2, Funny

    Site: Someone set up us the lawsuit!
    AOL: How are you hobbitses
    AOL: All your base are belong to us
    AOL: You are on the way to destruction
    Site: What you say !!
    AOL: You have no chance to survive make your time
    Site: Take off every 'precious'

    1. Re:(Correctly formatted, sorry) by Xeger · · Score: 1

      +1 Funny, baby. Good work. It's a shame the well-formatted one is buried under the munged one. If I hadn't lost my ENTIRE previous batch of mod points to weekend inattentiveness, I'd give you my vote.

    2. Re:(Correctly formatted, sorry) by WhiteDragon · · Score: 1

      yes, I know how you feel. I just did exactly the same thing, didn't read slashdot for a few days, log in, *woo* I have mod points! read some comments, got ready to mod, *oops* no mod points :-(

      --
      Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
    3. Re:(Correctly formatted, sorry) by Xeger · · Score: 1

      Have you noticed a recent drastic increase in the frequency of modship? I think I've been on a more-or-less continuous roll since mid-November, at which time I hadn't been selected for more than a year. Now I typically get mod points once a week.

      Hopefully, missing my last batch won't adversely affect my chances of continuing this modding streak. Reading /. comments is always so much more fun when you're armed and dangerous..

    4. Re:(Correctly formatted, sorry) by WhiteDragon · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I have noticed that too. I think they increased the percent chance of modding, either that or the chances of modding are increased by good metamods.

      --
      Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
  11. SELECT from users WHERE type='mistaken' by MySQL+Troll · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clearly you misread the article. It's about Blender, not Bender.

    In any event, I noticed that too and found it odd and crappy. I don't watch anything else on that network so I don't know how thick their censoring usually is, but I would guess that since it is first and foremost a children's cartoon network, it's probably thicker than Fox's.

    --
    "Linux is for geeks, beos is for nobody, Mac OS is for actors, XP is for people" - Anonymous Coward
    1. Re:SELECT from users WHERE type='mistaken' by Xeger · · Score: 1

      I'm afraid they have a history of problems with this SINGLE EXPLETIVE ALONE...Cartoon Network was going to air a hilarious underground hit cartoon called Rejected, and cancelled at the last minute (literally about 15 min before the show aired!) because it contained the words "Sweet Jesus!" and the artist wouldn't submit to censorship.

      Apparently it's okay to say Jesus, just as long as you don't imply that he is sweet, or nice, or anything else complimentary.

      So, I'm said to say it, but "Holy Benevolent Old-Lady-Helping Christ" is right out.

    2. Re:SELECT from users WHERE type='mistaken' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they were gonna air rejected? thats an awesome cartoon... MY ANUS.. IS BLEEEDING!

    3. Re:SELECT from users WHERE type='mistaken' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I heard that the "Sweet Jesus" remark was just an excuse to not air it. Apparently, one of the executives or head of programming just didn't like Rejected.

      Ah, Slashdot, where my rumors and conjecture are occasionally passed off as facts.

  12. Taking laziness too far by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a well known adage that engineers are supposed to be lazy. Larry Wall enumerates it as one of the traits of good programmers and the impetus behind Perl. What they mean is that engineers should strive to automate repetitive tasks instead of performing them manually each time.

    Lazy Drinker has clearly misunderstood the concept. The device they show is not automated in any way. The user still has to move the cup(!) under the spout and type(!!) commands into an attached computer to begin pouring the drink. Frankly, pouring the drink is the easiest part of the process. Any fast food restaurant has for ages had machines that have been doing this kind thing.

    Lazy Drinker has arguably made pouring drinks *more difficult* by way of this device. It's kind of sad that Slashdot is reduced to running such a non-story.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    1. Re:Taking laziness too far by OneEyedApe · · Score: 1

      It is a start in the right direction. All you need now is an autonoma that can pick up a glass and place it under the spout. Hook this up to your computer, and write a short script. One command, and your second machine will get a glass, and the first will fill it. Hell, you could get cron involved, and do even less thinking!

      --
      Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all....
      --Thomas J. Kopp
    2. Re:Taking laziness too far by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could just get a girlfriend, and ask her nicely to get you a beer. Wait, where am I?! What am I thinking?! A girl? hahahaha-sorry.

  13. bootlegs have bad quality? by lingqi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Erm... no.

    How do I know? I got a copy when I went to China. Hey don't bitch - The movie won't be in Japan for another two monthes (maybe one and half), and if you don't make it available when I am WILLING to pay and see it - you'd bet your ass I'm gonna buy the 1USD copy off a street-stall when it's available.

    So anyway - the bootleg was actually for submission to the academy awards - so the quality was definitely not bad. You can imagine academy awards copies are better than the "sit in the theatre w/ a camera" copies, by a far margin. If I ever decide to choke up the cash for a real copy (probably after all three are out), I'll let y'all know. but by that time I wonder if anyone still cares =)

    But, this really means that the academy awards ppl is leaking films. so... why arn't you guys (MPAA) looking harder at your OWN PEOPLE? like, the academy, for one?

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

    1. Re:bootlegs have bad quality? by BlacKat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not the quality of the film that is being made fun of, it's the atrocious quality of the SUBTITLES on said film.

      It was like they used a speech-to-text translator to create the subtitles, they were really that bad.

    2. Re:bootlegs have bad quality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But did anyone ever establish whether they were real - that is, present on the bootleg that way as opposed to made up by the site author and pasted into the framegrabs? They looked kinda fake.

    3. Re:bootlegs have bad quality? by freeweed · · Score: 1

      Ok, stupid canuck here: Why would the academy send out subtitled films for whatever it is they do to decide who wins? Aren't the Oscars pretty much an American thing (hence any non-US movie being classified as 'foreign')? If so, why would they need to subtitle them?

      --
      Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
    4. Re:bootlegs have bad quality? by hughk · · Score: 2, Informative
      The DVDs that go out as screeners don't have subtitles, at least no subtitles, English or otherwise when they are ripped. Someone who decides to make the bootlegs available in a foreign country then gets the subtitles prepared locally. They have no script and their Engrish may be laughable, hence the poor quality of the translation. Some countries (particularly former Soviet countries) will mix a single voice reading the lines on top of the soundtrack (with the original sound in the background).

