I don't use Windows XP, but I've worked on trying to patch machines that are running it. What I don't understand is why the process of discovering, downloading, and applying security patches has to be as difficult as it currently is.
For example, when trying to find a patch for the vulnerability that Blaster is currently exploiting on many systems, I had to wade through a multi-page document filled with fluff in order to determine whether or not it was indeed about the vulnerability I thought it was, then find a download link, then be presented with a multipage license agreement -- all for one fix.
My thought is that Microsoft would do better to be a little more proactive in their approach. Antivirus software for the platform is capable of downloading and applying updates to itself, and it wouldn't be a bad idea for Microsoft to take a page out of their book. If I used XP, I'd appreciate having the machine automatically seek out the patches I need and apply them (particularly the most critical) without requiring my intervention or even my knowledge really to do so... and I'm a relative expert compared to the vast majority of the people who just want to play Solitaire and do their taxes.
They are attempting to foil the natural odds of a game of blackjack (well, 'natural' as interpreted by the casino they play in) by keeping track of what's in play, sometimes not only in their own hand but also the dealer's and those of other players, and sometimes with the help of other people.
It's just more convenient to cheat the blackjack system than the others because you don't need an electronic device to help you out. But it doesn't make it very fair to the casino or the other players.
I apologize. My statement was not intended to insult, merely to point out that if we continue to support a system where we import goods made far more cheaply than local manufacturers can compete with and export jobs by firing local workers and hiring/training workers in countries where the wages and benefits cost far less, we will soon have trouble affording even the low-quality consumer goods.
I've run the tech support gamut more times than I cared to, but my
experiences have always been good ones. The majority of tech
support complaints are no doubt people that just decide to call
up all pissed off rather than calming down, looking at the situation
objectively, and actually making some steps towards narrowing down
the problem before making the call.
Another consideration is that many bad experiences are had by people
who constantly cheap-out on their purchases. You don't walk into
a McDonalds and bitch about the paper napkins. Similarly, I don't
doubt that if you're buying low end 'home' devices that they
sell at the discount store that you're going to run into a few
problems -- but the solution is simple: don't buy that $30 CD burner
that was made in a straw hut. There used to be a time you could
buy a television set that lasted 8-10 years, for example, but the
lifespan of the equipment has been cut beyond the pricing.
If you aren't constantly bargain-hunting but instead reading reviews
online and buying things at the logical price point you might discover
that the companies can not only afford to give you reasonable tech
support but that you will also have less need of it. Additionally,
buying the cheapest stuff you can find almost certainly promotes
outsourcing and the hemmoraging of manufacturing jobs from our
country, which hurts all of us in the end.
Pay reasonable prices and try to buy only things that are made in
the USA. Remember that you're going to get what you pay for.
Has this platform had any decent non-action RPGs released for it, or have any been announced? There are already enough action games for it that I'm interested in that would justify my purchase, but my favorite genre is still RPG -- less so because of the general lack of originality in the console RPGs, perhaps, but maybe they've come up with something decent for the Nintendo?
My Hotmail account has been filling up regularly with spam like this for
years, and I always wondered not only who the hell would buy something
like this from someone they didn't know but also why people who are
dumping hundreds of thousands of messages an hour through a network
aren't having their connections terminated. You know the drill;
everybody's got an abuse policy, but apparently abuse@whatever.com is
routed to the Recycle Bin.
Despite my vehement loathing of spam, a recent incident is making me
question how we go about dealing with it. Recently, Something Awful
has been having issues with the SPEWS list, a popular spam blacklister,
who according
to Something Awful blacklisted a whole chunk of IP
addresses that happened to include their own unabused server without
offering recourse or explanation simply because it had the misfortune
of sharing address space unknowingly and unwillingly. I'd call that
overkill, and more offensive than the perceived problem of spam itself
if truth be told. Bayesian
filters work, so why do we need to continue
inadvertently censoring netizens who have nothing to do with spamming?
I tell you, folks, after reading this article and hearing about what
anti-spam proponents have come up with for solutions, I'm starting to
have second thoughts about the whole deal. For me it comes down to
to the freedom of speech issue -- I've always been told that if you
can't handle free speech you don't agree with you obviously can't
handle free speech -- and I suppose just because something irritates
me doesn't mean that the greater good would be served by silencing
that something.
