I suspect Filesonic's position is temporary while they work out their legal position. It'd be nice if they shared a little more information, but from a strategic point of view, they less they say the more options they keep. But, they do run the risk of pissing off the people who paid them for unlimited downloading privileges.
Filesonic was one of the better-performing hosts for the US market, presumably because their servers were located in the US, so I'm sure they feel a bit paranoid...
there is no shortage of competing services
Agreed. In the meantime, services like Rapidshare and 4Shared are still up. If you look at the list of hosting services, it becomes clear that it will be impossible to stamp them all out. However, only a handful of them are commonly used to share bootleg content... bootleggers tend to congregate on the few that work well for both UL and DL -like hotfile, rapidshare, and filesonic- or ones that give credits for popular uploads -like megaupload.
Looks like those days are over. US users will be left with only overseas servers that have high latency and crappy download speeds, for both legitimate and illegitimate uses.
At least I have a few TB of bootleg pr0n stashed away. It should hold me over for a few hours.
The "implicit assumption" here is the goal of surviving as a technological species long enough so that we eventually are able to overcome the limits of this single planet and put down roots elsewhere. This appears more and more to require that we steward our environment carefully so that we don't kill or enfeeble ourselves before that happens. Perhaps that's a good thing -- before we can colonize another planet, we first have to learn how not to kill or enfeeble ourselves while living on this one.
Even if we fail, this time, we won't go extinct... we'll just have to start over again. Perhaps it will be single-celled organisms, mollusks, or cockroaches that are given the next chance. But life will have another chance to propagate... perhaps to other planets.
Well perhaps the clock metaphor isn't doing them service anymore if the majority of reactions are to the metaphor than the message.
Ultimately the point is, "we're going to pollute ourselves into the stone age." If that bit is being lost because the clock metaphor is becoming trite, then perhaps they should look for a new analogy.
This being slashdot, I think you know what I'm driving at...
'As we see it, the major challenge at the heart of humanity's survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate, exposing people to loss of health and community, and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons, and in fact setting the stage for global reductions.'
I've held a very similar opinion for many, many years (as have many others, I'm certain). After reading this quote, I had two immediate reactions, one hopeful and one cynical:
1. I'd like to think that safe, clean fusion power is just around the corner. I've become less convinced of this over the years but am still holding out hope. Can anything else provide the power levels and the energy densities required to sustain a technological urban society's advancement on the Kardashev scale?
2. And we wonder where all the interstellar civilizations are. All signs are pointing to a factor in the Drake Equation that minimizes the number of civilizations that last long enough to achieve starfaring status. Sadly, it appears more and more that this factor approaches zero...
We use Spacemaster for SF settings... have been since it came out. I even had some articles published in Spacemaster Companion II for 2nd edition, and the concepts later became incorporated into RMSS. So yes, I've tried it...
It's a pretty obvious game to the cynical old grognards like me. It started when TSR was sold to WotC, and then WotC was bought out by a megacorp.
Now that Hasbro owns the trademark, all they're interested in is more sales.
My group's been together for over 20 years, and we stopped buying books after 2nd edition. We still play using "2.5 ed" rules, and we don't have any problems finding new members every now and then.
You're confusing dynamic range with average power level. There are ways to measure this, and I'd be surprised if the new regulation didn't define how it is to be measured.
For example, one can measure the average power levels in dBW of the audio channels for both programming and advertisements (measured before the volume adjustment is made) and make a reasonable comparison there. This is perfectly analagous to what the ear will perceive as the relative differences in "loudness," and as someone who builds broadcast equipment, it's what I'd expect to find in a reasonable regulation.
That creeky sound American girls make has been anoying me for years. That and the constant use of the word "like".
You mean the intonation of each sentence trailing off in pitch and into vocal fry? I've noticed this speech pattern too, mainly as a vocal affectation teenage girls on the West Coast (21st century valspeak). But lately it's spread into the mainstream and even to radio and TV personalities --most commonly reporters.
