Being one of the mods who accidentally modded 'informative' instead of 'funny', I wholeheartedly agree. "You're about to make an ass of yourself, what's $\int_1^9x$". Thanks, Slashdot!
Joking or not, that's kind of the idea behind reCAPTCHA. It takes words that OCR failed on and uses them as CAPTCHAs. The same idea could work for handwriting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReCAPTCHA
I'm not trying to argue that downloading a copyrighted book is any more legal than downloading a copyrighted album. However, your argument that books are any more a physical product than CDs or DVDs is totally bogus. What people care about is the information contained in those products, not the products themselves. I'm not trying to say that people should start downloading all their books too, but anyone who feels no remorse about downloading albums or movies should feel no worse about downloading books.
Whaaa? Music and movies are information. The argument is whether when purchasing a DVD you are purchasing the physical product or the information contained therein. Guess what a book is? Information. Are you allowed to make digital scans of your own books as backup? Same issues with books and their corresponding text as DVDs and their corresponding video.
You're absolutely right. I was just assuming/.ers would know that it was "better enough" and translate it to "make everyone else see that it's 'better enough'.";-)
But what percent of people EVER install an operating system? Microsoft has the advantage of being "good enough" to not have people reinstall another operating system over top of them. That's all they need. Linux, however, needs to be "better enough" to force people to reinstall, or have someone reinstall, their OS.
Yes, but now the entry now says "...though previously believed to be about 1,000 light years thick, has recently been discovered to be roughly 12,000 light years thick." The title for the citation, however, is "The Milky Way is twice the size we thought it was." Clearly, then 1,000 * 2 = 12,000. Quick, someone update the wikipedia entry on multiplication!
FLAC:... reduces storage space by 30 percent to 50 percent, but without compression. Think of the possibilities! 50% smaller files, without compression! Think how small we could get the files if we compressed them!
In addition, you're removing one used CD from the total pool of used CDs. If everyone starts buying used CDs, they will run out of people willing to sell them, meaning someone has to buy a new one. You can't run out of downloads.
I sole-boot linux on a Dell, and when my file system got corrupted, I ran badblocks to make sure it was a hard disk issue. It turned out to be a bunch of bad sectors in the middle of my drive. So I called Dell, completely explained the situation, including the sole-boot and running badblocks, and not only did the guy not hang up on me, he started talking about linux with me and seemed actually supportive of it. He asked me to boot into the recovery partition (which I had obviously deleted), so I told him I wiped it, and he asked me to boot onto the recovery CD. The regular CD diagnostics that he told me to run was just a simple memtest and a very high level HDD read test, both of which passed. I knew the disk was dead though, so I told him I was going to run some other of Dell's tests (they have multiple HDD tests), and he said he would call me back. He called back in about an hour, and sure enough there were multiple read errors. I got my new disk (they even gave me an extra 40GB free) overnight. So whatever HP does, and whatever crap Dell takes, Dell still gets my support for their support.
My point wasn't that they shouldn't be paying for internet access if they don't have any; I fully agree that it can be nearly as important as basic utilities for nearly anyone. But if they're already getting free access, why the need to pay more for better service? Perhaps it would be better spent on things more needed, or *gasp*, put away in savings. I agree that most people likely won't, but why should the state be inciting them to spend money on things they don't need, like an improved browsing experience?
I was under the impression that Bluetooth was an open standard, and it looks like the suits involve specific chipsets used by the companies in question, not the standard as a whole.
At the same time, salaries are proportionately raised. Job offers at Google's HQ in CA pays a good $30-$40k more than their new Pittsburgh, PA office. It may not be the best sample points, but I have friends whose parents each make solid 6 figures in CA and live at about the same level that I do with one parent making minimal six-figures in PA. I do still agree though, if people really are living with relatively low incomes, whatever that may be, they shouldn't be spending it on increasing their internet experience, nor should they be incited to by the lower cost.
I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but that's quite simply not true. While I do agree that the my generation (I'm a freshman at Carnegie Mellon) is certainly more tech. savvy than previous, I live in a wing with four other CS majors and 20+ english/creative writing/social sciences majors who can't operate their Windows boxes to save their lives. I'm not approaching it from a "Oh noes! They don't use Firefox, they don't know what they're doing!" standpoint. I mean that there are people who still have issues using Word for their assignments. If some of these kids can't get it down, the rest of the world can only be even worse off (and believe me, they are).
Slashdot Mirror
I smell a Buffy fan...
No?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Tobias: It's a wonderful restaurant! Narrator: It sure is...
Being one of the mods who accidentally modded 'informative' instead of 'funny', I wholeheartedly agree. "You're about to make an ass of yourself, what's $\int_1^9x$". Thanks, Slashdot!
