George Lucus ISN'T Stephen Spielberg. Lucus is to Media what Sco is to linux. For those who can't remember, Lucusfilm sued Battlestar Galactica because of multi-points of similuarity between it and Star Wars.
But even George Lucus has a sence of humor, according to this site [http://www.nitcentral.com/askchief/ac980522.htm] "I remember the guy who made a Star Wars parody, Hardware Wars, got a letter from Lucas' lawyers warning him about copyright infringement, and he sent them a letter saying, "your boss liked it", and he included a copy of a letter from George Lucas saying how much he liked the parody. He never heard from the lawyers again."
So, strictly speaking if the director of the orgin work likes it, it really helps.
[why sue Galactica and not hardware wars, this is beyond me, oh perhaps because lucus wanted the money, and new hardware wars made no money]
While you are correct, the artical seemed to emply that Mr. Spielberg liked the derived work planed to see it on opening night.
However, I don't know other copyright holders that may have an interest in this work.
According to [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/079 2157648/qid=1054714539/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-48059 13-1769756?v=glance&s=video&n=507846#product-detai ls]
Raiders of the Lost Arc is chapter 24 in the complete adventures of Indiana Jones. So there might be an author that still holds a copyright somewhere, but who knows.
I would suspect that that Spielberg would be willing to atleast co-operate with the kids if they decided to release this either on P2P systems, TV, or video, at least give them a whos who to contact.
I am not a Raders of the Lost Arc geek... perhaps someone who knows more about the specifics can shed some light on the details.
When I was a kid, I had vinyl, we're talking the sub 7year old kid had to move cross country. At the time, had no tape player, and the 8-track player was screwy, so at the time vinyl for me, a kid, was the only choice.
Well.. moving cross country the heat of the u-hall got to the vinyl and warped the vast majority of it. Most sad as I had a copy of the Grease sound track that I loved.
Now, I honestly don't know how CDs would stack up to that sorta enviroment, summer time cross country move in a tin box. it would be interesting to see actually. But it would seem to me assuming you have decent CD cases that they are either less likely to experence this issue, or more likely to become warped but in a consistent way. I have tested a few CD-Rs on top of the roof and left them direct sunlight for 3 months with no ill effects, but i'll have reproduce mid-western heat on a tin roof to make fair contrast.
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Regarding skippage, my background is biased. I took poor care of the records I had as a kid, they skipped often. I do not have that same issue with CDs one the whole, but this depends on the player. I have a JVC multi disk player going on probally 10 or 15 years old now, multi disk model. It was a scratch and dent deal, friend didn't want to pay to get it repared so I picked it up for free, don't ask me how it worked out, I was expecting to pay the diagnostic fee and get a parts list of what it needed, but no fee and the parts came with it, go figure. I have few problems with skips due to normal wear. I can't say it's never skipped, but when it has, i've used windex on the CD and that cleared the issue right up. Your milage will vary.
[on a side note, was dating a lass who used a boom box with a vertical mount CD player. Skipped like mad. She never noticed it though, guess CD skips are less garish then vinyl ones:P ]
Dispite it's age, it never ever had any issues reading any CD-r I tossed at it (don't know about cd-rw).
I don't have a fair contrast for a turntable, haven't owned one for as long as a CD player, but i'm willing to believe that turntables typicaly would outlast most consumer grade CD players. This $4.00 one I picked up at a used shop is circa 1979 and is great.
When we go and pay our $7.00 for slightly less then 2hrs of entertainment, less we forget the fact that the fact that amature fan spinoffs done by essentually students can provide entertainment. While they can't nessicarly match the production quality of hollywood's almost endless budget, there is alot more to a media then it's production value, content is a factor too.
Starship Exeter [www.starshipexeter.com] is one example of fan based work. Based on classic star trek, their one release actually has a somewhat decent story as well as capturing that late 60's sci-fi theme while by todays standards is considered most cheezy. If you can get over the wind in the boom low quality film and shacky camera man, it's a worth see.
Now, i'm not nessicarly going to say that this is going to be any good... but it should prove to be entertaining at the very least. More so then alot of things targeted tward the typcial 12 year old. I intend to watch it, if for nothing else but to use as an example, "Look at what these 12 year olds did... hollywood you have no excuse".
We would like to give you a free edition of the newspaper no thanks, get a free one online please remove me from your list
We would like to replace your auto glass on your windshild No thanks, I down own a car. Please remove me from your list.
We would like to replace your existing windows with vinyl ones No thanks I prefer glass. Please remove me from your list.
But vinyl windows make your home look pretty I don't own a home. Please remove me from your list.
We notice that you recently refinanced your home I don't own home. Please remove me from your list
We are accepting donations for this organization household items This is isn't a house, it's a tiki hut. Please remove me from your list.
We would like to save you on auto insurance Don't own a car. Please remove me from your list
We are accepting donations for this worthy cause I don't donate over the phone [isolated cases they get my moolah already] Please remove me from your list
We want to offer you a free home security system Don't own a home, please remove me from the list
But we can install it in your apartment no you can't, I won't let you please remove me from your list
But there have been alot of break ins in your area, you need one Yes, and those breakins those people who purchaced your system
But why would anyone turn down our free home security system Because some people actually make their purchacing choices based on product research rather then impulse buying. Accepting your free product locks the person into a service contract and no one with one gram of sence would do that without doing any form of research. Additional, i'm not going to give license to some guy who I don't know to drill holes in my walls without there being a legit contract for the install. If I choose your service, and you guys fuck up, I want you to pay to have it fixed. You are not qualified to answer any logical question because the company you work for doesn't even give you paperwork or a model number of what you are selling. Your sales staff who will knock on my door are not welcome, I don't want to speak to them. Please remove me from your list, I have not accepted your free product for 7 years. Please give up and find someone else to bug
I would THINK after repeated failures they would take the hint and actually remove me from the list. I'm not profitable to telemarketers, I don't buy crap sold to me over the phone.
However, the tax rate hasn't changed since 1991, and the more fuel-efficient cars on the highways are sucking down far less fuel. The result, according to Whitty, is that tax income hasn't been able to keep pace with inflation, or with the need for additional road repairs due to increased traffic.
I know of a vast number of cars produced in the 1970's that get 30+mpg. Notable exceptions are big ass cars, lots of steel, comfortable, and generally happy.
While we have made a marginal improvement in fuel efficency, it's not really so great a percent. a 1972 ford LTD is going to get 12mpg, based on figures i've observed at ford, their big ass trucks can get as high as 14mph mpg. And the 1990 mercury cougar coup with the 5.0L engine gets about 14mph.
