FTA: "Boxee has had a hard time adapting to the quickly changing environment where appliances have converged with televisions (morphing into Smart TVs), and I'm sure Samsung is looking to integrate the software in some form or another into their smart TVs."
Cost calculations must factor in time spent watching and/or forwarding through ads amongst other things. There is other time as well, including dealing with said cable company, paying said bills etc. etc. I'm not even arguing that it sways the calculation one way or another, but it must be considered.
I feel like the broken record of my circle of friends but time must be valued at an exceptionally high rate. It is our most limited resource and, if my own calculations are correct, the more of that time is spent simply watching tv, the more limited the resource itself becomes.
It's like having a proper hard-case for each disk, and although it won't protect them from a fall it makes it easy to line them all up on a bookshelf or in a rack/drawer system and pull them out when needed.
We also read each drive at least once every 6 months to ensure the drive can re-new any weak magnetic sectors/blocks.
Wrong. DVD+R was released after DVD+RW. DVD+RW works best as filesystem accessible rewriteable media. The format was updated to include write-once media in order to compete with DVD-R. (You'll notice that even the write-once DVD+R discs bear the stylized RW logo.)
Check here for some more info on the entire DVD spectrum.
A few other quick notes: 1. The +RW alliance claims 100% compatibility with the DVD-Video standard. I've had no trouble using +R discs on very old DVD drives and DVD-Rom drives. Although, as has been said above, there seems to be a huge amount of variation across different drives and players.
2. +R/+RW media does not have the rediculous finalization (lead out) routine that's required with -R/-RW routines.
3. One more thing, formatting times for -RW are rediculous, whereas +RW media can format on the fly.
Although my drive is multiformat, the +RW camp has my vote through experience.
Or go to the company website... download their Annual Report and get the phone number for their corporate switchboard... and get in touch with a real human... fast!
Uh... I wouldn't call myself a Unix hack. I wouldn't call myself a Unix anything. I found it easier to get up an OpenBSD box, running as an SMTP server, than it was trying to get X running properly on the latest Debian (stable) release.
That statement alone should clear me of any Unix hack accusations. I'm still a novice. Heck I recently tried to compile some ALSA drivers and was gently pointed out by a kind developer I had forgotten to install autoconf and automake. D'OH!
Seriously though... there's a lot of rhetoric up above and, I'm sure, more below. If we, as a community, don't help to educate, instead making rash statements about the ineptitude of "everyone else," we're never going to get anywhere.
No. I have installed many broadband connections from vendors in the USA and Canada. Not once have I needed an ethernet cross-over cable when connecting a Cable/DSL modem to either a computer system or a switch/hub. Don't raise a technical issue you can't back up with just a little experience. And you can quote me on that.
I don't believe that Microsoft intends to allow users to actually remove much software with any of these "new" features. Even if a user edits his/her sysoc.inf (you can find it in "%systemroot%\inf" if you so will) file and removes the word "hide" from applications which are not appearing under the "add/remove windows components" manager, most of the applications remain on the hard disk even after they are supposedly "uninstalled." I have found this to be true with Outlook Express and Media Player. Frankly who cares about Internet Explorer at this point. Most people I know use it on their windows machines anyway, regardless of how buggy and insecure it may. At this point, Microsoft being forced to alter XP so much that Internet Explorer is "uninstalled" is nothing more that a friendly pat on the ass compared to the original goals of the anti-trust case(s). The justice department should be absolutely ashamed.
Honest to God I still write my daily journal on an IBM 5150, which I have upgraded to a whopping 512K of RAM, and a 20MB Seagate (full size 2x5.25) Hard Disk. It pairs up nicely with the Epson MX100III printer, although sadly and due to it's age, I need to use the choke more often durring the winter now. Oh and a TV out came standard (in 1980).
Mandrake huh? I remember when I walked into a friend's apartment and asked what that strange looking Windowing System was. KDE was the response; KDE included with the Mandrake Distribution of Linux. I believe it was version 5 at the time.
