It's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of CHEAP. I still "trust" newegg. My county has close to 10% sales tax, so that's almost $100 on a $1000 item, which bites.
They used to be great in the early days, with usually the best prices and often free shipping. Now their prices aren't quite as good, they hardly have free shipping on anything anymore, and since they started setting up warehouses all over the place, they are also charging sales tax in several states (including mine). The upshot is that I rarely shop with them anymore, especially for big ticket items.
> If the movies doesn't work right, then most people will assume it's the computers fault, > and will remember not to buy it again.
Hardly! They will call Dell's customer support, in whose full interest it is to deflect blame away from Dell and onto a third party. Rest assured, the blame will quite consistenly land where it ought to.
> If they did, they'd know the DRM is so invisible that most users don't even > know it's there. I always forget it is.
I've bought plenty of albums off ITMS, and it is indeed easy to burn them to a CD and then rip that, especially when buying a whole album. When buying individual tracks, things get a bit messier, since CDEx can't lookup the metadata anymore.
But saying that the DRM is invisible is silly. I have a Roku SoundBridge, which works just fine with iTunes, except for DRM-ed tracks. None of the ITMS albums and tracks will play on the SoundBridge, unless burned and re-ripped into iTunes. And this won't ever likely change, since Apple seems to have no interest in licensing their FairPlay (ha!) DRM to third parties.
> Why didn't they just purchase local Soviet roadmaps?
Because, believe it or not, accurate road maps were virtual non-existant in Eastern Europe, ostensibly for security reasons but also quite likely for cost and effort reasons.
Yeah, I was referring to the fact that the OP simply said "Visual Basic" in the context of the Express editions. Many people will understand that to be VB6 and prior, which do create native CLR-less executables, and some people might get the impression that the Express editions will also let you compile VB6 code, which is not the case.
True, but compared to the.NET runtime it is. Even a decently-sized Delphi app with a bunch of forms and controls can easily weigh in at well over 1MB, similarly to a statically-linked MFC app.
Of course, it's only a GUI framework, you still need a language and compiler to use it. As has been mentioned, it's particularly smooth with Python. You can also try py2exe, which combines all your Python scripts into one single Windows executable that looks and smells just like any other Windows app, and doesn't require any Python runtime support DLLs. Pretty much spot-on for the OP's requirements, except possibly for language choice.
You're right about native C++, I was primarily thinking of the managed.NET languages, since the OP talked about VB. Still, what exactly is the license of the Express editions? I never bothered checking.
All the Express editions only target.NET. At this point I still wouldn't consider the.NET framework ubiquitous quite yet, so this approach may seriously affect his deployment. Other than that, it's certainly a viable option. Another good one would be SharpDevelop, which might in fact be preferable to the Express editions purely for licensing reasons. I'm not sure if you're supposed to use Express builds for commercial purposes.
> and besides, it is a common misconception that East Germany was communist > - we called it socialist, and even that one might argue.
Well, I spent the first 14 years of my life in one of its "sister" Warsaw Pact states, so I have an excellent idea of what they were all about. The education was good, indeed, but extremely hard-driving and unforgiving, almost completely ignoring the different developmental paces of individuals. And yes, I was a "pioneer" with red scarf and all because we had to, and no, it didn't mean diddly to me nor to most others I knew.
And even though deep down very few people were actually devout communists, many could still get you in trouble for saying the wrong thing if there was a gain to be had. So yes, overall the system was still very much communist, even if you personally didn't fall asleep at night reading Marx.
> If it means I can't load software that has the primary purpose > of stealing media content (regardless of the BS the people who > make excuses spout), so be it. At least I'll be able to watch > TV once in a while without being subjected to the crap Comcast > and DirecTV offer right now.
At the risk of over-using a stale old cliche, you just don't get it, do you?! That DVR software you will want to use that ignores the content-provider-mandated self-destruct time limit on recorded shows (so that you have more than 24 hours to watch that Simpsons episode, or so that you can record it at all) will fall under the same "content stealing" category you're so smug about. But I guess you don't care until the sh!t hits your own little self-righteous playground, at which point it will be too late.
Re:Old news guys...
on
Scanjet Music
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Yep, and I think they later removed it, since we lost the original floppy and I could never find that app again in any of HP's downloads. Mind you, I think this goes back more than 8 years--when was the 4c relased again?
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It's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of CHEAP. I still "trust" newegg. My county has close to 10% sales tax, so that's almost $100 on a $1000 item, which bites.
They used to be great in the early days, with usually the best prices and often free shipping. Now their prices aren't quite as good, they hardly have free shipping on anything anymore, and since they started setting up warehouses all over the place, they are also charging sales tax in several states (including mine). The upshot is that I rarely shop with them anymore, especially for big ticket items.
Especially when combined with magnets. In fact, I'm highly surprised that magnets were not involved in this feat already.
