Well, feel free to send me a couple hundred dollars, and I'd be happy to broaden my horizons.
However, given a limited budget, (something which predates 'the digital generation') and the choice between a new CD from a band you enjoy, and a new CD from a band you've never heard of, which would you pick? This is assuming, of course, that your funds are NOT unlimited, and that buying the second CD will necessitate making sacrifices in other areas of your fiscal plan. (For example, not asking that hot redhead next door out on a date because you can't even afford McDonalds, etc.)
Incidentally, I don't consider my original post to be whining. Whining is more along the lines of "This suuuuuuckz! I want Napster baaaaaaack! Boo Hoo!" I admit that I might be biased, considering that it was MY post. However, I believe my post was more of a statement of opinion (namely, that I belive my music choices are more conservative in the absence of ubiquitous file sharing technologies.)
I humbly request that you make an effort to note the difference in the future.
Not to mention that Napster has been down for the past few months as well...I know I've gone back to only buying new releases from bands I know. It's easy to experiment when all it costs is a couple minutes of download time...but, when it costs $20CDN to buy a CD that could potentially suck ass, I tend to be far more discerning...
I thought I might be the only one who thought it sucked ass. I even called a friend of mine (BIG ST fan) half way through, and he had the audacity to say, "It's good! I think you'll like it!" If I could have reached through the phone and beat him senseless, I would have...Here's an email I sent to another friend, detailing my initial reaction...I apologize for the obsenities.
Oh, BTW, I'm mildly pissed off right now. Tom talked me into watching the premiere of Enterprise...now, it was against my better judgment, but in the end, I said, "What the fuck. If I don't watch it, I won't know."...So, I watched it. And it sucked ass. No, it sucked more than ass...it sucked fucking ass. And balls. And cock. And a fucking yak. Why did it suck a fucking yak? I don't know...but it sucked fucking yak cock! A DEAD fucking yak cock! It was that bad. The only part worth watching was the part at the beginning when farmer Joe takes a futuristic shotgun to Klingon Bob. And the credits were good...provided you turned the sound off....Fucking N'Sync. That was it. The rest of the 2 hours was Scott Bakula running around saying, "Vulcans suck! Yay Earth!", and the vulcan bitch, T'PMS running around being bitchy...
And speaking of the characters, it was like they took all the old series, tossed them into a blender, and plastered up the pulsating grey pussy ooze on my television and called it 'Characterization'....First, the fucking doctor...Think Garek meets The Voyager Doctor meets fucking Neelix. I think he's Cardassian. I think. They probably just slapped some putty on his face and said, "Good enough."
Then, the engineer. Think Bashir. Close your eyes when he's talking, and you won't be able to tell the difference. He's almost bearable....I say this because he got barely any air time. A drunk scottsman could kick his ass any day of the week.
Their navigator. Think fucking annoying Wesley Crusher meets Tom Paris meets his ass getting kicked on a weekly basis by bullies who want his lunch money.
Then, the communications officer. Here we have Barclay meets Troy meets every other woosy character that's ever made an appearance on any show.
Rounding things out, they have what I THINK is their weapons officer. Maybe I have him and Bashir 2.0 confused...Fuck if I know. He's a fucking moron. The entire Voyager writing team combined. Heaven help them if he's in charge of anything that requires an IQ of more than 2 to operate. "Uh Captain. I pushed this buttony thingy, and my leg came off. What should I do?"
(Watch this be his big line in next week's show...I know I won't!)
I've already mentioned the science officer. T'Bitch. 'Nuff said.
Then, we get to Mr. Bakula. I don't know about you, but he just doesn't strike me as a captain-y type. His big accomplishment in 2 hours of crappy video? Let's see...He managed to get shot...twice...sorta. (the second one was in 'The Room of Goofy Camera Effects', so it didn't count...and he only got the front part...the hurt-causing part came later.) He manage to get captured by crappy aliens. He managed to turn on the big flashy thing that makes the bad guy's base fall apart. And he managed to do it without saying 'Oh Boy'. But you know he was thinking it.
