I think the point is that someone needs to write some "conversion" code that will take 4 track audio from XYZ format (or better yet, a 4 channel analog source) and turn it into 4 OGG tracks. I think OGG is pretty ubiquitous in that it can scale nicely while other technologies catch up to it (less the DRM "enhancements", of course).
...or cmdrtaco@gmail.com?...or how about: google@gmail.com?...or how about: gmail@gmail.com?...or how about: test@gmail.com?...or how about: gmale@gmail.com?...or how about: microsoft@gmail.com?
If for no other reason than that he's riding this "contraption" without a shirt! I can understand wearing a leather jacket, or hell even a t-shirt - but to go topless on something like that takes serious balls...
Of course, I could just be jealous because I look like E.T. when I take my shirt off... but I digress.
People are still figuring it out. I mean, look at the web mid 1996. Everyone had a web page full of useless stuff, a boat load of javascript and way too many blink tags. What little content there was, was "arcissistic rantings, with no regard to what purpose they serve".
I think they're trying to target these ads at the general populous. There are a ton of naive people out there that might buy something from these fools. The fact that the Sysadmin of the company they work for deployed Mozilla with pop-up blocker is of ill-consequence. These "average" lusers aren't really actively blocking adds, someone set their browser up for them.
I think that the goal buying up these patents is to bring the open-source movement to its' knees. Patent Lawsuits are PARTICULARLY EXPENSIVE ones to Litigate. They're going to get a massive array of patents and then in a blitzkrieg, they'll fire out an overwhelming number of cease and desist letters to all the key open-source projects that even remotely resemble one of their patents. The end result is going to be a lot of "settlements" because the cost of litigating will be prohibitively expensive (especially for open-source projects). The settlements will basically read, "take down your website / remove the project and we won't sue you out of house and home".
The average open-source programmer would most likely rather close up shop than try to defend himself from a long-drawn out legal battle with MSFT's attack dogs.
This is actually very productive if you can train your body to do it properly. It's called a polyphasic sleep schedule (Uberman sleep). You essentially train your body to go directly into REM sleep (the important sleep) right when you lay down. The end result is several extra productive hours a day; considering that you only sleep for about 15 minutes at a time every 6 hours.
Thomas Edison (documented) and DiVinci (rumored) used this technique.
The only drawback, however, is that you can only stay awake contiguously for about 6 hours at a time until your body FORCES you into a nap.
A ton of information about it can be found on the web and in print. Of course, don't lose any sleep over the cost of that book over at Amazon.com.
WARNING: My personal experience has been that it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to go back to a normal (6-8 hour a night) sleep schedule after getting into a routine such as this. I did it for quite some time with no ill effect, however, when I started working for an employer (where I couldn't get a medically approved "nap") it became quite tricky to maintain. If you work for yourself, however, it's very effective. Another thing to note, is that alcohol can seriously affect this process.
While the Renderdrive looks like a real rendering workhorse that can produce some gorgeous results (see images in page header), does it justify its lofty pricetag of 6950 (over $12,300USD)?
A mirror of these spectacular images can be seen here:
Would be a killer feature. If they could sync my PDA with my Desktop with Thunderbird I'd be thoroughly impressed.
Y! has this functionality for Outlook only; and it's seriously flawed (tasks get truncated at like 20 characters or something - ugh!).
Google certainly has what it takes to pull this off right. Hopefully, they'll provide a way for developers to integrate with the gmail API with external apps (ala T-bird, etc).
You can bet your last dollar that MSNmail, etc will (or already do; I don't use MSN) offer Syncronzation with their desktop apps.
Why not "upgrade" these virii-venerable files at the [mail] server level? When a.DOC file is received at the mail server, it should be converted into a better "more harmless" format - like.TIFF or.SXC or something.
Inform your users about the change. Send them a.TIFF image in thier email message instead of the.DOC file. If they need to make changes to the document, you can virus-scan it on a case-by-case basis or whatever.
Now obviously, this probably wouldn't work at a Law Firm or some other HIGH-VOLUME document facility, but it's a start and I think it would work fine in many small business scenarios.
You guys laugh now, but keep your eyes on the prize.
I recently saw a thread here on/. about port-knocking and it occurred to me that there should be a an OPEN-SOURCE/EFF style Patent Attorney Leauge dedicated to preserving Innovations that come from the Open-Source Community.
We're paying BIG BUCKS for litigation attorneys in a DEFENSIVE role in protecting Open-Source / Free IP; why not take an offensive stance? The EFF should partition a portion of it's income (or otherwise hire some IP attorneys) for the purpose of protecting free IP.
