Not everyone who wants to support open-source software is a coder. And I wouldn't dream of recommending Slackware or Debian to such types.
Distros like Mandrake give the typical user a useable-right-from-the-box alternative to Windows, and this is a good thing.
And Mandrake not innovative? Please. Multi Network Firwewall, MandrakeClub, letting the users pick the packages they want in the distro, all the Drak tools that make administration easier for a newbie, an installation easier and quicker than Windows...every bit of this is innovative. All this while maintaining a commitment to GPL sofware. I am happy to support a company like that.
But there are risks in putting so much behind Linux. For starters, there are legal implications. Does anybody own the intellectual property of the "open-source" software? How exposed are companies to patent violation?
Obviously Lisa DiCarlo really understands the comcepts in the story she just wrote. Yeah.
That Mandrake is going to pass along the cost of Sun's charging for StarOffice 6 only makes sense from a financial point of view, especially given Mandrake's recent money troubles.
It doesn't bother me a bit though, and I am a club member, though not at a level high enough to download StarOffice for free. I gave my $60 to Mandrake, not expecting anything in return, even though benefits are offered to club members. I gave my money because I think Mandrake is the best distro around, and one that has a real chance of making a headway against the MS dominance on the desktop.
So don't be upset that Mandrake is charging its customers to cover the cost of that which they are being charged for themselves. That's how a business is run. And unless Mandrake stays profitable as a business, this great distrobution might not be around in a couple of years.
If you enjoy or appreciate Mandrake's work, why not join the club yourself today?
I agree with you totally. The funny thing is, every time I have this discussion with non-tech inclined friends, they absolutely insist that computers are necessary for kids to learn. If you are taught to think, then a computer becomes a particularly useful tool. If you are taught to think side by side with a computer, the danger that you'll become dependent on it is great, I think. Just as pencil-and-paper math skills decline with dependence on a calculator.
I would have to say that they do. Librarians are right behind IT professionals in making the information age work. In fact, a good number of IT professionals are IT professionals. Some of them believe in open source too. A great example is the Prospero
document delivery system. It's a set of Perl scripts for Apache with a Windows front end done in C. And it saves thousands of dollars over the competition.
Librarians are much more than just little old ladies (and even many who actually are little old ladies have quite impressive computer skills). And they provide a valuable service to keep information--in all of its forms--freely accessible for the public to use now, and for years to come. They are most definitely on our side in this fight.
"It works so well since users seem to be under the impression that all ads are graphical in nature and written-word ad placements are still editorial,"
I really disagree with this statement. Google's ads are clearly marked with a colored background, the words "Sponsored Link," and are presented in a totally different format, most notably wording. There is no mistaking these ads for search results.
He's right though, that the ads work. Unlike the blinking crap that pollutes so many web pages, the ads on Google are relevant and often interesting. I've clicked them fairly often, when I usually ignore banner ads.
I cannot believe a company of this size and scope has not aroused more attention of anti-trust investigators than it has. The AOL/Time Warner corporate viewpoint can reach nearly every facet of American culture. Take a look (credit: Columbia Journalism Review):
Online Services
America Online - over 30 million subscribers
CompuServe Interactive Services
Digital City
AOL Europe
ICQ
The Knot, Inc. - wedding content (8 % with QVC 36% and Hummer WinbladFunds18%)
MapQuest.com - pending regulatory approval
Spinner.com
Winamp
DrKoop.com (10%)
Legend (49% - Internet service in China)
Hughes Electronics Corp.
3Com
eBay
Eastman Kodak Co.
General Motors
VarsityBooks.com
Hewlett-Packard
PurchasePro.com
VeriSign Inc.
Citigroup
Ticketmaster Inc.
Movietickets.com
Homestore
Infospace
American Greetings
Time Warner - Books
Time Life Books
Book-of-the-Month Club
Paperback Book Club
Children's Book-of-the-Month Club
History Book Club
Money Book Club
HomeStyle Books
Crafter's Choice
One Spirit
International
Little, Brown and Company
Bulfinch Press
Back Bay Books
Little, Brown and Company (U.K.)
