Nat'l Instruments has the best tech support anywhere: web site FAQ, knowledge base, email support, and phone support. I always get a qualified person to solve my problem quickly without walking through scripts or navigate tiers of tech levels.
Excellent manuals, solid hardware, robust software, and top notch tech support.
Why can't all computer OEMs follow this simple model?
I read in Farmer's Almanac years ago that if you're being pestered by bugs, then eat a clove of garlic and the aroma will repel them.
I was chopping wood outside and there were a bunch of bees swarming around. Remembering the almanac, I went to the kitchen and ate some toast with this garlic butter I happened to have. Then I went back outside to finish my work, and did not see one single bee come near me. I could see them in the distance but they wouldn't come near me.
It works.
You can also plant a border of garlic around your garden to keep animals out. They don't like that smell.
Now a clove of garlic might be overkill and would easily repel your friends too; but with the acute sense of smell that bugs have, garlic butter was enough.
Well we know who will exploit this first
on
Real-World Hyperlinks
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· Score: 2, Funny
Adult stores.
Simply passing by a pr0n shop on the street will set off your cell phone and flood it with text message ads.
Walk by a topless dance club and you get instant animated ads.
Browse in the local magazine shop and a text message ad directs you to the "back room".
Boot into DOS and remove the directories where IE exists. Windows Explorer won't let you delete IE, but it can be done through DOS.
Then boot into Windows and remove all references to IE in the registry.
I've done this up to WIN2K with no adverse affect other than installing applications that insist on using IE for their help system.
"Tightly integrated", my ass.
Oh yeah, I've converted my friends to Mozilla. But when I visit any website which is IE-eccentric, I bitch to tech support for not being W3C compliant and for not confirming browser legacy verification.
I got this directly from an IBM employee about twelve years ago.
Back when MS and IBM were partners in OS/2 v1.0, MS convinced the top brass that the best language to code an OS in was...(wait for it)... assembly. The top brass bought it and directed the dumbfounded programming staff to do likewise.
This was shortly before Windows 3.0 broke open the market for Microsoft.
It didn't help that OS/2 v1.0 had very few drivers for printers, storage devices, etc when it was released. No one wants to buy an OS that doesn't use their current peripherals.
Forcing M$ to include Java is stupid, they can do whatever they want with their product. That would be like forcing Linux users to install Internet Explorer or something silly like that!
...and how is this worse than MS forcing ISPs and OEM to exclude Netscape from webpages and desktops, and twisting their arms into an exclusionary contract favoring IE?
The RIAA reported that CD sales during the year 2004 have dropped a staggering 75%. Industry critics attribute the fall in sales to the RIAA's aggressive litigious tactics of suing thousands of individual song swappers to the point where victims had no disposable income to make legitimate CD purchases, thus the RIAA had created its own depressed market.
Congress keeps fixing the symptoms without trying to cure the disease.
The major music labels and movie studios are the corrupt bastards here, not the P2P traders.
Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, and other corrupt corporations were exposed through their accounting books.
The major music labels and movie studios have clauses written in their contracts that in a dispute with their artists, their accounting books are closed and cannot be audited except by a party of the studios' choosing, and their artists are forbidden to view the books themselves.
That clause makes it very very difficult for the struggling artists to bring lawsuits against the labels and studios for royalties due. And the studios hide their corruption in the books and use it to steal royalties from the struggling artists. No one but the parties of the studio's choosing can review the books, and that guarantees that the party is biased against the artist.
If ever there was a day that the studios were forced to open their accounting books to the public, believe me it would make Enron and Worldcom look like choir boys in church.
If Congress wants the FBI to look for pirates, they're looking in the wrong place.
I remember when MTV had live concerts on Saturday night. And some really good concerts too.
I remember when they didn't have commercials, game shows, beach party shows, fashion shows, talk shows, sports rallies, movie reviews, or movie award shows. But it's been a LONG time since I have heard ANY music on MTV while channel surfing, much less any music worth my time.
The original quintet of VJs were the coolest. Some of the guest VJs were pretty entertaining (most were forgettable). The day the original VJs disappeared from there was the day MTV started going downhill.
