Why doesn't he submit this thing to the NYTimes, WSJ, CNN, CNET, ZDNet, and Wired? Is there anybody reading Slashdot that didn't know this already? I'm not saying it's a stupid essay, I'm saying it's stupid for it to be posted here and nowhere else.
IF this guy was spamming ads for his site, why did you post a link to it on the front page of Slashdot? Now he'll get more hits than he'd ever dreamed. You should have simply posted his email address so that he could feel the love... er... maybe that's feel the spam.
This will never happen, because if the CSS is an open standard then what would keep anybody from making a brand new DeCSS? They would never make a new digital (or analog if they could find a way) medium without copy protection. If you boycott DVD and DVD sales plunge, why would they "open the standard" instead of merely resorting to VHS?
Anyway, I thought the supposed boycott of MPAA things (and is there anybody actually actively boycotting anything? I don't go see MPAA movies, but that's because I just don't go to the movies. I haven't rented a movie in a looong time either. This is simply because I can't afford to go to the movies [me+girlfriend+popcorn+soda >= $25], not because of some high-and-mighty boycott mentality. I would be interested to hear from anybody who is actually boycotting on principle, otherwise I will assume that the "boycott this" people are just a gaggle of hypocrites) was due to the DeCSS lawsuits, not over making DVD an "open standard."
As a sidebar, I am actively boycotting Amazon. Which has worked to my advantage, because I've found that most of the places I've looked besides Amazon are much cheaper. Reel.com, CDNOW, fatbrain, textbooks.com, varsitybooks.com, etc.
Without having read all these comments, I apologize if these points are redundant. However...
With UCITA in effect, wouldn't MS be completely within its right by putting backdoors in its software? And wouldn't MS be able to sue the WSJ reporters for exposing this flaw?
Right here we can see why MS will never open their source code. Perhaps they even put this backdoor in on purpose so that they could say to the Justice Department, "Look, if you open the source code up, all these bugs/backdoors will be exposed, and every site running Win2k will be destroyed. So you can't open the source, for the good of the Web." Far-fetched perhaps, but it seems like the kind of tactic they might use.
I think this discovery may have much farther-reaching implications that anybody presently realizes.
I am sick of this shit. I mean really. It was bad enough when the Harry Fox Agency shut down the OLGA, but now I see that my once-beloved Eric Clapton Lyric Archive has been shut down by Warner. THIS WAS A SITE WITH LYRICS!! AND ONLY LYRICS! People are no longer permitted to write down the lyrics to songs so that others may know them???
Anyway, the reason Creed is so cool is that you can actually download some of their tabs from their site. Check it out here. Of course, that's not the only reason they're so cool, but it's definitely a start. I don't know their stance on MP3, but they've got Liquid Audio up on their site so perhaps they'd be more open to it than Metallica (who, at this point, are so uncool it hurts).
This was my exact sentiment. "...sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is." So art cannot be traded? What if I trade your art, which I own, for, say, some Jimi Hendrix art that somebody else owns?
But the most glaring point for me was the idea that art can only be obtained with money. Rather stupid.
Nah... that wasn't me. I got caught once replying to some guy bitching about the people posting articles, how CmdrTaco had to hurry home so he could "clean up Slashdot." I replied about, " what the hell does it matter who posts the stories," and then felt dumb when I got the "Ha-Ha!" reply. Sure made me feel stupid. Anyway, I thought I'd pass that love along to all!
Gotta go write more Haikus...
Is it ethical to moderate this post down if my others suck?
The stories on Slashdot are regularly irrelevant and stupid. See the entire Star Wars category, for example. I have come to the conclusion that a story posted on Slashdot is not any kind of "honor." It is simply a reflection of things the "editors" like. If you want some control over what gets posted and what doesn't, visit kuro5hin. There is rarely any complaining there about what gets posted because everybody votes on it, so you can see who wanted it posted. The collective bias is reflected rather than that of "emmett" or "timothy" (the two Slashdot "editors" I find most inane).
Slashdot is valuable in that it is a centralized repository for news. Unfortunately, this news is filtered through individuals, so we see what they want us to see. That is most likely why we haven't seen any news about how Linux stocks are sinking like the Titanic, because they don't want us to see it. Nor any news about hours-long server outages, for the same reason.
