I dunno... stupid it may be, but I have to confess a desire to watch something on this tiny device. It's like, stealth or something. I know it's irrational and pointless. But it's there nonetheless. Of course, the movies available for it will probably be Broken Arrow and TimeCop.
Also realize that, yeah, of course the iPod's better at playing tunes but it's going to suck at playing PSP games, and it costs more.
If the PSP offers real Wi-Fi-based Internet access (as opposed to just using it to frag proximate geeks) that would kill.
As it happens, I don't eat steak, pork chops or chicken fingers (nor do I necessarily support PETA). But I'm not trying to outlaw meat or hunting here, my point is that this isn't hunting. If you want to pay a slaughterhouse to let you operate the boltgun because it turns you on, there's something wrong with you.
Yes:) Although I have to say, if I saw someone on the street pretending to talk to their cigarette lighter, I wouldn't immediately think they were taking a picture. I would immediately think they were off their chump.
I wasn't exactly clear that I meant "if you can take a picture with a camera phone while pretending to talk on it..." I've had a few camera phones, and on none of them could you do anything but look like you're taking a picture when you take a picture using it.
I won't correct you, because you're not wrong. But may I expand and refine?
Actually, there are definitely still pirates (real pirates) in the world. Piracy, by the way, doesn't have to include murder or mayhem, it's just a word for maritime robbery. It isn't necessarily more violent than a hold-up.
What "illegal" copying does not bear any resemblance to is any form of robbery, because making a copy deprives no one of anything. Taking my car is wrong because then I don't have a car, not because you now have one.
Hey, forget about an "expansion pack" you have to pay extra for--why not make you pay again for the game you already have? Put out a bug-fix patch and then say that "for support reasons" it's a required upgrade--we don't want anyone playing the unpatched version so if you try to install your copy of HL2 on a new computer you'll need to buy the Steam service (and hey, why not a support fee for the patch, too?) just to play the game.
I really don't think so, though I know you meant this to show a trend rather than be literal. But while I don't think Evil Dead's a "comedy" by any stretch of the imagination, but the movie is definitely infused with a sense of glee. There's no overt "winking" but the movie is undeniably fun and I don't think it was an accident, I think it's just Bruce and Sam's style.
I thought this was fake
on
Internet Hunting
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
But I guess we're taking it seriously.
Luring, or waiting for, animals to walk in front of a camera so you can shoot them by remote control isn't hunting. It's executing animals for fun, and it shouldn't be any more legal than someone drowning cats to get their jollies off.
This is good news for our roving buddy, all he needs is a way to sign the message himself.
As I read the DomainKeys(tm)(pat. pending) spec, he can't. The signature includes all the headers, and if some get added or changed (as they will when passing it through the MTA) the signature's invalid. See the DK FAQ discussion on mailing lists.
Now, let's say I send mail From: my domain "example.com" through MTAs at tmail.com and hosting.com in addition to example.com. Can I publish the public keys for those domains in records for example.com? This I don't know.
I use OpenBSD on a desktop and, in fact, have preferred it there (vs. a server) because of its lack of SMP support (which has changed, though I don't know how good it is yet).
Also, pf is very powerful and OpenBSD can be used for a much better firewall than "basic." I find pf to be much easier to work correctly than iptables and I feel like I have much easier access to advanced functionally like queueing in OpenBSD.
I haven't felt any usability pains in using OpenBSD when compared with a (comparable, that is, free as in speech) Linux distribution, say. The install procedure is more basic (and is text-based, of course), but then, I find it harder to screw up as well.
Except for one thing: for the life of me I can't understand why it has to be so hard to use fdisk/disklabel during install. Absolute offsets and magic slice letters like i in disklabel just kill me. It's really the only thing that's unfriendly in the OpenBSD install sequence.
Agreed. I almost didn't buy my iRiver 790T because the excellent free driver said it was "for Linux." Instead, I investigated a little more, compiled it for my OpenBSD system, and went out and grabbed a great flash player (plays Oggs--woot!).