Another perspective is that the amount of money being pumped back into
the economy by so-called unsolicited commercial e-mail is nothing to
scoff at, and perhaps legislating it in some tolerable form such as
limiting a company to one commercial message per person per day would
create a new legitimate business method in this country. It's something
to think about, certainly. I'd hate to think we're going to lose
another revenue stream to outsourcing before we've even had a chance
to give it a go locally, and this may be a way for us to recapture some
of those IT jobs that have been lost and generate a whole new crop of
successful entrepeneurships.
Doesn't this mean that Apple 'Free Software' can mix with GNU 'Free Software' provided the proper attributions and such are given? I could see this as being a tremendous win for the Apple platform, assuming this really does mean that it gets access to the wealth of free code out there.
I think it's a bit much to push this all on one family, especially since it's only one guy running the state. Besides, the wheels for all of this were set in motion by the last guy, and if you look a bit closer at the people involved you realize many of them are Democrats.
It's a healthy reminder, though...
on
Linking Dangerously
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
Today's Internet is no longer a free-for-all. I remember things like The Anarchist's Handbook or Jolly Roger or the like that were filled with dangerous or inciteful content.
It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, though, and I've read about a number of cases of people injuring themselves or others by trying to do that kind of stuff. The mature thing to do is to preemptively avoid spreading that kind of content so that it doesn't fall into the hands of idiots.
He's not saying "all GC and Apple owners are raving mad consumers" -- he's saying that there is a "significant base" of loyal customers. Surely you don't regard yourself as empirical evidence that there is not a "significant base" of loyal customers, and no matter how sharply his opinion is dressed a little critical thinking and/or research would prove it's correct.
How long has Nintendo been in the video game business? Most people I know who had a NES back in the 80s have continued to buy Nintendo products, particularly for the Mario/Zelda/Metroid franchises. Compare this to Sega -- they had Sonic, occasionally Phantasy Star, Lunar, etc. but nothing with the fan appeal that would keep people coming back to the system (the disappointment in the range of games available for a couple of their more expensive platforms no doubt didn't help).
Many Apple users continue to use Apple computers despite the expense and limited software offerings because they perceive value in the platform that has only been reinforced by their experiences. Apple users are something like 10% of the PC market yet software companies are still able to produce Apple-only applications and enjoy success. You might not be buying many applications, but you bought a PowerBook where a less than loyal individual would probably realize the vast price difference between that and a $700 laptop from Dell and perhaps waver a bit.
The image that SCO is trying to put forward is that of course there isn't any problem that they're going after IBM (and threatening Linux end-users) because that group is in the wrong, but they're wounded that Red Hat is opportunistically and cynically using the court system to punish them for only trying to set things right.
It's not going to work, mind you, because this is the kind of crap long-term 'stable' investors will cut through, and the ones that are betting on SCO as a kind of crapshoot have probably already committed themselves, but if you're going to bluff (as I'm still suspecting is their activity) why go halfway?
Anything that speeds up Freenet is music to my ears. I don't have a wireless LAN card yet, and apparently this is just a wireless-only optimization (however that works), but that's kind of cool that it's picked up this kind of steam.
Is this 802.11 or packet radio? I'm a bit confused by the site.
Just because we can't currently wrap our minds around a concept (I have a hard time with it too!) doesn't mean that the universe can't grasp it. We're limited in what we can perceive if we rely on direct observation only, but that doesn't mean that something larger and more meaningful doesn't exist than what lies immediately in front of us.
The best we can do at this point is make broad assumptions based on what we are given, but the concept of intelligent design I think gives us a larger intellectual playing field to work from -- the concept that we can accept what we do not yet know.
There is a perspective from which the universe may be viewed with greater clarity,
in my opinion anyway. Intelligent Design, a recent theory that has gained enough
respect from the scientific community that it is being taught alongside
evolution in many schools and colleges, explains that to even reach the stage
at which we exist there are no fewer than twenty-six variables
necessary for our universe to even consider permitting life and a further
sixty-six within our galaxy and Earth itself that allowed the multitude
of living beings not only to come into being but to flourish (this
whitepaper that was in My Favorites breaks these criteria into
probabilities -- great read if you prefer to see the evidence of this
hypothesis); in a nutshell, this concept is summed up
in Asimov's fantastic quote "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you
must first create the universe."
