I have a lot of this stuff in my house too and my electric bill is NEVER that expense - he's racked up like $80 there - my bill is usually like $15....
I must ask: what confidence do you actually have in our voting system?
The reason I ask is this: our voting system, though not _officially_ designed so support a 2-party system is fundamentally flawed in the way that votes are tallied. Let me give an example. Let's say there are 3 candidates - 2 conservative and one liberal. Let's say that 30% of people voted for each conservative and the remaining 40% voted for the liberal. The winner here would be the liberal despite the fact that 60% of the people that voted wanted a conservative winner. See the issue here?
This is why voting for a third-party candidate is considered "throwing your vote away" Unless this changes, we will rarely see the public's best choice as the winner.
A simple solution would be to have voters rank the candidates instead of simply choosing one. In the example above, a voter could give one conservative candidate a '1', the other a '2' and the liberal a '3' - the canidate with the lowest number wins.
People take about voting reform and doing away with the electoral college, but I don't think there is enough emphasis on this particular issue. -w
hi - good post - I wasn't joking - at all - I got my info from the ask slashdot a few weeks back - here's a quote from one of these fancy lawyers....
When you buy a copy of something you have rights in the copy, that's it. No metaphysical rights to listen, reproduce additional copies, etc.
So, I stand by my comment - I think I do know what I'm talking about - either that, or this lawyer is wrong, or I misinterpreted his statement, but it seems pretty clear to me. -w
look up what DVD jon's new company is doing - I'm not going to link you to a source cause the ones I got were all linked from slashdot - he is going to let hardware companies license his technology so that your itms-drm'ed tracks will play on their devices - so all the user has to do is download form itms and hook up their non-apple audio player that has dvd jon's "crack" in it and he's good to go
actually, what you just described is not DRM (remember, DRM is a concept) - you've described a poor implementation of a DRM system - blacking out the video over s-video is not in and of itself DRM, again, it's a poor implementation/design - with this design, it prohibits you from watching as a side-effect of prohibiting you from copying via that output - again, we should focus our efforts into finding a DRM scheme that works and not just dissing it because we don't understand it... -w
If the result of DVD Jon's crack is a program what will go through my iTunes library and batch process the files to strip any DRM automatically, then we have something on our hands that matters.
Too bad, because that is _not_ the result of DVD Jon's crack (why do I have an image of a man's butt crack poking out of his denim right now?). Please read the article before posting next time. You are so far off in your statement above, that you obviously have no idea what DVD Jon is up to. Seriously, I'm not making fun of you. It's just that this statement really highlights your ignorance on the subject at hand. -w
I'm sick of people bashing DRM - the concept makes sense and I don't really have an issue with it - I think a lot of people have their panties in a bunch on this issue without really understanding copyright law - copyright isn't about you backing up your DVDs or making copies to give to your friends - the whole point is that, by purchasing the album/movie/etc. that you have a RIGHT (notice, no quotes) to that COPY of it. You don't have a right to know the songs - or to hear them on the radio - or to download them off the internet if your car gets broken into and the CD gets stolen - you have a right to own them in that format with particular limitations - everyone I hear who has a complaint about DRM* complains because the DRM does not allow them to break copyright laws. People bitch and whine that they can't burn their mp3s to a CD, or give them to the friend or whatever, neither of which not within your copyrights. (actually, there is probably some bit somewhere along the way about making backups, honestly, I don't know it to the letter, but I have the general gist)
So, what I'm proposing is that everyone shut up about how "evil" DRM is and get right down the point: You have rights to the copies of the music you've purchased, let's try to support a DRM scheme that works. If DRM is getting in the way of you doing something illegal, then you can just piss off and move to a country where want you want to do is legal, or wait to do your illegal thing until you've somehow prompted the law to change so that it becomes legal.
