Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Lapses, Maps, Ludwig Van
Beethoven rules the downloads charts! jd writes "At 1.4 million downloads, Beethoven has beaten the Beatles in online downloads, according to The Guardian. iTunes sales of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' comes in at a mere 20,000. The BBC, who put the symphonies on their download site, are delighted. The music industry, which thought classical music was all but dead, is in shock. About the only question remaining is how much did the Slashdot Effect contribute?"
And if the Beatles are "more popular than Jesus," this Beethoven guy must be really popular!
Now you can think of it as Rupert'sSpace. applextrent writes with a few thoughts on the recent acquisition of MySpace by Fox: "MySpace's privacy policy and company filings including all users' information lists, databases, text, files and documents are explicitly documented as an asset of MySpace. The agreement also states MySpace can sell the site and all user information to a third party that might not necessarily follow the same privacy policy as MySpace. To put it simply, MySpace owns everything a user provides them with. This is not entirely an uncommon thing for many free services such as AOL's Instant Messenger have similar privacy policies. Now all of this user information is in the hands of News Corp. and they can pretty much do whatever they want with it.
Not to say anything bad will come of this, in fact this could mean better protection for users privacy, or it may not. This is possible reason for concern especially considering MySpace's blog population for a MySpace run blog is technically owned by the same people who bring you Fox News."
This is much worse than losing the car keys, son. An anonymous reader writes "In the wake of the large-scale credit card compromise of Card Systems, the NYTimes is reporting that Visa has decided to stop allowing transactions from the processor. Visa says 'CardSystems has not corrected, and cannot at this point correct, the failure to provide proper data security for those accounts.' Visa has informed member banks that they have until Oct. 31 to switch from using CardSystems to process card transactions. The decision sends a strong message to the industry about Visa's stance on cardholder security with respect to enforcing the PCI Data Security Standard. We'll see how MasterCard and American Express react. Also the long term viability of CardSystems itself is now in question."
Another visit to the Abandonware Orphanage. chill writes "Aladdin 4D, the venerable Amiga 3D design and rendering program, is yearning to be free. If the owners, Nova Designs, can raise $37,579.83 to pay off old debts they will release the trademarks, source code, tutorials, rights, and all as LGPL. So, if having this tool available to the FOSS pool of code is something that interests you, donate!"
This approach worked for Blender; it would be great to see it happen more.
Google keeps stealing my best ideas before I have them. Chmarr writes "Right on the heels of Google Moon, Google Maps now includes very detailed maps of our favorite animation source Japan. Here's hoping you can read Japanese."But you only need to read Alien for this one: Oreo 51 writes "It was only a matter of time before someone did this. Barry Snyder used Google Maps to take shots of the infamous high-security Area 51 in the Nevada desert. I can't wait to see what /.ers think of all the craters and interesting sand geometry there."
Now taking donations of one nickel per cool use of Google Maps, to go toward the James Ellroy Crime Scene Map Project Fund.
Now with more nutritious Darkness! Simian Farmer writes "For the tens of thousands of Star Wars fans who visited The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster on a daily basis just before the release of Sith, the same author has begun penning his own blog-novel called Simon of Space.
The style of writing that lured so many to read Darth Side so avidly this past April/May is present in spades in his new fiction, updated almost daily. According to the author, it has, '...romance, action, humour and all the whiz-bang special effects you can get without actually making a movie.'"
Blue Frog Claims to be Legit justy writes "I noticed that Blue Security, the company behind the Blue Frog anti-spam initiative, have issued a statement on their blog as a result of "feedback we have received from the community". They say that "the total number of complaints posted by the community is exactly equal to the number of spam messages received", which seems more fair in my opinion. Perhaps this development is a result of the heated discussion here on Slashdot."
Well that's not Orwellian or anything, Nooo .... An anonymous reader writes "The fallout from the recent Canadian Harry Potter court order continues [Harry Potter and the Right to Read] as a national newspaper was threatened with a lawsuit if they published a book review based on an 'unlawful reading.' The case, along with similar copyright abuses, has Canadians wondering what became of a kinder, gentler legal approach."Well, keep looking then. According to this NY Times story, the recently described spotting of an ivory-billed woodpecker may be based on evidence too weak to rely on; this is the same bird that Cornell researches have been looking for with automated means to detect its distinctive voice.
