Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't vacuum sublimation eat it up after a couple of million years?...unless it's brought back to us by some friendly aliens first: "Hey, you dropped this."
Hm. Yes, I guess you're right. We should remove any ware(z) from it in case the space cops find it, and while we're at it, might as well clean up all the space-tar it picked up from travelling along the space-lanes.
Weeeeell......it's illegal to trade (most) MP3s. Yes. It's not terribly nice, either. And certainly not a valuable public service. But the response is simply so far over the top (threat of imprisonment, massive costs, DRM in our hardware) that it creates an imbalance.
If you are a music publisher, you are well known for ripping people off (the artists and the consumers), and making an enormous amount of money from it. Now I do something illegal. I'm not really hurting anybody, especially compared to you. And you plan to throw massive punishments towards me. The result is that I get pissed off. So I will do whatever is in my power to make you unhappy. For example, I could write a program which makes it easy to rip you off. Most people don't think of using this program as a crime, and the more people use it, the more pissed off you will be, and the happier I will be.
OTOH, imagine if the music industry reacted more intelligently. Perhaps they say that it's okay to copy your own CDs. It's not too bad of you to give copies to your friends. But please don't sell them. And there's a nice, cheap way to download music, perfectly legally, from us.
Then I wouldn't write such programs. I wouldn't prod people into sharing music. I wouldn't want to piss you off.
Space travel is terribly dangerous, and should be treated as such.
Remember when Prof. Feynman was investigating the accident of the Challenger? NASA told him the chances of a catastrophic failure is about 1 in 100,000. Obviously rubbish spouted by the bureaucrats. Feynman agreed more with the engineers, who estimated 1 in 50.
So? We've had a bit over 100 flights, and 2 losses. 1:50 is correct.
The linked article itself might not be a dupe, but the topic certainly is (sorry, can't find the first/. article at the moment).
Back then I claimed that I am *so* sick of adverts, that I would never buy a game like that. (I already refuse to watch TV or listen to the radio).
And now I'm saying it again. Go away, advertisers, you piss me off. Games have gotten more and more expensive. By now it is so bad, that I've returned to writing my own - not because they're soooo good, but because it's more fun to write them than to play others.
Cheaper, too. Why should I pay $50 for something which quickly becomes boring? Especially if the handbooks are now so lousy that you're forced to spend another $20 on a guide book (hey, thanks EA, for the SimCity4 'manual').
Feel free, game companies, to push out more-of-the-same, buggy, boring brainless trash. Add some ads, too. Don't forget to complain about piracy when your sales drop.
>All that just to say that just because it's color and has a lot of features - doesn't mean the battery life will be bad.
> my batteries go for literally days
I change my batteries once a *month*. When I was stuck in Canada for three months with my charger still in California, I bought new batteries exactly once (I used my PDA less during that time).
Personally, I find integrated stuff like a camera cool and all, but my Handspring (which I use every day, for the past two years) lives and dies by the battery life.
That means: small CPU, monochrome screen. I don't need a superfast CPU for PalmOS, and I certainly don't need color.
Give me: a nice PalmOS PDA with the Handspring improvements to the OS, reasonably slim, metal case (titanium would be cool), B/W screen and batteries (yes, batteries! When I travel, I don't want to carry the charger around with me). And, of course, a CF slot so I can plug in an IBM microdrive. You do that, I'm willing to pay a heck of a lot of money.
You give me an all-singing-all-dancing-supercolor-blindingly-fast thingy with a battery lifespan of three days, and you won't see a cent from this technophile.
Ummm... I'm afraid that I don't have too much time to reply to these (partially insightful) comments.
What I mean is that I am very tired to see *all* people referred to as 'consumers' instead of 'citizens'. This also means that we are being *treated* as consumers instead of citizens.
Thus I did not mean the technical term "consumer", but the more general term.
Don't know if I'm making myself terribly clear, sorry. Feel free to contact me via email on my spam-account at hotmail. Write to klausBreuer@...
Strange... can anybody explain to an outsider (I'm german) why NASA even responds to cranks?
The web is full of weirdos showing off photos of UFOs, faces on mars, alien crop circles, water finders, magic spirals, health magnets and garbage like that.
Why does NASA care what these people are quacking about? Don't they have anything better to do?