Some perhaps are content with chaos theory, but I'm glad there's another
scientific viewpoint that can rationalize the concept that free will is
the only variable that yet seems unaccounted for... and with all likelihood,
that too was carefully strewn into the universe to keep a perpetual working
model. Although I suppose we have to keep in mind that this too is only a
theory, and while it's possible everything was made to work smoothly from
the beginning (on the whole) I'm more comfortable with the idea that
somebody's looking in from time to time. One has to start somewhere to
reconcile observation with history in order to get closer to the
truth.
So I'm glad that there are still some minds out there, like Copernicus and Einstein, that are not satisfied with science by rote, and I think that if we allow ourselves break out of the current dominant paradigms for just a little bit the change in perspective can open many new insights.
We ought to work out some form of triathalon involving cyberathletic computer gaming, roleplaying, and bowling. I've even got a title: 'Race To A Coronary'.
I don't know how gamers can call themselves cyberathletes without sniggering at least a little bit every time they hear the word. We come in just below professional haggis-and-butter eating contest participants on the health chart.
Flash is getting expensive nowadays. I thought IBM had a tiny harddrive that (at the time) stored 1GB of data on it; couldn't something like this be incorporated into a 'memory card' design for cameras and the like? That seemed to be the whole point of it, anyway.
If people want to actually check out most of these bands using P2P (legitimately this time!) I recommend the FurthurNet application. They've got a list of all of the artists/concerts you can download maintained in such a way that you're only able to download legal content, and a lot of the concerts are equivalent in quality to the concert CDs some bands put out.
And, no doubt, you will see every justification in the book for what effectively boils down to "I want something for nothing." All of them stupid, in my opinion.
Most of today's music is crap. Perhaps; appreciation of
any particular genre or artist is subjective, of course, but I'm
willing to concede that by objective comparison to the hits of
the 1960s and 70s today's charttoppers are lyrically insipid and
inferior not only in the design but also in the audio processing.
Irregardless, this is no excuse for hosting 40GB of this tripe.
CD prices are too high, and are being illegally maintained at
this level by the music cartel. Have a little class. We
look up to the perpetrators of the Boston Tea Party because not
only were they assuming some risk but they also threw the shit
into the harbor.
The artist sees next to nothing on CD sales; the tour's where
the money is made. A comforting blanket statement that
not only legitimises the theft but also makes it an act of solidarity
on behalf of the downtrodden artists. Look, I read the articles
by Albini and Love too, but this is a completely ludicrous argument.
We're not privy to the majority of industry contracts. There's no
guarantee a tour is going to make an artist a fair amount of money,
especially if it's being balanced against a lousy CD royalties
agreement or what have you. At the end of the day, any money that
ends up in the artist's pocket is going to be appreciated by most
of them.
They'll never catch me. Not only is this a 'whistling past
the graveyard' sort of argument, but they shouldn't have to even be
out there trying to catch you in the first place -- if you
really care about the plight of the artists or how much you're
spending on CDs, there are so many activities you can do that will
actually have a positive effect.
Indies are doing everything the pirates supposedly want the RIAA to do, but they're still struggling. Call it theft, call it copyright infringement, but at the end of the day it's just people wanting to get something for nothing.
That's what I've been thinking. Right now the industry is competing with people who happily steal music that is in a convenient format by attempting to sell them music in a massively inconvenient format.
Stupid any way you look at it -- the only thing the industry is offering is the ability to get music over the Internet without being a thief, and they do it by having the companies selling the music treating the customer at every step LIKE a thief. With MP3s having become as entrenched in consumer electronics as they have, the toothpaste is already out of the tube.
It would be far better for them to make the most of it, by selling unadulterated high-quality MP3s (or SHNs) through a service that requires a monthly subscription -- a service that offers all sorts of perks, such as finding new artists you might like based on ones you already listen to (free full-length crappily encoded previews) or partnering with Ticketmaster to offer deals on concert tickets as well as letting you know when the tours are going on, interviews and live concerts over the service, etc. But they're hardly hungry enough to innovate like this when the old model is still generating cash.
It's another indicator, albeit one that you can't rely on 100%. Is it unreasonable to assume that a great deal of CDR sales are related to piracy archives?
Warez/MP3 archives, VCD/SVCDs, and MP3s converted to Audio CDs for the purpose of compatibility with older players probably make up a sizeable amount of CDR sales, particularly through non-office supply sources such as Walmart or Best Buy. Enough so that concomitant other indicators such as CD sales increasing, filesharing use decreasing, and survey results indicating concern about RIAA policy one can develop a clearer picture of the situation.