      Mind you, living in Europe, I see some pretty awful local synch translations of films anyway. A friend who is in the translation business tells me that you get the same money to translate a movie as you do to translate a letter.

      --
      See my journal, I write things there
    5. Re:bootlegs have bad quality? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Bootlegs have unpredictable quality.

      TV shows I've downloaded range from good quality SVCD recodes of a signal nabbed straight from the setallite wildfeed, to poor quality low bitrate Divx files produced from VHS with poor sound quality and station identifiers obscuring the screen.

      Presumably a DVD is the same. You can't determine which sort you'll get until you buy it. As it is, the cost is so small that most people wouldn't have minded if it was a cmacorder job.

    6. Re:bootlegs have bad quality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      academy awards tapes and videos aren't guaranteed to be 'good' quality. i've seen a few of these tapes myself as my brother in law worked at at a major pr firm and had access to them. they actually tended to be of dubious quality. sometimes a really nice copy, sometimes crap...

  14. i prefer this robotic juicer by toothfish · · Score: 1

    the FF2K is where it's at if you want your juice robotically prepared. there's even a t-shirt of it.

  15. Blender is fun... by loucura! · · Score: 0, Troll

    I haven't ever actually done anything with it that is useful though (I think it's part of the license...)

    But it is fun none-the-less.

    --
    Black and grey are both shades of white.
  16. degrade their brand integrity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Isn't that the same excuse many use to burn books?

  17. Re:Aol is within their rights by John+Hasler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They are legal for one reason: journalistic interest in illustrating what the bootlegs look like. The First Amendment trumps copyright.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  18. Re:Australia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's really bizarre how Australia went from a place with nice people to a place with total Nazi's in just a few years. For a long time, I used to think Aussie's were laid back and cool, but lately, Australia gets the top of my list as the most notrious Nazi infested nation on earth right now.

    The laws of australia in regard to cyberspace were often pretty tame, but a similar effect took place recently and all sensiblilty seem to have been discarded. Werent the australians the first to go against DVD regional encoding?! And now they are in bed with the beasts.

    I am sad to hear about so much backward walking from Aussies. It's simily embarassing specially in this day and age.

  19. PRAISE JESUS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Good. We should respect Christ's name. Isn't it amazing that after so many years we're still talking about Jesus Christ, even those who don't believe slander Him as they curse His glorious name.

    Praise be the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

    1. Re:PRAISE JESUS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What? "Jesus" isn't that glorious of a name. It's sort of a curse word, you know?

    2. Re:PRAISE JESUS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that really how it's spelled and written? All this time I thought we were talking about Chivas. And now, it makes no sense, you know? You've shaken my world. Christ I need a drink.

    3. Re:PRAISE JESUS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also it's spelled and pronounced "jeebus". Not a spelling flame, I just hate it when people get that wrong.

    4. Re:PRAISE JESUS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's sad that parent was moderated "Funny." Someone wishes to voice their support for someone finally stemming the tide of blasphemy--an issue that may not be important to you (reader), but is certainly important to some.

      Have some respect, people.

  20. Re:Aol is within their rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How can you spoil a movie based on a book that everyone's already read?

    It isn't like revealing that Morpheus gets shot to death by Trinity in a case of mistaken identity. (According to the Reloaded script that's been floating around).

  21. why scan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously, we all know how much illegally copied stuff is on student computers, since we were all students once. So just fine the whole lot of them. Cut to the chase!

    No I guess that might actually be some bad publicity. I know. Just pick a few of the folks sharing gigabytes of stuff (Your Honor, he had a FAST computer, so it's really more like terabytes of stuff), and "make examples" out of them. Then everyone else will delete^H^H^H^H^Hencrypt their files with a quickness!

    Ahh well. When are these RIAA folks going to go out of business? Please?

  22. biohazard! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    your lord and master, is my dog...let me feed him

  23. Anyone know anything about Jazz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I can't answer this ... I'm fucked!

    5. What is the reason studio rehearsal bands exist today? Name some of them.

    1. Re:Anyone know anything about Jazz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so the bands can rehearse in a studio :p

    2. Re:Anyone know anything about Jazz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To provide back up to singer-acts. Slash's Snakepit, L.A. Guns (really!)

    3. Re:Anyone know anything about Jazz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Brainchild of Johnny Mercer, founder of Capitol Records. Paul Weston headed up the studio band.

  24. Re:SLASHDOT EDITORS ARE IDIOTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't this what "slashback" is supposed to mean you idiot?

  25. Posting stories about Australia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hello,

    I think it's time we (the nerd community) did our own self-censoring. I think, we should now realize that Australia is currently not feeling very well, that she's got some sort of a migrane and that anything she might vomit out might not be digestable by human beings. Thus, I suggest, that as nerds, we hereby censor any and all references to Australia.

    Thank you.

    PS: This is to make a better America.
    PS2: I mean a peaceful, terrorist less America.
    PS3: Australia by itself cannot be said racist.

    1. Re:Posting stories about Australia by seb249 · · Score: 0, Troll

      ummmm why ????

  26. Question for blender users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Hello,

    I'm trying to learn Blender, is there a resource (like a nice pdf file), which I can use to quickly learn Blender. I've learned povray via the included help documentation, is there such a beast for Blender, please post below.

    And on Australia, down with them I say! Change your government people.

    1. Re:Question for blender users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I support the HOWARD government. It's doing the RIGHT thing by looking after the rights of the white australians. Afterall we do not have such a big minority issue as you guys have.

    2. Re:Question for blender users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We've been a sleeping giant, our current prez just woke us up. He is great, no one used to talk about us before! Why do you feel so threatend? Australia is big and powerful, we need to flex our muscles. And dude, we dont have minorities ok. I don't have any problems with people from chinese or anything. I have friends who are aboroginal. Ok.. bye.

    3. Re:Question for blender users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can buy the the blender book for 34 bucks. Also you can download a OCRed copy from GoatSe. I'm serious, the dude did it in blender. Look if this is a troll posting would I say the link is Goatse?! :)

    4. Re:Question for blender users by FunkyChild · · Score: 3, Informative
  27. Sure RIAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just let /. scan all of your computers for music files and illegal application installs. We're supposed to trust you, so you should have to trust us.

  28. Re:Aol is within their rights by ObviousGuy · · Score: 0

    This is possibly the most ignorant comment in this whole discussion.

