Whether you love Microsoft or hate it, there's no denying the popularity of Visual Basic. With the regular-expression package in the.NET Framework, Microsoft provides a package that can be used by VB.NET, C#, Visual C++, and any other language that wants to link to it -- even Python and Perl! The consistency is appealing, but even more important is the package itself: it's powerful and fast, and can it can hold its head up high next to Perl or any other regex package out there.
VB's regex syntax is exactly like Perl's. In fact, when I started working with regexes in VB and I couldn't find something in the documentation I would look it up in one of the O'Reilly Perl books. Much to my "shock", I could do everything Perl regexes could do, even the things that weren't in the documentation.
I strongly suspect Microsoft took full advantage of Perl's "artistic license" when they came up with their regex engine.
She loves having the ability to run apache for my little brothers soccer team's web site. She also likes being able to send mail to her friends in her bridge club. Thelma flamed her for using pine, but then she switched to mutt and all is OK.
But even Mom has problems from time to time. Once this perl script she wrote to send her friends on her mailing list an email every time she added a new cookie recipie(formatted with LaTex BTW) got out of hand spawning new processes, so she called some real guns: my grandma.
"Normally I would have told you to RTFM", my grandma told her, "but grandpa was feeling frisky this morning, so I'm in a good mood. Here's what you do:
"First, you want to make a file containing a list of all those rogue processes. I normally do something like this:
and using Perl with XML is no different. If you are just getting started with using Perl to process or write XML files there are an array of libraries out there for you to use.
I personally didn't want a handholding book as I've worked with XML in other languages, but something that cut through the confusion of all the different ways to do the same thing.
This little book was perfect for me as it's a nice overview of what is out there and how to pick the right library for the job. Don't expect a complete enterprise application in this book - its for programmers that already know perl and the basics of XML and just need a jumpstart in using the libraries available.
unless you are doing https those querystrings(and form variables for that matter) are passed across the net in plain text, ready to be sniffed by anyone.
Cookies on the other hand are private. The things you generally store in cookies are things you don't want passed in querystrings or form variables.
Yes, querystrings can provide statefulness, but watch out. The way you are doing it, unless on a restricted intranet or over https, would allow a malicious user to hijack someones session.
Windows on the desktop, Linux/BSD on the server
on
A Linux User Goes Back
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
There's nothing wrong with this combo, and it gives you the best of both worlds.
Personally, I've never liked any of the X-based desktops. I've always used the command line exclusively with Linux and Unix. The flexibility of the command line with standard Unix stuff like bash, less, sed, awk and perl is something I don't ever see Windows catching up to. I've never seen a scripting language more adept than Perl, a web server more capable than Apache, or a scheduler that makes more sense than cron. Servers are where Linux and Unix make sense.
Conversely on my desktop, when I want to use a graphical IDE to debug programs, or create graphics, or play games, nothing beats a Windows desktop for me. The clincher is that things work the same across most programs - simple things like copy and paste, or Ctrl-F to search. I'm almost always working with 10 or more programs open at once(including a couple of SSH sessions) and I need an environment that doesn't slow me down.
In fact, I really don't know any Linux or BSD users who never rely on a good closed-source OS for at least some things. The most rabid Microsoft hater I know still keeps a Windows partition for games. Lets face it, the only people who use Linux and nothing else do it for ideological reasons. Most of us just want stuff to work right and pick the best tool for the job at hand.
On Slashdot's site you can be an Anonymous Coward, but you can't log in and post with your account without cookies(like you just did).
On virtually all ecommerce sites you can browse, but you can't buy without them.
If cookies are bad design, than http being stateless is also bad design. Its simply the way the internet works. Without cookies, statefulness goes away.
You're left having a read-only internet - you can read, you can browse, but you can't actually DO anything with it.
