Our leaders keep trying to find new and exciting ways to supply our energy demand without examining the nature or utility of this demand.
"Nobody" gives a damn about energy. They care about keeping the cars running. The culture will gleefully accelerate toward ultimate destruction so long as this need is met in the short term.
Sustainable energy will come from changing cultural attitudes regarding the worthy expenditures of energy, not a shuffling of environmental issues.
Prepare to be accused of wanting to plunge us back to the stone age. Nevermind that the Hittites mastered iron in OT times and steel production began before the birth of Christ, all without a lick of petroleum.
And we'll have an awful lot of Chevy's lying around with nothing to do. Leaf springs make nice knives that can last for generations if you don't live in a throw away society. Maybe if we didn't toss most of our energy into the midden we'd have more of it go around.
Of course just because a contract exists doesn't mean that each of its specific terms is legal. EULAs often contain a lot of junk and nonsense, or at the very least terms that are legally enforceable in some area of distribution, but not all.
You'll find the same thing in leases. Landlords will throw everything into a lease that they want to happen, even though much of it may be counter to absolute local tenant's rights, relying on the tenant to assume the terms are binding because it was in the contract and comply.
Give him a break; he probably heard the story from a hros, so he didn't have a refernce to refresh his memory. Anyway, it's obvious webmasters turned into Lewis Carroll's pfifltriggi.
It's a P5. The processor of infamy. I can't say I'm using it because it's exactly ideal, but it showed up on my doorstep one day. Mint condition. No dust on the fan. Even the original keyboard looks like they took it out of the box yesterday. I wonder what it's been doing the past 12 years? Coulda been worse. Sometimes it's kittens. If it's unloved, it ends up on my porch. All I can think to do with it is use it as music machine. Can't even run my 20th century games on it.
Still, it let me put a bullet through the head of the old Packard-Bell 486 (no, I did not pay for that one either). And it seems to do just fine with mp3s so long as it isn't doing anything else.
This one'll get a bullet too I guess, as soon as I figure out why the Athlon 900 on the bench won't boot or I get around to assembling the NOS Duron 600.
Or maybe I'll just trade it for some kittens and a Yugo
Defective by design is an anti-DRM initiative by the Free Software Foundation. The phrase, particularly here on slashdot, is virtually synonymous with DRM.
You have measured my ignorance. Now I know.
I assumed (apparently wrongly) that you used the term with the intent that is generally associated with it.
Mechanical engineers/mechanics have been using that phrase for many, many years. Broken by Design is an alternate. Anything with arbitrarily restricted capabilities, or just plain braindead in functionality, might be termed Defective/Broken by Design.
SX chips, for instance. Or East German cars (which were also defective by manufacture, but that's another story).
Even ignoring the DRM connotations, at the very least defective by design implies deliberate limitations.
Well, the key point being that the defect was done by someone actually making a decision, rather than by accident, so it fits DRM perfectly, but it isn't DRM specific in general use. Some poorly designed stuff might be termed Defective/Broken by Design as well.
Since a large majority of iPod owners wouldn't even think to drag and drop music onto their iPod
Of course not. The owners are preselected by its capabilities.
it's hard to interpret the manufacturer's intent, but I suspect this was an oversight, rather than a deliberate limitation.
It was not a deliberate limitation in the sense that DRM is, but it was hardly an oversight. Someone made the decision to go that way, against what is standard for that sort of equipment (24 track recorder, although one specifically aimed at the home/indie studio market). Files need to be transfered from the deck to audio editing equipment. Often.
In consumer audio playback equipment having to burn a CD to transfer files now and again is annoying; and might alone be a deal breaker for me, but in studio equipment for generating music it is nothing short of a defect. By design. And I assume since they've changed it they've heard an earful.
I try to avoid DRM as far as possible, but the iPod's database isn't DRM.
I repeat. I said nothing about DRM.
I use these features and I will personally gladly trade-in file manager-based drag and drop for them . ..
Other than the fact that the iPod is defective by design, why do you feel you need to?