    No. Copyright trumps the First Amendment every time. Application of copyright law leaves space for freedom of the press, but it does not allow wholesale dismissal of copyright.

    That's the reason why the framers of the Constitution were careful to add copyright to the main body of the Constitution and not to the less authoritative Amendments.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  29. Re:Australia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AGREE!! Down with Facists!!

  30. Re:Aol is within their rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, you are so smart. All those mp3's I can download are just for journalistic interest. You're a genius. Call Sharman Networks.

  31. TTT Captions and fair use? by Chymaera · · Score: 1

    Nonwithstanding that the bootleg itself would not fall under fair use, I should think one could make an argument for the screenshots falling under the parody clause of fair use. They don't take all that much from the film, do they? Maybe AOL-TW would say the screens are a parody of the illegal bootleg and not the original movie, but they could as easily be construed the other way, no? I'd be interested to see WB's e-mail.

  32. Groupthink strikes again, as moderation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is nothing insightful about the parent post. However, it bashes copyright and champions free speech.

    It is a total non-sequitor of a post.

  33. More embarrassing? by mrpuffypants · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think that that whole incident with AOL Time Warner losing $98,000,000,000 just last year does a bit more to "degrade their brand integrity", not to mention that at least once a week they are in the news because a board member is fired or leaves the company because the whole entity hit the fan a while back.

    1. Re:More embarrassing? by cujo_1111 · · Score: 1

      "Get busy living, or get busy dying." -Shawshank Redemption
      Honestly, how many people can correct me on this quote?

      The fact the quote was not said by 'Shawshank Redemption' is a minor correction :) Andy Dufresne was the character that Tim Robbins played.

      --
      If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
    2. Re:More embarrassing? by mrpuffypants · · Score: 1

      yes, but I've been told that Andy said it, then corrected and told that Red said it...

      After changing it around about 5 times I just put it like it is

  34. Re:Aol is within their rights by Jaeger · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's been a while since I took civics, but I remember one thing for sure: Constutional Ammendments are, for all intents and purposes, on equal footing to the rest of the Constution. Ammendments are not "less authoritative" than the rest of the Constution; they are, legally, exactly the same thing.

    I agree, in principle, with your statement that the First Ammendment is not relevant to this discussion. However, fair use is. In my opinion, fair use applies to this issue, and AOL/Time Warner has no case.

  35. Scanning for MP3s by DeborahArielPickett · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've already had my (university-owned) laptop scanned for MP3s by Monash University, as has everyone else in my School. The Faculty is presumably conducting these audits to see how much of a liability its staff is. Rumour has it that someone had been suspended for trading MP3s, and the University is getting grief over it from the Australian Record Industry Association. It's interesting to know that this is happening at other universities around Australia too.

    There have been a number of memos from the Dean lately about copyrighted material, including music. The University's stance is that any copies of music, whether you own an original or not, are illegal unless you have written permission from the copyright holder. I believe that this is consistent with Australian copyright law, which (correct me if I'm wrong) doesn't seem to have a Fair Use clause. If that's true, it makes me wonder why you can buy solid-state MP3 players in this country at all.

    find / -name "*.mp3" -print returned nothing on my laptop, so it's not a big deal to me, and since it's the University's equipment, they're entitled to set their own rules. But searching our hard disks doesn't exactly foster a trusting relationship between staff and university. More to the point, it's also going to have a nasty effect on research on audio compression.

    1. Re:Scanning for MP3s by Kargan · · Score: 1

      //find / -name "*.mp3" -print returned nothing on my laptop, so it's not a big deal to me, and since it's the University's equipment, they're entitled to set their own rules.//

      Now that you mention it, that's a fabulous if not obvious way to "hide" the files. Just remove the extension from all mp3 files, re-add them when the audit is over.

      --
      Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
    2. Re:Scanning for MP3s by toddestan · · Score: 1

      Heh, I would of removed/hidden all the mp3's that I did not rip myself off of the disks I own. Throw in some of the legally downloaded free songs off of mp3.com, etc. When they popped up I would of said those are my music and the files are all perfectly legal due to fair use. When they ask to see the CDs I'll tell them that they are in storage 100 miles away.

      Just to see what they would do (they would probably nuke the files anyway) Besides they would have to *prove* that I do not own those CDs.

      It's the truth too. I didn't want to bother with my CD's at school because they take up space, and they would have a tendency to walk off. So I bought a huge HDD and ripped everything to mp3. So now I can enjoy my music, and *I* don't have to worry about anyone stealing it, though on the other hand the RIAA seems to worry plenty enough about that.

    3. Re:Scanning for MP3s by kfg · · Score: 3, Informative

      MP3 does not mean "copied from someone else who holds the rights."

      It's just a format for storing music. I have hours of mp3's on my desktop that *I* am the copyright holder to, as well as some that were perfectly legally distributed freely by the actual copyright holder.

      MP3 players can be purchased because it's perfectly legal to play recorded music.

      Also, the idea that, even without fair use law, you must have *written* permission to legally have rights to play an mp3 is wrong. It's perfectly legal to do it with a handshake, or a blanket permission statement on a web site.

      Requiring it to be written is just to a)make life easier for them, and b) cover their own asses as tightly as possible, see a.

      KFG

    4. Re:Scanning for MP3s by Fishstick · · Score: 2, Interesting

      >Just remove the extension from all mp3 files, re-add them when the audit is over.

      Or better yet, simply name them *.3pm and change the associations (assuming you are using windows).

      Hell, the file extension doesn't change the contents of the file, right? (just the application that is automatically launched when you click on one - although I suppose it could cause problems for programs that build playlists by scanning for the proper extension).

      --

      There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
      Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.

    5. Re:Scanning for MP3s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes but the issue is not whether you can PLAY mp3s.

      The issue is whether you can create MP3s from CDs you have purchased.

      As the Australian copyright law is written, this may constitute creating a "derivative work". Our university (Monash) has taken that stance.

      But I've been told that case law may not support this. As Deborah noted in her original post, it is legal to sell solid-state mp3 players, which are most obviously used to carry around all the music on your stack of CDs left at home.

    6. Re:Scanning for MP3s by Froggy · · Score: 2, Informative
      I believe that this is consistent with Australian copyright law, which (correct me if I'm wrong) doesn't seem to have a Fair Use clause. If that's true, it makes me wonder why you can buy solid- state MP3 players in this country at all.

