Yes. There are at least two instances of prior art (that I submitted to Slashdot when I submitted mention of the McAfee story, but oh well...).
In 1997, Symantec partnered with Ziff Davis in launching the HealthyPC.com web site. It was a subscription service that allowed customers access to Norton Antivirus, a subset of Norton Utilities, and the then newly developed LiveUpdate product. I did web design for that launch.
The way the service worked is that the apps were downloaded and installed on the client side, but they could only be activated by a launch script from the server side, so a user had to log in to the HealthyPC.com subscriber area in order to use the tools.
Here are some pages that reference HealthyPC.com and pretty clearly show dates from 1997 (according to News.com, McAfee applied for the patent in 1998):
Before that, there was a site offering similar services that was called TuneUp.com, but it ended up going through a few acquisitions before finally ending up as part of Symantec.
I'm currently in the middle of converting all my CDs to OGG (200 down, 200 to go).
I've been using 3 workstations, all running rip. The conversion process from CD Audio to OGG happens on the fly, so it encodes the audio as it rips it. rip also handles FreeDB lookups for track info.
If you're not comfortable with a console level tool, Grip (as mentioned in other responses) only requires that you insert the CD. It will automatically query FreeDB, rip the CD Audio, and encode it to OGG. You just keep feeding it discs - you never have to hit a single key.
The hardware issue is quite valid if you tend to use portable players, so at this point, anybody with a serious need for portability should probably wait until OGG gets some industry support (the gadget industry, that is... the recording industry will never support a format they can't control).
But until then, I'm just fine using it for my jukebox server. The sound quality is good, the file size is small, and the format is 100% open. The only problem I can foresee is that the RIAA will criminalize CD ripping even if you own the CD.
If media outlets take a story relating to the injustice committed by jailing a programmer who enables consumers to practice their fair use rights, then those same media are essentially opening their own shirts so you can stick a knife into their hearts. The news media want copyright protection just as bad as film and music - otherwise NBC wouldn't be able to buy up all the Olympics coverage and restrict other US news organizations from broadcasting any images of it.
Information control is now a lucrative business. Maintaining that control is paramount above all else. Those things that benefit your information control (license agreements, digital "rights" legislation, monopolistic practices) are to be safeguarded, championed, and bought. Those things that threaten it (anti-DMCA press, Open Source, Nader) are to quieted or quashed.
This is not to say that all media are like this. There has been anti-DMCA press, but it seems to have all been in newspapers and is spread pretty thin.
The problem is that, overall, the US is in a pretty nice spot economically. As long as people can live their lives without too much hassle, they tend not to care about the fact that their rights are being purchased by corporations. It won't be until the corporations push to the point that Joe 6-Pack gets angry that anything will change, because we, the people who see this coming, are just the hacker underclass that make everything run. We are they who have no respect for authority that hasn't earned it, who shun the societal standards that allow mediocrity and ignorance to be an acceptable lifestyle. We're just pests, trying to muck up their happy little lives.
Oooh, oooh! And books can be lent to other people and read multiple times without paying license fees and won't result in your arrest just because you want to read them somewhere other than your desk.
Books suck... right up until the point where the electronic versions are controlled beyond the point of practical use.
I would like to echo that sentiment and back it up with something else:
Nearly every book on Linux is, to some extent, distribution specific.
Even the book linked from michael's comments was specifically a Debian book. Every time Red Hat does a new release, there's a new "Bible" published that's just as expensive as the one before it, and, invariably, doesn't address everything you want or need to know.
I would much rather have web based resources that are easily modified for currency and relevance.
This is not to say that I haven't bought any Linux books. I have one of the aforementioned Red Hat "Bible" books, books on Samba, XFree86, Linux Network Administration, Linux Security... heck, even VI. So I'm not adverse to supporting the Linux market through purchasing documentation, but it does ruffle my feathers to see/., of all places, imply that using an online resource is nothing more than being cheap.
Guess I should stop getting my news from/. then and instead pay for something less timely and more likely to take up shelf space.
I use a portable SKB audio rack for my gear. That design decision was made basically because I wanted to haul everything around to LAN parties. The portable nature of the case means I have a completely enclosed LAN ready to go at a moment's notice (not that our LAN parties are ever that spontaneous).