Form PA is used for copyrighting printed music and/or lyrics on traditional staff paper.
Form SR is used for copyrighting a finished music production that can be played back on any music reproduction device. Every track on every album has a form SR associated with it.
You cannot copyright a rhythm or a "riff"; the copyright protects a complete song on the basis of melody, lyrics, and chord/bass structure. Huey Lewis & the News won a copyright infringement against Ray Parker Jr in 1981 when a court concluded that the "Ghostbusters" theme song was too identical to "I want a new drug".
However there are publishing licenses, mechanical licences, print licenses, et al as described here. These are the protection mechanisms of copyrighted music that go all the way back to the birth of radio in the 1920s. Sampling falls under the definition of a music reproduction device. If a sample artist intends to "lift" a segment of a prerecorded work for profit, they need to get mechanical license to use them or they risk forfeiting all profits to the copyright owner. The precedent was established all the way back to Vanilla Ice plagiarizing the main hook from Queen's "Under Pressure" for his hit song "Ice Ice Baby".
Fair use applies when there is no profit earned. Earn a profit and you attract trouble if you don't get permission to use samples. There is a good primer on copyright fair use here.
This is the paradox that the music industry is in today. The technology has progressed in the last ten years while the end product has deteriorated in the same time.
Pro Tools allows lazy incompetent musicians to make a polished track. Lazy incompetent musician make lazy incompetent music. Garbage in garbage out. How many consumers today are complaining of poor quality product when they buy a CD?
No longer do you have to play a whole song from start to finish to get "that take". In the past it would take a polished band less than a half hour to get a good take from two or three replays, and they'd have a complete album in days. Now you can perfect a botched take with the digital scissors in PT which means you're tied to the computer for hours fixing one song. Multiply that one song by 18 tracks to make a finished CD and the studio costs aren't cheap. Today the convention of excellence has been replaced with perfection, and the temptation to perfect each song with digital scissors is too great.
I'm from the old school. I'm a player. I practice my parts and when I'm ready then I hit record and get that take after a one, two, three tries. I use MIDI and analog multitrack, no digital audio. I get more compliments on the final product than I do about my playing, and that pleases me the most.
The industry joke going around a couple of years ago about Pro Tools involves a recording engineer just having finished a take: "Well that sucked. Come on in!"
Whenever a work of L. Ron Hubbard was published, the Co$ (Cult of $cientology) would order its members to go out and buy ten copies of the book to drive it up the best seller list.
When the movie Battlefield Earth came out the Co$ ordered its members to rush to the theaters on opening weekend and view the movie multiple times.
Co$ has a huge influence in Hollywood and in the music industry. So pardon me for being skeptical but the red flag that goes up in my brain is did the music industry artificially inflate these numbers by directing their employees and affiliates to rush out and buy 50 songs from this service...
First they try to twist your responses to indicate an affirmative response for a sale, now this. This is the kind of crap that made me stop talking to telemarketers altogether. Don't waste your precious time with these deceivers, people. Don't even pick up the phone. Get caller ID and ignore incoming calls with no caller ID.
Check out this answering machine for your PC that deals with telemarketers who withhold their caller ID. The software can be configured to hang up on these cases and you will never hear the phone ring. It also implements white lists and black lists. Usual disclaimer applies.
Yes there is a risk of IDing legitimate calls as false positives. However, I've been monitoring my caller ID for over two years and can confirm that this is becoming less of a problem as more bell systems make their caller ID protocols compatible. So the risk is diminishing with time.
Yes this is a drastic move but until the law catches up this is how you have to deal with aggressive deceptive practices.
Caller ID is a godsend people - use it. Yes the telcos should be hung by their balls for extorting extra services out of the customers by selling personal information to scum telemarketers. In my next residence I will register my phone under an alias. If anyone calls asking for the alias, then they are immediately identified as a telemarketer and I will tell them there is no one here by that name. This crap has gone far enough.
This has been making my life a living hell for the past 2 months, every night my parents go on and check to see if i have any homework and won't let me do anything till it's done
You think school is hell? When you make it out in the real world, guess what?