      Australia is a signatory to the Berne Convention, which has a provision for "fair dealing" rights. However, under Australian law, "fair dealing" is confined to purposes of research/study, criticism/review, news reporting, or professional advice given by a lawyer or patent attorney, and is only allowable if it does not unreasonably prejudice the author's rights over the work. It is not certain whether personal listening falls under the heading of "study", but audio compression research seems to be safe.

      On the other hand, even if ripping an MP3 is legal, putting it up for distribution is certainly not. And if I were counsel for the prosecution (disclaimer: IANAL) I'd probably claim that putting the MP3 somewhere other people could download it counts as distribution -- that could include just leaving it in your home directory, depending on how the permissions are set.

      By the way, I bought my solid-state MP3 player from Singapore through ebay. When I bought my CD player, though, the shop assistant tried to sell me one that plays MP3 CDs as well, and couldn't believe it when I told him my workplace (I'm at Monash, too) had taken the position that MP3s were, by definition, illegal.

      --
      It is a woman's prerogative to change other people's minds.
    7. Re:Scanning for MP3s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't suprise me that a prison colony would have the STUPIDEST lawmakers on the planet.

      welcome to OZ, please bend over for local officials...

    8. Re:Scanning for MP3s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As the original poster just pointed out, an MP3 does not have to be ripped from a CD. There are plenty of them, freely and legally available, on mp3.com The poster has MP3's of music that he has created himself. All perfectly legal. So the media companies are talking arse.

    9. Re:Scanning for MP3s by Erasmus+Darwin · · Score: 1
      "Just remove the extension from all mp3 files, re-add them when the audit is over."

      Except that you'll still get caught if they use a program that checks the magic number within each of the files. file(1) on my Linux box has no problem recognizing mp3s. It'll even tell you the bitrate.

  36. Re:Aol is within their rights by zurab · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The screenshots from the two towers bootleg are illegal for two reasons:

    a) They are not authorized pictures from the movie and could possibly spoil the movie for someone who hasn't seen it and that can result in lost sales


    I guess I have to see a piece of legislation that bans movie spoilers, descriptions, opinions, etc. That piece of legislation doesn't exist in the U.S., nor do I think it exists in Norway. In fact, using parts of copyrighted work for fair use, including speech, opinions, caricatures is perfectly legal and done daily almost everywhere around the world.

    b) Showing pictures of a "bootleg" of a movie could potentially promote the art of bootlegging (which already is responsible for millions in lost/stolen sales)

    What a ridiculous statement! Also, showing murders, mass killings, drug use, rape, etc. in many AOL/Time Warner movies could potentially promote the art (?) of such actions. So, those movies should be censored and deemed illegal too. Censor everything?

    Aol/Time Warner is within their rights and has a duty to protect their copywritten work. Sorry folks.

    Sorry man, everyone else is also within their full rights to use copyrighted works within the fair use guidelines. Seems like AOL/Time Warner should go after people who copy and sell their work, rather than consumers.

  37. Re:Aol is within their rights by zurab · · Score: 1

    This is possibly the most ignorant comment in this whole discussion.

    No. Copyright trumps the First Amendment every time. Application of copyright law leaves space for freedom of the press, but it does not allow wholesale dismissal of copyright.


    How does this apply to screenshots? Screenshots are not reproduction of the whole work. Can you make a photocopy of few pages from a book? Can you write a review from the book and quote the author? Can you reference and quote other authors?

  38. INSERT into filtered_words SET word='Sweet Jesus' by MySQL+Troll · · Score: 1

    I love that cartoon. It never ceases to amaze me how many people here know about it. Cartoon Network was going to air that? Wow.

    In an effort to further public knowledge, here's a link. Order a DVD. You'll be glad you did.

    --
    "Linux is for geeks, beos is for nobody, Mac OS is for actors, XP is for people" - Anonymous Coward
  39. How come... by meme_police · · Score: 1

    ...Blender isn't the emacs of 3d-modeling?

    --

    The meme police, They live inside of my head

    1. Re:How come... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Repeat after me:

      BLENDER IS THE EMACS OF 3d-MODELING

      POVRAY IS THE VI OF 3D-MODELING.

    2. Re:How come... by iabervon · · Score: 1

      Povray is the ed of 3D-modeling; vi and emacs both have user interfaces.

    3. Re:How come... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because blender doesnt pretend to be an OS.

  40. I know people that work at melbourne uni. by laptop006 · · Score: 1

    And if they scan the IT dept, they will find some good collections :-) (A few gig on an iTunes library for one of my friends)

    --
    /* FUCK - The F-word is here so that you can grep for it */
  41. You'd think they would have moved earlier! by morcheeba · · Score: 1

    The london financial district was a target 7 years ago!

    1. Re:You'd think they would have moved earlier! by gazuga · · Score: 1

      I was thinking more along the lines of Fight Club

      Those damn anarchists...

      --
      "I turn away with fright and horror from the lamentable evil of functions which do not have derivatives."
  42. Re:Aol is within their rights by rikkards · · Score: 1

    Personally I think they ruined the movie when they had the trailer released showing Gandalf alive (sorry if you didn't know) I knew he survived from FOTR but my wife was reading the book and hadn't reached that point.

  43. Re:Aol is within their rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is possibly the most ignorant comment in this whole discussion.

    No, you are wrong. Yours is the most ignorant.

    Amendments to the Constitution ALWAYS override the main body of the Constitution. That's the definition of an amendment. Something that changes the original document.

    The result of the First Amendment is the doctrine of "fair use." Fair use was not created by Congress, but was created by the courts in order to reconcile the clash between the monopoly clause (which authorizes the government to create speech monopolies in the form of copyright) with the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of speech.) Fair Use was developed to "save" copyright from being declared unconstitutional in light of the First Amendment.

    The theory behind Fair Use is that copyright is compatible with the First Amendment, so long as copyright does not suppress speech. In other words, I can be stopped from reprinting and selling copies of "Gone With The Wind", because "Gone With The Wind" has already been published, sold, and made available to the public. The public already has access to that particular speech, and is therefore minimally harmed by my not being allowed to publish an unauthorized edition.

