I remember an article some time ago about Microsoft incorporating Gnu tools into windows. Since Windows7 is being rewritten from scratch and without any backwards compatibility (I am sure for the few "but I LIKE Vista" morons will be excited about), I believe it may already be in the works.
Ignoring the Microsoft PR BS for a moment, internal documents leaked from Microsoft (See Halloween Documents on wikipedia) say that Microsoft has been trying to play catchup with Linux since 1997!!! DirectX10, Great! DirectX10 > OpenGL, maybe... Compromising the functionality, security, privacy, and dignity of your entire system to realize those benefits, really just to play a few new games that suck so much they don't even ge the attention of the Wine Devs? Hellz to the Naw!!
Want to know why your crappy airport/wintel card that sucks under Windows doesn't work under Linux? Because real techs buy Linksys/Cisco products.
Why would anyone waste their time developing a driver for a products that anyone with half a brain or experience would tell you not to buy in the first place? 'Linux compatible' hardware works better under Windows too. A good lesson I learned before I made the switch.
Oh yeah, and as far as Microsoft supporting Wine (directly), ask Novell about Microsofts great third party software development support for their API.
Well, they say they aren't going to share the RESULTS, but they explain exactly what they are doing. Localization data for IP addresses is public. running a trace on a swarm isn't exactly difficult. Latency has been used for a very long time by "advanced" (using that term loosely) for picking web mirrors (Like Ubuntu's 'Software Sources' tool to 'Choose Best Server').
Considering the best think their crackerjack legal team could come up with in allegations of treason was a Nuremberg Defense, I think the Open Source Community can figure out how to "intelligently" reduce hops using that type of data to pick peers / seeds, if it was going to improve overall (p2p) network performance.
Windows is worst in the WAY it is created, not WHAT is created. (Of course, discounting Vista, but so does everyone else). Something to consider. In the extremely hypothetical circumstances that EU killed M$, and in the delightful business model of "1. make a website 2. ??? 3. PROFIT!", M$W suddenly got released under Creative Commons, Gnu/Linux would have a ton to benefit (So would M$, but they would never be bright enough to realize it).
Windows sucks in the way people are restricted from using it, not in what it enables users to do. (Not to confuse 'doing' with 'doing right', eg. network printing)
This really seems to be the common theory across the web (and theory like theory of gravity). Sony had a great format that was higher quality, and more compact... but they wanted to be big brother. "We got the big movie format, so we're going to 'fix' the morality of the world". Sony with BetaMax, and originally with Blu-Ray, they said "no porn on OUR format"... but they didn't really consider that despite how much people may talk about loving their favorite big screen movie, there is a market for porn flicks 10x the size of "normal" films. So when your format is out sold 10/1 by people that are a little more quiet about their movie buying experiences... well the rest is history. Oddly enough this time, the big players in porn knew Blu-Ray was better, and they wern't going to settle for less (I think this was on slashdot last year). Likely money had something to do with it again, as Sony quietly gave in to the Adult Industries request.
As far as disruptive DRM and rootkits, as much as people complain, this has virtually no influence on people's buying habbits. Just look at the number of people that use Windows.
Ubuntu seems to have been great at attracting non-computer people to linux. All but 1 mac in my classroom (of 9 computers) is running ubuntu, and students love it. Ubuntu isn't even an open source project, but a repository and a list of preffered applications that are meant to work together. Beyond that, the only thing that makes it different from other distros is Shuttleworth's $30 million dollar backing in the case that a necessary component doesn't get made (so far none of which has been spent) and the advertising / publicity. It is like what Amazon has said about its own patent trolling, it is sick but just the way our crappy system works. Cannonical keeps linux in the news, no matter how irrelevant the news is which is necessary to get people to the community. Getting people to develop with Ubuntu in mind is really just developing with X/glibc/gtk/gnome/kernel2.6/whatever in mind versus a million other options that usually work every other distro. Remember, vendors (and other sheeple) like one one bad choice over many good choices most days because it is simple. M$ has proved this over and over again. Ubuntu is trying to set a standard for one good choice that will be portable to other distros. Also, I am certain Shuttlesworth would be happier to see 5 new fedora developers than 1 new ubuntu developer / user / whatever to promote linux, FSF, FreeCulture movement. I really think it is stupid anyone can actually argue over the distribution of 8/10th%.
I am equally delighted any time I see someone open their eyes to GNU/Linux for ANY reason, or ANY distribution. I think the old community is going to need to worry more about the influx of noobs to the community as market share rises, and try to remember why we are all here in the first place.