Where a 76 corolla is going to get 30-40mph depending on the fuel you put in it and engine condition (higher numbers due to lack of catalatic converter). A 1986 toyota corolla is going to get about 30-40 mpg, and a 1996 toyota corolla is going to get 30-40. I'm pulling these figures out of my ass, but they are reasonable. A corolla is going to have a sub 2.0l engine, and weighs in less then let's say a 70's ford LTD or a 70's Dodge Crystler Mercury Lincon. It's going to burn less fuel.
I would say fuel consumption is more a fuction of weight and engine size then it is on modern improvements on the power plant.
Gas tax based on consumption makes sence, and it works. Want to cheat the system, get a smaller car. Problem solved. Want funds to go to the right districts, put sensors on the roads. What to drive a big ass SUV on the road... well pay more tax you bastard!
But remember kids, killing nazi's is limited to castle wolfenstein. The same free speech rights that protect your authortity figure slauter protect neo-nazies too.
CDR with added...... noize... won't satisfy "vinyl psuddo-elitists"
Don't get me wrong, there are vinyl elitists who actually do hear a diffrence above and beyond the flaws. Quite a few of them. If I must put a term to it it would be habituation of the flaws, and when they are missing people feel as if there is something missing and they can't put their finger on it. Also another aspect about being human is a study of how the brain processes sound information. It's not like we don't have the equipment in our bodies to process this information, just the brain tends to fill in the empty spaces as part of our perception, and we have to account for most of the stimili we are exposed to is filtered out.
but if you are hearing 60 cycle humms while listening to vinyl, either it was put there by the person who created the music, or something is grounded when it shouldn't be.
I've heard that theory too, groud loops.
Actually I recently invested in a turntable that doesn't suffer from the same flaw. It is a Realistic Lab-400, from what I understand it was considered top of the line in 1978/1979 when radioshack actually sold really decent audio equipment. For me it was a $4.00 investment in the turntable, $20.00 investment in the stylus. The nice thing about vinyl not being the norm anymore is the fact that you tend to see pretty good turn tables at goodwill.
In theory one needs to ground the turnturn table to prevent interfearance from local magnetic sources, but at the same time, one needs to prevent ground loops. This is also another part of the vinyl experence.
In the case of the 60cycle hum I typicaly hear... I feel this is direct interfearance caused by power cord to the turn table being picked up by the magnetic cartrage, rather then a ground loop. While i'm not a trained audiophile, I tend to notice among many turn tables hearing the noise of it powering up.
i don't think digital audio will replace analog audio, or vice versa.
Well that's the thing... i hope it doesn't. I prefer CD for a number of reasons, and prefer OGG and Mp3 as well. But part of the hip aspect to vinyl is the really low level of technology required for playback. The highest tech piece of my turn table is the magnetic cartrage, but edison's invention in the first place only required a horn atached to a needle.
Quantium actually took this approach I believe with their bigfoot series of drives (aka the slowfoot). Though it wasn't a full hight 5.25 inch drive... but it was an early on the market 8gig drive roughly 1/3 hight. Not too speddy, but pretty reliable and can take much in the way of impact and still fuction.
I know compaq used that in one of their computers. I can't remember the designation but it was an odd duck, black short desktop with speakers designed for multi-media on board amp but slow cpu and only 1 8 bit isa slot, and even that wasn't standard hight.
But yea... for mp3s and movies in a varity of formatats, i'd seriously consider a 5.25 inch full hight if it got me above and beyond 80gigs cheeply.
I mean seriously, how many loved classic epic films have the budget to actually get things done that the fan base did ask for, though it be 20 years ago. This is the aspect I think is wonderful about Mr. Lucus actually doing ep 1, 2, and 3. I think it's great. How many of us waited after return of the Jedi for that exclusive next star wars film?
But we forget the fact that it's a prequil... we already know the ending, so your average watcher isn't going to enjoy it all that much. What we are paying to see... if your me anyway... is the character development that builds up to "luke I am your father, i'm a skilly little white guy, i'm not james earl jones".
Is George Lucus a money grubbing bastard, fuck yea! Never been any question on this. That whole ban the VCR movement is proof of this.
Do I plan to see Episode III... yea, but not at prime time rates, or perhaps on bittorrent. I enjoyed a new hope, empire strikes back, and return of the jedi. I don't plan to be first in line, I don't plan to trade a laptop for tickets as seen with episode 1. I won't drive up to canada to see it first.
Am I going to pay moolah to see the cast make the film in real time? FUCK NO! Ok, that's pushing your luck. Franky this level of starwars geekdome frightens the hell out of me. No freaking way. A real director would use such a promotion as a teaser, not as a way exploit a stupid public. I have little respect for Lucus as a person, and I just lost some serious points.
Do I expect people to record this webcam and post it on the net, FUCK YEA! Waste of bandwidth if you ask me, but hey, there is a demand for this, a demand for watching Skywalker scratch his butt.
For those users who are interested in star wars web cam, might I reccomend the star wars christmas special and varity show... with special guest.. Jefferson Airplane (correct me on this if it was Starship at this point). I had this misfortunate of seeing this as an adult, and I think I know why I can't remember this crap, I think even as a 6/7 year old child I find it insulting to my inteligence.
Basicly I was getting annoyed at some audiophile dj friends of mine. Ones who will quote stats and specifics yet not really give you a decent answer to the question, "does this sound good".
What I did was I was demonstrating turn table vs CD. I actually had a few things that were made most recently, like pearl jam for example. What I did was I played the CD, and when I told them I was playing the vinyl, I secretly replaced the sound they usually hear with literaly what I filtered out of an entirely diffrent album. I call the track crack pop fizzle and hum.
And sure enough... I was told that the second play, with the added snap pop crackle and 60 cycle hum was indeed had a warmer feel to it, and was the superior recording.
Needless to say after revieling to them that it was a wave file with just vinyl noise, otherwise it was the same thing.
While I appricate a good audio file who can put terms too annoying aspects of my sound setup that I can't place my finger on... I have little tolerance for idiots who are making a judgement based on feeling. I'll be the first to agree that a CD's clean sound may sound artifical to ears who were raised listening to vinyl. So the solution for this market is clear, create a turntable noise generator and those few vinyl psuddo-elitists will be happy.
This is not to say that there are not people out there who trully have an ear to pickup the diffrences between analog and something sampled 44.1kHz. But should you be bothered with such folk, do your own blind test and see what happens.
Luckily in these cases there was usually some sort of years-differential clause in the law that held so it was just a hassle for the guys. I do find it odd that a 16yo can consent to having sex with an 18yo but not a 28yo. Isn't consent the same either way? Just seems wacky to me.
