It's essentially a CD with 2 partitions- a computer partition which your machine reads, and then the audio area. The computer partition is marked in such a way that audio CD players skip it. Getting the audio tracks is simple- just use a ripper with awareness of this extra area (CDRWin comes to mind.)
Judd Gregg was definitely around in the Senate when the last encryption debate went through, and all the same reasons we bring forth today were found valid and worthy.
The WTC disaster does not change the validity of a single one of those reasons, namely:
1) Strong encryption is vitally necessary to any digital communication involving business and finance.
2) Strong encryption is worthless if backdoors are placed into it- see Matt Blaze's skillful discovery of every single law enforcement key within the Clipper system.
So, why does this debate continue? My only guess is strong emotions combined with a fundamental misunderstanding of what is being discussed on the part of Mr. Gregg.
Nasty copy protection on C64 games often made it impossible to back up the flakey 5 1/4 disks they came on. That is, unless you went to your local pirate BBS and got yourself a copy of the latest patch. Those who did this enjoyed their games as long as they liked. Those who did not were stuck whining when their favorite game ate it after being shoved into and pulled out of the 1541 drive too many times.
The same applies today with music. I was listening to one of my VNV Nation CD backups the other day, and it started skipping. This happened to be a limited edition- it would have been very hard to replace had that been the real CD I'd bought all scratched up and skipping like that. But I was able to go home and make another, then toss out the busted one. Good stuff!
I protect my investment. My CD investment is quite substantial- over 250 CDs last time I checked... and all the ones that get real use from me get burned to copies. I wouldn't shed a tear if my CD case fell off a boat or got lost or whatever while I travel these days, since it's all burned backups. I wonder how people will get by in the future?
It's been said before, and I suppose I'll end up having to say it this time.
The more MS squeezes, the more slips through their fingers.
Already, people are pretty much opting out of all this by continuing to run Windows 95 6 years after its release, and Office 97 4 years after its release. Many people have intimated that they'll hang onto 2000 as long as they can. If the longevity of previous MS OS's is any indicator, this may be five years or more.
And of course, there's always our favorite X-Factor, waiting in the wings to scoop up faithful even from MS's latest and greatest.
This effect becomes more obvious the more MS tightens the strings...
It's the insecure format that becomes the true (de facto) standard, since everyone's using it to pass things around while the bigwigs are fighting amongst themselves, trying to make the de jure standard.
Windows is a vast desert of "nothing to do" when you start off, compared to Debian's teeming, insane hive of fiddlygadgets.
Your concept that "windows users do not think about the OS" is correct- but this is true not because Windows offers so much more to do (it offers less than any Linux I know) but simply because it's the default.
I haven't listened to radio for music in a very long time- every time I hear it, it's always the same. The alternative station is playing Third Eye Blind and the same Sublime song over and over, the hiphop station has succumbed to the DrPuffDoggies of the world. But when I go to the Internet for streaming, and look up shoutcast.com, I can find electronic music of any type, all the goth I can handle before throwing up, and hiphop ranging from old school early 80s to modern faded beats.
Why would I ever go back to "radio"? There is just no reason.
Are you a websurfer/email reader/office program user?
If so, Linux is right there, right now, and you don't even have to hunt down anything. If you start with Mandrake (buy the powerpack edition just for fun) you will be ready to rock right after the install is done. No joke.
Are you a gamer?
If so, you are generally locked out of the latest 3D gorefests, unless you dual-boot. However, this doesn't mean you have no games- Loki has many decent and recent offerings, and there are many highly appealing games that just aren't in the EB shelves. The real classics are certainly available for Linux, as well- they're either remade from scratch (i.e. freeciv) or ported (loki's work.)
Note also that many gaming companies are considering Linux ports, often at the behest of their own developers.
Are you a graphic designer?
High end graphics are a niche, and to write them for Linux means that the authors must target a niche of a niche. This having been said, there are solutions.
When speaking of Linux graphics, you can't get away without mentioning the GIMP. Some people will swear is as good as Photoshop, and for most people (i.e. 99% of the folks that would warez it!) it really is. However, if you do prepress work, you will run into limitations very quickly (not the least of which is the total lack of CMYK/process color support!) The GIMP is designed for screen-target, RGB photo editing and web graphics design. You can try the GIMP out on windows, too, if you want.
Corel makes a set of Linux graphics tools, matching their Windows lineup. I haven't had the cash to get the whole enchilada yet, but I have used the freely available Photo-Paint they offer. I found it to be rather sluggish, but workable, which is why I am mulling the purchase of the whole suite (at $300 last I checked.)
I hear there is another company working on an Illustrator/Quark combo clone for Linux (based on something for Irix, IIRC.) We shall see.
3D graphics are advancing quite nicely on Linux, with major 3D artists already beginning to move to Linux due to hardware cost issues. If you want to just fiddle around in 3D, Blender can be a nice tool. It's free, but very difficult to figure out at first.
Overall, graphics is one arena to watch closely under Linux. The expert users that often populate the graphics crowd are really looking hard at Linux for the future.