We should wait, you fool. Why? Because there are so many more serious ways we are being fucked over right now that we aren't effectively handling.
Uhh... yes! There are much bigger dangers that are effecting us RIGHT NOW. I think we read about them all the time on slashdot. How about Hollywood buying us a new constitution, or that the patriot act has managed to conpletly "inadvertantly" circumvented all sense of checks and balances in the name of bureaucratic latency. "If we have checks and balances, how can we possibly keep all the terrorist from blowing us up".
so yeah,"there are... many more serious ways we are being fucked over right now that we aren't effectively handling."
It is like gun control. No guns = good, only government and bad guys get guns = bad. Everyone gets guns while we focus on gun education and everyone is a little more humble? Best situation for reality. No one should get all the guns, ESPECIALLY the government.
If we take the Geiger counters from the crack pots, they will go back to wearing foil hats and fishing off of buildings with tin cans and pin wheels to prove terrorist are using Ben & Jerry's as a front to sell mind altering drugs to pigeons as evidence of global warming. And see, that just doesn't make any sense.
Just give them their Geiger counters, preserve their liberty, and we can go back to ignoring them as usual.
Maybe it is what I do and who I hand out with, or where I live that makes a difference, but I don't know any people that are programmers that don't use linux, and further, don't participate in some way on an FOSS project. At the same time (unfortunately) I still know too many people that don't even know if they are using a MacOS or Windows. Personally, I'd like to see user agent stats from various sites for unique hits, and counting each person that uses multiple OS's in their own catagory. Further, I am sure Microsoft really don't like to talk about the comparison of Windows versus Linux embedded devices, Linux vs Windows on mission critical systems (Remember the ATC disaster because someone forgot to reboot windows with a known memory leak that took it offline?), or maybe the number of Apache web servers versus Windows whatever? Where did those numbers go after... 1997?
Why are people negotiating with the recording industry? The music industry will always be strong as long as people value culture. How that industry exists will always change the way it looks. For a brief period of time, a recording industry was born: A group of non talents that could leech money from talented people by creating distribution methods prohibitively expensive to the average band. As these magicians took all the band, they made you famous by eventually putting you and your art on tv that made them even more money. As it had been mentioned above, the recording industry is taking away the last pieces of profit on music by birthing their own talent and using technology to give the appearance of talent. Now that they have "taped into the source", they don't even need real talent to sell out for them to make big money because they already owned the music before it was created. Further, the junk they spout out can easily become "famous" because they write the news on "What's Hot!".
The recording industry tried and has nearly killed the music industry, an industry that used to be about free speech, expression, enjoying life, and sharing sorrow. The internet is the first chance at getting that integrity back. The internet can and needs to kill the recording industry to allow the music industry to come back. Music industry will be strong when artists can be completely independent and are no longer tempted to buy into the pyramid scheme that has for so long been damaging to our culture. The days of packaging information into virtual units and selling them for money is ending.
ALL music should be free for distribution across the internet and it would be in bands best interest to make it happen. Popularity would rise from real talent, and not what the recording industry tells us is hot. The only fair restrictions should be to protect consumers as trade mark law intended. The only "DRM" that should exist would be one that allows a consumer to authenticate music, the same way RSA is used to authenticate transmissions. Watermark digital content to artists are certain to be recognized for their own work, and not renamed by some DJ or cover band. The demand for live concerts would swarm, just as it has in Brazil where "piracy" has birthed a previously non-existent music industry that is only getting stronger. Music will return to the way it was meant to be with live concerts, and t-shirts. CD's would be sold as a luxury item for $3-5 where all the money goes to the musicians, and you have shown your appreciation for the band. Piracy of these albums and their cover art would make no sense when the music is already freely available.
Free Culture will kill the economy and destroy profits for: No talent hacks, shady middlemen, distribution cartels, lip syncers, talent scouts, concert promoters, music 'stores', or any other person that has made a living exploiting musicians. Oh how will our economy ever survive? Is our economy so dependent on crooks that if we took them out it would collapse? How sick would that be if it were the truth? and if true, I think it is time for that change to take place. Oh god, it would be like... talented artists would be making money from their art... and fans would rejoice in music!
And while it is still only hope, I look forward to seeing the RIAA dying the horrible flaming irritable bowel syndrome death they deserve on March 25 when EMI will do what it should have done years ago.
I guess in the MPAA's attempt to bribe the government to outlaw social and cultural evolution to help preserve profits just got a bit more expensive. For their sake, I hope congress is cheaper and more gullible than their writers, but for our sake... YIPPIEEEE!!!
