Spider Robinson wrote a short story, called Melancholy Elephants that has an interesting take on the copyright issue. Do artists REALLY need a 95-year copyright? I can understand copyright for the life of the author, and possibly his family, but beyond that, it's a little ridiculous.
I recommend reading the story.. Very good insight..
Being single, alone, and having no family within 400km, I prefer to work. Major holidays tend to suck for me, since I have no one to share them with...
Anyways.. I'm working Graveyard shift for HP Phone support. Ah, the joys. It should be REAL quiet tonight. Although, there are those people who JUST got a HP computer, and can't find the ANY key.
Woops, my bad. Forgot to post as plaintext - I didn't log in first. Here - I'll repost it again in a clearer format. =D
------------------------------------------------ - Wow. I'm surprised you enjoy music at all. After all, you seem to be against happiness/joy/fun in any way,shape,or form. You're also one of the wonderfully uneducated people.
1. No contraception. Wee, can you say "population explosion?" You must also be a fan of Malthusean solutions - Let's have a good ol' pestilence to combat overpopulation! Perhaps starvation! weeee-ha!
2. Internal Spy Network - Wow. It won't be Big Brother watching us - it'll be everyone else! Let's make sure that they have the power to arrest anyone for any reason. Look, it's a do-it-yourself police state!
3. "Judeo-Christian Values the USA was founded on." - And what, pray tell, are those? That women are little more than slaves? That 'fun' will be punished? That the USA is not the land of opportunity, just the land of homogenous thinking.
4. Did you ever stop to think... oh wait, you didn't.
5. Let me guess, you're also against the use of the internet for commercial gain, information dissemination, and entertainment.
6. Legalize police entrapment to catch criminals before they commit a crime - How does this work? Do they go around asking "If you see a wallet on the ground, would you pick it up and take the money? YOU SCUM! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"
7. Oh yea, the cats. Let me guess, they're your only friends? You must lead a boring, lonely life. You're not likely to meet the love of your life when you feel that women aren't even worthy of pleasure in the act of sex. Or that they're second-class citizens.
8. Let's see, what else - You support the death penalty for spying against the state. Hmm. Isn't the state the people as a whole? Then how could you have an internal spy network? You'd have to kill them as soon as they started working for you!
There's a term for people like you. Actually, there are lots of them. Bigot, Zealot, Fanatic, to name a few. However, I'll sum it up in a simple phrase - You are severely disturbed.
Out of curiosity, is one of your idols Hitler? You certainly seem to think like him - Penalize those who don't fit your ideal. Eliminate those that are different.
You are one of the more morally disfunctional people I've ever had the misfortune to meet.
It's also a well-known tactic to make biblical quotes that say what YOU want them to say. It's people like you that made me give up on Christianity.
Wow. I'm surprised you enjoy music at all. After all, you seem to be against happiness/joy/fun in any way,shape,or form. You're also one of the wonderfully uneducated people. 1. No contraception. Wee, can you say "population explosion?" You must also be a fan of Malthusean solutions - Let's have a good ol' pestilence to combat overpopulation! Perhaps starvation! weeee-ha! 2. Internal Spy Network - Wow. It won't be Big Brother watching us - it'll be everyone else! Let's make sure that they have the power to arrest anyone for any reason. Look, it's a do-it-yourself police state! 3. "Judeo-Christian Values the USA was founded on." - And what, pray tell, are those? That women are little more than slaves? That 'fun' will be punished? That the USA is not the land of opportunity, just the land of homogenous thinking. 4. Did you ever stop to think... oh wait, you didn't. 5. Let me guess, you're also against the use of the internet for commercial gain, information dissemination, and entertainment. 6. Legalize police entrapment to catch criminals before they commit a crime - How does this work? Do they go around asking "If you see a wallet on the ground, would you pick it up and take the money? YOU SCUM! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!" 7. Oh yea, the cats. Let me guess, they're your only friends? You must lead a boring, lonely life. You're not likely to meet the love of your life when you feel that women aren't even worthy of pleasure in the act of sex. Or that they're second-class citizens. 8. Let's see, what else - You support the death penalty for spying against the state. Hmm. Isn't the state the people as a whole? Then how could you have an internal spy network? You'd have to kill them as soon as they started working for you! There's a term for people like you. Actually, there are lots of them. Bigot, Zealot, Fanatic, to name a few. However, I'll sum it up in a simple phrase - You are severely disturbed. Out of curiosity, is one of your idols Hitler? You certainly seem to think like him - Penalize those who don't fit your ideal. Eliminate those that are different. You are one of the more morally disfunctional people I've ever had the misfortune to meet. It's also a well-known tactic to make biblical quotes that say what YOU want them to say. It's people like you that made me give up on Christianity. Twyst.