Warner Books
Warner Vision
The Mysterious Press
Warner Aspect
Warner Treasures
Oxmoor House (subsidiary of Southern Progress Corporation)
Leisure Arts
Sunset Books
TW Kids
Leisure Arts
Time Warner - Cable/DBS
HBO
HBO Home Video
HBO Pictures/HBO Showcase
HBO Independent Productions
HBO Downtown Productions
HBO NYC Productions
HBO Animation
HBO Sports
Cinemax
Time Warner Sports
HBO Asia
HBO en Espa-ol
HBO Ole (with Sony)
HBO Poland (with Sony)
HBO Brasil (with Sony)
HBO Hungary
Cinemax Selecciones
HBO Direct (DBS)
Comedy Central (50% owned with Viacom)
CNN
CNN/SI
CNN International
CNN en Espanol
CNN Headline News
CNN Airport Network
CNN fn
CNN Radio
CNN Interactive
Court TV (with Liberty Media)
Time Warner Cable
Road Runner (high speed cable modem to the Internet, with MediaOne Group, Microsoft, and Compaq)
Time Warner Communications (telephone service)
New York City Cable Group (largest cable cluster in world - over 1.1 million)
New York 1 News (24 hour news channel devoted only to NYC)
Time Warner Home Theater (Pay-Per-View)
Time Warner Security (residential and commercial security monitoring)
Kablevision (53.75% - cable television in Hungary)
In Demand (with AT&T, Comcast and Cox)
Time Warner Inc. - Film & TV Production/Distribution
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Studios
Warner Bros. Television (production)
The WB Television Network
Warner Bros. Television Animation
Hanna - Barbera Cartoons
Telepictures Production
Witt - Thomas Productions
Castle Rock Entertainment
Warner Home Video
Warner Bros. Domestic Pay - TV
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution
The Warner Channel (Latin America, Asia - Pacific, Australia, Germ.)
Warner Bros. International Theaters (owns/operates multiplex theaters in over 12 countries)
Time Warner Inc. - Magazines
Time
Time Asia
Time Atlantic
Time Canada
Time Latin America
Time South Pacific
Time Money
Time For Kids
Fortune
Business 2.0
Life
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated Women/Sport
Sports Illustrated International
SI for Kids
Inside Stuff
Money
Your Company
Your Future
People
Who Weekly (Australian edition)
People en Espa-ol
Teen People
Entertainment Weekly
EW Metro
The Ticket
In Style
Southern Living
Progressive Farmer
Southern Accents
Cooking Light
The Parent Group
Parenting
Baby Talk
Baby on the Way
This Old House
Sunset
Sunset Garden Guide
The Health Publishing Group
Health
Hippocrates
Coastal Living
Weight Watchers
Real Simple
Asiaweek (Asian news weekly)
President (Japanese business monthly)
Dancyu (Japanese cooking)
Wallpaper (U.K.)
