Some things broadcast on TV are entertaining. There's nothing wrong with wanting to watch entertaining things, so a system which helps me sift the entertainment out of the vast mass of TV crap out there is a winner.
Why people like you advocate the wholesale boycott of TV instead of embracing the ways to cherry-pick the good stuff while ignoring the rubbish is beyond me. "We have the technology", and not all of us are vegetative couch potato folks sitting in front of the tube watching rubbish while waiting for the good stuff.
You don't suddenly become free of the responsibility for things you say just because you say them on the internet.
Of course, when the internet comes into play, legal situations can get kind of tricky - if I post a slanderous message while I'm in Country A, onto a server in Country B about a person in Country C, where does the crime take place? What if the statement is legal in one of those countries, but illegal in the others?
...with the anti-IP movement is that so much of it seems to be an excuse to get popular contemporary movies and music for free.
Software patents, copyright extensions beyond the end of time, DMCA or similar provisions against "morally fair" use (as opposed to "legally fair"), all of these things are serious, and important, and deserve fair consideration by everyone involved.
As soon as the argument starts involving copyright for creative works, though, all of the fair and logical points you want to make get tarred with the "pirate" brush. In my opinion, that's not a war that can be won, or should be - to me, true freedom *as a creator* includes being able to have a fair say in how your creation is used, especially by people seeking to make a profit from it.
If it's software, then it should be an easy upgrade. The Xbox BIOS and dashboard software updates over Xbox Live, but I assume there'd be a way of doing it from disk too...
...I wonder if maybe it's just hardware failures. Obviously we'll never know, but given that it's entirely feasible to buy one of these things with (for example) a fried ram chip, or a faulty dvd drive, I wonder if it's as simple as just the normal percentage of failed hardware you expect when buying any item of complex computer equipment?
I can't wait to hear someone rant about how this use of RFID tags will destroy my privacy, and somehow overnight change the world into some Orwellian police state where we're all branded with the RFID tag of the beast on our foreheads...
Next time I commit a crime and get my number plate followed using a system like this, I'll be horrified at the privacy invasion...
Perhaps if/when they extend it to track all vehicles as a matter of course, I'll be worried about some Orwellian nightmare the way you seem to imply I should be now. Maybe if I knew how to drive and owned a car it'd be more of a worry to me now, I can't really say.
Erm, have you ever played any of the GTA games? You get points for doing many things, including killing people. You can then (from GTA3+) pick up their money, etc.
On the one hand, I kind of agree about some of the privacy concerns RMS and others have against having RFID tags in everything. On the other, complaining about having it in a security pass seems a little disproportionate.
What really intrigues me is that there's absolutely no mention of what the security staff's reason for restricting Stallman's movements. Not even what his version of it was, or the versions of any of the other people in the room with him at the time. It doesn't say he was polite to the security staff, or agreed to show them his non-tinfoil-covered pass, *after* the lecture took place - people seem to be assuming things that aren't talked about in the linked post. Maybe he just made a flippant comment to some no-humour no-necked security thug who decided to enforce what little power he has on the bearded loon, who knows. From the linked article, we certainly don't know anyway, maybe details will emerge later.
And frankly, given today's hightened tensions crazed-terrorist-fear climate, even with a valid-looking security pass, someone who looks as non-conformist and out-of-place as RMS would in a room full of suited diplomats is likely to get special attention when they start what looks like an attempt to mess with the security infrastructure of a government-type building...
Maybe it's because I'm just weird, but many of my files have implied metadata based on how I organise the filesystem they're in.
MP3s are in directories of the form Artist - Album, file names are TrackNumber - Title. I've been doing this ever since an early version of iTunes for windows screwed my id3 tags, but since my MP3s are all tagged as a matter of course when I rip them, it means there's a level of redundancy in there. However, should something else wipe the metadata again, I still have the filesystem-level organisation to fall back on. I even have a tool which can strip this information out and refill the id3 tags with it, so it'd take me less time.
