Actually, I (American) think the international quality of the web is great. I love to read news sites from other countries, especially Japan (big Godzilla fan).
Because of this, I am well aware of the Australian wild fires and things like Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad going round and round with Australia's Prime Minister John Howard over Howard wanting to play "MiniMe" to Bush. Also, while CNN portrays the two Koreas as readying for another Korean War, they have actually been holding many reunification talks, complete with plans for running roads through the demilitarized zone and reuniting families.
The September 11th attacks got me in the habit of watching the news. Problem is, as I quickly discovered, news sources like CNN are biased, slant stories to the point of omitting parts that don't agree with their bias, and are woefully inadequate in checking their facts (they actually reported one thing about someone in show-biz based on what their home-page said). Going to other countries' web news sites helps me filter out the bias, round out the facts, and hear stories that our media would never tell.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity." Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
Reality is stranger than fiction. From the Millennium Project goals page (http://research.microsoft.com/research/sn/Millenn ium/mgoals.html):
"Worldwide scalability. Logically there should be only one system..."
"New machines, network links, and resources should be automatically assimilated."
That gives us Microsoft's next generation OS for a new Millennium: a worldwide distributed network OS automatically assimilating machines.
Now reread the EULA for Windows XP Service Pack 1. You know, the part where Microsoft can install anything it wants to on your machine. Remember what Brilliant pulled with its sneaky distributed network.
The "One OS to rule them all" isn't Windows XP. But it could be Longhorn.
Shinoda: "The age of Millennium." Io: "What does that mean?" Shinoda: "A thousand year kingdom. It wants to create a home for itself. There is one flaw in its plan: Godzilla." "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
> Okay/. its time to be proactive.. > > How? If Hilary Rosen thinks its okay to tax us lets tax her > out of buiness!!!
Ms. Rosen is only the head of a lobbying group for the big record labels. They are who you need to stop. Try these ideas:
1) Complete boycott of RIAA member labels. Don't "pirate" their music, don't buy their stuff, don't give them a dime, unless you can't help it (using CDRs and ISPs). At the same time, support enthusiastically indie labels and indie artists.
2) Tell your friends, family, coworkers, etc., what is going on with the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, etc., and explain it in ways that they understand. Write letters to the editor and press releases to newspapers not owned by major media conglomerates. Get ordinary people informed, and you can have a grass roots movement going.
3) Write you congresscritters and make it clear that you expect them to represent the people of your state or district, not represent Disney. Force this as a 2004 campaign issue.
4) If you are a Linux or *BSD programmer, get with your fellows and follow Apple's lead in democratizing the tools of the media industries by writing/porting versions for your favorite OS.
> HOw? Civli disobedience..fill her snail mail address with > everything from p2p sites fill her real email with teh > same stuff.. make it so hard for her to be online and the > rest of RIAA employees that they give up the freakign > fight!
That is not civil disobedience, that is harrassment. It can still land you in jail, but it will not achieve your aims peacefully.
> Time to kick on RIAA's own door!
Civil disobedience is more like having a hunger strike in front of the RIAA's door.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity." Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
> That's the thing, they aren't going to change. The > industry will eventually lose the support of the big labels > because they'll go bankrupt.
The big labels are the industry. When they go, their bad old industry and its ways of doing things will go with them. But the music will live on...
> to find music because no labels will be around to push > new music to radio stations, mtv, etc.
That is all the old way of doing business, the dinosaur going extinct because he forgot to grow feathers and take flying lessons. The Internet is a big part of the future of music. P2P and internet radio (once the current fee system under the RIAA is tossed) will take over the promotion, and dramatically reduce the cost. New technology is already making inexpensive (relatively speaking) and easy to use basement studios a reality. The future will put the artists in the drivers seat, where they belong.
> I care, just because I love music, but I don't care because > I disagree with how labels run business.
The labels came to power because they had access to technology and contacts that the artists didn't. But music wasn't always that way. Humanity has always had its shamanic drummers and religious choirs, bards and minstrels, folk singers and street performers. Music has always been a part of human expression and culture, the mirror of the human heart.
It's time to put things back the way they should be. Time for anyone with a voice (or skill with an instrument) and a will to be able to put down their virtual hat on the web, and share the music that lives in their hearts with anyone who will listen.
> Win lose situation...
Yeah, music wins, the artists win, everybody wins. Except those bad old greedy labels; they lose.
Me, I love to sing. Heck, I feel the need to right now...