Whose brilliant idea was it to screw the customers AND the people that help them do it all at the same time? Must be part of that Hollywood Magic I keep hearing about.
My thoughts:
59.99 Everex TC2502
19.99 Echo Star 450-Watt 20+4-pin ATX Power Supply
13.99 PQI 1GB USB Flash Drive i221
4.99 Airlink ASOHORL 10/100Mbps PCI Network Card
19.99DDR2 512MB PC6400 KINGSTON $118.95 Total
Use another computer to load up your Live Ubuntu Minimal Server + SSH & DHCP. Pop it into the top of your network and have the most bad ass router ever devised (for under $120). Add in a Firewall, DNS, PXE itself? hard drive = apt-mirror / media center / NSF / proxy / whatever, but why for such a special little board. And to all those people that keep giving it bad reviews cause it doesn't play World of Warcraft, please stop a moment, stand up, and punch yourself in the nuts.
Of all the changes going on, rather than creating new laws or changing things that have been the way they were for a very long time, how about just repealing some very recent laws that were, in hind sight, horrible mistakes. Until 1997, copyright violations, for the most part, only occurred where there was measurable loss on the part of the copyright holder greatly reinforced by the proportional gain by said thief. The No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 basically changed the second part such that it was much easier to go after 'thieves' that were not profiting monetarily from their actions. This is what has screwed up the whole system, and what I think most people are arguing about.
So why don't we admit our mistake, repeal the stupid very recent law that has failed society and rethink how that act should have been written to fairly protect artists, as well as the people.
"The only company that should even consider buying Adobe is MS - they are the ones with the track record of buying crap and making it better (note: I didn't say "good" or "perfect", as they don't always manage the first, and the last is impossible)."
So by "better" you mean more profitable by ruining the product (if not just the support, interoperability, customer service, updates, bug fixes, cross platform, etc...) so that people will be forced to use their other proprietary crap products. Cause crappy products are cheap to develop, and they sell really well when they are the "best thing on the market" (because there is no more competition).
I think all Apple is saying is they don't want poor people using their OS because it would make them look bad. I mean really, the iPhone may be up to $5000 a month, but how cool would you be if you saw poor people using those too? I think they are just looking out for out best interests.
Now all we got to do is repeal all those silly "consumer protection" laws. Stoopid democracy and its "laws".
CMYK color spaces in TheGimp
on
GIMP 2.4 Released
·
· Score: 3, Informative
there is a CYMK plugin for the gimp called separate+ @
it is, as many solo projects, has always been in beta, but it worked well for me (though I am not really a graphic artist).
And as screwed up as the whole patent system is, you still can't patent something like CYMK because it is something fundamental to nature. What would be patentable would be the process. Two things can have the same end result as long as they don't use the same method, unless of course that method is fundamental to nature.
So yeah and stuff. Enjoy.
What I really want to see in TheGimp is a Python script recording tool! Since the toolkit itself is the fundamental part of the program with a graphical front-end, shouldn't a macro recorder be insanely simple to implement?
Well, what they are legally allowed to modify would be their internal network used by employees, not the regulated part of the internet that Comcast got the exclusive right by the government to build. In terms of regulations, it isn't their internet, even though they build it and own it.
I am quite certain this falls into the realm of net neutrality. Its like dumping toxic waste on an easement.
Further, you can easily extract text as necessary from a PDF unless you explicitly restrict text selection / copying in the export settings. It takes the same amount of time to import PDF to Word as it does to export from ODF to.doc, except that, as mentioned above, How often are people outside your company editing your files? This could hypothetically be a vulnerability. PDF is much more of a (professional) standard than doc. People use ODF because it is good. People use PDF and ODF by choice because they are great formats. People use.doc either because they are lazy, or don't know any better. It is the same reason IE is "most used" / #1 browser.
Well, mind reading is hardly original, as an idea, as as far as patents go (the way they are supposed to) is they can only patent a particular method. They can't patent an algorithm / formula naturally occurring in nature or a field of science to be broad. You also can't patent accomplishing a task, just the way it is done so long as it isn't fundamental to nature.
I think the reason they patent it is otherwise it would go unread. *wimpers from redmond* Why hasn't *sniffle* Nature published our studies on brain probes yet?"
This reminds me of when Silicon breast implants were outlawed and lawyers made big money on settlements because a huge number of women with silicon implants got breast cancer. The reality is that women with breasts (directly related to the amount of mammary tissue) are at high risk of breast cancer. It is why unlike anything else women are encouraged to check themselves monthly. If I remember correctly, 1 in 3 women will develop some kind of mammary growth in their lifetime. That is a really scary number, particularly if you thought it was inly in your most recent cosmetic surgery.
