"Don't worry, school may seem like hell now, but it all works out in the end. And get used to not being understood by everyone. The gap gets wider the older you get."
Perhaps things like the obligatory "Buy $Company" or so on. Something fun like "No, your parents will never understand you, give up trying, and keep doing it."
I think the best thing I could tell myself that a 12 year old me would understand and value, "Don't worry, no matter what, it will all be okay."
Google around for some Voice Actors boards. I posted a few "Request for Talent" messages, and recieved a good hundred voice samples. Most of the people do it for the fun of it, or are in a type of FanDubbing group.
So far the hardest part has been to get the Voice Actors to record with the same settings, as close to the same way as possible.
Nothing like a VA who doesn't understand the format request, giving 4khz/8bit when you ask for 44khz, 16 bit. Or the VA who speaks three angstroms from the microphone. Or the VA who practically whispers so quitely the 'cut off' clips most of her audio, and what you -do- get is "household" noise.
I'm still going to keep attempting this. I just find that the hardest part is Voice Actor wrangling.
(-1 Off Topic) What I find most interesting is how many people I knew growing up who independantly came up with the "Blow On It" thing. Hell, I did myself.
I repaired an old SNES "Game Genie" by picking up a replacement slot connector at the local "Radio Shack" and soldering it in place. It was too wide, but some strategic hackery made it irrelevant. That, and an hour or two of soldering under a magnifier (My eyes aren't perfect) and it was perfectly functional.
Damn it, I want to play Old School Zelda again.
Re:Bitch'n moan about the UI...
on
Blender Is GPL
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· Score: 1
I concurr most heartily.
I got my Level 2 certification on Alias/Wavefront back before they prettied up the GUI as a fore-runner to Maya. If people think the Blender UI is horrid, should sit down and try their hand at Alias 7.
The UI isn't designed to be easy to pick up, its designed to stay out of your way for minimal workflow hassles. The keys for the most part are laid out for a two handed style, left on the keyboard, right on the mouse. This is similar to Photoshop, where most function keys are on the left hand of the keyboard.
I pitched in for Member gladly. Heck, I even bought a C-Key back in the day. Its a great project, and an amazingly small footprint.
Back when I was first learning PERL, I wrote a converter to translate between Vistavision OBJ files and openGL compilable C. You can get the converter.pl here (Please don't laugh at my code too much, I wrote it mainly for myself and as a "Can I do this?" test..)
While its not a perfect solution, it allowed me to quickly build a few things. Blender is free, and exports Vistavision OBJ files.
This looks almost as if the United Linux quorum is looking for a way to get businesses to pay for each copy of Linux installed, in a way that PHB's already understand. "Per Seat License" is not just a term used by windows.
My take on the article is that RMS is seeing this as Restricting Freedom. Perhaps he's right. Perhaps not. I personally feel he's a loony extremist, who sees the world as Pure Freedom or Total Slavery.
However, without more information, I can't tell if the "Per Seat" license covers the 'United Linux' material only, or which. United Linux -needs- to make money. And if a "$50 per seat" license is how they get it, who am I to say its a bad idea. This does not affect me, I don't run any derivative of Linux. (I'm one of those naughty BSD people. boo. hiss.)
I'm starting to percieve RMS as a nutjob right up there with Katz. I've no intention of using the GPL in any of my own works. There are plenty more Licenses out there. Well, that and my work is crap.
I got into a rather verbose 'discussion' on this in IRC one night. I don't as much blame the Gameshark people, as the programmers of PSO. They (PSO programmers) couldn't have been so naieve as to think that a Gameshark wouldn't be out there. How Naieve would you have to be to think that some kid would just -HAVE- to play the game with cheats. The fault as I see it comes from the PSO programmers trusting implicitly the client data.
People using cheating devices on online games? Gasp! Never! (When was the last "Counterstrike" game that you never heard "WALLHACKING FAG!" Hell, how synonymous is "Wallhack" with "counterstrike") But then, that's a client side hack, not a whole ton can be done about them, there will always be someone out there who will insist on cheating.
Wholly trusting client-side packets in a MMORPG (or any competitive client-server system) is Bad Programming. Sure, its a ton additional work on the server side, But what would you rather play? PSO where every kid with a gameshark is a Monty Haul character who can never die and has infinite power and broken skills, or a PSO game where you -know- the twink who curses more than plays can't ruin the fun?
Sure, Gameshark made the tool, but in this case, they're not to blame as I see it.
Bashing aside, I've no problem with rr at all. For one, I run FreeBSD mainly, with natd for the other computers in the house. I'd told them this in advance, and unlike other companies. *cough*Erols*cough*Mindspring*cough* They didn't flinch. They had no problem, as long as I knew their tech support may not be able to help with my problems.
Field tech came out to do the install, He was clued enough to answer my questions without drool-and-shrug. (I had done research before he even arrived, I knew what to look for/expect)
I had a Windows box all prepped for him to do the "install" on, with the intent of grok'ing the setup and translating for FreeBSD.. But the tech just said "DHCP" and that was that. Trivial, and in 3 months, my IP hasn't changed.
Sure, port 80 is blocked, (given nimda/code red and clue-resistant users, I can't blame them.) But what unix geek worth the title can't work around a minor thing like that...
I like roadrunner. I'm happy with them. Now if my upload was more than 20k/sec and my DL's more than 150k/sec... its like low end ADSL at least...
'an alternative to products that "are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities"'
He's found a way to replace all those pigeons with pretty much anything else?
Dirty. (Pigeons) Expensive (Dry cleaning after a pigeon did a jobbie on your Armani) Sometimes Dangerous (they might fly up to you and lick you... or. Hitchcock's 'The Birds' anyone?) Frustrating... especially for people in the cities.. duh. Pigeons.
Perhaps a beowulf cluster of cyber-pigeons with nanobots who speak in natalie portman's voice about grits and goatsex sites while chirping out 'how many rc5 keys did -your- winged rat crack per day?'
Having been to one last year, I can say testosterone poisoning is rampant.
The winners in the unlimited class, are always the pneumatic guns, of which the afforementioned "Alludium Pu-236 Pumpkin Modulator" is the king of testosterone. Not as much an oversized spitball gun (which, when you get down to it, is all the pneumatic pumpkin location adjusters are) but military level weaponry.
Eventually one of these will be the end of either the whole pumpkin chunkin, or the end of the pneumatic class. I asked one of the crewmen "When does it go beyond hobby" he said "1600psi" Not surprising many of these have industrial grade compressors and generators hooked up to them. Eventually one of these -big- guns will explode, and take out the entire pit crew. Someone will try to get that -one- extra PSI of power, and the tank will blow. Not to mention the rivalries and secrecy that drapes like an ugly shroud around the place. But then, these aren't exactly cheap toys.
I'd say go see it. Its quite an enjoyable day watching mechanical engineering going just a little overboard... which isn't a bad thing. until testosterone poisoning darwinates someone on the field.
The only thing this says to me is;
on
Geek Flavor
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· Score: 1
"Don't create anything new and free. People will go out of their way to destroy it."
Give away a site like this for free, and it'll be rooted and destroyed. How many people do you think wanted to know the connection speed for warez hosting? or shell account trading? (or mp3s or porn, what have you..)
Redundant? Perhaps. But some days I feel Slashdot's readers are so clue-resistant as to need every little redundant post beaten into their skulls.
