Actually, EAC fully supports all the command line parameters for OggEnc, including those to set ID tags and bitrate, quality, etc without having to type them in manually.
That won't happen directly, it's too obvious. What could happen is this:
Law 1) Make it illegal to disable DRM unless the companies say you can (this is already in place).
Law 2) Make DRM mandatory in all hardware devices (currently being pushed hard by the ??AA).
Law 3) Require DRM hardware to ONLY run DRM-compliant software (not too hard to imagine).
Boom. That's the end of legal free (and Free) software in the USA. It would also be the end of programming as a hobby; programming would require expensive signatures in order to be allowed to run.
Actually, upon freeze frame it looks like it's the Gilderoy vs. Snape duel where, if I remember correctly, Snape sends Gilderoy flying. It may not be a "Hong Kong Spin" so much as a "just-got-hit-off-center-with-a-blast-of-something -nasty-and-I'm-being -blown-away" spin.
The only problem with this is that MS is going out of their way to make other browsers look bad. For example, if you visit support.microsoft.com and view an article with bullet in it... in IE, it looks like the lines in the list are a little too close together. Under Mozilla, they are an unreadable mess. Upshot: If you want to browse MS's support site, you have to use IE. I wonder how long it will be before they use similar tricks on their other sites, too... like the X-Box site.
The single most important thing that humanity can do is get off this planet. Do we have problems in society that could use the extra money gained by dismantling the space program? Probably. But all the money in the world isn't going to help when (not if) the next asteroid comes along and blows us all to kingdom come. If humanity intends to survive on the long term, our absolutely highest goal must be to spread somewhere else.
No, it doesn't help the average person. But if it isn't done, sooner or later there will BE no more average people.
These have been around for a while...
on
Gyroscopic Mouse
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· Score: 2
I set one of these up at an international conference for Deere & Company back in late '99. It was really handy for the presenters, since they could use the mouse pointer to highlight parts of their powerpoint slides and wander all around the stage while doing so. Almost all the presenters got the hang of it immediately, and even those who didn't just used it as a remote "clicker" for advancing the frames. As far as I'm concerned, though, it would pretty much suck for desktop use.
I'm not blind, but one of my clients that I do a lot of work for is. And believe me, even though he was born blind, and can cope, there are still thousands of things that we take for granted that he simply cannot do, and will never be able to do without some form of vision. If something like this became available for the born-blind (unlikely, since the visual cortex never develops fully for the born-blind) he would jump at the chance, and he has told me so.
...to make our voices heard, then writing all the code in the world isn't going to make any difference; even assuming it will be legal to write (in the US, anyway) code without a license or certificate of some kind, there won't be any hardware that can run code not produced by a multi-billion-dollar company. We have to find some way to stop this BEFORE it happens, because after the fact it will just be too damn late. If lobbying isn't going to help, what will? And why aren't we doing it yet?
I've had a lot of strange feelings about my chosen career. I thought along these lines... my chosen area of expertise is one that exists only in a high-tech, advanced society. What happens to me if something happens to that society? I'm not donning my tinfoil hat, but something very well COULD happen.. what if, for some reason, the tech industry vanishes? Where will I be? I can cook some Italian cuisine, but... I think I need to take up another skill, a backup, as it were. Something basic, like, well, plumbing. Or carpentry.
I swear, no matter how great my accomplishments in the computing field, there is still the feeling of nothing REAL accomplished. Nothing permanent, nothing that anyone appreciates. I don't like that feeling.
Apparently you missed the reference. Go rent and watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail, then post again in the morning.
Re:And if they didn't?
on
More MS EULA Fun
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· Score: 3, Informative
Interestingly enough, I did this as well, several weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when last night, after a reboot, I suddenly noticed the Messenger icon in my systray again! I have auto-updating disabled, and I'm blocking all requests to microsoft.com at my router. So how did it suddenly pop back after being gone for weeks?
This has absolutely no scientific basis, nor any evidence whatsoever. It just popped into my head like a Stay-puft marshmallow man. When a fluid is released in a zero-G environment, it wobbles along a couple of axes for a long time before finally stabilizing. You know, stretching one way, then the other... Rock and presumably metal, in sufficiently high pressures, can act as fluids. Maybe the earth has been "wobbling" ever since its creation 4.5 billion years ago, but due to its mass is doing so veeeeeery slowly. I know, there are much simpler and better explanations, but it makes for kind of a neat mental image, doesn't it?
Actually, even though Pratchett's not a sci-fi writer per se, it's still obvious through reading his books that he's up-to-date on most of the cooler scientific concepts. After all, how else could he satirize them so accurately?
If that means... the monitoring of electronic transmissions, and the regulation of strong encryption, than so be it. It's the price we pay for living in a free and prosperous society.
I really hope this was intended as sarcasm. The monitoring of electronic transmissions and regulation of strong encryption would not allow a "free" society to exist. At least, not for very long.
One problem: Sony already paid. $15 million bucks. That essentially means that Sony will back up this patent now, as well, because they don't want to "lose" that money.
I don't think it could apply to lossless compression formats like PNG. But the rest of your list does seem like fair game... holy hell. Let's all pray some intelligent judge throws this shit out.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, EAC fully supports all the command line parameters for OggEnc, including those to set ID tags and bitrate, quality, etc without having to type them in manually.