Well, it's hard to say where a good cut off age is. I can't think of the last time I considered sex with a 20 year old let alone anyone younger. I guess living in the states alters your perceptions somewhat, not seeing anyone under 21 in a bar and all. But generally speaking sub 18 kida and an adult a decade their elder is usually considered to be in bad taste. I imagine that one aspect of such laws is in the event that you have a complaint about a authority figure presuring a sub 18 year old into sex.. then they actually have a case. If no one complains about it, well that's that. Where I live there is a major paranoia about teacher's having sex with students. To be honest, I don't jive with that. One most recent case, there was a rumor that the boy pretty much suduced a 28 year old teacher for the explisit purposes of extorting money out of the school system... to be honest I don't know who's more fucked up, the teacher going after junior highschool kids, or the boy trying to get money this way.
But I honestly don't know of a good age of concent to be honest. I'll fully agree an absolute 18yo cut of limit is bad news. It just serves to make people criminals for dating at that age, unless you are born on the same day, someone is going to be the younger.
I think in the case I refered to, I think the girl was sub 16 at the time she was left the country.
A lot of chat programs auto-log.
Well, this is true, though very much good luck with MSN service. From my understanding they don't typicaly log on the server side, and it's not like any of the typical users log either. While you can get something like MIRC to work with MSN chat, it being loosly based on the IRC protocal, it's not terribaly practical to use as a client, esp with it's lack of unicode support. I guess I do managage a room on there, and I do run a stats program, so I do log for about 72 hours or so.
The point of this post? Not really any, just wanted to let you know what this software might be used for
Chances are, the software would be used by people who own vinyl, but don't want to deal with the fact that the media is bulky, the player is bulky, and the simple mater of the media degrading with each use. Not to speak of those who own vinyl who would enjoy getting it on CD to play in their car, rather like we did back in the 1980's with cassettes in the car.
As far as rare stuff... chances are it's ok with the artist, but it's best to ask first. Usually if there is no more comercial value in pressing new copies, they usually are most hip to the idea, but often require you put their contact info in the file tags.
I agree... I mean the thread concept is a software application to record vinyl. I would *think* that a reference to the following links...
http://www.ttx1.com/ stanton str8-150 http://www.stantonmagnetics.com/alpha44/ tt_str8-1 50.asp.... would be informative my self, given the nature of the software product is vinyl ripping, why ever both ripping if you have a budget for a digital turn table. Hell, some of these pro units sample at 96kHz at 24bit though I'm too lazy to see the specs on these units this billy person reccomended.
And to respond to the question why would anyone bother play analog, to digital, only to be converted back to analog... one common issue with turn tables it the fact that the phono level output, even on some pro units, is so low that you get hum hiss and distortion from the very equipment you use to produce sound sound. Also the simple fact of it is many PA systems are going digital for this reason. It makes sence as CD a popular standard is digital, why screw around with conversion.
Now, doesn't do me much good as pro units are damn costly, i'll stick with my analog player. I'm not trying to impress anyone, just want to hear the music.
Vinyl is highly reccomended if you have kids as far as demonstrating how sound works. You really don't get that positive feedback system, nor can you use a catas needle in a styrophome mug to demonstrate the whole gramaphone concept. Ok, this will definatly cause your record to degrade.
Dispite the fact that I was born in the 70s... I only recently gained an apprication for vinyl. As a kid, when I bought records, it was cause I didn't have a tape player, and I treeted my vinyl poorly. I went with cassettes cause they were so much more portable, I could play them on my TI-99/4a data recorder, and they didn't get damaged too much if I didn't put them back in their cases.
But I was missing something actually. Amazingly enough vinyl is actually a really good standard. Part of my prejustice was the fact that I was a kid and was listening to the stuff on my folks record player, some wooden cabinate deal with cheepo tv tweaters, stereo that was screwy from date of purchace, and an 8track that the program button was screwy. And plus the fact that all the records I had at the time were hand me downs from family members, played to death.
When CDs came out, I was instently impressed... vast sound improvement vs cassettes I noticed right off the bat, no background hiss, and vs the vinyl players *I've experenced* no background 60 cycle hum. So I went for one of those, I was older and could afford one, at first a simple boom box, eventualy a dedicate amp and a multi-disk changer with remote, and then I had something resembling a servicable sound system.
While I'm not a true audiophile, there are those who believe that vinyl is a superior standard to CD. Recent experiments have show me personaly that it's good, it's pretty damn good. If you are lucky enough to have a decent turntable, with a decent cartrage, a new needle, proper alignment, and kick ass wires that don't pickup that annoying 60 cycle hum that most turn tables seem to be a victim of, they sound great, in fact, they do kick ass. Wether or not they have a more natural sound due to the fact that they are analog and have more descrete values between their max and minium range, or if the better cartrage / styluses pickup more noise giving it a warmer feel rather then accurate, I don't know.
Before I get too off the mark, it's reasonable to believe that an analog vinyl record can more accuratly produce natural sounds due to it's analog nature, that whole issue with descrete values in the human percieved range is easy enough to believe. I've never seen it personaly, but i'm willing to believe this. However, in order to achive maxium effect, you need a virgin pressing, virgin record, kick ass turn table, etc... etc... and ya know... I am not going to spend that sorta money on a sound system, nor am I going to spend hours tweeking with my stylus alignment. Forget that. CDs sound pretty damn good, mp3s at a high enough bitrate are adquate for portable audio. Even an old goodwill CD-rom drive will proved *great* audio at sub $20.00.
So to answer your question, no you are not weird like that. While some will argue that the vinyl standard is superior in quality, you can't argue about the entry level cost of CD vs vinyl. CD provides damn good sound for few bucks. CDs are damn cheep to produce dispite the phohographs simple technology to extract sounds from a disk.
But now we are getting stanards for digital audio that more then double the sample rate and 33% the bit width... it would be interesting to see how phonophiles feel about sound quality vs ye old snap crackle hiss humm.
Ya know I don't know of the details my self, but in short you are correct. For those of us with vintage amplifiers, we have phono jacks in order to amplify the input we get from the magnetic turntable cartrage. I would *think* phono level output is similar to microphone in some aspect, but would need to research the issue.
{side note, i've heard reference to 1v line level, and reference to the empeg using either 1v for stereo output, and 4v for quad output, but really don't have any clue}
There are exceptions to this rule, many turntables made now a days offer line level output by default, bassicly assuming that your recently purchaced amp doesn't have phono level inputs, which is a safe bet. Audio technica is among one company who produdes such an animal.
As far as getting a good phono preamp, well I don't know what's good to be honest. I'm just using mine on my "made in the 80's when quality started to decline" amp.