I would agree to the point that its stupid to enforce cookies on articles that are meant to be read. I was merely stating that its possible. However, if you refuse to shop online because their shopping cart requires cookies to work, well I disagree entirely. There's really nothing wrong with cookies per se, they merely introduce state to web applications. Keep in mind that certain things(like shopping carts) are not possible without them.
Set a cookie on your front page, and have it expire in a short period of time. Then, on subsequent pages, look for that cookie. If the cookie is not found, redirect user to the front page. Point out to your users that cookies are necessary to use your site, and offer to show them how to enable cookies for only certain sites if they wish.
Really, its not that hard to prevent deep links. Stupid, yes, but not hard.
I too loved the Who, and in fact picked my username because I knew it was one thing I had in common with CmdrTaco.
Its great that many people in their teens and twenties recognize the fact that rock music is just not as good today as it once was. I defy you to name a single current band that has the power and creativity of The Who in their heydey. And they were but one of several.
I salute Slashdot for pointing out the corruption in the music industry and pushing for a music scene that is less corporate-controlled and more vibrant and creative.
This to me is definitely stuff that matters. Goodbye John, thanks for all the great tunes.
Google can only stay at the top if if continually improves its technology. There are othersnipping at Google's heels, and sooner or later they will provide similar results as Google now provides.
But what if the search engine business really is unprofitable? Would you pay to keep something like Google around? If so, how much, and how would you pay?
First we have math programs that won't let you use calculators, now CS tests that make you write code on paper. There's always that argument..."if you get stuck on a desert island and need to rebuild society you won't have the benefit of these modern tools." I've actually heard a variation of this, repeatedly.
The coolest professor(this was a EE class) I ever had did it this way - he made the tests extremely hard, but allowed open book, open notes, and calculators. His philosophy was that on the job you would use these tools, so you might as well use them on the tests. You were competent in the subject if you made it out with a C, and perhaps 2 people in a class of 20 would get an A.
Actually, I think CS tests are pointless, period. They have very little to do with your skill as a programmer or knowledge of the subject. Its much better to give hard assignments that require lots of work before they are due(i.e. a two week assignment that is virtually impossible to finish the weekend before it is due). I can see concepts on tests, and perhaps a few functions to demonstrate knowledge of certain algorithms, but a 500 line program is ridiculous.
ya know, i didn't look at your UID. you have to wait until there is a 10% increase in users before you can start moderating. I don't think its up to the 590,000's yet. You will probably start getting mod points in the near future since you've never trolled.
I on the other hand have been $rtbl'd, so this account will probably never see mod points again.
without inflicting damage to the economy? Really, that $40 will take you and a date to the movies, but added up will hurt Microsoft in a way that indirectly hurts the rest of the economy. Because love them or hate them, they are the GM of the software world - whats good for them is good for the rest of the software/IT industry. Nasdaq and the fortunes of other large companies rise and fall on the news of Microsofts stock going up and down.
A much better punishment would be to force them to open their APIs and interfaces so the rest of us can write compatible software. A $40 rebate isn't doing anyone good individually, its just eating away at an already shaky tech economy.
I found this book very helpful. This and MySQL and Perl for the Web were the two books I referred to most when translating a good sized ASP project into Perl. BTW the MySQL and Perl book is written by Paul Dubois, the author of MySQL(the book), and if I could choose only one of the two it would be that one.
Both books show how to run CGI programs under a mod_perl enabled web server, using Apache::Registry. So the myth of the server forking a new process for each request is not true. CGI and Perl in this day and age can actually run rings around an ASP solution without the performance hit CGI applications are known for causing.
I know Perl has a lot of detractors, but really you should at least give it a chance before you make up your mind about it. Perl is probably more portable than even Java, and it certainly is better for writing quick scripts and programs. You can make the code very readable if thats your goal, or you can express in one line of code what it would take other languages 5-10 lines to accomplish. Perl/CGI is the most portable way to write web apps so if you do consulting its a good way to go if you need things that will run on lots of different web servers. I've found the neatest libraries for Perl that I haven't seen in any other language - I just wrote a shopping cart that uses SQL to read and write to comma delimited text files! This made for a perfect solution for my client, and it will be easy to upgrade to a real database when he's ready.