Surprisingly enough, if you take out that little hunk of electronics, you can toss a keyboard in a dishwasher. Works like a charm - just lay it out to dry, or grab a paper towel. I used to do it all the time at work.
Whatever we're lucky enough to receive from our fan(s). All the artists who feel that they must be paid must do is put out the technological equivalent of an open guitar case next to the drum kit, so the dancers can throw a buck or two in once they're done.
As a street performer, I can honestly say that this method returns much greater rewards than by charging a flat rate per item. Strange, huh?
Admittedly, I'm not a musician - I do balloon animals (hehehe!) - but the concept is there. If I was to charge a flat rate based on my cost and labor, I'd make far less than I do letting people pay me what they think my work is worth. It's also incentive to start doing what people like - voting with dollars, as it were. If I was only doing red poodles, nobody would want my creations. It's the same with music. If a band is doing something that nobody likes, then they don't get money. I know - it sounds like a gamble. And it is. But it's like the gamble that we as consumers take when we buy a CD unheard. It prevents bands from coasting along on the basis of their past albums.
OK, maybe it's been said before - but Netscape 4.x is crap, and I hope Mozilla fixes some of these INSANE bugs:
1. Tables. I use these in EVERYTHING, and Netscape screws them over EVERY. DAMN. TIME.
Example 1: you can't apply a background color to an entire table. Netscape IGNORES it. Exception: If you set it in CSS, it works. This is EXTREMELY annoying. (See CSS section below)
Example 2: Create a table. Place an image as a background of one of the cells. Now, place a SECOND table in that cell. Give it a background color.( or image ). Enjoy the wonderful gibbling of the image. This has existed since NN 4.0 - and apparently is still in 4.7. It occurs on windows and Linux, as well.
Example 3: The nowrap tag. mm, mm, good. NOT. IE handles this as you would expect - it applys to the you use it in, and not any nested tables. Netscape says "no, you used nowrap in this table cell - so EVERYTHING has nowrap applied to it. Even this nested table that you've entered lots of text into. Wee! Let's make the table several screens wide!"
2. CSS. Wow. Let's talk crap. Doesn't the specification state that you can override a previously defined style with an inline one? Well, Netscape doesn't think so. If it's previously defined - such as a table background - then everything has that style.
Example: Try using (span color="#ffffff") tags to change stuff, such as color. It works in IE, but not in NN.
3. Frames. Netscape has this WONDERFUL little bug with NOT understanding "zero width" frames. IE says "sure, go ahead. that frame is there, just with no width.". Netscape, on the other hand, FORCES a 5 - 10 pixel width frame, even when explicitly told NOT to.
Example: http://wallpaper.twysted.net - look at it in both browsers. (this was an attempt to cloak a URL.) In IE - it works 100% the way it should. Netscape, on the other hand...
Anyways - that's enough of a rant for now. Perhaps some things are due to me expecting the same behavior in NN as in IE. I do my coding for IE - then curse NN for at least 3 hours while I attempt to make it look correct. This is even with validated HTML sometimes.
Maybe Mozilla will be better - I'll have to wait and see.
they're doing it for the good of the kids. The fact that they're clueless and making a bad situation worse is unfortunate, but ultimately they're on the side of the angels.
That is the single most encompassing excuse to do anything. "It's for their own good." If you keep saying that, where does it stop? "We sterilized these mentally defective people for their own good." "Sorry, Billy, we have to put you under guard for your own good" "We killed those people because they were different, and could never fit in. It was for their own good."
Yes, I'm mostly exaggerating. I'm trying to make a point. It frightens me that a government can do anything they want, just by saying it's for the good of the people. If they can convince themselves "It's for their own good", or "it's for the good of the people", that's when I'd be watching my back. Ever read 1984? I hope so.
This world is getting more Orwellian all the time.
Slashdot Mirror
Spider Robinson wrote a short story, called Melancholy Elephants that has an interesting take on the copyright issue. Do artists REALLY need a 95-year copyright? I can understand copyright for the life of the author, and possibly his family, but beyond that, it's a little ridiculous. I recommend reading the story .. Very good insight..
Here. Read this.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/lcd.htm
LCDs are made of LOTS of little moving parts. Basically, the crystals have to twist and untwist in response to an electrical charge to work.