I'd be concerned that letting a manager program handle all of this might result in a hodge-podge of files outwith my control, then if something should happen to the organisational data, I'd have a pile of files with little, no or maybe even unintellgible organisation...:(
The reason I ask this is that it's not evident that Sony has any responsibility for the content of the software, but is responsible for the distribution of the software. Distributing infringing things could very well be a different 'crime' (not a lawyer, don't know the correct term, don't really care - you get what I mean), and I was wondering if, in this case, it was.
Thus, if Sony is only guilty of *distributing* an infringing product, and this is indeed a 'crime' (see above), could ignorance be a defence?
Disclaimer: I'm a Sony employee, and I strongly disapprove of the rootkit DRM stuff in a completely unofficial not-representative-of-the-company way;)
But it's worth mentioning at this point that Sony didn't develop the software in question here - the XCP software was developed by First4Internet.
Not being a lawyer, or particularly knowledgable about (L)GPL terms, who could be held liable when a piece of software is developed by one party, but distributed by another? Is ignorance a defence, for instance if Sony said "We didn't know it had unlicensed code!", how would that affect things?
Nintendo's 'problem', if you can call it that, is that they don't target people who don't already play games. I don't know many people who bought a GC as their only console, and almost everyone I know who did buy a GC bought one because they were fans of an existing Nintendo franchise (Mario, Zelda) and wanted the newest title in the range.
The new input device looks to be a way to introduce non-gamers to the machine, but it may look a little gimmicky to them. I'm not a Nintendo fan (I got my GC for Monkey Ball!), but I hope they stick around. At least they're a bit different.
Re:Since the submitter didn't bother to explain...
on
IBM Releases Cell SDK
·
· Score: 1
That's not entirely true. The PPE can do branch prediction, the SPEs can't. Whether the PPE's branch prediction is any good or not, I don't know...:)
My TV sits on a unit with fairly low shelves beneath it. My Xbox has a clearance of only a few millimetres, there's no way I can stack anything on it regardless of the shape of the console itself. It's actually frustrating for me to have to pull my GameCube out from the shelf to put disks in due to the size of the shelves! The top-loading PS2 is short enough that it isn't an issue for me, but I don't think 'stackability' is really an important criteria in console design anyway.
Am I in a minority? Is there a console-stacking-scene out there that enjoys stacking consoles on top of each other?:O
See, it sounds like the real problem here is the whole "visual programming" thing rather than the IDE. All of the 'problems' sound to me exactly like my experience of using C++ Builder years ago, when I was hurriedly knocking out some pointless test apps while learning the basics of C++. I quickly discovered Builder was fairly useless for this purpose, and went to using VC6 to write command-line programs, which was much more educational.
I've now used VC6 and VS.Net professionally. Again not as visual programming tools, but as compiler/debugger frontends for various consoles. They absolutely rock - nice, stable, coherent(ish) IDEs that have less in the way of annoyance *for me* compared to their main alternative in my area (CodeWarrior), or indeed any of the free/open-source IDEs I've used so far.
For the sake of completeness, I must add that Eclipse looks absolutely awesome, and I'm about to invest some time in learning the ins and outs of it. It looks to have all of the VS good points and adds a few of its own (even more customisable, partially down to being open source!).
I dunno, horizontal piano roll with vertical = pitch, horiz = time, makes decent sense to me. Mixers and other stuff horizontal is just fallback to the old hardware days. Even then though, eq's and stuff are normally laid out hi-mid-low top->bottom, which again makes a kind of logical sense.
I just love ableton, and want a huge laptop to run it on:D
Although you are in the majority in not needing extra screen-width, I (as someone who wants a laptop for audio production) would love a 20" widescreen laptop. More tracks on screen at once, less scrolling, easier visualisation of what I'm working on. Marvellous:)
...the 45 things photographers do most in Photoshop...
Would that be snapshot photographers (red-eye removal, tilt correction, silly filters), amateur photographers (not sure here, maybe a little bit of colour/curves adjustment, retouching), professional photographers (pretty much everything), or non-photographers (lots of artists use PS and never touch a camera)?
Not everyone needs Photoshop, it's complicated for a reason. Most snapshot-takers would be fine with Picasa/iPhoto.
Slashdot Mirror
Straying dangerously off-topic now, but...
Some things broadcast on TV are entertaining. There's nothing wrong with wanting to watch entertaining things, so a system which helps me sift the entertainment out of the vast mass of TV crap out there is a winner.