If our news agencies weren't so piss-poor at what they do nowadays this story would include more supporting factors or it wouldn't have been published.
Interlacing or my compensation for it does not appear to be the issue... using mplayer/mencoder, I can directly compare watching the TV realtime with watching from the recording, and can spot the same pattern of framedrops with or without the '-vop pp=lb' option (linear blend deinterlacer).
The DMA buffering suggestion has me at a bit of a loss. I'll note that the following code segment still exists in linux-2.4.20/drivers/media/video/bttv-driver.c (the lameness filter doesn't seem to like indented code...):
/* * Create the giant waste of buffer space we need for now * until we get DMA to user space sorted out (probably 2.3.x) * * We only create this as and when someone uses mmap */
static int fbuffer_alloc(struct bttv *btv) { if(!btv->fbuffer) btv->fbuffer=(unsigne d char *) rvmalloc(gbuffers*gbufsize); else printk(KERN_ERR "bttv%d: Double alloc of fbuffer!\n", btv->nr); if(!btv->fbuffer) return -ENOBUFS; return 0; }
I've set 'gbuffers=4' in the bttv module per suggestions seen online, which apparently makes the last four frames of captured video available to an application, but said frames are still not being grabbed from the card in (real)time. I don't know how many frames this card keeps in memory, but I'd hope the driver is fully dumping them to the application when it gets the opportunity. Worth checking.
As for the sound card angle, I've got two sound devices in the system -- one motherboard provided, one Sound Blaster Live. I'm using the SBLive! for dumping with Alsa 0.9.2 (which also drives the other device), however I have tried the other device with alsa9 and the SBLive! with the emu10k1 OSS driver provided with the kernel with similar results. There was also a method that escapes me at the moment for dumping audio directly from a chip on the capture board, which was unsatisfactory.
Dumping video without sound yields exactly the level of quality I'm seeking: no frame drops, and only an extremely slight regular periodic jog on the news ticker that is probably the artifact from de-interlacing NTSC frames. However, no method I've tried of dumping the sound with the video escapes frame dropping (severe at the start of the application tapering off to one or two blocks of frame dropping per second as the capture continues.) As with the video codec, I've tried various settings for audio recording -- lame, PCM, '-oac copy' without dice.
I live by hdparm, and also directly patched the kernel a few versions back to recognize my UDMA133 chip. I do use cheapass hard drives (and frequently backup) but have varied the relative CPU/HDD strain on encoding by testing the spectrum of video codecs with similar results. It does drop frames quite mightily after about twenty seconds of MPEG2 encoding under ReiserFS (I'm using ext2 for my real video-dump drive, though). For what I'm doing right now, I'm cool with single-pass XVID.
Sadly, NuppelVideo gives me similar issues. MythTV was one of the first things I tried out on this card.
PhracturedBlue's scenario sounds pretty close to mine, but the mentioned tweaks didn't seem to work. Will try them again, though; I'm using a newer kernel and there's always the potential something's been changed.
Thank you all for the advice. Maybe I'll delve into it again one of these nights with the new kernel and try profiling driver calls (or drivers...)
I've been tweaking my cheapish bttv-style card and no matter what I do I can't seem to prevent any of the video recording solutions for Linux to capture a steady stream of frames. The easiest test is to tune the card to a news network and watch the moving text on the bottom bar -- it skips in a regular pattern under Linux, but works smoothly under Windows (i.e., it's not a slow computer issue, although there could be magic in the driver that isn't being duplicated under Linux). From what I've read, it's an issue with Linux timing, and perhaps a real-time kernel would work better, but I was wondering if they've been addressing this.
Should mention that the sound capture seems to cause the problem -- without sound, the capture is smooth under Linux, but adding either ALSA or OSS to the mix guarantees problems.
I thought one of the conditions of legal webcasting was a limitation on the ability of the user to choose the songs to listen to (you have to insert some sort of delay factor, can't play songs one after the other from a CD/artist, etc.)
Additionally, this form of 'encrypted caching' is almost certainly reversable by the user without too much effort (you have a player that can play the stuff, right?) and would almost guarantee a legal battle.
I applaud the out-of-box thinking, but still think the only way to win is not to play. That, or just play indies I guess.
