In design school, my primary professor was a type junky. She taught us a great deal of things about type design and usage. One of the more enlightening things we learned was that typefaces are not copyrightable. Only the names of the typefaces. Given this fact, all someone needs to do is to import a bunch of your favorite fonts into something like Fontographer and export them back out with different names. Bundle the resulting "new" fonts into an RPM or somesuch and voila!
Windows requires 4 boot floppies because it loads every driver known to man prior to the actual install. I've never understood this. They could probably drop it down to one or two by loading up the most common drivers and then requesting subsequent disks for esoteric stuff or just boot the mouse, keyboard, and ide drivers from the floppy and pull anything else off of CD.
I don't have any experience with the cellular side of the Zaurus, but I am writihg this wireless from my Zaurus. The wireless connection is great and very easy to confiqure. I'm using theLinksys WAP and cf card. As far as the PDA features, the Zaurus has everything you would expect. I've also installed VNC on it as well as an FTP client and even Konqueror. The only complaint I have so far is that the sync setup for my machine was irritating. It worked first time on my wife's (similarly configured) machine. Eventually got it working though. Then I beamed all of the data from my Palm III and away I went.
Until there's a single standard for packet writing to CD-Rs (not RWs) and almost all machines have a CD writer one (yes, I'm aware that most new machines come with one, but many older machines do not) AND they are easy enough for grandma to use, floppys will remain a part of our computing existence. I recently purchased a box of 25 blank floppys, the first time in years that I've bought them, mostly for use as emergency repair disks for a new Win 2K network installation (Red Hat on the server, of course:) I love CD-Rs - not so much CD-RWs - but floppys still have a place.
First off and way off topic... What health care system would you prefer we model the US's on? Canada? The UK? Why is it, do you think, that when people need serious health care, they tend to make their way to the good ol' US of A? There IS NO HEALTH CARE CRISES IN THE US!!!! We have the best health care in the world. And, yes, this is coming from someone with no health insurance (which is incredibly rare, btw).
Now, on to the topic at hand... There are some accuracies and some inaccuracies in your analysis. First, your comparison to the library system is valid. One user at a time, etc... etc... However, that is not the question. The question is whether or not copying and distributing music with no personal gain is legal. According to the laws currently on the books, it is perfectly legal to copy a record/cd/tape and give it to others for free (in a non-commercial manner). This has precedent set in the early days of the compact cassette. It's called fair use. I don't understand how the quality or, for that matter, the quantity renders this unlawful.
The problem with putting an artist out there to influence people is that the artists see so little of the money from CD sales that they're not likely to intervene on the part of the RIAA.
Re:Spielberg annoys to the end
on
Minority Report
·
· Score: 1
Regarding the score, MAN was it bad. It was intrusive and manipulative. I had less of a problem with the happy/sappy portions, though, than the "You're supposed to be on the edge of your seat, dammit!!!!!" portions.
I live in Charleston, SC and they're holding the guy in the local Navy Brig. I can't stress how disappointed I am in the government and my community. The government for having the audacity to hold a citizen that will "probably never go to trial" (George W. Bush) and never be charged. My community for bitching about having to have a "terrorist" held in a local prison. Sometimes I hold my head in shame.
I'll also bet that most "Libertarians" don't actually pass the test for a Libertarian. I consider myself a Libertarian, but don't come close to subscribing to all of the tenets of the Libertarian party. Basically, I believe that people should be able to do what they want to do as long as it doesn't keep others from doing the same. That necessitates a small, unintrusive government. Now, that being said, I generally vote Republican. Why? First, because the Libs haven't ahd a hope of getting someone elected in my voting lifetime. I do vote for them for smaller offices where they may have a chance, but they never seem to get there. The Republican agenda seems to be one of keeping as much of the Government's hands out of the people's money as possible. This is a good thing. I make the money, I should decide where it goes. They also want to dictate moral behaviour. This is bad as that's really not the job of government outside of upholding reasonable laws put in place to protect us from each other (not ourselves). The Dems on the other hand, seem to want to opposite. They want us to send all of the money we make to Washington so that they can decide where it needs to go and what it needs to be spent on. They also don't seem to care much what goes on in my bedroom or what substances I put in my body. The problem, and the reason I tend to vote Republican, is that the bad side of the Democrat agenda is much easier to pass through legislation. People tend to fall for the guilt trip put on being successful before they fall for the Republican chicken little scams used to take away personal liberties. So, it is more difficult for the Republicans to pass their "bad" legislation, and I like the other aspects of their ideas, so that's the way I usually vote. But I still consider myself a Libertarian.