A situation which causes similar pain is when people write non-free software for Linux/x86. I've mostly lived in the "totally free" world (by necessity) because I use Linux on PPC and OpenBSD. And believe me, you start to bemoan the ignorance of folks who are pleased when software is available "for Linux" but don't understand what freedom is supposed to be about.
[A note: writing portable free software isn't that hard. I've written software at work that I know is intended for a single machine running Linux, but I usually keep it running on a BSD and Solaris too, just to keep it portable. It's a habit I'd like to see more widely adopted.]
Your question ("Name one...") is a trap, because no matter what movies someone names, whether the adaptation was successful or not is completely subjective.
For example, take Lord of the Rings. Many "purists" complained about the changes Jackson and company made there--in some cases only to find out that the creators were actually savvier about the source material than the fanboys (I'm thinking specifically of the "Po-tay-toes" scene in The Two Towers, which was roundly condemned in Tolkien forums as an unwelcome addition but which in fact was straight from the books).
In any case, I thought Master and Commander was a tremendous movie, and as true to the heart of the Aubrey-Maturin novels as it is possible for a movie to be--despite a completely invented storyline that never took place in the novels, except in bits and pieces. Now, I'm sure there are many who have their complaints with the movie, but I have read all the books several times and don't think anyone's more "qualified" to judge than I.
You see all the commodity devices in our houses cannot be damaged by power outages,
Well, I had a stereo ruined by the surge as the power came back on. And your "regular PCs" can have disks protected against power outages just as your appliances with hard disks have--by either using a journaling filesystem or similar, or a battery backup of some kind. There's a company that makes ATX-style power supplies with built-in battery backup.
nor can be damaged by stupid users whatever buttons they push (contrary to computers)
I don't know what you mean by "damage," but if you think this you probably don't have kids. My son has already put my cable box into some crazy administrative mode that I had to call the cable company to get instructions how to fix. Anything that stores files or whatnot can have them deleted by accident.
you don't have to install anything to make them work
The first thing I did with my mp3 player (though I suppose I didn't have to do it it didn't work properly without it) is upgrade the firmware. XBMC involves installing some kind of mod-chip, right?
I know what you mean, though, and I basically agree. The complexity of using a single-purpose device is way less than a general-purpose computer. Even if your assertions aren't absolutes, this kind of thing is why I have a PS2 instead of a computer for gaming.
Okay, I promise this will be my last reply. I now have an iRiver iFP 790T and it's pretty much what I want. It doesn't have UMS firmware, but the
iFP Linux driver works fine (it's not really just for Linux, it works on several platforms, including OpenBSD, which is what I'm using.
The firmware you describe (that allows the mp3 player to operate as a mass storage device) is not available for the 800 and 900 series. It is available for the 100 and 300 series (300 seems to be discontinued) but doesn't support Oggs.
Thanks for the tip! The iRiver iFP series you mention do look promising, but as I read their FAQ, even if you use it to store arbitrary files, according to them you need their Music Manager software or whatever to load music files--I'm guessing there's some kind of index or something that's loaded into the device with the files themselves? That is, my best guess is I could take one of these devices and put ogg files on it, but it wouldn't recognize and play them. And then, of course, if a firmware upgrade is required, how do I do that without Windows or MacOS?
I suppose I should find a retailer with a good return policy and just try it out myself.
I'm one of those people who ripped their music collection to mp3s. Then, I got more educated, and re-ripped it to oggs (whew!). And now, I'm more educated and I realize that if only I can scrape together the time (and money to buy a disk--but frankly disk isn't that expensive these days) to rip to FLAC that'll the last time I'll have to do it.
I really wish there were a clearinghouse for hardware supporting ogg vorbis linked to from xiph.org or somewhere. I want to shop for mp3 players but I don't want to have to click through every description to see which support Ogg.
Or maybe someone can just tell me: I want a cheap, very small, preferably flash player that supports oggs, and that I can load using any OS (not just Linux) because it shows up as a USB drive and I pop the oggs on?
That wasn't the argument the OP was making. He was saying he has a right to bitch even if he didn't offer an opinion when asked--and sure he does, but it has no credibility.