So intrigued I was that, upon my return home, I downloaded and installed Mandrake right away. I was hooked. Having never used Linux before, I immediately downloaded Debian as well and started reading about this strange little kernel called Linux. So whilst I read all I could about Debian, I used Mandrake, learning far more in the using than in the reading. I in fact never got Debian to work they way I wanted and continued to use only Mandrake.
My self-owned small business signed on with Mandrake to become Quebec's only distributor of the Power Pack series (at the time.) It was here that I ran into trouble. I was caught between my love of the distribution, and the hatred of their distribution system. I was forced to pre-buy large quantities of boxed Power Packs. I never got rid of a version set without having to buy more of the new version set. When all was said and done, and I was ready to give up the ghost, I had leftover power packs of 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.0, 7.1 and 7.2. Altogether I had spent over $1000K on Linux Mandrake Power Packs. I never made a cent, and in fact lost plenty. There was no response from any Mandrake offices; complaints and questions remained unanwered. Additionally, it took them several years to get my name of their list of resellers.
So here I find myself, years later, introduced to Linux and the OpenSource community by then-little Linux Mandrake. I still have a Mandrake-based Linux install running at my home. The distro has been modified heavily and possibly retains little resemblance to any known Mandrake products but that's how it started. I have now used many OSes that would not have made their way into my life without Mandrake. I recently discovered the joys of the BSD OSes, all thanks to Mandrake.
As much as I would like to say that I will be forever indebted to Linux Mandrake, the fact is that MandrakeSoft is really endebted to people who took a real hit early on simply because they loved the distribution so much. Although they have continued to put out a very useful distribution one has to wonder how other projects (with a much smaller bankroll) have survived and prospered.
Nonetheless, I will still recommend Mandrake to anyone who asks, and proudly exclaim it still remains part of my home network. My previous finacial and promotional support met with no rewards and even less satisfaction. They seem unable to run a economically viable ship and as has been the case with many other companies producing good products, tough luck. I do hope they survive, and I hope people have had a better experience with the business side of things than I have. Their product opens up a world of possibilites for those who want an easy-to-use and inexpensive alternative to the costly but widely accepted operating systems for the x86 platform. I wish them luck in their future endeavours.
Without getting into the RIAA vs. Privacy vs. Fair Use debate (which is so tried at this point) I think one of the best things to be returned to artists recently is the power to go independant. Independantly produced and released albums rarely gain acceptance the way main stream, and massively marketed music does, but it allows the artists themselves to stay true to their roots and develop a much more community oriented approach to music. It improves diversity and encourages competition on a local and global scale, something which is good for artists and fans alike. It is an exciting time in the music industry, perhaps even a time where the focus on music becomes more important than the focus on industry. Copy.
I think what we have here, both in the licensing issue writen-of in the main post, but also in the subsequent discussion, is the age old dilemma of too much or too little. People will be consistently unhappy, terms of an agreement are either too loose, or too restrictive. Words tend to be an imperfect means of defining anything. More often than not, interpretation always occurs and therefore misunderstanding will often occur. Nothing has changed. Contracts have been disputed since humans were capable of making them, whether by handshake or signature (and sometimes blood.) Get used to it, it's humanity, and it's only going away when we destroy ourselves. (Not that we need to head in that direction by anymeans.)
Although I know nothing about the laws governing censorship, including the export of products for censorship, I do think Amnesty is wrong in this case. Amnesty Internation needs to focus on the fact that China is censoring its citizens. If Microsoft, CISCO et al. don't provide solutions, someone else will.