    That's the theory, anyway. In 1976, the copyright laws were rewritten, and the Fair Use doctrine was codified into law. However, the scope of copyright was so enlarged in the 1976 rewrite that the copyright laws are now arguably unconstitutional. Prior to 1976, copyright did not extend to derivative works. Now it does.

    The extension of copyright to derivative works flies both in the face of the First Amendment and the copyright clause itself.

    The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, but the copyright laws outlaw speech that is derived from a copyrighted work.

    The monopolies clause authorize Congress:
    To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;


    The 1976 copyright law goes far beyond this. In addition to giving authors the right to exclude others from copying and publish the works of the author, it allows an author to exclude other authors from publishing their own original works.

    For instance, there are probably hundreds of authors who are fully capable and willing to write and create additional "Winnie The Pooh" stories and movies. Some of those authors might very well rival the vision and artistry of A.A. Milne. However, because the Disney corporation owns the copyright on Winnie the Pooh, the only Winnie the Pooh books and movies that we will see in our lifetime are the forgetable direct-to-video trash and crappy commercial children's picture books.

    The 1976 copyright revision has been a complete disaster. It has resulted in the massive consolidation of copyright power, the forced destruction and dumbing down of culture, and a wave of speech suppression that has never been seen in the history of the United States.

  44. NaN? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Am I the only one who read that as "Not a Number"?

    1. Re:NaN? by FunkyChild · · Score: 1

      Not a Number (NaN) was the name of the company that produced Blender before it went belly-up.

      Info here: http://www.blender3d.org/Foundation/?sub=History

  45. Re:Australia by seb249 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Tis amazing and really kind of sad what a couple of anally retentive politicians can do to a country. Our minister for imformation technology is most likely still trying to work out why computers come with cup holders.

  46. MandrakeClub by miracle69 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Another good reason to join MandrakeClub prior to 9.1 is their ftp server download script.

    On the day of the release, head over to MandrakeClub and use their download script. It tells you which servers have the distro and open slots, and you just zip on over there and grab them without having to wait in long queues/redialing to get into ftp servers.

    It's like a world-wide mirror load-balancer. Pretty neat, IMHO.

    --
    Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
    1. Re:MandrakeClub by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bleah. Debian's jigdo is cooler, if only because you don't ahve to grab ISOs, you can grab the template and the resulting files one at a time -- including pulling from local sources if it's a mini-update from the existing distro (e.g. 3.0r0 to 3.0r1).

  47. Re:Aol is within their rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Reel 'er in boys! We've got a live one here!

  48. Well, this site is safe to look at... by xyote · · Score: 1

    Cabaret Mechanical Theatre. There does seem to be some mechanistic resemblence here.

  49. Re:Aol is within their rights by wirefarm · · Score: 1

    and could possibly spoil the movie for someone who hasn't seen it and that can result in lost sales

    So could the original books. Better burn 'em all... ;-)

    --
    -- My Weblog.
  50. The camel simulator in particular by xyote · · Score: 1

    here is one of my favorites.

  51. Not only does it not run lisp, by voodoo1man · · Score: 1
    but it's also got a fairly, how shall I put this, "obtuse" interface. That, and you can't read your email with it.

    BTW, everyone seems to have forgotten about VRML (c'mon, it wasn't all bad!): "3d-web- thingies (there exists a browser plugin)"

    --

    In the great CONS chain of life, you can either be the CAR or be in the CDR.

  52. Re:Australia by silne · · Score: 1

    I'm sure he'll work that out around the time he works out that there is more than pr0n on the internet!!!

    And around the time he decides to remove his head from his arse to work out that just because you have a download limit higher than 3gig does not make you a pir8. I mean c'mon, how much data does it take to play a game on a server other than the one your ISP runs? Or to look at lots of websites, or to chat on ICQ, or to download LEGAL software such as linux distributions.

    I wanna know when somebody's gonna work out that mp3 is not the only format in which music is shared on the internet.

  53. Re:Aol is within their rights by HeghmoH · · Score: 1

    a) Ever heard of "fair use"? You can copy parts of somebody else's copyrighted work for the purposes of discussion, satire, etc. The web site in question definitely falls under that.

    b) This is 110% irrelevant. Causing a loss in sales is not by itself an illegal or even immoral act.

    --
    Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
  54. Re:Aol is within their rights by rgmoore · · Score: 1
    Ammendments are not "less authoritative" than the rest of the Constution; they are, legally, exactly the same thing.

    If anything, the Ammendments are more authoritative than the main body. An ammendment is something that's been added later, in many cases to correct a flaw or omission in the original body of the Constitution. Thus if an Ammendment is in conflict with something in the main body, the Ammendment takes precidence. The obvious example is the Twelfth Ammendment, which changed to process of how the President and Vice President are elected. Today we follow the procedure outlined in the Ammendment (with a few additional changes made by even later Ammendments) rather than the one outlined in the main body.

    --

    There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.

  55. Re:Aol is within their rights by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 1

    No. Copyright trumps the First Amendment every time. Application of copyright law leaves space for freedom of the press, but it does not allow wholesale dismissal of copyright.

    That's the reason why the framers of the Constitution were careful to add copyright to the main body of the Constitution and not to the less authoritative Amendments.


    That's the best news I've heard all week. You mean slavery is still legal? Sweet! I'm gonna go rustle me up some Negroes!

    (Seriously, though, the interaction between the 1st amendment and copyright law is called "fair use". It is, despite everyone's confusion, pretty well defined. These screenshots are exactly legal.)

    --

    There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
  56. Re:SELECT from responses WHERE type='THIRD POST' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    not only have you failed to achieve third post, but your sql statement would not run (you have to select *something*).

    pathetic

  57. And the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    brown nosing award goes to......... :P

    Lame.

  58. sealab by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and yet they did air the 'Feast of Alvis' episode of SeaLab 2021. blatant jesus jokes in there (although renamed to 'alvis'). looks like it was an intentional censorship roundabout.

    yay sealab!@#

  59. How do you spot "unlawful sound recordings"? by UncleRoger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How do you tell "unlawful sound recordings" from legal ones?

    I have a whole lot of MP3's on my hard drive -- all of it personally ripped from legally purchased CD's. (Except that which I downloaded, legally, from MP3.com as explicitly permitted by the copyright holder, and much of which I ended up buying on CD anyway.) So, supposing the RIAA, et al. were to scan my computer (as if I'd allow them), how could they tell whether or not the files I have are there legally?