To the article poster: All of your points above are pretty weak. Yeah, a user _could_ plug a wire from the out of their soundcard to the in to make a copy of an mp3. That's a lot of work for most computer users, not to mention how far from ideal those recordings will be (mp3, converted to wave on the fly, spit out of your - most likely crappy soundcard - back into your soundcard, then back to wave, then back to mp3 will sound crappy - not that most music listeners can tell these days) - a user _could_ burn their mp3s to the CD, then re-convert them back to mp3 (waste of a CD you mention, but I didn't see any talk about degrading sound quality in your post) but who would do that? - so, I gather from your comments that DVD Jon's whole thing is fundamentally flawed because you were able to come up with 2 ways to make even-lower-fidelity-recordings of songs you paid for - wow. thanks for chiming in there buddy. How could I have been so blind to think that a model where the user doesn't have to do anything is superior to a model where the user has to do a bunch of crap only to end up "owning" audio files that have been degraded (in fidelity) from what was purchased. Thank you for showing me the light .
This whole doublemint thing or whatever DVDJ came up with is actually pretty neat. It's legal, and it works without the user having to jump through hoops (remember, not every ipod user is as computer saavy as you undoubtedly are) to get it done. In fact, with hardware manufacturers licensing it, the consumer won't have to do anything, nor will he/she have to pay for more than the mp3**. Hell, the user (ideally) won't even know what's going on behind the scenes. His rights are managed for him (which sounds scary to a lot of you, but as long as it is done within the constraints of the law, there is little you can do to rightfully bitch about it) and he gets to listen to his music how he wants to. Sounds like a good deal to me. -w
* Notice the wording here. I'm not talking about people who have, rightful, complaints about faulty/poorly-implemented DRM enforcement. ** hmmm I suppose I kinda use 'mp3' interchangeably to mean 'computer audio file' - you'll have to pick up on my meaning from context clues
it's funny you should mention that bit about a 'breakthrough' in feeding the world - we don't need a breakthrough here - if all americans cut their meat intake by 10% it would free up enough grain to feed something like 60 million people! again, we don't need a breakthrough, we just need to use our heads - feeding the world is not difficult to do, we just need to try instead of just hoping that some new technology is going to come along and make everything better for us - it's like the fat people who believe in miracle diets and miracle surgery and miracle drugs and miracle exercise programs where you can get skinny and healthy without doing anything! ooh boy! the reason you're fat is because you eat crap and sit around on your ass all day (sorry for the tangent/rant) -w
The Tascam US-122 is cheap (around 200 last time I checked), runs over USB (so it works with just about everything) and has 2 mic/line inputs with phantom power. It also comes with recording software bundled into it - I sold pro audio for years and this thing is fantastic bang-for-buck - if you want more "industry standard compatibility" get an MBox which comes with protools. If that's not your concern, just get the Tascam and spend the money you saved to buy a pair of nice condensor mics. The RE-20 is a classic radio mic - on the cheaper tip, I have a R0DE NT-1 and for the 200 earth dollars it costs, it sounds great - really warm and pretty -w
I do... but I also think Fievel's sister is a total fox (despite, obviously, being a mouse... er, a cartoon mouse), so I'm not sure if you're in good company - probably not.
