I just kept DirectTV to protest the CableCard mess. I realize that the DRM (as such) in the satellite system is just as bad, but there's a conceptual difference.
If I buy cable service and they run the coax into my home, I expect to be able to hook up compatible devices to that wire and use it. So, I expect to be able to buy a PcHDTV card, plug the coax in, and run MythTV. Unfortunately, these retards encrypt all the QAM for no good reason, making that approach worthless. Since I already have some satellite equipment anyway, I'll just stay with satellite. I don't expect to be able to plug a satellite cable into my computer. I do expect to be able to plug the cable's QAM line in without DRM bullshit.
This crap is expressly against the spirit of the BetaMAX decision, and is absolutely insane. All it does is encourage me to pirate movies and TV off the Internet.
I'll throw you one better. I wouldn't mind paying the MPAA $5.50 to download a copy of "Oceans 13" or something. However, that isn't available. So to watch the movie, I have to find an uninterrupted three hour block of time -- which is damned near impossible in my line of work -- then pay the money, then go to the theatre, then deal with some kid pouring soda down my back and someone adding their own soundtrack to the movie. The MPAA doesn't give a damn about their customers, and they're just too retarded to change.
Well, it's simple, then. Convert the contents of the RAM to literally a string of '1's and '0's, then print them out on a laser printer in a variable-spaced font with no landmarks. Then turn over the 100,000 pages of single-spaced 1s and 0s, and the variable spaced font ensures that they have to count the individual characters.
You could make the argument that "netstat" is a hacking tool. Which, I suppose, makes the C library a hacking tool, and the C compiler a hacking tool, and the kernel... Agggggh. Make it stop.
Okay, so to make it simple, what can I tell people who are buying a PalmOS-based PDA?
For example, I have a Palm Lifedrive. (Despite the fact that the designers totally screwed that device up.) What does this mean to me? (Or anybody else with a PalmOS based PDA?)
I wouldn't say it was inappropriate, it is being used for decent enough reasons, I'd say you found a flaw in the system, nothing is foolproof, the system should be re-written to excuse such actions as yours. Maybe a speed camera combined would solve this problem?
Actually, I agree with you here. What they need is a speed camera combined with a camera that shoots a view laterally across the street in wide-frame. They would have to keep some kind of full motion video with a known frame rate to estimate the speed of the vehicles and all that. However, by the time you get into all this, which includes citizens filing protests and requiring some clown to review the tapes (which I'm sure htey won't do by default), one has to wonder what the ultimate utility of the system is.
In some places in the U.S., there is currently a debate of sorts going on about red light surveillence cameras. In short, these are cameras that are set up at intersections supposedly to catch people running red lights. With the video evidence, a company in Arizona, under authorization from the local police department, then sends you a ticket.
The idea isn't a bad one. Most people would think that these cameras would catch the moron who blows through a red light and weaves through an intersection, almost killing a few people. However, it's the shades of gray that are a problem. These cameras are triggered by a car tripping a camera when the light is red. What they don't show is that some jerk behind me was barrelling up at 60mph and slamming on the brakes, or that the street was wet and I had to make a safety decision to run the light during the "all-red clear interval."
In other words, this is an example of an inappropriate use of such technology, because it takes away the judgement aspect of it. When they mail you a ticket a month later, chances are that you won't even remember why you ran the light in the first place. This is how it's intended, so as to guarantee a foolproof revenue stream for the municipality in question.
I thought Fridays were officially "Suck Second Life's Schlong" day on Slashdot. I must not have gotten the TPS memo. Did you use the proper cover sheet?
Of course, every day is "Bash Bush and/or Dibold" day on Slashdot. That, and burning heretics who question the truth of the Protocols of the Elders of Global Warming.
Crow T. Trollbot
Indeed. Fridays are the day that some virtual representation of CowboyNeal goes out to suck schlongs on Second Life. Every day, however, is "espouse liberal/conservative/whatever-the-hell agenda" day on Slashdot. At that point, the "News for Nerds" burns at the stake those "nerds" who actually have an idea of what is really going on.
How do you saturate the upstream when watching porn?!
At any rate, I can saturate a lot more than the upstream and downstream when my wife and I watch porn at work.
Wait, that came out wrong... Dude, how long have you been on Slashdot? He''s clearly saturating the upstream while watching porn by sending out video of himself during the process!
I think home building a box disqualifies you immediately from newbie status.
I know I'm going to get modded down for this, but I don't care.
Look, buying some barebones box and sticking HDDs in it does not make you a guru. Installing a motherboard into said box does not make you a guru. The fact that most people are mind-numbingly stupid is an indicator of a problem with this society, not with technology. Anybody here who works in technical support can testify to just how stupid the average person is.
The abuses are isolated. The enlisted men that are honestly "good guys" trying to to good in a bad situation are many and plenty. The crap reasons that we're over there is another story but the everyday soldiers bearing the brunt of it take it really well and do a lot of good. I agree its a fubar situation but the average enlisted guy dealing with it over there is doing a damn fine job. Well put.
Oh, and X11 isn't that efficient over a network of course!