In theory radioshack (I refer to them only cause they did support vinyl till like last year or so) offered a serviceable pre-amp for like the $20 range to give you some idea about the entry level costs if you have an existing traditional turn table.
People who think pedos are going wild online are a bit mistaken. Sure there are some but there are a lot more that are out there in real life. It'd be a lot easier to grab some brat off the street or playground than to arrange to meet them off the Net.
I'm unsure about the age of the child involved, though I suspect between 13-16 at the time, but this a good example about the net fear factor. So could fit into your horny teenager theory, but ya know... taking a minor across national borders under the parent's radar... that's a touch sick.
While I agree with you, cases like this are rare, and ya it's probally easier to kidnap someone off the street. And hell, if you log your chats, then oh yea, great paper trail.... except...
this is speculation mind you... I noticed that in the video version I saw, the noises were that of "msn chat", a chat system that pretty much requires that you use the web based chat, and has no option to save chats. "MSN Messanger" is also the same way, by default it doesn't save chats. Use of these chat systems wouldn't create a decent paper trail at all, unfortunatly...
Don't put words into someone else's mouth. Nobody claimed it "cannot happen".
Yes but it was implied.
Plus, it's faster and more reliable to check an algorithm for flaws if you actually have the algorithim
Yes, and it's faster and more reliable to crack an algorithm when you have it in the first place. Usually with standard based encryption, we rely on the fact that brute force techniques would take such an impractical period of time to crack that it's not worth the bother and effort.
"Security through Latency" if you want to assign a catch phrase to the idea.
Let's look at the past 10 years of home computing. The leap of the common place 386/sx 16mhz which was something I purchaced roughly 1989... vs today with the Pentium 4 3.0Ghz or Athlon 3.2ghz. That's just the leap in typical home computer hardware. Computing power is increasing, our ability to parelell process is increasing. That old law that typical cpu power increases 100% every 1.5 years, plus advances in clustering make possible to actually crack encryption schemes that normally would have taken years on machines they were invented to work with.
For this reason Security through Latency isn't a much better solution either.
Which is why as part of security mesures to prevent this from happening you need to incorperate several layers into your security system.
If a closed source one survives that long, you'll never be sure if its really safe, or just nobody tried to crack it.
Which is why you always employ sanity checks regardless wether you right open source or closed source. Like transmiting a message encrypted and seeing if you get a reaction.
Security through Obscurity should only be considered on apsect in an approach to security it self, not the end all and be all of it.
In the case of the Navajo, the language it self was just one layer. As you said, loose one fluent in Navajo to the other side and you are screwed. But it was also encrypted by symbolic logic as well, so even if you got past the fact that it was a rather obscure language... you had to dephipher it as well. What good is it going to do you if you retrive a message regarding the turtles comming to nest if you don't know what a turtle is in the first place.
"Security Through Obscurity" makes sence in for goverment level security, as far as one layer of it in order to prevent unauthorized encryption. This worked *damn well* when America decided to use Navajo during WW2.
You're not nessicarly buying into a false sence of security. OSS has the advantage of being tested in the field, this much is true.
Speaking idealy... assuming a goverment wants something secure, they want a system that the public doesn't use. This is only common sence.
While you run the risk of creating a system that does suck, you are at less of a risk cause fewer people don't know that it sucks. That's the theory anyway. And it's a hell of alot easier to sell people on this concept. It's harder to convience them that an OSS project can provide super duper security.
In the same token... windows also sucks as most of their standards are in public use as well.
Proper management and testing is the key. In practice, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Novel is considered to be quite secure cause no bugger knows anything about it.
I'm all for open source, but there are some solutions that sorta imply a closed source solution.
*ISSUES OF NATIONAL SECURITY* is one of those issues. I would NOT be offended if goverment agencies decided to use undocumented closed source protocals in order to communicate and store information. In fact, I'm all for that. Hell if they want to write their propriority software in ADA, more power too them.
Typicaly speaking, goverment encryption systems should be protected from public use, and not be released under open source.
You can bring your baby or toddler to work, so long as it can talk, feed itself and stick effortlessly to the ceiling like a spider."
In other news, Safeco has been reported to have replaced all their acustic cieling material with velco in order that their company wide pre-toddler policy can be implemented. In order to prevent possible liability, they had to replace their traditional furnature with what can only be described as a rubber room.
When asked about the subject, representatives of Safeco were unavailable for comment, but issued the following statement, "we are cleaning baby vomit out of our clothing".
According to one district manager, "I can't tell if productivity is up or down, i'm stuck. Help!".
Well, IBM has demonstrated in the past a desire to use closed standards, in the hopes of getting royalties from all that use them. Microchannel is the best example. Makes a fair amount of sence from a business perspective.
Hopefuly they have learned their lesson, but it's important that OSS supporters remember who IBM is and what their agenda is, to make a profit.
I often times hear complaints about AmigaOS by todays standards, for example the lack of virtual memory. Simple responce, "the fucking thing didn't need it". Most applications were designed to operate on a 720k floppy disk, and what you couldn't do in a floppy, you could shove in a ram disk.
The Amiga was remarkable for the time period as it had "multi-media" before it was coined as a phrase. I got into it a touch late my self, I was operating a 386 along side of an amiga.
My PC was running ms-dos 4 with desqview and the amiga was well just running it's native OS. As an all purpose machine, the amiga's multi-tasking ability was far suprior to even desqview, not to speak of windows 3.1. I could access an online resource via dialup modem, and run a somewhat decent WYSISYG word processor, and run a game at the same time. Windows 3.1, forget it.. desqview, well I could but users of my BBS would notice it.
And not to speak of the fact that most monitors supported video input, both standard and chroma luma (SVHS video). People were just blown away by flicking that switch in the back and getting TV on your computer monitor... a feature that today is buggy at best.
I could live with the fact that main stream applications never came my way, nor my ability to find x-server software that wasn't cost prohibitive. What I couldn't live with was the fact the best a stock amiga offered was 8bit aga graphics, though with a few tricks could do above and beyond 256 colors, but not for a.jpg or anything other then it's own standard.
I couldn't live with the fact that trivial upgrades cost an arm and a leg, while you could use a serial mouse via 2rd party support, it was pretty cost prohibitive to get a 2nd serial card. The whole VGA monitor thing, while there were a few models that an amiga could use, it's not like your modern 15 inch would work, just doesn't sync down to that level. Now if you know where to get a replacement monitor for the amiga, let me know, mine blew up.
I think I was using mine as late as 1992 or so before I gave up and said, "it was dead jim".
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9 2157648/qid=1054714539/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-48059 13-1769756?v=glance&s=video&n=507846#product-detai ls]
George Lucus ISN'T Stephen Spielberg. Lucus is to Media what Sco is to linux. For those who can't remember, Lucusfilm sued Battlestar Galactica because of multi-points of similuarity between it and Star Wars.