um... I hate to disagree with someone who is backing up my point, but the "blue notes/tones" in jazz are not overtones, they are (oddly enough) the "grey" area between notes - for example, when soloing over a G major chord (G B D) players often use the 'blues scale' which features a Bb instead of a B - the ambiguity here (the harmony is playing B, but the melody is playing Bb) is what makes blues/jazz sound the way they do - I'm glad you agree with me, but I think you've got the terminology mixed up here - thanks for trying though -w
here's the deal with the whole "beyond the range of human hearing" debate - there are sounds both above and below the "range of human hearing" what this means is that there are really low and really high sounds that _cannot be perceived to have a pitch_ that does not mean that your body does not feel them - there are bass frequencies that don't have a discernable pitch, but that doesn't mean your body isn't feeling it, it just means that it's not a pitch - same goes for treble - your eardrums move when these sounds enter the ear canal and your body has a psycho-acoustic response to it regardless of whether it is determined to be a 'note with a pitch' - so, with that in mind, CDs have a hard-limit to their maximum frequency (which is 1/2 the sample rate - 44.1KHz - ie the highest frequency that can be reprodueced from a CD is 22.05KHz) that analog devices do not have, therefore the analog medium has the capability to produce higher frequencies that _do_ affect your listening experience regardless of whether you can 'hear' the note -w
honestly, I think it's the size and the ergonimcs/design - I own Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, A True Star album on both vinyl and CD and I really like holding the album in my hand - the CD jewel case doesn't do much for me. With a CD box, you open it and see the CD, then you slide out the book and fold it out again - with a record, you open it up and the artwork unfolds before you - I can't really explain it rationally - it's just how I feel and I'm confident that I'm not alone -w
Re:In line conditionals, FINALLY
on
Python 2.5 Released
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
"When developing computer language syntax, natural language imitation should not be the priority"
I could care less about inline if statements - I assume that those are only for people who either are the dangerous kind of lazy, like to write hard-to-read code or don't use emacs
in response to your 'natural language' comment, I'm hoping that isn't the reason that this was done because the if/else syntax we already have imitates natural language.
If she is hot, hit on her. else, if she is not hot and I'm drunk hit on her. else go home.
looks like natural language to me.
Re:Languages continue to evolve into ... Lisp
on
Python 2.5 Released
·
· Score: 1
Hate to burst your bubble, but SBCL is now known as AT&TL
> This administration has lied, either knowingly or unknowingly on the WMD issue, the secret prisons, the wiretapping, etc...
um... is it a lie if it is done unknowingly? like, if somebody says "hey, do you have my wallet?" and I say "no" but later find out that the wallet was in my car (because it fell out of the other person's pocket) am I a liar?
I wasn't lying, but I didn't tell the truth.
Don't get me wrong, I think GW Bush is a chumpsicle and all his homeboys are making me sick. I just don't think you can rightly call him a liar because he said something that wasn't true that he didn't know about.
Um... the whole point is that the people who are downloading music without paying for it are _not_ the RIAA's customer base - the ones who buy the records are their customer base and the RIAA is not suing people for legally buying records.
Homer: [sleepy] Must...protect...sugar. Thieves everywhere. The strong
must protect the sweet...the sweet...[snores] Marge: [walking out] Homer? Homer: [with a Spanish accent] In America, first you get the sugar, then
you get the power, then you get the women...[snores] Marge: Homer...Homer! Homer: Wha...what? Marge: I want you to forget about guarding the stupid sugar! You're
being completely paranoid. Homer: Oh, am I? Am I really? Ah ha!
[Pulls a man from behind the pile] Thief: [holds teacup and saucer] Hello. Homer: All right, pal: where'd you get the sugar for that tea? Thief: I nicked it when you let your guard down for that split second,
and I'd do it again. [sips tea] Goodbye. -- Homer Pacino defends his territory, "Lisa's Rival"
Honestly... I remember that quote about how cities would be re-designed around the thing - was anyone anywhere actually expecting something like that to happen in 5 years? it may be that cities will be re-designed better to accomodate these wheelie dealies, but certainly not for a long time - first, you've got to have enough of these things on the street to justify it, then the money, not to mention the time
first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women
am I the only one who thinks that cookie management blows in firefox? I mean, it's certainly worse in IE, but it's far from great and I haven't seen any enhancements to it in any recent versions (though I may just be blind or crazy, though not too likely) - sometimes, you go to a site for the first time and I've got FF set to prompt on cookies, so I say "hell no I don't want a cookie" then the site says "sorry, bro, this site doesn't work without cookies" so then I have to go digging around the block/allow list for cookies to try to find the right one so I can remove it from the blocked list so I can try to get into the page. considering that most of the people that use firefox are probably nerds and probably aware of things like cookies and probably are more likely to do things about them (like selectively allowing them) it is suprising to me that cookie management is so difficult inside this application - does anyone else agree?