Yay! Impossible Mission! woo!
And of course, if you need a reminder of those old, old games... check out http://c64animation.com
(grin)
Being single, alone, and having no family within 400km, I prefer to work. Major holidays tend to suck for me, since I have no one to share them with...
Anyways.. I'm working Graveyard shift for HP Phone support. Ah, the joys. It should be REAL quiet tonight. Although, there are those people who JUST got a HP computer, and can't find the ANY key.
Woops, my bad. Forgot to post as plaintext - I didn't log in first. Here - I'll repost it again in a clearer format. =D
- -
-----------------------------------------------
Wow. I'm surprised you enjoy music at all. After all, you seem to be against happiness/joy/fun in any way,shape,or form. You're also one of the wonderfully uneducated people.
1. No contraception. Wee, can you say "population explosion?" You must also be a fan of Malthusean solutions - Let's have a good ol' pestilence to combat overpopulation! Perhaps starvation! weeee-ha!
2. Internal Spy Network - Wow. It won't be Big Brother watching us - it'll be everyone else! Let's make sure that they have the power to arrest anyone for any reason. Look, it's a do-it-yourself police state!
3. "Judeo-Christian Values the USA was founded on." - And what, pray tell, are those? That women are little more than slaves? That 'fun' will be punished? That the USA is not the land of opportunity, just the land of homogenous thinking.
4. Did you ever stop to think... oh wait, you didn't.
5. Let me guess, you're also against the use of the internet for commercial gain, information dissemination, and entertainment.
6. Legalize police entrapment to catch criminals before they commit a crime - How does this work? Do they go around asking "If you see a wallet on the ground, would you pick it up and take the money? YOU SCUM! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"
7. Oh yea, the cats. Let me guess, they're your only friends? You must lead a boring, lonely life. You're not likely to meet the love of your life when you feel that women aren't even worthy of pleasure in the act of sex. Or that they're second-class citizens.
8. Let's see, what else - You support the death penalty for spying against the state. Hmm. Isn't the state the people as a whole? Then how could you have an internal spy network? You'd have to kill them as soon as they started working for you!
There's a term for people like you. Actually, there are lots of them. Bigot, Zealot, Fanatic, to name a few. However, I'll sum it up in a simple phrase - You are severely disturbed.
Out of curiosity, is one of your idols Hitler? You certainly seem to think like him - Penalize those who don't fit your ideal. Eliminate those that are different.
You are one of the more morally disfunctional people I've ever had the misfortune to meet.
It's also a well-known tactic to make biblical quotes that say what YOU want them to say. It's people like you that made me give up on Christianity.
Twyst.
Wow. I'm surprised you enjoy music at all. After all, you seem to be against happiness/joy/fun in any way,shape,or form. You're also one of the wonderfully uneducated people. 1. No contraception. Wee, can you say "population explosion?" You must also be a fan of Malthusean solutions - Let's have a good ol' pestilence to combat overpopulation! Perhaps starvation! weeee-ha! 2. Internal Spy Network - Wow. It won't be Big Brother watching us - it'll be everyone else! Let's make sure that they have the power to arrest anyone for any reason. Look, it's a do-it-yourself police state! 3. "Judeo-Christian Values the USA was founded on." - And what, pray tell, are those? That women are little more than slaves? That 'fun' will be punished? That the USA is not the land of opportunity, just the land of homogenous thinking. 4. Did you ever stop to think... oh wait, you didn't. 5. Let me guess, you're also against the use of the internet for commercial gain, information dissemination, and entertainment. 6. Legalize police entrapment to catch criminals before they commit a crime - How does this work? Do they go around asking "If you see a wallet on the ground, would you pick it up and take the money? YOU SCUM! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!" 7. Oh yea, the cats. Let me guess, they're your only friends? You must lead a boring, lonely life. You're not likely to meet the love of your life when you feel that women aren't even worthy of pleasure in the act of sex. Or that they're second-class citizens. 8. Let's see, what else - You support the death penalty for spying against the state. Hmm. Isn't the state the people as a whole? Then how could you have an internal spy network? You'd have to kill them as soon as they started working for you! There's a term for people like you. Actually, there are lots of them. Bigot, Zealot, Fanatic, to name a few. However, I'll sum it up in a simple phrase - You are severely disturbed. Out of curiosity, is one of your idols Hitler? You certainly seem to think like him - Penalize those who don't fit your ideal. Eliminate those that are different. You are one of the more morally disfunctional people I've ever had the misfortune to meet. It's also a well-known tactic to make biblical quotes that say what YOU want them to say. It's people like you that made me give up on Christianity. Twyst.