Do you want to create a site like this? Then don't let the Slashdot crowd see it. It'll be 'hot grits!-ed' within the hour. (I refuse to say 'hax0r', My IQ is a positive integer.)
Nice Try geekflavor. I'll give you points for trying. You just got the bad fortune to be on Slashdot, the aqua regia of free geek items.
I've used Blender since about version 1.5 or so. And yes, previous posters have stated that "No, the interface isn't intuitive". Right. It isn't. Blender has a rather formidable UI Learning curve. But compared to Alias/Maya, Lightwave, even 3d Studio, there really -aren't- any good 3d modeling programs that are of this caliber, -and- user friendly/intuitive.
But, for the price, even for the C-Key price, its the most powerful 3d package I've ever seen. Sure, its not Maya, or what have you. But neither is that price tag. Plus it'll run on Most any current day OS. (Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD, Linux (x86|Alpha|PPC), Beos, and Windows are listed. Unlike 3dsMax or what have you. I'm -glad- that theres a really formidable 3d package available for FreeBSD|Linux. More applications like this are what I think these OS'es need. Gimp, StarOffice, Blender... Shows the OS is good for getting more than "That geek programming stuff" done. Art can be made.
Yes, the UI is not the best. But like all UI's it -does- take time to get used to. (check Excellent Whale's home page for a list of the keystrokes. Blender uses nearly every available key. Plus the basics (move, rotate) are available as mouse click/drag swoops on the screen. There are a few kinks.. But every system has kinks.
Not counting the fact that its distributions are -tiny- (1.0M tgz for my FreeBSD, 1.1M zip for Windows). Ever check the size of Maya/Lightwave/3dsMax? Not counting that it runs sweet, and has never even once crashed on Win98.
I recommend it. Its not an easy learning curve. But perhaps this is not a bad thing.
-Ryan
We Want Everything for Nothing.
on
Napster Wars
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· Score: 1
#Warning: Anti-Napster Opinion.
Let's hide behind "Digital Revolution" and "Price Gouging" while we fight -for- Napster. Let's wave the peer-to-peer networking file systems "Innovation" flag. Let's proclaim that no matter how many times the legal system -works- and shuts down a distribution network that traffics -=a non-trivial sum of non-legally distributable materials=-, The People will make a new one. Let's piss on Metallica, and Chuck D, and Which ever band has the balls to stand up for themselves, making them potentially unpopular. Alienation of a small segment of fans would be trivial versus upheval of future copyrights. (Honestly now, look at the Average Metallica Fan. How many in that sample set do you think would know Napster from a hole in the ground? Do you really think that a majority of -any- rock band fans even knew of Napster before all this press happened?) Boo Metallica! We want all your music for free! You Suck!
But when you get down to it, what is Napster's prime purpose? Distribution of.mp3 music. I've used it. Learned of quite a few bands that I never would have otherwise. But how long of a time span from CD-Release to Napster Debut is it? How many "0-Day Mp3z!!" groups are out there? Wanting acceptance from people who will never give it. What is the main reason to be on Napster? Why do -You- go there. How many people stopped buying CD music altogether because of Napster? Look yourself in the nearest reflective surface. What does the voice behind your head say? -Why- are you on Napster? Is your hat Black or White?
Armchair Economists and Armchair Lawyers craft well worded trolls, flames and doublespeak to protect their interests. To display their beatified software in a light of holy goodness. Because its not -their- product on the line. They can only save money that way.
How many Napster people out there would raise hell the moment -their- product was given away free? How many Pro-Napster people cringed at the thought of Wrapster distributing their company's game? Id software (for example) should -give- away their games. After all, it doesn't cost anything to give it away over the net. And Why are Win98 CD's $90? ( And before the Free Software junkies get on me, what's the price of retail $FreeOS CD's ~$30-50?) It doesn't cost any more to make, than a Music CD, does it?
The company I work for makes software. We've recouped our R&D Costs, so why aren't we giving away our software? Gee. Someone has to put food on my table. Do you think our little 50 person company wouldn't sick lawyers on something similar either? Gasp! But no product was stolen! No losses, just Potential Losses! Damn me for wanting to make a dollar. Damn me for wanting to protect my investments and efforts now and in the future!!
Isn't that what this narrows down to? The New God. The Dollar. (or $Currency for local values.)
After all, Music Companies, Metallica, and so on make Millions... they should sell CD's for cost.
And why don't you go to McDonalds and refuse to pay the full price for a Big Mac. After all, THEY are a huge company who doesn't need more money. They should sell burgers at _Cost_. No. They should pay -YOU- to eat at their restraunt. Or you'll get online and proclaim how they've Sold Out, and are only in it for the money. You'll go tell everyone to eat at $Foo Burger.
Every time I see this Napster discussion, all I see is people hiding behind the "Freedom" flag, or the "Innovation" banner... And then ten minutes later brag about how many CD's of free mp3's they have.
Of course my post will be followed up by people proclaminging that Napster has a better purpose than Free Music. And Nobody on Napster wants -EVERYTHING for NOTHING-. And I'm so horridly wrong. Heaven forbid I speak my mind and have an opinion.
Of -course- I'm wrong. My opinion isn't The Popular One. Moderate me to -50! Delete my Slashdot Account! Bomb my e-mail box! Draw pictures of me humping Jon Katz! How dare I post an Anti-Napster message!
Sure. Everyone and his brother on Napster buys the CD or deletes the.mp3 if the music sucks. Nobody on Napster ever uses it for -that- purpose. I didn't. I was there for quite a time. Until the lightbulb came on and I realized it might be -My- work on Napster next month.
And your product may be next. Which side of this fight will you be on, when your efforts are given away for free? Double-standards time, isn't it?
I sure as hell hope that Metallica (et.al) win. I also hope that wise decisions are made, and Those Actually In This Fight ignore all these forums. Rash, emotional decisions are not needed. Napster won't go away. The basic rebellious/insolence nature of humanity will guarantee that. Perhaps bring about change to work both sides together. Nobody will stop the "We want EVERYTHING for NOTHING" movement. Police will never wholly stop lootings from happening. Software piracy is rampant, nothing will stop that either. I think Napster should initiate copyright distribution controls, blocking known copywritten material, and self-monitoring. And on the other side of this fence, Metallica should open their eyes, see that piracy will never go away. Two of the strongest driving forces I see in -any- new technology are Sex, and Free Stuff. Perhaps Metallica (and other bands) should release music exclusively via Napster-esque means.
It'll Never happen. I can't see this fight ever ending up gray. It will be either black or white. Everyone loses in the end. RIAA needs to be changed. This I agree whole heartedly on. However I don't see -this- as solving the problem. You can't punch a bull in the nose and innocently wonder why he's gored you on his horns.
Money Talks. But even money aside, who would you listen to? People who knowingly broken established laws in defiance that they were there? Or those who stayed in legal bounds to achieve their means?
I am neither a lawyer, or an economist. I'm a programmer who sees this fight being about more than music. But intellectual rights. It might be -my- work next. Or yours.
Even under today's copyright law, artists have no legal power to decide how people use and obtain their work, other than preventing unauthorized copies...
Isn't this what Metallica is doing?
I can play recordings of their songs for my friends, I can perform their work in public or private, I can buy and sell used recordings.