To conclude, Linux is at the point where the normal user can comfortable enjoy it, and more specialized users are moving in.
If you aren't sure, just remember that you can always dualboot and learn while retaining your Windows capabilities as you normally would.
"THE INTERNET" continues, as always, to be bandied about by people who believe that the net they see is the net that exists.
But the Internet is really chaos, as any situation where more than a few people communicate becomes.
This world's Internet is a mirror.
It is a lot like a funhouse mirror at times.
It can make our mouths disappear, or make them larger than they need to be.
It can make our heads very tiny, our eyes very big, and our credit cards larger than our hearts.
It all depends on where you look.
Every one of us wants to make this funhouse mirror reflect ourselves onto others.
What needs to be preserved is not anyone's vision of a mirror that puts a business suit on everyone, or a black mask- but a mirror that reflects everything.
I wonder if we're mature enough as a civilization to do this- I suspect we may just end up breaking the mirror, because we can't get our minds around the fact that other people see different things in it.
Seems to me that such outcries without significant punishment or legal censure against future attempts are just signals to companies to keep this stuff in the back room.
It isn't too farfetched an idea- pretty much all of any large company's head staff would agree with such a plan, if it made their cost ratings better. A system such as this could be implemented without the knowledge of the store's staff (loss prevention in most large stores works as a hermetically sealed subsection of the store, so that all employees can be monitored freely) and if it made a difference, well, that would be one more reason for it to stay, and stay hidden.
Slashdot Mirror
It's essentially a CD with 2 partitions- a computer partition which your machine reads, and then the audio area. The computer partition is marked in such a way that audio CD players skip it. Getting the audio tracks is simple- just use a ripper with awareness of this extra area (CDRWin comes to mind.)
Judd Gregg was definitely around in the Senate when the last encryption debate went through, and all the same reasons we bring forth today were found valid and worthy.
The WTC disaster does not change the validity of a single one of those reasons, namely:
1) Strong encryption is vitally necessary to any digital communication involving business and finance.
2) Strong encryption is worthless if backdoors are placed into it- see Matt Blaze's skillful discovery of every single law enforcement key within the Clipper system.
So, why does this debate continue? My only guess is strong emotions combined with a fundamental misunderstanding of what is being discussed on the part of Mr. Gregg.
Nasty copy protection on C64 games often made it impossible to back up the flakey 5 1/4 disks they came on. That is, unless you went to your local pirate BBS and got yourself a copy of the latest patch. Those who did this enjoyed their games as long as they liked. Those who did not were stuck whining when their favorite game ate it after being shoved into and pulled out of the 1541 drive too many times.
The same applies today with music. I was listening to one of my VNV Nation CD backups the other day, and it started skipping. This happened to be a limited edition- it would have been very hard to replace had that been the real CD I'd bought all scratched up and skipping like that. But I was able to go home and make another, then toss out the busted one. Good stuff!
I protect my investment. My CD investment is quite substantial- over 250 CDs last time I checked... and all the ones that get real use from me get burned to copies. I wouldn't shed a tear if my CD case fell off a boat or got lost or whatever while I travel these days, since it's all burned backups. I wonder how people will get by in the future?
For 89 bucks, and it's the equal of a palm IIIx? Hell, my visor doesn't even have flash memory.
If the hardware's palm-compatible, one could, I imagine, grab the rom out of a real IIIx and jam it in there. rock.
After all, that's probably what Palm is doing with BeOS now... I can't wait to see what comes out.
Who cares what the law says- MS is your master when it comes to these things, since they hold the remote killswitch on your OS. yay.
It's been said before, and I suppose I'll end up having to say it this time.
The more MS squeezes, the more slips through their fingers.
Already, people are pretty much opting out of all this by continuing to run Windows 95 6 years after its release, and Office 97 4 years after its release. Many people have intimated that they'll hang onto 2000 as long as they can. If the longevity of previous MS OS's is any indicator, this may be five years or more.
And of course, there's always our favorite X-Factor, waiting in the wings to scoop up faithful even from MS's latest and greatest.
This effect becomes more obvious the more MS tightens the strings...
Declaring "cyberwar" on Afghanistan is a lot like threatening to blow up Kabul's world trade center.
Oh, they don't have one? Exactly.
I'd imagine most "cyberwar" would focus on Pakistan, but they're helping us already.
Aside from the Code Red usual suspects who've been hitting my server, I've seen a shitload of these, too.
It doesn't even have a cool name yet. feh.
It's the insecure format that becomes the true (de facto) standard, since everyone's using it to pass things around while the bigwigs are fighting amongst themselves, trying to make the de jure standard.
The group involved are likely to allow free use for a good while, until it attains an MP3-like level of pervasiveness- then they'll pull a Fraunhofer.
Remember, "standard" doesn't mean "Free"(as in freedom,) it just means that everyone uses it.
Look to Ogg Vorbis as an example of what could be a Free standard.
No one ever went broke underestimating the taste and emotional capacity of America.