Well, in November 2002 I wanted to buy one of these things for my parents. Thus I spent a lot of time finding data on this KISS player.
After a lot of back and forth, I decided not to buy it for the following reasons:
* Price. In Germany, this thing costs about $400. That's harsh, especially compared to the bone-standard DVD player I bought in the end for $88.
* It doesn't play Advanced DivX (Quarter Pixel, GMC). While I can do without GMC (it looks weird in places), I use QP all the time.
* The FAQ clearly stated that you will never, ever, be able to disable the region code and the Macrovision 'protection'. I can live with the region code limitation (while grinding my teeth), but my parents TV cannot handle this Macrovision nonsense (and no, we won't buy a new TV just for DVDs). While I can buy a hardware scrubber for the Macrovision, it would have put be back another $60.
* The button design on the box itself is simply lousy. All buttons are in a neat row and look quite identical. Good luck using it in the half-dark.
I'm now fiddling with putting together a Linux PC in a tiny case, which will play whatever I put into the DVD drive. I'm still looking for a *quiet* case, though...
> Since you are not pressing an "enter key" on your telephone when you are done dialling the number (mobile phones are an exception here), the exchange has to guess when you are done keying in digits.
Not really. The telephone numbers follow a tree pattern - as soon as you reach the leaf, the call is connected. Further advantage: the system starts connecting you while you type the numbers, thus you usually get a ring immediately upon entering the number.
Why does the US insist on having telephone numbers in a certain format?
In Germany, telephone numbers are just handed out as needed, with small towns typically having shorter numbers that, say, Berlin.
This way, we simply cannot run out of numbers.
On the whole, the setup seems much more logical: dial a number (can be any length) to call within your city, dial a 0 + city code + telnumber for another city, and 00 + country code + city code + telnumber for international.
What is wrong with you chaps? Concept car, Schmoncept car! How many of these damn things have I seen in the last 20 years, and we *still* don't have them on our streets! So GM has built yet another concept car. Coooooool - what are they selling this year? Guzzling SUVs? Oh, surprise, surprise. Guess what they'll be selling next year, too.
>Does anyone else miss real cars?
Yes. I do. Built in a time when cars were built for looks, too. Modern cars look like garbage cans.
Now while I certainly think we do not need a 2t steel monster with 350hp (yes, I drove a '68 Mustang when I lived in the states), it would certainly be nice to emulate their appearance, even if the body *is* lightweight plastic.
You're right - why do modern cars look so ugly? Even the metal ones are ridiculous: for the last couple of years, they all had that 'wedge' look. Now they have that armor-plated angular battleship look, which is even worse.
Come on, designers! Design something nice for a change, instead of all copying each others garbage!
Well, having used 1e6 different cases over the years, I have to say I like this one.
I really dig the way you can easily access the entire system like this; fiddling around with the drive connections is a real bitch even in my huge tower - and my water-cooling system doesn't help.
I see two annoyances, though: first off, the grids for the fans cannot be removed. These cheap stamped-out fan openings are quite worthless, impede air flow, make the flow noisy, and look lousy. I always end up cutting them out, and attatching a standard thin wire-grid for the fans.
They do look big enough for the silent 12cm Pabst-fans, though.
Secondly, you're going to get a pocket of hot air in the very top of the case, as I don't see an extractor fan or even an air vent in it.
Definitively need to cut yet another hole in the case for a (silent) fan there as well.
All in all, though, it's a pity I've already got my case , into which I put rather a lot of effort and money;)
Heh. I find it highly amusing that the USA named it's moronic data-collection program "TIA".
See, I lived a couple of years in South Africa, which (while a beautiful country with friendly people) is a hugely bureaucratic, corrupt mess. And the phrase "TIA" is very common lament when, once again, the gouverment is messing up: "That Is Africa".
Well, well - I've always suspected that the PR shills are in Slashdot as well, but this comment seems to prove it.
"it lets artists give you access to bonus tracks..." wow, straight out of the ad copy. Same with "chat with people listening to the same thing...". So who cares? Who's interested?
"...which may or may not mean spam". Well, since my data is worth cold, hard cash, you can be very sure that it *will* mean spam. And further profiling, which we all love dearly.
"...above-average media player..." Just from what rock did you crawl out from?