Slashdot Mirror
let scuttlemonkey post any article he wants to slashdot
worst article ever
I have a lot of this stuff in my house too and my electric bill is NEVER that expense - he's racked up like $80 there - my bill is usually like $15 ....
lock me up cause my "kids" drink "Squirt" all the time
I must ask: what confidence do you actually have in our voting system?
The reason I ask is this: our voting system, though not _officially_ designed so support a 2-party system is fundamentally flawed in the way that votes are tallied. Let me give an example. Let's say there are 3 candidates - 2 conservative and one liberal. Let's say that 30% of people voted for each conservative and the remaining 40% voted for the liberal. The winner here would be the liberal despite the fact that 60% of the people that voted wanted a conservative winner. See the issue here?
This is why voting for a third-party candidate is considered "throwing your vote away" Unless this changes, we will rarely see the public's best choice as the winner.
A simple solution would be to have voters rank the candidates instead of simply choosing one. In the example above, a voter could give one conservative candidate a '1', the other a '2' and the liberal a '3' - the canidate with the lowest number wins.
People take about voting reform and doing away with the electoral college, but I don't think there is enough emphasis on this particular issue.
-w
you asked.
-w
So, I stand by my comment - I think I do know what I'm talking about - either that, or this lawyer is wrong, or I misinterpreted his statement, but it seems pretty clear to me.
-w
look up what DVD jon's new company is doing - I'm not going to link you to a source cause the ones I got were all linked from slashdot - he is going to let hardware companies license his technology so that your itms-drm'ed tracks will play on their devices - so all the user has to do is download form itms and hook up their non-apple audio player that has dvd jon's "crack" in it and he's good to go
actually, what you just described is not DRM (remember, DRM is a concept) - you've described a poor implementation of a DRM system - blacking out the video over s-video is not in and of itself DRM, again, it's a poor implementation/design - with this design, it prohibits you from watching as a side-effect of prohibiting you from copying via that output - again, we should focus our efforts into finding a DRM scheme that works and not just dissing it because we don't understand it
-w
Too bad, because that is _not_ the result of DVD Jon's crack (why do I have an image of a man's butt crack poking out of his denim right now?). Please read the article before posting next time. You are so far off in your statement above, that you obviously have no idea what DVD Jon is up to. Seriously, I'm not making fun of you. It's just that this statement really highlights your ignorance on the subject at hand.
-w
I'm sick of people bashing DRM - the concept makes sense and I don't really have an issue with it - I think a lot of people have their panties in a bunch on this issue without really understanding copyright law - copyright isn't about you backing up your DVDs or making copies to give to your friends - the whole point is that, by purchasing the album/movie/etc. that you have a RIGHT (notice, no quotes) to that COPY of it. You don't have a right to know the songs - or to hear them on the radio - or to download them off the internet if your car gets broken into and the CD gets stolen - you have a right to own them in that format with particular limitations - everyone I hear who has a complaint about DRM* complains because the DRM does not allow them to break copyright laws. People bitch and whine that they can't burn their mp3s to a CD, or give them to the friend or whatever, neither of which not within your copyrights. (actually, there is probably some bit somewhere along the way about making backups, honestly, I don't know it to the letter, but I have the general gist)
So, what I'm proposing is that everyone shut up about how "evil" DRM is and get right down the point: You have rights to the copies of the music you've purchased, let's try to support a DRM scheme that works. If DRM is getting in the way of you doing something illegal, then you can just piss off and move to a country where want you want to do is legal, or wait to do your illegal thing until you've somehow prompted the law to change so that it becomes legal.
