DVDs *are* DRMed. It's just been broken for so long that folks don't think about this. In fact it's an incredibly restrictive DRM. One wonders had DVD Jon not cracked this how well DVDs would be doing now.
Oh I agree buying the L is well worth the extra cash. Not to mention showing support for them and encourging Linksys to keep making them. But, at least around here, they are hard to find in stores. So if you should happen to find yourself needing something 5 minutes ago this is *very* useful for getting by with.
It's also useful for upgrading people you find yourself helping.:) Always a good thing.
Also one of the things that I found interesting is that if you read the text for the "Andersons" ad. It stresses that parents should be involved in *all* stages of the game, to include being beaten by their kids. I think the message that you can't read the rating then ignore the rest of the process is important. Now I'm enough of a misanthrope to assume that this message will be ignored. But I think putting the message that there is more to the process than the ratings is important. And who knows I might just be wrong and some folks might grow a clue. I've seen odder things.
Do you kill *every* joke you hear/read by picking it to death? Or is it just this one?
pkg_add sense-of-humour
Re:Two Down, One to Go...
on
Futurama Returns
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Much as I wish this were true. They got broadcast rights for the current show in.uk. Just like they've had in.us for a long time now. But oh how I wish you were right.
Lame to post this a second time. I know but I forgot a rather important fact.
You will notice that the person who posted the torrents is *not* giving away the content that he paid for and is in fact pimping Webscriptions at the bottom of the page.:)
"It will be interesting to see if Baen's philosophy changes any in the future when ebook readers pass the usability hurdles and come into more common use as direct substitutes for paper versions"
I seriously doubt he will. All the evidence I have (gleaned mostly by reading David Drake's newsletter) is that Jim Baen is a highly clueful and moral man. And while he, for obvious reasons, wants to make a buck or two he does not seem like one to subject morality to that goal. Read the link at the end of this post. I think we can safely conclude that he gets why DRM is evil.:)
Also keep in mind that he is making, to quote, "well into six figures" on ebooks. While nobody else is making anything worth mentioning. I somehow *really* doubt that he'll unlearn that lesson.
No they aren't. I don't have my copy of the books that I've purchased with the CDs at hand. But on the back cover they talk about he spirit. It is phrased as a "warning". The idea being that you will start to read the ebook versions, decide that you want the book you are reading online and go to buy it. It's the same concept as the one behind the free library.
Keep in mind that the CDs are being bundled with books by the likes of Drake, Ringo (who I don't like as much as I used to but is still most cerainly a top teir Baen author), and Weber. These are folks for whom there does not need to be an incentive to buy their books. These are people with a built in base that by military SF standards is *huge*. These are some of his top performing authors. Some of them over the course of decades. If your logic was correct he would be sticking the CDs in, for example, the new Esther Friesner book. (I like her stuff but she's not nearly as popular as the folks who are getting the CDs.)
The point behind the CDs is to promote *other* books and *other* authors. In the lead up to Far Side of the Stars David Drake went on about this at length and as I said pick up a copy of one of the books that has the CD and read the back. This is made *very* clear there.
So no really a torrent of the CDs is very much in keeping with the spirit of the license as everything we know about the intent would leave us to think that Jim Baen, being the very clueful man he is, would want as wide a distribution of these CDs as possible. From his viewpoint the CD itself is basically free advertising.
2. He quotes from the bit on the jacket that explains the concept. The actual license which I have *read* is a free non-commercial reproduction. There are *no* limitations about whom you can give a copy. The torrents are very much in keeping with the license.
Having said that I have a feeling that I'm feeding a troll. But oh well.
To quote from David Drake's newsletter that came out yesterday.
"All my Tor titles with electronic versions are going to appear as Baen Webscriptions [http://www.webscription.net/%5D. This is due in no small measure to Geoffrey Kidd, who did the scanning and proofing on a couple and was the conduit to Baen Books on all. Thank you, Geoffrey.