The idea that there's no difference between the candidates (which I disagree with) is a separate point.
First off, the electoral college system we have, with pledged electors and "winner-take-all" states, is not the system the founders gave us. Primarly, they established the electoral college as a measure to blunt popular opinion--they did not trust the electorate with a direct vote. It had nothing to do with ensuring candidates courted sparesly-populated states or anything like that.
We already have a body that provides equal power to every state--the Senate. There is no reason to hand disproportionate power to sparsely-populated states for the purpose of electing the President. You ask "How is that fair to those people in RI[?]" It's exactly fair. It couldn't be more fair: one person is one vote. What you've identified as an "advantage" of the electoral college is an unfairness: the handing of special powers and rights to some voters over others.
It's interesting that you bring up the spectre of states' rights, since the Bush Administration has such a poor record in this area. They want to legislate what states can call marriage, they have already raided legal marijuana-growing facilities, quite literally grabbing medicine from the hands of the sick, and here in Oregon they have repeatedly attacked our death with dignity statute, all in an effort to use the "bigger stronger Fed government" to quash the will of the states.
I agree. It's not like these bills appear out of nowhere and you have to vote on them the same day. They spend weeks or months in the development, a great deal of time in specialist committees (who are supposed to delve into their details). I don't have a problem with representatives being aided by staffers. In any case, the USA PATRIOT act wasn't passed because everyone missed all the fine print--it was passed for purely political reasons; in other words, whether or not you'd be re-electable if you opposed it.
I also agree we need fewer laws. Most of the bills that pass should be revisions or reductions in existing law, not new ones. They should be written in plain language and be free of special exceptions and bonuses for representatives' geographical regions, particular industries or lobbying groups.
There's no real mechanism in place to review the body of existing law to simplify and reduce it. I'm not sure how it could be added but if anyone has any ideas I love the topic.
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I dunno... stupid it may be, but I have to confess a desire to watch something on this tiny device. It's like, stealth or something. I know it's irrational and pointless. But it's there nonetheless. Of course, the movies available for it will probably be Broken Arrow and TimeCop.
Also realize that, yeah, of course the iPod's better at playing tunes but it's going to suck at playing PSP games, and it costs more.
If the PSP offers real Wi-Fi-based Internet access (as opposed to just using it to frag proximate geeks) that would kill.
As it happens, I don't eat steak, pork chops or chicken fingers (nor do I necessarily support PETA). But I'm not trying to outlaw meat or hunting here, my point is that this isn't hunting. If you want to pay a slaughterhouse to let you operate the boltgun because it turns you on, there's something wrong with you.
Yes :) Although I have to say, if I saw someone on the street pretending to talk to their cigarette lighter, I wouldn't immediately think they were taking a picture. I would immediately think they were off their chump.
I wasn't exactly clear that I meant "if you can take a picture with a camera phone while pretending to talk on it..." I've had a few camera phones, and on none of them could you do anything but look like you're taking a picture when you take a picture using it.
I won't correct you, because you're not wrong. But may I expand and refine?
Actually, there are definitely still pirates (real pirates) in the world. Piracy, by the way, doesn't have to include murder or mayhem, it's just a word for maritime robbery. It isn't necessarily more violent than a hold-up.
What "illegal" copying does not bear any resemblance to is any form of robbery, because making a copy deprives no one of anything. Taking my car is wrong because then I don't have a car, not because you now have one.
Hey, forget about an "expansion pack" you have to pay extra for--why not make you pay again for the game you already have? Put out a bug-fix patch and then say that "for support reasons" it's a required upgrade--we don't want anyone playing the unpatched version so if you try to install your copy of HL2 on a new computer you'll need to buy the Steam service (and hey, why not a support fee for the patch, too?) just to play the game.
I really don't think so, though I know you meant this to show a trend rather than be literal. But while I don't think Evil Dead's a "comedy" by any stretch of the imagination, but the movie is definitely infused with a sense of glee. There's no overt "winking" but the movie is undeniably fun and I don't think it was an accident, I think it's just Bruce and Sam's style.
But I guess we're taking it seriously.