Well here's the makeup and primary purposes for each system on our tiny little network.
x.x.x.01 - This system, lovingly named FireRush, is a PII-266, 64MB ECC SDRAM (SIMMS remember those?), 1 GB Quantum Fireball Hard Drive, 1 ISA 3 Com 10baseT Card, 1 PCI 3com 3c905b 10/100baset T Card. This system runs linux, kernel. 2.4.3. It serves as: router, NAT box, masquerade server, webserver (apache 2.0.43), roger_wilco server, a local (no external access) FTP server and an SSH server for remote network access. I also use it for various orther jobs which linux tends to handle especially well. It seems to manage our 3mb/s DSL connection quite well, and never uses any of the swap partition. (No monitor, keyboard or mouse attached.)
x.x.x.02 - Internally refered to as NDGhetto, a 1.4GHz T-Bird, 256MB of Ram, 13GB WD Expert, 3com 3c905c Net card. This system runs linux, I can't remeber what kernel and is used as a Half-Life (CS and DoD) server. We actually ran a Natural Selection server on it for a while but it was so popular that it cost us way too much in bandwidth. No monitor, keyboard or mouse attached.)
x.x.x.03 - Remora Prime is one of two sound design workstations. This machine, yes, it runs Windows XP. It's an AthlonMP system with 512MB of RAM and not much more. The system is mated to a relatively high-end sound card, 10 channels of 24/96 audio on high-end converters, ADAT connections, SPDIF, low latency midi (1ms) et all. Our main application is Sequoia, which is only available for Windows. The reason we chose Windows XP is that it can support 32 audio channels, whereas 2000 can only handle 10. I disklike protools, and Sequoia is very powerful, hence the windows choice.
x.x.x.04 - TheDude. This system is the gaming machine and my brother's workstation. It's an AthlonXP with I can't remember what configuration because he upgrades so often. He uses Windows 2K and has recently started dual booting with Mandrake to get to know linux. It has a GeForce3 (Hercules 3DProphet something or other). He plays a lot of Natural Selection and DoD.
x.x.x.05 - Headrush. This system is a PIII 500, 384MB of RAM, 4GB UWScsi disk, and runs Windows98. This system is taken to all of my band's Gigs. It has a 4 in 4 out, high-end soundcard (also 24/96), and is used as a softsynth/sampler at all of our shows. It has crashed only 1 durring it's time in use (over two years.) We also use it as a backup if we need 2 extra A/D converters because we can sync this card to the more powerful soundcard and track to the main workstations hard drives. It runs Reason2, B4 and Pro53 during most of it's cycles.
So you can see that linux has a very important part in our network. We use it every day, even if only transparently. Unfortunately until the Dimudi project comes to fruition, and until ProTools revamps it's interface, Windows will remain our primary platform for audio work.
My father, a physician and microbiologist, has had to deal with many resistant biological organisms as of late. He is an vocal opponent of prescribing antibiotics for every little sign of illness, something that has become all too common these days. We often forget how much easier it is for small organisms with low, or single cell counts to adapt to change.
Another one of my friends recently got a job doing biological analysis of airborne organisms in one of Montreal's biggest hospitals and has found a surprising number of drug-resistant bacteria.
Unfortunately it's something we'll have to live with, and for the drug companies it's a gold mine. They can charge whatever the market will pay for the latest designer anti-biotic. In the end, and as with many things, we will suffer for the excesses of the past, but we can affect a change. It's all in attitude. OpenSource drug companies... now that's wishful thinking.
I've had a 30GB 7200RPM Fujitsu drive for some time now... it's been in use at least a year and have not seen any trouble with it yet. The article did scare me into making yet another backup, but seriously, there are a lot of good posts here talking about how we tend to blow everything out of proportion. Yes, the register seems to have quite a bit of proof of faulty drives, and yes, this drive isn't exactly the cream of the crop. I can say that it has been doing it's job, and so far it hasn't made any strange noises or emitted any foul odours. On the other side of the consumer spectrum, it's not unusual for an automobile manufacturer to recalls tens of thousands of automobiles for "issues" that can actually result in death, yet people continue to drive those cars (many of whom didn't even get the recall notice and are driving potential execution chambers.) The fact is, at least with disk drives and data, if you don't have a backup then it's your own damn fault. It's like preventive health care for your information.