Bells are ringing: Mothra, Mothra! Every heart is calling: Mothra, Mothra! Come on, Tok Wira, these sharks have gotta pay! New Kirk calling Mothra, we need you today!
> TCPA is not a tool we can control, it is a tool for > controlling US.
Remember, we are only now (according to Microsoft's plan) supposed to be hearing about something Microsoft is cooking up called Palladium. And about all we are supposed to know is that it is Windows support for the trusty, secure, feel-good TCPA thingy that's supposed to make our computers more reliable. Having a wise reporter break the story six months or so early was never Microsoft's idea.
Actually, when TCPA was formed, Microsoft was probably very careful to only talk in general terms of security and reliability. The other members probably didn't have much in the way of evil intentions; having more reliable PCs from the hardware up would have sounded good to them.
Only Microsoft would have known of its plans at that point, well them and anyone who did any looking into their research into their next generation OS: Millennium (http://research.microsoft.com/research/sn/Millenn ium/mgoals.html). Millennium is a Microsoft Research project from the late 1990's. It was a platform independent (ran on a JVM named "Borg"), distributed network OS that would be worldwide, scalable, and secure.
It is in the Millennium documentation that we find such phrases "trust" and "trust domains". It is in Millennium, not Bill's memo, that Palladium and "trustworthy computing" find their root. TCPA creates the ideal platform for Millennium, but.Net, the modern replacement for the Borg JVM, will allow Millennium to run on top of Linux and OS X, giving Microsoft that 100% monopoly they crave. Have we forgotten "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" so quickly?
Science fiction and fantasy fans will enjoy these Millennium quotes (from the url above):
"New machines, network links, and resources should be automatically assimilated."
"Worldwide scalability. Logically there should be only one system..." (To rule them all?;)
Also, serious mention needs to be made to the Japanese version of "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Godzilla vs. Microsoft) with its many references to "controlling systems all over the world", the Millennium alien Embracing and Extending Godzilla (and dying in the attempt), cutting off of oxygen supplies, and those MAME servers displaying the "Millennium" boot screen when completely taken over by the alien. Chances are, they were Compaq servers running "My Custom OS" (Godzilla's name for Linux). Are we paying attention here, Mono?
> The only way to deal with it is to get rid of it.
The hardware part of TCPA may or may not have benign uses. As for any of the Millennium components:.Net, Palladium, Yukon, etc., Godzilla's own advice is to stay far away lest ye get stomped. One thing is very certain: without some kind of governmental backing, the day Millennium wakes up in the real world is the day Microsoft dies, either due to market stompage, or literal thermonuclear heartburn.
Only deities get thousand year kingdoms, as the Third Reich found out the hard way. When mere mortals try to claim them, they get burned big time. This is the millennium of Godzilla, Dreaded God of the Atom, not Microsoft, dreaded wanna-be god of the BSOD.
Shinoda: "The age of Millennium." Io: "What does that mean?" Shinoda: "A thousand year kingdom. It wants to create a home for itself. There is one flaw in its plan: Godzilla." "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
> So you really have no idea if that improved the quality of > employees?
It isn't about the quality of employees. It's about this mountain of resumes from desparate people that has to be trimmed down to a handful to be interviewed. The role of HR at this stage in the hiring process is to eliminate all but that handful.
Take a look at the IT job market. There are tons of unemployed and underemployed workers, and very few jobs. If it trims down that mountain, companies will happily hold out for any requirement. Thus, the ideal candidate for most IT positions will possess at least a BS (if not an MS) in computer science, a half dozen certifications, ten or more years experience (in exactly what this person will be doing here), be willing to work lots of overtime, travel anywhere at a moments notice, and work for less than an H1B. Having the same hobby as the company president is a plus, otherwise the candidate should not have a life (or even require much sleep). Benefits? Having a job is benefit enough. Be quiet and remember to scrub the floor on your way to your nightly one hour break in the corporate bunk bed.
Okay, hopefully things are not that bad (though I have to wonder about those places that used to give you climbing walls with their 16 hour days and $80,000/year salaries). But it is an employer's market right now, and they can afford to be very choosy.
Oh, and in case you are curious, I have a BS and have been in the industry since 1986. I've been laid off 3 times (including in 1991, not fun), and have done 5 jobhunts. Even though things have improved a bit recently, it's still as bad a job market as I've ever seen. I'm going to wait until things get a whole lot better before I even try to improve my situation.
"All our tomorrows, Great Sun, by the Light, are very forgotten.