Oh by the way if you don't think Perl/CGI can handle heavy duty web sites, look at the slashcode sometime - unless they rewrote everything its still CGI code running under mod_perl/Apache::Registry.
Actually there is a good thing about all this resurgence in patriotism since 9/11 - we can label corps that ship jobs overseas and shirk out of paying taxes "economic terrorists".
I would like to see government funded software projects to be used by anyone, from students to universites, to corporations that create jobs and stimulate the economy. Thats what Keynesian economics is all about - you pump tax dollars into the economy, which in turn provides more jobs and a better economy for everyone.
GPL prevents the part about companies being able to benefit, thus removing any stimulus to the economy(at least in sales rather than services which aren't as profitable). Being that corporations pay taxes too, this is unfair to them. A more equitable arrangement is to have govt. funded code be available to everyone, including corps.
Therefore, the BSD or similar licences are the way to go. Its not just Sun and Microsoft that can benefit, govt. sponsored projects can help a fledgling software company have a snowballs chance in hell of competing with the giants.
Hmm...deja vu. This is one of the reasons I stopped downloading MP3.
I don't condone piracy, but I do think P2P networks are great, and I also think its OK if you sample someones music before you buy the CD(assumming you buy the CD instead of just listening to ripped MP3's over and over).
Does anyone know of P2P software that lets you create a 'friends list' or something to that effect in order to maintain a private group of P2P file sharers. I'd love to be able to do that, then be able to distribute MP3s to people on my friends list.
The Slashdot style of friends works pretty well too. I read lots of comments, but I definitely pay more attention when I see that glowing green orb on the page.
Then what's the big friggin problem with P2P sharing if the artist is going to earn more
Nothing. I don't have anything against P2P programs, I use a few myself, and I even bought a book about writing P2P apps because I'm interested in the technology. And, I feel that widely distributed MP3s are another form of advertisement for a band.
But you have to consider the wishes of the creator. If someone puts their time and effort into a project, be it software or music, and wishes to be compensated for it, that's their right. If you download someones music that they created for the purpose of selling it, its one thing if you sample the product, but if you listen to it time and time again the right thing to do is to pay for it.
And the free market, thanks to technology, is now in a position to say it has zero ECONOMIC value.
No. Something only has zero economic value if there is no demand for it. If something is produced with the intention of selling the product, and the demand is found not to be there, the supply will also diminish. Thats basic economics. In your case, the demand is there, but only to receive the product without paying for it. I'm afraid your model is a bit skewed. Luckily, the majority of people are honest enough to pay for a product that was intended to be sold if they use it on a regular basis.
If the demand were really to dry up, the only music produced would be intended to be free in the first place. You mentioned that recording equipment has gotten more affordable. That's true, but I would guess that a new band still forks over 20-30 thousand dollars on music and recording equipment and puts in at least 2,000 hours(multiplied by the number of members in the band) writing, arranging, and producing a CD's worth of music. You might not think they should be compensated for that, but most people who undertake a recording project feel a lot differently.
I don't think that its the same thing as walking into a music store and shoplifting CD's. But I do think that listening to a bands music on a repeated basis, when that band created that music for the purpose of selling it is at best disrespectful and at worst plain stealing. I don't see how you can rationalize it away.
Just like jwz said about Linux, its free only if your time is worth nothing.
I used to download a lot of songs(I never could bring myself to download a whole album, something about that just didn't seem right). Lately I've downloaded a lot less - and if I do its purely to sample the music.
There are several very good reasons I gave up downloading MP3.
Finding a song that is encoded at a high-quality rate and that is not purposely screwed up is getting harder to do. Someone out there is purposely seeding P2P networks with "songs" that aren't the real thing, contain 30 second loops played repeatedly, or that have large chunks of blank space.