To the article poster: All of your points above are pretty weak. Yeah, a user _could_ plug a wire from the out of their soundcard to the in to make a copy of an mp3. That's a lot of work for most computer users, not to mention how far from ideal those recordings will be (mp3, converted to wave on the fly, spit out of your - most likely crappy soundcard - back into your soundcard, then back to wave, then back to mp3 will sound crappy - not that most music listeners can tell these days) - a user _could_ burn their mp3s to the CD, then re-convert them back to mp3 (waste of a CD you mention, but I didn't see any talk about degrading sound quality in your post) but who would do that? - so, I gather from your comments that DVD Jon's whole thing is fundamentally flawed because you were able to come up with 2 ways to make even-lower-fidelity-recordings of songs you paid for - wow. thanks for chiming in there buddy. How could I have been so blind to think that a model where the user doesn't have to do anything is superior to a model where the user has to do a bunch of crap only to end up "owning" audio files that have been degraded (in fidelity) from what was purchased. Thank you for showing me the light .
This whole doublemint thing or whatever DVDJ came up with is actually pretty neat. It's legal, and it works without the user having to jump through hoops (remember, not every ipod user is as computer saavy as you undoubtedly are) to get it done. In fact, with hardware manufacturers licensing it, the consumer won't have to do anything, nor will he/she have to pay for more than the mp3**. Hell, the user (ideally) won't even know what's going on behind the scenes. His rights are managed for him (which sounds scary to a lot of you, but as long as it is done within the constraints of the law, there is little you can do to rightfully bitch about it) and he gets to listen to his music how he wants to. Sounds like a good deal to me.
-w
* Notice the wording here. I'm not talking about people who have, rightful, complaints about faulty/poorly-implemented DRM enforcement.
** hmmm I suppose I kinda use 'mp3' interchangeably to mean 'computer audio file' - you'll have to pick up on my meaning from context clues
did you try filing it under sexy?
-w
it's funny you should mention that bit about a 'breakthrough' in feeding the world - we don't need a breakthrough here - if all americans cut their meat intake by 10% it would free up enough grain to feed something like 60 million people! again, we don't need a breakthrough, we just need to use our heads - feeding the world is not difficult to do, we just need to try instead of just hoping that some new technology is going to come along and make everything better for us - it's like the fat people who believe in miracle diets and miracle surgery and miracle drugs and miracle exercise programs where you can get skinny and healthy without doing anything! ooh boy! the reason you're fat is because you eat crap and sit around on your ass all day (sorry for the tangent/rant)
-w
The Tascam US-122 is cheap (around 200 last time I checked), runs over USB (so it works with just about everything) and has 2 mic/line inputs with phantom power. It also comes with recording software bundled into it - I sold pro audio for years and this thing is fantastic bang-for-buck - if you want more "industry standard compatibility" get an MBox which comes with protools. If that's not your concern, just get the Tascam and spend the money you saved to buy a pair of nice condensor mics. The RE-20 is a classic radio mic - on the cheaper tip, I have a R0DE NT-1 and for the 200 earth dollars it costs, it sounds great - really warm and pretty
-w
I do ... but I also think Fievel's sister is a total fox (despite, obviously, being a mouse ... er, a cartoon mouse), so I'm not sure if you're in good company - probably not.