Sharp's Linux-based handheld already does something similar. While you are writing (in normal handwriting, not Grafiti), a selection of possible words appears directly above the entry area. If the word appears there, you simply click on it and move on to the next word. Very cool. Very slick.
>BZZZZT! You have just violated the EULA for Windows 2000. Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass GO!, do not collect $200.
According to the EULA that M$ includes with all of its OSes, you can't just take the copy of Windows that came with one machine and transfer it to another machine. You have to buy ANOTHER copy of Windows for the new machine. And, yes, that means in your situation, you'd have a useless copy of Win2K sitting around collecting dust.
You're right that RAID is not a backup. But for the wrong reason. RAID doesn't protect against deleted files. If some numbnuts deletes a file today and realizes it two days hence, you're screwed. RAID is for protecting the data that exists on the drives currently. Backup is for protection against data loss long-term.
I used to work at a rather large software development company as an IT guy. My primary responsibility was backups and restores (backups/restores of internal data as well as restores of clents' corrupt databases for examination). When the company started out, obviously, it was rather small, having only a dozen or so employees. The backup system put into place then was geared toward a small office. Each machine was backed up so all data was safe.
The problem with this is that the executives got used to the idea of vastly decentralized backup so that even when the number of machines in the organization had grown to over a thousand, they were dead set on retaining the decentralized backup schema. All local hard drives were still backed up on a weekly basis. Needless to say, this was a logistical nightmare. Users had to rember waht day their backup was and to leave their machine(s) on that day when they left from work. Often this did not happen and I had to track down the user and reschedule their backup.
To further complicate the matter, we had several servers performing the job of backing up all these machines to single DLT drives. Another downside - DLT tapes are HUGE. Storing old tapes for archival purposes in the fireproof safe was becomming less possible and the amount of room the tapes for the current cycle took up was approaching unmanageable.
I approached management with a proposal to centralize the backup system, but the best they would concede was leaving all machines on all the time so that the problem of "backup day" was eliminated.
Get a server and throw Linux on it. configure Samba and put a LOT of hard drive space in it. Map a drive on all of your users' machines to a location on the server that will server as a repository for important data. Drive into their heads that anything NOT saved to that "drive" will NOT be backed up. Put it into company policy to protect yourself when Joe User forgets to put the financials for the company on the server and they get deleted. Back up the SERVER! Forget about the workstations. Develop a drive image of a standard mcahine's hard drive and keep it up to date. That way when Windows crashes, you can just reimage the drive in the machine and the user is off and running again pretty quickly.
As a backup schedule, I reccommend doing a full backup every weekday if possible, and a differential Mon-Thur if not. Full backups on Fridays no matter what. Store EVERY Friday's tape safely in a fireproof safe until the end of the month and then move the end of the month backup tape off site to a secure location. Then, you buy one brand new tape per month and cycle the previous month's Friday tapes back in. Repeat.
Whatever you do, DON'T GET YOUR USERS USED TO HAVING THEIR LOCAL HDs BACKED UP. It can only turn out badly.:)
Nope. We drop the last THREE words. Then your problem swallowing is solved.:) Science is merely man coming to understand how the universe came to be. It wasn't "created" as that implies a creator. It merely came to be.