The value of the time I would spend downloading a whole album of high-quality MP3 and burning it to CD would pay for a new CD a few times over.
I'm one of those people who can tell the difference between CD audio and MP3. I have a portable MP3 player, but generally I listen to CD's.
Also, I've been a musician for many years and have long supported my favorite musicians and groups by buying their products and going to see their shows. You are mistaken when you say famous musicians will earn less - if anything broader distribution and "airplay" will make them earn more. Also, in reply to those who think bands earn money by playing live - very few of them do. Most bands tour to sell more CD's.
There's nothing wrong with downloading something to try it out or to have technology to make backup copies of your media and to convert it into different forms. But to say its free is just plain wrong. If you listen to the same MP3s over and over again and you never support the band, and its against the bands wishes for you to do so - you're a thief, plain and simple. What gives you the right to take someone's blood sweat and tears and call it free? Only the right you gave yourself by grabbing without considering the wishes of the creator.
Have you ever seen the "Nick Burns, Computer Guy" sketch on SNL? That's what talking to most hackers is like.
you really shouldn't be involved in computer security if that's the case.
There is a name for people who can follow simple, easy-to-understand laundry lists of how to approach computer security. They're called script kiddies. You really think this stuff can be simplified to the point that you can understand, given your apparent lack of experience?
Becoming a real hacker as opposed to a script kiddie takes years and there are no shortcuts. Learn the inside and outs of the operating systems you use. Learn a programming language inside and out. Then learn successively lower-level programming languages until you get to C and assembly and learn those. Meanwhile, pay attention to the theoretical aspects of all this stuff - meaning learn about algorithms and the underlying mathematics.
No one is trying to hide the secrets from you, just trying to discourage you from thinking there is a simple explanation to everything - and thinking that someone can tell you all about computer security in plain english(i.e. none of those anti-social phrases like 'buffer overflows') You want to be a hacker? Hit the books, and be prepared for years of hard study.
Then you might understand some of those seemingly obscure references that for the moment are beyond your grasp.
Slashdot Mirror
Whether you love Microsoft or hate it, there's no denying the popularity of Visual Basic. With the regular-expression package in the .NET Framework, Microsoft provides a package that can be used by VB.NET, C#, Visual C++, and any other language that wants to link to it -- even Python and Perl! The consistency is appealing, but even more important is the package itself: it's powerful and fast, and can it can hold its head up high next to Perl or any other regex package out there.
VB's regex syntax is exactly like Perl's. In fact, when I started working with regexes in VB and I couldn't find something in the documentation I would look it up in one of the O'Reilly Perl books. Much to my "shock", I could do everything Perl regexes could do, even the things that weren't in the documentation.
I strongly suspect Microsoft took full advantage of Perl's "artistic license" when they came up with their regex engine.
She loves having the ability to run apache for my little brothers soccer team's web site. She also likes being able to send mail to her friends in her bridge club. Thelma flamed her for using pine, but then she switched to mutt and all is OK.
But even Mom has problems from time to time. Once this perl script she wrote to send her friends on her mailing list an email every time she added a new cookie recipie(formatted with LaTex BTW) got out of hand spawning new processes, so she called some real guns: my grandma.
"Normally I would have told you to RTFM", my grandma told her, "but grandpa was feeling frisky this morning, so I'm in a good mood. Here's what you do:
"First, you want to make a file containing a list of all those rogue processes. I normally do something like this:
ps -ef | grep cookierecipe | awk `{print $2}` > killfile
"Now that you've got your list, you simply loop through them in bash and kill each one. Whatdya mean, you don't know how to loop in bash?!! Sigh
for $pid in $(cut -fl -d:/home/mom/killfile; do kill $pid done
"Simple as that"
And, with that, my grandma went back to her knitting, and mom happily got her new cookie recipe out.