It's still up in the air as to whether electronic versions of all Tor titles are going to go up as Webscriptions. The CFO of Tor's parent company appeared to have killed the deal because Jim Baen puts books up without encryption (which I've been told to call DRM, a stupid acronym for a stupid concept). Yes, that's true: Baen Webscriptions can be read on any browser than can get you to the site. It apparently doesn't compute in an accountant's mind that ease of using Jim's system might have something to do with Jim's electronic income being well into six figures and everybody else's electronic income being squat. Now, tentatively, the deal is back on.
Given that we live in a world where people blow up places of worship in the name of religion, I guess this degree of narrowness shouldn't surprise me. I think it's all right for me to be sad, though.
By the way, my books are going up because I asked Tom Doherty, not the CFO. Tom is a very smart man."
No you have it all wrong. Us BSD types are superior beings from the future sent to lead you away from the path of doom and horror being inflicted on you by the evil GNU reptillians. We will lead you to a golden age when code matters and politics doesn't. Join us now.
Because most people, in particular techies, lack that self confindence and communication skills to argue the point.
The first time you tell a manager that he has left the path of wisdom is, to say the least, fucking scary. Asssuming that you are good at your job and can argue your point and have the sheer guts to stick to your guns it becomes easier and soon you get a rep as the guy who will tell it like it is. You don't win every battle but you do start to make a difference. But being human most folks will assume that they have no choice and go along.
I also *really* suggest that one picks their battles wisely. And it helps a lot if your manager knows that you are good at what you do and thus you can get that foot in the door.
How would that help the PRC population? I'm really failing to see how only having search engines that are blocking things and *not* telling them that things are being blocked is better than this.
OK. Here are their choices. Have *no* official presence in China at all. Or filter results and *tell* people when and how those results have been filtered. Keep in mind that every other search engine filters results and does not say word one to their customers in China about it.
So do you *really* think it would be better for them to pull out and leave China to Yahoo?
So yeah. They have shaken hands with the Devil and have gotten a bit dirty. Welcome to the real world where compromise is a fact of life. I, for one, think they have made the right choice and have done everything they can to keep the damage to a minimum.
So here is what I propose. Let's get over ourselves give them credit where credit is due and start workin on realistic ways to help citizens of the PRC route around their.gov like the damage it is and get access to google and the rest of the net without any filtering. Education about ways to bypass firewalls/proxies. Open proxies set up to allow them access. These kinds of things. We *know* how to do this stuff. I've been doing my best for citizens of a different regime for the last couple of years and it is possible. Hard but possible. But it can *not* be done by Google. It has to be done by private citizens.
So take the outrage and anger you feel. These are good things and give you strength. Direct them where they need to be directed, at the PRC.gov, and do what you can to help.
The Constitution says *nothing* about human rights. Inalienable or otherwise.
That would be the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was written by a group of private citizens (well for the most part and certainly acting as such) as a statement of belief and philosophy trying to incite revolt against a sitting government by their fellow citizens.
The Constitution was written by a sitting goveernment 11 years later in order to establish the law of the land for the country that that group of rebels had managed to create.
The Consitution, for obvious reasons, can and does only apply to citizens of that country. The Declaration of Independence makes sweeping statments about the state of the human race. The failure of people to understand these simple facts leads to some of the more silly things said by both.us citizens and it's.gov. So this is an important point.
Now we could argue for a very long time about the intent of the framers. But the simple fact is that there is *no* legal basis for interfering with another country.
Note that I am, very much on purpose, remaining unclear on my thoughts on the subject of if we should or not. Now you could argue that the founding fathers felt that these rights should be universal, based on the Declaration of Independence, but you would also have to agree that they were smart enough to leave that out of law.
Slashdot Mirror
DVDs *are* DRMed. It's just been broken for so long that folks don't think about this. In fact it's an incredibly restrictive DRM. One wonders had DVD Jon not cracked this how well DVDs would be doing now.
It is amazing isn't it? Now look at who benefited from that delay and draw your own conclusions.
You, sir, are my god. For a minute there I thought noone would mention it.
Oh I agree buying the L is well worth the extra cash. Not to mention showing support for them and encourging Linksys to keep making them. But, at least around here, they are hard to find in stores. So if you should happen to find yourself needing something 5 minutes ago this is *very* useful for getting by with.