Of course, if you want to keep inferring that I'm using the music player that I do because I'm merely being sold Kool Toys for Kool Kids, that's your decision. Just don't let the idea that any amount of thought went into my choice settle in and you'll be fine.
I have no idea why you made the decision you did, but I did want to explore the possibility that you thought of it as a music player. That has nothing to do with whether or not the particular device is an iPod or not.
Of course if the defect does not effect you it might be a perfectly fine choice, but that isn't at all the same thing as saying it isn't a defect that effects others.
You love your Pinto and it hasn't blown up or nuffin'. Well, fine. I happen to think they're cute little cars myself.
But it is defective. That doesn't make you a bad person somehow.
Only if you equate 'non-defective design' with 'design that allows you to transfer files by a simple drag and drop, to and from an arbitrary directory'.
Right. As opposed to only seeing the absence of DRM as an absence of defect.
The inability to transfer files in a standard manner is something I consider a pretty big defect in a computer.
But perhaps you only see the shiney skin on the Apple and miss the fruit.
And opinion you disagree with is not a troll. My post is no more a troll than that to which I responded, because I disagreed with it.
. . . iPods not being able to drag and drop has absolutely nothing to do with DRM.
Would you kindly point me to where I said it did?
I might also point out that I also recently, in this very forum, criticised a bit of audio recording gear for employing it's own file system and forcing you to burn to CD simply to export a wav, an absolutely necessary task for this sort of gear. Clearly this has nothing to do with DRM since the content is assumed to be your own, original work.
But it is defective, by design, DRM related or not.
The maker apparently got the memo; they have just released a new version with USB drag and drop. That one I will very likely actually buy.
That's faster than my desktop mp3 player/server, which is plenty fast enough for the purpose, and allows me to run arbitrary managment software on an arbitrary OS.
Somebody please point to me where Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Constitution our Inalienable Right to Buy DVD's without Digital Rights Management.
I cannot, because Thomas Jefferson didn't write anything in the Constitution. He wasn't even on the American continent at the time.
He did, however, conduct some correspondence with the people who were writting the Constitution and you'll find that in those letters he wrote of our Inalienable write to be free of copyright.
Bill does not actually make predictions. He makes press release statements. They're a form of marketing.
He isn't telling us what he thinks will happen so much as he is telling us what he wants to happen so that he makes a lot of money. By forming it as a prediction he gets the masses to start looking in that direction and expecting what it is he is intending to sell them, thus making it easier to sell it to them, because now they think that's what they "want."
It's similar to telling someone that their neighbor has already bought the widget you're selling; with the implication that if you don't buy one too you've missed the boat. The psychology of the herd. What are "they" going to be wearing next year? Ok, give me some of that.
Thus you cannot embarass Bill by pointing out his failures at prognostication, because he views them as failures to manipulate.
But here's the Gatesian twist: He blames you for it.
. ..it's already not worth the metal its minted with. ..
When I perform one of my own songs I like to do a little routine, offering a cash prize to whoever can identify the movie that is the secondary inspiration of the song, the primary inspiration being obvious, since the first words are "I know a girl."
I reach into my pocket and pull out a quarter:
"Oh sure," I say. "You're thinking it's only a quarter, but you have to remember, this is not just a piece of paper. It's hard currency; and when the shit hits the fan and the economy collapses, it will still be worth its weight in . . . adulterated zinc."
Europe is taking our shiny new copyright and patent crap and running with it. ..
It's called the Berne Convention Treaty. America was shoved into coming in line with it; and ran with it.
America's shiny new copyright and patent crap is firmly rooted in the monarchial grants of absolute right and trade guildism that America's founding fathers firmly rejected.
Too many powerful people around the world want control of their respective economies, and one way you do that is by manipulating and suppressing technological advancement.
And adoption of the Berne Convention Treaty was one of the first signs that America was heading down this path. We gave up being the industrial might driving the economy of the world for being a bunch of paper traders.
If they can manage to hold themselves together as a nation China wins. If not India wins. In any case, we lose as our bits of paper become worthless on the international market.