Joking or not, that's kind of the idea behind reCAPTCHA. It takes words that OCR failed on and uses them as CAPTCHAs. The same idea could work for handwriting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReCAPTCHA
Bring a wireless or two, and maybe throw in a few internets for good measure.
Colbert's not gonna be to happy about this. Bears being sent into space just before his DNA? Sounds like a grudge match waiting to happen...
Got to throw Girl Talk out there. http://74.124.198.47/illegal-art.net/__girl__talk___feed__the__anima.ls___/
I'm not trying to argue that downloading a copyrighted book is any more legal than downloading a copyrighted album. However, your argument that books are any more a physical product than CDs or DVDs is totally bogus. What people care about is the information contained in those products, not the products themselves. I'm not trying to say that people should start downloading all their books too, but anyone who feels no remorse about downloading albums or movies should feel no worse about downloading books.
Whaaa? Music and movies are information. The argument is whether when purchasing a DVD you are purchasing the physical product or the information contained therein. Guess what a book is? Information. Are you allowed to make digital scans of your own books as backup? Same issues with books and their corresponding text as DVDs and their corresponding video.
You're absolutely right. I was just assuming /.ers would know that it was "better enough" and translate it to "make everyone else see that it's 'better enough'." ;-)
But what percent of people EVER install an operating system? Microsoft has the advantage of being "good enough" to not have people reinstall another operating system over top of them. That's all they need. Linux, however, needs to be "better enough" to force people to reinstall, or have someone reinstall, their OS.
Nothing's better on the battlefield than that moment of relief before your next respawn. Oh wait...
Yes, but now the entry now says "...though previously believed to be about 1,000 light years thick, has recently been discovered to be roughly 12,000 light years thick." The title for the citation, however, is "The Milky Way is twice the size we thought it was." Clearly, then 1,000 * 2 = 12,000. Quick, someone update the wikipedia entry on multiplication!
In addition, you're removing one used CD from the total pool of used CDs. If everyone starts buying used CDs, they will run out of people willing to sell them, meaning someone has to buy a new one. You can't run out of downloads.
I sole-boot linux on a Dell, and when my file system got corrupted, I ran badblocks to make sure it was a hard disk issue. It turned out to be a bunch of bad sectors in the middle of my drive. So I called Dell, completely explained the situation, including the sole-boot and running badblocks, and not only did the guy not hang up on me, he started talking about linux with me and seemed actually supportive of it. He asked me to boot into the recovery partition (which I had obviously deleted), so I told him I wiped it, and he asked me to boot onto the recovery CD. The regular CD diagnostics that he told me to run was just a simple memtest and a very high level HDD read test, both of which passed. I knew the disk was dead though, so I told him I was going to run some other of Dell's tests (they have multiple HDD tests), and he said he would call me back. He called back in about an hour, and sure enough there were multiple read errors. I got my new disk (they even gave me an extra 40GB free) overnight. So whatever HP does, and whatever crap Dell takes, Dell still gets my support for their support.
My P-P-P-Powerbook was just stolen and I found the thief reselling it on ebay! Call the cops!
My point wasn't that they shouldn't be paying for internet access if they don't have any; I fully agree that it can be nearly as important as basic utilities for nearly anyone. But if they're already getting free access, why the need to pay more for better service? Perhaps it would be better spent on things more needed, or *gasp*, put away in savings. I agree that most people likely won't, but why should the state be inciting them to spend money on things they don't need, like an improved browsing experience?
I was under the impression that Bluetooth was an open standard, and it looks like the suits involve specific chipsets used by the companies in question, not the standard as a whole.
At the same time, salaries are proportionately raised. Job offers at Google's HQ in CA pays a good $30-$40k more than their new Pittsburgh, PA office. It may not be the best sample points, but I have friends whose parents each make solid 6 figures in CA and live at about the same level that I do with one parent making minimal six-figures in PA. I do still agree though, if people really are living with relatively low incomes, whatever that may be, they shouldn't be spending it on increasing their internet experience, nor should they be incited to by the lower cost.
I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but that's quite simply not true. While I do agree that the my generation (I'm a freshman at Carnegie Mellon) is certainly more tech. savvy than previous, I live in a wing with four other CS majors and 20+ english/creative writing/social sciences majors who can't operate their Windows boxes to save their lives. I'm not approaching it from a "Oh noes! They don't use Firefox, they don't know what they're doing!" standpoint. I mean that there are people who still have issues using Word for their assignments. If some of these kids can't get it down, the rest of the world can only be even worse off (and believe me, they are).