But also keep in mind that these studies covered people who type for 7 hours a day for less. I doubt many of you old school nerds have done less than 7 hours of typing in a day in years.
I am curious how much keyboard warnings, wrist exercises and improvement in posture for hands, let alone the rest of the body, has possibly had an influence on the way we type, or if this had always been the case.
For the mentioned occupations in the article, I know many times more of those types that have carpel tunnel. Typing just doesn't require the type of strength necessary to damage carpels in that way, so it seems. This, of course, doesn't include all those people that insist on doing isometrics while playing CS or whatever. RELAX!
This was the case from Word 95 to Words 97 (I can hold a grudge). The compatibility pack came the result of a lawsuit. Also, correct me again if I am wrong, the compatibility pack for Word 2003 for Word 2007 Documents were not released right away (months?) I work at a High School and many of the computers still use Word 97. Though it is being phased out, there were a lot of problems this year when people came back from summer break with new computers at home.
Direct democracy is obviously a disaster for reasons beyond infrastructure and free access. A representative democracy makes a lot more sense, but an improved way for everybody to get their opinions in will be a step forward. I think this is a big more aggressively progressive than the recent New Zealand wiki project, but these are the first countries experimenting in a government that acknowledges the influence and power of the internet.
It will most certainly be a failure, but as Edison responded to a reporter about how he felt about his hundreds of failures in inventing a lightbulb, he said "I didn't have any failures, I just learned hundreds of ways NOT to make a lightbulb"
Whatever the outcome, it will be an important learning experience. I am sure the next few groups that try such a thing will fail as well for the same reason. There is just going to need to be a lot of documentation (media, history books, etc) on how NOT to do this before it is done right.
I figure it will work as well as online banking, except there won't be lots of little stupid banks and individually maintained certificates / encryption. This will be one large government organization keeping track of it all. The only issue is that there is only one target to be hacked, but if the source code was reviewed like a bill becomes a law for peer review, it could really work. The biggest problem is if, as stated above, some big money will *wink wink* "ensure it is done correctly", and "wins" an exclusive contract to develop the software.
So a boom of mac lovers came from Apple giving away lots of computers to schools, like cigarette companies giving away cigarettes during the war (all of them). Both became an addictive disaster. Microsoft made shady deals that would make the devil squirm to make stores and prebuilt computers Windows only.
There will never be a switch to Linux. There IS going to be a new generation of computer users. From OLPC to all the (for now) poorer schools and countries adopting/mandating Linux into public education, and other businesses unwilling to submit to the Microsoft tax (approaching 100 percent?) Average users / morons are going to use Linux because it is what they are used to, and the pay to switch will be a luxury once Microsoft actually has to be competitive (look as OSX or the history of Apple OS in general). 5-10 more years for Linux to reach middle class schools in the US, and other other countries, plus another 20 years for the generation born into that world to reach the work force.
Software of the future CAN'T continue to be developed the way it was/is done in the past/now... Unless everything ends up Macromedia/Java... And if that happens, just throw me in front of a freakin train.
Remember all those companies / people that didn't think computers were the thing? They didn't switch, they died.:)
What peeves me is how often I see people unnecessarily double clicking on hyperlinks, dialog boxes, error messages, start menu, close button, etc... Their only luck when it actually makes a difference is that so many people don't have the coordination to hold their mouse still when they click that their second click misses entirely. I havn't gotten a single person to pay attention to their actions, let alone "switch" their minds to be aware of what they are doing with their HIDs.
If you can't switch people to using single clicks on hyperlinks, how do you switch them to linux? They don't even care when it doesn't work.
Amazingly, Ubuntu has managed to address the *cough* "average" user.
Well, this is actually a major problem in the past. Old versions of word are not made forward compatible. Compare this to any open source office suite. Word isn't even compatible with itself! Worst, if even one of your friends emails you a newer word document, you are SOL and have to buy the new version just to read it. Even better, in the past (not past enough), if you got a trial of the new version, it converts all your documents to the new version. So if you don't buy the new version after it expires suddenly all the documents on your computer become useless.
And honestly, how many people really need anything beyond word 95?
I have a blazing fast gaming machine, and I still use AbiWord when I need more than nano offers.
It would be like if games automatically updated to each new version of DirectX as a requirement. No big deal, right?
And who is going to understand the privacy issue when their still trying to surf the interweb? Out sight, out of mind.