Um, don't you think it would have been nice to mention that the Beethoven downloads were free, while Sgt. Pepper's on iTunes obviously isn't? The comparison is worthless.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
...for those of us who couldn't wait the extra hour.
Unlawful reading? It's time for a legal revolution. There are too many things that are illegal to protect the people with the money.
Is Area 51 a rectangle with sides 3 and 17?
I have to replace the card I have had for 15 years, thanks to this SNAFU, and update all services that automatically charge it, not to mention memorizing the new account number. I hope something good comes of this, like serious protection of user accounts in the future, but I doubt it.
-- Don't call me "Sir," I increase entropy for a living!
But you only need to read Alien for this one: Oreo 51 writes "It was only a matter of time before someone did this. Barry Snyder used Google Maps to take shots of the infamous high-security Area 51 in the Nevada desert. I can't wait to see what /.ers think of all the craters and interesting sand geometry there."
/. too:
% 2051%20Pictures/
;)
I guess they read
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/b/f/bfs124/area
Either that, or my Firefox security clearance just isn't enough
This slashdot-related signature is a stub. You can help kihjin by expanding it.
no u.s. itunes user could actually buy 'sgt peppers', but plenty of u.s. folks could download beethoven from the bbc. this is a pretty pointless comparison.
-BlueLines
--BlueLines "The cost of living hasn't affected it's popularity." -anonymous
My friend tried to look at Area 51, but just got a bunch of circles covering it - one even looked like pacman!
Foxed Design
Now you can think of it as Rupert'sSpace.
It's somewhat ironic that a medium designed to share information has become one infested with what are essentially data and demographic mining sites like MySpace.
The purchase price of $580 million reminded me instantly of the original dot-com bubble. Perhaps we're seeing a slight resurrection of that, however finite. Some of the data collected by MySpace would be an absolute gold mine to third party advertisers.
Do you like German cars?
I suspect a conspirancy with the area 51 photo which appear to be forbidden. Must be trying to hide the moon landings then.
Better Area51 pics
X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
I used it to find a base in Iraq at which a cousin is stationed. Sure I had to follow the driving directions from Kuwait, but still pretty cool. Unfortunately, the base is under construction at the time of the photos. (before finding it, I had wondered if perhaps the DoD had sent intimidating men in suits over to Google's HQ with a list of longitude and latitude coordinates that were to be redacted, but appearently not yet.)
Well, that's at least what I saw when I visited the site a couple of minutes ago.
"Um, don't you think it would have been nice to mention that the Beethoven downloads were free, while Sgt. Pepper's on iTunes obviously isn't? The comparison is worthless."
So why was the comparison made? Those who like classical music obviously know it's not dead.
Like Visa, American Express has also announced that it will stop working with CardSystems.
Except its DRM encumbered.
I can tolerate the price but not the restrictions.
Sorry, back to allofmp3 for me! They offer OGG as well as MP3, encoded to your liking, for cheaper.
You're giving the secret away. Now how are the USAF supposed to sell all those tourist-trap gifts in the stores there? D'you want the military to go bust?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The fury of a slashdotting is truly an impressive thing.
What is humor if not pain tempered by time?
I believe ever since the Apple Records lawsuit, Apple doesn't associate the Beatles. In fact Sgt Pepper's isn't even available in the store! The only thing Beatles related is called "In the Begining" which is a compliation of earily recordings.
Woudld have been better title in terms of Iambic structure and attention grabbing.
It depends on what copyright jurisdiction your bank is in. For instance, an account associated to a credit card issued by Bank One Indiana NA will show only the set of recordings available in the United States, which may be different from the set of recordings available in the United Kingdom. These differences arise from exclusive territorial licenses to distributors that specialize in a given region; many of these licenses date from long before transform audio coding (mp3/aac technology) was even invented.