I'd actually like to see X11 improved so that it is more efficient over a network. Even over my 802.11g, there's a noticeable lag. That would be expected, except for the fact that if you consider that if you run an X11 app over something like DSL, it's insanely noticeable. I'm talking about things like web browsing or office applications too, not watching YouTube videos over the network or doing something stupid like trying to play Quake.
I've the same opinion. It isn't so much whether nVidia's drivers are open source or not. Honestly, this is the one case where I really don't care. What I do care about is whether the drivers (in whatever form they are) work and are kept updated. None of this crap about "Well, you upgraded to a development kernel to fix some other bug, now your graphics won't work because we release binary only shit."
nVidia has historically been better to me than ATI has. I have one desktop with an ATI X700, and one box with a nVidia 7600. The nVidia machine works a hell of a lot better in Linux and, frankly, in Windows too.
Another example would be those f***ng moronic films where someone breaks "128-bit encryption" in 60 seconds because he has a gun to his head (or whatever).
But he was getting a blowjob from a hot blonde (albeit with fake tits) at the time for "motivation." You can't leave that out. It's the most important part here at Slashdot!
Shades of Norton. Windows claims to be "easy to use" and all, but the flood of nagware (which includes automatic updates for reasons previously stated) simply make things ridiculous and annoying. I could list plenty of software that does tihs kind of thing, but by far the worst is Norton. Your subscription expires. Norton then insists on waiting until you open an application, then dropping it back to the desktop to display a nag screen telling you to renew. And there is no option for "I don't want to renew your software, so stop bugging me already." Uninstalling it was easy on one machine, but for some reason on the other was a odyssey of epic proportions.
What is the point of the label without any information regarding the risks?
Let me guess... this will be just about as useless as the "found in laboratory animals" label...
That's because there aren't any real risks. You eat animal A. Before animal A was killed so that you could devour its flesh, someone took DNA from it and made animal A1. Animal A1 is genetically identical to animal A. You now eat meat from animal A1-20581 with steak sauce.
I mean, I really, honestly don't mean to be condescending, but as a molecular biologist (and MD) I don't see the problem.
Want your missing is the higher social value of interacting with your computer on a more equal basis. Just like women, Computers are complex, pretty, expensive and inscrutable. Just like women, they are best handled with suggestions, not commands.
So get off your old, tired, 20th Century horse and get with the new paradigm.
Just a suggestion of course.
And if Microsoft has its way, just like women, the OS will have the option of deciding to stop working with you, then walk off, taking half your assets and any younger computers with it.
Not only that, in a world where banner ad companies can get infected with trojans the idea of people only getting infected if they're doing something "shady" on their machine is utterly absurd.
I've seen that too many times to count. In fairness, though, the times I've seen it has not been with major ad companies, but rather more "shady" advertising companies. However, that doesn't mean that the user was doing anything "shady," and yes, the assertion that they must have been doing that is absurd.
What did I do wrong to be subjected to a 60 page powerpoint?
A very good point, actually. Recently I did a 47 page Powerpoint (actually OpenOffice, but anyway) on a disease process for a group of infectious disease specialists. If I walk in and tell you that I have a 47 page presentation, most people would do what I would do and groan and roll their eyes. The catch was that it was bulletted, and while I was saying much of what was on the slides, the purpose of the slides was twofold. First, to keep me in some kind of structure so I don't go all over the place. Second, in this particular presentation some of the visuals were actually important and relevant.
That's the difference between some jackass who goes in there and reads their slides at which point any thinking human being is thinking, "What the hell am I doing here?" and someone who makes it useful to actually be at the talk. Talk about a waste of my time. At that point, almost anything else is worthwhile. I could be sleeping, or sitting on the can for God's sake. At that point, give me the damned printout of the slides and let me go.
Slashdot Mirror
If I buy cable service and they run the coax into my home, I expect to be able to hook up compatible devices to that wire and use it. So, I expect to be able to buy a PcHDTV card, plug the coax in, and run MythTV. Unfortunately, these retards encrypt all the QAM for no good reason, making that approach worthless. Since I already have some satellite equipment anyway, I'll just stay with satellite. I don't expect to be able to plug a satellite cable into my computer. I do expect to be able to plug the cable's QAM line in without DRM bullshit.
This crap is expressly against the spirit of the BetaMAX decision, and is absolutely insane. All it does is encourage me to pirate movies and TV off the Internet.
I'll throw you one better. I wouldn't mind paying the MPAA $5.50 to download a copy of "Oceans 13" or something. However, that isn't available. So to watch the movie, I have to find an uninterrupted three hour block of time -- which is damned near impossible in my line of work -- then pay the money, then go to the theatre, then deal with some kid pouring soda down my back and someone adding their own soundtrack to the movie. The MPAA doesn't give a damn about their customers, and they're just too retarded to change.
Well, it's simple, then. Convert the contents of the RAM to literally a string of '1's and '0's, then print them out on a laser printer in a variable-spaced font with no landmarks. Then turn over the 100,000 pages of single-spaced 1s and 0s, and the variable spaced font ensures that they have to count the individual characters.
I'm still waiting for someone to crack the piece of shit CableCard system and re-enable fair use rights.