Yes, but the purchase of a used recording, still involves a tangible item, When you buy a used CD, the seller doesn't retain the CD to sell to the next person. Also, "playing songs for your friends" in this context, is like comparing apples and oranges. Yes, your friends are hearing the songs. But they're not going home with a duplicate copy of the CD.
Copying by its very nature is not and cannot be theft. Theft takes something away from the victim. If I make a copy, you still have the original.
Not true. If I copy my neighbor's Windows 98 CD, He still has it. But what I have done is committed software piracy. No, I didn't steal the disk from him. If what you said was true, every "warez" on the planet is legitimate. After all, the owner of the original disk still retains it. Nothing illegal about copying software by your argument. I would LOVE to see this argument even attempted in court. "But your Honor, I never STOLE all that software. They still have the disks."
Oh, I see, you're using "pirate" in the incorrect and prejudicial sense of "one who makes an unauthorized copy". How in the world the same term should apply to copying as to murder, rape, and theft on the high seas is beyond me
Straw man argument. Please do not attempt to attack these actions by drawing a correlation between pillaging and mp3s. This forum has enough trivial discussions without sinking further into Usenet Flamewar Tactics. Next someone will invoke Goodwin's Law.
So, anyway, you say that money has been lost from the artists to the folks at Napster? Did Napster come and rob their piggy banks? No? So if the musicians still have all the money they had before, how was money lost?
Another straw man. If, as I mentioned before, I copy Windows 98, I have not taken money from Microsoft's coffers. But, I have aquired an item, that would have required monetary compensation otherwise. Equasions of commerce must balance out, or one side takes a loss. In this case, Microsoft loses $Retail_Price in sales, because I did not pay for the software.
The only think that might have been lost were potential profits. Well, guess what - potentials change. You don't have a moral right to stuff that you could have had if circumstances had been different.
I'm astounded at the leaps of logic in this post. I sincerely hope my sarcasm detector is broken, and you aren't wholly serious. In one paragraph you proclaim that copying is not illegal, and in this one, you switch sides, and state the exact opposite.
But considering that CD sales are up, it's hard to even argue that potential profits were lost.
A case of not seeing the forest for the trees. We, the denziens of the Internet, forget that our little world, is not The Whole World. And who said CD sales are up? cdnow.com? Uncle Vinny's House of Country Music? What statistical percentage of people are active on The Internet? And out of that, how many are on Napster, or even KNOW about MP3's? 350k people proclaimed by Metallica. that's, (unless I have done the math wrong) 0.005% of the population of the world. Why yes. Insignificant numbers of people. While we're playing with numbers, I'd like to have 0.005% of the Govt Budget. after all, it wouldn't affect potential matters any either... But I digress. Even that is distortion of numbers. It's easy to fudge things to fit your viewpoint. How many people in the world do you think are stumped even turning on a computer, let alone getting "on the web", or working out what an MP3 is.
I feel that Metallica is perhaps attempting to nip something in the bud, that could have potentially damaging problems for musicians anywhere. Not just them, or the RIAA, or what have you.
Picture this, let's say I'm a Nameless Garage Band. I post samples to my web site, and for $5, you can download the mp3's of the CD we have. Or, for $8, We'll send you a disk. Garage Band, hell, our disks are CD-R's with a crappy inkjet label. But there's no Big Company. We don't care, We're part of the "World Wide Web" Music society. We're going to do it The Digital Music Revolution Way!!
But what if someone posts our songs on Napster. Sure, he paid the $5, and we made a little money. But now -everyone- could get our songs for free. Why pay that $5, if napster has the identical files for the taking. Suddenly, The Mp3 thing changes. I can't make back my upkeep costs, let alone dream of profit. Now I've got to find a record label to carry us, and pray for a glimmer of profit. Our disks are now $12/18 or so, and potential fans brush past our unknown name, in favor of the Latest Fad Band.
Somehow, even if Metallica doesn't fully grok Napster, I hope they doing it for this above reason. Because They can do it, where Joe Nameless Band couldn't. But **Metallica!!** a band that is "A Name" Could speak in a more respected(or 'audible') voice than Joe Nameless Band. To use their position/fame/name to promote a cause.
I hope Metallica wins. If not for themselves, for all the current and future bands that Can't Fight This.
Might as well moderate this to redundant. I can't read all 600+ messages already here. I can't pass this thread by either.
I'm getting tired of the recurring mentality I see in this thread, as well as the generic 'Napster' mentality I see as well.
Of course everyone who has ever used Napster(and it's derivatives, for simplicity, I'm just going to say Napster here.) is deleting the files that they don't have a "license" for. Nobody on Napster ever tries to get something for nothing. Everyone immediately buys the CD that they just downloaded.
Believe that, and I've got ocean front property in Iowa to sell you.
I wrote a nice piece on ironminds.com 's discussion forums about this several days ago, when the "Free Limp Bizkit Napster Concert!! Boo Metallica! Boo!" Story passed by there.(That wasn't the title, but by golly, that was the Cliff's Notes version of the story) It was only time before this story hit Our Beloved Slashdot. Of course the discussions weren't biased at all. The comments were filled with points and counter-points, diatribes thought out in rational ideas, with research done as SOP. This is an impartial forum. We never bash Anti-Linux/Anti-Mp3 items for sport. All OS's are equal in the grand scheme. MP3's are a blessing! Share and Enjoy! Stick it to [The Man|RIAA|Bill Gates|AnyoneWhoIsn'tLinuxOrMp3Centric]!!!
I hope Metallica Wins. But before you slap 'Flamebait' on me, risk reading on. Yes, Metallica is a "Known" band. They aren't starving for fans, or funds. But what about bands who aren't so lucky? Niche bands? I would have never heard of half of the bands I know about if I hadn't been random keyword searching on Napster. Bands like Moxy Fruvous (An enjoyable band of which I'm going to a concert soon, I'm now a fan.) And many, many others. These bands would probably die to have 350k+ people know their name. But, unlike Metallica, How many would shrug off the potential loss of sales if everyone on Napster decided to just DL their songs? What if it was a No-Named band who tried to do the same tactics as Metallica? Would that even warrant a slashdot posting? (Well, it mentioned MP3's and Napster, that's all you need to get on Slashdot. Flame Microsoft, Support Linux, and Make Faces at John Katz, and you've got a winning story on/., but I digress..)
But since it's Metallica and not a nameless band, let's raise an uproar. I'm not going to even get into the Limp Bizkit/Metallica rivalries here. <Humor>That's a pointless and silly 'holy war'. Zealotry has no place on Slashdot...</Humor>
Perhaps a middle ground can be reached, where a compromise can be found. IANAMusician, but if I was, I would most likely embrace Napster as a Good Thing(tm). And post my own music on it. Post it to a web site, give away a few songs. Radio stations (at least the DC area ones) play a single song from a band until it's beaten into the ground, and then play it more. Since anyone can record from the radio. (The "Low Tech Napster", if you will..) I'd post my Airplay songs, with pointers to where to purchase my Full CD's.
