On the torrent site I visit most often, the community is small but dedicated. They upload for the same reason programmers volunteer time to Linux coding, or volunteers work at homeless kitchens. It's their way of feeling good.
Of course the #1 uploader is the site owner - obviously he gains from ad profit, so that's his motive. The rest are just volunteers.
I haven't. Too busy playing video games, programming VHDL or verilog, and working 70+ hour weeks. So is it worth the $200 pricetag? (Volumes 1-2 Boxset plus Volume 4, fasciles 1-5)
If you're doing nothing wrong, you shouldn't mind being watched by cops (i.e. don't drive over speedlimits - ever). Of course this same thinking also applies to Politicians and their being monitored by wikileaks (yes I'm a fan).
Everybody in the world is using DVD, which naturally evolved in HD-DVD, and along comes Sony and a few other companies with "Bluray" which they claimed was superior. All it did was setup confusion for consumers and a format war. Thankfully that "war" was short and didn't have negative consequences. Hopefully this one will be too, so we can have a clear standard, rather than a divided MPEG v. VP8 internet.
>>>once the internet became controlled predominantly by public political and private business interests.
Interesting statement. Has there ever been a time when the internet was Not controlled by either government or business? I can't think of any. First there was APRA control (public political), then it gradually moved towards private college and ARPA control, and now its current state. So bascially the internet has ALWAYS been controlled by "public political and business interests".
BTW the government didn't handle the Analog to Digital TV transition that great either. It was supposed to happen in 2006, got pushed back to 2009, and then pushed back again for six more months (but only half the stations complied so that turned into a mess). The government screwed-up the AM to AM Stereo transition (consumers were confused which of 3 codecs to choose). And now it appears the AM/FM to HD Radio transition is not working either.
Correction: Easy to install, but making them work with my graphics card or audio card..... that's the real challenge. It's nowhere near as easy as my Atari or Commodore or Amiga where I just slide the disk in the machine, and it works, because the hardware is standardized so the programmer targeted the video/audio processors directly.
Example: I bought Wing Commander 1 for the PC from amazon. It won't work on Seven. Won't work on XP. Won't work on 98. I even downloaded DOS 6 and it still won't work (sound but no picture). ----- So after a day of frustration, I went over to lemonamiga.com on Day #2 and quickly located the version for that machine. The graphics are only 704x240 instead of 480p VGA, but it least it works.
>>>This is just ridiculous. If the Tea Party were in power, this would be done RIGHT the first time!
If the Tea Party were in power (or libertarians/jeffersonians in general), the optical fibers would be owned by the government (just as they own the road the fibers run under), and the lines leased to various corporations (just as various-type cars run on the roads).
You'd be able to choose from dozens of Companies across the government-owned roads/optical fibers, rather than just one.
>>>Call the Fire Marshal, tell them this is what Qwest did as electrical/phone work, and ask if it meets safety standards.
Yes. I'm sure the neighbors would rather lose internet (temporarily) when the fire marshal disconnects the DSL from the gas mains, rather than risk a loud "boom" (like happened in Philadelphia).
>>>This is just ridiculous. If the Tea Party were in power, this would be done RIGHT the first time!
If the Tea Party were in power, the optical fibers would be owned by the government (just as they own the road), and the lines leased to various corporations. You'd be able to choose from dozens of Internet Companies, rather than just one, and lousy companies like quest would go bankrupt from lose of customers. The Tea Party would support a free market, rather than a government-granted monopoly to Comcast (or Cox or Quest or whoever).
If the Tea Party were in power, these government-created monopolies would not exist.
- The optical fibers would be owned by the government (just as they own the road), and the lines leased to various corporations. You'd be able to choose from dozens of Internet Companies, rather than just one, and lousy companies like quest would go bankrupt from lose of customers.
It was for my machine. I had to use a "sudo" command followed by some other garbage, otherwise I kept getting an "insufficient permission" error. This was ubuntu 9.04
Anyway I agree with most of the comments that learning the CLI was worthwhile, but I still don't think I should have to visit ubuntu.com forums, type in some long CLI command, just to install flash or h.264 or whatever. But that's usually what happens with my Linux laptop.
>>>quit being lazy.
For 99.9% of users, lazy is not the problem. Having an IQ that is too low is the problem (just as many people can't fix their own cars, or repair a burned-out TV). The will is there but not the talent.
>>>Because, according to the FCC, you are not within the service area of the channels you lost.
Actually I am inside the Designated Market Area (DMA) but the settop antenna is simply too small to receive those stations. Hence the need to upgrade to a rooftop antenna to get the stations the FCC claims I should get. The FCC or broadcasters should have informed customers in the transition announcements: "Analog is ending soon. You need a converter box AND a rooftop antenna."