Yes, but one must also take into account the voice of the author. It was not God himself that wrote the words in the Bible, but (if you believe the whole God thing) a scribe. Surely the scribe would have meant a day as in a 24 hour day as that would be his experience with the term. The "A day to God is as a thousand years" thing doesn't work in the context.
Clearly a bit is a bit is a bit. There are obviously local telephone users that use far more bandwidth than others. Yet, local telephone service is a flat rate. Everyone pays the same (residential). If I don't use the phone at all I pay the same as a 15 year old girl who is yaskking to God knows who all day and night during the summer off from school. The fact that my Internet connection is supplied by my local telco (BellSouth DSL) simply reinforces this impression. Surely they considered that some people would use a lot more than other people when they got into this business. I don't see aproblem with keeping the flat rate pricing scheme. And, apparently neither do they, as they seem to be doing okay sitting back and watching TW and Comcast raise their rates and subsequently sendign them new customers.
Actually, at least where I live, this doesn't hold true. Cable has been going up and up (Comcast) while their service has been getting worse and worse. At the same time, DSL (Bellsouth, which I have), has been flat (only a $5 rate hike in two years) and service constant and consistent. I get 1.5 Mb/sec down and 256Kb/sec up for $45 a month. My friends that have cable (because DSL isn't available on the other side of town) get similar down speeds and 128K up for $55/month. When all this started, cable was actually cheaper than DSL. Not so anymore. Comcast got themselves into a real bind when they partnered with @Home. I think all of the stuff we're seeing coming out of them now is the realization that that they don't have a clue about data users. This was a fundamental flaw of the @Home partnership. No single branch of the partnership knew anything about the others' business. I knew this kind of crap was going to happen when Comcast announced they were establishing their own infrastructure. They've overwhelmed themselves. They're screwed (both by the @Home deal falling through and by ramping up a data network infrastructure that they weren't expecting) and now they have no option but to take it out on the customers to try to please the stockholders. They were a crappy cable service and now they're a crappy Internet service. Bellsouth seems to be handling everything (except expansion, they are slow to expand to new areas) with aplomb.
Went to the midnight show on opening day. Stood in line for an hour and a half outside the theatre even though we had tickets already. Then, had to wait an hour INSIDE the theatre as they got everyone seated in the three sold out auditoriums in a sane and orderly fashion. The natives grew restless as the start time for the movie went by. A theatre employee came in and said the movie was going to start 10 minutes late because they were still seating people. All in all it was definitely worth the wait, though.
Last month's issue of MaximumPC had a head-to-head comparison of SCSI and IDE technology. Basically, while SCSI still has some advantages (multiple command handling, faster platter rotational speeds first, etc...) IDE is better for the desktop machine. And, as difficult as it is for me to admit (I'm an old school SCSI guy from the Amiga days) I'd have to agree. IDE drives are now pretty smokin' fast. They're cheap and unless you're last name is Rockefeller you can get more storage than you'll really need (TM) for a handfull of bills. This may all be moot not too far in the future anyway as I think that Firewire will eventually replace SCSI and USB may eventually replace IDE. One can hope, at least.:)
Actually, the Dreamcast never did that well in Japan either. At any rate, it should not be outselling the X-Box in ANY market. It's dead. I have one, it's great, but it's dead. Also, the PS monikor has a pretty well entrenched brand name here in the states too. The really big issue as far as the X-Box in Asia is concerned is the lack of Asian-friendly games. This may change over time with more market share, but not if Microsoft can't penetrate the market over there any better than they have managed so far.
Europe is another story. Europe will most likely go to the least expensive console assuming that it is reasonably well powered. Consider that the Amiga did outstandingly well in Europe. It was a well priced, powerful machine (for the time) with some really kick-ass games. I think that Europe may embrace the PS2 after E3 (and the rumored PS2 price reduction). That really will be all it will take to dash Microsoft's hopes for X-Box there.