Clear Channel is intimately familiar with this concept.
Windows is a vast desert of "nothing to do" when you start off, compared to Debian's teeming, insane hive of fiddlygadgets.
Your concept that "windows users do not think about the OS" is correct- but this is true not because Windows offers so much more to do (it offers less than any Linux I know) but simply because it's the default.
That's all.
Well, it sounded good, anyway. I think you get the idea.
Think of this like ICQ numbers. If you want to spam people, you can just send to consecutive numbers- you're guaranteed a hit.
IPs get this treatment regularly (think portscans) but an IP is just a gateway to services, not actual communication.
This sort of numbering is a Bad Thing, even beyond the obvious Mark of the Beast problems.
It's... a mainframe.
Unix returns to its home.
Well, it's always good to see that Illuminati New World Order was right.
nickels, dimes and quarters are accepted units for such things.
I haven't listened to radio for music in a very long time- every time I hear it, it's always the same. The alternative station is playing Third Eye Blind and the same Sublime song over and over, the hiphop station has succumbed to the DrPuffDoggies of the world. But when I go to the Internet for streaming, and look up shoutcast.com, I can find electronic music of any type, all the goth I can handle before throwing up, and hiphop ranging from old school early 80s to modern faded beats.
Why would I ever go back to "radio"? There is just no reason.
Are you a websurfer/email reader/office program user?
If so, Linux is right there, right now, and you don't even have to hunt down anything. If you start with Mandrake (buy the powerpack edition just for fun) you will be ready to rock right after the install is done. No joke.
Are you a gamer?
If so, you are generally locked out of the latest 3D gorefests, unless you dual-boot. However, this doesn't mean you have no games- Loki has many decent and recent offerings, and there are many highly appealing games that just aren't in the EB shelves. The real classics are certainly available for Linux, as well- they're either remade from scratch (i.e. freeciv) or ported (loki's work.)
Note also that many gaming companies are considering Linux ports, often at the behest of their own developers.
Are you a graphic designer?
High end graphics are a niche, and to write them for Linux means that the authors must target a niche of a niche. This having been said, there are solutions.
When speaking of Linux graphics, you can't get away without mentioning the GIMP. Some people will swear is as good as Photoshop, and for most people (i.e. 99% of the folks that would warez it!) it really is. However, if you do prepress work, you will run into limitations very quickly (not the least of which is the total lack of CMYK/process color support!) The GIMP is designed for screen-target, RGB photo editing and web graphics design. You can try the GIMP out on windows, too, if you want.
Corel makes a set of Linux graphics tools, matching their Windows lineup. I haven't had the cash to get the whole enchilada yet, but I have used the freely available Photo-Paint they offer. I found it to be rather sluggish, but workable, which is why I am mulling the purchase of the whole suite (at $300 last I checked.)
I hear there is another company working on an Illustrator/Quark combo clone for Linux (based on something for Irix, IIRC.) We shall see.
3D graphics are advancing quite nicely on Linux, with major 3D artists already beginning to move to Linux due to hardware cost issues. If you want to just fiddle around in 3D, Blender can be a nice tool. It's free, but very difficult to figure out at first.
Overall, graphics is one arena to watch closely under Linux. The expert users that often populate the graphics crowd are really looking hard at Linux for the future.
To conclude, Linux is at the point where the normal user can comfortable enjoy it, and more specialized users are moving in.
If you aren't sure, just remember that you can always dualboot and learn while retaining your Windows capabilities as you normally would.
Phase 1) Get one, cheap.
Phase 2) Scratch the "la" off of the name.
Phase 3) BOMBER PHATZ.
I was under the impression that they cost like $300. URL, please?
"THE INTERNET" continues, as always, to be bandied about by people who believe that the net they see is the net that exists.
But the Internet is really chaos, as any situation where more than a few people communicate becomes.
This world's Internet is a mirror.
It is a lot like a funhouse mirror at times.
It can make our mouths disappear, or make them larger than they need to be.
It can make our heads very tiny, our eyes very big, and our credit cards larger than our hearts.
It all depends on where you look.
Every one of us wants to make this funhouse mirror reflect ourselves onto others.
What needs to be preserved is not anyone's vision of a mirror that puts a business suit on everyone, or a black mask- but a mirror that reflects everything.
I wonder if we're mature enough as a civilization to do this- I suspect we may just end up breaking the mirror, because we can't get our minds around the fact that other people see different things in it.
Well, now I have two out of three of the major video codecs available... often, things only offer either Windows Media or Quicktime.
Of course, what I'd really like would be native Flash authoring...
Seems to me that such outcries without significant punishment or legal censure against future attempts are just signals to companies to keep this stuff in the back room.
It isn't too farfetched an idea- pretty much all of any large company's head staff would agree with such a plan, if it made their cost ratings better. A system such as this could be implemented without the knowledge of the store's staff (loss prevention in most large stores works as a hermetically sealed subsection of the store, so that all employees can be monitored freely) and if it made a difference, well, that would be one more reason for it to stay, and stay hidden.