The solution is to not take Slashdot so seriously. It was not created as a serious endeavor and if you take it (or anything) too seriously you'll get all worked up and mad about nothing. So just calm down and I guess skip the retarded stories.
I love star trek. You can call me a trekkie or a trekker or whatever you want (though I own no Star Trek "memorabilia" nor have I ever attended a "convention" nor dressed up as a Klingon/Borg/whatever). I like all of the series, but TOS is probably my least favorite. While not every episode was wonderful, I think in general the shows quite good.
I was actually looking forward to the next series, but this concept seems absolutely retarded. I think the reason Voyager is way out in another part of the galaxy is to prevent it from ever coming into contact with DS9, because if the two shows were in the same "world" the storylines would have to remain in sync and it could probably get pretty hairy (though I realize TNG was on the air at the same time as DS9 without much intermingling, but that was before there was a war and the dominion, etc). By having this new show take place way in the past, they don't have to worry about any mixing of the storylines.
But besides all that, and despite my love for the show, I think this new series will suck royal balls, and the next movies will as well. They have exhausted almost every possible plotline already, and the most recent movie (Insurrection) showed this quite well. Did anybody else notice how they rehashed scenes from the TNG series in that movie? Like when Data was explaining to that kid about how he would trade all his "superpowers" to be a human kid, that was a complete ripoff of the TNG episode Hero Worship, where some kid latches on to Data and Data says "I would gladly experience pain for the ability to taste my drink" (paraphrased from memory). I guess you have to see it to notice it, but it wasn't an isolated incident.
Another one was when Picard took off his rank pins, those circles on his neck, when he was going down to the planet against the orders of that admiral (Why didn't picard just arrest that guy, anyway?). That was a complete ripoff of when Worf quit the Federation (taking off his comm. badge and throwing it on the table in front of Picard and Riker) to join Gowron in Redemption.
Also, Insurrection had the gayest thing ever to appear in a ST episode or movie, even gayer than tribbles. It had Riker flying the Enterprise with a joystick. "Computer, activate manual steering column!" Like the enterprise has ailerons and flaps. That was the most retarded thing I've ever seen, at least that I can remember right now.
Anyway, while a good new series would be welcome, fodder along the lines of Insurrection surely is not. I would rather the series be honorably laid to rest than to see it run into the ground with inanity. But of course, there are people far more obsessed with Trek than I, who will go to see anything starring anyone remotely connected with Trek, and so the movie/series will be made for them and the paltry few million that can be squeezed out of them.
To be honest, I never tried napster until two days ago, and that was only to see what all the huballoo was really all about. I must say that I was extremely disappointed. There were many artists who were not even listed in the database. When I found artists that were listed, there were usually many copies of just a very small set of unique tracks. And then when I went to download those that I was actually interested in, I discovered that most of the sites were down or otherwise unavailable.
Well if you were looking for "The Best of Yanni," of course you were going to be disappointed. May I ask what kind of music you listen to? I get the feeling you like something wayyyyy out of the mainstram, like gregorian chants or techno-rap-bluegrass or something. Of course alternative (true alternative, not the nirvana/pj/aic definition of alternative) isn't going to be represented: Napster relies on the files on other people's drives. If nobody else listens to the crap you like, you're not going to find it!
Oh, you found multiple copies of some artists/songs? What a fucking revelation! You mean more than one person likes popular music? Do you think that's why they call it popular?
Finding obscure songs is inherently difficult on Napster: if it was on Napster, other people would have it. If other people had it, it wouldn't be obscure. Don't blame Napster for your bizarre music tastes.
(This is not to say Napster is perfect, but if nobody has the song it is not a shortcoming of Napster -- I was looking for Heart's rendition of Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll today and it took hours and then I only found it at 96k. I can't blame Napster for nobody wanting that song besides me and whoever that guy was that had it.)
My favorite radio station, NYC's 92.3 K-Rock, has AC/DC doing You Shook Me All Night Long acoustic (performed live in the studio with some guitar that had just been laying around, from what I gather), as well as a song from Blink 182 and one from Limp Bizkit. You can download these songs for free from their site. They aren't the highest quality, but at least it's something. I wonder what kind of legal hoops they had to jump through to get this up on their site?