As for the battle scenes? There was one sort of...The Enterprise managed to get it's ass kicked by interstellar tinker toys. I kid you not. It spent most of it's time hiding from them.
The plot? What there was of it? Well, let's just say it involved 'Genetically engineered' aliens (who all happen to look the same...fuck, I hate clones!) taking orders from a shadowy figure from the future of an alternate reality! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!
MSEmp: Microsoft Licensing Support. How may I direct your call?
LinuxGeek: Uhm. I'm looking for an additional WinXP license.
MSEmp: Excellent, Sir. For which version of Windows XP would you like a license? Home, Professional or Server?
LinuxGeek: Uhm. Well, actually, it's a Red Hat Linux box. But, I'll be connecting remotely to an XP Server machine.
MSEmp: And which version of Windows are you running on the Lee-nooks box?
LinuxGeek: I'm not. It's running Linux.
MSEmp: But what version of Windows is it running?
LinuxGeek: It's NOT running Windows! It's running LINUX.
MSEmp: Please right click on 'My Computer'...
LinuxGeek: You don't understand. It's Linux. Not Windows. I don't have a 'My Computer'!
MSEmp: Sir, are you telling me you've removed the 'My Computer' icon from your desktop?
LinuxGeek: AAARGH! NO! I DID NOT REMOVE ANY 'My Computer' ICON FROM MY DESKTOP. I'M RUNNING LINUX. I NEVER HAD ONE TO BEGIN WITH! IN FACT, I DON'T HAVE ICONS! I'M NOT EVEN RUNNING X!
MSEmp: You never had a 'My Computer' Icon?
LinuxGeek: NO!
MSEmp: Well, that's obviously an installation issue. I'll transfer you to technical support.
LinuxGeek: NO! PLEASE DON'...click click
MSEmp2: Hello. Microsoft Technical Support. May I get your registration code, please?
LinuxGeek: I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
MSEmp2: Hello? Your registration code, please.
LinuxGeek (Deceased):...
MSEmp2: Hmmm. click Strange. That's the 5th one today.
Uhm. I hate to sound like I'm flaming ya here, but did you read the article? The AMD procs jumped to 300+ deg Celcius in a fraction of a second...lm_sensors just isn't going to help you with that... =(
It's pretty obvious that Intel is WAY ahead of AMD in terms of thermal protection...
The problem with a backdoor is that you never know who is using it. Sure, it may be the feds, or it may be J. Random Hacker, who just happens to be taking a Crypto class, and stumbled upon it.
Just think, cryptanalysts attack ciphers in order to find vulnerabilities...imagine how much more incentive you would have if you absolutely knew there was at least one.
It's a sobering thought, but just think of the damage that could be done if someone did find the Feds' backdoor.
I've asked it before, and I'll ask it again...how does the life of the author + 75 years protect the works and allow those who created them to garner value from their work without someone else ripping them off?
Color me crazy, it's rather difficult to rip someone off once they're dead...
Also, IIRC, IP was originally introduced as a measure to allow authors to benefit financially from their works for a limited time (I believe it was originally 5 years for copyright), then have the works pass into the public domain. This would provide incentive for artists/scientists to create new works.
In the current system, an author can concievably release a few pieces of work, then sit back, relax, and collect the royalty cheques...until they die...in which case, their children have 75 years to find a new source of income...where is the incentive to create new works?
One comment which I read about a year ago here on slashdot, which really struck home for me (and I wish I could remember to whom it belonged) was that no DVDs would ever enter the public domain. CDs/DVDs have a lifetime of about 15-20 years before they begin to breakdown, IIRC. Very few, if any will survive to see their copyrights expire.