Field & Stream
Freeze
Golf Magazine
Outdoor Life
Popular Science
Salt Water Sportsman
Ski
Skiing Magazine
Skiing Trade News
SNAP
Snowboard Life
Ride BMX
Today's Homeowner
TransWorld Skateboarding
TransWorld Snowboarding
Verge
Yachting Magazine
Warp
American Express Publishing Corporation (partial ownership/management)
Travel & Leisure
Food & Wine
Your Company
Departures
SkyGuide
Magazines listed under Warner Brothers label
DC Comics
Vertigo
Paradox
Milestone
Mad Magazine
Time Warner - Music
Warner Music Group - Recording Labels
The Atlantic Group
Atlantic Classics
Atlantic Jazz
Atlantic Nashville
Atlantic Theater
Big Beat
Blackground
Breaking
Curb
Igloo
Lava
Mesa/Bluemoon
Modern
1 43
Rhino Records
Elektra Entertainment Group
Elektra
EastWest
Asylum
Elektra/Sire
Warner Brothers Records
Warner Brothers
Warner Nashville
Warner Alliance
Warner Resound
Warner Sunset
Reprise
Reprise Nashville
American Recordings
Giant
Maverick
Revolution
Qwest
Warner Music International
WEA Telegram
East West ZTT
Coalition
CGD East West
China
Continential
DRO East West
Erato
Fazer
Finlandia
Magneoton
MCM
Nonesuch
Teldec
Other Recording Interests
Warner/Chappell Music (publishing company)
WEA Inc. (sales, distribution and manufacturing)
Ivy Hill Corporation (printing and packaging)
Warner Special Products
Joint Ventures
Columbia House (w/Sony - direct marketing)
Music Sound Exchange (w/Sony - direct marketing)
Music Choice and Music Choice Europe (w/Sony, EMI, General Instrument)
Viva (w/Sony, Polygram, EMI - German music video channel)
Channel V (w/Sony, EMI, Bertelsmann, News Corp.)
Heartland Music (50% - direct order of country and gospel music)
MusicNet (with RealNetworks, EMI, and BMG)
Time Warner - Online/Other Publishing
Road Runner
Warner Publisher Services
Time Distribution Services
American Family Publishers (50%)
Pathfinder
Africana.com
Time Warner - Merchandise/Retail
Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Theme Parks
Warner Brothers Recreation Enterprises (owns/operates international theme parks)
Time Warner Inc. - Turner Entertainment
TBS Superstation
Turner Network Television (TNT)
Turner South
Cartoon Network
Turner Classic Movies
Cartoon Network in Europe
Cartoon Network in Latin America
TNT & Cartoon Network in Asia/Pacific
Film Production
New Line Cinema
Fine Line Features
Turner Original Productions
Sports
Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta Thrashers
Turner Sports
Good Will Games
Philips Arena
Other Operations
Turner Learning
CNN Newsroom (daily news program for classrooms)
Turner Adventure Learning (electronic field trips for schools)
Turner Home Satellite
Turner Network Sales
Another OS should have been considered in this 'death match': Linux-Mandrake.
Installation:
Although I have not had a chance yet to play with OS X, I just finished setting up my system to dual boot Windows 2000 Professional and Mandrake 8.0. The Mandrake installation was by far the easiest and fastest installation I have ever performed. If you take the recommended install, you click yes a few times, set a root password, and 15 minutes later you have a working system with a boatload more programs and possibilities than Win2K. It just blows me away how fast an easy the install was. Win2K took over an hour on my 400Mhz system and was generally more difficult. I like Mandrake's built-in and easy to use partition utility too.
Advantage: Mandrake
Interface:
With 8.0, Mandrake now has a fully graphical startup. From LILO right into KDE, the scared newbie doesn't have to sit through a scrolling list of cryptic startup messages. Yet pertinent startup info is still displayed on the screen in a manner that should satisfy a pro while not scarting the newbie. Contrast this to Win2K, which first gives you a text-only boot loader (if you dual boot), then a little text startup meter thingy, then when it finally gets to the graphical part of the boot up, there are no status messages displayed anywhere by default to let you know what's going on. Once loaded up, there are quirks in KDE and Gnome that you don't have to deal with in Windows, but there is so much more that I can customize. I forsee KDE and Gnome working out their bugs and quirks, I do not see MS giving us more control over the GUI.
Advantage: Mandrake
Software compatibility:
Maybe Windows and OS X win out here, due to MSOffice and the like, but there really is very little one cannot do on a default install of Mandrake that you could do on one of those others, at lower cost and greater freedom. In the way of development, internet and mail services, you get a whole lot more with Mandrake.