Luring, or waiting for, animals to walk in front of a camera so you can shoot them by remote control isn't hunting. It's executing animals for fun, and it shouldn't be any more legal than someone drowning cats to get their jollies off.
Like this?
Also, if you can take a picture with one of these things while "pretending to talk on it" you have more skill, or perhaps hands, than I.
As I read the DomainKeys(tm)(pat. pending) spec, he can't. The signature includes all the headers, and if some get added or changed (as they will when passing it through the MTA) the signature's invalid. See the DK FAQ discussion on mailing lists.
Now, let's say I send mail From: my domain "example.com" through MTAs at tmail.com and hosting.com in addition to example.com. Can I publish the public keys for those domains in records for example.com? This I don't know.
I use OpenBSD on a desktop and, in fact, have preferred it there (vs. a server) because of its lack of SMP support (which has changed, though I don't know how good it is yet).
Also, pf is very powerful and OpenBSD can be used for a much better firewall than "basic." I find pf to be much easier to work correctly than iptables and I feel like I have much easier access to advanced functionally like queueing in OpenBSD.
I haven't felt any usability pains in using OpenBSD when compared with a (comparable, that is, free as in speech) Linux distribution, say. The install procedure is more basic (and is text-based, of course), but then, I find it harder to screw up as well.
Except for one thing: for the life of me I can't understand why it has to be so hard to use fdisk/disklabel during install. Absolute offsets and magic slice letters like i in disklabel just kill me. It's really the only thing that's unfriendly in the OpenBSD install sequence.
Agreed. I almost didn't buy my iRiver 790T because the excellent free driver said it was "for Linux." Instead, I investigated a little more, compiled it for my OpenBSD system, and went out and grabbed a great flash player (plays Oggs--woot!).
A situation which causes similar pain is when people write non-free software for Linux/x86. I've mostly lived in the "totally free" world (by necessity) because I use Linux on PPC and OpenBSD. And believe me, you start to bemoan the ignorance of folks who are pleased when software is available "for Linux" but don't understand what freedom is supposed to be about.
[A note: writing portable free software isn't that hard. I've written software at work that I know is intended for a single machine running Linux, but I usually keep it running on a BSD and Solaris too, just to keep it portable. It's a habit I'd like to see more widely adopted.]
Your question ("Name one...") is a trap, because no matter what movies someone names, whether the adaptation was successful or not is completely subjective.
For example, take Lord of the Rings. Many "purists" complained about the changes Jackson and company made there--in some cases only to find out that the creators were actually savvier about the source material than the fanboys (I'm thinking specifically of the "Po-tay-toes" scene in The Two Towers, which was roundly condemned in Tolkien forums as an unwelcome addition but which in fact was straight from the books).
In any case, I thought Master and Commander was a tremendous movie, and as true to the heart of the Aubrey-Maturin novels as it is possible for a movie to be--despite a completely invented storyline that never took place in the novels, except in bits and pieces. Now, I'm sure there are many who have their complaints with the movie, but I have read all the books several times and don't think anyone's more "qualified" to judge than I.
Ah yes--you mean in the sense of "I wonder what this 'format' command does?" :)
Well, I had a stereo ruined by the surge as the power came back on. And your "regular PCs" can have disks protected against power outages just as your appliances with hard disks have--by either using a journaling filesystem or similar, or a battery backup of some kind. There's a company that makes ATX-style power supplies with built-in battery backup.
I don't know what you mean by "damage," but if you think this you probably don't have kids. My son has already put my cable box into some crazy administrative mode that I had to call the cable company to get instructions how to fix. Anything that stores files or whatnot can have them deleted by accident.
The first thing I did with my mp3 player (though I suppose I didn't have to do it it didn't work properly without it) is upgrade the firmware. XBMC involves installing some kind of mod-chip, right?
I know what you mean, though, and I basically agree. The complexity of using a single-purpose device is way less than a general-purpose computer. Even if your assertions aren't absolutes, this kind of thing is why I have a PS2 instead of a computer for gaming.