I hope Metallica Wins. As much as I'd hate to see something as Innovative as Napster suffer. (a Distributed file system/library/archive? Why limit Napster to just mp3's, when you can share everything. You just might have that file that John Q. Hacker needs to finish his Next Big Thing.) I think that a precedent needs set. But I'm also cautious that a wrong precedent be set as well. I'd rather see the "Free/Approved Is Okay. Copywritten/Protected works are Not" happen, than "No Napster"
I'm also fscking tired of the "We want Everything For Nothing" that seems to permeate these forums. People who, for all intents and purposes, are no better than leeches, wanting anything they desire to be delivered to them, and will bite the hand that dares suggest they do otherwise. Warez, porn, mp3's... Don't restrict my cable modem! I want to DL my mp3z and warez even faster!
I support Metallica. Music is how they make their money. As you bitch that 'Metallicrap' is attacking your Precious MP3's, Please realize, it may be -your- money making product on Napster next.
Am I the only one using a lone Windows machine and VirtualDub to "recover" data from.asf files into.mpegs?
Why yes, it would be nice to have a quicktime player. But wouldn't it be -nicer- to have the file format specifications?
I'm hesitant to install the RealPlayer 7 for Linux on my FreeBSD box. Because I know that when RealPlayer 8 or the "Newest Bell and Whistle" comes along, it'll be obsolete.
Why support and cheer on a Closed Format? I'd rather know what a Quicktime is internally, and have the ability to build my own player.
Of course, if QT4 is currently an open format, my post is invalid, and I need to get out of my cave more often, I'd look like a right todger eh?
I was once a Pittsburgh geek. Grew up in the area, have family and friends there. But, when I graduated from college for the second time, (1996), there was -nothing- on my job horizon anywhere near the area. Fresh out of art school with a Computer Graphics/3d Animation degree, and a previous degree in CS, I figured that I'd have a good chance at a job. Sure, there's at least one game company up there (Dreamforge), and a computer "catalog" company (Black Box Corp) But no "Big Name" companies. Every job offer I had was for out of state, what choice did I have? Go back to the Burger King Drive-thru where I worked myself through college, or leave?
I left.
Sure, I'd go back, if there was a good solid job. It's a great area, cost of living is alot less than Silicon Valley, and my current residence, Washington DC.
But I don't think that it's as simple as "What would the perfect town be." You can't support "Geeks" without a large tech infrastructure there. CMU is there, UPMC, Pitt, Duquesne, plenty of colleges, a dozen hospitals, but Other than those limited places, how many "Need Geek" places are there? I think that if Pittsburgh wanted to raise it's tech level, it would first need to raise the -need- and support for a raised tech level. Other than "Stand Alone" corporations, or Service/Support jobs, to paraphrase a quote, "No Office is an Island." You need clients too.
But, as a geek, what would -I- wish for, superficially, to entice me to $Town. 1: Cost of Living. I don't want to spend $900 for a studio apartment, Just Because. 2: Travel/Commute conditions. (Pittsburgh has a delightful Bus system, I used to ride it daily for commute) But I like "Non-Suck Traffic" areas. 3: STUFF. Malls, Events, Museums, places to go feed my brain and recover from my daily job. Bookstores == Good Thing. 4: Job Market Fertility: If I lose my job today, will I have to move far to get another job doing similar? Or will there be dozens of similar companies. 5: Climate. I hate Suck weather, but I can get past that. What I more likely mean here is "Population" Climate. Am I going to be sneered at for walking into Radio Shack? (which, has happened) Will the town be the living set of Jeff Foxworthy's next "You Might Be a Redneck" venture? Will I feel out of place because -everyone- has a Ph.D. and I don't? What I mean is "Will I fit in with little sociological camoflague." 6: Clueful Internet Access. I don't need gigabit speeds or $1/year access, I want something swift, fairly priced, with a static IP and an ISP who won't bitch if I'm running my piddly little webserver on it, or do something they don't immediately understand.
Internet access is last on my list, because I think there's more vital things that I should take care of in my daily life than wether or not I can get my e-mail from every street corner.
I would go back to Pgh. if a: I didn't own a nice chunk of the company here. b: There was a good job at good pay, that wouldn't fold up in a year. c: I could avoid my family on demand.
I lived in Pittsburgh for 23 years. The sports fans are fanatical as long as they're winning, The health care system is delightfully non-sparse, The transportation grids are.. well, could be worse. And its got alot of asthetic scenery. It just didn't have a job, or job prospect for me.
Plus, its Mr. Rogers neighborhood. That's gotta count for something.
Unlike the original post said, they did -not- use a frozen embryo, the fertilized embryos were frozen, stored for a week, thawed, -then- implanted. (Done as an additional proof-of-concept)
It appears that they are still a long way off, from my reading of the article, from bringing back a Wooly Mammoth, or for that matter, a surrogate mothers for a totally different genus. (ex: A lab cow carrying a tiger kub..) But, you can't walk without taking little steps I suppose.
The sites I maintain and append to in my day job are all "must register/login before proceeding" sites. (All of them are training/web based education sites, targeted audience specific) Each of these sites has it's robots.txt disallowing anything but the root page to be spidered across. In the root page I have stuck the primary "Mission Statement" (sans phb speak) in the keywords meta tag. In my case, I have no intention to let a search engine wander around the site, it would get lost in all the forms and frames. (no content flames please, I merely build what they pay me to build.)
I often do quite a bit of searching, often for external reference verification. I never run a singluar search, but run over several engines. What I would recommend, is a way of grepping multiple sites (hotbot, altavista, yahoo... ) and presenting a scored list of which sites appeared in the first $X returns. I won't/can't limit myself to searching in just one location. I don't have 'site loyalty' to any one place. (I have not extensively used Google, so I am not sure if their methodology is just this.) "Specialization breeds disaster"
'Spamdexers' (the term has been much heard of before, I doubt the need for redefinition) Is in my "Righteous and Elitistic" opinion, (I was called just that today, which may make this post borderline rant.) is one of the three "Punishable by death" crimes on the internet. (Spamming and Domain Squatting being the other two)
But then, I believe there should be a compentency test before being allowed to use "The Internet", I remember gopher. I know there is more to "The Internet" than "The Web". I'm sick and tired of people who think that -just because- Geocities will give them free space, they -MUST- make a page. I'm tired of "target spam" that 'guarantees' to get me in the top 30 of a chosen search engine for $149.95, just because I have a.com domain.
So at the end of a day, what do I know? Apparently nothing to my PHB's who want me to use "onUnload" to "make sure" that people don't accidentally leave the site... Next they'll ask me to alter back and forward histories and flood screens with popups for the other training sites.
There are people that seem to find Jim Carrey and Chris Farley/David Spade funny as well.. Who knew.. (I m'self have to agree with the original poster on the UF front.. that's gone down hill so fast you'd think they were being pulled. But not as if I'm producing anything funny either, so who am I to judge... I like the Onion sporadically though.) I am but an egg...
I'm no Ph.D in anything, but wouldn't a 15hour laptop battery have the energy density of a good sized explosive device? How long until we hear of a laptop exploding? I know there are warnings on some batteries telling of the risks of overcharging today. I can't imagine the risks that a 15hr battery would bring along with it. My two hour life laptop battery is rated 7.5 amp/hours, for a 15hour, that would be 50+ amp/hours?
Honestly, I'd rather have a backpack'able battery. I carry my laptop in a carrier in a backpack already, there's room for a car-battery..
Would be nice to have. But I'd rather not risk having an explosive charge sitting next to my joy department.
Slashdot Mirror
"Don't worry, school may seem like hell now, but it all works out in the end. And get used to not being understood by everyone. The gap gets wider the older you get."