Advantage:Tie (Office apps are a big deal here)
Hardware compatibility:
I have fairly standard hardware, nothing exotic or over the top. Mandrake correctly identified and configured ALL of my hardware. No exceptions. I was thrilled at this. The last Mandrake I installed, 7.1, had all manner of problems in this area (and others). Windows 2000 did not recognize my network card at all, and did not correctly identify my video card, my soundcard, my modem, or my printer.
Advantage: Mandrake
Internet Support
So-called 'wizards' in OS X and Win2K may make some things easier, but you can still do so much more, right out of the box with Mandrake. And the addition of prominent web-based help icons right on the desktop (Mandrake Campus and Mandrake Expert) are a big bonus. There is no need to rely on old, pre-installed help files. When you need up to date help, you can look there. Other networking features of Mandrake were detected and setup automagically during the intall, so there was no need to even configure a Wizard. First time in KDE, I click the Konqueror icon, and I'm on the internet. Contrast that to Windows, where EVERY user must fill out internet connection wizards the first time they venture online. And, as a linux distribution, Mandrake is closely integrated to the internet in many other ways.
Advantage: Mandrake
In my opinion, this latest Mandrake is so very close to being able to be a realistic third choice when the average Joe Computer User buys their next desktop machine. Office apps, games, and a few tweaks here and there, and the choice will be easy. The Freedom that comes with Linux (my reason for trying it out in the first place) makes it that much easier.
Too bad those C|Net folks didn't make it a three-way race with Mandrake in there. That would have been more interesting than that useless fluff piece.
Stonecutters themesong
on
The Business
·
· Score: 2
For those of you who are (*gasp*) Simpsons-challenged, the quotes that michael tossed into the review are from Episode #115 (2F09), entitled, "Homer the Great," which premiered on 8/1/95. The Stonecutters are a secret society, like The Business.
You can listen to a WAV file of the whole song here.
This means that the Athlon 4 that is being launched in notebooks
today is simply a lower clocked version of the workstation/server Athlon 4 that will be launched in June. And the workstation/server Athlon 4 is nothing more than a lower clocked version of the desktop Athlon 4 that will be launched in August. [emphasis added]
That notebook you saw on QVC is real. It is the desktop model that will not ship until August.
A church that's 800 years old looks like the day it was built to my eyes, and that most of the wear and tear that I'm used to has occurred just within the past century.
No kidding! Just look at this picture of the Church of St. Dmitrii from the exhibit, and compare it to this one, taken in the early 1990s. The recent one is filthy.
That the deterioration to these buildings occurred largely in the last century is correct, but do not place the blame solely on the industrialization. The Soviet state had a much greater effect on the current poor condition of Russian Orthodox churches.
During the rule of Lenin and Stalin, thousands of churches were completely destroyed, most famously, The Church of Christ the Saviour, in Moscow. Many more were damaged and looted, others were used as clubs or wharehouses, like the magnificent Church of the Savior on the Blood in St. Petersburg (picture here). It has only been relatively recently that major restorations have been undertaken to return some of these architectural landmarks to their former glory. Furthermore, a state obsessed with military parity with the West had few resources left to perform even simple maintenance to clean the facades of many buildings.
Something else that is interesting is how, in some respects, so little has changed from the time these pictures were taken. Aside from the clothing, this picture could have been taken in any Russian town this very day. And a train ride through the Russian countryside reveals many villages that look similar to this even today.
Prokudin-Gorskii's photographs are simply amazing, though, a real treasure. I agree with many of the other posters who said that these pictures place one's black and white mental image of the past in a whole new light. Kudos to the Library of Congress for this exhibit. I am sure it will be of immense value to scholars and students world wide.
once the game is played on one PS2 it will not work on other consoles.
So if I had a PS2, when I'd want to show my buds the cool new game I just bought, I'd have to take over the whole console to their house, rather than just the disk?
The graphics are sweet, but this just gives me one more reason not to buy one.
In recent protests (anti-WTO, among others), demonstrators frequently brought countermeasures--gas masks to protect against tear gas, padded armor, etc.