-w
um ... I hate to disagree with someone who is backing up my point, but the "blue notes/tones" in jazz are not overtones, they are (oddly enough) the "grey" area between notes - for example, when soloing over a G major chord (G B D) players often use the 'blues scale' which features a Bb instead of a B - the ambiguity here (the harmony is playing B, but the melody is playing Bb) is what makes blues/jazz sound the way they do - I'm glad you agree with me, but I think you've got the terminology mixed up here - thanks for trying though
-w
here's the deal with the whole "beyond the range of human hearing" debate - there are sounds both above and below the "range of human hearing" what this means is that there are really low and really high sounds that _cannot be perceived to have a pitch_ that does not mean that your body does not feel them - there are bass frequencies that don't have a discernable pitch, but that doesn't mean your body isn't feeling it, it just means that it's not a pitch - same goes for treble - your eardrums move when these sounds enter the ear canal and your body has a psycho-acoustic response to it regardless of whether it is determined to be a 'note with a pitch' - so, with that in mind, CDs have a hard-limit to their maximum frequency (which is 1/2 the sample rate - 44.1KHz - ie the highest frequency that can be reprodueced from a CD is 22.05KHz) that analog devices do not have, therefore the analog medium has the capability to produce higher frequencies that _do_ affect your listening experience regardless of whether you can 'hear' the note
-w
honestly, I think it's the size and the ergonimcs/design - I own Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, A True Star album on both vinyl and CD and I really like holding the album in my hand - the CD jewel case doesn't do much for me. With a CD box, you open it and see the CD, then you slide out the book and fold it out again - with a record, you open it up and the artwork unfolds before you - I can't really explain it rationally - it's just how I feel and I'm confident that I'm not alone
-w
"When developing computer language syntax, natural language imitation should not be the priority"
I could care less about inline if statements - I assume that those are only for people who either are the dangerous kind of lazy, like to write hard-to-read code or don't use emacs
in response to your 'natural language' comment, I'm hoping that isn't the reason that this was done because the if/else syntax we already have imitates natural language.
If she is hot, hit on her. else, if she is not hot and I'm drunk hit on her. else go home.
looks like natural language to me.
Hate to burst your bubble, but SBCL is now known as AT&TL
> This administration has lied, either knowingly or unknowingly on the WMD issue, the secret prisons, the wiretapping, etc...
um... is it a lie if it is done unknowingly? like, if somebody says "hey, do you have my wallet?" and I say "no" but later find out that the wallet was in my car (because it fell out of the other person's pocket) am I a liar?
I wasn't lying, but I didn't tell the truth.
Don't get me wrong, I think GW Bush is a chumpsicle and all his homeboys are making me sick. I just don't think you can rightly call him a liar because he said something that wasn't true that he didn't know about.
Um ... the whole point is that the people who are downloading music without paying for it are _not_ the RIAA's customer base - the ones who buy the records are their customer base and the RIAA is not suing people for legally buying records.
no.
Homer: [sleepy] Must...protect...sugar. Thieves everywhere. The strong
must protect the sweet...the sweet...[snores]
Marge: [walking out] Homer?
Homer: [with a Spanish accent] In America, first you get the sugar, then
you get the power, then you get the women...[snores]
Marge: Homer...Homer!
Homer: Wha...what?
Marge: I want you to forget about guarding the stupid sugar! You're
being completely paranoid.
Homer: Oh, am I? Am I really? Ah ha!
[Pulls a man from behind the pile]
Thief: [holds teacup and saucer] Hello.
Homer: All right, pal: where'd you get the sugar for that tea?
Thief: I nicked it when you let your guard down for that split second,
and I'd do it again. [sips tea] Goodbye.
-- Homer Pacino defends his territory, "Lisa's Rival"
Honestly ... I remember that quote about how cities would be re-designed around the thing - was anyone anywhere actually expecting something like that to happen in 5 years? it may be that cities will be re-designed better to accomodate these wheelie dealies, but certainly not for a long time - first, you've got to have enough of these things on the street to justify it, then the money, not to mention the time
first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women
am I the only one who thinks that cookie management blows in firefox? I mean, it's certainly worse in IE, but it's far from great and I haven't seen any enhancements to it in any recent versions (though I may just be blind or crazy, though not too likely) - sometimes, you go to a site for the first time and I've got FF set to prompt on cookies, so I say "hell no I don't want a cookie" then the site says "sorry, bro, this site doesn't work without cookies" so then I have to go digging around the block/allow list for cookies to try to find the right one so I can remove it from the blocked list so I can try to get into the page. considering that most of the people that use firefox are probably nerds and probably aware of things like cookies and probably are more likely to do things about them (like selectively allowing them) it is suprising to me that cookie management is so difficult inside this application - does anyone else agree?