Perhaps things like the obligatory "Buy $Company" or so on. Something fun like "No, your parents will never understand you, give up trying, and keep doing it."
I think the best thing I could tell myself that a 12 year old me would understand and value, "Don't worry, no matter what, it will all be okay."
Google around for some Voice Actors boards. I posted a few "Request for Talent" messages, and recieved a good hundred voice samples. Most of the people do it for the fun of it, or are in a type of FanDubbing group.
So far the hardest part has been to get the Voice Actors to record with the same settings, as close to the same way as possible.
Nothing like a VA who doesn't understand the format request, giving 4khz/8bit when you ask for 44khz, 16 bit.
Or the VA who speaks three angstroms from the microphone.
Or the VA who practically whispers so quitely the 'cut off' clips most of her audio, and what you -do- get is "household" noise.
I'm still going to keep attempting this. I just find that the hardest part is Voice Actor wrangling.
(-1 Off Topic)
What I find most interesting is how many people I knew growing up who independantly came up with the "Blow On It" thing. Hell, I did myself.
I repaired an old SNES "Game Genie" by picking up a replacement slot connector at the local "Radio Shack" and soldering it in place. It was too wide, but some strategic hackery made it irrelevant. That, and an hour or two of soldering under a magnifier (My eyes aren't perfect) and it was perfectly functional.
Damn it, I want to play Old School Zelda again.
I concurr most heartily.
I got my Level 2 certification on Alias/Wavefront back before they prettied up the GUI as a fore-runner to Maya. If people think the Blender UI is horrid, should sit down and try their hand at Alias 7.
The UI isn't designed to be easy to pick up, its designed to stay out of your way for minimal workflow hassles. The keys for the most part are laid out for a two handed style, left on the keyboard, right on the mouse. This is similar to Photoshop, where most function keys are on the left hand of the keyboard.
I pitched in for Member gladly. Heck, I even bought a C-Key back in the day. Its a great project, and an amazingly small footprint.
I've done it with minimal effort ever since 4.2
/dev/dvd to the proper points
Install VLC,
Symlink
Mount the DVD disk
Run VLC
Supports everything I need it to do. Menus, playback is flawless.
(1ghz Athlon, 512M ram, GeForce MX200 card "Creative Labs Dxr2" DVD kit. (Does not use the DXR2 player, runs in software)
Mplayer has advantages over vlc, however, I've found vlc to be superior for DVD. mplayer is better for pretty much all the other formats I use.
Back when I was first learning PERL, I wrote a converter to translate between Vistavision OBJ files and openGL compilable C. .pl here (Please don't laugh at my code too much, I wrote it mainly for myself and as a "Can I do this?" test..)
You can get the converter
While its not a perfect solution, it allowed me to quickly build a few things. Blender is free, and exports Vistavision OBJ files.
This looks almost as if the United Linux quorum is looking for a way to get businesses to pay for each copy of Linux installed, in a way that PHB's already understand. "Per Seat License" is not just a term used by windows.
My take on the article is that RMS is seeing this as Restricting Freedom. Perhaps he's right. Perhaps not. I personally feel he's a loony extremist, who sees the world as Pure Freedom or Total Slavery.
However, without more information, I can't tell if the "Per Seat" license covers the 'United Linux' material only, or which. United Linux -needs- to make money. And if a "$50 per seat" license is how they get it, who am I to say its a bad idea. This does not affect me, I don't run any derivative of Linux. (I'm one of those naughty BSD people. boo. hiss.)
I'm starting to percieve RMS as a nutjob right up there with Katz. I've no intention of using the GPL in any of my own works. There are plenty more Licenses out there. Well, that and my work is crap.
People using cheating devices on online games? Gasp! Never! (When was the last "Counterstrike" game that you never heard "WALLHACKING FAG!" Hell, how synonymous is "Wallhack" with "counterstrike") But then, that's a client side hack, not a whole ton can be done about them, there will always be someone out there who will insist on cheating.
Wholly trusting client-side packets in a MMORPG (or any competitive client-server system) is Bad Programming. Sure, its a ton additional work on the server side, But what would you rather play? PSO where every kid with a gameshark is a Monty Haul character who can never die and has infinite power and broken skills, or a PSO game where you -know- the twink who curses more than plays can't ruin the fun? Sure, Gameshark made the tool, but in this case, they're not to blame as I see it.
Bashing aside, I've no problem with rr at all. For one, I run FreeBSD mainly, with natd for the other computers in the house. I'd told them this in advance, and unlike other companies. *cough*Erols*cough*Mindspring*cough* They didn't flinch. They had no problem, as long as I knew their tech support may not be able to help with my problems.
... its like low end ADSL at least...
Field tech came out to do the install, He was clued enough to answer my questions without drool-and-shrug. (I had done research before he even arrived, I knew what to look for/expect)
I had a Windows box all prepped for him to do the "install" on, with the intent of grok'ing the setup and translating for FreeBSD.. But the tech just said "DHCP" and that was that. Trivial, and in 3 months, my IP hasn't changed.
Sure, port 80 is blocked, (given nimda/code red and clue-resistant users, I can't blame them.) But what unix geek worth the title can't work around a minor thing like that...
I like roadrunner. I'm happy with them. Now if my upload was more than 20k/sec and my DL's more than 150k/sec
Ah well. It beats dialup.
He's found a way to replace all those pigeons with pretty much anything else?
Dirty. (Pigeons) Expensive (Dry cleaning after a pigeon did a jobbie on your Armani) Sometimes Dangerous (they might fly up to you and lick you... or. Hitchcock's 'The Birds' anyone?) Frustrating... especially for people in the cities.. duh. Pigeons.
Perhaps a beowulf cluster of cyber-pigeons with nanobots who speak in natalie portman's voice about grits and goatsex sites while chirping out 'how many rc5 keys did -your- winged rat crack per day?'
I've turned the two pages of the pdf into png. Accessable here
Having been to one last year, I can say testosterone poisoning is rampant.
The winners in the unlimited class, are always the pneumatic guns, of which the afforementioned "Alludium Pu-236 Pumpkin Modulator" is the king of testosterone. Not as much an oversized spitball gun (which, when you get down to it, is all the pneumatic pumpkin location adjusters are) but military level weaponry.
Eventually one of these will be the end of either the whole pumpkin chunkin, or the end of the pneumatic class. I asked one of the crewmen "When does it go beyond hobby" he said "1600psi" Not surprising many of these have industrial grade compressors and generators hooked up to them. Eventually one of these -big- guns will explode, and take out the entire pit crew. Someone will try to get that -one- extra PSI of power, and the tank will blow. Not to mention the rivalries and secrecy that drapes like an ugly shroud around the place. But then, these aren't exactly cheap toys.
I'd say go see it. Its quite an enjoyable day watching mechanical engineering going just a little overboard... which isn't a bad thing. until testosterone poisoning darwinates someone on the field.
"Don't create anything new and free. People will go out of their way to destroy it."
Give away a site like this for free, and it'll be rooted and destroyed. How many people do you think wanted to know the connection speed for warez hosting? or shell account trading? (or mp3s or porn, what have you..)
Redundant? Perhaps. But some days I feel Slashdot's readers are so clue-resistant as to need every little redundant post beaten into their skulls.