    I ask because I am concerned that the answer is "you can't tell, so we'll just have to make *all* copyrighted sound files illegal."

    I don't condone copyright violation, and don't want my rights curtailed because of it.

    --
    Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
    1. Re:How do you spot "unlawful sound recordings"? by cranos · · Score: 1

      Down here(Australia), if you have an MP3 on your machine ripped from a CD then you are a criminal. We don't even have basic fair use rights like the yanks do.

      In fact a local music organisation is trying to introduce a levy on CD-ROMS and so on by dangling the carrot of actually bringing in fair use(although heavily restricted of course)

    2. Re:How do you spot "unlawful sound recordings"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about all the legal mp3's fropm indie bands that DONT RELEASE IT ANY OTHER WAY?

      Or my collection of ambient sounds I record with my laptop+mixer+2 high quality microphones? I also have those as VBR mp3's around. they are MY property.. I own them and they can stuff it up their arsehole if they want to say anything about it.

    3. Re:How do you spot "unlawful sound recordings"? by UncleRoger · · Score: 1

      It's not the MP3 format itself that is the issue, it is illegal copies of copyrighted material that is in question. You are the copyright owner of the recordings you make. If I made a copy of them, in whatever format, without your permission, I would be committing a crime.

      The RIAA, et al, are only interested in the stuff for which they hold the copyright. So, if they spot an MP3 file on your hard drive, they'll compare it to see if it is the same (or, presumably, illegally close to being the same) as something for which they own the copyright.

      If they find a match, the question becomes one of legality. If we stipulate that it is legal to make an MP3 copy of an album you own, then they would require proof that you own a legal copy. My concern is that the simple answer (for the RIAA) is do as one poster says is now the case in the UK -- make *all* MP3 (or other) copies illegal.

      The problem is similar to many other that we have (unfortunately) come to accept as the norm. Why do you have a lock on your door? Because there is a small group of persons that would rob you if you didn't. Those few make the rest of us have to deal with the inconvenience of fumbling with our keys, etc. When I was a kid, I use to leave my bike on the front lawn when I went in for lunch. If I did that today, I wouldn't even get as far as the kitchen before it was stolen. A few jerks make me have to haul my bike up the stairs into the house, even just to take a leak.

      A few jerks who illegally copy music may make it so that I can't have MP3 copies of my CD's.

      --
      Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
  60. I want slashback! by MrEd · · Score: 1
    What's happening with Castle Technologies' blatant GPL breach?


    They went so far as to encourage their developers to steal driver code from GPLed PCI modules. Are the respective copyright owners / FSF going after them or what?

    --

    Wah!

  61. Man oh man. Combine this with a Real Doll by kfg · · Score: 2, Funny

    and no one has to be there at all.

    KFG

  62. Re:Aol is within their rights by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 1

    That post would seem more authoritative if you could reduce the number of "m"s in Ammendment. (One mistake can be a slipup. Seven just looks stupid.)

  63. MIRROR!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    SUE THIS u AOL CUNTS!!!!

    LOTR 'Engrish' Subs

  64. Re:Aol is within their rights by John+Hasler · · Score: 1

    > No. Copyright trumps the First Amendment every time.

    Wrong, and there is massive case law in support. The Amendments are _amendments_: changes to what preceded them. When an Amendment contradicts something in the body of the Constitution the Amandment rules. That's the whole point.

    > That's the reason why the framers of the
    > Constitution were careful to add copyright to
    > the main body of the Constitution and not to the
    > less authoritative Amendments.

    They added the more authoritative Amendments for the purpose of altering the effect of the body.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  65. Re:Aol is within their rights by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the First Ammendment is not relevant to this discussion. However, fair use is.

    They're the same thing. The "Fair" part about the use is that it is in support of freedom of speech.

    Duplicating an author's work is against copyright law. But duplicating parts of the work may be necessary to produce other kinds of original, protected speech (like journalistic review and academic analysis), and is allowed.

    "Fair Use" is basically the courts' established interpretation of the boundaries between the First Amendment and Section 8.8.

  66. Unintended Consequences by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just pick a few of the folks sharing gigabytes of stuff [...] and "make examples" out of them. Then everyone else will delete^H^H^H^H^Hencrypt their files with a quickness!

    Reminds me of the late '60s / early '70s, when "the computing center" was a centralized empire at each university where everybody (except the administration) did their computing, and a 50 MB hard disk looked like a washing machine (and disk farms actually WERE sometimes referred to as "laundromats").

    The big U where I was an inmate had a policy against "frivolous use of the computer" (which had been paid for by research grants on the condition that nobody got a cheaper rate on processor seconds, kilobyte months, or what-have-you than the grant that bought the box). So games were verbotten. Also: Obscenity was frowned upon (due in part to an unfortunate incident with typewriter pictures on a line printer just as the sponsors' tour party went by it).

    Well, the typewriter-interface Star Trek game hit the timesharing machine - and quickly became a major consumer of CPU time. The center's personnel deleted a publicly-known copy. And another. And several more. And it turned into an arms race.

    Encrypted copies all over the disk farm. HUNDREDS of 'em. Software to search the disks for more. People doing things like inserting the comment "Kirk Spock Klingon phaser Enterprise NCC-1801" in otherwise-unused lines of configuration files (for the joy of watching the use counts go up as the tools kept finding it and the staff kept looking at it only to discover that it was not part of a game). Conservative guesstimates were that AT LEAST one whole washingmachine's worth of storage was given over to encrpyted copies of the game.

    And things started going wrong.

    The last straw was twofold - two big mistakes within about a week of each other:

    A student named "James Kirk" found his thesis work (in a file of the same name) deleted, with no backup. Oops.

    And the medical school was just finishing a several-year, multi-million dollar project on the critical path to approval for a new drug. The drug was related to the endocrine system, so one of the tests was to dose rats with it when they were in the womb or young, then measure their penises to see if their size at maturity was affected. The project accumulated the data, as it was collected, in a file on the heavily-backed-up Computing Center disk farm. The file was named "Rat Penis Data".

    One day the grad student went to enter the latest set of measurements - and found the file had been replaced with a self-righteous flame about misuse of the computer.