That leaves the US. No console can last without the US market. That much has been pretty much bourne out over time. The interesting question that has yet to be addressed is, "Can a console survive with ONLY the US market?" I think we're about to find out. X-Box will probably hang on here. Once the new Mario title and Zelda title come out for the GC, GC may actually take over X-Box in sales, but it may or may not be a permanent situation. As long as the really cool games are coming out cross platform and the PS2 retains its MGS2s and FFs, X-Box has a long hard fight ahead of it. It will probably hang on, but I don't know if MS can ever make money with it. They may just let it continue out of pride.
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In design school, my primary professor was a type junky. She taught us a great deal of things about type design and usage. One of the more enlightening things we learned was that typefaces are not copyrightable. Only the names of the typefaces. Given this fact, all someone needs to do is to import a bunch of your favorite fonts into something like Fontographer and export them back out with different names. Bundle the resulting "new" fonts into an RPM or somesuch and voila!
Windows requires 4 boot floppies because it loads every driver known to man prior to the actual install. I've never understood this. They could probably drop it down to one or two by loading up the most common drivers and then requesting subsequent disks for esoteric stuff or just boot the mouse, keyboard, and ide drivers from the floppy and pull anything else off of CD.
You still have to deal with DHCP or static addresses on a fresh Windows install. This is a non-issue.
I don't have any experience with the cellular side of the Zaurus, but I am writihg this wireless from my Zaurus. The wireless connection is great and very easy to confiqure. I'm using theLinksys WAP and cf card. As far as the PDA features, the Zaurus has everything you would expect. I've also installed VNC on it as well as an FTP client and even Konqueror. The only complaint I have so far is that the sync setup for my machine was irritating. It worked first time on my wife's (similarly configured) machine. Eventually got it working though. Then I beamed all of the data from my Palm III and away I went.
Doesn't THAT make it a Windows issue?!?!?!
-Sam
Until there's a single standard for packet writing to CD-Rs (not RWs) and almost all machines have a CD writer one (yes, I'm aware that most new machines come with one, but many older machines do not) AND they are easy enough for grandma to use, floppys will remain a part of our computing existence. I recently purchased a box of 25 blank floppys, the first time in years that I've bought them, mostly for use as emergency repair disks for a new Win 2K network installation (Red Hat on the server, of course :) I love CD-Rs - not so much CD-RWs - but floppys still have a place.
-Sam
First off and way off topic... What health care system would you prefer we model the US's on? Canada? The UK? Why is it, do you think, that when people need serious health care, they tend to make their way to the good ol' US of A? There IS NO HEALTH CARE CRISES IN THE US!!!! We have the best health care in the world. And, yes, this is coming from someone with no health insurance (which is incredibly rare, btw).
Now, on to the topic at hand... There are some accuracies and some inaccuracies in your analysis. First, your comparison to the library system is valid. One user at a time, etc... etc... However, that is not the question. The question is whether or not copying and distributing music with no personal gain is legal. According to the laws currently on the books, it is perfectly legal to copy a record/cd/tape and give it to others for free (in a non-commercial manner). This has precedent set in the early days of the compact cassette. It's called fair use. I don't understand how the quality or, for that matter, the quantity renders this unlawful.
The problem with putting an artist out there to influence people is that the artists see so little of the money from CD sales that they're not likely to intervene on the part of the RIAA.
Regarding the score, MAN was it bad. It was intrusive and manipulative. I had less of a problem with the happy/sappy portions, though, than the "You're supposed to be on the edge of your seat, dammit!!!!!" portions.
I live in Charleston, SC and they're holding the guy in the local Navy Brig. I can't stress how disappointed I am in the government and my community. The government for having the audacity to hold a citizen that will "probably never go to trial" (George W. Bush) and never be charged. My community for bitching about having to have a "terrorist" held in a local prison. Sometimes I hold my head in shame.