Actually, I've been slowly plunking away at a spam recognition tool based on Thomas Landauer's work on Latent Semantic Analysis. (Try http://lsa.colorado.edu)
I attended a talk Dr.Landauer did on it a couple years ago, and one of the more interesting uses for the system is text categorization (They were using it to mark term papers...this paper is similar to an A paper...this paper is similar to a D, that sort of thing...they actually got a fairly high correlation with human markers)
Anyway, I started to wonder if it could be applied to spam hunting...Should I ever get the system to a useable state ('training' the system requires some rather large matrix manipulations...and my poor dual Celeron just couldn't handle it...27-42 hours worth of processing time on the small samples I was working with for a term paper at the time)
The fact that I've upgraded to a significantly faster machine since then, and if I were to take some time to optimize the code, I might be able to get down to the point where I could start training it on my ever-growing "Library Of Spam".
Of course, I'm probably one of the few ppl on the planet who actually COLLECTS spam...and my friends tell me I need a gf!;)
Anyway, at the point it's at now, it's still at just a 'hey, wouldn't it be neat if' stage...I honestly haven't a clue how well it will work...
Who knows? The analysis might make an interesting master's thesis some day...It would certainly be handy to have a research-class number cruncher to handle the matrices involved...
Well, I found the plot to be lacking in a number of areas, like:
1. How did collecting to spirits allow them to generate 'the wave'?
2. How would the Zeus cannon damage Gaia?
3. Why was the general such an ass?
4. How did the humans manage to build the barrier cities when the aliens were so very effective at killing them?
and so on and so on...
Frankly, I think the plot could have been brilliant...had the put the same amount of detail into it as they invested in to the computer generated actors...
All in all though, the movie, and ppl's reactions to it remind me a lot of the Wing Commander movie...which was actually not bad...but, was almost completely unrelated to the games.
Just as Wing Commander wasn't Wing Commander, FF isn't FF. They're just cashing in on the francise. If they didn't, It's likely they wouldn't have gotten funding to make the movie in the first place...
I agree with you wholeheartedly...Whenever the big corps get an extension on copyright, you really have to ask yourself how they can justify life + 70 / 95 years as being effectively able to
"promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.'
Color me crazy, but last time I checked, it was rather difficult for an author / inventor to spend much time creating new works AFTER THEY'RE DEAD!
Now, I don't think the US should expire copyrights the instant an author dies, but I see the current scheme to be DETRIMENTAL to the progress of art and science. An author/inventor can create one invetion, and if it happens to hit it big, they can rest on their laurels and collect licensing fees for the rest of their natural lives..and a good chunk of their children's too...It's sick.
Personally, I feel the term for a copyright should be significantly reduced, perhaps back to the original 5 years. The key to copyright being effective lies in the "limited term" which was framed into the US constitution...
...of the fact that the world has way too many lawyers with WAY too much free time on their hands...
Maybe we need more ambulances for them to chase or something...Ones with broken tail lights so they can't tell when the paramedics have tossed it into reverse. =)
Wow...what a day...finished my degree, confirmed my job, and got the oppertunity to bash lawyers! It just doesn't get any better than this!
Speaking from experience, I can tell you that Perl will install under your home directory, and still play nice with others...
For a while, I had copies of 4.036, 5.005_5, and 5.6 (gawd, I love the new Linux-like versioning) all running under my home directory, for testing purposes...It made the quota police very unhappy, but it worked just fine. =)
Not to mention lack of motivation to upgrade...I've seen all the flashy "Buy Office XP NOW!" hoopla, but I've yet to see anything that resembles a list of new features / improvements (or, heaven forbid, bugs fixed)..."Buy it, it's shiny and new!" seems to be their only selling point...Not really a good reason for me to run out and spend $400 CDN on the upgrade from 2000, which IMNSHO, was only an incremental upgrade over Office 97...
Not to mention that in the interview, Ballmer managed to cram the word 'innovate' in there 6 times!