Why people like you advocate the wholesale boycott of TV instead of embracing the ways to cherry-pick the good stuff while ignoring the rubbish is beyond me. "We have the technology", and not all of us are vegetative couch potato folks sitting in front of the tube watching rubbish while waiting for the good stuff.
You don't suddenly become free of the responsibility for things you say just because you say them on the internet.
Of course, when the internet comes into play, legal situations can get kind of tricky - if I post a slanderous message while I'm in Country A, onto a server in Country B about a person in Country C, where does the crime take place? What if the statement is legal in one of those countries, but illegal in the others?
...with the anti-IP movement is that so much of it seems to be an excuse to get popular contemporary movies and music for free.
Software patents, copyright extensions beyond the end of time, DMCA or similar provisions against "morally fair" use (as opposed to "legally fair"), all of these things are serious, and important, and deserve fair consideration by everyone involved.
As soon as the argument starts involving copyright for creative works, though, all of the fair and logical points you want to make get tarred with the "pirate" brush. In my opinion, that's not a war that can be won, or should be - to me, true freedom *as a creator* includes being able to have a fair say in how your creation is used, especially by people seeking to make a profit from it.
If it's software, then it should be an easy upgrade. The Xbox BIOS and dashboard software updates over Xbox Live, but I assume there'd be a way of doing it from disk too...
...I wonder if maybe it's just hardware failures. Obviously we'll never know, but given that it's entirely feasible to buy one of these things with (for example) a fried ram chip, or a faulty dvd drive, I wonder if it's as simple as just the normal percentage of failed hardware you expect when buying any item of complex computer equipment?
Thanks, having a bad day at work - that's just made it a little better :D
I can't wait to hear someone rant about how this use of RFID tags will destroy my privacy, and somehow overnight change the world into some Orwellian police state where we're all branded with the RFID tag of the beast on our foreheads...
:)
Anyone?
Next time I commit a crime and get my number plate followed using a system like this, I'll be horrified at the privacy invasion...
Perhaps if/when they extend it to track all vehicles as a matter of course, I'll be worried about some Orwellian nightmare the way you seem to imply I should be now. Maybe if I knew how to drive and owned a car it'd be more of a worry to me now, I can't really say.
Erm, have you ever played any of the GTA games? You get points for doing many things, including killing people. You can then (from GTA3+) pick up their money, etc.
On the one hand, I kind of agree about some of the privacy concerns RMS and others have against having RFID tags in everything. On the other, complaining about having it in a security pass seems a little disproportionate.
What really intrigues me is that there's absolutely no mention of what the security staff's reason for restricting Stallman's movements. Not even what his version of it was, or the versions of any of the other people in the room with him at the time. It doesn't say he was polite to the security staff, or agreed to show them his non-tinfoil-covered pass, *after* the lecture took place - people seem to be assuming things that aren't talked about in the linked post. Maybe he just made a flippant comment to some no-humour no-necked security thug who decided to enforce what little power he has on the bearded loon, who knows. From the linked article, we certainly don't know anyway, maybe details will emerge later.
And frankly, given today's hightened tensions crazed-terrorist-fear climate, even with a valid-looking security pass, someone who looks as non-conformist and out-of-place as RMS would in a room full of suited diplomats is likely to get special attention when they start what looks like an attempt to mess with the security infrastructure of a government-type building...
Maybe it's because I'm just weird, but many of my files have implied metadata based on how I organise the filesystem they're in.
:(
MP3s are in directories of the form Artist - Album, file names are TrackNumber - Title. I've been doing this ever since an early version of iTunes for windows screwed my id3 tags, but since my MP3s are all tagged as a matter of course when I rip them, it means there's a level of redundancy in there. However, should something else wipe the metadata again, I still have the filesystem-level organisation to fall back on. I even have a tool which can strip this information out and refill the id3 tags with it, so it'd take me less time.
I'd be concerned that letting a manager program handle all of this might result in a hodge-podge of files outwith my control, then if something should happen to the organisational data, I'd have a pile of files with little, no or maybe even unintellgible organisation...
