Why bother? As this post insightfully noted, (probably) the only torrents that will be affected are illegal files anyway. Those of us who are using bitTorrent for legal downloads will not be affected by this.
It seems kind of stupid to try to get Them(tm) to break the law while trying to catch you (in general, not timmarhy personally) break the law, doesn't it? If you have a problem with the business and legal practices of the **AAs (or similar associations depending on your country) then the easiest way to deal with them is to not deal with them at all and not use their products.
Rather than turning their weapons against them, don't give them a reason to use their weapons. Go for the legal stuff. IMHO it tends to be very good anyway. Here is a good place to start: LegalTorrents.com
Am I the only one who thinks that it is sad that in this day and age we are still focusing new technologies on weapons of war? I would think/hope/wish that we humans(?*) would have long since realized the horror and futility of killing each other for economical and/or political gain...
I mean, seriously, I don't get it. Why, in this day and age, does any country feel the need to wage war? Especially when a considerable number of countries have the ability to wipe others (well, each other, should it come to that) off the planet...
I guess we are not quite at the point where we can "wage war" with economical pressure alone.
Seriously, when is Human-kind going to grow up?
*I use the phrase "we humans" lightly because, judging by the behavior and mindsets of those around me, I sometimes have a hard time believing that I am, in fact, human. Call me crazy if you must...
Really? Just out of curiosity, what is the range of RFID in these cards?
I only ask because my train pass (in Japan, the Suica card) is RFID, and you pretty much have to touch the sensor for it to work at the ticket gates. Anything more than about 5mm and it won't be read. You pretty much have to touch it to the sensor.
So, unless someone with a scanner embedded into his/her pants bumps into you, I imagine you will be OK. If you are paranoid about it, you could always wrap your cards in tinfoil or something.;)
Or am I missing something, and these things are more remotely scannable than I thought?
This puppy is a snoooozer. ZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZzzzZZzzzzzzzeta.....
T,FTFY.;D
Has ScuttleMonkey been on vacation from Slashdot for a couple of years? Maybe I should get some Slashdot summaries ready. I just heard that not only has Apple released a modern OS, updated it, updated it again, again, again, and yet again, but they have also released a fairly nifty music player (maybe some of you have heard of it?) and even an online music store to go with it!!!1!11oneoneeleventyone!
Time to start typing submissions to get everyone up to speed on this news!
All I have for the areas around my house and where I work are very low resolution satellite pictures just outside of some very nice high resolution areas.:(
Sure have big plans. Everything there is "made" big.
Ummm...Have you actually been paying attention to Japanese technology at all? Take a look at the size of mobile phones. Historically, they have been smaller than phones from the US, and they get smaller every year. Or how about Japanese cars? While Americans drive around in their gigantic, fuel-guzzling SUVs, Japanese drive VERY compact cars needed to navigate roads that are sometimes only 2.5-3 meters wide.
Have you ever even been to Japan or seen pictures? Everything is so densely packed here that there is no space to own things that are big. TVs, stereos, phones, cars, air-conditioners, refrigerators, laundry machines, etc. Everything is made to be small and efficient over here.
You don't understand why Apple advocates(d) the one-button mouse, do you?
The reason is quite simple: it is for programmers to make their applications in such a way that you can access ANY features using a single mouse button. Nothing is to be hidden in only right-click-only accessable menus.
THAT is a big part of the Apple UI philosphy. And, that is a good thing IMHO.
/uses a 4 button mouse at home //can still get by 100% without it
I'm not trying to apologize on behalf of Apple or anything, and this move is making me think a bit harder about what I'm going to do when I need a new computer in the next year or two.
However, Baricom said:
My whole plan was to switch away from Microsoft to Apple due to the (relatively) benign copy protection in OS X and other products.
Well...if you think about it, they never really needed DRM for their OS before. Basically, using PPC was their DRM. Now, they kind of have to do it, don't they? Otherwise someone will hack OS X to work on any machine with an Intel processor and that will cannibalize Apple's hardware sales.
Like I said, I'm not being an apologist...just explaining their reasons.
Like I said, this move might cause me to reconsider my choices for my next computer. Part of it will depend on whether or not the DRM gets in the way of things any more than running on PPC gets in the way of things (which for me, it doesn't).
Seriously, I've been waiting for something like this ever since I first picked up a PDA and then learned that wireless networking was possible.
Sure, we don't have a "Sub-etha-net" yet, but if the world ever gets to the point where some kind of wireless is possible no matter where you are, then this kind of device coupled with something like Wikipedia could easily lead to at least a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Earth".