So if Fox owns everything on MySpace, does that mean they own the recently released Nine Inch Nails music that is streamed from there, or Billy Corgans solo album? Even if they can say they own the particular stream being used on those pages, why would anyone consider hosting content on MySpace?
they bought a spyware company who has a blog site
the people there are probably not there out of choice, sure they say they dont distribute it now but its too late the damage has already been done
Hate to bring a voice of reason to the area 51 "debate" but those "Black Crop Circles" are nothing more than a wastewater treatment facility. Standard civilian grade stuff there...
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
Compare the area around my parents in law's place or where I used to live in Tokyo with where I live now.
Showing where the buildings are is nice. Wow! They opened a Macdonalds in Sakura Shin-machi!!!
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
You mean like these?
4 20&spn=0.029803,0.040199&t=k&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.113061,-116.054
Those are depressions from underground atomic/nuclear tests.
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
its fascinating to see how many 7-11's there are in japan... they're a "landmark" on google maps.
i recall reading somewhere that there's more 7-11's in japan than in the US...
Vidi well.
Now for some more of the...
ultraviolence.
Apparently, it's not quite all in Japanese. Zooming in on the maps, there is some weird stuff in roman characters there, including LIGHTPUBLICITY, SUZUEBAYDIUM near Seduce something or other, Costello RIVULET (I'm still looking for Abbott's body of water), and THEFOOTBALLCAFE. I have no idea what any of this means.
And as a bonus, a bunch of swastikas. (I was hoping I had discovered secret Nazi bases, but it's probably just Buddhist temples. Drat!)
Does this program do anything that Blender 3D doesn't?
If not, why fragment the development pool available for 3D rendering programs by providing another program that does the same thing? Wouldn't the time and money apparently being invested into Aladdin's freedom be better spent improving the already-available free program?
What next? Drive-by readings? Reading while under the influence? Reading with intent to edumacate?
I can't even imagine the extent of brain damage the lawyers must have to invent "unlawful reading".
Those craters are subsidence craters from underground bomb tests. See http://www.nv.doe.gov/news&pubs/photos&films/photo lib.htm
for some good pics and information.
The nevada test site is not part of area 51, just borders it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=34.602792,-118.0860 22&spn=0.007186,0.010050&t=k&hl=en
0 5&spn=0.007451,0.010050&t=k&hl=en
See the pretty SR-71s and U-2?
(Actually, one SR-71 and one A-12, #17973 and #06924, respectively.)
How about A-12 #06925 on the deck(!) of the USS Intrepid?
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.764384,-74.0002
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
I'm all for opening source code and all, but if I am putting money into something like this I would prefer it fills a niche that isn't already taken.
As it is, it would just be another Blender that hasn't even been ported to other systems yet.
Oh course, I am biased, LGPL or GPL it doesn't make much of a difference to me, that's the Free Software Foundation's area, one which I try to avoid simply because I disagree with the license.
Maybe if this was something new that doesn't have an already existant project competing with it I'd be a little less against it going GNU license, but as it is it would be an overlap that I don't really care about.
I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
Make the Beatles song free, and I'll download that too. The Beethoven recordings don't sound half bad. The full collection on cd costs quite a bit of cash. Thanks everyone who contributes money to the BBC for the free music. BTW, if the BBC wants to continue this trend, it would be nice to get recordings of Dvorak's symphonies.
Vote for Pedro
I always thought so, but now I've got proof.
:]
[If you don't know what I'm talking about, zoom in
|>>?
I noticed the Japan maps last week (or was it two weeks ago?). I was wondering how long until someone mentioned it on Slashdot.
I'm just curious what the next country will be. I had a feeling Japan was next in line, but I'm not sure what would come next. Australia, maybe?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Beethoven goes better with the old Ultra Violence. You have to listen to Helter Skelter for 24 hours to get the same effect.
With this new Harry Potter novel release, no one is henceforth allowed to call Revenge of the Sith over-hyped or over-rated.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
That it was a Beatles song, it was not a Beatles track. It's Paul McCartney and U2, doing a Beatles cover. Compare with the actual downloads of the Beatles catalog (if it's in iTMS, I don't know since I don't use it) and then we'll talk.
The filesystem is the package manager
The 'crop cirles' are most likely some kind of sewage or water treatment plant.
the "VeryOdd.JPG" looks to be maybe some kind of mine.