Slashdot Mirror
I remember an article some time ago about Microsoft incorporating Gnu tools into windows. Since Windows7 is being rewritten from scratch and without any backwards compatibility (I am sure for the few "but I LIKE Vista" morons will be excited about), I believe it may already be in the works.
Ignoring the Microsoft PR BS for a moment, internal documents leaked from Microsoft (See Halloween Documents on wikipedia) say that Microsoft has been trying to play catchup with Linux since 1997!!! DirectX10, Great! DirectX10 > OpenGL, maybe... Compromising the functionality, security, privacy, and dignity of your entire system to realize those benefits, really just to play a few new games that suck so much they don't even ge the attention of the Wine Devs? Hellz to the Naw!!
Want to know why your crappy airport/wintel card that sucks under Windows doesn't work under Linux? Because real techs buy Linksys/Cisco products.
Why would anyone waste their time developing a driver for a products that anyone with half a brain or experience would tell you not to buy in the first place? 'Linux compatible' hardware works better under Windows too. A good lesson I learned before I made the switch.
Oh yeah, and as far as Microsoft supporting Wine (directly), ask Novell about Microsofts great third party software development support for their API.
Well, they say they aren't going to share the RESULTS, but they explain exactly what they are doing. Localization data for IP addresses is public. running a trace on a swarm isn't exactly difficult. Latency has been used for a very long time by "advanced" (using that term loosely) for picking web mirrors (Like Ubuntu's 'Software Sources' tool to 'Choose Best Server').
Considering the best think their crackerjack legal team could come up with in allegations of treason was a Nuremberg Defense, I think the Open Source Community can figure out how to "intelligently" reduce hops using that type of data to pick peers / seeds, if it was going to improve overall (p2p) network performance.
P4P, hahahahahaha! Why not just call it P2P4PR.
Windows is worst in the WAY it is created, not WHAT is created. (Of course, discounting Vista, but so does everyone else). Something to consider. In the extremely hypothetical circumstances that EU killed M$, and in the delightful business model of "1. make a website 2. ??? 3. PROFIT!", M$W suddenly got released under Creative Commons, Gnu/Linux would have a ton to benefit (So would M$, but they would never be bright enough to realize it).
Windows sucks in the way people are restricted from using it, not in what it enables users to do. (Not to confuse 'doing' with 'doing right', eg. network printing)
This really seems to be the common theory across the web (and theory like theory of gravity). Sony had a great format that was higher quality, and more compact... but they wanted to be big brother. "We got the big movie format, so we're going to 'fix' the morality of the world". Sony with BetaMax, and originally with Blu-Ray, they said "no porn on OUR format"... but they didn't really consider that despite how much people may talk about loving their favorite big screen movie, there is a market for porn flicks 10x the size of "normal" films. So when your format is out sold 10/1 by people that are a little more quiet about their movie buying experiences... well the rest is history. Oddly enough this time, the big players in porn knew Blu-Ray was better, and they wern't going to settle for less (I think this was on slashdot last year). Likely money had something to do with it again, as Sony quietly gave in to the Adult Industries request.
As far as disruptive DRM and rootkits, as much as people complain, this has virtually no influence on people's buying habbits. Just look at the number of people that use Windows.
Ubuntu seems to have been great at attracting non-computer people to linux. All but 1 mac in my classroom (of 9 computers) is running ubuntu, and students love it. Ubuntu isn't even an open source project, but a repository and a list of preffered applications that are meant to work together. Beyond that, the only thing that makes it different from other distros is Shuttleworth's $30 million dollar backing in the case that a necessary component doesn't get made (so far none of which has been spent) and the advertising / publicity. It is like what Amazon has said about its own patent trolling, it is sick but just the way our crappy system works. Cannonical keeps linux in the news, no matter how irrelevant the news is which is necessary to get people to the community. Getting people to develop with Ubuntu in mind is really just developing with X/glibc/gtk/gnome/kernel2.6/whatever in mind versus a million other options that usually work every other distro. Remember, vendors (and other sheeple) like one one bad choice over many good choices most days because it is simple. M$ has proved this over and over again. Ubuntu is trying to set a standard for one good choice that will be portable to other distros. Also, I am certain Shuttlesworth would be happier to see 5 new fedora developers than 1 new ubuntu developer / user / whatever to promote linux, FSF, FreeCulture movement. I really think it is stupid anyone can actually argue over the distribution of 8/10th%.
I am equally delighted any time I see someone open their eyes to GNU/Linux for ANY reason, or ANY distribution. I think the old community is going to need to worry more about the influx of noobs to the community as market share rises, and try to remember why we are all here in the first place.