What, if anything, can the average protesters do to protect themselves from a maser?
When you click "buy now" on the site, it takes you to PayPal to finalize the transaction. PayPal lets you know that the real company you are buying the product from is called, "ECommerce Electronics," and that they are a "verified member."
The business web site listed for Ecommerce Electronics (just a mirror of http://www.gamedvdplayer.com/) is http://www.dvd8050.com/ and a whois search shows the company is from Houston, TX, and this site was registered in July. That doesn't make them seem much more trustworthy. Their servers are standing up pretty well to the slashdot effect, maybe that means something...
Notice the administrative contact has an email address at 250dvd.com. This site was registered in June 2000 to the same company, Ecommerce Inc. There is more information on 250dvd.com about the product (different views, etc.) but still nothing about any licensing of the Sega games.
NPR just did a pretty interesting multi-part series called The Way We Play (Real Audio archive available), all about how technology is eating away at our free time, blah, blah. The issue is not portrayed quite so fatalistically as in Katz's piece.
And in how many articles can he use the word "Neo-Luddites?" sheesh . . .
Slashdot Mirror
Not everyone who wants to support open-source software is a coder. And I wouldn't dream of recommending Slackware or Debian to such types.
Distros like Mandrake give the typical user a useable-right-from-the-box alternative to Windows, and this is a good thing.
And Mandrake not innovative? Please. Multi Network Firwewall, MandrakeClub, letting the users pick the packages they want in the distro, all the Drak tools that make administration easier for a newbie, an installation easier and quicker than Windows...every bit of this is innovative. All this while maintaining a commitment to GPL sofware. I am happy to support a company like that.
of the Fomalhaut system and planet is today's Astronomy Picture of the Day.
There is a great archive of recipes (more than 70,000) at RecipeSource. It's free, searchable, well-organized, and you can submit recipes too.
Obviously Lisa DiCarlo really understands the comcepts in the story she just wrote. Yeah.
That Mandrake is going to pass along the cost of Sun's charging for StarOffice 6 only makes sense from a financial point of view, especially given Mandrake's recent money troubles.
It doesn't bother me a bit though, and I am a club member, though not at a level high enough to download StarOffice for free. I gave my $60 to Mandrake, not expecting anything in return, even though benefits are offered to club members. I gave my money because I think Mandrake is the best distro around, and one that has a real chance of making a headway against the MS dominance on the desktop.
So don't be upset that Mandrake is charging its customers to cover the cost of that which they are being charged for themselves. That's how a business is run. And unless Mandrake stays profitable as a business, this great distrobution might not be around in a couple of years.
If you enjoy or appreciate Mandrake's work, why not join the club yourself today?
You're right. Open source intelligence, also known as OSINT, has been around since at least the 1930's.
Here's more information.
Maybe apple.slashdot.org is just an excuse to create Aquafied Slashdot graphics?
I agree with you totally. The funny thing is, every time I have this discussion with non-tech inclined friends, they absolutely insist that computers are necessary for kids to learn. If you are taught to think, then a computer becomes a particularly useful tool. If you are taught to think side by side with a computer, the danger that you'll become dependent on it is great, I think. Just as pencil-and-paper math skills decline with dependence on a calculator.
It can only get worse when Land Warrior is implimented and thousands of troops are dependent on Windows 2000 on the battlefield.
I would have to say that they do. Librarians are right behind IT professionals in making the information age work. In fact, a good number of IT professionals are IT professionals. Some of them believe in open source too. A great example is the Prospero document delivery system. It's a set of Perl scripts for Apache with a Windows front end done in C. And it saves thousands of dollars over the competition.
Librarians are much more than just little old ladies (and even many who actually are little old ladies have quite impressive computer skills). And they provide a valuable service to keep information--in all of its forms--freely accessible for the public to use now, and for years to come. They are most definitely on our side in this fight.
hmm, so I can delete data from my hard drive now, huh? Now that's innovation for you.