Do you want to create a site like this? Then don't let the Slashdot crowd see it. It'll be 'hot grits!-ed' within the hour. (I refuse to say 'hax0r', My IQ is a positive integer.)
Nice Try geekflavor. I'll give you points for trying. You just got the bad fortune to be on Slashdot, the aqua regia of free geek items.
I've used Blender since about version 1.5 or so. And yes, previous posters have stated that "No, the interface isn't intuitive". Right. It isn't. Blender has a rather formidable UI Learning curve. But compared to Alias/Maya, Lightwave, even 3d Studio, there really -aren't- any good 3d modeling programs that are of this caliber, -and- user friendly/intuitive.
But, for the price, even for the C-Key price, its the most powerful 3d package I've ever seen. Sure, its not Maya, or what have you. But neither is that price tag. Plus it'll run on Most any current day OS. (Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD, Linux (x86|Alpha|PPC), Beos, and Windows are listed. Unlike 3dsMax or what have you. I'm -glad- that theres a really formidable 3d package available for FreeBSD|Linux. More applications like this are what I think these OS'es need. Gimp, StarOffice, Blender... Shows the OS is good for getting more than "That geek programming stuff" done. Art can be made.
Yes, the UI is not the best. But like all UI's it -does- take time to get used to. (check Excellent Whale's home page for a list of the keystrokes. Blender uses nearly every available key. Plus the basics (move, rotate) are available as mouse click/drag swoops on the screen. There are a few kinks.. But every system has kinks.
Not counting the fact that its distributions are -tiny- (1.0M tgz for my FreeBSD, 1.1M zip for Windows). Ever check the size of Maya/Lightwave/3dsMax? Not counting that it runs sweet, and has never even once crashed on Win98.
I recommend it. Its not an easy learning curve. But perhaps this is not a bad thing.
-Ryan
#Warning: Anti-Napster Opinion.
.mp3 music. I've used it. Learned of quite a few bands that I never would have otherwise. But how long of a time span from CD-Release to Napster Debut is it? How many "0-Day Mp3z!!" groups are out there? Wanting acceptance from people who will never give it. What is the main reason to be on Napster? Why do -You- go there. How many people stopped buying CD music altogether because of Napster? Look yourself in the nearest reflective surface. What does the voice behind your head say? -Why- are you on Napster? Is your hat Black or White?
.mp3 if the music sucks. Nobody on Napster ever uses it for -that- purpose. I didn't. I was there for quite a time. Until the lightbulb came on and I realized it might be -My- work on Napster next month.
Let's hide behind "Digital Revolution" and "Price Gouging" while we fight -for- Napster. Let's wave the peer-to-peer networking file systems "Innovation" flag. Let's proclaim that no matter how many times the legal system -works- and shuts down a distribution network that traffics -=a non-trivial sum of non-legally distributable materials=-, The People will make a new one. Let's piss on Metallica, and Chuck D, and Which ever band has the balls to stand up for themselves, making them potentially unpopular. Alienation of a small segment of fans would be trivial versus upheval of future copyrights. (Honestly now, look at the Average Metallica Fan. How many in that sample set do you think would know Napster from a hole in the ground? Do you really think that a majority of -any- rock band fans even knew of Napster before all this press happened?) Boo Metallica! We want all your music for free! You Suck!
But when you get down to it, what is Napster's prime purpose? Distribution of
Armchair Economists and Armchair Lawyers craft well worded trolls, flames and doublespeak to protect their interests. To display their beatified software in a light of holy goodness. Because its not -their- product on the line. They can only save money that way.
How many Napster people out there would raise hell the moment -their- product was given away free? How many Pro-Napster people cringed at the thought of Wrapster distributing their company's game? Id software (for example) should -give- away their games. After all, it doesn't cost anything to give it away over the net. And Why are Win98 CD's $90? ( And before the Free Software junkies get on me, what's the price of retail $FreeOS CD's ~$30-50?) It doesn't cost any more to make, than a Music CD, does it?
The company I work for makes software. We've recouped our R&D Costs, so why aren't we giving away our software? Gee. Someone has to put food on my table. Do you think our little 50 person company wouldn't sick lawyers on something similar either? Gasp! But no product was stolen! No losses, just Potential Losses! Damn me for wanting to make a dollar. Damn me for wanting to protect my investments and efforts now and in the future!!
Isn't that what this narrows down to? The New God. The Dollar. (or $Currency for local values.)
After all, Music Companies, Metallica, and so on make Millions... they should sell CD's for cost.
And why don't you go to McDonalds and refuse to pay the full price for a Big Mac. After all, THEY are a huge company who doesn't need more money. They should sell burgers at _Cost_. No. They should pay -YOU- to eat at their restraunt. Or you'll get online and proclaim how they've Sold Out, and are only in it for the money. You'll go tell everyone to eat at $Foo Burger.
Every time I see this Napster discussion, all I see is people hiding behind the "Freedom" flag, or the "Innovation" banner... And then ten minutes later brag about how many CD's of free mp3's they have.
Of course my post will be followed up by people proclaminging that Napster has a better purpose than Free Music. And Nobody on Napster wants -EVERYTHING for NOTHING-. And I'm so horridly wrong. Heaven forbid I speak my mind and have an opinion.
Of -course- I'm wrong. My opinion isn't The Popular One. Moderate me to -50! Delete my Slashdot Account! Bomb my e-mail box! Draw pictures of me humping Jon Katz! How dare I post an Anti-Napster message!
Sure. Everyone and his brother on Napster buys the CD or deletes the
And your product may be next. Which side of this fight will you be on, when your efforts are given away for free? Double-standards time, isn't it?
I sure as hell hope that Metallica (et.al) win. I also hope that wise decisions are made, and Those Actually In This Fight ignore all these forums. Rash, emotional decisions are not needed. Napster won't go away. The basic rebellious/insolence nature of humanity will guarantee that. Perhaps bring about change to work both sides together. Nobody will stop the "We want EVERYTHING for NOTHING" movement. Police will never wholly stop lootings from happening. Software piracy is rampant, nothing will stop that either. I think Napster should initiate copyright distribution controls, blocking known copywritten material, and self-monitoring. And on the other side of this fence, Metallica should open their eyes, see that piracy will never go away. Two of the strongest driving forces I see in -any- new technology are Sex, and Free Stuff. Perhaps Metallica (and other bands) should release music exclusively via Napster-esque means.
It'll Never happen. I can't see this fight ever ending up gray. It will be either black or white. Everyone loses in the end. RIAA needs to be changed. This I agree whole heartedly on. However I don't see -this- as solving the problem. You can't punch a bull in the nose and innocently wonder why he's gored you on his horns.
Money Talks. But even money aside, who would you listen to? People who knowingly broken established laws in defiance that they were there? Or those who stayed in legal bounds to achieve their means?
I am neither a lawyer, or an economist. I'm a programmer who sees this fight being about more than music. But intellectual rights. It might be -my- work next.
Or yours.
Even under today's copyright law, artists have no legal power to decide how people use and obtain their work, other than preventing unauthorized copies ...
Isn't this what Metallica is doing?
I can play recordings of their songs for my friends, I can perform their work in public or private, I can buy and sell used recordings.