YOUR EMPLOYER WILL BE CHECKING IF YOU GOT YOUR HOMEWORK DONE!
Whether you like it or not, your parents are doing you a favor. You should be grateful to them.
I find it highly hypocritical to hear comments about moral transgressions coming from an organization whose spokeswhore, Hillary Rosen, is an acknowledged lesbian.
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Nat'l Instruments has the best tech support anywhere: web site FAQ, knowledge base, email support, and phone support. I always get a qualified person to solve my problem quickly without walking through scripts or navigate tiers of tech levels.
Excellent manuals, solid hardware, robust software, and top notch tech support.
Why can't all computer OEMs follow this simple model?
News for gullible wanna-be nerds, hoaxes that matter
...are there bills to make P2P filesharing a felony, yet no law or bill against sharing a public domain book on how to build a bomb?
I was chopping wood outside and there were a bunch of bees swarming around. Remembering the almanac, I went to the kitchen and ate some toast with this garlic butter I happened to have. Then I went back outside to finish my work, and did not see one single bee come near me. I could see them in the distance but they wouldn't come near me.
It works.
You can also plant a border of garlic around your garden to keep animals out. They don't like that smell.
Now a clove of garlic might be overkill and would easily repel your friends too; but with the acute sense of smell that bugs have, garlic butter was enough.
Simply passing by a pr0n shop on the street will set off your cell phone and flood it with text message ads.
Walk by a topless dance club and you get instant animated ads.
Browse in the local magazine shop and a text message ad directs you to the "back room".
Man am I glad I do not carry a cell phone...
Boot into DOS and remove the directories where IE exists. Windows Explorer won't let you delete IE, but it can be done through DOS.
Then boot into Windows and remove all references to IE in the registry.
I've done this up to WIN2K with no adverse affect other than installing applications that insist on using IE for their help system.
"Tightly integrated", my ass.
Oh yeah, I've converted my friends to Mozilla. But when I visit any website which is IE-eccentric, I bitch to tech support for not being W3C compliant and for not confirming browser legacy verification.
FTC sues Toysmart.com
Back when MS and IBM were partners in OS/2 v1.0, MS convinced the top brass that the best language to code an OS in was ...(wait for it)... assembly. The top brass bought it and directed the dumbfounded programming staff to do likewise.
This was shortly before Windows 3.0 broke open the market for Microsoft.
It didn't help that OS/2 v1.0 had very few drivers for printers, storage devices, etc when it was released. No one wants to buy an OS that doesn't use their current peripherals.
The TCPA FAQ page, independent and unbiased of Wintel conglomerations and their media bedfellows.
The RIAA reported that CD sales during the year 2004 have dropped a staggering 75%. Industry critics attribute the fall in sales to the RIAA's aggressive litigious tactics of suing thousands of individual song swappers to the point where victims had no disposable income to make legitimate CD purchases, thus the RIAA had created its own depressed market.
1983 "640K should be enough for everybody"
The major music labels and movie studios are the corrupt bastards here, not the P2P traders.
Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, and other corrupt corporations were exposed through their accounting books.
The major music labels and movie studios have clauses written in their contracts that in a dispute with their artists, their accounting books are closed and cannot be audited except by a party of the studios' choosing, and their artists are forbidden to view the books themselves.
That clause makes it very very difficult for the struggling artists to bring lawsuits against the labels and studios for royalties due. And the studios hide their corruption in the books and use it to steal royalties from the struggling artists. No one but the parties of the studio's choosing can review the books, and that guarantees that the party is biased against the artist.
If ever there was a day that the studios were forced to open their accounting books to the public, believe me it would make Enron and Worldcom look like choir boys in church.
If Congress wants the FBI to look for pirates, they're looking in the wrong place.
Will it detect impending crashes like Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco?
We SO need one of these for the stock market.
Who else would be demanding wireless internet from a truck cab?!?
I remember when they didn't have commercials, game shows, beach party shows, fashion shows, talk shows, sports rallies, movie reviews, or movie award shows. But it's been a LONG time since I have heard ANY music on MTV while channel surfing, much less any music worth my time.