Our approach has been one in which we blatantly give away our music. Any user can download complete songs off our website. All of our music is available from our first, crappy recordings to our new and still crappy recordings. We focus our money making operation on live Gigs. Heck we give away free CDRs of our music to people who ask for it, and it says so on the website.
One thing which has really struck me with the (hopefully) emminent demise of the recording industry, as we know it, will be the return to local, community based live venues for musical groups. The playing field has begun to level itself, and I don't think there needs to be a necessary effort to control it. In fact it's the control that huge conglomerates have attempted to gain that has crushed the industry in the first place.
As a band we plan to dive head-first into the free music scene. Seeing as though we are first and foremost a live band, our recordings are nowhere near as exciting as a live performance. But when push comes to shove, if you want to carry around some bellyrash in your portable mp3 player, you are more than welcome to without our express written consent.
One way in which the recording industry has everyone trapped is no different that the consistent/. theme of Microsoft(tm) vs. the world. Quality will always stand over quantity even if the majority of persons out there don't even know where to look for quality because quantity has blinded their sight.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it reasonable to discuss computing performance without the inclusion of efficiency?
RX Vega 64: 345 Watts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:AMD_Radeon_RX_Vega)
1080 (Titan XP): 250 Watts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_10_series)
I have no skin in the game other than competition is necessary in this market and I'd love to see ATI, oops, AMD, perform better than it has recently.
Some interesting insight with regards to the possible breaking down of negotiations: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com...
It's a longer-than-a-slashdot-summary-read, but insightful.
We most certainly need Slashdot VirtualCrypto to gild comments like these. Karma alone is not enough and this comment is too damned funny.
FTA: "Boxee has had a hard time adapting to the quickly changing environment where appliances have converged with televisions (morphing into Smart TVs), and I'm sure Samsung is looking to integrate the software in some form or another into their smart TVs."
No. Boxee shunned the very people who championed their product, locking down their previously open software, based on already-open software, and mating it to poor hardware. Boxee abandoned all that made them Boxee to begin with. (I can't seem to find the multi-page comment thread from Boxee's blog when they announced EOL for the still-buggy Boxee-box - maybe someone can get it [FIXED].)
For those who aren't in the loop, a simple (and not yet fully exploited) "hack" was found: http://boxeeplus.com/
This.
Cost calculations must factor in time spent watching and/or forwarding through ads amongst other things. There is other time as well, including dealing with said cable company, paying said bills etc. etc. I'm not even arguing that it sways the calculation one way or another, but it must be considered.
I feel like the broken record of my circle of friends but time must be valued at an exceptionally high rate. It is our most limited resource and, if my own calculations are correct, the more of that time is spent simply watching tv, the more limited the resource itself becomes.
I just posted this an hour ago: http://www.youtube.com/user/41D57#p/a/u/0/c5cF8Us4cK4
While the video pokes fun at size and boot time, for the average desktop user, those things remain largely the same.
We use these: http://www.wiebetech.com/products/cases.php
It's like having a proper hard-case for each disk, and although it won't protect them from a fall it makes it easy to line them all up on a bookshelf or in a rack/drawer system and pull them out when needed.
We also read each drive at least once every 6 months to ensure the drive can re-new any weak magnetic sectors/blocks.
Wrong. DVD+R was released after DVD+RW. DVD+RW works best as filesystem accessible rewriteable media. The format was updated to include write-once media in order to compete with DVD-R. (You'll notice that even the write-once DVD+R discs bear the stylized RW logo.)
Check here for some more info on the entire DVD spectrum.
A few other quick notes:
1. The +RW alliance claims 100% compatibility with the DVD-Video standard. I've had no trouble using +R discs on very old DVD drives and DVD-Rom drives. Although, as has been said above, there seems to be a huge amount of variation across different drives and players.
2. +R/+RW media does not have the rediculous finalization (lead out) routine that's required with -R/-RW routines.
3. One more thing, formatting times for -RW are rediculous, whereas +RW media can format on the fly.
Although my drive is multiformat, the +RW camp has my vote through experience.