    Of course the center staff hadn't done a backup of the "obscene" file just before the replacement. So even if the file were restored, the data since the last backup was lost, and atempting to re-enter it from paper records risked missing or double entries, even if all the paper could be sorted out. Project's results are now invalidated. Med school lost megabux. Drug company's product was set back by years.

    Needless to say there was quite a bit of interdepartmental pressure to take the culprits out behind the woodshed for a sound thrashing. And rabid enforcement of such policies got a major setback.

    But it was also the beginning of the end for the Center as an all-controlling computer empire.

    Up to that point it, like such centers at most universities and corporations, had been in a position to veto other departments' computer purchases. The Regents (or the administration acting as their agents) would take such requests to the Comp Center for evaluation - and the evaluation would always be "they should use the timesharing system at the Center". And the other departments wouldn't push (or would sneak a PDP-n in as automation in some test instrument). Now the integrity of their data was at issue, and the Center had proven itself incompetent on this issue. So first the Medical Center and then other departments pushed for, and won, their own machines.

    And the Center went on to salvage its position by specializing in networking. B-)

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:Unintended Consequences by Pootie+Tang · · Score: 1
      One day the grad student went to enter the latest set of measurements - and found the file had been replaced

      Or so the grad student said. I bet he had so much fun the first time shouting "who's your daddy!" that he just wanted to conduct the whole rat penis measuring part over again.

    2. Re:Unintended Consequences by evilviper · · Score: 1
      Conservative guesstimates were that AT LEAST one whole washingmachine's worth of storage was given over to encrpyted copies of the game.

      Dammit!!! Why didn't I think of that???

      A "Washing Machine" is the perfect unit of measurement! Who cares how many GigaBytes a drive can store??? I want to know how many Washing Machines worth of data it can store! This could revolutionize the computing industry!
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  67. We are not oakmen! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We are hobiks!

  68. 2 MB by dudifeuer · · Score: 1

    Does anyone have any clue how blender fits in under 2 MB (*for most platforms)??? It seems like comparable programs (i.e. maya) are HUGE. Is it written completely in Assembler??!

    1. Re:2 MB by DeltaSigma · · Score: 1

      It's small because it does only that which it is meant to do. You'd be surprised how many "big" applications have a small filesize when they're not bloated and include only features which enhance a user's productivity, not a user's "experience."

  69. Redundant apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe this explains the large amout of redundant apps,alway included with Mandrake.
    Save your money,as this club is a hangout for Commie Scum.

  70. RE:Copyright vs. Presumptive Scanning, part VXIIIX by fatboyslack · · Score: 1

    I actually went to the University of Melbourne, finished last year, and I'm wondering if (and yes, I read both articles) they are talking about the student websites that Info Systems students make or the actually mean the networks. The residential colleges affiliated with Uni have there own LAN's set up that are separated from Uni and I know for a fact that there are huge numbers of MP3's stored and shared on those networks. The only things these have in common with Melb Uni is that Uni provides the net access and special access to Uni networks (ECR/Webraft/its etc.) I sincerely doubt that Uni could be liable for this. And how could Melb Uni be liable for something students do that they have signed a contract that they won't do? (before you get an account/login at Uni you have to sign an agreement that you won't look up pr0n/mp3z etc, or participate in illegal file sharing) The students responsible should be punished, not Uni. Man this pisses me off. But then I'm "preaching to the converted" here aren't I
    /rant

    --
    Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. -- Leo Tolstoy
  71. Re:Aol is within their rights by MrResistor · · Score: 1

    This is possibly the most ignorant comment in this whole discussion.

    If you're talking about your own comment, then you are correct.

    Copyright trumps the First Amendment every time.

    The Constitution trumps every law made which is not explicitly spelled out in it. The First Amendment is in the Constitution. The copyright clause that is allegedly being violated is not.

    That's the reason why the framers of the Constitution were careful to add copyright to the main body of the Constitution and not to the less authoritative Amendments.

    Copyright is not a part of the Constitution. The Constitution merely grants Congress the right to create copyright laws if it sees fit. Again, the First Amendment wins.

    --
    Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
  72. Yes, and while they're at it .. by antis0c · · Score: 1

    Why not search all the homes on the street a known drug dealer does business? Bah, to hell with the Fouth Amedment, the ends DO justify the means.

    --

    ..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
  73. mandrake by BigBir3d · · Score: 1

    using 9.1 beta3 and it is junk. somehow the pcmcia lucent wireless card that worked fine in 9.0 doesn't in 9.1b3 :(

    i was also very underwhelmed by kde 3.1

    if i had the ca$h, i would just get a 12" powerbook or ibook.

  74. Where is the "unlawful" material stored? by abdulla · · Score: 1

    So where do they think we store the unlawful material? Yeah I use my two Melbourne uni email accounts to store horde's of illegal music which I distribute through my ring of chain-smoking monkeys.

  75. Clip art by yerricde · · Score: 1

    It seems like comparable programs (i.e. maya) are HUGE.

    Maya is huge because it comes with clip art.

    Is it written completely in Assembler??!

    All programs compiled with GCC are represented in the target architecture's assembly language at one point in the compilation.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  76. Don't worry by willpost · · Score: 4, Funny

    All they'll require is for everyone to be fitted with a tiny ear implant which bills a simple rate for all kilosounds per hour heard.

    The following billing schedule is applicable for single-channel and stereophonic royalty service from single-eardrum consumers to double-eardrum consumers as metered by RIAA.

    Sound Charge:
    BASELINE (TIER I) QUANTITIES
    per kiloSoundhour per Month

    Radio/XM Satellite Transmission $0.00403
    Internet Distribution $0.03485
    Rock Star Drug Rehab Programs $0.00231
    Power Ballad Generation $0.04542
    Glam Rock Decommissioning $0.00045
    PFRA (Price Fixing Record Amounts) $0.00962
    CD Copy-Protection Reliability Services $0.00384
    Total Rate $0.10052

    MINIMUM CHARGE (per eardrum per sound per day) $0.12345

    In the summer of 2XXX, wholesale spot prices for sounds began to escalate to levels unanticipated by the RIAA. The rising prices translated into dramatically increased sound royalty costs and revenue undercollections for the recording studios. The royalty costs of the sounds heard during the crisis, along with the costs of forward purchase obligations incurred by RIAA, must now be recovered.