The key to using audio rackmount enclosures is building rackmount servers that will fit the limited depth of such cases. Check out General Technics'MicroATX 2U enclosures.
By the way, the SKB 8U Roto Rack case I have was purchased via eBay for $99+$24S&H.
-- Sinistar
Re:aliens? i thought... *SPOILER*
on
Review: A.I.
·
· Score: 1
It does make one wonder why the beings at the end couldn't just keep sampling Monica and re-reviving her each day.
Or was it said that there was only one day ever? That bit was a little unclear.
If not, then they could simply get a hair sample every single day and use it to recreate her with memories intact from the previous day.
Activision also calls its external alpha-testers the "Visioneers", and it looks to have been in use by them since the Mechwarrior 2 days.:)
Are the Disney folks "Visioneers" or "Imagineers"? I thought it was the latter.
It would seem to me that this film would balance precariously on the edge of a nerd film - or at least, the subject matter would. Would you as strongly protest a review of Excalibur or Lord Of The Rings? Probably not.
It's only because you know that A Knight's Tale is teen dreck that you oppose its review. What if you knew only that it was a vaguely Arthurian film? Would that interest the "nerd" side of your sensibilities? Wouldn't you then appreciate a review telling you that it was anything but a compelling artwork?
Many these days consider overt appreciation for the Arthurian legend to be a trait of the nerd/geek. The same can be said for LOTR, D&D, Excalibur - even Conan The Barbarian (if you find yourself repeating either the "lamentation" or "Tree of Woe" lines, you are a geek).
Of course, none of this excuses the review of "The Mummy Returns". Reviewing that move just makes no sense whatsoever.:)
You didn't actually watch the proceedings, did you? C-Span ran them for those interested (I watched them Tuesday night from about 11pm to 2am).
Henley's main beef wasn't with consumer violation of copyright, though he did discuss that briefly. For the most part, he seemed to be there to let everybody know how much the labels screw over the artists and how online distribution is looking like yet another way for the labels to make big bucks while giving the creators a pittance.
His goal was to make sure such issues are addressed in discussing online distribution rights.
He did say that he would like to be compensated for the proliferation of his creations, but he also conceded that some artists have no problem giving their music away and that if they want to do that, it should be their choice (currently, for the most part, it isn't).
The only mention of domain names during the course of the evening was by Hatch, who said that it just wasn't right that other people could register an artist's name. Apparently, it hasn't occurred to Hatch that, in our three name system, it's incredibly possible to have the same name as somebody else. The natural inference is that he was speaking about squatters, but he didn't mention that practice specifically.
Oops, responded to the wrong message.:)
Anyway, once again, this is an important bit of info that should be given greater notice so we can keep everybody from cutting at each other with PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and MSSQL knives.
This is an important bit of info that should be given greater notice so we can keep everybody from cutting at each other with PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and MSSQL knives.
We now have decryption code small enough to easily be sent via any IM programs - send it to everyone on your ICQ list today.:)
Send copies to world leaders so they're all in violation of the DMCA.
Send copies to the people who sponsored and passed the DMCA, attaching a note that reads, "Per the statutes of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, you have violated federal law by reading this message. Have a nice day."
It's just so unbelievably small that it can be sent with anything. That's the amazing part of this.
Who could have guessed that 7 lines of code could get you arrested?
I purchased a set of Energy speakers for my setup and have been happy as a clam ever since. I went with their Take 5 package and an 8" e:XL sub. The prices on these are excellent ($575 for 1 center channel, 4 satellites, and 1 sub from CyberTeria, though I don't recommend them) and the sound quality, while lacking a bit in the mid-range for the satellites (I use the sub to compensate), is incredible for the price.
The problem with Energy speakers is finding a place that sells them. You can check their web site for the nearest dealer.
If I recall correctly, the other installments in this series also referred to the PS2 as though it were the key to all human creativity. I am confused as to why Mr. Katz is using Sony's latest gizmo as this source of unequalled glory, especially since it simply allows interaction with somebody else's creation instead of enabling the intelligent and creative with a tool to create their own works.