Or go to the company website... download their Annual Report and get the phone number for their corporate switchboard... and get in touch with a real human... fast!
t ml
http://www.macwhiz.com/articles/art-of-turboing.h
People who put up *BSD servers are Unix hacks.
Uh... I wouldn't call myself a Unix hack. I wouldn't call myself a Unix anything. I found it easier to get up an OpenBSD box, running as an SMTP server, than it was trying to get X running properly on the latest Debian (stable) release.
That statement alone should clear me of any Unix hack accusations. I'm still a novice. Heck I recently tried to compile some ALSA drivers and was gently pointed out by a kind developer I had forgotten to install autoconf and automake. D'OH!
Seriously though... there's a lot of rhetoric up above and, I'm sure, more below. If we, as a community, don't help to educate, instead making rash statements about the ineptitude of "everyone else," we're never going to get anywhere.
Pk
The world needs a free video codec.
Because XviD costs money and isn't Open Source right?
Free Software / Open Source Software Usenet Upgrade = irc.freenode.net
No, there are several HDTV spec'ed resolutions:
The formats used in HDTV are:
720p - 1280x720 pixels progressive
1080i - 1920x1080 pixels interlaced
1080p - 1920x1080 pixels progressive
You can get the whose story here at HowStuffWorks.
No. I have installed many broadband connections from vendors in the USA and Canada. Not once have I needed an ethernet cross-over cable when connecting a Cable/DSL modem to either a computer system or a switch/hub. Don't raise a technical issue you can't back up with just a little experience. And you can quote me on that.
I don't believe that Microsoft intends to allow users to actually remove much software with any of these "new" features. Even if a user edits his/her sysoc.inf (you can find it in "%systemroot%\inf" if you so will) file and removes the word "hide" from applications which are not appearing under the "add/remove windows components" manager, most of the applications remain on the hard disk even after they are supposedly "uninstalled." I have found this to be true with Outlook Express and Media Player. Frankly who cares about Internet Explorer at this point. Most people I know use it on their windows machines anyway, regardless of how buggy and insecure it may. At this point, Microsoft being forced to alter XP so much that Internet Explorer is "uninstalled" is nothing more that a friendly pat on the ass compared to the original goals of the anti-trust case(s). The justice department should be absolutely ashamed.
Honest to God I still write my daily journal on an IBM 5150, which I have upgraded to a whopping 512K of RAM, and a 20MB Seagate (full size 2x5.25) Hard Disk. It pairs up nicely with the Epson MX100III printer, although sadly and due to it's age, I need to use the choke more often durring the winter now. Oh and a TV out came standard (in 1980).
Anyone remember WordStar & edlin?
Mandrake huh? I remember when I walked into a friend's apartment and asked what that strange looking Windowing System was. KDE was the response; KDE included with the Mandrake Distribution of Linux. I believe it was version 5 at the time.
So intrigued I was that, upon my return home, I downloaded and installed Mandrake right away. I was hooked. Having never used Linux before, I immediately downloaded Debian as well and started reading about this strange little kernel called Linux. So whilst I read all I could about Debian, I used Mandrake, learning far more in the using than in the reading. I in fact never got Debian to work they way I wanted and continued to use only Mandrake.
My self-owned small business signed on with Mandrake to become Quebec's only distributor of the Power Pack series (at the time.) It was here that I ran into trouble. I was caught between my love of the distribution, and the hatred of their distribution system. I was forced to pre-buy large quantities of boxed Power Packs. I never got rid of a version set without having to buy more of the new version set. When all was said and done, and I was ready to give up the ghost, I had leftover power packs of 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.0, 7.1 and 7.2. Altogether I had spent over $1000K on Linux Mandrake Power Packs. I never made a cent, and in fact lost plenty. There was no response from any Mandrake offices; complaints and questions remained unanwered. Additionally, it took them several years to get my name of their list of resellers.