I personally didn't want a handholding book as I've worked with XML in other languages, but something that cut through the confusion of all the different ways to do the same thing.
This little book was perfect for me as it's a nice overview of what is out there and how to pick the right library for the job. Don't expect a complete enterprise application in this book - its for programmers that already know perl and the basics of XML and just need a jumpstart in using the libraries available.
Cookies on the other hand are private. The things you generally store in cookies are things you don't want passed in querystrings or form variables.
Yes, querystrings can provide statefulness, but watch out. The way you are doing it, unless on a restricted intranet or over https, would allow a malicious user to hijack someones session.
Personally, I've never liked any of the X-based desktops. I've always used the command line exclusively with Linux and Unix. The flexibility of the command line with standard Unix stuff like bash, less, sed, awk and perl is something I don't ever see Windows catching up to. I've never seen a scripting language more adept than Perl, a web server more capable than Apache, or a scheduler that makes more sense than cron. Servers are where Linux and Unix make sense.
Conversely on my desktop, when I want to use a graphical IDE to debug programs, or create graphics, or play games, nothing beats a Windows desktop for me. The clincher is that things work the same across most programs - simple things like copy and paste, or Ctrl-F to search. I'm almost always working with 10 or more programs open at once(including a couple of SSH sessions) and I need an environment that doesn't slow me down.
In fact, I really don't know any Linux or BSD users who never rely on a good closed-source OS for at least some things. The most rabid Microsoft hater I know still keeps a Windows partition for games. Lets face it, the only people who use Linux and nothing else do it for ideological reasons. Most of us just want stuff to work right and pick the best tool for the job at hand.
On virtually all ecommerce sites you can browse, but you can't buy without them.
If cookies are bad design, than http being stateless is also bad design. Its simply the way the internet works. Without cookies, statefulness goes away.
You're left having a read-only internet - you can read, you can browse, but you can't actually DO anything with it.
I would agree to the point that its stupid to enforce cookies on articles that are meant to be read. I was merely stating that its possible. However, if you refuse to shop online because their shopping cart requires cookies to work, well I disagree entirely. There's really nothing wrong with cookies per se, they merely introduce state to web applications. Keep in mind that certain things(like shopping carts) are not possible without them.
Really, its not that hard to prevent deep links. Stupid, yes, but not hard.
Sloccount run on Slashcode 2.25 gives us this:
Total Estimated Cost to Develop = $ 996,916
I would have posted the entire output of the program, but unfortunately, their million-dollar lameness filter wouldn't let me!
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" >
-<Flags>
-<Flag type="American">
<symbol type="Stars">
<count>50</count>
<background>navy</background>
<color>white</color>
</symbol>
<symbol type="Stripes">
<stripeno=1>
<stripeval>Deleware</stripeval>
<color>red</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=2>
<stripeval>Pennsylvania</stripeval>
<color>white</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=3>
<stripeval>New Jersey</stripeval>
<color>red</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=4>4</stripeno>
<stripeval>Georgia</stripeval>
<color>white</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=5>
<stripeval>Connecticut</stripeval>
<color>red</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=6>
<stripeval>Massachusetts</stripeval>
<color>white</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=7>
<stripeval>Maryland</stripeval>
<color>red</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=8>
<stripeval>South Carolina</stripeval>
<color>white</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=9>
<stripeval>New Hampshire</stripeval>
<color>red</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=10>
<stripeval>Virginia</stripeval>
<color>white</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=11>
<stripeval>New York</stripeval>
<color>red</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=12>
<stripeval>North Carolina</stripeval>
<color>white</color>
</stripeno>
<stripeno=13>
<stripeval>Rhode Island</stripeval>
<color>red</color>
</stripeno>
</symbol>
</flag>
</flags>
Note: I'm from New Mexico, so I know what it feels like when a state gets left out. Rest assurred, my flag includes Deleware!
But the fact is, they are not a new band, but a survivor from times when the music scene was much better.