Your initial claim that there is "no such thing as science by consensus" is bogus, science is by definiton an evolving consensus. Just ask Bucky Fuller, Linus Pauling and Hans Selye next time you bump into them.
Plato was talking about social engineering for the greater good of society, not science, anti-science. That one could create a useful reality by creating a consensus. Plato and his student were the darlings of The Church. Galileo proved them wrong, by the simple act of taking measurements that swept away the consensus.
My comment about Atlantis was anything but a non-sequiter. It was an example of the Platonic "Big Lie."
Thus Carl, et al, would be damned proud that I was holding the line of science against "Big Lie" Platonism; which they held to be post-modern revisionism, right along with Holocaust denial. A direct attack on science.
Align yourself with Goebbels if you wish (although I assume like most people educated later than about 1980 you don't know any better), but do not expect to fool those who remember, even if you have fooled yourself; and expect to be opposed.
Never again.
Science is by definition data. Data is independent of consensus. Data surrounds Platonism and forces it to surrender; Galileo got that ball rolling.
Slashdot Mirror
Our leaders keep trying to find new and exciting ways to supply our energy demand without examining the nature or utility of this demand.
"Nobody" gives a damn about energy. They care about keeping the cars running. The culture will gleefully accelerate toward ultimate destruction so long as this need is met in the short term.
Sustainable energy will come from changing cultural attitudes regarding the worthy expenditures of energy, not a shuffling of environmental issues.
Prepare to be accused of wanting to plunge us back to the stone age. Nevermind that the Hittites mastered iron in OT times and steel production began before the birth of Christ, all without a lick of petroleum.
And we'll have an awful lot of Chevy's lying around with nothing to do. Leaf springs make nice knives that can last for generations if you don't live in a throw away society. Maybe if we didn't toss most of our energy into the midden we'd have more of it go around.
KFG
Of course just because a contract exists doesn't mean that each of its specific terms is legal. EULAs often contain a lot of junk and nonsense, or at the very least terms that are legally enforceable in some area of distribution, but not all.
You'll find the same thing in leases. Landlords will throw everything into a lease that they want to happen, even though much of it may be counter to absolute local tenant's rights, relying on the tenant to assume the terms are binding because it was in the contract and comply.
It's psychology, not law.
KFG
What about the gophermaster?
He should be right back. I sent him to gopherwood.
KFG
Give him a break; he probably heard the story from a hros, so he didn't have a refernce to refresh his memory. Anyway, it's obvious webmasters turned into Lewis Carroll's pfifltriggi.
KFG
It's a P5. The processor of infamy. I can't say I'm using it because it's exactly ideal, but it showed up on my doorstep one day. Mint condition. No dust on the fan. Even the original keyboard looks like they took it out of the box yesterday. I wonder what it's been doing the past 12 years? Coulda been worse. Sometimes it's kittens. If it's unloved, it ends up on my porch. All I can think to do with it is use it as music machine. Can't even run my 20th century games on it.
Still, it let me put a bullet through the head of the old Packard-Bell 486 (no, I did not pay for that one either). And it seems to do just fine with mp3s so long as it isn't doing anything else.
This one'll get a bullet too I guess, as soon as I figure out why the Athlon 900 on the bench won't boot or I get around to assembling the NOS Duron 600.
Or maybe I'll just trade it for some kittens and a Yugo
KFG
Gee, because drag and drop is such a great way to handle 2000+ songs you'd put on an ipod.
So why would I do that?
Your specific demands for a music player are impractical for my needs.
How does dragging and dropping a text file onto your drive screw up your other needs?
KFG
. . .music. . .
I did not this word; I said "files."
KFG
. . . all . . .
Why did you use this particular word?
KFG
Defective by design is an anti-DRM initiative by the Free Software Foundation. The phrase, particularly here on slashdot, is virtually synonymous with DRM.
You have measured my ignorance. Now I know.
I assumed (apparently wrongly) that you used the term with the intent that is generally associated with it.