So here I find myself, years later, introduced to Linux and the OpenSource community by then-little Linux Mandrake. I still have a Mandrake-based Linux install running at my home. The distro has been modified heavily and possibly retains little resemblance to any known Mandrake products but that's how it started. I have now used many OSes that would not have made their way into my life without Mandrake. I recently discovered the joys of the BSD OSes, all thanks to Mandrake.
As much as I would like to say that I will be forever indebted to Linux Mandrake, the fact is that MandrakeSoft is really endebted to people who took a real hit early on simply because they loved the distribution so much. Although they have continued to put out a very useful distribution one has to wonder how other projects (with a much smaller bankroll) have survived and prospered.
Nonetheless, I will still recommend Mandrake to anyone who asks, and proudly exclaim it still remains part of my home network. My previous finacial and promotional support met with no rewards and even less satisfaction. They seem unable to run a economically viable ship and as has been the case with many other companies producing good products, tough luck. I do hope they survive, and I hope people have had a better experience with the business side of things than I have. Their product opens up a world of possibilites for those who want an easy-to-use and inexpensive alternative to the costly but widely accepted operating systems for the x86 platform. I wish them luck in their future endeavours.
Without getting into the RIAA vs. Privacy vs. Fair Use debate (which is so tried at this point) I think one of the best things to be returned to artists recently is the power to go independant. Independantly produced and released albums rarely gain acceptance the way main stream, and massively marketed music does, but it allows the artists themselves to stay true to their roots and develop a much more community oriented approach to music. It improves diversity and encourages competition on a local and global scale, something which is good for artists and fans alike. It is an exciting time in the music industry, perhaps even a time where the focus on music becomes more important than the focus on industry. Copy.
http//www.be.com
Oh wait...
Hmm...
Well there's still http://www.qnx.com/
I think what we have here, both in the licensing issue writen-of in the main post, but also in the subsequent discussion, is the age old dilemma of too much or too little. People will be consistently unhappy, terms of an agreement are either too loose, or too restrictive. Words tend to be an imperfect means of defining anything. More often than not, interpretation always occurs and therefore misunderstanding will often occur. Nothing has changed. Contracts have been disputed since humans were capable of making them, whether by handshake or signature (and sometimes blood.) Get used to it, it's humanity, and it's only going away when we destroy ourselves. (Not that we need to head in that direction by anymeans.)
Although I know nothing about the laws governing censorship, including the export of products for censorship, I do think Amnesty is wrong in this case. Amnesty Internation needs to focus on the fact that China is censoring its citizens. If Microsoft, CISCO et al. don't provide solutions, someone else will.
Well here's the makeup and primary purposes for each system on our tiny little network.
x.x.x.01 - This system, lovingly named FireRush, is a PII-266, 64MB ECC SDRAM (SIMMS remember those?), 1 GB Quantum Fireball Hard Drive, 1 ISA 3 Com 10baseT Card, 1 PCI 3com 3c905b 10/100baset T Card. This system runs linux, kernel. 2.4.3. It serves as: router, NAT box, masquerade server, webserver (apache 2.0.43), roger_wilco server, a local (no external access) FTP server and an SSH server for remote network access. I also use it for various orther jobs which linux tends to handle especially well. It seems to manage our 3mb/s DSL connection quite well, and never uses any of the swap partition. (No monitor, keyboard or mouse attached.)
x.x.x.02 - Internally refered to as NDGhetto, a 1.4GHz T-Bird, 256MB of Ram, 13GB WD Expert, 3com 3c905c Net card. This system runs linux, I can't remeber what kernel and is used as a Half-Life (CS and DoD) server. We actually ran a Natural Selection server on it for a while but it was so popular that it cost us way too much in bandwidth. No monitor, keyboard or mouse attached.)
x.x.x.03 - Remora Prime is one of two sound design workstations. This machine, yes, it runs Windows XP. It's an AthlonMP system with 512MB of RAM and not much more. The system is mated to a relatively high-end sound card, 10 channels of 24/96 audio on high-end converters, ADAT connections, SPDIF, low latency midi (1ms) et all. Our main application is Sequoia, which is only available for Windows. The reason we chose Windows XP is that it can support 32 audio channels, whereas 2000 can only handle 10. I disklike protools, and Sequoia is very powerful, hence the windows choice.