-Sam
I'll also bet that most "Libertarians" don't actually pass the test for a Libertarian. I consider myself a Libertarian, but don't come close to subscribing to all of the tenets of the Libertarian party. Basically, I believe that people should be able to do what they want to do as long as it doesn't keep others from doing the same. That necessitates a small, unintrusive government. Now, that being said, I generally vote Republican. Why? First, because the Libs haven't ahd a hope of getting someone elected in my voting lifetime. I do vote for them for smaller offices where they may have a chance, but they never seem to get there. The Republican agenda seems to be one of keeping as much of the Government's hands out of the people's money as possible. This is a good thing. I make the money, I should decide where it goes. They also want to dictate moral behaviour. This is bad as that's really not the job of government outside of upholding reasonable laws put in place to protect us from each other (not ourselves). The Dems on the other hand, seem to want to opposite. They want us to send all of the money we make to Washington so that they can decide where it needs to go and what it needs to be spent on. They also don't seem to care much what goes on in my bedroom or what substances I put in my body. The problem, and the reason I tend to vote Republican, is that the bad side of the Democrat agenda is much easier to pass through legislation. People tend to fall for the guilt trip put on being successful before they fall for the Republican chicken little scams used to take away personal liberties. So, it is more difficult for the Republicans to pass their "bad" legislation, and I like the other aspects of their ideas, so that's the way I usually vote. But I still consider myself a Libertarian.
-Sam
Sharp's Linux-based handheld already does something similar. While you are writing (in normal handwriting, not Grafiti), a selection of possible words appears directly above the entry area. If the word appears there, you simply click on it and move on to the next word. Very cool. Very slick.
-Sam
http://www.recipesource.com/
The Robotic Ayn Rand: the Randroid. The disclaimers are hysterical.
Home built system (with latest pricing from Pricewatch):
Motherboard - $50
AthlonXP 2000+ - $140
ATX Case + 300W PS - $25
2 case fans - $5
120GB EIDE HD - $140
40x12x48 CDRW - $130
1.44 MB FD - $10
Keyboard - $5
Wheel mouse - $5
10/100 NIC - $10
56K modem - $10
GForce4 mx 440 - $75
256MB RAM - $30
SB Live! compat. Sound Card - $15
Total - $650 delivered
Dell:
Dimension 4500:
Pentium 4 2.0GHz
256MB RAM
120 GB EIDE HD
1.44 MB FD
Keyboard/Mouse
WinXP Home edition
GForce 4 MX (not specified which mx it is)
40x10x40 CDRW
SB Live! Sound Card
10/100 NIC
56K Modem
Total (without shipping): $1328.00
How exactly is that cheaper than building again?!?!?
-Sam
>BZZZZT! You have just violated the EULA for Windows 2000. Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass GO!, do not collect $200.
According to the EULA that M$ includes with all of its OSes, you can't just take the copy of Windows that came with one machine and transfer it to another machine. You have to buy ANOTHER copy of Windows for the new machine. And, yes, that means in your situation, you'd have a useless copy of Win2K sitting around collecting dust.
-Sam
You're right that RAID is not a backup. But for the wrong reason. RAID doesn't protect against deleted files. If some numbnuts deletes a file today and realizes it two days hence, you're screwed. RAID is for protecting the data that exists on the drives currently. Backup is for protection against data loss long-term.
-Sam
I used to work at a rather large software development company as an IT guy. My primary responsibility was backups and restores (backups/restores of internal data as well as restores of clents' corrupt databases for examination). When the company started out, obviously, it was rather small, having only a dozen or so employees. The backup system put into place then was geared toward a small office. Each machine was backed up so all data was safe.
:)
The problem with this is that the executives got used to the idea of vastly decentralized backup so that even when the number of machines in the organization had grown to over a thousand, they were dead set on retaining the decentralized backup schema. All local hard drives were still backed up on a weekly basis. Needless to say, this was a logistical nightmare. Users had to rember waht day their backup was and to leave their machine(s) on that day when they left from work. Often this did not happen and I had to track down the user and reschedule their backup.