Anyway, this is a sign, I guess, that some people at least have a clue. I mean, AC/DC's been around for what, 25 years? If they can come around and see the benefits of distributing a promo song for free, even if it's low quality, there may yet be hope for the industry. Of course, for every AC/DC there's a Ricky Martin and an N-sync whose contracts would never let them do anything like that. And there are far more Ricky Martin-esque filler type bands that need the quick buck than proven ass-kickers like AC/DC, so maybe the industry as a whole is doomed--but we can still have hope for the quality bands of today.
A woman came in to the help desk where I work today and explained that she was having problems with her computer, and asked us if we could "reprogram the virus." We were baffled for a minute, and then I asked her, "Do you mean the antivirus software?" and she said, "Yes. Reprogram the antivirus software." We then explained that she had to go buy the program and install it.
Right after she left, a man came in and wanted to speak to the "browser administrator." The girl at the front desk asked him, "you mean the website administrator?" and he said "okay."
I used to think the stories about people like this were fake. Like the people who, when asked who their ISP is, reply "Netscape!" But now I know that they are real.
I mention this only because these are the types of people who would believe a story like this. Like the guy I used to work with, who was bragging about how smart he was, because on December 31 before he left work, he unplugged the computer and the monitor from the wall. He was bragging, you see, because he had "saved" the computer from Y2K.
Ya really gotta be careful around these people and technology...
When Microsoft appeals this ruling, will it erase the ruling from existence, or what? As I understand it, the ruling is important because the verdict can now be used as evidence in other cases against MS. So if they win the appeal (or if it is settled), is this ruling still admissable, or is it then void?
I guess the question is would an appeal be like an "annulment" or a "divorce" of the ruling.
Also, is there any way we can make MS pay the lawyer fees for the USDOJ in this case? I think Boies was charging us the "bargain" rate of $300 per hour. Let's see, ($300/hour) * (18 hrs/day) * (300 days/year) * (3 years) = a whole lotta money. And that's just for Boies.
Another question: when did this case begin? Can anyone give me a date?
I'm not much of an irc user, so pardon me if this sounds incredibly stupid, but can't anybody connect to any irc server and join any channel (discounting things like being banned) and just start talking? So can't anybody displaced by this Talk City just go to any other network and continue as usual? Or is there some great feature about this talkcity thing that I don't know about?
Does this make anybody laugh? A clever April fool's joke either actually tricks someone cleverly or is just plain funny. I must now say that if this article and Hemos's original spring cleaning article are your idea of funny, I must remember never to hire you as comedians because you are the unfunniest people I have ever encountered. Unless these stupid posts are the groundwork for some kick-ass joke on us all, I must say that you should never, never, ever, never, never, ever, never, ever, ever, never tell another joke again.
Unuzeer Internet Treckeeng Ixplueet is not funny. Not only is it inherently not funny -- any humor in the Swedish Chef exists ONLY when it is spoken, not written -- but it is extra non-funny because Hemos did the exact same thing a few hours ago. But his "accent" was unrecognizable and even less funny than this one. Also, the idea for the Swedish Chef seemed to come from the comments in the Spring Cleaning article, so not only is it not funny, but unoriginal too.
Please, no more lame accents. No April Fool's Joke is going to be funny if it says "Here is an april fool's joke for you!" which these stories scream. Maybe link to some good AFD pranks or something, or come up with a good one of your own, but no more Swedish Chef!
Well, as much as the old one sucked, if they were going to change it they should have left the old one up somewhere so all the people in here complaining about the dumb grammar, etc. don't look like they're crazy.
It would be irresponsible of us not to mention the most important measure we can take to prevent accidents with computers: after wrapping them in blankets to prevent serious burns, it is best to store them in a bathtub filled with cold, soapy water. This serves several purposes, including preventing the computer from overheating and exploding, and cleaning out the internal components of dustballs, mites, and rodents that have taken up residence inside the chassis (mice often use the 800 MHz Pentium III processor as a hotplate to make their grilled cheese sandwiches). While some people are apprehensive about removing the rodents from their systems, rest assured that the mice are left unharmed, and swim safely to the shore... er... the edge of the tub, and are on their merry way. Come April 2, you will notice a drastic change in the performance of your computer!
