With the threat of cassette tapes going away, what does this mean for me and my TRS-80? Are there CD Burners for the TRS-80? Help!
Okay, dig this, I have the solution for you:
get one of these so-called "MP3 to cassette" adapters (which are just a generic way to feed sound to a cassette deck from some device with a regular 3.5 audio jack) and feed it your programs on CD.
I have all my ZX-81 programs stored on CD and it works just dandy. MP3'ing them should work too, so you can store your TRS-80 programs on *gasp* a real hard-disk:-)
The music industry itself, however, remained concerned about cassettes, in particular the ability of people to record music on them
No it isn't, because there's a major difference between analog recordings (especially slightly crappy ones like on bootleg cassette tapes) and digital ones: the sound quality decreases rapidly with each copy-of-a-copy. Which means only professional piracy, from a master tape or CD, is to be feared.
However, terms such as fast forward, rewind, record and pause, everyday words bequeathed to us from the tape era, ensure that in the English language at least, the legacy of the cassette will survive
I just love it when I'm driving down the freeway, the stereo goes plop-plop, the cassette pops out and the entire dashboard looks decorated like a christmas tree with overflowing tape. It's just not as festive with CDs...
The problem was, as vigilantes so often do, the guys at MAPS got carried away
For some reason, journalists keep calling blackmail lists "vigilantes". But there's something they don't understand: nobody forces email system administrators to use those lists.
These lists are provided by people for free. They decide to list bad email servers, but they may as well include any server they want. After all, who's to force them to provide quality of service?
The real problem, of course, is that blacklists are needed in the first place. If ISPs did their jobs a little better (aol, hotmail and the likes), the amount of spam would already decrease significantly. And don't speak to me about chinese ISPs, since most spam comes from the US.
This is not a flamebait: honestly, who the hell knows Lycoris?
The parent is right: Lycoris isn't a major Linux distro. Period. I don't see why that's a flamebait, just the parent merely pointing out that the usual PR statement bullshit just doesn't match reality at all in this case.
Apple abandons Motorola and PPC based platforms, and guess what happens? kajillions of customers will feel shafted, as they've already been each time Apple has made a new MacOS that's incompatible with the previous ones.
Net result: Linux will be installed on those soon-to-be-unsupported machines, and the user base will grow.
So all in all, I think Apple is doing the F/OSS movement a great service by demonstrating exactly why F/OSS is needed.
Microsoft should be prepared to eat another few million in lost development funds. There's no reason you should have to eat it too.
What Microsoft does is what Microsoft's always done with their software: save money by not doing proper beta-testing and QA and let the users beta-test it for you, at their expense.
The official name for that is banana-ware: sell it green, let it mature at the consumer's home. All Microsoft software are bananaware, and a good rule of thumb is to avoid their new products like the plague, regardless of what it is.
Look at the photo and guess what OS that smart whiteboard runs? that's right, no better way of creating brand loyalty than getting kids to see and use your brand all day long. Just ask Ray Crock...
This is another sad example of the school system, which should remain the last bastion of intellectual neutrality, being invaded by the corporate world. In this case, I believe quite involuntarily, the system's designers probably didn't even think of that, but still...
These things must cost $10k or so. Nice use of school funds. Meanwhile the students are using 10 year old computers and walking under leaky roofs.
I think the more general problem is: 10 year old use computers, and everybody is really really desperate to get them to get them to use high-tech wizardry, when really what all that does is make kids multimediocre.
Primary school don't need computers to teach kid to read, write and do basic math. They need good well-paid students and good quality schoolbooks...
And with businesses like Suso [suso.org] you can actually stop by and pick up a free live CD so that you don't even have to bother downloading and burning the CD.
I'm in Zoowalhakisthan, how long does it take to come pick up a live CD at Suso?
The only people for whom what you said is true are the ones living within 15 minutes drive of Suso, that's 5 minutes getting in the car, 15 minutes driving there, 5 minutes getting the CD, 15 minutes coming back and 5 more minutes getting out of the car. Anybody else can download and burn the ISO faster than that.
368 pages, including 2 to explain how to pop a CD in the drive, reboot and not be worried about formatting the existing hard-drive, and 366 pages describing software that, by now, are all graphical and almost as easy and intuitive to use as their Windows counterpart.
Come on... That guy David Brickner just wanted to write his very own Linux book and cash in on it.
Can you imagine how many times I would have had to hit 'tab' just to get to this textarea if I only had a keyboard and was using w3m or something? I shudder at the prospect.
Not so insightful. Any well designed software that's designed to be used primarily with a keyboard, and with a mouse as an afterthought, it more efficient to use with a keyboard than with a mouse.