I tend to agree that FreeBSD is quite stable, from what I've read. I believe what is 'intriguing' is that many of the tools that are reasonably expected on a webhosting system tend to run more slowly and less compatibly because of Linux emulation -- on OpenBSD, for example, I noticed that vim took twice as long to load than under Linux 2.4.19 (what I had swapped the system from temporarily before switching back to Linux).
I'd imagine when you're using Perl for CGI scripting, such lag and system load would add up quickly, although I've never tried BSD in a web environment.
Then, there's also the point that a good number of people who are buying it for hackery purposes are also going to go and buy X-Box licensed games. Why not; you've got the console anyway and geeks like games.
This hard-nosed approach is a clever marketing move to play you X-Box hackers for rubes, I think. Not that it's like it's a bad thing to be taken advantage of this way; X-Box has a superior lineup of games and better hardware than the other systems out there anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
For example, when trying to find a patch for the vulnerability that Blaster is currently exploiting on many systems, I had to wade through a multi-page document filled with fluff in order to determine whether or not it was indeed about the vulnerability I thought it was, then find a download link, then be presented with a multipage license agreement -- all for one fix.
My thought is that Microsoft would do better to be a little more proactive in their approach. Antivirus software for the platform is capable of downloading and applying updates to itself, and it wouldn't be a bad idea for Microsoft to take a page out of their book. If I used XP, I'd appreciate having the machine automatically seek out the patches I need and apply them (particularly the most critical) without requiring my intervention or even my knowledge really to do so... and I'm a relative expert compared to the vast majority of the people who just want to play Solitaire and do their taxes.
It's just more convenient to cheat the blackjack system than the others because you don't need an electronic device to help you out. But it doesn't make it very fair to the casino or the other players.
I apologize. My statement was not intended to insult, merely to point out that if we continue to support a system where we import goods made far more cheaply than local manufacturers can compete with and export jobs by firing local workers and hiring/training workers in countries where the wages and benefits cost far less, we will soon have trouble affording even the low-quality consumer goods.
Another consideration is that many bad experiences are had by people who constantly cheap-out on their purchases. You don't walk into a McDonalds and bitch about the paper napkins. Similarly, I don't doubt that if you're buying low end 'home' devices that they sell at the discount store that you're going to run into a few problems -- but the solution is simple: don't buy that $30 CD burner that was made in a straw hut. There used to be a time you could buy a television set that lasted 8-10 years, for example, but the lifespan of the equipment has been cut beyond the pricing.
If you aren't constantly bargain-hunting but instead reading reviews online and buying things at the logical price point you might discover that the companies can not only afford to give you reasonable tech support but that you will also have less need of it. Additionally, buying the cheapest stuff you can find almost certainly promotes outsourcing and the hemmoraging of manufacturing jobs from our country, which hurts all of us in the end.
Pay reasonable prices and try to buy only things that are made in the USA. Remember that you're going to get what you pay for.
Has this platform had any decent non-action RPGs released for it, or have any been announced? There are already enough action games for it that I'm interested in that would justify my purchase, but my favorite genre is still RPG -- less so because of the general lack of originality in the console RPGs, perhaps, but maybe they've come up with something decent for the Nintendo?
Despite my vehement loathing of spam, a recent incident is making me question how we go about dealing with it. Recently, Something Awful has been having issues with the SPEWS list, a popular spam blacklister, who according to Something Awful blacklisted a whole chunk of IP addresses that happened to include their own unabused server without offering recourse or explanation simply because it had the misfortune of sharing address space unknowingly and unwillingly. I'd call that overkill, and more offensive than the perceived problem of spam itself if truth be told. Bayesian filters work, so why do we need to continue inadvertently censoring netizens who have nothing to do with spamming?
I tell you, folks, after reading this article and hearing about what anti-spam proponents have come up with for solutions, I'm starting to have second thoughts about the whole deal. For me it comes down to to the freedom of speech issue -- I've always been told that if you can't handle free speech you don't agree with you obviously can't handle free speech -- and I suppose just because something irritates me doesn't mean that the greater good would be served by silencing that something.
Another perspective is that the amount of money being pumped back into the economy by so-called unsolicited commercial e-mail is nothing to scoff at, and perhaps legislating it in some tolerable form such as limiting a company to one commercial message per person per day would create a new legitimate business method in this country. It's something to think about, certainly. I'd hate to think we're going to lose another revenue stream to outsourcing before we've even had a chance to give it a go locally, and this may be a way for us to recapture some of those IT jobs that have been lost and generate a whole new crop of successful entrepeneurships.