Uhh... yes! There are much bigger dangers that are effecting us RIGHT NOW. I think we read about them all the time on slashdot. How about Hollywood buying us a new constitution, or that the patriot act has managed to conpletly "inadvertantly" circumvented all sense of checks and balances in the name of bureaucratic latency. "If we have checks and balances, how can we possibly keep all the terrorist from blowing us up".
so yeah,"there are
It is like gun control. No guns = good, only government and bad guys get guns = bad. Everyone gets guns while we focus on gun education and everyone is a little more humble? Best situation for reality. No one should get all the guns, ESPECIALLY the government.
If we take the Geiger counters from the crack pots, they will go back to wearing foil hats and fishing off of buildings with tin cans and pin wheels to prove terrorist are using Ben & Jerry's as a front to sell mind altering drugs to pigeons as evidence of global warming. And see, that just doesn't make any sense.
Just give them their Geiger counters, preserve their liberty, and we can go back to ignoring them as usual.
Maybe it is what I do and who I hand out with, or where I live that makes a difference, but I don't know any people that are programmers that don't use linux, and further, don't participate in some way on an FOSS project. At the same time (unfortunately) I still know too many people that don't even know if they are using a MacOS or Windows. Personally, I'd like to see user agent stats from various sites for unique hits, and counting each person that uses multiple OS's in their own catagory. Further, I am sure Microsoft really don't like to talk about the comparison of Windows versus Linux embedded devices, Linux vs Windows on mission critical systems (Remember the ATC disaster because someone forgot to reboot windows with a known memory leak that took it offline?), or maybe the number of Apache web servers versus Windows whatever? Where did those numbers go after ... 1997?
Why are people negotiating with the recording industry? The music industry will always be strong as long as people value culture. How that industry exists will always change the way it looks. For a brief period of time, a recording industry was born: A group of non talents that could leech money from talented people by creating distribution methods prohibitively expensive to the average band. As these magicians took all the band, they made you famous by eventually putting you and your art on tv that made them even more money. As it had been mentioned above, the recording industry is taking away the last pieces of profit on music by birthing their own talent and using technology to give the appearance of talent. Now that they have "taped into the source", they don't even need real talent to sell out for them to make big money because they already owned the music before it was created. Further, the junk they spout out can easily become "famous" because they write the news on "What's Hot!".
The recording industry tried and has nearly killed the music industry, an industry that used to be about free speech, expression, enjoying life, and sharing sorrow. The internet is the first chance at getting that integrity back. The internet can and needs to kill the recording industry to allow the music industry to come back. Music industry will be strong when artists can be completely independent and are no longer tempted to buy into the pyramid scheme that has for so long been damaging to our culture. The days of packaging information into virtual units and selling them for money is ending.
ALL music should be free for distribution across the internet and it would be in bands best interest to make it happen. Popularity would rise from real talent, and not what the recording industry tells us is hot. The only fair restrictions should be to protect consumers as trade mark law intended. The only "DRM" that should exist would be one that allows a consumer to authenticate music, the same way RSA is used to authenticate transmissions. Watermark digital content to artists are certain to be recognized for their own work, and not renamed by some DJ or cover band. The demand for live concerts would swarm, just as it has in Brazil where "piracy" has birthed a previously non-existent music industry that is only getting stronger. Music will return to the way it was meant to be with live concerts, and t-shirts. CD's would be sold as a luxury item for $3-5 where all the money goes to the musicians, and you have shown your appreciation for the band. Piracy of these albums and their cover art would make no sense when the music is already freely available.
Free Culture will kill the economy and destroy profits for: No talent hacks, shady middlemen, distribution cartels, lip syncers, talent scouts, concert promoters, music 'stores', or any other person that has made a living exploiting musicians. Oh how will our economy ever survive? Is our economy so dependent on crooks that if we took them out it would collapse? How sick would that be if it were the truth? and if true, I think it is time for that change to take place. Oh god, it would be like... talented artists would be making money from their art... and fans would rejoice in music!
And while it is still only hope, I look forward to seeing the RIAA dying the horrible flaming irritable bowel syndrome death they deserve on March 25 when EMI will do what it should have done years ago.
I guess in the MPAA's attempt to bribe the government to outlaw social and cultural evolution to help preserve profits just got a bit more expensive. For their sake, I hope congress is cheaper and more gullible than their writers, but for our sake... YIPPIEEEE!!!