Yes, but the purchase of a used recording, still involves a tangible item, When you buy a used CD, the seller doesn't retain the CD to sell to the next person. Also, "playing songs for your friends" in this context, is like comparing apples and oranges. Yes, your friends are hearing the songs. But they're not going home with a duplicate copy of the CD.
Copying by its very nature is not and cannot be theft. Theft takes something away from the victim. If I make a copy, you still have the original.
Not true. If I copy my neighbor's Windows 98 CD, He still has it. But what I have done is committed software piracy. No, I didn't steal the disk from him. If what you said was true, every "warez" on the planet is legitimate. After all, the owner of the original disk still retains it. Nothing illegal about copying software by your argument. I would LOVE to see this argument even attempted in court. "But your Honor, I never STOLE all that software. They still have the disks."
Oh, I see, you're using "pirate" in the incorrect and prejudicial sense of "one who makes an unauthorized copy". How in the world the same term should apply to copying as to murder, rape, and theft on the high seas is beyond me
Straw man argument. Please do not attempt to attack these actions by drawing a correlation between pillaging and mp3s. This forum has enough trivial discussions without sinking further into Usenet Flamewar Tactics. Next someone will invoke Goodwin's Law.
So, anyway, you say that money has been lost from the artists to the folks at Napster? Did Napster come and rob their piggy banks? No? So if the musicians still have all the money they had before, how was money lost?
Another straw man. If, as I mentioned before, I copy Windows 98, I have not taken money from Microsoft's coffers. But, I have aquired an item, that would have required monetary compensation otherwise. Equasions of commerce must balance out, or one side takes a loss. In this case, Microsoft loses $Retail_Price in sales, because I did not pay for the software.
The only think that might have been lost were potential profits. Well, guess what - potentials change. You don't have a moral right to stuff that you could have had if circumstances had been different.
I'm astounded at the leaps of logic in this post. I sincerely hope my sarcasm detector is broken, and you aren't wholly serious. In one paragraph you proclaim that copying is not illegal, and in this one, you switch sides, and state the exact opposite.
But considering that CD sales are up, it's hard to even argue that potential profits were lost.
A case of not seeing the forest for the trees. We, the denziens of the Internet, forget that our little world, is not The Whole World. And who said CD sales are up? cdnow.com? Uncle Vinny's House of Country Music? What statistical percentage of people are active on The Internet? And out of that, how many are on Napster, or even KNOW about MP3's? 350k people proclaimed by Metallica. that's, (unless I have done the math wrong) 0.005% of the population of the world. Why yes. Insignificant numbers of people. While we're playing with numbers, I'd like to have 0.005% of the Govt Budget. after all, it wouldn't affect potential matters any either... But I digress. Even that is distortion of numbers. It's easy to fudge things to fit your viewpoint. How many people in the world do you think are stumped even turning on a computer, let alone getting "on the web", or working out what an MP3 is.
I feel that Metallica is perhaps attempting to nip something in the bud, that could have potentially damaging problems for musicians anywhere. Not just them, or the RIAA, or what have you.
Picture this, let's say I'm a Nameless Garage Band. I post samples to my web site, and for $5, you can download the mp3's of the CD we have. Or, for $8, We'll send you a disk. Garage Band, hell, our disks are CD-R's with a crappy inkjet label. But there's no Big Company. We don't care, We're part of the "World Wide Web" Music society. We're going to do it The Digital Music Revolution Way!!
But what if someone posts our songs on Napster. Sure, he paid the $5, and we made a little money. But now -everyone- could get our songs for free. Why pay that $5, if napster has the identical files for the taking. Suddenly, The Mp3 thing changes. I can't make back my upkeep costs, let alone dream of profit. Now I've got to find a record label to carry us, and pray for a glimmer of profit. Our disks are now $12/18 or so, and potential fans brush past our unknown name, in favor of the Latest Fad Band.
Somehow, even if Metallica doesn't fully grok Napster, I hope they doing it for this above reason. Because They can do it, where Joe Nameless Band couldn't. But **Metallica!!** a band that is "A Name" Could speak in a more respected(or 'audible') voice than Joe Nameless Band. To use their position/fame/name to promote a cause.
I hope Metallica wins. If not for themselves, for all the current and future bands that Can't Fight This.
I'm getting tired of the recurring mentality I see in this thread, as well as the generic 'Napster' mentality I see as well.
Of course everyone who has ever used Napster(and it's derivatives, for simplicity, I'm just going to say Napster here.) is deleting the files that they don't have a "license" for. Nobody on Napster ever tries to get something for nothing. Everyone immediately buys the CD that they just downloaded.
Believe that, and I've got ocean front property in Iowa to sell you.
I wrote a nice piece on ironminds.com 's discussion forums about this several days ago, when the "Free Limp Bizkit Napster Concert!! Boo Metallica! Boo!" Story passed by there.(That wasn't the title, but by golly, that was the Cliff's Notes version of the story) It was only time before this story hit Our Beloved Slashdot. Of course the discussions weren't biased at all. The comments were filled with points and counter-points, diatribes thought out in rational ideas, with research done as SOP. This is an impartial forum. We never bash Anti-Linux/Anti-Mp3 items for sport. All OS's are equal in the grand scheme. MP3's are a blessing! Share and Enjoy! Stick it to [The Man|RIAA|Bill Gates|AnyoneWhoIsn'tLinuxOrMp3Centric]!!!
I hope Metallica Wins. But before you slap 'Flamebait' on me, risk reading on. Yes, Metallica is a "Known" band. They aren't starving for fans, or funds. But what about bands who aren't so lucky? Niche bands? I would have never heard of half of the bands I know about if I hadn't been random keyword searching on Napster. Bands like Moxy Fruvous (An enjoyable band of which I'm going to a concert soon, I'm now a fan.) And many, many others. These bands would probably die to have 350k+ people know their name. But, unlike Metallica, How many would shrug off the potential loss of sales if everyone on Napster decided to just DL their songs? What if it was a No-Named band who tried to do the same tactics as Metallica? Would that even warrant a slashdot posting? (Well, it mentioned MP3's and Napster, that's all you need to get on Slashdot. Flame Microsoft, Support Linux, and Make Faces at John Katz, and you've got a winning story on /., but I digress..)
But since it's Metallica and not a nameless band, let's raise an uproar. I'm not going to even get into the Limp Bizkit/Metallica rivalries here. <Humor>That's a pointless and silly 'holy war'. Zealotry has no place on Slashdot...</Humor>
Perhaps a middle ground can be reached, where a compromise can be found. IANAMusician, but if I was, I would most likely embrace Napster as a Good Thing(tm). And post my own music on it. Post it to a web site, give away a few songs. Radio stations (at least the DC area ones) play a single song from a band until it's beaten into the ground, and then play it more. Since anyone can record from the radio. (The "Low Tech Napster", if you will..) I'd post my Airplay songs, with pointers to where to purchase my Full CD's.
I hope Metallica Wins. As much as I'd hate to see something as Innovative as Napster suffer. (a Distributed file system/library/archive? Why limit Napster to just mp3's, when you can share everything. You just might have that file that John Q. Hacker needs to finish his Next Big Thing.) I think that a precedent needs set. But I'm also cautious that a wrong precedent be set as well. I'd rather see the "Free/Approved Is Okay. Copywritten/Protected works are Not" happen, than "No Napster"
I'm also fscking tired of the "We want Everything For Nothing" that seems to permeate these forums. People who, for all intents and purposes, are no better than leeches, wanting anything they desire to be delivered to them, and will bite the hand that dares suggest they do otherwise. Warez, porn, mp3's... Don't restrict my cable modem! I want to DL my mp3z and warez even faster!