But even George Lucus has a sence of humor, according to this site [http://www.nitcentral.com/askchief/ac980522.htm]
"I remember the guy who made a Star Wars parody, Hardware Wars, got a letter from Lucas' lawyers warning him about copyright infringement, and he sent them a letter saying, "your boss liked it", and he included a copy of a letter from George Lucas saying how much he liked the parody. He never heard from the lawyers again."
So, strictly speaking if the director of the orgin work likes it, it really helps.
[why sue Galactica and not hardware wars, this is beyond me, oh perhaps because lucus wanted the money, and new hardware wars made no money]
While you are correct, the artical seemed to emply that Mr. Spielberg liked the derived work planed to see it on opening night.
However, I don't know other copyright holders that may have an interest in this work.
According to [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/07
Raiders of the Lost Arc is chapter 24 in the complete adventures of Indiana Jones. So there might be an author that still holds a copyright somewhere, but who knows.
I would suspect that that Spielberg would be willing to atleast co-operate with the kids if they decided to release this either on P2P systems, TV, or video, at least give them a whos who to contact.
I am not a Raders of the Lost Arc geek... perhaps someone who knows more about the specifics can shed some light on the details.
When I was a kid, I had vinyl, we're talking the sub 7year old kid had to move cross country. At the time, had no tape player, and the 8-track player was screwy, so at the time vinyl for me, a kid, was the only choice.
:P ]
Well.. moving cross country the heat of the u-hall got to the vinyl and warped the vast majority of it. Most sad as I had a copy of the Grease sound track that I loved.
Now, I honestly don't know how CDs would stack up to that sorta enviroment, summer time cross country move in a tin box. it would be interesting to see actually. But it would seem to me assuming you have decent CD cases that they are either less likely to experence this issue, or more likely to become warped but in a consistent way. I have tested a few CD-Rs on top of the roof and left them direct sunlight for 3 months with no ill effects, but i'll have reproduce mid-western heat on a tin roof to make fair contrast.
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Regarding skippage, my background is biased. I took poor care of the records I had as a kid, they skipped often. I do not have that same issue with CDs one the whole, but this depends on the player. I have a JVC multi disk player going on probally 10 or 15 years old now, multi disk model. It was a scratch and dent deal, friend didn't want to pay to get it repared so I picked it up for free, don't ask me how it worked out, I was expecting to pay the diagnostic fee and get a parts list of what it needed, but no fee and the parts came with it, go figure. I have few problems with skips due to normal wear. I can't say it's never skipped, but when it has, i've used windex on the CD and that cleared the issue right up. Your milage will vary.
[on a side note, was dating a lass who used a boom box with a vertical mount CD player. Skipped like mad. She never noticed it though, guess CD skips are less garish then vinyl ones
Dispite it's age, it never ever had any issues reading any CD-r I tossed at it (don't know about cd-rw).
I don't have a fair contrast for a turntable, haven't owned one for as long as a CD player, but i'm willing to believe that turntables typicaly would outlast most consumer grade CD players. This $4.00 one I picked up at a used shop is circa 1979 and is great.
When we go and pay our $7.00 for slightly less then 2hrs of entertainment, less we forget the fact that the fact that amature fan spinoffs done by essentually students can provide entertainment. While they can't nessicarly match the production quality of hollywood's almost endless budget, there is alot more to a media then it's production value, content is a factor too.
Starship Exeter [www.starshipexeter.com] is one example of fan based work. Based on classic star trek, their one release actually has a somewhat decent story as well as capturing that late 60's sci-fi theme while by todays standards is considered most cheezy. If you can get over the wind in the boom low quality film and shacky camera man, it's a worth see.
Now, i'm not nessicarly going to say that this is going to be any good... but it should prove to be entertaining at the very least. More so then alot of things targeted tward the typcial 12 year old. I intend to watch it, if for nothing else but to use as an example, "Look at what these 12 year olds did... hollywood you have no excuse".
We would like to give you a free edition of the newspaper
no thanks, get a free one online please remove me from your list
We would like to replace your auto glass on your windshild
No thanks, I down own a car. Please remove me from your list.
We would like to replace your existing windows with vinyl ones
No thanks I prefer glass. Please remove me from your list.
But vinyl windows make your home look pretty
I don't own a home. Please remove me from your list.
We notice that you recently refinanced your home
I don't own home. Please remove me from your list
We are accepting donations for this organization household items
This is isn't a house, it's a tiki hut. Please remove me from your list.
We would like to save you on auto insurance
Don't own a car. Please remove me from your list
We are accepting donations for this worthy cause
I don't donate over the phone [isolated cases they get my moolah already] Please remove me from your list
We want to offer you a free home security system
Don't own a home, please remove me from the list
But we can install it in your apartment
no you can't, I won't let you please remove me from your list
But there have been alot of break ins in your area, you need one
Yes, and those breakins those people who purchaced your system
But why would anyone turn down our free home security system
Because some people actually make their purchacing choices based on product research rather then impulse buying. Accepting your free product locks the person into a service contract and no one with one gram of sence would do that without doing any form of research. Additional, i'm not going to give license to some guy who I don't know to drill holes in my walls without there being a legit contract for the install. If I choose your service, and you guys fuck up, I want you to pay to have it fixed. You are not qualified to answer any logical question because the company you work for doesn't even give you paperwork or a model number of what you are selling. Your sales staff who will knock on my door are not welcome, I don't want to speak to them. Please remove me from your list, I have not accepted your free product for 7 years. Please give up and find someone else to bug
I would THINK after repeated failures they would take the hint and actually remove me from the list. I'm not profitable to telemarketers, I don't buy crap sold to me over the phone.
However, the tax rate hasn't changed since 1991, and the more fuel-efficient cars on the highways are sucking down far less fuel. The result, according to Whitty, is that tax income hasn't been able to keep pace with inflation, or with the need for additional road repairs due to increased traffic.
I know of a vast number of cars produced in the 1970's that get 30+mpg. Notable exceptions are big ass cars, lots of steel, comfortable, and generally happy.
While we have made a marginal improvement in fuel efficency, it's not really so great a percent. a 1972 ford LTD is going to get 12mpg, based on figures i've observed at ford, their big ass trucks can get as high as 14mph mpg. And the 1990 mercury cougar coup with the 5.0L engine gets about 14mph.