Mechanical engineers/mechanics have been using that phrase for many, many years. Broken by Design is an alternate. Anything with arbitrarily restricted capabilities, or just plain braindead in functionality, might be termed Defective/Broken by Design.
SX chips, for instance. Or East German cars (which were also defective by manufacture, but that's another story).
Even ignoring the DRM connotations, at the very least defective by design implies deliberate limitations.
Well, the key point being that the defect was done by someone actually making a decision, rather than by accident, so it fits DRM perfectly, but it isn't DRM specific in general use. Some poorly designed stuff might be termed Defective/Broken by Design as well.
Since a large majority of iPod owners wouldn't even think to drag and drop music onto their iPod
Of course not. The owners are preselected by its capabilities.
it's hard to interpret the manufacturer's intent, but I suspect this was an oversight, rather than a deliberate limitation.
It was not a deliberate limitation in the sense that DRM is, but it was hardly an oversight. Someone made the decision to go that way, against what is standard for that sort of equipment (24 track recorder, although one specifically aimed at the home/indie studio market). Files need to be transfered from the deck to audio editing equipment. Often.
In consumer audio playback equipment having to burn a CD to transfer files now and again is annoying; and might alone be a deal breaker for me, but in studio equipment for generating music it is nothing short of a defect. By design. And I assume since they've changed it they've heard an earful.
KFG
I try to avoid DRM as far as possible, but the iPod's database isn't DRM.
.
I repeat. I said nothing about DRM.
I use these features and I will personally gladly trade-in file manager-based drag and drop for them . .
Other than the fact that the iPod is defective by design, why do you feel you need to?
Of course, if you want to keep inferring that I'm using the music player that I do because I'm merely being sold Kool Toys for Kool Kids, that's your decision. Just don't let the idea that any amount of thought went into my choice settle in and you'll be fine.
I have no idea why you made the decision you did, but I did want to explore the possibility that you thought of it as a music player. That has nothing to do with whether or not the particular device is an iPod or not.
Of course if the defect does not effect you it might be a perfectly fine choice, but that isn't at all the same thing as saying it isn't a defect that effects others.
You love your Pinto and it hasn't blown up or nuffin'. Well, fine. I happen to think they're cute little cars myself.
But it is defective. That doesn't make you a bad person somehow.
KFG
That's like saying it's okay to have a sticky note with the root password on a critical server as long as you keep the firewall updated.
I wonder which one the critical server is? I don't suppose it could be the one with a big sign on it saying, "Don't look at this one"?
KFG
Only if you equate 'non-defective design' with 'design that allows you to transfer files by a simple drag and drop, to and from an arbitrary directory'.
Right. As opposed to only seeing the absence of DRM as an absence of defect.
The inability to transfer files in a standard manner is something I consider a pretty big defect in a computer.
But perhaps you only see the shiney skin on the Apple and miss the fruit.
KFG
Try ephpod. . .If your iPod updates are a problem. . .
I have neither an iPod nor a running install of Windows. I consider them both defective by design.
KFG
Way to troll.
And opinion you disagree with is not a troll. My post is no more a troll than that to which I responded, because I disagreed with it.
. . . iPods not being able to drag and drop has absolutely nothing to do with DRM.
Would you kindly point me to where I said it did?
I might also point out that I also recently, in this very forum, criticised a bit of audio recording gear for employing it's own file system and forcing you to burn to CD simply to export a wav, an absolutely necessary task for this sort of gear. Clearly this has nothing to do with DRM since the content is assumed to be your own, original work.
But it is defective, by design, DRM related or not.
The maker apparently got the memo; they have just released a new version with USB drag and drop. That one I will very likely actually buy.
KFG
. . . an 80MHz iPod.
That's faster than my desktop mp3 player/server, which is plenty fast enough for the purpose, and allows me to run arbitrary managment software on an arbitrary OS.
go buy a player that supports it.
Bingo!
KFG
Somebody please point to me where Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Constitution our Inalienable Right to Buy DVD's without Digital Rights Management.