Many of the craters, 'glowing spots' and 'crosshairs' appear to be aerial bombing practice/testing areas. The "Triangles" is just a variation on that theme - probably for very high altitude bomb drops.
Given that "Area 51" is used to military aircraft development, no real mystery or surprise there. The larger and deeper craters may be nuclear in nature - 'Area 51' shares a border with the Yucca Flats nuclear testing area.
I am guessing that "the/StrangeLookingArea.JPG" may be storage for munitions, maybe NBC munitions.
The "CirclesAndAntenneas.JPG" could be various antenna layouts for a listening station - maybe ELS and/or ELF (they often have huge circular arrays and very tall towers).
Some formations in the desert may be simply to help pilots orient themselves (no - not alien pilots from another world) as the desert can look very nondescript from altitude.
Having flown a lot over areas I later visited on ground level or much lower altitude, including at high altitude over desert areas, I can say that what often looks interesting and weird from altitude is usually quite explainable and ordinary closer up.
Ok..so which building has the Stargate in it? Or which one is the home of NID?
-- Given enough time and money, Microsoft will eventualy invent UNIX.
I'd be more impressed if the guy provided some way to crosscheck what he's showing with the actual google maps. Because I've been looking for the past hour (or whenever this story got posted), and I haven't found squat to back his story up.
"If Common Sense was so common, it wouldn't be such a valued trait."
are there. The cities have been recorded in varying detail. You can see http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-37.707889,145.1709 69&spn=0.005718,0.009397&t=k&hl=en my house, but if you go just a few kms south you'll see a lot of fuzzy stuff.
It's nice that they have maps here now. Just be aware that the maps use the local Tokyo coordinate system, not WGS84 (which GPS units, for example, use), and if you just enter WGS84 coordinates you will be off by quite a bit (on the order of a hundred meters).
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
How come no-one has ever tried this for stuff like old games or something?
"Slashback tonight brings you a larger-than-usual assortment of updates, clarifications and followups"
Or do we get a "dupe Slashback" tomorrow?
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Statistics are only valid for large sample sizes. Though, with clasasical pieces, you get large sample sizes anyway.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The week the last book came out, an Australian comedy newspaper ran the headline "Sirius Black Dies!" With a sub-headline "Newspaper ruins book for thousands of children"
Ouch! Ok, so basically what it comes down to is all sites referred to by Slashdot need a server farm and at least a dedicated gigabit line for just that traffic.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
There was nothing in the photographs I would regard as overly suspicious - I've seen more mysteries at ex-RAF bases in Britain that are now open farmland.
There were reports, at one point, of former workers of that USAF base suing over illnesses and cancers attributed to dangerous disposal of hazardous and carcinogenic waste. If these claims are genuine (and there's no telling if that is true) then one or more of the blobs could be disposal locations.
There are other things to consider, too. I don't know the geology of the area well enough to know if sinkholes are a possibility, but underground rivers are not unusual in deserts. America has also been inhabited for around 15,000 years or so by people other than European colonists. Entire cities exist in American deserts, forgotten by the descendents and ignored by the settlers. There may well be some interesting ruins in and around the base.
Conclusion: There may be a lot of interest out there to environmentalists, geologists, historians, antequarians, Native Americans, archaeologists and geeks, but there's nothing out there for the Alien Brigade*.
*Hey, I'm not someone who rejects claims of UFOs outright and there have been claims made over time that I feel are worthy of further study. However, there is a big difference between studying something to understand it, and mass-marketing of the kind we've seen with Area 51.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The craters pictured (Google Maps link is http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.108040,-116.0454 94&spn=0.146118,0.240704&t=k&hl=en ) are NOT in Area 51. It's the Nevada Test Site, where we did aboveground and underground nuclear testing for decades. There is a museum for the site in Las Vegas, where I live. It's website is here: http://www.ntshf.org/ .
a s&ll=39.037964,-96.763169&spn=0.004566,0.007522&t= k&hl=en . It's the small black blot in the center of the image. More on it can be found at Roadside America: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/KSJUNatomic .html .