That won't happen directly, it's too obvious. What could happen is this:
Law 1) Make it illegal to disable DRM unless the companies say you can (this is already in place).
Law 2) Make DRM mandatory in all hardware devices (currently being pushed hard by the ??AA).
Law 3) Require DRM hardware to ONLY run DRM-compliant software (not too hard to imagine).
Boom. That's the end of legal free (and Free) software in the USA. It would also be the end of programming as a hobby; programming would require expensive signatures in order to be allowed to run.
The USPS is not a part of the US gov't and hasn't been for some time.
Actually, upon freeze frame it looks like it's the Gilderoy vs. Snape duel where, if I remember correctly, Snape sends Gilderoy flying. It may not be a "Hong Kong Spin" so much as a "just-got-hit-off-center-with-a-blast-of-something -nasty-and-I'm-being -blown-away" spin.
The only problem with this is that MS is going out of their way to make other browsers look bad. For example, if you visit support.microsoft.com and view an article with bullet in it... in IE, it looks like the lines in the list are a little too close together. Under Mozilla, they are an unreadable mess. Upshot: If you want to browse MS's support site, you have to use IE. I wonder how long it will be before they use similar tricks on their other sites, too... like the X-Box site.
Don't knock a +5. At least Bruce will probably see your suggestion now...
And you're saying the interfaces for 3DXMax, LW, and Maya AREN'T goofy?!
Yeah, they had to overrock it from 33 megaliths to 50 just to work out all the possibilities.
The single most important thing that humanity can do is get off this planet. Do we have problems in society that could use the extra money gained by dismantling the space program? Probably. But all the money in the world isn't going to help when (not if) the next asteroid comes along and blows us all to kingdom come. If humanity intends to survive on the long term, our absolutely highest goal must be to spread somewhere else.
No, it doesn't help the average person. But if it isn't done, sooner or later there will BE no more average people.
I set one of these up at an international conference for Deere & Company back in late '99. It was really handy for the presenters, since they could use the mouse pointer to highlight parts of their powerpoint slides and wander all around the stage while doing so. Almost all the presenters got the hang of it immediately, and even those who didn't just used it as a remote "clicker" for advancing the frames. As far as I'm concerned, though, it would pretty much suck for desktop use.
I'm not blind, but one of my clients that I do a lot of work for is. And believe me, even though he was born blind, and can cope, there are still thousands of things that we take for granted that he simply cannot do, and will never be able to do without some form of vision. If something like this became available for the born-blind (unlikely, since the visual cortex never develops fully for the born-blind) he would jump at the chance, and he has told me so.
...to make our voices heard, then writing all the code in the world isn't going to make any difference; even assuming it will be legal to write (in the US, anyway) code without a license or certificate of some kind, there won't be any hardware that can run code not produced by a multi-billion-dollar company. We have to find some way to stop this BEFORE it happens, because after the fact it will just be too damn late. If lobbying isn't going to help, what will? And why aren't we doing it yet?
I've had a lot of strange feelings about my chosen career. I thought along these lines... my chosen area of expertise is one that exists only in a high-tech, advanced society. What happens to me if something happens to that society? I'm not donning my tinfoil hat, but something very well COULD happen.. what if, for some reason, the tech industry vanishes? Where will I be? I can cook some Italian cuisine, but... I think I need to take up another skill, a backup, as it were. Something basic, like, well, plumbing. Or carpentry.
I swear, no matter how great my accomplishments in the computing field, there is still the feeling of nothing REAL accomplished. Nothing permanent, nothing that anyone appreciates. I don't like that feeling.
You can. Look at what movie stars get away with that would put "oridinary" people in jail...
You bastard. You made me spew my Coke across the room.
Thanks.
apt-get install gnucash works for me :)
Apparently you missed the reference. Go rent and watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail, then post again in the morning.
Interestingly enough, I did this as well, several weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when last night, after a reboot, I suddenly noticed the Messenger icon in my systray again! I have auto-updating disabled, and I'm blocking all requests to microsoft.com at my router. So how did it suddenly pop back after being gone for weeks?
This has absolutely no scientific basis, nor any evidence whatsoever. It just popped into my head like a Stay-puft marshmallow man. When a fluid is released in a zero-G environment, it wobbles along a couple of axes for a long time before finally stabilizing. You know, stretching one way, then the other... Rock and presumably metal, in sufficiently high pressures, can act as fluids. Maybe the earth has been "wobbling" ever since its creation 4.5 billion years ago, but due to its mass is doing so veeeeeery slowly. I know, there are much simpler and better explanations, but it makes for kind of a neat mental image, doesn't it?
Actually, even though Pratchett's not a sci-fi writer per se, it's still obvious through reading his books that he's up-to-date on most of the cooler scientific concepts. After all, how else could he satirize them so accurately?
Maybe someone should tell Dave Barry what's going on.
One problem: Sony already paid. $15 million bucks. That essentially means that Sony will back up this patent now, as well, because they don't want to "lose" that money.
I don't think it could apply to lossless compression formats like PNG. But the rest of your list does seem like fair game... holy hell. Let's all pray some intelligent judge throws this shit out.
-1: Groaner