The reason I ask this is that it's not evident that Sony has any responsibility for the content of the software, but is responsible for the distribution of the software. Distributing infringing things could very well be a different 'crime' (not a lawyer, don't know the correct term, don't really care - you get what I mean), and I was wondering if, in this case, it was.
Thus, if Sony is only guilty of *distributing* an infringing product, and this is indeed a 'crime' (see above), could ignorance be a defence?
I thought the RIAA just sued the kids... :)
Disclaimer: I'm a Sony employee, and I strongly disapprove of the rootkit DRM stuff in a completely unofficial not-representative-of-the-company way ;)
But it's worth mentioning at this point that Sony didn't develop the software in question here - the XCP software was developed by First4Internet.
Not being a lawyer, or particularly knowledgable about (L)GPL terms, who could be held liable when a piece of software is developed by one party, but distributed by another? Is ignorance a defence, for instance if Sony said "We didn't know it had unlicensed code!", how would that affect things?
Nintendo's 'problem', if you can call it that, is that they don't target people who don't already play games. I don't know many people who bought a GC as their only console, and almost everyone I know who did buy a GC bought one because they were fans of an existing Nintendo franchise (Mario, Zelda) and wanted the newest title in the range.
The new input device looks to be a way to introduce non-gamers to the machine, but it may look a little gimmicky to them. I'm not a Nintendo fan (I got my GC for Monkey Ball!), but I hope they stick around. At least they're a bit different.
That's not entirely true. The PPE can do branch prediction, the SPEs can't. Whether the PPE's branch prediction is any good or not, I don't know... :)
Like these people? :D
My TV sits on a unit with fairly low shelves beneath it. My Xbox has a clearance of only a few millimetres, there's no way I can stack anything on it regardless of the shape of the console itself. It's actually frustrating for me to have to pull my GameCube out from the shelf to put disks in due to the size of the shelves! The top-loading PS2 is short enough that it isn't an issue for me, but I don't think 'stackability' is really an important criteria in console design anyway.
:O
Am I in a minority? Is there a console-stacking-scene out there that enjoys stacking consoles on top of each other?
...this didn't result in anyone getting an Angry Pirate :D
See, it sounds like the real problem here is the whole "visual programming" thing rather than the IDE. All of the 'problems' sound to me exactly like my experience of using C++ Builder years ago, when I was hurriedly knocking out some pointless test apps while learning the basics of C++. I quickly discovered Builder was fairly useless for this purpose, and went to using VC6 to write command-line programs, which was much more educational.
I've now used VC6 and VS.Net professionally. Again not as visual programming tools, but as compiler/debugger frontends for various consoles. They absolutely rock - nice, stable, coherent(ish) IDEs that have less in the way of annoyance *for me* compared to their main alternative in my area (CodeWarrior), or indeed any of the free/open-source IDEs I've used so far.
For the sake of completeness, I must add that Eclipse looks absolutely awesome, and I'm about to invest some time in learning the ins and outs of it. It looks to have all of the VS good points and adds a few of its own (even more customisable, partially down to being open source!).
I dunno, horizontal piano roll with vertical = pitch, horiz = time, makes decent sense to me. Mixers and other stuff horizontal is just fallback to the old hardware days. Even then though, eq's and stuff are normally laid out hi-mid-low top->bottom, which again makes a kind of logical sense.
:D
I just love ableton, and want a huge laptop to run it on
Although you are in the majority in not needing extra screen-width, I (as someone who wants a laptop for audio production) would love a 20" widescreen laptop. More tracks on screen at once, less scrolling, easier visualisation of what I'm working on. Marvellous :)
...the 45 things photographers do most in Photoshop...
Would that be snapshot photographers (red-eye removal, tilt correction, silly filters), amateur photographers (not sure here, maybe a little bit of colour/curves adjustment, retouching), professional photographers (pretty much everything), or non-photographers (lots of artists use PS and never touch a camera)?
Not everyone needs Photoshop, it's complicated for a reason. Most snapshot-takers would be fine with Picasa/iPhoto.
DNA is a (double) helix, which is different to a spiral. Spirals converge, helices(?) don't.
At least, I think that's the difference. I'm sure someone can correct me!
Wouldn't you say that someone who buys the first ten books of a series is likely to buy the next one? ;)