(and the earth cracks open beneath my feet). Personally I'd ignore the Cease-and-Desist since I'm not doing anything wrong. The Company provided the modding program, thereby giving me permission to do whatever I please with it. They cannot later retract that permission as it would violate consumer laws (I paid; they disabled the product; I was ripped-off).
>>>take into consideration people that can't even access dial up
This sentence confuses me. If you have a phoneline, you should be able to access dialup. Right?
BTW I have dialup - $7/month. Although I still prefer my $15 DSL. Anyway people make a conscious choice - they can live near a city with all the various services but the view sucks, or the country where services are few but the scenery is beautiful. If someone desires dialup then let them move closer.
Maybe the Canadian government should be requiring all phone companies to upgrade their switching stations to DSLAMs. 50k to 500k is a big jump, and is the difference between being able to watch hulu.com or not.
>>>a lot of Americans are still grumbling at local broadcasters and the FCC
And the broadcasters/FCC deserves it. Not one single time did they tell customers they need to upgrade from settop to rooftop antennas, if they want to continue receiving the same number of channels. That was a major mistake.
For example with my settop antenna I dropped from ~15 channels to 4. I had to upgrade to rooftop antenna to get back the 15 I lost. The FCC/broadcasters never mentioned that.
What I want to know - how do they mail DVDs at $1 round-trip?
- It costs me about 3 dollars round-trip (first class - approximately $1.50 per mailing). What's their secret to such cheap postage? I want in on that deal.
At what point in my message did I ever suggest such a thing? No point.
Microsoft still has a DOS-like CLI, Apple has a CLI, and Ubuntu does too. My point is that you should be able to fix/upgrade your computer without ever needing to open the command line. Otherwise it isn't user-friendly for 99.9% of the people.
Slashdot Mirror
On the torrent site I visit most often, the community is small but dedicated. They upload for the same reason programmers volunteer time to Linux coding, or volunteers work at homeless kitchens. It's their way of feeling good.
Of course the #1 uploader is the site owner - obviously he gains from ad profit, so that's his motive. The rest are just volunteers.
>>>probably only his privacy and security. He can't give up the advertising revenue; it's FB's lifeblood.
Or as we used to say more succinctly in my college days:
"He's a sellout."
The blood of patriots and tyrants waters the Tree of Liberty. It is its natural fertilizer.
- Jefferson
I'm stumped. Maybe Obama thinks this is what the voters want based-upon the November results, but I seriously doubt it.
I haven't. Too busy playing video games, programming VHDL or verilog, and working 70+ hour weeks. So is it worth the $200 pricetag? (Volumes 1-2 Boxset plus Volume 4, fasciles 1-5)
If you're doing nothing wrong, you shouldn't mind being watched by cops (i.e. don't drive over speedlimits - ever).
Of course this same thinking also applies to Politicians and their being monitored by wikileaks (yes I'm a fan).
Everybody in the world is using DVD, which naturally evolved in HD-DVD, and along comes Sony and a few other companies with "Bluray" which they claimed was superior. All it did was setup confusion for consumers and a format war.
Thankfully that "war" was short and didn't have negative consequences.
Hopefully this one will be too, so we can have a clear standard, rather than a divided MPEG v. VP8 internet.
>>>once the internet became controlled predominantly by public political and private business interests.
Interesting statement. Has there ever been a time when the internet was Not controlled by either government or business? I can't think of any. First there was APRA control (public political), then it gradually moved towards private college and ARPA control, and now its current state. So bascially the internet has ALWAYS been controlled by "public political and business interests".
BTW the government didn't handle the Analog to Digital TV transition that great either.
It was supposed to happen in 2006, got pushed back to 2009, and then pushed back again for six more months (but only half the stations complied so that turned into a mess). The government screwed-up the AM to AM Stereo transition (consumers were confused which of 3 codecs to choose). And now it appears the AM/FM to HD Radio transition is not working either.
PC games are too hard to install.
Correction: Easy to install, but making them work with my graphics card or audio card..... that's the real challenge. It's nowhere near as easy as my Atari or Commodore or Amiga where I just slide the disk in the machine, and it works, because the hardware is standardized so the programmer targeted the video/audio processors directly.
Example: I bought Wing Commander 1 for the PC from amazon. It won't work on Seven. Won't work on XP. Won't work on 98. I even downloaded DOS 6 and it still won't work (sound but no picture). ----- So after a day of frustration, I went over to lemonamiga.com on Day #2 and quickly located the version for that machine. The graphics are only 704x240 instead of 480p VGA, but it least it works.