To further complicate the matter, we had several servers performing the job of backing up all these machines to single DLT drives. Another downside - DLT tapes are HUGE. Storing old tapes for archival purposes in the fireproof safe was becomming less possible and the amount of room the tapes for the current cycle took up was approaching unmanageable.
I approached management with a proposal to centralize the backup system, but the best they would concede was leaving all machines on all the time so that the problem of "backup day" was eliminated.
Get a server and throw Linux on it. configure Samba and put a LOT of hard drive space in it. Map a drive on all of your users' machines to a location on the server that will server as a repository for important data. Drive into their heads that anything NOT saved to that "drive" will NOT be backed up. Put it into company policy to protect yourself when Joe User forgets to put the financials for the company on the server and they get deleted. Back up the SERVER! Forget about the workstations. Develop a drive image of a standard mcahine's hard drive and keep it up to date. That way when Windows crashes, you can just reimage the drive in the machine and the user is off and running again pretty quickly.
As a backup schedule, I reccommend doing a full backup every weekday if possible, and a differential Mon-Thur if not. Full backups on Fridays no matter what. Store EVERY Friday's tape safely in a fireproof safe until the end of the month and then move the end of the month backup tape off site to a secure location. Then, you buy one brand new tape per month and cycle the previous month's Friday tapes back in. Repeat.
Whatever you do, DON'T GET YOUR USERS USED TO HAVING THEIR LOCAL HDs BACKED UP. It can only turn out badly.
-Sam
Nope. We drop the last THREE words. Then your problem swallowing is solved. :) Science is merely man coming to understand how the universe came to be. It wasn't "created" as that implies a creator. It merely came to be.
Yes, but one must also take into account the voice of the author. It was not God himself that wrote the words in the Bible, but (if you believe the whole God thing) a scribe. Surely the scribe would have meant a day as in a 24 hour day as that would be his experience with the term. The "A day to God is as a thousand years" thing doesn't work in the context.
-Sam
-Sam
-Sam
Went to the midnight show on opening day. Stood in line for an hour and a half outside the theatre even though we had tickets already. Then, had to wait an hour INSIDE the theatre as they got everyone seated in the three sold out auditoriums in a sane and orderly fashion. The natives grew restless as the start time for the movie went by. A theatre employee came in and said the movie was going to start 10 minutes late because they were still seating people. All in all it was definitely worth the wait, though.
-Sam
Sam
Actually, the Dreamcast never did that well in Japan either. At any rate, it should not be outselling the X-Box in ANY market. It's dead. I have one, it's great, but it's dead. Also, the PS monikor has a pretty well entrenched brand name here in the states too. The really big issue as far as the X-Box in Asia is concerned is the lack of Asian-friendly games. This may change over time with more market share, but not if Microsoft can't penetrate the market over there any better than they have managed so far.
Europe is another story. Europe will most likely go to the least expensive console assuming that it is reasonably well powered. Consider that the Amiga did outstandingly well in Europe. It was a well priced, powerful machine (for the time) with some really kick-ass games. I think that Europe may embrace the PS2 after E3 (and the rumored PS2 price reduction). That really will be all it will take to dash Microsoft's hopes for X-Box there.
That leaves the US. No console can last without the US market. That much has been pretty much bourne out over time. The interesting question that has yet to be addressed is, "Can a console survive with ONLY the US market?" I think we're about to find out. X-Box will probably hang on here. Once the new Mario title and Zelda title come out for the GC, GC may actually take over X-Box in sales, but it may or may not be a permanent situation. As long as the really cool games are coming out cross platform and the PS2 retains its MGS2s and FFs, X-Box has a long hard fight ahead of it. It will probably hang on, but I don't know if MS can ever make money with it. They may just let it continue out of pride.
At any rate, this is getting interesting.
-Sam