Oh, wait, they must have meant "let the RIAA/MPAA/ect. delete data from their hard drive." Yeah, that makes more sense.
From the article:
I really disagree with this statement. Google's ads are clearly marked with a colored background, the words "Sponsored Link," and are presented in a totally different format, most notably wording. There is no mistaking these ads for search results.
He's right though, that the ads work. Unlike the blinking crap that pollutes so many web pages, the ads on Google are relevant and often interesting. I've clicked them fairly often, when I usually ignore banner ads.
I cannot believe a company of this size and scope has not aroused more attention of anti-trust investigators than it has. The AOL/Time Warner corporate viewpoint can reach nearly every facet of American culture. Take a look (credit: Columbia Journalism Review):
Online Services
Other
Joint ventures with the following companies:
Time Warner - Books
Time Warner - Cable/DBS
Time Warner Inc. - Film & TV Production/Distribution
Time Warner Inc. - Magazines
Magazines listed under Warner Brothers label
Time Warner - Music
Other Recording Interests
Joint Ventures
Time Warner - Online/Other Publishing
Time Warner - Merchandise/Retail
Theme Parks
Time Warner Inc. - Turner Entertainment
Film Production
Sports
Other Operations
Could robots.txt be modified to include a line to instruct Google, et al., not to cache images?
Another OS should have been considered in this 'death match': Linux-Mandrake.
Installation:
Although I have not had a chance yet to play with OS X, I just finished setting up my system to dual boot Windows 2000 Professional and Mandrake 8.0. The Mandrake installation was by far the easiest and fastest installation I have ever performed. If you take the recommended install, you click yes a few times, set a root password, and 15 minutes later you have a working system with a boatload more programs and possibilities than Win2K. It just blows me away how fast an easy the install was. Win2K took over an hour on my 400Mhz system and was generally more difficult. I like Mandrake's built-in and easy to use partition utility too.
Advantage: Mandrake
Interface:
With 8.0, Mandrake now has a fully graphical startup. From LILO right into KDE, the scared newbie doesn't have to sit through a scrolling list of cryptic startup messages. Yet pertinent startup info is still displayed on the screen in a manner that should satisfy a pro while not scarting the newbie. Contrast this to Win2K, which first gives you a text-only boot loader (if you dual boot), then a little text startup meter thingy, then when it finally gets to the graphical part of the boot up, there are no status messages displayed anywhere by default to let you know what's going on. Once loaded up, there are quirks in KDE and Gnome that you don't have to deal with in Windows, but there is so much more that I can customize. I forsee KDE and Gnome working out their bugs and quirks, I do not see MS giving us more control over the GUI.
Advantage: Mandrake
Software compatibility:
Maybe Windows and OS X win out here, due to MSOffice and the like, but there really is very little one cannot do on a default install of Mandrake that you could do on one of those others, at lower cost and greater freedom. In the way of development, internet and mail services, you get a whole lot more with Mandrake.
Advantage:Tie (Office apps are a big deal here)
Hardware compatibility:
I have fairly standard hardware, nothing exotic or over the top. Mandrake correctly identified and configured ALL of my hardware. No exceptions. I was thrilled at this. The last Mandrake I installed, 7.1, had all manner of problems in this area (and others). Windows 2000 did not recognize my network card at all, and did not correctly identify my video card, my soundcard, my modem, or my printer.
Advantage: Mandrake
Internet Support
So-called 'wizards' in OS X and Win2K may make some things easier, but you can still do so much more, right out of the box with Mandrake. And the addition of prominent web-based help icons right on the desktop (Mandrake Campus and Mandrake Expert) are a big bonus. There is no need to rely on old, pre-installed help files. When you need up to date help, you can look there. Other networking features of Mandrake were detected and setup automagically during the intall, so there was no need to even configure a Wizard. First time in KDE, I click the Konqueror icon, and I'm on the internet. Contrast that to Windows, where EVERY user must fill out internet connection wizards the first time they venture online. And, as a linux distribution, Mandrake is closely integrated to the internet in many other ways.