  77. Perils of Piracy? by hughk · · Score: 1
    I wonder if the guy who posted this had made an ad against piracy out of this, whether AOL would have been so terrible to him? It would have still been as funny by the rest of us.

    Th trouble is that the screen shots that accopany the pictiures are of such a high quality that this is definitely upsetting for the copyright owners, who like to guard every image (publicity stills are carefully selected).

    --
    See my journal, I write things there
  78. Easy... by tlambert · · Score: 1

    Easy... no boot code.

    -- Terry

  79. Firewalling Universities? by Angram · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How much use would a firewall be vs. a University? I would assume it would keep them out, but they'd just call you and demand you disable it or have your connection turned off. But then, that would give you warning and time to delete any files they wouldn't like (legal or illegal).
    But couldn't you argue that turning off your firewall would open you up to nasty hackers? I suppose it's no win, but the warning time would be nice (wouldn't take too long to put it all onto CD-Rs or Zip disks, anyway).

    --

    GL
  80. Can't find the Two Towers engrish caption mirror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since AOL forced the removal of the pix I suppose I'll have to buy the pirate DVD to see them.

  81. Sweet filenames by CGameProgrammer · · Score: 1

    Check out those sweet filenames in that pic. Combination of English and Japanese; guarantees no one knows what the hell they are.

    --
    ~CGameProgrammer( );
  82. Re:SELECT from responses WHERE type='THIRD POST' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What did you expect from a MySQL user?

    SELECT COUNT(*) FROM SLASHDOT WHERE TROLL_TYPE="CRAP";

    80532


    Oh, and the lameness filter is stupid, too.

  83. Poor you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You seem to have so much trouble understanding a basic premise. No, downloading someones complete copyrighed material, without a licence from the copyright holder, is illegal. Downloading part of someones copyrighted material, withour a licence from the copyright holder, may be* legal for the purposes of fair use (Which no matter what Mr. Vilenti would like you to believe, does exist and is explictly mentioned in U.S copyright law).

    * I say "may be" because it depends on the intended usage. E.g. downloading a whole song as an MP3 in 20 second sections, only to reassemble them into a whole, is not fair use. Using a single 20 second section of a song to illistrate or demonstrate a written article or presentation about E.g. Rock & Roll music of the early 50's is fair use. In the same vain, taking still captures of a film and using them in a satirical peice which highlights the poor quality of a bootleged DVD is probably considered fair use.

    I am not a lawyer.

  84. Blender is the vi of 3d-modeling... by visgoth · · Score: 1
    Blender is 'the vi of 3d-modeling,'

    Well this explains the interface from hell.

    ingenious but nonstandard user interface

    That's one way to put it...

    Look, I work with a bunch of 3d apps to make a living, and all I can say about blender's interface is that it sucks. Whoever designed this hodgepodge of icons and textboxes should be dragged out into the street and shot.

    Good interfaces are more along the lines of what Maya or XSI have to offer. Blender seems to be another example of crappy open source ui syndrome. It doesn't matter how wonderful the tools are. If the interface is slowing the artist down, then the app is just not viable for production use, and ultimately is nothing more than a toy for hobbyists.

    --
    My patience is infinite, my time is not.
  85. Re:Washing Machines by Anomalous+Cowbird · · Score: 1
    A "Washing Machine" is the perfect unit of measurement! Who cares how many GigaBytes a drive can store??? I want to know how many Washing Machines worth of data it can store! This could revolutionize the computing industry!
    Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of Maytags . . . !
  86. Is sealand safe from terrorist attack? by ReelOddeeo · · Score: 1

    The article starts out mentioning terrorist threats. If this is the motivation to move data off site, then sealand does not seem all that safe. Couldn't an explosives laden raft that damaged a US Navy ship in Yemen also do some serious damage to Sealand?

    Isn't Sealand's real novelty it's laws? Not it's true physical security.

    --

    Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
  87. Henry Kuttner wrote this by nicestepauthor · · Score: 1

    ... using the pseudonym Lewis Padgett. The story you're thinking of is The Proud Robot. I think there were a couple of others. I had a book "The Best Of Henry Kuttner" back in college over 20 years ago. I wish I still had it.

    1. Re:Henry Kuttner wrote this by OneEyedApe · · Score: 1

      Sounds familiar. Thank you.

      --
      Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all....
      --Thomas J. Kopp
  88. Wasting my time, I suppose, but.. by Scott+Francis[Mecham · · Score: 1

    You do realize that Blender got its start as an in-house production-quality 3D tool, no less valid at that time(~1996), comparatively speaking, than the tools you list? Ton built it for NeoGeo for experienced artists--he released it to the public only because he thought people would like to play with it. As such, it was always geared towards fast turnaround times and ability for the artist to work out simple things quickly, with a minimum of advanced render quality, animation features, or catering to inexperienced users--because they didn't need them!

    I find it pretty funny that you state "hodgepodge of icons and textboxes". Seems to me that's always been the Achilles heel of the Maya interface--back when I started with 3.0, I remember being confused that "if this is considered a professional app, why does the suggested workflow feel like somebody smashed a sign truck into a printing press?"

    --
    --
  89. Re:Washing Machines by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of Maytags . . . !

    Or a RAID of them.

    (What WERE they keeping in those washing machines that got the authorities interested?)

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  90. Ripping is copying, therefore you need permisison by pjc50 · · Score: 1

    It has not been conclusively established in the courts that it is legal to rip music to mp3. Some people quote the American Home Recording Act, which applies to video tape and not audio. In the UK, the situation is the same: it's a copy, it's not exempt, there's no case law, so it's "illegal".

  91. Renaming mp3 to .3pm for copyright clarification by billstewart · · Score: 1
    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  92. Re:Australia by jomaree · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I agree and I live in Australia. Our government has been a serious embarrassment for years and what's worse, peoples' lives are being ruined, for example refugee children who have spent the first say four or five years of their lives behind razor wire in detention camps, witnessing adults trying to kill themselves and so on.

    Sadly, universities are being forced to get more and more funding from the business world, as the federal government cuts more and more away from tertiary education spending - so when big business comes along and makes demands it's harder for unviersities to retain their independence or integrity.

    Scanning for "mp3" might catch downloaders of mp3 files but what about commercial pir8s who are ripping many .wav files off CDs? Or simply ripping from CD to CD without storing files?

    --
    | softball team for the apocalypse | holding tryouts now |