Organizations CAN obtain patents in the same way that Corporations can. As such, we should FIRST push innovation through a valid legal representative (the EFF comes to mind), and ask that they help Patent or otherwise "secure" the Intellectual Property. When the patents are granted, it will provide the open-source community with OFFENSIVE rights against companies like MSFT, et al.
Why should we sit back and play "catch up" with the great industry marketers and non-innovators? We need to organize, re-group, appropriate resources and act like an adult - not a group of children chanting about things we believe in but aren't willing to back up.
I know it might sound counter-intuitive to not get coolness-points by having your idea/project "slashdotted", but ultimately I think it will help the greater good to have our IP reviewed by a legit IP attorney (represented by the EFF or other org that is in our best interests) before posting it publicly (and INVALIDATING OUR VERY OWN Intellectual Property by demonstrating PRIOR ART).
Why do we continue to post great ideas publicly and not preserve the rights to those ideas?
Why do we continue to bitch about how we're getting FSCK'ed by the big corporations?
I'll tell you why - it's because WE (the innovators) are giving our Ideas and Intellectual Property to the big corporations. We're handing it over to them on a silver platter. A perfect example can be found with the TCP/IP stack that IS Microsoft Windows 95-XP... That code is undeniably *BSD CODE!
While I see no problems with the BSD licenses, I do see a problem when a company like MSFT that has the resources to buy a massive amount of Patents and the Open-Source community sits back and waits for the fallout.
Do you guys not see the big picture? They can't beat us in the marketplace. They CAN beat us using legislation / regulation / lobbying / etc.
Here's the bottom line: IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE IN FREE/OPEN SOURCE - WE HAVE TO BE PRO-ACTIVE - _NOT_ RE-ACTIVE.
Software Patents suck - but they are the new reality. We need to either beat them or join them.
Since WE'RE the origination point of the vast majority of thier "innovation", I say we beat them at their own game.
Ok - on second thought, can someone please mod that as "funny" in case they don't find it humorous and they send their legal wolves after me?
Disclaimer: the preceeding comment was intended ONLY as a joke and while I wouldn't necessarily be bothered by the death of Bill Gates, I certainly would never condone it (publicly or privately) nor would I ever ask that anyone perform such an act even if they thought it would help society for the greater good.
These guys used to offer woodgrain finished keyboards, mice, peripherals, etc... but the website vanished.
Here's a picture of a keyboard they used to sell and here's a picture of a car computer finish that was offered.
There's also a company called Oberhofer that sells 'designer' keyboards / mice / etc. at a premium. The last time I checked the website, however, it was de-funct. They had some great peripherals at (albeit) grand prices. I think they have a showroom or two in San Fran or LA somewhere.
Anyone have any info on what happened to them?
Overall, this is a GREAT mod / hack and I'd love to know how they did it...
You need to just relax. Tell them you have a security problem and that you need tools to adequately do your job. If they huff you off, just make a note of it (make sure you document your request and their response), and wait until something happens. When it does, be sure to point out that you asked for the resources to prevent the problem and they didn't provide them.
At which point, they will get what they paid for. Your ARSE will be covered, and you both will suffer the consequences of their decision (which is normal in the corporate world).
One of the big issues I had with my [former] employer (when I was placed in the same situation as you) were the terms at which I could still receive my vacation pay. Georgia is a "voluntary" vacation pay state - this means that the employer can choose if you get your earned vacation pay or not. My Vacation Pay is a significant chunk of change (2 weeks salary), and as such I want to make sure I secured it. Fortunately, as they closed down the Atlanta office, my employment fell under Arizona (our headquarters') state employment laws.
In the event that you lose your job to another state, keep in mind that the employers' state laws apply.
Bottom line: If you get laid-off in your state because that [local] office is closing, have your attorney look closely at the laws of your employers' "headquarters" state. It could benefit you greatly.
Slashdot Mirror
Back in the day, few things were better than playing Slimeworld with a few friends.
Oh man, that brings back some cool memories...
I think the point is that someone needs to write some "conversion" code that will take 4 track audio from XYZ format (or better yet, a 4 channel analog source) and turn it into 4 OGG tracks. I think OGG is pretty ubiquitous in that it can scale nicely while other technologies catch up to it (less the DRM "enhancements", of course).
...or cmdrtaco@gmail.com? ...or how about: google@gmail.com? ...or how about: gmail@gmail.com? ...or how about: test@gmail.com? ...or how about: gmale@gmail.com? ...or how about: microsoft@gmail.com?
[YAWN]
Nothing to see here folks. please move on.
If for no other reason than that he's riding this "contraption" without a shirt! I can understand wearing a leather jacket, or hell even a t-shirt - but to go topless on something like that takes serious balls...