Advantage: Mandrake
In my opinion, this latest Mandrake is so very close to being able to be a realistic third choice when the average Joe Computer User buys their next desktop machine. Office apps, games, and a few tweaks here and there, and the choice will be easy. The Freedom that comes with Linux (my reason for trying it out in the first place) makes it that much easier.
Too bad those C|Net folks didn't make it a three-way race with Mandrake in there. That would have been more interesting than that useless fluff piece.
For those of you who are (*gasp*) Simpsons-challenged, the quotes that michael tossed into the review are from Episode #115 (2F09), entitled, "Homer the Great," which premiered on 8/1/95. The Stonecutters are a secret society, like The Business.
You can listen to a WAV file of the whole song here.
From the article:
That notebook you saw on QVC is real. It is the desktop model that will not ship until August.
Am I the only one around here who is a little leery anymore of clicking any links in the .cx domain?
eh, i guess that's what i get for browsing at -1...
No kidding! Just look at this picture of the Church of St. Dmitrii from the exhibit, and compare it to this one, taken in the early 1990s. The recent one is filthy.
That the deterioration to these buildings occurred largely in the last century is correct, but do not place the blame solely on the industrialization. The Soviet state had a much greater effect on the current poor condition of Russian Orthodox churches.
During the rule of Lenin and Stalin, thousands of churches were completely destroyed, most famously, The Church of Christ the Saviour, in Moscow. Many more were damaged and looted, others were used as clubs or wharehouses, like the magnificent Church of the Savior on the Blood in St. Petersburg (picture here). It has only been relatively recently that major restorations have been undertaken to return some of these architectural landmarks to their former glory. Furthermore, a state obsessed with military parity with the West had few resources left to perform even simple maintenance to clean the facades of many buildings.
Something else that is interesting is how, in some respects, so little has changed from the time these pictures were taken. Aside from the clothing, this picture could have been taken in any Russian town this very day. And a train ride through the Russian countryside reveals many villages that look similar to this even today.
Prokudin-Gorskii's photographs are simply amazing, though, a real treasure. I agree with many of the other posters who said that these pictures place one's black and white mental image of the past in a whole new light. Kudos to the Library of Congress for this exhibit. I am sure it will be of immense value to scholars and students world wide.
So if I had a PS2, when I'd want to show my buds the cool new game I just bought, I'd have to take over the whole console to their house, rather than just the disk?
The graphics are sweet, but this just gives me one more reason not to buy one.
In recent protests (anti-WTO, among others), demonstrators frequently brought countermeasures--gas masks to protect against tear gas, padded armor, etc.
What, if anything, can the average protesters do to protect themselves from a maser?
When you click "buy now" on the site, it takes you to PayPal to finalize the transaction. PayPal lets you know that the real company you are buying the product from is called, "ECommerce Electronics," and that they are a "verified member."
The business web site listed for Ecommerce Electronics (just a mirror of http://www.gamedvdplayer.com/) is http://www.dvd8050.com/ and a whois search shows the company is from Houston, TX, and this site was registered in July. That doesn't make them seem much more trustworthy. Their servers are standing up pretty well to the slashdot effect, maybe that means something...
Here's the whois record:
Notice the administrative contact has an email address at 250dvd.com. This site was registered in June 2000 to the same company, Ecommerce Inc. There is more information on 250dvd.com about the product (different views, etc.) but still nothing about any licensing of the Sega games.
NPR just did a pretty interesting multi-part series called The Way We Play (Real Audio archive available), all about how technology is eating away at our free time, blah, blah. The issue is not portrayed quite so fatalistically as in Katz's piece.
And in how many articles can he use the word "Neo-Luddites?" sheesh . . .
Link to the audio archives of the Talk of the Nation interview is here
They look promising in this area. Peep this article for more info.