I'm running chromium 7 right now.
What are carbon credits?
Maybe I should invest, if it's a new high-growth industry.
>>>This is just ridiculous. If the Tea Party were in power, this would be done RIGHT the first time!
If the Tea Party were in power (or libertarians/jeffersonians in general), the optical fibers would be owned by the government (just as they own the road the fibers run under), and the lines leased to various corporations (just as various-type cars run on the roads).
You'd be able to choose from dozens of Companies across the government-owned roads/optical fibers, rather than just one.
>>>Call the Fire Marshal, tell them this is what Qwest did as electrical/phone work, and ask if it meets safety standards.
Yes. I'm sure the neighbors would rather lose internet (temporarily) when the fire marshal disconnects the DSL from the gas mains, rather than risk a loud "boom" (like happened in Philadelphia).
I'm sure the neighbors would rather lose internet than see the natural gas main go "boom"(like happened in Philadelphia).
>>>This is just ridiculous. If the Tea Party were in power, this would be done RIGHT the first time!
If the Tea Party were in power, the optical fibers would be owned by the government (just as they own the road), and the lines leased to various corporations. You'd be able to choose from dozens of Internet Companies, rather than just one, and lousy companies like quest would go bankrupt from lose of customers. The Tea Party would support a free market, rather than a government-granted monopoly to Comcast (or Cox or Quest or whoever).
If the Tea Party were in power, these government-created monopolies would not exist.
- The optical fibers would be owned by the government (just as they own the road), and the lines leased to various corporations. You'd be able to choose from dozens of Internet Companies, rather than just one, and lousy companies like quest would go bankrupt from lose of customers.
I'm sure the neighbors would rather lose internet than see the natural gas main go "boom"
(like happened in Philadelphia).
Wow. You'd gain a whole 3 channels. Whoop-te-do.
It was for my machine. I had to use a "sudo" command followed by some other garbage, otherwise I kept getting an "insufficient permission" error. This was ubuntu 9.04
Anyway I agree with most of the comments that learning the CLI was worthwhile, but I still don't think I should have to visit ubuntu.com forums, type in some long CLI command, just to install flash or h.264 or whatever. But that's usually what happens with my Linux laptop.
>>>quit being lazy.
For 99.9% of users, lazy is not the problem. Having an IQ that is too low is the problem (just as many people can't fix their own cars, or repair a burned-out TV). The will is there but not the talent.
>>>Because, according to the FCC, you are not within the service area of the channels you lost.
Actually I am inside the Designated Market Area (DMA) but the settop antenna is simply too small to receive those stations. Hence the need to upgrade to a rooftop antenna to get the stations the FCC claims I should get. The FCC or broadcasters should have informed customers in the transition announcements: "Analog is ending soon. You need a converter box AND a rooftop antenna."
I agree with Anonymous Coward.
(and the earth cracks open beneath my feet). Personally I'd ignore the Cease-and-Desist since I'm not doing anything wrong. The Company provided the modding program, thereby giving me permission to do whatever I please with it. They cannot later retract that permission as it would violate consumer laws (I paid; they disabled the product; I was ripped-off).
>>>take into consideration people that can't even access dial up
This sentence confuses me. If you have a phoneline, you should be able to access dialup. Right?
BTW I have dialup - $7/month. Although I still prefer my $15 DSL. Anyway people make a conscious choice - they can live near a city with all the various services but the view sucks, or the country where services are few but the scenery is beautiful. If someone desires dialup then let them move closer.
Maybe the Canadian government should be requiring all phone companies to upgrade their switching stations to DSLAMs. 50k to 500k is a big jump, and is the difference between being able to watch hulu.com or not.
>>>a lot of Americans are still grumbling at local broadcasters and the FCC
And the broadcasters/FCC deserves it. Not one single time did they tell customers they need to upgrade from settop to rooftop antennas, if they want to continue receiving the same number of channels. That was a major mistake.
For example with my settop antenna I dropped from ~15 channels to 4.
I had to upgrade to rooftop antenna to get back the 15 I lost.
The FCC/broadcasters never mentioned that.
What I want to know - how do they mail DVDs at $1 round-trip?
- It costs me about 3 dollars round-trip (first class - approximately $1.50 per mailing). What's their secret to such cheap postage? I want in on that deal.
>>>don't try to take away the CLI
At what point in my message did I ever suggest such a thing? No point.
Microsoft still has a DOS-like CLI, Apple has a CLI, and Ubuntu does too. My point is that you should be able to fix/upgrade your computer without ever needing to open the command line. Otherwise it isn't user-friendly for 99.9% of the people.