Whose brilliant idea was it to screw the customers AND the people that help them do it all at the same time? Must be part of that Hollywood Magic I keep hearing about.
Viva La Free Culture
As far as the whole "evolution is a theory" argument, my general response is "so is gravity" :)
My thoughts:
59.99 Everex TC2502
19.99 Echo Star 450-Watt 20+4-pin ATX Power Supply
13.99 PQI 1GB USB Flash Drive i221
4.99 Airlink ASOHORL 10/100Mbps PCI Network Card
19.99DDR2 512MB PC6400 KINGSTON
$118.95 Total
Use another computer to load up your Live Ubuntu Minimal Server + SSH & DHCP. Pop it into the top of your network and have the most bad ass router ever devised (for under $120). Add in a Firewall, DNS, PXE itself? hard drive = apt-mirror / media center / NSF / proxy / whatever, but why for such a special little board. And to all those people that keep giving it bad reviews cause it doesn't play World of Warcraft, please stop a moment, stand up, and punch yourself in the nuts.
Of all the changes going on, rather than creating new laws or changing things that have been the way they were for a very long time, how about just repealing some very recent laws that were, in hind sight, horrible mistakes. Until 1997, copyright violations, for the most part, only occurred where there was measurable loss on the part of the copyright holder greatly reinforced by the proportional gain by said thief. The No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 basically changed the second part such that it was much easier to go after 'thieves' that were not profiting monetarily from their actions. This is what has screwed up the whole system, and what I think most people are arguing about.
So why don't we admit our mistake, repeal the stupid very recent law that has failed society and rethink how that act should have been written to fairly protect artists, as well as the people.
"The only company that should even consider buying Adobe is MS - they are the ones with the track record of buying crap and making it better (note: I didn't say "good" or "perfect", as they don't always manage the first, and the last is impossible)."
So by "better" you mean more profitable by ruining the product (if not just the support, interoperability, customer service, updates, bug fixes, cross platform, etc...) so that people will be forced to use their other proprietary crap products. Cause crappy products are cheap to develop, and they sell really well when they are the "best thing on the market" (because there is no more competition).
Common M$ tactic.
I think all Apple is saying is they don't want poor people using their OS because it would make them look bad. I mean really, the iPhone may be up to $5000 a month, but how cool would you be if you saw poor people using those too? I think they are just looking out for out best interests.
Now all we got to do is repeal all those silly "consumer protection" laws. Stoopid democracy and its "laws".
there is a CYMK plugin for the gimp called separate+ @
http://cue.yellowmagic.info/softwares/separate.html
it is, as many solo projects, has always been in beta, but it worked well for me (though I am not really a graphic artist).
And as screwed up as the whole patent system is, you still can't patent something like CYMK because it is something fundamental to nature. What would be patentable would be the process. Two things can have the same end result as long as they don't use the same method, unless of course that method is fundamental to nature.
So yeah and stuff. Enjoy.
What I really want to see in TheGimp is a Python script recording tool! Since the toolkit itself is the fundamental part of the program with a graphical front-end, shouldn't a macro recorder be insanely simple to implement?
Well, what they are legally allowed to modify would be their internal network used by employees, not the regulated part of the internet that Comcast got the exclusive right by the government to build. In terms of regulations, it isn't their internet, even though they build it and own it.
I am quite certain this falls into the realm of net neutrality. Its like dumping toxic waste on an easement.
Further, you can easily extract text as necessary from a PDF unless you explicitly restrict text selection / copying in the export settings. It takes the same amount of time to import PDF to Word as it does to export from ODF to .doc, except that, as mentioned above, How often are people outside your company editing your files? This could hypothetically be a vulnerability. PDF is much more of a (professional) standard than doc. People use ODF because it is good. People use PDF and ODF by choice because they are great formats. People use .doc either because they are lazy, or don't know any better. It is the same reason IE is "most used" / #1 browser.
Well, mind reading is hardly original, as an idea, as as far as patents go (the way they are supposed to) is they can only patent a particular method. They can't patent an algorithm / formula naturally occurring in nature or a field of science to be broad. You also can't patent accomplishing a task, just the way it is done so long as it isn't fundamental to nature.
I think the reason they patent it is otherwise it would go unread. *wimpers from redmond* Why hasn't *sniffle* Nature published our studies on brain probes yet?"
This reminds me of when Silicon breast implants were outlawed and lawyers made big money on settlements because a huge number of women with silicon implants got breast cancer. The reality is that women with breasts (directly related to the amount of mammary tissue) are at high risk of breast cancer. It is why unlike anything else women are encouraged to check themselves monthly. If I remember correctly, 1 in 3 women will develop some kind of mammary growth in their lifetime. That is a really scary number, particularly if you thought it was inly in your most recent cosmetic surgery.