It drives me nuts because people who speak that way don't vary their tone or emphasis. Every damn sentence is intoned the same exact way. As a former Toastmaster, that and the "uh" frequently distract me so much that I can't hear what the speaker is saying.
Mod Parent Up. This is the best SF paradigm for the story. King's epic was a dark fantasy soap opera about the aftermath. The White Plague is a Science Fiction account of the plague itself.
And Herbert's other novels are far too overlooked, anyway. I highly recommend any SF fan to explore his full bibliography. The White Plague is a good place to start.
This needs to be repeated anytime this product or its creator is mentioned in the press. These are not good guys, and this work will not be put to virtuous use.
You're getting close. Hard to say for certain, though, whether they're targets for aerial or orbital sensors. Having worked on similar optical, IR and Radar ISR sensors, these look very familiar to the calibration targets and test ranges we used with those systems. Can't say much more, other than that for scientific sensors used to monitor atmospheric chemistry, we often used very large, flat areas with albedos as white and as spectrally pure as possible... think very large areas of uniform minerals like dry lake beds. On top of those were placed small point targets, and once we even had access to MTF targets built on the ground.
I'm guessing the third one is for radar -- synthetic aperture radar perhaps.
Slashdot Mirror
I suspect Filesonic's position is temporary while they work out their legal position. It'd be nice if they shared a little more information, but from a strategic point of view, they less they say the more options they keep. But, they do run the risk of pissing off the people who paid them for unlimited downloading privileges.
Filesonic was one of the better-performing hosts for the US market, presumably because their servers were located in the US, so I'm sure they feel a bit paranoid...
there is no shortage of competing services
Agreed. In the meantime, services like Rapidshare and 4Shared are still up. If you look at the list of hosting services, it becomes clear that it will be impossible to stamp them all out. However, only a handful of them are commonly used to share bootleg content... bootleggers tend to congregate on the few that work well for both UL and DL -like hotfile, rapidshare, and filesonic- or ones that give credits for popular uploads -like megaupload.
Looks like those days are over. US users will be left with only overseas servers that have high latency and crappy download speeds, for both legitimate and illegitimate uses.
At least I have a few TB of bootleg pr0n stashed away. It should hold me over for a few hours.
Agreed. Adblock Pro, plus NoScript, plus RemoveItPermanently make my web browsing experience a lot more stable and secure.
In fact, I won't run a browser without them anymore.
Interesting idea. It also looks like a potentially useful method for reverse engineering any code... not just trojans and worms.
The "implicit assumption" here is the goal of surviving as a technological species long enough so that we eventually are able to overcome the limits of this single planet and put down roots elsewhere. This appears more and more to require that we steward our environment carefully so that we don't kill or enfeeble ourselves before that happens. Perhaps that's a good thing -- before we can colonize another planet, we first have to learn how not to kill or enfeeble ourselves while living on this one.
Even if we fail, this time, we won't go extinct... we'll just have to start over again. Perhaps it will be single-celled organisms, mollusks, or cockroaches that are given the next chance. But life will have another chance to propagate... perhaps to other planets.
"Cancer cells" don't behave that way.
Well perhaps the clock metaphor isn't doing them service anymore if the majority of reactions are to the metaphor than the message.
Ultimately the point is, "we're going to pollute ourselves into the stone age." If that bit is being lost because the clock metaphor is becoming trite, then perhaps they should look for a new analogy.
This being slashdot, I think you know what I'm driving at...
'As we see it, the major challenge at the heart of humanity's survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate, exposing people to loss of health and community, and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons, and in fact setting the stage for global reductions.'
I've held a very similar opinion for many, many years (as have many others, I'm certain). After reading this quote, I had two immediate reactions, one hopeful and one cynical:
1. I'd like to think that safe, clean fusion power is just around the corner. I've become less convinced of this over the years but am still holding out hope. Can anything else provide the power levels and the energy densities required to sustain a technological urban society's advancement on the Kardashev scale?