You could make the argument that "netstat" is a hacking tool. Which, I suppose, makes the C library a hacking tool, and the C compiler a hacking tool, and the kernel... Agggggh. Make it stop.
Okay, so to make it simple, what can I tell people who are buying a PalmOS-based PDA?
For example, I have a Palm Lifedrive. (Despite the fact that the designers totally screwed that device up.) What does this mean to me? (Or anybody else with a PalmOS based PDA?)
Actually, I agree with you here. What they need is a speed camera combined with a camera that shoots a view laterally across the street in wide-frame. They would have to keep some kind of full motion video with a known frame rate to estimate the speed of the vehicles and all that. However, by the time you get into all this, which includes citizens filing protests and requiring some clown to review the tapes (which I'm sure htey won't do by default), one has to wonder what the ultimate utility of the system is.
The idea isn't a bad one. Most people would think that these cameras would catch the moron who blows through a red light and weaves through an intersection, almost killing a few people. However, it's the shades of gray that are a problem. These cameras are triggered by a car tripping a camera when the light is red. What they don't show is that some jerk behind me was barrelling up at 60mph and slamming on the brakes, or that the street was wet and I had to make a safety decision to run the light during the "all-red clear interval."
In other words, this is an example of an inappropriate use of such technology, because it takes away the judgement aspect of it. When they mail you a ticket a month later, chances are that you won't even remember why you ran the light in the first place. This is how it's intended, so as to guarantee a foolproof revenue stream for the municipality in question.
Of course, every day is "Bash Bush and/or Dibold" day on Slashdot. That, and burning heretics who question the truth of the Protocols of the Elders of Global Warming.
Crow T. Trollbot
Indeed. Fridays are the day that some virtual representation of CowboyNeal goes out to suck schlongs on Second Life. Every day, however, is "espouse liberal/conservative/whatever-the-hell agenda" day on Slashdot. At that point, the "News for Nerds" burns at the stake those "nerds" who actually have an idea of what is really going on.At any rate, I can saturate a lot more than the upstream and downstream when my wife and I watch porn at work.
Wait, that came out wrong... Dude, how long have you been on Slashdot? He''s clearly saturating the upstream while watching porn by sending out video of himself during the process!
My God. Clearly, hell has now frozen over. I -- *gasp* *choke* support the Democrats in something! It's a sign of the apocolypse!
I know I'm going to get modded down for this, but I don't care.
Look, buying some barebones box and sticking HDDs in it does not make you a guru. Installing a motherboard into said box does not make you a guru. The fact that most people are mind-numbingly stupid is an indicator of a problem with this society, not with technology. Anybody here who works in technical support can testify to just how stupid the average person is.
Well, he was definately a little a head of his time.
Oh, and X11 isn't that efficient over a network of course!
I'd actually like to see X11 improved so that it is more efficient over a network. Even over my 802.11g, there's a noticeable lag. That would be expected, except for the fact that if you consider that if you run an X11 app over something like DSL, it's insanely noticeable. I'm talking about things like web browsing or office applications too, not watching YouTube videos over the network or doing something stupid like trying to play Quake.
This is a 100% no-bullshit serious question: What is the working definition of "Web 2.0?" People throw it around, and it just kind of appeared.
nVidia has historically been better to me than ATI has. I have one desktop with an ATI X700, and one box with a nVidia 7600. The nVidia machine works a hell of a lot better in Linux and, frankly, in Windows too.
Shades of Norton. Windows claims to be "easy to use" and all, but the flood of nagware (which includes automatic updates for reasons previously stated) simply make things ridiculous and annoying. I could list plenty of software that does tihs kind of thing, but by far the worst is Norton. Your subscription expires. Norton then insists on waiting until you open an application, then dropping it back to the desktop to display a nag screen telling you to renew. And there is no option for "I don't want to renew your software, so stop bugging me already." Uninstalling it was easy on one machine, but for some reason on the other was a odyssey of epic proportions.
That's because there aren't any real risks. You eat animal A. Before animal A was killed so that you could devour its flesh, someone took DNA from it and made animal A1. Animal A1 is genetically identical to animal A. You now eat meat from animal A1-20581 with steak sauce.
I mean, I really, honestly don't mean to be condescending, but as a molecular biologist (and MD) I don't see the problem.
And if Microsoft has its way, just like women, the OS will have the option of deciding to stop working with you, then walk off, taking half your assets and any younger computers with it.
I've seen that too many times to count. In fairness, though, the times I've seen it has not been with major ad companies, but rather more "shady" advertising companies. However, that doesn't mean that the user was doing anything "shady," and yes, the assertion that they must have been doing that is absurd.
I suggest people check out Privoxy.
That's the difference between some jackass who goes in there and reads their slides at which point any thinking human being is thinking, "What the hell am I doing here?" and someone who makes it useful to actually be at the talk. Talk about a waste of my time. At that point, almost anything else is worthwhile. I could be sleeping, or sitting on the can for God's sake. At that point, give me the damned printout of the slides and let me go.
I think I've seen this show... It was called "John Doe." :)
Amen.