But also keep in mind that these studies covered people who type for 7 hours a day for less. I doubt many of you old school nerds have done less than 7 hours of typing in a day in years.
I am curious how much keyboard warnings, wrist exercises and improvement in posture for hands, let alone the rest of the body, has possibly had an influence on the way we type, or if this had always been the case.
For the mentioned occupations in the article, I know many times more of those types that have carpel tunnel. Typing just doesn't require the type of strength necessary to damage carpels in that way, so it seems. This, of course, doesn't include all those people that insist on doing isometrics while playing CS or whatever. RELAX!
This was the case from Word 95 to Words 97 (I can hold a grudge). The compatibility pack came the result of a lawsuit. Also, correct me again if I am wrong, the compatibility pack for Word 2003 for Word 2007 Documents were not released right away (months?) I work at a High School and many of the computers still use Word 97. Though it is being phased out, there were a lot of problems this year when people came back from summer break with new computers at home.
Direct democracy is obviously a disaster for reasons beyond infrastructure and free access. A representative democracy makes a lot more sense, but an improved way for everybody to get their opinions in will be a step forward. I think this is a big more aggressively progressive than the recent New Zealand wiki project, but these are the first countries experimenting in a government that acknowledges the influence and power of the internet.
It will most certainly be a failure, but as Edison responded to a reporter about how he felt about his hundreds of failures in inventing a lightbulb, he said "I didn't have any failures, I just learned hundreds of ways NOT to make a lightbulb"
Whatever the outcome, it will be an important learning experience. I am sure the next few groups that try such a thing will fail as well for the same reason. There is just going to need to be a lot of documentation (media, history books, etc) on how NOT to do this before it is done right.
I figure it will work as well as online banking, except there won't be lots of little stupid banks and individually maintained certificates / encryption. This will be one large government organization keeping track of it all. The only issue is that there is only one target to be hacked, but if the source code was reviewed like a bill becomes a law for peer review, it could really work. The biggest problem is if, as stated above, some big money will *wink wink* "ensure it is done correctly", and "wins" an exclusive contract to develop the software.
So a boom of mac lovers came from Apple giving away lots of computers to schools, like cigarette companies giving away cigarettes during the war (all of them). Both became an addictive disaster. Microsoft made shady deals that would make the devil squirm to make stores and prebuilt computers Windows only. There will never be a switch to Linux. There IS going to be a new generation of computer users. From OLPC to all the (for now) poorer schools and countries adopting/mandating Linux into public education, and other businesses unwilling to submit to the Microsoft tax (approaching 100 percent?) Average users / morons are going to use Linux because it is what they are used to, and the pay to switch will be a luxury once Microsoft actually has to be competitive (look as OSX or the history of Apple OS in general). 5-10 more years for Linux to reach middle class schools in the US, and other other countries, plus another 20 years for the generation born into that world to reach the work force. Software of the future CAN'T continue to be developed the way it was/is done in the past/now... Unless everything ends up Macromedia/Java... And if that happens, just throw me in front of a freakin train. Remember all those companies / people that didn't think computers were the thing? They didn't switch, they died. :)
What peeves me is how often I see people unnecessarily double clicking on hyperlinks, dialog boxes, error messages, start menu, close button, etc... Their only luck when it actually makes a difference is that so many people don't have the coordination to hold their mouse still when they click that their second click misses entirely. I havn't gotten a single person to pay attention to their actions, let alone "switch" their minds to be aware of what they are doing with their HIDs. If you can't switch people to using single clicks on hyperlinks, how do you switch them to linux? They don't even care when it doesn't work. Amazingly, Ubuntu has managed to address the *cough* "average" user.
Well, this is actually a major problem in the past. Old versions of word are not made forward compatible. Compare this to any open source office suite. Word isn't even compatible with itself! Worst, if even one of your friends emails you a newer word document, you are SOL and have to buy the new version just to read it. Even better, in the past (not past enough), if you got a trial of the new version, it converts all your documents to the new version. So if you don't buy the new version after it expires suddenly all the documents on your computer become useless.
And honestly, how many people really need anything beyond word 95?
I have a blazing fast gaming machine, and I still use AbiWord when I need more than nano offers.
It would be like if games automatically updated to each new version of DirectX as a requirement. No big deal, right?
And who is going to understand the privacy issue when their still trying to surf the interweb? Out sight, out of mind.