"If you're a privacy zealot..." Sure. Just because I do not plan on laying open everything marketable about me does not mean that you can compare me (us?) with religious nutcases.
"a zillion other programs...more likely to spy on you". Yes. And I hate them all. And will filter them all. Goddamm advertisers.
After reading a fascinating book about the PR industry ("Trust us, we're experts" - from the same guys who wrote "Toxic sludge is good for you!"), I'm quite sure that there are more than a few PR people on here, modding each other up. Keep an eye out for them.
Ciao, Klaus
Naaah, it's not paranoia if they *are* out to get you;)
Hmmm... never saw a 'bobble' doll here in Germany. Does the head burst if you jump on it? What about hanging it from a noose, you think your company would comment on that? Or follow Dilberts lead: put it on your monitor and slap it every time you feel irritated.
I don't really see what the fuss is about. You don't like it, dump it in the trash or, better yet, do something [de|con]structive with it.
Ciao, Klaus
PS: Okay, I'll admit it. Our company is giving its annual christmas dinner bash at a nice restaurant, and we're all looking forward to it:)
The only time a music CD spends in my PC is to get converted to MP3. This file goes into my jukebox, which does not have an external connection anywhere. The original CD is played in my HiFi, as required. Sounds much better there anyway - and guess what, it doesn't have an outside connection, either.
Slashdot Mirror
Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't vacuum sublimation eat it up after a couple of million years? ...unless it's brought back to us by some friendly aliens first: "Hey, you dropped this."
Ware and tare?
Hm. Yes, I guess you're right.
We should remove any ware(z) from it in case the space cops find it, and while we're at it, might as well clean up all the space-tar it picked up from travelling along the space-lanes.
Right?
So... is that new game Master of Orion a crack for Solaris?
Or is Solaris a planet in Master of Orion?
I'm getting confused...
Weeeeell... ...it's illegal to trade (most) MP3s. Yes. It's not terribly nice, either. And certainly not a valuable public service.
But the response is simply so far over the top (threat of imprisonment, massive costs, DRM in our hardware) that it creates an imbalance.
If you are a music publisher, you are well known for ripping people off (the artists and the consumers), and making an enormous amount of money from it.
Now I do something illegal. I'm not really hurting anybody, especially compared to you.
And you plan to throw massive punishments towards me.
The result is that I get pissed off. So I will do whatever is in my power to make you unhappy. For example, I could write a program which makes it easy to rip you off.
Most people don't think of using this program as a crime, and the more people use it, the more pissed off you will be, and the happier I will be.
OTOH, imagine if the music industry reacted more intelligently. Perhaps they say that it's okay to copy your own CDs. It's not too bad of you to give copies to your friends. But please don't sell them. And there's a nice, cheap way to download music, perfectly legally, from us.
Then I wouldn't write such programs. I wouldn't prod people into sharing music. I wouldn't want to piss you off.
Choose.
No. It isn't.
But on the other hand, if a very large percentage of the citizens are doing it, perhaps there's something badly wrong with your business model?
Actually, that does work, if your random seed is truly random.
Some bright people use a digital camera pointed at lava lamps for a nicely random seed.
Wasn't that on Slashdot some time ago?
Ciao,
Klaus
Hey, major off-topic post. I tried to email you, but can't...
;)
"Die Menchen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen. -- Goethe"
Great quote, Dr. Faust. Please fix the speeling error, though. It's "Die Menschen verhöhnen..."
Ciao,
Klaus
Tragedy, no. Accident, yes.
Space travel is terribly dangerous, and should be treated as such.
Remember when Prof. Feynman was investigating the accident of the Challenger? NASA told him the chances of a catastrophic failure is about 1 in 100,000.
Obviously rubbish spouted by the bureaucrats. Feynman agreed more with the engineers, who estimated 1 in 50.
So? We've had a bit over 100 flights, and 2 losses. 1:50 is correct.
Ciao,
Klaus
You forgot the biggest and best reason:
"Hey, dude, still hanging around with those sucky little 32-bit CPUs? Man, get an eyeful of *my* 64-bit monster! Haw!"
Ciao,
Klaus
Well, well.
/. article at the moment).
The linked article itself might not be a dupe, but the topic certainly is (sorry, can't find the first
Back then I claimed that I am *so* sick of adverts, that I would never buy a game like that. (I already refuse to watch TV or listen to the radio).