Now, just imagine what would happen if Godzilla attacked Redmond...I can just see 20,000 MSFT employees running around, screaming, "INNOVATE!!! INNOVATE!!!" before they were BBQ'ed by the big guy...Make it into a movie...Gozilla vs. Microsoft....I'd PAY to see that! =)
Jeez, ppl! Grab a spine already! "Linux doesn't have Office, so it will never beat MS on the desktop. Boo hoo!" Get over it. The Linux desktop is still in it's infancy...for those of you who remember Windows 3.1, consider how long it took MS to get to THAT point, let alone to Win2K...
Point is, they've been doing this for a hell of a lot longer than we have...Sure StarOffice isn't the best office suite on the planet, but it's pretty damned good...give it time, it will mature. (and frankly, it's formula editor is beautiful...Office2K's is unusable).
The same is true for pretty much all the other apps mentioned in the article...give them time. Linux isn't ready to be a mainstream desktop today, but that doesn't mean it will never be.
Good things come to those who wait...and better things come to those who get off their lazy asses and contribute code...
Why not simply collect (or figure out how to randomly generate) a number of hardware 'fingerprints', and write a daemon which continually (at regular intervals, of course...we don't want to paralyze the system for the customers who need the codes) submits requests to the Microsoft servers...Eventually, those servers will blue screen, or exceed the total available data storage capacity of the universe (Ok, eventually could mean a REALLY long time)
And, it's not EXACTLY a DOS attack...I mean, the service provided by the system is to release activation codes...you're simply requesting a large number of them. You're using the keyservers for their legitimate purpose. Sure, you're just forwarding the codes to/dev/null, but that's inconsequential at this point.
If they ask you why you're requesting so many activation codes, tell them that re-installing Windows/Office XP is your personal hobby.;)
Also, what happens if some dark, evil, nefarious, nogoodnick hacker (the really bad kind, the kind that kick puppies) just HAPPENS to be running a packet sniffer between me and MS, and then publishes my key on the big, bad, scary Internet? Will MS-Lawyers bust down my door, and force me to read the EULA? I don't think I could stand that!;(
I read at 3, and all I get are these "CmdrTaco, you suck! Microsoft is important! How dare you bash MS? You psycho commie pinko!"
Get a life ppl! If you disagree with CmdrTaco, that's fine, but do we really need 500 posts calling him to task for voicing his opinion? Frankly, compared to the mush you'd get on a news site, it's refreshing to see someone with the balls to stand up and say, "I don't go to Microsoft because I don't see the need!"
With the reaction he's gotten, you'd think he was saying, "Down with Microsoft! Raid their offices! Burn their files! Rape their women! Piss in their executive washrooms! Bring me the head of Bill Gates!"
Put down your flamethrowers and go see a movie or something. Geez. Relax. You'll live longer!
This is true....Wireless is the way to go. =) Given the option between Ethernet and Modem, I'd pick Ethernet. Given the choice between wirless and tethered, I'd pick wireless hands down every time. =)
No, we had to hack a Turing!;) And Babbage's Analytical Engine...now that was hacking! He never did get it back together after Ada helped us with The Great Hack!;)
Of course, it involved a large axe, and several torches, but it was still hacking!;)
ARGH! Comes with a 56K modem and 2 phone jacks. How.....analog. Ok. TIVO I can understand, but you would think a company like 3Com would recognize that there is a growing market of Cable/xDSL/OC-x;) users out there who REALLY want net appliances with an ETHERNET jack...It is truly ironic that those who have more (in this case, bandwidth) are being treated like second class citizens in the digital world, because we are enthusiastic about technology, and don't fit the mold of the lowest common denomiator.
Ah well, enough whining...ErgoAudrey, meet Mr.Soldering Iron. I believe the two of you have a date for the voiding of your waranty this evening. (evil grin).
As soon as we develop interstellar travel, you KNOW someone is going to head to the center of the galaxy and leave the solitary message, "FIRST POST!".