It seems to me that, a good chunk of this for the part most could be done today given enough volunteers to fill in the data. If we ever get to the point where satellite recievers/transmitters will fit into a small enough device, then it will work pretty much anywhere (in the world) at any time.
Now, if I could just figure out how to pick up 15 years of back-pay for writing the words "Mostly Harmless". The first one took the most time, but the second one came to me over lunch.;D
According to TFA, it isn't working perfectly fine:
But adding these ad hoc "leap seconds" -- the last one was tacked on in 1998 -- can be a big hassle for computers operating with software programs that never allowed for a 61-second minute, leading to glitches when the extra second passes. "It's a huge deal," said John Yuzdepski, an executive at Symmetricom Inc., of San Jose, Calif., which makes ultraprecise clocks for telecommunications, space and military use.
On Jan. 1, 1996, the addition of a leap second made computers at Associated Press Radio crash and start broadcasting the wrong taped programs. In 1997, the Russian global positioning system, known as Glonass, was broken for 20 hours after a transmission to the country's satellites to add a leap second went awry. And in 2003, a leap-second bug made GPS receivers from Motorola Inc. briefly show customers the time as half past 62 o'clock.
"A lot of people encounter problems with their software going over a leap second," said Dennis D. McCarthy, who drafted the U.S. leap-second proposal while serving as the Navy's "Director of Time."
Now, I can't say that I completely understand why resetting a clock should be so complicated, but it seems to cause problems...
Keep in mind that it is much easier to gain and maintain control by stepping up and looking like you are taking charge after a disaster than it is to by perpetually doing things that avert the disaster.
If governments really were interested in protecting the people they supposedly represent, then you would see them trying to cure the disease (incredibly bad foreign relations) rather than the symptoms (terrorism).
One last thing to keep in mind, as much as I don't often give governments the benefit of the doubt: You can take all of the preventative measures you like, but you will never know if they are actually working. You can only know when they are not working at the times when these incidents occur.
Not saying that this has happened in this or any other case of terrorism, but just stating what I believe to be true.
Down these parts (as the original poster said), you can get lobsterized in under half an hour through direct exposure to sunlight, any time from October through March (mid-spring to mid fall).
Just out of curiosity, is that due to being closer to the "ozone hole" over the Antarctic, or is it because you have much less air pollution allowing for nice days? Or some mixture of both?
Serious question.
/looking forward to being in Brisbane an a little over a week.
The core of your presentation...
on
Graphics in Science
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Krankheit says:
a powerpoint presentation (or OOo presentation) with only a few words is not good either when demonstrating to more than a few people.
IMHO, the main information of you presentation should be the words you say, only to be supported by your slides...
not the other way around.
If you put your entire presentation in your slides, then there is no need to listen to you.
My apologies if this was not your intent with this statement, but I have seen quite a few presentations where the person presenting really had no need to be there because the whole thing was in the PowerPoint slides. IMHO, this is bad presentation style.
If anyone knows any places to legally download performances of other classics, please post them.
http://www.itunes.com/
Umm...yeah, because the iTMS works so well for me since I live in Japan.
Regarding paying for music, I have no problems with that, except I do enjoy listening to something before I buy it. Also, 5 dollar bargains mean nothing to me as I get paid in yen.
So, to summarize: 1.) I don't want to buy music if I have no idea what it sounds like first, and 2.) Not everyone lives in the US.
Luckily, they have not yet been/.ed, so I'm downloading now.
Does anyone have links to the first 5 (if it is even still legal to download them from anywhere)?
Anyway, this sort of thing is very cool. I have not listened to much Beethoven (aside from bits and peices in movies and such), so something like this is an excellent opportunity. If anyone knows any places to legally download performances of other classics, please post them.
I love getting free, good music from the internet. The Internet Achive's Audio section is my very good friend, as is LegalTorrents. Granted, that is completely different music from this, but still it is awesome to be able to enjoy music being made by people who love making music more than making money.
This is correct. I was wondering what the GP was talking about.
HOWEVER, on the other hand the rate of technological increase has accelerated exponentially so that in this day and age, the original 17 year (right?) patent limit is just too long, ESPECIALLY for the oft-disputed software patents.
The original limit, while probably a good idea at the time, is now just too damn long. Look at technology now, and think about where it was 17 years ago (hint, digital watches were still a pretty neat idea). Now, think about the patents being granted, especially in bio-tech and software, and imagine these methods being essentially locked up for the next 17 years. Developers, inventors, et al are starting to fear inventing, or rather innovating on a previous design because of the threat of legal action. This is certainly stifling innovation.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not anti-patent, and I do firmly believe that they can help the little guy survive the corporations (though obviously, these days patents really only seem to be benefitting the lawyers, the litigous, and the corporations). However, I do think that with the current speed at which technology increases, patent law should be looked at and perhaps be revised to have shorter terms.