And now I'm saying it again. Go away, advertisers, you piss me off.
Games have gotten more and more expensive. By now it is so bad, that I've returned to writing my own - not because they're soooo good, but because it's more fun to write them than to play others.
Cheaper, too. Why should I pay $50 for something which quickly becomes boring? Especially if the handbooks are now so lousy that you're forced to spend another $20 on a guide book (hey, thanks EA, for the SimCity4 'manual').
Feel free, game companies, to push out more-of-the-same, buggy, boring brainless trash. Add some ads, too.
Don't forget to complain about piracy when your sales drop.
Ciao,
Klaus
Hmmm:
>All that just to say that just because it's color and has a lot of features - doesn't mean the battery life will be bad.
> my batteries go for literally days
I change my batteries once a *month*.
When I was stuck in Canada for three months with my charger still in California, I bought new batteries exactly once (I used my PDA less during that time).
Personally, I find integrated stuff like a camera cool and all, but my Handspring (which I use every day, for the past two years) lives and dies by the battery life.
t thingy with a battery lifespan of three days, and you won't see a cent from this technophile.
That means: small CPU, monochrome screen. I don't need a superfast CPU for PalmOS, and I certainly don't need color.
Give me: a nice PalmOS PDA with the Handspring improvements to the OS, reasonably slim, metal case (titanium would be cool), B/W screen and batteries (yes, batteries! When I travel, I don't want to carry the charger around with me).
And, of course, a CF slot so I can plug in an IBM microdrive.
You do that, I'm willing to pay a heck of a lot of money.
You give me an all-singing-all-dancing-supercolor-blindingly-fas
Ciao,
Klaus
Ummm... I'm afraid that I don't have too much time to reply to these (partially insightful) comments.
What I mean is that I am very tired to see *all* people referred to as 'consumers' instead of 'citizens'. This also means that we are being *treated* as consumers instead of citizens.
Thus I did not mean the technical term "consumer", but the more general term.
Don't know if I'm making myself terribly clear, sorry. Feel free to contact me via email on my spam-account at hotmail. Write to klausBreuer@...
Ciao,
Klaus
Strange... can anybody explain to an outsider (I'm german) why NASA even responds to cranks?
The web is full of weirdos showing off photos of UFOs, faces on mars, alien crop circles, water finders, magic spirals, health magnets and garbage like that.
Why does NASA care what these people are quacking about? Don't they have anything better to do?
Ciao,
Klaus
Personally I think eventually we consumers will win all of these battles.
Feel free to call yourself 'consumer'. But I am a citizen.
Ciao,
Klaus
Hi Haggar (Hägar?),
;)
have a look at 'Conrad Electronics'. It's a massive electronics place with outlets in every major city, and they have *everything*
Ciao,
Klaus
Well, in November 2002 I wanted to buy one of these things for my parents. Thus I spent a lot of time finding data on this KISS player.
After a lot of back and forth, I decided not to buy it for the following reasons:
* Price. In Germany, this thing costs about $400. That's harsh, especially compared to the bone-standard DVD player I bought in the end for $88.
* It doesn't play Advanced DivX (Quarter Pixel, GMC). While I can do without GMC (it looks weird in places), I use QP all the time.
* The FAQ clearly stated that you will never, ever, be able to disable the region code and the Macrovision 'protection'. I can live with the region code limitation (while grinding my teeth), but my parents TV cannot handle this Macrovision nonsense (and no, we won't buy a new TV just for DVDs).
While I can buy a hardware scrubber for the Macrovision, it would have put be back another $60.
* The button design on the box itself is simply lousy. All buttons are in a neat row and look quite identical. Good luck using it in the half-dark.
I'm now fiddling with putting together a Linux PC in a tiny case, which will play whatever I put into the DVD drive. I'm still looking for a *quiet* case, though...
Ciao,
Klaus
> Since you are not pressing an "enter key" on your telephone when you are done dialling the number (mobile phones are an exception here), the exchange has to guess when you are done keying in digits.
Not really. The telephone numbers follow a tree pattern - as soon as you reach the leaf, the call is connected.
Further advantage: the system starts connecting you while you type the numbers, thus you usually get a ring immediately upon entering the number.
Ciao,
Klaus
Why does the US insist on having telephone numbers in a certain format?