I support Metallica. Music is how they make their money. As you bitch that 'Metallicrap' is attacking your Precious MP3's, Please realize, it may be -your- money making product on Napster next.
Last I checked, wasn't Quicktime a Closed Format?
.asf files into .mpegs?
Am I the only one using a lone Windows machine and VirtualDub to "recover" data from
Why yes, it would be nice to have a quicktime player. But wouldn't it be -nicer- to have the file format specifications?
I'm hesitant to install the RealPlayer 7 for Linux on my FreeBSD box. Because I know that when RealPlayer 8 or the "Newest Bell and Whistle" comes along, it'll be obsolete.
Why support and cheer on a Closed Format? I'd rather know what a Quicktime is internally, and have the ability to build my own player.
Of course, if QT4 is currently an open format, my post is invalid, and I need to get out of my cave more often, I'd look like a right todger eh?
People like this linguistic acrobat make me -proud- to be a FreeBSD user.
Or perhaps I've been trolled. *shrug*
(Personally, I'm gonna apply for Beta. I've got a windows machine that I could put it on. I quite enjoyed Diablo I.)
I was once a Pittsburgh geek. Grew up in the area, have family and friends there. But, when I graduated from college for the second time, (1996), there was -nothing- on my job horizon anywhere near the area. Fresh out of art school with a Computer Graphics/3d Animation degree, and a previous degree in CS, I figured that I'd have a good chance at a job. Sure, there's at least one game company up there (Dreamforge), and a computer "catalog" company (Black Box Corp) But no "Big Name" companies. Every job offer I had was for out of state, what choice did I have? Go back to the Burger King Drive-thru where I worked myself through college, or leave?
I left.
Sure, I'd go back, if there was a good solid job. It's a great area, cost of living is alot less than Silicon Valley, and my current residence, Washington DC.
But I don't think that it's as simple as "What would the perfect town be." You can't support "Geeks" without a large tech infrastructure there. CMU is there, UPMC, Pitt, Duquesne, plenty of colleges, a dozen hospitals, but Other than those limited places, how many "Need Geek" places are there? I think that if Pittsburgh wanted to raise it's tech level, it would first need to raise the -need- and support for a raised tech level. Other than "Stand Alone" corporations, or Service/Support jobs, to paraphrase a quote, "No Office is an Island." You need clients too.
But, as a geek, what would -I- wish for, superficially, to entice me to $Town.
1: Cost of Living. I don't want to spend $900 for a studio apartment, Just Because.
2: Travel/Commute conditions. (Pittsburgh has a delightful Bus system, I used to ride it daily for commute) But I like "Non-Suck Traffic" areas.
3: STUFF. Malls, Events, Museums, places to go feed my brain and recover from my daily job. Bookstores == Good Thing.
4: Job Market Fertility: If I lose my job today, will I have to move far to get another job doing similar? Or will there be dozens of similar companies.
5: Climate. I hate Suck weather, but I can get past that. What I more likely mean here is "Population" Climate. Am I going to be sneered at for walking into Radio Shack? (which, has happened) Will the town be the living set of Jeff Foxworthy's next "You Might Be a Redneck" venture? Will I feel out of place because -everyone- has a Ph.D. and I don't? What I mean is "Will I fit in with little sociological camoflague."
6: Clueful Internet Access. I don't need gigabit speeds or $1/year access, I want something swift, fairly priced, with a static IP and an ISP who won't bitch if I'm running my piddly little webserver on it, or do something they don't immediately understand.
Internet access is last on my list, because I think there's more vital things that I should take care of in my daily life than wether or not I can get my e-mail from every street corner.
I would go back to Pgh. if a: I didn't own a nice chunk of the company here. b: There was a good job at good pay, that wouldn't fold up in a year. c: I could avoid my family on demand.
I lived in Pittsburgh for 23 years. The sports fans are fanatical as long as they're winning, The health care system is delightfully non-sparse, The transportation grids are.. well, could be worse. And its got alot of asthetic scenery. It just didn't have a job, or job prospect for me.
Plus, its Mr. Rogers neighborhood. That's gotta count for something.
Unlike the original post said, they did -not- use a frozen embryo, the fertilized embryos were frozen, stored for a week, thawed, -then- implanted. (Done as an additional proof-of-concept)
It appears that they are still a long way off, from my reading of the article, from bringing back a Wooly Mammoth, or for that matter, a surrogate mothers for a totally different genus. (ex: A lab cow carrying a tiger kub..) But, you can't walk without taking little steps I suppose.
The sites I maintain and append to in my day job are all "must register/login before proceeding" sites. (All of them are training/web based education sites, targeted audience specific) Each of these sites has it's robots.txt disallowing anything but the root page to be spidered across. In the root page I have stuck the primary "Mission Statement" (sans phb speak) in the keywords meta tag. In my case, I have no intention to let a search engine wander around the site, it would get lost in all the forms and frames. (no content flames please, I merely build what they pay me to build.)
.com domain.
I often do quite a bit of searching, often for external reference verification. I never run a singluar search, but run over several engines. What I would recommend, is a way of grepping multiple sites (hotbot, altavista, yahoo... ) and presenting a scored list of which sites appeared in the first $X returns. I won't/can't limit myself to searching in just one location. I don't have 'site loyalty' to any one place. (I have not extensively used Google, so I am not sure if their methodology is just this.) "Specialization breeds disaster"
'Spamdexers' (the term has been much heard of before, I doubt the need for redefinition) Is in my "Righteous and Elitistic" opinion, (I was called just that today, which may make this post borderline rant.) is one of the three "Punishable by death" crimes on the internet. (Spamming and Domain Squatting being the other two)
But then, I believe there should be a compentency test before being allowed to use "The Internet", I remember gopher. I know there is more to "The Internet" than "The Web". I'm sick and tired of people who think that -just because- Geocities will give them free space, they -MUST- make a page. I'm tired of "target spam" that 'guarantees' to get me in the top 30 of a chosen search engine for $149.95, just because I have a
So at the end of a day, what do I know? Apparently nothing to my PHB's who want me to use "onUnload" to "make sure" that people don't accidentally leave the site... Next they'll ask me to alter back and forward histories and flood screens with popups for the other training sites.
There are people that seem to find Jim Carrey and Chris Farley/David Spade funny as well.. Who knew.. (I m'self have to agree with the original poster on the UF front.. that's gone down hill so fast you'd think they were being pulled. But not as if I'm producing anything funny either, so who am I to judge... I like the Onion sporadically though.) I am but an egg...
I'm no Ph.D in anything, but wouldn't a 15hour laptop battery have the energy density of a good sized explosive device? How long until we hear of a laptop exploding? I know there are warnings on some batteries telling of the risks of overcharging today. I can't imagine the risks that a 15hr battery would bring along with it. My two hour life laptop battery is rated 7.5 amp/hours, for a 15hour, that would be 50+ amp/hours?
Honestly, I'd rather have a backpack'able battery. I carry my laptop in a carrier in a backpack already, there's room for a car-battery..
Would be nice to have. But I'd rather not risk having an explosive charge sitting next to my joy department.
-rd