Say 2 years for software (zero would be better), 5 years for bio-tech, and maybe at most 7 years for actual physical inventions.
Seriously, though, is it really that much of a stretch to think that through various processes, we can transform lead into gold?
Ok, first off, IANANuclearPhysicist, so I am probably speaking out of my ass a bit (any Nuclear Physicists around, feel free to correct my assumptions).
Anyway, I imagine on paper, it probably seems pretty simple. In nuclear fission reactors, we can get Uranium et al to break down to smaller atoms while releasing energy, but I imagine we don't really have much choice what it breaks down to. On the other hand, if we input a lot of energy we can fuse two hydrogen atoms into a helium atom (just out of curiosity, have we managed to fuse any larger atoms?). The theory seems simple on paper: break down an unstable atom and get energy, or put in a lot of energy and put two small atoms together. I don't know how stable the products are or how radioactive they are, I guess low and high respectively.
In the imagination of a non-Nuclear-Physicist, it looks pretty simple...
But, to be able to do this and control it specifically enough to actually choose the products that come out on a large enough scale to be usable will require ENORMOUS amounts of energy, won't it? Unless we manage to find sources of energy that seem quite common in science fiction, I don't imagine this becoming feasible, or at least not for a LONG time.
Of course, on the other hand look how much science fiction has become science fact over the last 50 years, and I guess it isn't too unimaginable.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems kind of stupid to try to get Them(tm) to break the law while trying to catch you (in general, not timmarhy personally) break the law, doesn't it? If you have a problem with the business and legal practices of the **AAs (or similar associations depending on your country) then the easiest way to deal with them is to not deal with them at all and not use their products.
Rather than turning their weapons against them, don't give them a reason to use their weapons. Go for the legal stuff. IMHO it tends to be very good anyway. Here is a good place to start:
LegalTorrents.com
I mean, seriously, I don't get it. Why, in this day and age, does any country feel the need to wage war? Especially when a considerable number of countries have the ability to wipe others (well, each other, should it come to that) off the planet...
I guess we are not quite at the point where we can "wage war" with economical pressure alone.
Seriously, when is Human-kind going to grow up?
*I use the phrase "we humans" lightly because, judging by the behavior and mindsets of those around me, I sometimes have a hard time believing that I am, in fact, human. Call me crazy if you must...
I only ask because my train pass (in Japan, the Suica card) is RFID, and you pretty much have to touch the sensor for it to work at the ticket gates. Anything more than about 5mm and it won't be read. You pretty much have to touch it to the sensor.
So, unless someone with a scanner embedded into his/her pants bumps into you, I imagine you will be OK. If you are paranoid about it, you could always wrap your cards in tinfoil or something. ;)
Or am I missing something, and these things are more remotely scannable than I thought?
Has ScuttleMonkey been on vacation from Slashdot for a couple of years? Maybe I should get some Slashdot summaries ready. I just heard that not only has Apple released a modern OS, updated it, updated it again, again, again, and yet again, but they have also released a fairly nifty music player (maybe some of you have heard of it?) and even an online music store to go with it!!!1!11oneoneeleventyone!
Time to start typing submissions to get everyone up to speed on this news!
Here is my Neighborhood Notice the nice high resolution area across the river
Here is the area around where I work. Notice the high resolution areas on either side.
Hopefully that will get updated someday.
Be careful with that word "never". It may not mean what you think it means.
Then we can just let Darwin take care of the rest.
Because, you know, some people out there actually think this might be a good idea.
Have you ever even been to Japan or seen pictures? Everything is so densely packed here that there is no space to own things that are big. TVs, stereos, phones, cars, air-conditioners, refrigerators, laundry machines, etc. Everything is made to be small and efficient over here.
Sheesh.
The reason is quite simple: it is for programmers to make their applications in such a way that you can access ANY features using a single mouse button. Nothing is to be hidden in only right-click-only accessable menus.
THAT is a big part of the Apple UI philosphy. And, that is a good thing IMHO.
However, Baricom said:
Well...if you think about it, they never really needed DRM for their OS before. Basically, using PPC was their DRM. Now, they kind of have to do it, don't they? Otherwise someone will hack OS X to work on any machine with an Intel processor and that will cannibalize Apple's hardware sales.Like I said, I'm not being an apologist...just explaining their reasons.
Like I said, this move might cause me to reconsider my choices for my next computer. Part of it will depend on whether or not the DRM gets in the way of things any more than running on PPC gets in the way of things (which for me, it doesn't).