:) Always a good thing.
It's also useful for upgrading people you find yourself helping.
That's not the same thing. At all. Read the article again.
Also one of the things that I found interesting is that if you read the text for the "Andersons" ad. It stresses that parents should be involved in *all* stages of the game, to include being beaten by their kids. I think the message that you can't read the rating then ignore the rest of the process is important. Now I'm enough of a misanthrope to assume that this message will be ignored. But I think putting the message that there is more to the process than the ratings is important. And who knows I might just be wrong and some folks might grow a clue. I've seen odder things.
"With the Duo Core CPU's out, you can't even buy this as a desktop system yet,"
Hmmm. The Intel iMac sitting on my desk seems to prove you wrong.
"High availability enterprise solutions specialist"
Hooray for buzzwords.
Yeah. Do that on a 28.8 baud connection to an ancient HP-UX box. :)
Yes, I *know* you can vi. But far far too many people forget that it's well worth learning and using on a regular basis because it's *everywhere*.
Yes?
And your point is?
You *do* understand that those are all good things, right?
Do you kill *every* joke you hear/read by picking it to death? Or is it just this one?
pkg_add sense-of-humour
Much as I wish this were true. They got broadcast rights for the current show in .uk. Just like they've had in .us for a long time now. But oh how I wish you were right.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds30578.html
Lame to post this a second time. I know but I forgot a rather important fact.
:)
You will notice that the person who posted the torrents is *not* giving away the content that he paid for and is in fact pimping Webscriptions at the bottom of the page.
"It will be interesting to see if Baen's philosophy changes any in the future when ebook readers pass the usability hurdles and come into more common use as direct substitutes for paper versions"
:)
I seriously doubt he will. All the evidence I have (gleaned mostly by reading David Drake's newsletter) is that Jim Baen is a highly clueful and moral man. And while he, for obvious reasons, wants to make a buck or two he does not seem like one to subject morality to that goal. Read the link at the end of this post. I think we can safely conclude that he gets why DRM is evil.
Also keep in mind that he is making, to quote, "well into six figures" on ebooks. While nobody else is making anything worth mentioning. I somehow *really* doubt that he'll unlearn that lesson.
http://www.baensuniverse.com/nodrm.html
No they aren't. I don't have my copy of the books that I've purchased with the CDs at hand. But on the back cover they talk about he spirit. It is phrased as a "warning". The idea being that you will start to read the ebook versions, decide that you want the book you are reading online and go to buy it. It's the same concept as the one behind the free library.
Keep in mind that the CDs are being bundled with books by the likes of Drake, Ringo (who I don't like as much as I used to but is still most cerainly a top teir Baen author), and Weber. These are folks for whom there does not need to be an incentive to buy their books. These are people with a built in base that by military SF standards is *huge*. These are some of his top performing authors. Some of them over the course of decades. If your logic was correct he would be sticking the CDs in, for example, the new Esther Friesner book. (I like her stuff but she's not nearly as popular as the folks who are getting the CDs.)
The point behind the CDs is to promote *other* books and *other* authors. In the lead up to Far Side of the Stars David Drake went on about this at length and as I said pick up a copy of one of the books that has the CD and read the back. This is made *very* clear there.
So no really a torrent of the CDs is very much in keeping with the spirit of the license as everything we know about the intent would leave us to think that Jim Baen, being the very clueful man he is, would want as wide a distribution of these CDs as possible. From his viewpoint the CD itself is basically free advertising.
1. It's not my torrent. Just a site that I like.
2. He quotes from the bit on the jacket that explains the concept. The actual license which I have *read* is a free non-commercial reproduction. There are *no* limitations about whom you can give a copy. The torrents are very much in keeping with the license.
Having said that I have a feeling that I'm feeding a troll. But oh well.
Insert Baen vs Tor troll here. :)
But I'm a *huge* military SF fan. Oh, btw, torrents for the CDs. http://oberon.zlynx.org/ For those who don't have them already.
To quote from David Drake's newsletter that came out yesterday.