I don't get this. I recognize the "Internet Cleaning" hoax (which was also mentioned in the internet hoax article a few days ago), but that writing is just confusing me. I figured this was some sort of inside joke, or it was supposed to be Cartman or something, but now I see that nobody else seems to know what this is, so I am just left at a loss. I think this could have been funny if not for that stupid writing style... or maybe if a different, more recognizable stupid writing style had been used. I can't figure out what that dialect is supposed to be. Maybe it's "bash the keyboard"-ese. I don't know.
But honestly, Hemos, you really did ruin the joke. First of all, you told us it was an april fools joke, which ruined any chance it had. Second, you put the foot icon up there, which had the same effect. Maybe if you had used the "announcement" icon and taken a more serious approach it would have been funnier. But then again, if that happened we would all just sit around going "that is so lame," so maybe you should just ignore April Fool's Day. Even something clever like "CmdrTaco died" would be so obviously a joke that it wouldn't even be worth it. But I really think this was one of the sorriest jokes I've ever seen.
Slashdot Mirror
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Anyway, I thought the supposed boycott of MPAA things (and is there anybody actually actively boycotting anything? I don't go see MPAA movies, but that's because I just don't go to the movies. I haven't rented a movie in a looong time either. This is simply because I can't afford to go to the movies [me+girlfriend+popcorn+soda >= $25], not because of some high-and-mighty boycott mentality. I would be interested to hear from anybody who is actually boycotting on principle, otherwise I will assume that the "boycott this" people are just a gaggle of hypocrites) was due to the DeCSS lawsuits, not over making DVD an "open standard."
As a sidebar, I am actively boycotting Amazon. Which has worked to my advantage, because I've found that most of the places I've looked besides Amazon are much cheaper. Reel.com, CDNOW, fatbrain, textbooks.com, varsitybooks.com, etc.
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I think this discovery may have much farther-reaching implications that anybody presently realizes.
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Anyway, the reason Creed is so cool is that you can actually download some of their tabs from their site. Check it out here. Of course, that's not the only reason they're so cool, but it's definitely a start. I don't know their stance on MP3, but they've got Liquid Audio up on their site so perhaps they'd be more open to it than Metallica (who, at this point, are so uncool it hurts).
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But the most glaring point for me was the idea that art can only be obtained with money. Rather stupid.
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Gotta go write more Haikus...
Is it ethical
to moderate this post down
if my others suck?
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Slashdot is valuable in that it is a centralized repository for news. Unfortunately, this news is filtered through individuals, so we see what they want us to see. That is most likely why we haven't seen any news about how Linux stocks are sinking like the Titanic, because they don't want us to see it. Nor any news about hours-long server outages, for the same reason.
The solution is to not take Slashdot so seriously. It was not created as a serious endeavor and if you take it (or anything) too seriously you'll get all worked up and mad about nothing. So just calm down and I guess skip the retarded stories.
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I was actually looking forward to the next series, but this concept seems absolutely retarded. I think the reason Voyager is way out in another part of the galaxy is to prevent it from ever coming into contact with DS9, because if the two shows were in the same "world" the storylines would have to remain in sync and it could probably get pretty hairy (though I realize TNG was on the air at the same time as DS9 without much intermingling, but that was before there was a war and the dominion, etc). By having this new show take place way in the past, they don't have to worry about any mixing of the storylines.
But besides all that, and despite my love for the show, I think this new series will suck royal balls, and the next movies will as well. They have exhausted almost every possible plotline already, and the most recent movie (Insurrection) showed this quite well. Did anybody else notice how they rehashed scenes from the TNG series in that movie? Like when Data was explaining to that kid about how he would trade all his "superpowers" to be a human kid, that was a complete ripoff of the TNG episode Hero Worship, where some kid latches on to Data and Data says "I would gladly experience pain for the ability to taste my drink" (paraphrased from memory). I guess you have to see it to notice it, but it wasn't an isolated incident.
Another one was when Picard took off his rank pins, those circles on his neck, when he was going down to the planet against the orders of that admiral (Why didn't picard just arrest that guy, anyway?). That was a complete ripoff of when Worf quit the Federation (taking off his comm. badge and throwing it on the table in front of Picard and Riker) to join Gowron in Redemption.
Also, Insurrection had the gayest thing ever to appear in a ST episode or movie, even gayer than tribbles. It had Riker flying the Enterprise with a joystick. "Computer, activate manual steering column!" Like the enterprise has ailerons and flaps. That was the most retarded thing I've ever seen, at least that I can remember right now.