If anything, I would place the old 8-bit systems in the place of the PS2. When you turned them on, you had a blank slate from which to create anything you could think of (within obvious technical limits). When you turn on a PS2, your only option is to put somebody else's imagination into it and absorb another's fantasy. There is no room for modification from what is encoded on that disk. There's no way for a gamer to decide that they want their protagonist to be a squirrel instead of a busty archeologist. How does this canned system allow the creative expression that is claimed in this article?
Has Mr. Katz even used a PS2, let alone tried to program one? What examples of gamer creativity has he seen that can be attributed solely to the manifest power of the PS2 system? If he is simply trying to convey the thought that increasingly capable technology allows for increasingly fantastic creativity, then he should simply say that and shy away from doing product placement for Sony products.
Because then it's not a medieval world. It's a bunch of Road Rules contestants whose challenge is to hold a renaissance fair.
"Dude, I totally wanna be the knight and do all that stuff like kill things and rescue chicks in trouble." "No way, I'll be the knight. You can be the jester." "That guy from Top Gun?" "No dude, those midgets that make you laugh." "But I'm not a midget." "So crawl on your knees, bee-yaawwwtch." And then the person dressed as the knight slaps the other in the ass with a sword, leaving a welt that causes a rift between the two cliques in the Winnebago as half see it as a by-product of playful fun while the others see it as a sign of the increasing violence of one of their number.
At least ripping off Carmina Burana is a tradition as old as Excalibur, but man, ripping off the Stargate soundtrack (which is played briefly just before Carmina in the trailer)... that's just sad.
And the princess? Well, I haven't seen Thora Birch whining like that since Monkey Trouble.
There are some movies where I decide fairly early on whether or not I'll see them in the theaters. Then there are those that are put in the "when it's out for rental" pile, but man, this movie is going into the "whenever Netflix gets it" list, and that's as low a viewing priority as I have.:)
Great visuals, poor acting...
on
D&D Trailer
·
· Score: 5
I was incredibly excited about the D&D movie until I watched this trailer. For some reason, I was certain that this film would hold me over until Lord of the Rings is released next year. But, there were a few things that struck me as warning signs:
The bad, evil sorcerer keeps his hair parted, and when wind blows into his coiffed creation, he looks like Buster Poindexter.
It co-stars Jar Jar Binks. Oh, wait, no, I guess that's just Marlon Wayans. Same thing.
The main character says, "Trust me," right there in the trailer. The use of the phrase "trust me" in a trailer is a sign of impending crap storytelling 90% of the time. To my recollection, the only film that really bucked that trend was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which used "Trust me" in the trailer, but then didn't suck.
The male lead looks like he's fresh from a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers casting call. It just seems "seriously wrong".
The use of the word "kinda" in a fantasy setting.
It seems like this is pointed squarely at the teen movie market, but one would think that the market who would connect best with D&D is the 18-34 market (y'know, people who were alive when parents across the US were afraid that their role playing kids would become involved in the occult and commit suicide when their characters died).
Admittedly, I don't know the story here. Maybe it's the same as the old D&D cartoon - a couple of kids are magically transplanted into the game and have to play it to get out. In that case, all this hokey teen crap works, because they would be from a different world, but if we are to believe that these characters were part of this world from day one...
Please, Peter Jackson, deliver us from bad fantasy films.
Thanks for the info. A Google search for 'chord keyset' also turned up a number of sites, including one that had an image of Engelbart still using the keyset today.
Watching the video yesterday really filled me with a complete sense of awe. It was a demonstration of vision that completely lacked the cynicism and guarded nature of today's creators of "intellectual property". But, I guess that's what happens when your goal is to change the world and not just change your market value.
Sorry to veer off topic, but does anybody know where I could find more information on the chord key set used in clip 3? There are some other images of it on the site, but I haven't been able to find an explanation of how it worked. Was it a total keyboard replacement or more like a macro input device?
I've been trying to find a way to get the S-Vid Out to work under Linux but have absolutely no luck whatsoever.
I want to use it in my living room, but it serves a greater purpose as a Quake 3 server/Seti@Home machine, so I'd rather not install Windows just to get the S-Vid Out working.