"All my Tor titles with electronic versions are going to appear as Baen Webscriptions [http://www.webscription.net/%5D. This is due in no small measure to Geoffrey Kidd, who did the scanning and proofing on a couple and was the conduit to Baen Books on all. Thank you, Geoffrey.
It's still up in the air as to whether electronic versions of all Tor titles are going to go up as Webscriptions. The CFO of Tor's parent company appeared to have killed the deal because Jim Baen puts books up without encryption (which I've been told to call DRM, a stupid acronym for a stupid concept). Yes, that's true: Baen Webscriptions can be read on any browser than can get you to the site. It apparently doesn't compute in an accountant's mind that ease of using Jim's system might have something to do with Jim's electronic income being well into six figures and everybody else's electronic income being squat. Now, tentatively, the deal is back on.
Given that we live in a world where people blow up places of worship in the name of religion, I guess this degree of narrowness shouldn't surprise me. I think it's all right for me to be sad, though.
By the way, my books are going up because I asked Tom Doherty, not the CFO. Tom is a very smart man."
No you have it all wrong. Us BSD types are superior beings from the future sent to lead you away from the path of doom and horror being inflicted on you by the evil GNU reptillians. We will lead you to a golden age when code matters and politics doesn't. Join us now.
Because most people, in particular techies, lack that self confindence and communication skills to argue the point.
The first time you tell a manager that he has left the path of wisdom is, to say the least, fucking scary. Asssuming that you are good at your job and can argue your point and have the sheer guts to stick to your guns it becomes easier and soon you get a rep as the guy who will tell it like it is. You don't win every battle but you do start to make a difference. But being human most folks will assume that they have no choice and go along.
I also *really* suggest that one picks their battles wisely. And it helps a lot if your manager knows that you are good at what you do and thus you can get that foot in the door.
How would that help the PRC population? I'm really failing to see how only having search engines that are blocking things and *not* telling them that things are being blocked is better than this.
1.5 klicks.
Default would be yes but that may change.
Depends.
Sometimes. But if it's what we're having, sure that's all kinds of good.
Granted. Doesn't change my point. But yes you are correct.
OK. Here are their choices. Have *no* official presence in China at all. Or filter results and *tell* people when and how those results have been filtered. Keep in mind that every other search engine filters results and does not say word one to their customers in China about it.
.gov like the damage it is and get access to google and the rest of the net without any filtering. Education about ways to bypass firewalls/proxies. Open proxies set up to allow them access. These kinds of things. We *know* how to do this stuff. I've been doing my best for citizens of a different regime for the last couple of years and it is possible. Hard but possible. But it can *not* be done by Google. It has to be done by private citizens.
.gov, and do what you can to help.
So do you *really* think it would be better for them to pull out and leave China to Yahoo?
So yeah. They have shaken hands with the Devil and have gotten a bit dirty. Welcome to the real world where compromise is a fact of life. I, for one, think they have made the right choice and have done everything they can to keep the damage to a minimum.
So here is what I propose. Let's get over ourselves give them credit where credit is due and start workin on realistic ways to help citizens of the PRC route around their
So take the outrage and anger you feel. These are good things and give you strength. Direct them where they need to be directed, at the PRC
The Constitution says *nothing* about human rights. Inalienable or otherwise.
.us citizens and it's .gov. So this is an important point.
That would be the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was written by a group of private citizens (well for the most part and certainly acting as such) as a statement of belief and philosophy trying to incite revolt against a sitting government by their fellow citizens.
The Constitution was written by a sitting goveernment 11 years later in order to establish the law of the land for the country that that group of rebels had managed to create.
The Consitution, for obvious reasons, can and does only apply to citizens of that country. The Declaration of Independence makes sweeping statments about the state of the human race. The failure of people to understand these simple facts leads to some of the more silly things said by both
Now we could argue for a very long time about the intent of the framers. But the simple fact is that there is *no* legal basis for interfering with another country.
Note that I am, very much on purpose, remaining unclear on my thoughts on the subject of if we should or not. Now you could argue that the founding fathers felt that these rights should be universal, based on the Declaration of Independence, but you would also have to agree that they were smart enough to leave that out of law.