Of course, I could just be jealous because I look like E.T. when I take my shirt off... but I digress.
People are still figuring it out. I mean, look at the web mid 1996. Everyone had a web page full of useless stuff, a boat load of javascript and way too many blink tags. What little content there was, was "arcissistic rantings, with no regard to what purpose they serve".
You mean like this one:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbsite/?
You have circumvented the DMCA by scanning in example code and copyrighted material from 1984.
Prepare to be raided...
please, for the sake of the children, stay away from Olfactory Basic.
Particularly if it uses Rectal Basic syntax.
I think they're trying to target these ads at the general populous. There are a ton of naive people out there that might buy something from these fools. The fact that the Sysadmin of the company they work for deployed Mozilla with pop-up blocker is of ill-consequence. These "average" lusers aren't really actively blocking adds, someone set their browser up for them.
I do get your point and agree with it, however.
I think that the goal buying up these patents is to bring the open-source movement to its' knees.
Patent Lawsuits are PARTICULARLY EXPENSIVE ones to Litigate. They're going to get a massive array of patents and then in a blitzkrieg, they'll fire out an overwhelming number of cease and desist letters to all the key open-source projects that even remotely resemble one of their patents. The end result is going to be a lot of "settlements" because the cost of litigating will be prohibitively expensive (especially for open-source projects). The settlements will basically read, "take down your website / remove the project and we won't sue you out of house and home".
The average open-source programmer would most likely rather close up shop than try to defend himself from a long-drawn out legal battle with MSFT's attack dogs.
This is actually very productive if you can train your body to do it properly. It's called a polyphasic sleep schedule (Uberman sleep). You essentially train your body to go directly into REM sleep (the important sleep) right when you lay down. The end result is several extra productive hours a day; considering that you only sleep for about 15 minutes at a time every 6 hours.
Thomas Edison (documented) and DiVinci (rumored) used this technique.
The only drawback, however, is that you can only stay awake contiguously for about 6 hours at a time until your body FORCES you into a nap.
A ton of information about it can be found on the web and in print. Of course, don't lose any sleep over the cost of that book over at Amazon.com.
WARNING: My personal experience has been that it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to go back to a normal (6-8 hour a night) sleep schedule after getting into a routine such as this. I did it for quite some time with no ill effect, however, when I started working for an employer (where I couldn't get a medically approved "nap") it became quite tricky to maintain. If you work for yourself, however, it's very effective. Another thing to note, is that alcohol can seriously affect this process.
While the Renderdrive looks like a real rendering workhorse that can produce some gorgeous results (see images in page header), does it justify its lofty pricetag of 6950 (over $12,300USD)?
A mirror of these spectacular images can be seen here:
http://www.dashpc.com/renderdrive_mirror.png
quick scan through the kitchen gives me... (Score:3, Funny)
It actually gives (4: Funny [not just 3]). The fourth is, why do you have cotton balls in your kitchen?
Would be a killer feature. If they could sync my PDA with my Desktop with Thunderbird I'd be thoroughly impressed.
Y! has this functionality for Outlook only; and it's seriously flawed (tasks get truncated at like 20 characters or something - ugh!).
Google certainly has what it takes to pull this off right. Hopefully, they'll provide a way for developers to integrate with the gmail API with external apps (ala T-bird, etc).
You can bet your last dollar that MSNmail, etc will (or already do; I don't use MSN) offer Syncronzation with their desktop apps.
Why not "upgrade" these virii-venerable files at the [mail] server level? When a .DOC file is received at the mail server, it should be converted into a better "more harmless" format - like .TIFF or .SXC or something.
.TIFF image in thier email message instead of the .DOC file. If they need to make changes to the document, you can virus-scan it on a case-by-case basis or whatever.
Inform your users about the change. Send them a
Now obviously, this probably wouldn't work at a Law Firm or some other HIGH-VOLUME document facility, but it's a start and I think it would work fine in many small business scenarios.
You guys laugh now, but keep your eyes on the prize.
/. about port-knocking and it occurred to me that there should be a an OPEN-SOURCE/EFF style Patent Attorney Leauge dedicated to preserving Innovations that come from the Open-Source Community.
I recently saw a thread here on
We're paying BIG BUCKS for litigation attorneys in a DEFENSIVE role in protecting Open-Source / Free IP; why not take an offensive stance? The EFF should partition a portion of it's income (or otherwise hire some IP attorneys) for the purpose of protecting free IP.