Where a 76 corolla is going to get 30-40mph depending on the fuel you put in it and engine condition (higher numbers due to lack of catalatic converter). A 1986 toyota corolla is going to get about 30-40 mpg, and a 1996 toyota corolla is going to get 30-40. I'm pulling these figures out of my ass, but they are reasonable. A corolla is going to have a sub 2.0l engine, and weighs in less then let's say a 70's ford LTD or a 70's Dodge Crystler Mercury Lincon. It's going to burn less fuel.
I would say fuel consumption is more a fuction of weight and engine size then it is on modern improvements on the power plant.
Gas tax based on consumption makes sence, and it works. Want to cheat the system, get a smaller car. Problem solved. Want funds to go to the right districts, put sensors on the roads. What to drive a big ass SUV on the road... well pay more tax you bastard!
Such a remarkably simple system.
But remember kids, killing nazi's is limited to castle wolfenstein. The same free speech rights that protect your authortity figure slauter protect neo-nazies too.
CDR with added ...... noize... won't satisfy "vinyl psuddo-elitists"
Don't get me wrong, there are vinyl elitists who actually do hear a diffrence above and beyond the flaws. Quite a few of them. If I must put a term to it it would be habituation of the flaws, and when they are missing people feel as if there is something missing and they can't put their finger on it. Also another aspect about being human is a study of how the brain processes sound information. It's not like we don't have the equipment in our bodies to process this information, just the brain tends to fill in the empty spaces as part of our perception, and we have to account for most of the stimili we are exposed to is filtered out.
but if you are hearing 60 cycle humms while listening to vinyl, either it was put there by the person who created the music, or something is grounded when it shouldn't be.
I've heard that theory too, groud loops.
Actually I recently invested in a turntable that doesn't suffer from the same flaw. It is a Realistic Lab-400, from what I understand it was considered top of the line in 1978/1979 when radioshack actually sold really decent audio equipment. For me it was a $4.00 investment in the turntable, $20.00 investment in the stylus. The nice thing about vinyl not being the norm anymore is the fact that you tend to see pretty good turn tables at goodwill.
In theory one needs to ground the turnturn table to prevent interfearance from local magnetic sources, but at the same time, one needs to prevent ground loops. This is also another part of the vinyl experence.
In the case of the 60cycle hum I typicaly hear... I feel this is direct interfearance caused by power cord to the turn table being picked up by the magnetic cartrage, rather then a ground loop. While i'm not a trained audiophile, I tend to notice among many turn tables hearing the noise of it powering up.
i don't think digital audio will replace analog audio, or vice versa.
Well that's the thing... i hope it doesn't. I prefer CD for a number of reasons, and prefer OGG and Mp3 as well. But part of the hip aspect to vinyl is the really low level of technology required for playback. The highest tech piece of my turn table is the magnetic cartrage, but edison's invention in the first place only required a horn atached to a needle.
Quantium actually took this approach I believe with their bigfoot series of drives (aka the slowfoot). Though it wasn't a full hight 5.25 inch drive... but it was an early on the market 8gig drive roughly 1/3 hight. Not too speddy, but pretty reliable and can take much in the way of impact and still fuction.
I know compaq used that in one of their computers. I can't remember the designation but it was an odd duck, black short desktop with speakers designed for multi-media on board amp but slow cpu and only 1 8 bit isa slot, and even that wasn't standard hight.
But yea... for mp3s and movies in a varity of formatats, i'd seriously consider a 5.25 inch full hight if it got me above and beyond 80gigs cheeply.
I mean seriously, how many loved classic epic films have the budget to actually get things done that the fan base did ask for, though it be 20 years ago. This is the aspect I think is wonderful about Mr. Lucus actually doing ep 1, 2, and 3. I think it's great. How many of us waited after return of the Jedi for that exclusive next star wars film?
But we forget the fact that it's a prequil... we already know the ending, so your average watcher isn't going to enjoy it all that much. What we are paying to see... if your me anyway... is the character development that builds up to "luke I am your father, i'm a skilly little white guy, i'm not james earl jones".
Is George Lucus a money grubbing bastard, fuck yea! Never been any question on this. That whole ban the VCR movement is proof of this.
Do I plan to see Episode III... yea, but not at prime time rates, or perhaps on bittorrent. I enjoyed a new hope, empire strikes back, and return of the jedi. I don't plan to be first in line, I don't plan to trade a laptop for tickets as seen with episode 1. I won't drive up to canada to see it first.
Am I going to pay moolah to see the cast make the film in real time? FUCK NO! Ok, that's pushing your luck. Franky this level of starwars geekdome frightens the hell out of me. No freaking way. A real director would use such a promotion as a teaser, not as a way exploit a stupid public. I have little respect for Lucus as a person, and I just lost some serious points.
Do I expect people to record this webcam and post it on the net, FUCK YEA! Waste of bandwidth if you ask me, but hey, there is a demand for this, a demand for watching Skywalker scratch his butt.
For those users who are interested in star wars web cam, might I reccomend the star wars christmas special and varity show... with special guest.. Jefferson Airplane (correct me on this if it was Starship at this point). I had this misfortunate of seeing this as an adult, and I think I know why I can't remember this crap, I think even as a 6/7 year old child I find it insulting to my inteligence.
This is a bit off the topic... but only a touch.
Basicly I was getting annoyed at some audiophile dj friends of mine. Ones who will quote stats and specifics yet not really give you a decent answer to the question, "does this sound good".
What I did was I was demonstrating turn table vs CD. I actually had a few things that were made most recently, like pearl jam for example. What I did was I played the CD, and when I told them I was playing the vinyl, I secretly replaced the sound they usually hear with literaly what I filtered out of an entirely diffrent album. I call the track crack pop fizzle and hum.
And sure enough... I was told that the second play, with the added snap pop crackle and 60 cycle hum was indeed had a warmer feel to it, and was the superior recording.
Needless to say after revieling to them that it was a wave file with just vinyl noise, otherwise it was the same thing.
While I appricate a good audio file who can put terms too annoying aspects of my sound setup that I can't place my finger on... I have little tolerance for idiots who are making a judgement based on feeling. I'll be the first to agree that a CD's clean sound may sound artifical to ears who were raised listening to vinyl. So the solution for this market is clear, create a turntable noise generator and those few vinyl psuddo-elitists will be happy.
This is not to say that there are not people out there who trully have an ear to pickup the diffrences between analog and something sampled 44.1kHz. But should you be bothered with such folk, do your own blind test and see what happens.
Luckily in these cases there was usually some sort of years-differential clause in the law that held so it was just a hassle for the guys. I do find it odd that a 16yo can consent to having sex with an 18yo but not a 28yo. Isn't consent the same either way? Just seems wacky to me.