> If the movies doesn't work right, then most people will assume it's the computers fault,
> and will remember not to buy it again.
Hardly! They will call Dell's customer support, in whose full interest it is to deflect blame away from Dell and onto a third party. Rest assured, the blame will quite consistenly land where it ought to.
> If they did, they'd know the DRM is so invisible that most users don't even
> know it's there. I always forget it is.
I've bought plenty of albums off ITMS, and it is indeed easy to burn them to a CD and then rip that, especially when buying a whole album. When buying individual tracks, things get a bit messier, since CDEx can't lookup the metadata anymore.
But saying that the DRM is invisible is silly. I have a Roku SoundBridge, which works just fine with iTunes, except for DRM-ed tracks. None of the ITMS albums and tracks will play on the SoundBridge, unless burned and re-ripped into iTunes. And this won't ever likely change, since Apple seems to have no interest in licensing their FairPlay (ha!) DRM to third parties.
> I'm kind of interested in which "domestic car maker" he's talking about here
Clearly those that don't occur in the wild.
Not to mention Arthur C. Clarke.
> and wipe our collective asses
Jesus, you don't even get to have your own ass in the US anymore? Not even the Soviets went that far...
Actually, the killer replacement skin for the bird is the translating pimp: yo man, where dis, know what I'm sayin'?
> Why didn't they just purchase local Soviet roadmaps?
Because, believe it or not, accurate road maps were virtual non-existant in Eastern Europe, ostensibly for security reasons but also quite likely for cost and effort reasons.
> Maybe I misunderstood what you were saying.
Yeah, I was referring to the fact that the OP simply said "Visual Basic" in the context of the Express editions. Many people will understand that to be VB6 and prior, which do create native CLR-less executables, and some people might get the impression that the Express editions will also let you compile VB6 code, which is not the case.
Wow, I quite obviously haven't kept up with the Delphi scene. I haven't used Delphi professionally for over five years, and I guess it shows.
I'm not sure what your point is.
> Could it be released as anything else?
But of course--the Goobuntu toolbar: an entire OS as an IE toolbar.
True, but compared to the .NET runtime it is. Even a decently-sized Delphi app with a bunch of forms and controls can easily weigh in at well over 1MB, similarly to a statically-linked MFC app.
Of course, it's only a GUI framework, you still need a language and compiler to use it. As has been mentioned, it's particularly smooth with Python. You can also try py2exe, which combines all your Python scripts into one single Windows executable that looks and smells just like any other Windows app, and doesn't require any Python runtime support DLLs. Pretty much spot-on for the OP's requirements, except possibly for language choice.
You're right about native C++, I was primarily thinking of the managed .NET languages, since the OP talked about VB. Still, what exactly is the license of the Express editions? I never bothered checking.
All the Express editions only target .NET. At this point I still wouldn't consider the .NET framework ubiquitous quite yet, so this approach may seriously affect his deployment. Other than that, it's certainly a viable option. Another good one would be SharpDevelop, which might in fact be preferable to the Express editions purely for licensing reasons. I'm not sure if you're supposed to use Express builds for commercial purposes.
> and besides, it is a common misconception that East Germany was communist
> - we called it socialist, and even that one might argue.
Well, I spent the first 14 years of my life in one of its "sister" Warsaw Pact states, so I have an excellent idea of what they were all about. The education was good, indeed, but extremely hard-driving and unforgiving, almost completely ignoring the different developmental paces of individuals. And yes, I was a "pioneer" with red scarf and all because we had to, and no, it didn't mean diddly to me nor to most others I knew.
And even though deep down very few people were actually devout communists, many could still get you in trouble for saying the wrong thing if there was a gain to be had. So yes, overall the system was still very much communist, even if you personally didn't fall asleep at night reading Marx.
LOL, touché!
Fifteen years after its demise, the East German communist state is infiltrating a US school system--talk about sneaky and resilient.
> If it means I can't load software that has the primary purpose
> of stealing media content (regardless of the BS the people who
> make excuses spout), so be it. At least I'll be able to watch
> TV once in a while without being subjected to the crap Comcast
> and DirecTV offer right now.
At the risk of over-using a stale old cliche, you just don't get it, do you?! That DVR software you will want to use that ignores the content-provider-mandated self-destruct time limit on recorded shows (so that you have more than 24 hours to watch that Simpsons episode, or so that you can record it at all) will fall under the same "content stealing" category you're so smug about. But I guess you don't care until the sh!t hits your own little self-righteous playground, at which point it will be too late.
More like don't index any BS content.
It's SHIFT-HOME, silly. Sheesh!
Yep, and I think they later removed it, since we lost the original floppy and I could never find that app again in any of HP's downloads. Mind you, I think this goes back more than 8 years--when was the 4c relased again?