Organizations CAN obtain patents in the same way that Corporations can. As such, we should FIRST push innovation through a valid legal representative (the EFF comes to mind), and ask that they help Patent or otherwise "secure" the Intellectual Property. When the patents are granted, it will provide the open-source community with OFFENSIVE rights against companies like MSFT, et al.
Why should we sit back and play "catch up" with the great industry marketers and non-innovators? We need to organize, re-group, appropriate resources and act like an adult - not a group of children chanting about things we believe in but aren't willing to back up.
I know it might sound counter-intuitive to not get coolness-points by having your idea/project "slashdotted", but ultimately I think it will help the greater good to have our IP reviewed by a legit IP attorney (represented by the EFF or other org that is in our best interests) before posting it publicly (and INVALIDATING OUR VERY OWN Intellectual Property by demonstrating PRIOR ART).
Why do we continue to post great ideas publicly and not preserve the rights to those ideas?
Why do we continue to bitch about how we're getting FSCK'ed by the big corporations?
I'll tell you why - it's because WE (the innovators) are giving our Ideas and Intellectual Property to the big corporations. We're handing it over to them on a silver platter. A perfect example can be found with the TCP/IP stack that IS Microsoft Windows 95-XP... That code is undeniably *BSD CODE!
While I see no problems with the BSD licenses, I do see a problem when a company like MSFT that has the resources to buy a massive amount of Patents and the Open-Source community sits back and waits for the fallout.
Do you guys not see the big picture? They can't beat us in the marketplace. They CAN beat us using legislation / regulation / lobbying / etc.
Here's the bottom line:
IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE IN FREE/OPEN SOURCE - WE HAVE TO BE PRO-ACTIVE - _NOT_ RE-ACTIVE.
Software Patents suck - but they are the new reality. We need to either beat them or join them.
Since WE'RE the origination point of the vast majority of thier "innovation", I say we beat them at their own game.
Sorry for sounding cynical, but what is "usable" about having to reboot every hour?
Didn't Microsoft already put that stake in the ground by calling it (usability) a feature of thier Windows product?
(not trolling; just trying to make a funny)
Why have a rule to "close" the port when you're finished? After the port is open, configure it to close on disconnect. p00f, a one way door.
In this way, you don't have to worry about closing the door behind you.
Ok - on second thought, can someone please mod that as "funny" in case they don't find it humorous and they send their legal wolves after me?
Disclaimer: the preceeding comment was intended ONLY as a joke and while I wouldn't necessarily be bothered by the death of Bill Gates, I certainly would never condone it (publicly or privately) nor would I ever ask that anyone perform such an act even if they thought it would help society for the greater good.
Killing is bad. Dying is worse.
Coming to US theaters in April of 2004 !
US V was to be a new design, not fully compatible with the old ones, but instead leaning towards Itanic.
Am I the only one that thinks that any product named: "Itanic" is destined to sink in the marketplace?!
These guys used to offer woodgrain finished keyboards, mice, peripherals, etc... but the website vanished.
Here's a picture of a keyboard they used to sell and here's a picture of a car computer finish that was offered.
There's also a company called Oberhofer that sells 'designer' keyboards / mice / etc. at a premium. The last time I checked the website, however, it was de-funct. They had some great peripherals at (albeit) grand prices. I think they have a showroom or two in San Fran or LA somewhere.
Anyone have any info on what happened to them?
Overall, this is a GREAT mod / hack and I'd love to know how they did it...
Is I think what you mean.
You need to just relax. Tell them you have a security problem and that you need tools to adequately do your job. If they huff you off, just make a note of it (make sure you document your request and their response), and wait until something happens. When it does, be sure to point out that you asked for the resources to prevent the problem and they didn't provide them.
At which point, they will get what they paid for. Your ARSE will be covered, and you both will suffer the consequences of their decision (which is normal in the corporate world).
Trust me.
So you're the CEO or one of the Chief officers? Don't worry. Your job can be outsourced too!
Alternatively, you could purchase it for a several thousands of dollars.
Or you could just install tightVNC and dump Terminal Services altogether. As a bonus your machine can be accessible by virtually any other platform.
One of the big issues I had with my [former] employer (when I was placed in the same situation as you) were the terms at which I could still receive my vacation pay. Georgia is a "voluntary" vacation pay state - this means that the employer can choose if you get your earned vacation pay or not. My Vacation Pay is a significant chunk of change (2 weeks salary), and as such I want to make sure I secured it. Fortunately, as they closed down the Atlanta office, my employment fell under Arizona (our headquarters') state employment laws.
In the event that you lose your job to another state, keep in mind that the employers' state laws apply.
Bottom line: If you get laid-off in your state because that [local] office is closing, have your attorney look closely at the laws of your employers' "headquarters" state. It could benefit you greatly.