Sure, we don't have a "Sub-etha-net" yet, but if the world ever gets to the point where some kind of wireless is possible no matter where you are, then this kind of device coupled with something like Wikipedia could easily lead to at least a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Earth".
It seems to me that, a good chunk of this for the part most could be done today given enough volunteers to fill in the data. If we ever get to the point where satellite recievers/transmitters will fit into a small enough device, then it will work pretty much anywhere (in the world) at any time.
Now, if I could just figure out how to pick up 15 years of back-pay for writing the words "Mostly Harmless". The first one took the most time, but the second one came to me over lunch. ;D
I only mention that because with that kind of comment, you owe me a new one. I hope you have some money saved up.
Beer (which I am indeed having for breakfast) is not easy to clean off of a PowerBook keyboard.
If governments really were interested in protecting the people they supposedly represent, then you would see them trying to cure the disease (incredibly bad foreign relations) rather than the symptoms (terrorism).
One last thing to keep in mind, as much as I don't often give governments the benefit of the doubt:
You can take all of the preventative measures you like, but you will never know if they are actually working. You can only know when they are not working at the times when these incidents occur.
Not saying that this has happened in this or any other case of terrorism, but just stating what I believe to be true.
I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with either yourself or the Grandparent post, just honestly curious.
I'm trying to think of some, but I'm not very well versed in all of the stuff that is out there. I guess BitTorrent comes to mind... does that count?
Serious question.
/looking forward to being in Brisbane an a little over a week.
not the other way around.
If you put your entire presentation in your slides, then there is no need to listen to you.
My apologies if this was not your intent with this statement, but I have seen quite a few presentations where the person presenting really had no need to be there because the whole thing was in the PowerPoint slides. IMHO, this is bad presentation style.
Regarding paying for music, I have no problems with that, except I do enjoy listening to something before I buy it. Also, 5 dollar bargains mean nothing to me as I get paid in yen.
So, to summarize:
1.) I don't want to buy music if I have no idea what it sounds like first, and
2.) Not everyone lives in the US.
my new scene.org ID: berianir
Does anyone have links to the first 5 (if it is even still legal to download them from anywhere)?
Anyway, this sort of thing is very cool. I have not listened to much Beethoven (aside from bits and peices in movies and such), so something like this is an excellent opportunity. If anyone knows any places to legally download performances of other classics, please post them.
I love getting free, good music from the internet. The Internet Achive's Audio section is my very good friend, as is LegalTorrents. Granted, that is completely different music from this, but still it is awesome to be able to enjoy music being made by people who love making music more than making money.
HOWEVER, on the other hand the rate of technological increase has accelerated exponentially so that in this day and age, the original 17 year (right?) patent limit is just too long, ESPECIALLY for the oft-disputed software patents.
The original limit, while probably a good idea at the time, is now just too damn long. Look at technology now, and think about where it was 17 years ago (hint, digital watches were still a pretty neat idea). Now, think about the patents being granted, especially in bio-tech and software, and imagine these methods being essentially locked up for the next 17 years. Developers, inventors, et al are starting to fear inventing, or rather innovating on a previous design because of the threat of legal action. This is certainly stifling innovation.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not anti-patent, and I do firmly believe that they can help the little guy survive the corporations (though obviously, these days patents really only seem to be benefitting the lawyers, the litigous, and the corporations). However, I do think that with the current speed at which technology increases, patent law should be looked at and perhaps be revised to have shorter terms.
Say 2 years for software (zero would be better), 5 years for bio-tech, and maybe at most 7 years for actual physical inventions.
Anyway, I imagine on paper, it probably seems pretty simple. In nuclear fission reactors, we can get Uranium et al to break down to smaller atoms while releasing energy, but I imagine we don't really have much choice what it breaks down to. On the other hand, if we input a lot of energy we can fuse two hydrogen atoms into a helium atom (just out of curiosity, have we managed to fuse any larger atoms?). The theory seems simple on paper: break down an unstable atom and get energy, or put in a lot of energy and put two small atoms together. I don't know how stable the products are or how radioactive they are, I guess low and high respectively.
In the imagination of a non-Nuclear-Physicist, it looks pretty simple...
But, to be able to do this and control it specifically enough to actually choose the products that come out on a large enough scale to be usable will require ENORMOUS amounts of energy, won't it? Unless we manage to find sources of energy that seem quite common in science fiction, I don't imagine this becoming feasible, or at least not for a LONG time.
Of course, on the other hand look how much science fiction has become science fact over the last 50 years, and I guess it isn't too unimaginable.