Dear:CueCat member,
We've been alerted to a security breach in our system that may have exposed certain members' names and email addresses. As one of the members who may be susceptible, we want to explain to you how you may be affected and what we are doing to rectify the situation.
Digital:Convergence has secured the site and is conducting a thorough security examination to ensure the safety of its information.
As a result of this breach, unauthorized third parties may have been able to gather your name and email address. You may receive unsolicited emails (a.k.a. spam) from unrecognized sources. If you do not recognize the source, please delete the email immediately. You can also go to www.cauce.org, which provides information on spam and spam-blocking software programs that will prevent unwanted emails from reaching your desktop.
In light of these developments, we would like to give you a $10 gift certificate to RadioShack. If you are interested in receiving this certificate, please fill out a short form on www.crq.com/rs.html and we will mail it to you.
Digital:Convergence values our members and reiterates our commitment not to share your personal identifying information with third
parties. We regret any inconvenience you may experience. We have fixed the problem and are taking extra precautionary steps to ensure it
won't happen again.
Satisfied?
I checked out the page to register for the $10 coupon, but, of course, it requires all the information I lied about to them the first time around.
Slashdot Mirror
In 1997, Symantec partnered with Ziff Davis in launching the HealthyPC.com web site. It was a subscription service that allowed customers access to Norton Antivirus, a subset of Norton Utilities, and the then newly developed LiveUpdate product. I did web design for that launch.
The way the service worked is that the apps were downloaded and installed on the client side, but they could only be activated by a launch script from the server side, so a user had to log in to the HealthyPC.com subscriber area in order to use the tools.
Here are some pages that reference HealthyPC.com and pretty clearly show dates from 1997 (according to News.com, McAfee applied for the patent in 1998):
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-318512.html4 1.html
h tm
t m
http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/04/msg002
http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/insites/sod/sd970310.
http://www.quantum.org/members/issues/1097/7875.h
Before that, there was a site offering similar services that was called TuneUp.com, but it ended up going through a few acquisitions before finally ending up as part of Symantec.
I've been using 3 workstations, all running rip. The conversion process from CD Audio to OGG happens on the fly, so it encodes the audio as it rips it. rip also handles FreeDB lookups for track info.
If you're not comfortable with a console level tool, Grip (as mentioned in other responses) only requires that you insert the CD. It will automatically query FreeDB, rip the CD Audio, and encode it to OGG. You just keep feeding it discs - you never have to hit a single key.
The hardware issue is quite valid if you tend to use portable players, so at this point, anybody with a serious need for portability should probably wait until OGG gets some industry support (the gadget industry, that is ... the recording industry will never support a format they can't control).
But until then, I'm just fine using it for my jukebox server. The sound quality is good, the file size is small, and the format is 100% open. The only problem I can foresee is that the RIAA will criminalize CD ripping even if you own the CD.
If media outlets take a story relating to the injustice committed by jailing a programmer who enables consumers to practice their fair use rights, then those same media are essentially opening their own shirts so you can stick a knife into their hearts. The news media want copyright protection just as bad as film and music - otherwise NBC wouldn't be able to buy up all the Olympics coverage and restrict other US news organizations from broadcasting any images of it.
Information control is now a lucrative business. Maintaining that control is paramount above all else. Those things that benefit your information control (license agreements, digital "rights" legislation, monopolistic practices) are to be safeguarded, championed, and bought. Those things that threaten it (anti-DMCA press, Open Source, Nader) are to quieted or quashed.
This is not to say that all media are like this. There has been anti-DMCA press, but it seems to have all been in newspapers and is spread pretty thin.
The problem is that, overall, the US is in a pretty nice spot economically. As long as people can live their lives without too much hassle, they tend not to care about the fact that their rights are being purchased by corporations. It won't be until the corporations push to the point that Joe 6-Pack gets angry that anything will change, because we, the people who see this coming, are just the hacker underclass that make everything run. We are they who have no respect for authority that hasn't earned it, who shun the societal standards that allow mediocrity and ignorance to be an acceptable lifestyle. We're just pests, trying to muck up their happy little lives.
Whoa, that one took a big turn at the end. :)
-- Sinistar
Books suck... right up until the point where the electronic versions are controlled beyond the point of practical use.