In Germany, telephone numbers are just handed out as needed, with small towns typically having shorter numbers that, say, Berlin.
This way, we simply cannot run out of numbers.
On the whole, the setup seems much more logical: dial a number (can be any length) to call within your city, dial a 0 + city code + telnumber for another city, and 00 + country code + city code + telnumber for international.
Ciao,
Klaus
What is wrong with you chaps? Concept car, Schmoncept car! How many of these damn things have I seen in the last 20 years, and we *still* don't have them on our streets!
So GM has built yet another concept car. Coooooool - what are they selling this year? Guzzling SUVs? Oh, surprise, surprise. Guess what they'll be selling next year, too.
>Does anyone else miss real cars?
Yes. I do. Built in a time when cars were built for looks, too. Modern cars look like garbage cans.
Now while I certainly think we do not need a 2t steel monster with 350hp (yes, I drove a '68 Mustang when I lived in the states), it would certainly be nice to emulate their appearance, even if the body *is* lightweight plastic.
You're right - why do modern cars look so ugly? Even the metal ones are ridiculous: for the last couple of years, they all had that 'wedge' look.
Now they have that armor-plated angular battleship look, which is even worse.
Come on, designers! Design something nice for a change, instead of all copying each others garbage!
Ciao,
Klaus
Well, having used 1e6 different cases over the years, I have to say I like this one.
I really dig the way you can easily access the entire system like this; fiddling around with the drive connections is a real bitch even in my huge tower - and my water-cooling system doesn't help.
I see two annoyances, though: first off, the grids for the fans cannot be removed. These cheap stamped-out fan openings are quite worthless, impede air flow, make the flow noisy, and look lousy. I always end up cutting them out, and attatching a standard thin wire-grid for the fans.
They do look big enough for the silent 12cm Pabst-fans, though.
Secondly, you're going to get a pocket of hot air in the very top of the case, as I don't see an extractor fan or even an air vent in it.
Definitively need to cut yet another hole in the case for a (silent) fan there as well.
All in all, though, it's a pity I've already got my case , into which I put rather a lot of effort and money ;)
Ciao,
Klaus
Heh. I find it highly amusing that the USA named it's moronic data-collection program "TIA".
See, I lived a couple of years in South Africa, which (while a beautiful country with friendly people) is a hugely bureaucratic, corrupt mess.
And the phrase "TIA" is very common lament when, once again, the gouverment is messing up: "That Is Africa".
Ciao,
Klaus
Well, well - I've always suspected that the PR shills are in Slashdot as well, but this comment seems to prove it.
;)
"it lets artists give you access to bonus tracks..." wow, straight out of the ad copy.
Same with "chat with people listening to the same thing...". So who cares? Who's interested?
"...which may or may not mean spam". Well, since my data is worth cold, hard cash, you can be very sure that it *will* mean spam. And further profiling, which we all love dearly.
"...above-average media player..." Just from what rock did you crawl out from?
"If you're a privacy zealot..." Sure. Just because I do not plan on laying open everything marketable about me does not mean that you can compare me (us?) with religious nutcases.
"a zillion other programs...more likely to spy on you". Yes. And I hate them all. And will filter them all. Goddamm advertisers.
After reading a fascinating book about the PR industry ("Trust us, we're experts" - from the same guys who wrote "Toxic sludge is good for you!"), I'm quite sure that there are more than a few PR people on here, modding each other up.
Keep an eye out for them.
Ciao,
Klaus
Naaah, it's not paranoia if they *are* out to get you
Hmmm... never saw a 'bobble' doll here in Germany.
:)
Does the head burst if you jump on it? What about hanging it from a noose, you think your company would comment on that?
Or follow Dilberts lead: put it on your monitor and slap it every time you feel irritated.
I don't really see what the fuss is about. You don't like it, dump it in the trash or, better yet, do something [de|con]structive with it.
Ciao,
Klaus
PS: Okay, I'll admit it. Our company is giving its annual christmas dinner bash at a nice restaurant, and we're all looking forward to it
The only time a music CD spends in my PC is to get converted to MP3. This file goes into my jukebox, which does not have an external connection anywhere.
The original CD is played in my HiFi, as required. Sounds much better there anyway - and guess what, it doesn't have an outside connection, either.
Ciao,
Klaus