Ah yes...I've been tracking the elusive D-cup for years now...In the past, I've found a couple B-cups (Bureau of Cruel and Unusual Punishments), a C-cup (Committee for Cruel and Unusual Punishments) and several A-cups (Association for Cruel and Unusual Punishments)...but never a D-cup...I'm told they are quite a wonder to behold...I have to assume that's due to the cold plasma.
If you have any leads on the location of D-cup, please send me their name, number and a recent photo, and I will be sure to initiate a deep probe into the matter...;)
Slashdot Mirror
*sigh* I know I shouldn't feed the trolls...
Well, feel free to send me a couple hundred dollars, and I'd be happy to broaden my horizons.
However, given a limited budget, (something which predates 'the digital generation') and the choice between a new CD from a band you enjoy, and a new CD from a band you've never heard of, which would you pick? This is assuming, of course, that your funds are NOT unlimited, and that buying the second CD will necessitate making sacrifices in other areas of your fiscal plan. (For example, not asking that hot redhead next door out on a date because you can't even afford McDonalds, etc.)
Incidentally, I don't consider my original post to be whining. Whining is more along the lines of "This suuuuuuckz! I want Napster baaaaaaack! Boo Hoo!" I admit that I might be biased, considering that it was MY post. However, I believe my post was more of a statement of opinion (namely, that I belive my music choices are more conservative in the absence of ubiquitous file sharing technologies.)
I humbly request that you make an effort to note the difference in the future.
Thank you. =)
Not to mention that Napster has been down for the past few months as well...I know I've gone back to only buying new releases from bands I know. It's easy to experiment when all it costs is a couple minutes of download time...but, when it costs $20CDN to buy a CD that could potentially suck ass, I tend to be far more discerning...
I thought I might be the only one who thought it sucked ass. I even called a friend of mine (BIG ST fan) half way through, and he had the audacity to say, "It's good! I think you'll like it!" If I could have reached through the phone and beat him senseless, I would have...Here's an email I sent to another friend, detailing my initial reaction...I apologize for the obsenities.
Oh, BTW, I'm mildly pissed off right now. Tom talked me into watching the premiere of Enterprise...now, it was against my better judgment, but in the end, I said, "What the fuck. If I don't watch it, I won't know."...So, I watched it. And it sucked ass. No, it sucked more than ass...it sucked fucking ass. And balls. And cock. And a fucking yak. Why did it suck a fucking yak? I don't know...but it sucked fucking yak cock! A DEAD fucking yak cock! It was that bad. The only part worth watching was the part at the beginning when farmer Joe takes a futuristic shotgun to Klingon Bob. And the credits were good...provided you turned the sound off....Fucking N'Sync. That was it. The rest of the 2 hours was Scott Bakula running around saying, "Vulcans suck! Yay Earth!", and the vulcan bitch, T'PMS running around being bitchy...
And speaking of the characters, it was like they took all the old series, tossed them into a blender, and plastered up the pulsating grey pussy ooze on my television and called it 'Characterization'....First, the fucking doctor...Think Garek meets The Voyager Doctor meets fucking Neelix. I think he's Cardassian. I think. They probably just slapped some putty on his face and said, "Good enough."
Then, the engineer. Think Bashir. Close your eyes when he's talking, and you won't be able to tell the difference. He's almost bearable....I say this because he got barely any air time. A drunk scottsman could kick his ass any day of the week.
Their navigator. Think fucking annoying Wesley Crusher meets Tom Paris meets his ass getting kicked on a weekly basis by bullies who want his lunch money.
Then, the communications officer. Here we have Barclay meets Troy meets every other woosy character that's ever made an appearance on any show.
Rounding things out, they have what I THINK is their weapons officer. Maybe I have him and Bashir 2.0 confused...Fuck if I know. He's a fucking moron. The entire Voyager writing team combined. Heaven help them if he's in charge of anything that requires an IQ of more than 2 to operate. "Uh Captain. I pushed this buttony thingy, and my leg came off. What should I do?"