-- Sinistar
Nearly every book on Linux is, to some extent, distribution specific.
Even the book linked from michael's comments was specifically a Debian book. Every time Red Hat does a new release, there's a new "Bible" published that's just as expensive as the one before it, and, invariably, doesn't address everything you want or need to know.
I would much rather have web based resources that are easily modified for currency and relevance.
This is not to say that I haven't bought any Linux books. I have one of the aforementioned Red Hat "Bible" books, books on Samba, XFree86, Linux Network Administration, Linux Security... heck, even VI. So I'm not adverse to supporting the Linux market through purchasing documentation, but it does ruffle my feathers to see /., of all places, imply that using an online resource is nothing more than being cheap.
Guess I should stop getting my news from /. then and instead pay for something less timely and more likely to take up shelf space.
-- Sinistar
The key to using audio rackmount enclosures is building rackmount servers that will fit the limited depth of such cases. Check out General Technics' MicroATX 2U enclosures. By the way, the SKB 8U Roto Rack case I have was purchased via eBay for $99+$24S&H.
-- Sinistar
-- Sinistar
Hollywood Poker, Samantha Fox Poker, Artworx Strip Poker, Sex Games, Smurf Torture (okay, just the Commie Bob torture scene with Smurfette)...
The C=64 had tons of porn!
-- Sinistar
-- Sinistar
It's only because you know that A Knight's Tale is teen dreck that you oppose its review. What if you knew only that it was a vaguely Arthurian film? Would that interest the "nerd" side of your sensibilities? Wouldn't you then appreciate a review telling you that it was anything but a compelling artwork?
Many these days consider overt appreciation for the Arthurian legend to be a trait of the nerd/geek. The same can be said for LOTR, D&D, Excalibur - even Conan The Barbarian (if you find yourself repeating either the "lamentation" or "Tree of Woe" lines, you are a geek).
Of course, none of this excuses the review of "The Mummy Returns". Reviewing that move just makes no sense whatsoever. :)
-- Sinistar
Henley's main beef wasn't with consumer violation of copyright, though he did discuss that briefly. For the most part, he seemed to be there to let everybody know how much the labels screw over the artists and how online distribution is looking like yet another way for the labels to make big bucks while giving the creators a pittance.
His goal was to make sure such issues are addressed in discussing online distribution rights.
He did say that he would like to be compensated for the proliferation of his creations, but he also conceded that some artists have no problem giving their music away and that if they want to do that, it should be their choice (currently, for the most part, it isn't).
The only mention of domain names during the course of the evening was by Hatch, who said that it just wasn't right that other people could register an artist's name. Apparently, it hasn't occurred to Hatch that, in our three name system, it's incredibly possible to have the same name as somebody else. The natural inference is that he was speaking about squatters, but he didn't mention that practice specifically.
-- Sinistar
In other words, they knew about it, fixed it, tested the new SP, released it, and are just NOW telling people about it.
So, Microsoft still sucks. :)
-- Sinistar
-- Sinistar
-- Sinistar
Send copies to world leaders so they're all in violation of the DMCA.
Send copies to the people who sponsored and passed the DMCA, attaching a note that reads, "Per the statutes of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, you have violated federal law by reading this message. Have a nice day."
It's just so unbelievably small that it can be sent with anything. That's the amazing part of this.
Who could have guessed that 7 lines of code could get you arrested?
-- Sinistar
The problem with Energy speakers is finding a place that sells them. You can check their web site for the nearest dealer.
www.energy-speakers.com
-- Sinistar
If anything, I would place the old 8-bit systems in the place of the PS2. When you turned them on, you had a blank slate from which to create anything you could think of (within obvious technical limits). When you turn on a PS2, your only option is to put somebody else's imagination into it and absorb another's fantasy. There is no room for modification from what is encoded on that disk. There's no way for a gamer to decide that they want their protagonist to be a squirrel instead of a busty archeologist. How does this canned system allow the creative expression that is claimed in this article?
Has Mr. Katz even used a PS2, let alone tried to program one? What examples of gamer creativity has he seen that can be attributed solely to the manifest power of the PS2 system? If he is simply trying to convey the thought that increasingly capable technology allows for increasingly fantastic creativity, then he should simply say that and shy away from doing product placement for Sony products.