Granted, web browser are naturally good candidates to be used with a mouse, but I guarantee you I know scores of people who can browse faster than you in most not-too-graphical pages with Lynx.
Keyboards are good, yes. Mice are good too, that's true. They both are good... for what they're good at:-)
Example: use a word processor, and you can be sure it's worthwhile taking some time learning keyboard shortcuts, since you're already typing text as the main activity in that context. Use a web browser though, and the situation is reversed: you spend a lot more time clicking around in a browser than typing. In this case, switching to the keyboard often is a hindrance more than anything.
The only software I know (well, use) that requires you to use heavily both the mouse and the keyboard is AutoCAD: I spend a lot less time typing acad commands in the keyboard and select object with the mouse than doing everything with the mouse.
Sell albums for $3-$5 apiece online (more if you need a CD shipped), with no DRM, and I think piracy will go down. Make DVD-quality movies available via download for $5-$10 -- or less for older, less-popular movies -- and people won't bother to pirate those, either.
Your so naive it's touching.
People have proven time and time over that
1 - When faced with the choice of either buying something legally for cheap, and downloading something illegally for free with almost no risk of getting caught, they'll get the illegal free stuff. Apart for a few highly moral people, free is better than cheap, period.
2 - When choosing between cheap, high quality stuff and the free, lesser quality version, people go for the free version. Again, apart for a few elitists and high-fidelity freaks, "free" is the criteria for most people.
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With the threat of cassette tapes going away, what does this mean for me and my TRS-80? Are there CD Burners for the TRS-80? Help!
:-)
Okay, dig this, I have the solution for you:
get one of these so-called "MP3 to cassette" adapters (which are just a generic way to feed sound to a cassette deck from some device with a regular 3.5 audio jack) and feed it your programs on CD.
I have all my ZX-81 programs stored on CD and it works just dandy. MP3'ing them should work too, so you can store your TRS-80 programs on *gasp* a real hard-disk
the king is dead! (cassette tapes)
long live the king! (mp3)
The king isn't dead.
The music industry itself, however, remained concerned about cassettes, in particular the ability of people to record music on them
No it isn't, because there's a major difference between analog recordings (especially slightly crappy ones like on bootleg cassette tapes) and digital ones: the sound quality decreases rapidly with each copy-of-a-copy. Which means only professional piracy, from a master tape or CD, is to be feared.
However, terms such as fast forward, rewind, record and pause, everyday words bequeathed to us from the tape era, ensure that in the English language at least, the legacy of the cassette will survive
Damn, you sound like a broken record...
I just love it when I'm driving down the freeway, the stereo goes plop-plop, the cassette pops out and the entire dashboard looks decorated like a christmas tree with overflowing tape. It's just not as festive with CDs...
and network administrating (on linux boxes)
That's BOXEN forcryingoutloud...
From a borderline paranoid schizo allow me to address this.
Look at the bright side: you outnumber your ennemies 2 to 1.
blackmail lists
I meant blacklists of course...
The problem was, as vigilantes so often do, the guys at MAPS got carried away
For some reason, journalists keep calling blackmail lists "vigilantes". But there's something they don't understand: nobody forces email system administrators to use those lists.
These lists are provided by people for free. They decide to list bad email servers, but they may as well include any server they want. After all, who's to force them to provide quality of service?
The real problem, of course, is that blacklists are needed in the first place. If ISPs did their jobs a little better (aol, hotmail and the likes), the amount of spam would already decrease significantly. And don't speak to me about chinese ISPs, since most spam comes from the US.
MODS ON CRACK!
This is not a flamebait: honestly, who the hell knows Lycoris?
The parent is right: Lycoris isn't a major Linux distro. Period. I don't see why that's a flamebait, just the parent merely pointing out that the usual PR statement bullshit just doesn't match reality at all in this case.
at least to me, it reads "Mandriver" and just SCREAMS HOMOSEXUALITY.
I guess seeing things homosexual where there aren't any is your particular slant in life. Either that or you're a troll, which is more likely.
I read it as "mand-riva" (short i like in "river", not "driver"). I think most everybody read it that way.
Apple abandons Motorola and PPC based platforms, and guess what happens? kajillions of customers will feel shafted, as they've already been each time Apple has made a new MacOS that's incompatible with the previous ones.
Net result: Linux will be installed on those soon-to-be-unsupported machines, and the user base will grow.
So all in all, I think Apple is doing the F/OSS movement a great service by demonstrating exactly why F/OSS is needed.