Well, it's hard to say where a good cut off age is. I can't think of the last time I considered sex with a 20 year old let alone anyone younger. I guess living in the states alters your perceptions somewhat, not seeing anyone under 21 in a bar and all. But generally speaking sub 18 kida and an adult a decade their elder is usually considered to be in bad taste. I imagine that one aspect of such laws is in the event that you have a complaint about a authority figure presuring a sub 18 year old into sex.. then they actually have a case. If no one complains about it, well that's that. Where I live there is a major paranoia about teacher's having sex with students. To be honest, I don't jive with that. One most recent case, there was a rumor that the boy pretty much suduced a 28 year old teacher for the explisit purposes of extorting money out of the school system... to be honest I don't know who's more fucked up, the teacher going after junior highschool kids, or the boy trying to get money this way.
But I honestly don't know of a good age of concent to be honest. I'll fully agree an absolute 18yo cut of limit is bad news. It just serves to make people criminals for dating at that age, unless you are born on the same day, someone is going to be the younger.
I think in the case I refered to, I think the girl was sub 16 at the time she was left the country.
A lot of chat programs auto-log.
Well, this is true, though very much good luck with MSN service. From my understanding they don't typicaly log on the server side, and it's not like any of the typical users log either. While you can get something like MIRC to work with MSN chat, it being loosly based on the IRC protocal, it's not terribaly practical to use as a client, esp with it's lack of unicode support. I guess I do managage a room on there, and I do run a stats program, so I do log for about 72 hours or so.
The point of this post? Not really any, just wanted to let you know what this software might be used for
Chances are, the software would be used by people who own vinyl, but don't want to deal with the fact that the media is bulky, the player is bulky, and the simple mater of the media degrading with each use. Not to speak of those who own vinyl who would enjoy getting it on CD to play in their car, rather like we did back in the 1980's with cassettes in the car.
As far as rare stuff... chances are it's ok with the artist, but it's best to ask first. Usually if there is no more comercial value in pressing new copies, they usually are most hip to the idea, but often require you put their contact info in the file tags.
Is some moderator on an ego trip or what?
/ tt_str8-1 50.asp .... would be informative my self, given the nature of the software product is vinyl ripping, why ever both ripping if you have a budget for a digital turn table. Hell, some of these pro units sample at 96kHz at 24bit though I'm too lazy to see the specs on these units this billy person reccomended.
I agree... I mean the thread concept is a software application to record vinyl. I would *think* that a reference to the following links...
http://www.ttx1.com/ stanton str8-150
http://www.stantonmagnetics.com/alpha44
And to respond to the question why would anyone bother play analog, to digital, only to be converted back to analog... one common issue with turn tables it the fact that the phono level output, even on some pro units, is so low that you get hum hiss and distortion from the very equipment you use to produce sound sound. Also the simple fact of it is many PA systems are going digital for this reason. It makes sence as CD a popular standard is digital, why screw around with conversion.
Now, doesn't do me much good as pro units are damn costly, i'll stick with my analog player. I'm not trying to impress anyone, just want to hear the music.
Vinyl is highly reccomended if you have kids as far as demonstrating how sound works. You really don't get that positive feedback system, nor can you use a catas needle in a styrophome mug to demonstrate the whole gramaphone concept. Ok, this will definatly cause your record to degrade.
Dispite the fact that I was born in the 70s... I only recently gained an apprication for vinyl. As a kid, when I bought records, it was cause I didn't have a tape player, and I treeted my vinyl poorly. I went with cassettes cause they were so much more portable, I could play them on my TI-99/4a data recorder, and they didn't get damaged too much if I didn't put them back in their cases.
But I was missing something actually. Amazingly enough vinyl is actually a really good standard. Part of my prejustice was the fact that I was a kid and was listening to the stuff on my folks record player, some wooden cabinate deal with cheepo tv tweaters, stereo that was screwy from date of purchace, and an 8track that the program button was screwy. And plus the fact that all the records I had at the time were hand me downs from family members, played to death.
When CDs came out, I was instently impressed... vast sound improvement vs cassettes I noticed right off the bat, no background hiss, and vs the vinyl players *I've experenced* no background 60 cycle hum. So I went for one of those, I was older and could afford one, at first a simple boom box, eventualy a dedicate amp and a multi-disk changer with remote, and then I had something resembling a servicable sound system.
While I'm not a true audiophile, there are those who believe that vinyl is a superior standard to CD. Recent experiments have show me personaly that it's good, it's pretty damn good. If you are lucky enough to have a decent turntable, with a decent cartrage, a new needle, proper alignment, and kick ass wires that don't pickup that annoying 60 cycle hum that most turn tables seem to be a victim of, they sound great, in fact, they do kick ass. Wether or not they have a more natural sound due to the fact that they are analog and have more descrete values between their max and minium range, or if the better cartrage / styluses pickup more noise giving it a warmer feel rather then accurate, I don't know.
Before I get too off the mark, it's reasonable to believe that an analog vinyl record can more accuratly produce natural sounds due to it's analog nature, that whole issue with descrete values in the human percieved range is easy enough to believe. I've never seen it personaly, but i'm willing to believe this. However, in order to achive maxium effect, you need a virgin pressing, virgin record, kick ass turn table, etc... etc... and ya know... I am not going to spend that sorta money on a sound system, nor am I going to spend hours tweeking with my stylus alignment. Forget that. CDs sound pretty damn good, mp3s at a high enough bitrate are adquate for portable audio. Even an old goodwill CD-rom drive will proved *great* audio at sub $20.00.
So to answer your question, no you are not weird like that. While some will argue that the vinyl standard is superior in quality, you can't argue about the entry level cost of CD vs vinyl. CD provides damn good sound for few bucks. CDs are damn cheep to produce dispite the phohographs simple technology to extract sounds from a disk.
But now we are getting stanards for digital audio that more then double the sample rate and 33% the bit width... it would be interesting to see how phonophiles feel about sound quality vs ye old snap crackle hiss humm.
Ya know I don't know of the details my self, but in short you are correct. For those of us with vintage amplifiers, we have phono jacks in order to amplify the input we get from the magnetic turntable cartrage. I would *think* phono level output is similar to microphone in some aspect, but would need to research the issue.
{side note, i've heard reference to 1v line level, and reference to the empeg using either 1v for stereo output, and 4v for quad output, but really don't have any clue}
There are exceptions to this rule, many turntables made now a days offer line level output by default, bassicly assuming that your recently purchaced amp doesn't have phono level inputs, which is a safe bet. Audio technica is among one company who produdes such an animal.
As far as getting a good phono preamp, well I don't know what's good to be honest. I'm just using mine on my "made in the 80's when quality started to decline" amp.
In theory radioshack (I refer to them only cause they did support vinyl till like last year or so) offered a serviceable pre-amp for like the $20 range to give you some idea about the entry level costs if you have an existing traditional turn table.