Its great that many people in their teens and twenties recognize the fact that rock music is just not as good today as it once was. I defy you to name a single current band that has the power and creativity of The Who in their heydey. And they were but one of several.
I salute Slashdot for pointing out the corruption in the music industry and pushing for a music scene that is less corporate-controlled and more vibrant and creative.
This to me is definitely stuff that matters. Goodbye John, thanks for all the great tunes.
But what if the search engine business really is unprofitable? Would you pay to keep something like Google around? If so, how much, and how would you pay?
The coolest professor(this was a EE class) I ever had did it this way - he made the tests extremely hard, but allowed open book, open notes, and calculators. His philosophy was that on the job you would use these tools, so you might as well use them on the tests. You were competent in the subject if you made it out with a C, and perhaps 2 people in a class of 20 would get an A.
Actually, I think CS tests are pointless, period. They have very little to do with your skill as a programmer or knowledge of the subject. Its much better to give hard assignments that require lots of work before they are due(i.e. a two week assignment that is virtually impossible to finish the weekend before it is due). I can see concepts on tests, and perhaps a few functions to demonstrate knowledge of certain algorithms, but a 500 line program is ridiculous.
I on the other hand have been $rtbl'd, so this account will probably never see mod points again.
do you get asked to metamod every day? If not, you've been $rtbl'd. No mod points for you...ever.
A much better punishment would be to force them to open their APIs and interfaces so the rest of us can write compatible software. A $40 rebate isn't doing anyone good individually, its just eating away at an already shaky tech economy.
The 'P' in LAMP refers to Perl/PHP/Python.
You're comment might apply to the pre 2.0 days of slashcode, but I'm not so sure anymore.
Both books show how to run CGI programs under a mod_perl enabled web server, using Apache::Registry. So the myth of the server forking a new process for each request is not true. CGI and Perl in this day and age can actually run rings around an ASP solution without the performance hit CGI applications are known for causing.
I know Perl has a lot of detractors, but really you should at least give it a chance before you make up your mind about it. Perl is probably more portable than even Java, and it certainly is better for writing quick scripts and programs. You can make the code very readable if thats your goal, or you can express in one line of code what it would take other languages 5-10 lines to accomplish. Perl/CGI is the most portable way to write web apps so if you do consulting its a good way to go if you need things that will run on lots of different web servers. I've found the neatest libraries for Perl that I haven't seen in any other language - I just wrote a shopping cart that uses SQL to read and write to comma delimited text files! This made for a perfect solution for my client, and it will be easy to upgrade to a real database when he's ready.
Oh by the way if you don't think Perl/CGI can handle heavy duty web sites, look at the slashcode sometime - unless they rewrote everything its still CGI code running under mod_perl/Apache::Registry.
Actually there is a good thing about all this resurgence in patriotism since 9/11 - we can label corps that ship jobs overseas and shirk out of paying taxes "economic terrorists".
GPL prevents the part about companies being able to benefit, thus removing any stimulus to the economy(at least in sales rather than services which aren't as profitable). Being that corporations pay taxes too, this is unfair to them. A more equitable arrangement is to have govt. funded code be available to everyone, including corps.
Therefore, the BSD or similar licences are the way to go. Its not just Sun and Microsoft that can benefit, govt. sponsored projects can help a fledgling software company have a snowballs chance in hell of competing with the giants.
I don't condone piracy, but I do think P2P networks are great, and I also think its OK if you sample someones music before you buy the CD(assumming you buy the CD instead of just listening to ripped MP3's over and over).
Does anyone know of P2P software that lets you create a 'friends list' or something to that effect in order to maintain a private group of P2P file sharers. I'd love to be able to do that, then be able to distribute MP3s to people on my friends list.
The Slashdot style of friends works pretty well too. I read lots of comments, but I definitely pay more attention when I see that glowing green orb on the page.