Microsoft should be prepared to eat another few million in lost development funds. There's no reason you should have to eat it too.
What Microsoft does is what Microsoft's always done with their software: save money by not doing proper beta-testing and QA and let the users beta-test it for you, at their expense.
The official name for that is banana-ware: sell it green, let it mature at the consumer's home. All Microsoft software are bananaware, and a good rule of thumb is to avoid their new products like the plague, regardless of what it is.
Look at the photo and guess what OS that smart whiteboard runs? that's right, no better way of creating brand loyalty than getting kids to see and use your brand all day long. Just ask Ray Crock...
This is another sad example of the school system, which should remain the last bastion of intellectual neutrality, being invaded by the corporate world. In this case, I believe quite involuntarily, the system's designers probably didn't even think of that, but still...
They need good well-paid students
:-)
Oops I meant teachers of course
I hope that the school paid the public showing fees and license fees to disney and the mpaa for that viewing of "black beauty"
I for one sure hope they're showing kids the right Black Beauty, and not other kinds.
These things must cost $10k or so. Nice use of school funds. Meanwhile the students are using 10 year old computers and walking under leaky roofs.
I think the more general problem is: 10 year old use computers, and everybody is really really desperate to get them to get them to use high-tech wizardry, when really what all that does is make kids multimediocre.
Primary school don't need computers to teach kid to read, write and do basic math. They need good well-paid students and good quality schoolbooks...
And with businesses like Suso [suso.org] you can actually stop by and pick up a free live CD so that you don't even have to bother downloading and burning the CD.
I'm in Zoowalhakisthan, how long does it take to come pick up a live CD at Suso?
The only people for whom what you said is true are the ones living within 15 minutes drive of Suso, that's 5 minutes getting in the car, 15 minutes driving there, 5 minutes getting the CD, 15 minutes coming back and 5 more minutes getting out of the car. Anybody else can download and burn the ISO faster than that.
368 pages, including 2 to explain how to pop a CD in the drive, reboot and not be worried about formatting the existing hard-drive, and 366 pages describing software that, by now, are all graphical and almost as easy and intuitive to use as their Windows counterpart.
Come on... That guy David Brickner just wanted to write his very own Linux book and cash in on it.
If you're a REAL geek, you'll do your computer work with a punch card.
Pfff, kids these days...
Real geeks program their computers with 8 switches and leds, the ALTAIR way. Like real men.
That uses the keyboard almost religously. Tab-Tab-Tab-Space to submit for Slashdot articles too :)
:-)
May I suggest you use Tab-Tab-Tab-Tab-Space more often when you submit your Slashdot articles?
Can you imagine how many times I would have had to hit 'tab' just to get to this textarea if I only had a keyboard and was using w3m or something? I shudder at the prospect.
Not so insightful. Any well designed software that's designed to be used primarily with a keyboard, and with a mouse as an afterthought, it more efficient to use with a keyboard than with a mouse.
Granted, web browser are naturally good candidates to be used with a mouse, but I guarantee you I know scores of people who can browse faster than you in most not-too-graphical pages with Lynx.
Keyboards are good, yes. Mice are good too, that's true. They both are good... for what they're good at :-)
Example: use a word processor, and you can be sure it's worthwhile taking some time learning keyboard shortcuts, since you're already typing text as the main activity in that context. Use a web browser though, and the situation is reversed: you spend a lot more time clicking around in a browser than typing. In this case, switching to the keyboard often is a hindrance more than anything.
The only software I know (well, use) that requires you to use heavily both the mouse and the keyboard is AutoCAD: I spend a lot less time typing acad commands in the keyboard and select object with the mouse than doing everything with the mouse.
ow long will it take for someone to use this to swim the English Channel underwater?
About 10 minutes, just enough time for the keel of one of the kajillion freighters that go up and down the channel to hit the guy's head...
Sell albums for $3-$5 apiece online (more if you need a CD shipped), with no DRM, and I think piracy will go down. Make DVD-quality movies available via download for $5-$10 -- or less for older, less-popular movies -- and people won't bother to pirate those, either.
Your so naive it's touching.
People have proven time and time over that
1 - When faced with the choice of either buying something legally for cheap, and downloading something illegally for free with almost no risk of getting caught, they'll get the illegal free stuff. Apart for a few highly moral people, free is better than cheap, period.
2 - When choosing between cheap, high quality stuff and the free, lesser quality version, people go for the free version. Again, apart for a few elitists and high-fidelity freaks, "free" is the criteria for most people.
WIPO implies IP patents and lawyers. Need I say more?
5 jackbooted toes in their backside is my feedback.