"Dude, I totally wanna be the knight and do all that stuff like kill things and rescue chicks in trouble." "No way, I'll be the knight. You can be the jester." "That guy from Top Gun?" "No dude, those midgets that make you laugh." "But I'm not a midget." "So crawl on your knees, bee-yaawwwtch." And then the person dressed as the knight slaps the other in the ass with a sword, leaving a welt that causes a rift between the two cliques in the Winnebago as half see it as a by-product of playful fun while the others see it as a sign of the increasing violence of one of their number.
Yeah, I'm waitin' in line for that one.
And the princess? Well, I haven't seen Thora Birch whining like that since Monkey Trouble.
There are some movies where I decide fairly early on whether or not I'll see them in the theaters. Then there are those that are put in the "when it's out for rental" pile, but man, this movie is going into the "whenever Netflix gets it" list, and that's as low a viewing priority as I have. :)
- The bad, evil sorcerer keeps his hair parted, and when wind blows into his coiffed creation, he looks like Buster Poindexter.
- It co-stars Jar Jar Binks. Oh, wait, no, I guess that's just Marlon Wayans. Same thing.
- The main character says, "Trust me," right there in the trailer. The use of the phrase "trust me" in a trailer is a sign of impending crap storytelling 90% of the time. To my recollection, the only film that really bucked that trend was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which used "Trust me" in the trailer, but then didn't suck.
- The male lead looks like he's fresh from a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers casting call. It just seems "seriously wrong".
- The use of the word "kinda" in a fantasy setting.
It seems like this is pointed squarely at the teen movie market, but one would think that the market who would connect best with D&D is the 18-34 market (y'know, people who were alive when parents across the US were afraid that their role playing kids would become involved in the occult and commit suicide when their characters died).Admittedly, I don't know the story here. Maybe it's the same as the old D&D cartoon - a couple of kids are magically transplanted into the game and have to play it to get out. In that case, all this hokey teen crap works, because they would be from a different world, but if we are to believe that these characters were part of this world from day one...
Please, Peter Jackson, deliver us from bad fantasy films.
Watching the video yesterday really filled me with a complete sense of awe. It was a demonstration of vision that completely lacked the cynicism and guarded nature of today's creators of "intellectual property". But, I guess that's what happens when your goal is to change the world and not just change your market value.
Sorry to veer off topic, but does anybody know where I could find more information on the chord key set used in clip 3? There are some other images of it on the site, but I haven't been able to find an explanation of how it worked. Was it a total keyboard replacement or more like a macro input device?
But it doesn't look like the Scovery has S-Vid or Composite Out, which would make it less attractive as a set-top box.
I've been trying to find a way to get the S-Vid Out to work under Linux but have absolutely no luck whatsoever.
I want to use it in my living room, but it serves a greater purpose as a Quake 3 server/Seti@Home machine, so I'd rather not install Windows just to get the S-Vid Out working.
Dear :CueCat member,
We've been alerted to a security breach in our system that may have exposed certain members' names and email addresses. As one of the members who may be susceptible, we want to explain to you how you may be affected and what we are doing to rectify the situation.
Digital:Convergence has secured the site and is conducting a thorough security examination to ensure the safety of its information.
As a result of this breach, unauthorized third parties may have been able to gather your name and email address. You may receive unsolicited emails (a.k.a. spam) from unrecognized sources. If you do not recognize the source, please delete the email immediately. You can also go to www.cauce.org, which provides information on spam and spam-blocking software programs that will prevent unwanted emails from reaching your desktop.
In light of these developments, we would like to give you a $10 gift certificate to RadioShack. If you are interested in receiving this certificate, please fill out a short form on www.crq.com/rs.html and we will mail it to you.
Digital:Convergence values our members and reiterates our commitment not to share your personal identifying information with third parties. We regret any inconvenience you may experience. We have fixed the problem and are taking extra precautionary steps to ensure it won't happen again.
Satisfied?
I checked out the page to register for the $10 coupon, but, of course, it requires all the information I lied about to them the first time around.