Doesn't this mean that Apple 'Free Software' can mix with GNU 'Free Software' provided the proper attributions and such are given? I could see this as being a tremendous win for the Apple platform, assuming this really does mean that it gets access to the wealth of free code out there.
I think it's a bit much to push this all on one family, especially since it's only one guy running the state. Besides, the wheels for all of this were set in motion by the last guy, and if you look a bit closer at the people involved you realize many of them are Democrats.
It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, though, and I've read about a number of cases of people injuring themselves or others by trying to do that kind of stuff. The mature thing to do is to preemptively avoid spreading that kind of content so that it doesn't fall into the hands of idiots.
How long has Nintendo been in the video game business? Most people I know who had a NES back in the 80s have continued to buy Nintendo products, particularly for the Mario/Zelda/Metroid franchises. Compare this to Sega -- they had Sonic, occasionally Phantasy Star, Lunar, etc. but nothing with the fan appeal that would keep people coming back to the system (the disappointment in the range of games available for a couple of their more expensive platforms no doubt didn't help).
Many Apple users continue to use Apple computers despite the expense and limited software offerings because they perceive value in the platform that has only been reinforced by their experiences. Apple users are something like 10% of the PC market yet software companies are still able to produce Apple-only applications and enjoy success. You might not be buying many applications, but you bought a PowerBook where a less than loyal individual would probably realize the vast price difference between that and a $700 laptop from Dell and perhaps waver a bit.
The image that SCO is trying to put forward is that of course there isn't any problem that they're going after IBM (and threatening Linux end-users) because that group is in the wrong, but they're wounded that Red Hat is opportunistically and cynically using the court system to punish them for only trying to set things right.
It's not going to work, mind you, because this is the kind of crap long-term 'stable' investors will cut through, and the ones that are betting on SCO as a kind of crapshoot have probably already committed themselves, but if you're going to bluff (as I'm still suspecting is their activity) why go halfway?
Is this 802.11 or packet radio? I'm a bit confused by the site.
The best we can do at this point is make broad assumptions based on what we are given, but the concept of intelligent design I think gives us a larger intellectual playing field to work from -- the concept that we can accept what we do not yet know.
Some perhaps are content with chaos theory, but I'm glad there's another scientific viewpoint that can rationalize the concept that free will is the only variable that yet seems unaccounted for... and with all likelihood, that too was carefully strewn into the universe to keep a perpetual working model. Although I suppose we have to keep in mind that this too is only a theory, and while it's possible everything was made to work smoothly from the beginning (on the whole) I'm more comfortable with the idea that somebody's looking in from time to time. One has to start somewhere to reconcile observation with history in order to get closer to the truth.
So I'm glad that there are still some minds out there, like Copernicus and Einstein, that are not satisfied with science by rote, and I think that if we allow ourselves break out of the current dominant paradigms for just a little bit the change in perspective can open many new insights.
I don't know how gamers can call themselves cyberathletes without sniggering at least a little bit every time they hear the word. We come in just below professional haggis-and-butter eating contest participants on the health chart.
Flash is getting expensive nowadays. I thought IBM had a tiny harddrive that (at the time) stored 1GB of data on it; couldn't something like this be incorporated into a 'memory card' design for cameras and the like? That seemed to be the whole point of it, anyway.
If people want to actually check out most of these bands using P2P (legitimately this time!) I recommend the FurthurNet application. They've got a list of all of the artists/concerts you can download maintained in such a way that you're only able to download legal content, and a lot of the concerts are equivalent in quality to the concert CDs some bands put out.
Most of today's music is crap. Perhaps; appreciation of any particular genre or artist is subjective, of course, but I'm willing to concede that by objective comparison to the hits of the 1960s and 70s today's charttoppers are lyrically insipid and inferior not only in the design but also in the audio processing. Irregardless, this is no excuse for hosting 40GB of this tripe.
CD prices are too high, and are being illegally maintained at this level by the music cartel. Have a little class. We look up to the perpetrators of the Boston Tea Party because not only were they assuming some risk but they also threw the shit into the harbor.
The artist sees next to nothing on CD sales; the tour's where the money is made. A comforting blanket statement that not only legitimises the theft but also makes it an act of solidarity on behalf of the downtrodden artists. Look, I read the articles by Albini and Love too, but this is a completely ludicrous argument. We're not privy to the majority of industry contracts. There's no guarantee a tour is going to make an artist a fair amount of money, especially if it's being balanced against a lousy CD royalties agreement or what have you. At the end of the day, any money that ends up in the artist's pocket is going to be appreciated by most of them.