(Watch this be his big line in next week's show...I know I won't!)
I've already mentioned the science officer. T'Bitch. 'Nuff said.
Then, we get to Mr. Bakula. I don't know about you, but he just doesn't strike me as a captain-y type. His big accomplishment in 2 hours of crappy video? Let's see...He managed to get shot...twice...sorta. (the second one was in 'The Room of Goofy Camera Effects', so it didn't count...and he only got the front part...the hurt-causing part came later.) He manage to get captured by crappy aliens. He managed to turn on the big flashy thing that makes the bad guy's base fall apart. And he managed to do it without saying 'Oh Boy'. But you know he was thinking it.
As for the battle scenes? There was one sort of...The Enterprise managed to get it's ass kicked by interstellar tinker toys. I kid you not. It spent most of it's time hiding from them.
The plot? What there was of it? Well, let's just say it involved 'Genetically engineered' aliens (who all happen to look the same...fuck, I hate clones!) taking orders from a shadowy figure from the future of an alternate reality! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!
Oh, now THAT would be a fun support calll...
...
MSEmp: Microsoft Licensing Support. How may I direct your call?
LinuxGeek: Uhm. I'm looking for an additional WinXP license.
MSEmp: Excellent, Sir. For which version of Windows XP would you like a license? Home, Professional or Server?
LinuxGeek: Uhm. Well, actually, it's a Red Hat Linux box. But, I'll be connecting remotely to an XP Server machine.
MSEmp: And which version of Windows are you running on the Lee-nooks box?
LinuxGeek: I'm not. It's running Linux.
MSEmp: But what version of Windows is it running?
LinuxGeek: It's NOT running Windows! It's running LINUX.
MSEmp: Please right click on 'My Computer'...
LinuxGeek: You don't understand. It's Linux. Not Windows. I don't have a 'My Computer'!
MSEmp: Sir, are you telling me you've removed the 'My Computer' icon from your desktop?
LinuxGeek: AAARGH! NO! I DID NOT REMOVE ANY 'My Computer' ICON FROM MY DESKTOP. I'M RUNNING LINUX. I NEVER HAD ONE TO BEGIN WITH! IN FACT, I DON'T HAVE ICONS! I'M NOT EVEN RUNNING X!
MSEmp: You never had a 'My Computer' Icon?
LinuxGeek: NO!
MSEmp: Well, that's obviously an installation issue. I'll transfer you to technical support.
LinuxGeek: NO! PLEASE DON'...click click
MSEmp2: Hello. Microsoft Technical Support. May I get your registration code, please?
LinuxGeek: I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
MSEmp2: Hello? Your registration code, please.
LinuxGeek (Deceased):
MSEmp2: Hmmm. click Strange. That's the 5th one today.
Uhm. I hate to sound like I'm flaming ya here, but did you read the article? The AMD procs jumped to 300+ deg Celcius in a fraction of a second...lm_sensors just isn't going to help you with that... =(
It's pretty obvious that Intel is WAY ahead of AMD in terms of thermal protection...
The problem with a backdoor is that you never know who is using it. Sure, it may be the feds, or it may be J. Random Hacker, who just happens to be taking a Crypto class, and stumbled upon it.
Just think, cryptanalysts attack ciphers in order to find vulnerabilities...imagine how much more incentive you would have if you absolutely knew there was at least one.
It's a sobering thought, but just think of the damage that could be done if someone did find the Feds' backdoor.
That would almost certainly fit under 'Termination'. ;)
The salt goes with the tequila that you drink to celebrate taking out a marketoid... ;)
Color me crazy, it's rather difficult to rip someone off once they're dead...
Also, IIRC, IP was originally introduced as a measure to allow authors to benefit financially from their works for a limited time (I believe it was originally 5 years for copyright), then have the works pass into the public domain. This would provide incentive for artists/scientists to create new works.