Anyway, while a good new series would be welcome, fodder along the lines of Insurrection surely is not. I would rather the series be honorably laid to rest than to see it run into the ground with inanity. But of course, there are people far more obsessed with Trek than I, who will go to see anything starring anyone remotely connected with Trek, and so the movie/series will be made for them and the paltry few million that can be squeezed out of them.
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Well if you were looking for "The Best of Yanni," of course you were going to be disappointed. May I ask what kind of music you listen to? I get the feeling you like something wayyyyy out of the mainstram, like gregorian chants or techno-rap-bluegrass or something. Of course alternative (true alternative, not the nirvana/pj/aic definition of alternative) isn't going to be represented: Napster relies on the files on other people's drives. If nobody else listens to the crap you like, you're not going to find it!
Oh, you found multiple copies of some artists/songs? What a fucking revelation! You mean more than one person likes popular music? Do you think that's why they call it popular?
Finding obscure songs is inherently difficult on Napster: if it was on Napster, other people would have it. If other people had it, it wouldn't be obscure. Don't blame Napster for your bizarre music tastes.
(This is not to say Napster is perfect, but if nobody has the song it is not a shortcoming of Napster -- I was looking for Heart's rendition of Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll today and it took hours and then I only found it at 96k. I can't blame Napster for nobody wanting that song besides me and whoever that guy was that had it.)
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Anyway, this is a sign, I guess, that some people at least have a clue. I mean, AC/DC's been around for what, 25 years? If they can come around and see the benefits of distributing a promo song for free, even if it's low quality, there may yet be hope for the industry. Of course, for every AC/DC there's a Ricky Martin and an N-sync whose contracts would never let them do anything like that. And there are far more Ricky Martin-esque filler type bands that need the quick buck than proven ass-kickers like AC/DC, so maybe the industry as a whole is doomed--but we can still have hope for the quality bands of today.
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Right after she left, a man came in and wanted to speak to the "browser administrator." The girl at the front desk asked him, "you mean the website administrator?" and he said "okay."
I used to think the stories about people like this were fake. Like the people who, when asked who their ISP is, reply "Netscape!" But now I know that they are real.
I mention this only because these are the types of people who would believe a story like this. Like the guy I used to work with, who was bragging about how smart he was, because on December 31 before he left work, he unplugged the computer and the monitor from the wall. He was bragging, you see, because he had "saved" the computer from Y2K.
Ya really gotta be careful around these people and technology...
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I guess the question is would an appeal be like an "annulment" or a "divorce" of the ruling.
Also, is there any way we can make MS pay the lawyer fees for the USDOJ in this case? I think Boies was charging us the "bargain" rate of $300 per hour. Let's see, ($300/hour) * (18 hrs/day) * (300 days/year) * (3 years) = a whole lotta money. And that's just for Boies.
Another question: when did this case begin? Can anyone give me a date?
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... which is why he left themes.org. Sourceforge is owned by VA, so this would defeat the purpose of leaving in the first place.
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Unuzeer Internet Treckeeng Ixplueet is not funny. Not only is it inherently not funny -- any humor in the Swedish Chef exists ONLY when it is spoken, not written -- but it is extra non-funny because Hemos did the exact same thing a few hours ago. But his "accent" was unrecognizable and even less funny than this one. Also, the idea for the Swedish Chef seemed to come from the comments in the Spring Cleaning article, so not only is it not funny, but unoriginal too.
Please, no more lame accents. No April Fool's Joke is going to be funny if it says "Here is an april fool's joke for you!" which these stories scream. Maybe link to some good AFD pranks or something, or come up with a good one of your own, but no more Swedish Chef!
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Anybody have a cached copy of the old one?
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Your computer will thank you for it!
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But honestly, Hemos, you really did ruin the joke. First of all, you told us it was an april fools joke, which ruined any chance it had. Second, you put the foot icon up there, which had the same effect. Maybe if you had used the "announcement" icon and taken a more serious approach it would have been funnier. But then again, if that happened we would all just sit around going "that is so lame," so maybe you should just ignore April Fool's Day. Even something clever like "CmdrTaco died" would be so obviously a joke that it wouldn't even be worth it. But I really think this was one of the sorriest jokes I've ever seen.
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