By the way, the large crater at the north end of the site is from the biggest underground test ever done by the US, code-named Sedan.
Also, if you want to see an atomic cannon (only fired once, at the Nevada Site), there's one outside Junction City, Kansas. The Google Maps URL is http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Junction+City,+Kans
"No matter where you go, there you probably are." -- Buckaroo Heisenberg
Well, it's not really a surprise that he's able to get so many of the glass-eyed zombie horde to download his music, considering how he sold out. Beethoven, you use to be cool and I remember when you played in the small clubs. Now you're just another mass-media sellout, wearing a Fubu shirt and Nike shoes and letting your music be played in Cheetoes commercials. Disgusting.
I'm a sci-fi vegan: I don't want the aliens to think we have as much right to live as the fried chickens we eat.
High detail attractions include: The Sydney Olympic Park, Coogee Beach (sorry, Bondi was too blurry) and Kingsford-Smith International Airport
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
I feel like I keep dodging bullets on these Slashdottings -- like Neo in THE MATRIX except with no sequels.
Thanks for the plug, Simian Farmer. I just posted a new 5,000 word entry, so everything's steaming fresh.
I am from a small, grease-loving country in the north called Ca-na-da.
I maintain and run AvantSlash, which is a script that allows people who are using PDA's and mobile phones to view a specially cleaned up version of Slashdot designed for the limited bandwidth and screen size that they have.
Unfortunately, however, the account with this code in was recently deleted (through no fault of my own) and I don't have a copy of the latest code.
If anyone has version 3.1 of AvantSlash (ideally the full archive, but the script and config file would be a start), I would really appreciate it if they could drop me an email to silver (at) ewtoo (dot) org.
Unfortunately I won't be able to run the site any more due to bandwidth restrictions (although I will still maintain the code) but if anyone has the ability to host it, then please get in contact with me.
Thanks!
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Slashdotters may find the craters interesting? What about the fact that all of Area 51 has been hacked by "(C) 2005 Google"?!
So here is where Bender's head is buried!!!
Beethoven's allways been bigger than the Beatles.
Card Systems must be looking at pretty dire times ahead losing both Visa and American Express. That would presumably be well over half their revenue.
Of course they are probably scapegoats for much general slackness, but they did have pretty severe problems.
For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
Hey, if you just query "Area 51" on Google Maps, you get right there, plus a link to the Best Western!
Not everyone in third world countries are doing slave labor, and neither are technologically illiterate, as you seem to suggest from your post.
Submitted here:
2 890,00.html
Re: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,153
This article is, without a doubt, the stupidest thing that has ever been published on the Internet, ever. Did anyone there notice that the Beethoven MP3s were FREE but the iTunes songs cost US$0.99each, you have to have iTunes (a multi-MB download itself) to get them, you have to have a credit card and sign up with Apple to get them, the iTMS service is only available in a handful of countries, *and* they have playback restrictions?
Compare that to the Beethoven MP3s which were freely available to anyone on the planet with Internet access, will play on any personal computer made in the last 5 years and countless other devices, and require nothing more than visiting a website and clicking a link. Perhaps, just perhaps, there were more forces at work here than just popularity. Just a thought.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
No 'contemporary' Beatles albums are available from the U.S. ITMS (that is, albums made by the Beatles when they were the Beatles). Perhaps they are available from the U.K. ITMS only? That may explain the comparison with the Beeb.
Check out this plane that is the sme color as the dirt (?) runway... http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.403158,-116.2424 54&spn=0.006380,0.008827&t=k&hl=en
or else!
If you think $0.79 is expensive, then you probably ARE doing slave labor - which is my whole point.
There's nothing "technical" about it. News Corp owns both entities, with Rupert in a controlling position analagous to Gates at MicroSoft. Rupert is a big believer in exercising whatever added value he can extract by having his assets interact. How this'll play out may be interesting, but it won't be pretty.
Luke, help me take this mask off
When iTunes offers lossless encodings of every song in their catalog, I'll use it. Until then, why would I want to purchase a low-bitrate lossy encoded song?
You completely missed my point if that is your response.
It looks like I replied to the wrong post, but I can't figure out what the hell I meant to reply to in the first place :/