In the current system, an author can concievably release a few pieces of work, then sit back, relax, and collect the royalty cheques...until they die...in which case, their children have 75 years to find a new source of income...where is the incentive to create new works?
One comment which I read about a year ago here on slashdot, which really struck home for me (and I wish I could remember to whom it belonged) was that no DVDs would ever enter the public domain. CDs/DVDs have a lifetime of about 15-20 years before they begin to breakdown, IIRC. Very few, if any will survive to see their copyrights expire.
Actually, I've been slowly plunking away at a spam recognition tool based on Thomas Landauer's work on Latent Semantic Analysis. (Try http://lsa.colorado.edu)
;)
I attended a talk Dr.Landauer did on it a couple years ago, and one of the more interesting uses for the system is text categorization (They were using it to mark term papers...this paper is similar to an A paper...this paper is similar to a D, that sort of thing...they actually got a fairly high correlation with human markers)
Anyway, I started to wonder if it could be applied to spam hunting...Should I ever get the system to a useable state ('training' the system requires some rather large matrix manipulations...and my poor dual Celeron just couldn't handle it...27-42 hours worth of processing time on the small samples I was working with for a term paper at the time)
The fact that I've upgraded to a significantly faster machine since then, and if I were to take some time to optimize the code, I might be able to get down to the point where I could start training it on my ever-growing "Library Of Spam".
Of course, I'm probably one of the few ppl on the planet who actually COLLECTS spam...and my friends tell me I need a gf!
Anyway, at the point it's at now, it's still at just a 'hey, wouldn't it be neat if' stage...I honestly haven't a clue how well it will work...
Who knows? The analysis might make an interesting master's thesis some day...It would certainly be handy to have a research-class number cruncher to handle the matrices involved...
Could be worse...he could have said, "Not now dear, I need to slap the monkey."... ;)
Well, I found the plot to be lacking in a number of areas, like:
1. How did collecting to spirits allow them to generate 'the wave'?
2. How would the Zeus cannon damage Gaia?
3. Why was the general such an ass?
4. How did the humans manage to build the barrier cities when the aliens were so very effective at killing them?
and so on and so on...
Frankly, I think the plot could have been brilliant...had the put the same amount of detail into it as they invested in to the computer generated actors...
All in all though, the movie, and ppl's reactions to it remind me a lot of the Wing Commander movie...which was actually not bad...but, was almost completely unrelated to the games.
Just as Wing Commander wasn't Wing Commander, FF isn't FF. They're just cashing in on the francise. If they didn't, It's likely they wouldn't have gotten funding to make the movie in the first place...
I agree with you wholeheartedly...Whenever the big corps get an extension on copyright, you really have to ask yourself how they can justify life + 70 / 95 years as being effectively able to
"promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.'
Color me crazy, but last time I checked, it was rather difficult for an author / inventor to spend much time creating new works AFTER THEY'RE DEAD!
Now, I don't think the US should expire copyrights the instant an author dies, but I see the current scheme to be DETRIMENTAL to the progress of art and science. An author/inventor can create one invetion, and if it happens to hit it big, they can rest on their laurels and collect licensing fees for the rest of their natural lives..and a good chunk of their children's too...It's sick.
Personally, I feel the term for a copyright should be significantly reduced, perhaps back to the original 5 years. The key to copyright being effective lies in the "limited term" which was framed into the US constitution...
...of the fact that the world has way too many lawyers with WAY too much free time on their hands...
Maybe we need more ambulances for them to chase or something...Ones with broken tail lights so they can't tell when the paramedics have tossed it into reverse. =)
Wow...what a day...finished my degree, confirmed my job, and got the oppertunity to bash lawyers! It just doesn't get any better than this!
Speaking from experience, I can tell you that Perl will install under your home directory, and still play nice with others...