I cannot, because Thomas Jefferson didn't write anything in the Constitution. He wasn't even on the American continent at the time.
He did, however, conduct some correspondence with the people who were writting the Constitution and you'll find that in those letters he wrote of our Inalienable write to be free of copyright.
And DVD DRM only "works" because of the DMCA.
KFG
I disagree that the iPod is defective by design, because it does not require DRM. It still works with the open formats of MP3, AAC and AIFF.
If you cannot transfer these files by a simple drag and drop, to and from an arbitrary directory, it is defective by design.
KFG
The US Nickel now has a bit more than five cents worth of metal content.
Well that's what they get for making it a dumbass size.
KFG
Bill does not actually make predictions. He makes press release statements. They're a form of marketing.
He isn't telling us what he thinks will happen so much as he is telling us what he wants to happen so that he makes a lot of money. By forming it as a prediction he gets the masses to start looking in that direction and expecting what it is he is intending to sell them, thus making it easier to sell it to them, because now they think that's what they "want."
It's similar to telling someone that their neighbor has already bought the widget you're selling; with the implication that if you don't buy one too you've missed the boat. The psychology of the herd. What are "they" going to be wearing next year? Ok, give me some of that.
Thus you cannot embarass Bill by pointing out his failures at prognostication, because he views them as failures to manipulate.
But here's the Gatesian twist: He blames you for it.
KFG
For some reason, the harmonization never goes to the side that helps the public.
Follow the money.
KFG
. . .it's already not worth the metal its minted with. . .
When I perform one of my own songs I like to do a little routine, offering a cash prize to whoever can identify the movie that is the secondary inspiration of the song, the primary inspiration being obvious, since the first words are "I know a girl."
I reach into my pocket and pull out a quarter:
"Oh sure," I say. "You're thinking it's only a quarter, but you have to remember, this is not just a piece of paper. It's hard currency; and when the shit hits the fan and the economy collapses, it will still be worth its weight in . . . adulterated zinc."
KFG
Europe is taking our shiny new copyright and patent crap and running with it. . .
It's called the Berne Convention Treaty. America was shoved into coming in line with it; and ran with it.
America's shiny new copyright and patent crap is firmly rooted in the monarchial grants of absolute right and trade guildism that America's founding fathers firmly rejected.
Too many powerful people around the world want control of their respective economies, and one way you do that is by manipulating and suppressing technological advancement.
And adoption of the Berne Convention Treaty was one of the first signs that America was heading down this path. We gave up being the industrial might driving the economy of the world for being a bunch of paper traders.
If they can manage to hold themselves together as a nation China wins. If not India wins. In any case, we lose as our bits of paper become worthless on the international market.
Jesus we used to make some good stuff.
KFG
the people who claim to speak for all of us rationalizing their hypocrisy.
Ah, yes, philosophers.
KFG
Your initial claim that there is "no such thing as science by consensus" is bogus, science is by definiton an evolving consensus. Just ask Bucky Fuller, Linus Pauling and Hans Selye next time you bump into them.
Plato was talking about social engineering for the greater good of society, not science, anti-science. That one could create a useful reality by creating a consensus. Plato and his student were the darlings of The Church. Galileo proved them wrong, by the simple act of taking measurements that swept away the consensus.
My comment about Atlantis was anything but a non-sequiter. It was an example of the Platonic "Big Lie."
Thus Carl, et al, would be damned proud that I was holding the line of science against "Big Lie" Platonism; which they held to be post-modern revisionism, right along with Holocaust denial. A direct attack on science.
Align yourself with Goebbels if you wish (although I assume like most people educated later than about 1980 you don't know any better), but do not expect to fool those who remember, even if you have fooled yourself; and expect to be opposed.
Never again.
Science is by definition data. Data is independent of consensus. Data surrounds Platonism and forces it to surrender; Galileo got that ball rolling.
KFG
Dude, noon to 1 is a lunch hour, not a siesta. The system will be down between 2 and 5; or maybe between 1 and 6 if some Ambar Negra gets into it.
KFG