2. And we wonder where all the interstellar civilizations are. All signs are pointing to a factor in the Drake Equation that minimizes the number of civilizations that last long enough to achieve starfaring status. Sadly, it appears more and more that this factor approaches zero...
We use Spacemaster for SF settings... have been since it came out. I even had some articles published in Spacemaster Companion II for 2nd edition, and the concepts later became incorporated into RMSS. So yes, I've tried it...
It's a pretty obvious game to the cynical old grognards like me. It started when TSR was sold to WotC, and then WotC was bought out by a megacorp.
Now that Hasbro owns the trademark, all they're interested in is more sales.
My group's been together for over 20 years, and we stopped buying books after 2nd edition. We still play using "2.5 ed" rules, and we don't have any problems finding new members every now and then.
I wish I had mod points for you today...
You're confusing dynamic range with average power level. There are ways to measure this, and I'd be surprised if the new regulation didn't define how it is to be measured.
For example, one can measure the average power levels in dBW of the audio channels for both programming and advertisements (measured before the volume adjustment is made) and make a reasonable comparison there. This is perfectly analagous to what the ear will perceive as the relative differences in "loudness," and as someone who builds broadcast equipment, it's what I'd expect to find in a reasonable regulation.
I dunno about you, but some days I can think of nothing else.
Take 10 what?
I took two earlier and it didn't help.
That creeky sound American girls make has been anoying me for years. That and the constant use of the word "like".
You mean the intonation of each sentence trailing off in pitch and into vocal fry? I've noticed this speech pattern too, mainly as a vocal affectation teenage girls on the West Coast (21st century valspeak). But lately it's spread into the mainstream and even to radio and TV personalities --most commonly reporters.
It drives me nuts because people who speak that way don't vary their tone or emphasis. Every damn sentence is intoned the same exact way. As a former Toastmaster, that and the "uh" frequently distract me so much that I can't hear what the speaker is saying.
Yes. I'm called the guinea pig.
Then I advise you to stay far away from Peru.
Here ya go.
I may have forgotten a few eyesores,though.
Fearmongering local news in the evening, and airhead yukfest local news in the morning?
Mod Parent Up. This is the best SF paradigm for the story. King's epic was a dark fantasy soap opera about the aftermath. The White Plague is a Science Fiction account of the plague itself.
And Herbert's other novels are far too overlooked, anyway. I highly recommend any SF fan to explore his full bibliography. The White Plague is a good place to start.
This needs to be repeated anytime this product or its creator is mentioned in the press. These are not good guys, and this work will not be put to virtuous use.
That was just fscking awesome. I'm canceling mods done on this page just to reply and give you a (Score:6, Funny) since you're already maxed.
Your post needs to be preserved for posterity.
And forwarded to my wife.
(Who will just ask, "Do I sound like that to you?")
You're getting close. Hard to say for certain, though, whether they're targets for aerial or orbital sensors. Having worked on similar optical, IR and Radar ISR sensors, these look very familiar to the calibration targets and test ranges we used with those systems. Can't say much more, other than that for scientific sensors used to monitor atmospheric chemistry, we often used very large, flat areas with albedos as white and as spectrally pure as possible... think very large areas of uniform minerals like dry lake beds. On top of those were placed small point targets, and once we even had access to MTF targets built on the ground.
I'm guessing the third one is for radar -- synthetic aperture radar perhaps.
Provided you keep the curtains drawn, it's reversible by shampooing the carpets and cleaning the upholstery.
Just in time for Nigel Tufnel Day.
"It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is: 'None. None more black.' "
Best rock movie ever.
I was expecting it to be painted red and blue and convert between a netbook and a Cab-over truck.
It's a Transformer, so wouldn't that be an Energon Cube?
What about the celibate Americans?
You've come to the right place to find out...