Okay, I promise this will be my last reply. I now have an iRiver iFP 790T and it's pretty much what I want. It doesn't have UMS firmware, but the iFP Linux driver works fine (it's not really just for Linux, it works on several platforms, including OpenBSD, which is what I'm using.
I should also mention that without the UMS firmware, there is a Linux program to load music onto the iRiver iFP players.
After some research, it seems the story is this:
The firmware you describe (that allows the mp3 player to operate as a mass storage device) is not available for the 800 and 900 series. It is available for the 100 and 300 series (300 seems to be discontinued) but doesn't support Oggs.
Thanks for the tip! The iRiver iFP series you mention do look promising, but as I read their FAQ, even if you use it to store arbitrary files, according to them you need their Music Manager software or whatever to load music files--I'm guessing there's some kind of index or something that's loaded into the device with the files themselves? That is, my best guess is I could take one of these devices and put ogg files on it, but it wouldn't recognize and play them. And then, of course, if a firmware upgrade is required, how do I do that without Windows or MacOS?
I suppose I should find a retailer with a good return policy and just try it out myself.
I'm one of those people who ripped their music collection to mp3s. Then, I got more educated, and re-ripped it to oggs (whew!). And now, I'm more educated and I realize that if only I can scrape together the time (and money to buy a disk--but frankly disk isn't that expensive these days) to rip to FLAC that'll the last time I'll have to do it.
I really wish there were a clearinghouse for hardware supporting ogg vorbis linked to from xiph.org or somewhere. I want to shop for mp3 players but I don't want to have to click through every description to see which support Ogg.
Or maybe someone can just tell me: I want a cheap, very small, preferably flash player that supports oggs, and that I can load using any OS (not just Linux) because it shows up as a USB drive and I pop the oggs on?
I believe at Wall*Mart you can three copies of TimeCop for $18.98.
Related to this (sort of)--am I the only one that sees awful compression artifacts in digital cable?
That wasn't the argument the OP was making. He was saying he has a right to bitch even if he didn't offer an opinion when asked--and sure he does, but it has no credibility.
The idea that there's no difference between the candidates (which I disagree with) is a separate point.
First off, the electoral college system we have, with pledged electors and "winner-take-all" states, is not the system the founders gave us. Primarly, they established the electoral college as a measure to blunt popular opinion--they did not trust the electorate with a direct vote. It had nothing to do with ensuring candidates courted sparesly-populated states or anything like that.
We already have a body that provides equal power to every state--the Senate. There is no reason to hand disproportionate power to sparsely-populated states for the purpose of electing the President. You ask "How is that fair to those people in RI[?]" It's exactly fair. It couldn't be more fair: one person is one vote. What you've identified as an "advantage" of the electoral college is an unfairness: the handing of special powers and rights to some voters over others.
It's interesting that you bring up the spectre of states' rights, since the Bush Administration has such a poor record in this area. They want to legislate what states can call marriage, they have already raided legal marijuana-growing facilities, quite literally grabbing medicine from the hands of the sick, and here in Oregon they have repeatedly attacked our death with dignity statute, all in an effort to use the "bigger stronger Fed government" to quash the will of the states.
Sure you can, but your complaints are mere petulance.
"Where do you want to eat?"
"I don't care."
"Seriously, man, where do you want to eat. The guys are thinking Chinese or Mexican."
"I don't care."
"Okay. Guys? Looks like... Chinese."
"Chinese?! That sucks!"
I agree. It's not like these bills appear out of nowhere and you have to vote on them the same day. They spend weeks or months in the development, a great deal of time in specialist committees (who are supposed to delve into their details). I don't have a problem with representatives being aided by staffers. In any case, the USA PATRIOT act wasn't passed because everyone missed all the fine print--it was passed for purely political reasons; in other words, whether or not you'd be re-electable if you opposed it.
I also agree we need fewer laws. Most of the bills that pass should be revisions or reductions in existing law, not new ones. They should be written in plain language and be free of special exceptions and bonuses for representatives' geographical regions, particular industries or lobbying groups.
There's no real mechanism in place to review the body of existing law to simplify and reduce it. I'm not sure how it could be added but if anyone has any ideas I love the topic.