People who think pedos are going wild online are a bit mistaken. Sure there are some but there are a lot more that are out there in real life. It'd be a lot easier to grab some brat off the street or playground than to arrange to meet them off the Net.
u rs /main323159.shtml]
There was an issue like this on 60 minutes.
[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/04/48ho
I'm unsure about the age of the child involved, though I suspect between 13-16 at the time, but this a good example about the net fear factor. So could fit into your horny teenager theory, but ya know... taking a minor across national borders under the parent's radar... that's a touch sick.
While I agree with you, cases like this are rare, and ya it's probally easier to kidnap someone off the street. And hell, if you log your chats, then oh yea, great paper trail.... except...
this is speculation mind you... I noticed that in the video version I saw, the noises were that of "msn chat", a chat system that pretty much requires that you use the web based chat, and has no option to save chats. "MSN Messanger" is also the same way, by default it doesn't save chats. Use of these chat systems wouldn't create a decent paper trail at all, unfortunatly...
I used compu$erve's cb simulator (aka chat) back in 1982, times were diffrent then. The men were men. The women were men too.
So yea... it is indeed informative!
Don't put words into someone else's mouth. Nobody claimed it "cannot happen".
Yes but it was implied.
Plus, it's faster and more reliable to check an algorithm for flaws if you actually have the algorithim
Yes, and it's faster and more reliable to crack an algorithm when you have it in the first place. Usually with standard based encryption, we rely on the fact that brute force techniques would take such an impractical period of time to crack that it's not worth the bother and effort.
"Security through Latency" if you want to assign a catch phrase to the idea.
Let's look at the past 10 years of home computing. The leap of the common place 386/sx 16mhz which was something I purchaced roughly 1989... vs today with the Pentium 4 3.0Ghz or Athlon 3.2ghz. That's just the leap in typical home computer hardware. Computing power is increasing, our ability to parelell process is increasing. That old law that typical cpu power increases 100% every 1.5 years, plus advances in clustering make possible to actually crack encryption schemes that normally would have taken years on machines they were invented to work with.
For this reason Security through Latency isn't a much better solution either.
Which is why as part of security mesures to prevent this from happening you need to incorperate several layers into your security system.
If a closed source one survives that long, you'll never be sure if its really safe, or just nobody tried to crack it.
Which is why you always employ sanity checks regardless wether you right open source or closed source. Like transmiting a message encrypted and seeing if you get a reaction.
Security through Obscurity should only be considered on apsect in an approach to security it self, not the end all and be all of it.
In the case of the Navajo, the language it self was just one layer. As you said, loose one fluent in Navajo to the other side and you are screwed. But it was also encrypted by symbolic logic as well, so even if you got past the fact that it was a rather obscure language... you had to dephipher it as well. What good is it going to do you if you retrive a message regarding the turtles comming to nest if you don't know what a turtle is in the first place.
"Security Through Obscurity" makes sence in for goverment level security, as far as one layer of it in order to prevent unauthorized encryption. This worked *damn well* when America decided to use Navajo during WW2.
You're not nessicarly buying into a false sence of security. OSS has the advantage of being tested in the field, this much is true.
Speaking idealy... assuming a goverment wants something secure, they want a system that the public doesn't use. This is only common sence.
While you run the risk of creating a system that does suck, you are at less of a risk cause fewer people don't know that it sucks. That's the theory anyway. And it's a hell of alot easier to sell people on this concept. It's harder to convience them that an OSS project can provide super duper security.
In the same token... windows also sucks as most of their standards are in public use as well.
Proper management and testing is the key. In practice, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Novel is considered to be quite secure cause no bugger knows anything about it.
I'm all for open source, but there are some solutions that sorta imply a closed source solution.
*ISSUES OF NATIONAL SECURITY* is one of those issues. I would NOT be offended if goverment agencies decided to use undocumented closed source protocals in order to communicate and store information. In fact, I'm all for that. Hell if they want to write their propriority software in ADA, more power too them.
Typicaly speaking, goverment encryption systems should be protected from public use, and not be released under open source.
You can bring your baby or toddler to work, so long as it can talk, feed itself and stick effortlessly to the ceiling like a spider."
In other news, Safeco has been reported to have replaced all their acustic cieling material with velco in order that their company wide pre-toddler policy can be implemented. In order to prevent possible liability, they had to replace their traditional furnature with what can only be described as a rubber room.
When asked about the subject, representatives of Safeco were unavailable for comment, but issued the following statement, "we are cleaning baby vomit out of our clothing".
According to one district manager, "I can't tell if productivity is up or down, i'm stuck. Help!".
Well, IBM has demonstrated in the past a desire to use closed standards, in the hopes of getting royalties from all that use them. Microchannel is the best example. Makes a fair amount of sence from a business perspective.
Hopefuly they have learned their lesson, but it's important that OSS supporters remember who IBM is and what their agenda is, to make a profit.
Agreed!
.jpg or anything other then it's own standard.
I often times hear complaints about AmigaOS by todays standards, for example the lack of virtual memory. Simple responce, "the fucking thing didn't need it". Most applications were designed to operate on a 720k floppy disk, and what you couldn't do in a floppy, you could shove in a ram disk.
The Amiga was remarkable for the time period as it had "multi-media" before it was coined as a phrase. I got into it a touch late my self, I was operating a 386 along side of an amiga.
My PC was running ms-dos 4 with desqview and the amiga was well just running it's native OS. As an all purpose machine, the amiga's multi-tasking ability was far suprior to even desqview, not to speak of windows 3.1. I could access an online resource via dialup modem, and run a somewhat decent WYSISYG word processor, and run a game at the same time. Windows 3.1, forget it.. desqview, well I could but users of my BBS would notice it.
And not to speak of the fact that most monitors supported video input, both standard and chroma luma (SVHS video). People were just blown away by flicking that switch in the back and getting TV on your computer monitor... a feature that today is buggy at best.
I could live with the fact that main stream applications never came my way, nor my ability to find x-server software that wasn't cost prohibitive. What I couldn't live with was the fact the best a stock amiga offered was 8bit aga graphics, though with a few tricks could do above and beyond 256 colors, but not for a
I couldn't live with the fact that trivial upgrades cost an arm and a leg, while you could use a serial mouse via 2rd party support, it was pretty cost prohibitive to get a 2nd serial card. The whole VGA monitor thing, while there were a few models that an amiga could use, it's not like your modern 15 inch would work, just doesn't sync down to that level. Now if you know where to get a replacement monitor for the amiga, let me know, mine blew up.
I think I was using mine as late as 1992 or so before I gave up and said, "it was dead jim".