They'll never catch me. Not only is this a 'whistling past the graveyard' sort of argument, but they shouldn't have to even be out there trying to catch you in the first place -- if you really care about the plight of the artists or how much you're spending on CDs, there are so many activities you can do that will actually have a positive effect.
Indies are doing everything the pirates supposedly want the RIAA to do, but they're still struggling. Call it theft, call it copyright infringement, but at the end of the day it's just people wanting to get something for nothing.
Stupid any way you look at it -- the only thing the industry is offering is the ability to get music over the Internet without being a thief, and they do it by having the companies selling the music treating the customer at every step LIKE a thief. With MP3s having become as entrenched in consumer electronics as they have, the toothpaste is already out of the tube.
It would be far better for them to make the most of it, by selling unadulterated high-quality MP3s (or SHNs) through a service that requires a monthly subscription -- a service that offers all sorts of perks, such as finding new artists you might like based on ones you already listen to (free full-length crappily encoded previews) or partnering with Ticketmaster to offer deals on concert tickets as well as letting you know when the tours are going on, interviews and live concerts over the service, etc. But they're hardly hungry enough to innovate like this when the old model is still generating cash.
Warez/MP3 archives, VCD/SVCDs, and MP3s converted to Audio CDs for the purpose of compatibility with older players probably make up a sizeable amount of CDR sales, particularly through non-office supply sources such as Walmart or Best Buy. Enough so that concomitant other indicators such as CD sales increasing, filesharing use decreasing, and survey results indicating concern about RIAA policy one can develop a clearer picture of the situation.
If our news agencies weren't so piss-poor at what they do nowadays this story would include more supporting factors or it wouldn't have been published.
As for the sound card angle, I've got two sound devices in the system -- one motherboard provided, one Sound Blaster Live. I'm using the SBLive! for dumping with Alsa 0.9.2 (which also drives the other device), however I have tried the other device with alsa9 and the SBLive! with the emu10k1 OSS driver provided with the kernel with similar results. There was also a method that escapes me at the moment for dumping audio directly from a chip on the capture board, which was unsatisfactory.
Dumping video without sound yields exactly the level of quality I'm seeking: no frame drops, and only an extremely slight regular periodic jog on the news ticker that is probably the artifact from de-interlacing NTSC frames. However, no method I've tried of dumping the sound with the video escapes frame dropping (severe at the start of the application tapering off to one or two blocks of frame dropping per second as the capture continues.) As with the video codec, I've tried various settings for audio recording -- lame, PCM, '-oac copy' without dice.
I live by hdparm, and also directly patched the kernel a few versions back to recognize my UDMA133 chip. I do use cheapass hard drives (and frequently backup) but have varied the relative CPU/HDD strain on encoding by testing the spectrum of video codecs with similar results. It does drop frames quite mightily after about twenty seconds of MPEG2 encoding under ReiserFS (I'm using ext2 for my real video-dump drive, though). For what I'm doing right now, I'm cool with single-pass XVID.
Sadly, NuppelVideo gives me similar issues. MythTV was one of the first things I tried out on this card.
PhracturedBlue's scenario sounds pretty close to mine, but the mentioned tweaks didn't seem to work. Will try them again, though; I'm using a newer kernel and there's always the potential something's been changed.
Thank you all for the advice. Maybe I'll delve into it again one of these nights with the new kernel and try profiling driver calls (or drivers...)
Should mention that the sound capture seems to cause the problem -- without sound, the capture is smooth under Linux, but adding either ALSA or OSS to the mix guarantees problems.
Additionally, this form of 'encrypted caching' is almost certainly reversable by the user without too much effort (you have a player that can play the stuff, right?) and would almost guarantee a legal battle.
I applaud the out-of-box thinking, but still think the only way to win is not to play. That, or just play indies I guess.
I'd imagine when you're using Perl for CGI scripting, such lag and system load would add up quickly, although I've never tried BSD in a web environment.
This hard-nosed approach is a clever marketing move to play you X-Box hackers for rubes, I think. Not that it's like it's a bad thing to be taken advantage of this way; X-Box has a superior lineup of games and better hardware than the other systems out there anyway.