The original quintet of VJs were the coolest. Some of the guest VJs were pretty entertaining (most were forgettable). The day the original VJs disappeared from there was the day MTV started going downhill.
The "M" in "MTV" sure isn't for "music" anymore.
Form PA is used for copyrighting printed music and/or lyrics on traditional staff paper.
Form SR is used for copyrighting a finished music production that can be played back on any music reproduction device. Every track on every album has a form SR associated with it.
You cannot copyright a rhythm or a "riff"; the copyright protects a complete song on the basis of melody, lyrics, and chord/bass structure. Huey Lewis & the News won a copyright infringement against Ray Parker Jr in 1981 when a court concluded that the "Ghostbusters" theme song was too identical to "I want a new drug".
However there are publishing licenses, mechanical licences, print licenses, et al as described here. These are the protection mechanisms of copyrighted music that go all the way back to the birth of radio in the 1920s. Sampling falls under the definition of a music reproduction device. If a sample artist intends to "lift" a segment of a prerecorded work for profit, they need to get mechanical license to use them or they risk forfeiting all profits to the copyright owner. The precedent was established all the way back to Vanilla Ice plagiarizing the main hook from Queen's "Under Pressure" for his hit song "Ice Ice Baby".
Fair use applies when there is no profit earned. Earn a profit and you attract trouble if you don't get permission to use samples. There is a good primer on copyright fair use here.
Pro Tools allows lazy incompetent musicians to make a polished track. Lazy incompetent musician make lazy incompetent music. Garbage in garbage out. How many consumers today are complaining of poor quality product when they buy a CD?
No longer do you have to play a whole song from start to finish to get "that take". In the past it would take a polished band less than a half hour to get a good take from two or three replays, and they'd have a complete album in days. Now you can perfect a botched take with the digital scissors in PT which means you're tied to the computer for hours fixing one song. Multiply that one song by 18 tracks to make a finished CD and the studio costs aren't cheap. Today the convention of excellence has been replaced with perfection, and the temptation to perfect each song with digital scissors is too great.
I'm from the old school. I'm a player. I practice my parts and when I'm ready then I hit record and get that take after a one, two, three tries. I use MIDI and analog multitrack, no digital audio. I get more compliments on the final product than I do about my playing, and that pleases me the most.
The industry joke going around a couple of years ago about Pro Tools involves a recording engineer just having finished a take: "Well that sucked. Come on in!"
When the movie Battlefield Earth came out the Co$ ordered its members to rush to the theaters on opening weekend and view the movie multiple times.
Co$ has a huge influence in Hollywood and in the music industry. So pardon me for being skeptical but the red flag that goes up in my brain is did the music industry artificially inflate these numbers by directing their employees and affiliates to rush out and buy 50 songs from this service...
"That's just a rabbit!!"
Check out this answering machine for your PC that deals with telemarketers who withhold their caller ID. The software can be configured to hang up on these cases and you will never hear the phone ring. It also implements white lists and black lists. Usual disclaimer applies.
Yes there is a risk of IDing legitimate calls as false positives. However, I've been monitoring my caller ID for over two years and can confirm that this is becoming less of a problem as more bell systems make their caller ID protocols compatible. So the risk is diminishing with time.
Yes this is a drastic move but until the law catches up this is how you have to deal with aggressive deceptive practices.
Caller ID is a godsend people - use it. Yes the telcos should be hung by their balls for extorting extra services out of the customers by selling personal information to scum telemarketers. In my next residence I will register my phone under an alias. If anyone calls asking for the alias, then they are immediately identified as a telemarketer and I will tell them there is no one here by that name. This crap has gone far enough.
If he's from the 23rd century and he's this stupid then he must be a dropout from Star Fleet Academy.
You think school is hell? When you make it out in the real world, guess what?
YOUR EMPLOYER WILL BE CHECKING IF YOU GOT YOUR HOMEWORK DONE!
Whether you like it or not, your parents are doing you a favor. You should be grateful to them.
They are you parents.
You are their child.
That's life. Deal with it.
"Accuser, examine thyself"
I find it highly hypocritical to hear comments about moral transgressions coming from an organization whose spokeswhore, Hillary Rosen, is an acknowledged lesbian.