x.x.x.04 - TheDude. This system is the gaming machine and my brother's workstation. It's an AthlonXP with I can't remember what configuration because he upgrades so often. He uses Windows 2K and has recently started dual booting with Mandrake to get to know linux. It has a GeForce3 (Hercules 3DProphet something or other). He plays a lot of Natural Selection and DoD.
x.x.x.05 - Headrush. This system is a PIII 500, 384MB of RAM, 4GB UWScsi disk, and runs Windows98. This system is taken to all of my band's Gigs. It has a 4 in 4 out, high-end soundcard (also 24/96), and is used as a softsynth/sampler at all of our shows. It has crashed only 1 durring it's time in use (over two years.) We also use it as a backup if we need 2 extra A/D converters because we can sync this card to the more powerful soundcard and track to the main workstations hard drives. It runs Reason2, B4 and Pro53 during most of it's cycles.
So you can see that linux has a very important part in our network. We use it every day, even if only transparently. Unfortunately until the Dimudi project comes to fruition, and until ProTools revamps it's interface, Windows will remain our primary platform for audio work.
That's it.
My father, a physician and microbiologist, has had to deal with many resistant biological organisms as of late. He is an vocal opponent of prescribing antibiotics for every little sign of illness, something that has become all too common these days. We often forget how much easier it is for small organisms with low, or single cell counts to adapt to change.
Another one of my friends recently got a job doing biological analysis of airborne organisms in one of Montreal's biggest hospitals and has found a surprising number of drug-resistant bacteria.
Unfortunately it's something we'll have to live with, and for the drug companies it's a gold mine. They can charge whatever the market will pay for the latest designer anti-biotic. In the end, and as with many things, we will suffer for the excesses of the past, but we can affect a change. It's all in attitude. OpenSource drug companies... now that's wishful thinking.
I've had a 30GB 7200RPM Fujitsu drive for some time now... it's been in use at least a year and have not seen any trouble with it yet. The article did scare me into making yet another backup, but seriously, there are a lot of good posts here talking about how we tend to blow everything out of proportion. Yes, the register seems to have quite a bit of proof of faulty drives, and yes, this drive isn't exactly the cream of the crop. I can say that it has been doing it's job, and so far it hasn't made any strange noises or emitted any foul odours. On the other side of the consumer spectrum, it's not unusual for an automobile manufacturer to recalls tens of thousands of automobiles for "issues" that can actually result in death, yet people continue to drive those cars (many of whom didn't even get the recall notice and are driving potential execution chambers.) The fact is, at least with disk drives and data, if you don't have a backup then it's your own damn fault. It's like preventive health care for your information.
Our approach has been one in which we blatantly give away our music. Any user can download complete songs off our website. All of our music is available from our first, crappy recordings to our new and still crappy recordings. We focus our money making operation on live Gigs. Heck we give away free CDRs of our music to people who ask for it, and it says so on the website.
/. theme of Microsoft(tm) vs. the world. Quality will always stand over quantity even if the majority of persons out there don't even know where to look for quality because quantity has blinded their sight.
One thing which has really struck me with the (hopefully) emminent demise of the recording industry, as we know it, will be the return to local, community based live venues for musical groups. The playing field has begun to level itself, and I don't think there needs to be a necessary effort to control it. In fact it's the control that huge conglomerates have attempted to gain that has crushed the industry in the first place.
As a band we plan to dive head-first into the free music scene. Seeing as though we are first and foremost a live band, our recordings are nowhere near as exciting as a live performance. But when push comes to shove, if you want to carry around some bellyrash in your portable mp3 player, you are more than welcome to without our express written consent.
One way in which the recording industry has everyone trapped is no different that the consistent
eye no eye maid sum gram are miss steaks,