Surprisingly enough, if you take out that little hunk of electronics, you can toss a keyboard in a dishwasher. Works like a charm - just lay it out to dry, or grab a paper towel. I used to do it all the time at work.
Whatever we're lucky enough to receive from our fan(s). All the artists who feel that they must be paid must do is put out the technological equivalent of an open guitar case next to the drum kit, so the dancers can throw a buck or two in once they're done.
As a street performer, I can honestly say that this method returns much greater rewards than by charging a flat rate per item. Strange, huh?
Admittedly, I'm not a musician - I do balloon animals (hehehe!) - but the concept is there. If I was to charge a flat rate based on my cost and labor, I'd make far less than I do letting people pay me what they think my work is worth. It's also incentive to start doing what people like - voting with dollars, as it were. If I was only doing red poodles, nobody would want my creations. It's the same with music. If a band is doing something that nobody likes, then they don't get money. I know - it sounds like a gamble. And it is. But it's like the gamble that we as consumers take when we buy a CD unheard. It prevents bands from coasting along on the basis of their past albums.
OK, maybe it's been said before - but Netscape 4.x is crap, and I hope Mozilla fixes some of these INSANE bugs:
1. Tables. I use these in EVERYTHING, and Netscape screws them over EVERY. DAMN. TIME.
Example 1: you can't apply a background color to an entire table. Netscape IGNORES it. Exception: If you set it in CSS, it works. This is EXTREMELY annoying. (See CSS section below)
Example 2: Create a table. Place an image as a background of one of the cells. Now, place a SECOND table in that cell. Give it a background color.( or image ). Enjoy the wonderful gibbling of the image. This has existed since NN 4.0 - and apparently is still in 4.7. It occurs on windows and Linux, as well.
Example 3: The nowrap tag. mm, mm, good. NOT. IE handles this as you would expect - it applys to the you use it in, and not any nested tables. Netscape says "no, you used nowrap in this table cell - so EVERYTHING has nowrap applied to it. Even this nested table that you've entered lots of text into. Wee! Let's make the table several screens wide!"
2. CSS. Wow. Let's talk crap. Doesn't the specification state that you can override a previously defined style with an inline one? Well, Netscape doesn't think so. If it's previously defined - such as a table background - then everything has that style.
Example: Try using (span color="#ffffff") tags to change stuff, such as color. It works in IE, but not in NN.
3. Frames. Netscape has this WONDERFUL little bug with NOT understanding "zero width" frames. IE says "sure, go ahead. that frame is there, just with no width.". Netscape, on the other hand, FORCES a 5 - 10 pixel width frame, even when explicitly told NOT to.
Example: http://wallpaper.twysted.net - look at it in both browsers. (this was an attempt to cloak a URL.) In IE - it works 100% the way it should. Netscape, on the other hand...
Anyways - that's enough of a rant for now. Perhaps some things are due to me expecting the same behavior in NN as in IE. I do my coding for IE - then curse NN for at least 3 hours while I attempt to make it look correct. This is even with validated HTML sometimes.
Maybe Mozilla will be better - I'll have to wait and see.
they're doing it for the good of the kids. The fact that they're clueless and making a bad situation worse is unfortunate, but ultimately they're on the side of the angels.
That is the single most encompassing excuse to do anything. "It's for their own good." If you keep saying that, where does it stop? "We sterilized these mentally defective people for their own good." "Sorry, Billy, we have to put you under guard for your own good" "We killed those people because they were different, and could never fit in. It was for their own good."
Yes, I'm mostly exaggerating. I'm trying to make a point. It frightens me that a government can do anything they want, just by saying it's for the good of the people. If they can convince themselves "It's for their own good", or "it's for the good of the people", that's when I'd be watching my back. Ever read 1984? I hope so.
This world is getting more Orwellian all the time.
A friend of mine had registered twolefties.com, because both of his sons are left-handed. This is cool, right? No dirty words...
NSI rejected it on the grounds that "a leftie is slang for a joint". they told him this - it wasn't an automated reply...
At this point, I'm not sure if he's gotten his domain or not...
There's a MUCH better, and more feature-filled links system out, called (of all things) Links.
check it out:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com
This NEEDS to be said, due to the number of posts that seem to be referring to Pov-Ray.
Pov-Ray is a renderer. It's been available for many platforms( including Linux) for quite some time.
PovLab is a modeller. It's a DOS-only program, and the source was just released today.