For a while, I had copies of 4.036, 5.005_5, and 5.6 (gawd, I love the new Linux-like versioning) all running under my home directory, for testing purposes...It made the quota police very unhappy, but it worked just fine. =)
Not to mention lack of motivation to upgrade...I've seen all the flashy "Buy Office XP NOW!" hoopla, but I've yet to see anything that resembles a list of new features / improvements (or, heaven forbid, bugs fixed)..."Buy it, it's shiny and new!" seems to be their only selling point...Not really a good reason for me to run out and spend $400 CDN on the upgrade from 2000, which IMNSHO, was only an incremental upgrade over Office 97...
Not to mention that in the interview, Ballmer managed to cram the word 'innovate' in there 6 times!
Now, just imagine what would happen if Godzilla attacked Redmond...I can just see 20,000 MSFT employees running around, screaming, "INNOVATE!!! INNOVATE!!!" before they were BBQ'ed by the big guy...Make it into a movie...Gozilla vs. Microsoft....I'd PAY to see that! =)
Jeez, ppl! Grab a spine already! "Linux doesn't have Office, so it will never beat MS on the desktop. Boo hoo!" Get over it. The Linux desktop is still in it's infancy...for those of you who remember Windows 3.1, consider how long it took MS to get to THAT point, let alone to Win2K...
Point is, they've been doing this for a hell of a lot longer than we have...Sure StarOffice isn't the best office suite on the planet, but it's pretty damned good...give it time, it will mature. (and frankly, it's formula editor is beautiful...Office2K's is unusable).
The same is true for pretty much all the other apps mentioned in the article...give them time. Linux isn't ready to be a mainstream desktop today, but that doesn't mean it will never be.
Good things come to those who wait...and better things come to those who get off their lazy asses and contribute code...
And, it's not EXACTLY a DOS attack...I mean, the service provided by the system is to release activation codes...you're simply requesting a large number of them. You're using the keyservers for their legitimate purpose. Sure, you're just forwarding the codes to /dev/null, but that's inconsequential at this point.
If they ask you why you're requesting so many activation codes, tell them that re-installing Windows /Office XP is your personal hobby. ;)
Also, what happens if some dark, evil, nefarious, nogoodnick hacker (the really bad kind, the kind that kick puppies) just HAPPENS to be running a packet sniffer between me and MS, and then publishes my key on the big, bad, scary Internet? Will MS-Lawyers bust down my door, and force me to read the EULA? I don't think I could stand that! ;(
Jesus H Christ!
I read at 3, and all I get are these "CmdrTaco, you suck! Microsoft is important! How dare you bash MS? You psycho commie pinko!"
Get a life ppl! If you disagree with CmdrTaco, that's fine, but do we really need 500 posts calling him to task for voicing his opinion? Frankly, compared to the mush you'd get on a news site, it's refreshing to see someone with the balls to stand up and say, "I don't go to Microsoft because I don't see the need!"
With the reaction he's gotten, you'd think he was saying, "Down with Microsoft! Raid their offices! Burn their files! Rape their women! Piss in their executive washrooms! Bring me the head of Bill Gates!"
Put down your flamethrowers and go see a movie or something. Geez. Relax. You'll live longer!
This is true....Wireless is the way to go. =) Given the option between Ethernet and Modem, I'd pick Ethernet. Given the choice between wirless and tethered, I'd pick wireless hands down every time. =)
Of course, it involved a large axe, and several torches, but it was still hacking! ;)
Ah well, enough whining...ErgoAudrey, meet Mr.Soldering Iron. I believe the two of you have a date for the voiding of your waranty this evening. (evil grin).
As soon as we develop interstellar travel, you KNOW someone is going to head to the center of the galaxy and leave the solitary message, "FIRST POST!".
If you have any leads on the location of D-cup, please send me their name, number and a recent photo, and I will be sure to initiate a deep probe into the matter... ;)