Nothing. I don't have anything against P2P programs, I use a few myself, and I even bought a book about writing P2P apps because I'm interested in the technology. And, I feel that widely distributed MP3s are another form of advertisement for a band.
But you have to consider the wishes of the creator. If someone puts their time and effort into a project, be it software or music, and wishes to be compensated for it, that's their right. If you download someones music that they created for the purpose of selling it, its one thing if you sample the product, but if you listen to it time and time again the right thing to do is to pay for it.
And the free market, thanks to technology, is now in a position to say it has zero ECONOMIC value.
No. Something only has zero economic value if there is no demand for it. If something is produced with the intention of selling the product, and the demand is found not to be there, the supply will also diminish. Thats basic economics. In your case, the demand is there, but only to receive the product without paying for it. I'm afraid your model is a bit skewed. Luckily, the majority of people are honest enough to pay for a product that was intended to be sold if they use it on a regular basis.
If the demand were really to dry up, the only music produced would be intended to be free in the first place. You mentioned that recording equipment has gotten more affordable. That's true, but I would guess that a new band still forks over 20-30 thousand dollars on music and recording equipment and puts in at least 2,000 hours(multiplied by the number of members in the band) writing, arranging, and producing a CD's worth of music. You might not think they should be compensated for that, but most people who undertake a recording project feel a lot differently.
I don't think that its the same thing as walking into a music store and shoplifting CD's. But I do think that listening to a bands music on a repeated basis, when that band created that music for the purpose of selling it is at best disrespectful and at worst plain stealing. I don't see how you can rationalize it away.
Just like jwz said about Linux, its free only if your time is worth nothing.
I used to download a lot of songs(I never could bring myself to download a whole album, something about that just didn't seem right). Lately I've downloaded a lot less - and if I do its purely to sample the music.
There are several very good reasons I gave up downloading MP3.
Finding a song that is encoded at a high-quality rate and that is not purposely screwed up is getting harder to do. Someone out there is purposely seeding P2P networks with "songs" that aren't the real thing, contain 30 second loops played repeatedly, or that have large chunks of blank space.
The value of the time I would spend downloading a whole album of high-quality MP3 and burning it to CD would pay for a new CD a few times over.
I'm one of those people who can tell the difference between CD audio and MP3. I have a portable MP3 player, but generally I listen to CD's.
Also, I've been a musician for many years and have long supported my favorite musicians and groups by buying their products and going to see their shows. You are mistaken when you say famous musicians will earn less - if anything broader distribution and "airplay" will make them earn more. Also, in reply to those who think bands earn money by playing live - very few of them do. Most bands tour to sell more CD's.
There's nothing wrong with downloading something to try it out or to have technology to make backup copies of your media and to convert it into different forms. But to say its free is just plain wrong. If you listen to the same MP3s over and over again and you never support the band, and its against the bands wishes for you to do so - you're a thief, plain and simple. What gives you the right to take someone's blood sweat and tears and call it free? Only the right you gave yourself by grabbing without considering the wishes of the creator.
you really shouldn't be involved in computer security if that's the case.
There is a name for people who can follow simple, easy-to-understand laundry lists of how to approach computer security. They're called script kiddies. You really think this stuff can be simplified to the point that you can understand, given your apparent lack of experience?
Becoming a real hacker as opposed to a script kiddie takes years and there are no shortcuts. Learn the inside and outs of the operating systems you use. Learn a programming language inside and out. Then learn successively lower-level programming languages until you get to C and assembly and learn those. Meanwhile, pay attention to the theoretical aspects of all this stuff - meaning learn about algorithms and the underlying mathematics.
No one is trying to hide the secrets from you, just trying to discourage you from thinking there is a simple explanation to everything - and thinking that someone can tell you all about computer security in plain english(i.e. none of those anti-social phrases like 'buffer overflows') You want to be a hacker? Hit the books, and be prepared for years of hard study.
Then you might understand some of those seemingly obscure references that for the moment are beyond your grasp.