The Light dies. We pray and it sleeps." "Oh Peace Oh Light Return" (national song of mourning), "Gojira", 1954
> Isn't one of the best signs of good-designed software > when people do things with it that you never imagined?
So what is people doing things with your software that you announced and demoed over six months ago a sign of?
Sorry, but I had not even heard of iCommune before today, and I have no desire to use it. I will continue to wait for Apple's original, and far more elegant, implementation that will let me share music without breaking the law.
Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape." Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges. "Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000
Apple is fighting the RIAA/MPAA, only it is not dirtying itself with P2P, copyright violations, and legal mud wrestling.
Apple is fighting the RIAA/MPAA by democratizing the tools of music and movie production. This makes music and movie production outside the RIAA/MPAA possible for small indies, individual musicians, and small business studios.
The big five labels especially form a sort of cartel that has been ripping off artists and customers alike, and fixing prices. By giving that cartel competition from many small sources, Apple is weakening that cartel, draining its power. Given enough time, the cartel will collapse, and a new, better, music industry will rise in its place, with an abundance of good music, good prices, and rights for the artists.
P2P will never defeat the media sharks by itself, though it will provide promotion to indie artists. Apple is taking the high road, and solving the real problem: the RIAA/MPAA and the monopoly power their members hold over their industries.
"Mothra Leo, the fluttering of your wings is life!
Between the sky and the water,
You wake up.
A flock of moths turns him to stone.
Sleep defeats him." Japanese language "Mothra Leo", "Rebirth of Mothra"
> Ok, a company with a proprietary product creates a > license agreement that governs its interfaces with other > products. Some guy comes along and uses that interface > in a way that violates what he agreed upon, and said > company says to take his toys and go home. Yep, sounds > perfectly reasonable to me.
There is a few lessons we can all learn here. Read the license agreements (proprietary or otherwise) when using APIs and other people's programs. Follow them.
Also, do not copy features in your add on program that were announced to be coming in the main program over six months ago! You have to be innovative and stay ahead of the main program to remain useful at all. That includes rewriting and repositioning your add-on everytime the original program expands. If you don't like having to do this, you don't belong in the add-on business.
Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape." Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges. "Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000
>... what sparked this change of heart. Is the RIAA afraid > of Intel and other big companies entering the legal > battle? Do they finally realize that they could make > money by making internet specific products with these > people as allies? Have they figured out that by getting > the laws passed, the consumers out there would be made > aware of the RIAA's attempts to mess with their rights? > > I can't help but think there's a juicy story behind this > decision.
Oh, I bet it was juicy alright, as in Apple juice. And not a change of heart so much as one voice finally making itself heard. That would be the voice of Steve Jobs, the only one to run a hardware and software company, as well as a company involved in the making of CGI movies, who has also spoken against DRM in a Grammy acceptance speech. Here is a little sample of what he had to say at the 2002 Grammies:
"Apple strives to protect the rights of both intellectual property owners and consumers alike and believes there is a 'middle path' in digital music distribution which actively discourages the theft of music, while at the same time preserving consumers rights to manage and listen to their legally acquired music on whatever devices they own." Steve Jobs, 2002 Grammy Awards http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/feb/2 6grammy. html (Not in quotes on this particular page, but older stories no longer on the web attributed it to Jobs as a direct quote.)
Shortly after that speech, Gateway jumped on the same bandwagon. Boucher introduced his bill in defense of fair use rights. Where Apple leads, the industry follows.
Microsoft was the big computer industry holdout. If they could have used the Hollings bill to enshrine Palladium into law, they would have supported it (to save all that nasty antitrust bother). But the RIAA and MPAA rejected Microsoft's scheme, and there was some implication that the law would not allow Microsoft to use its DRMOS patents to turn the law into a 100% monopoly for itself. In the end, Microsoft must have decided Palladium was safer without the law, and capitulated, bringing with it the rest of the BSA.
How the heck they got the RIAA to go along with them, I don't know. It could have started with Jobs' speech. Or it could be the huge computer and consumer electronics industries that dwarf the entertainment industry. Or maybe the RIAA puts too much faith in their stupid broken disks. All I do know is that the computer industry, the consumer electronics industry, and the RIAA should be enough to persuade Hollings to drop his bill. And since Hollings has lost his Commerce chair, he doesn't have a platform from which to launch it anyway.
It is high time the computer and consumer electronics industries spoke out against this bill. Government enforced DRM threatens to destroy them. Now if they bring out DRM products, the market is free to reject them (as it rejected copy protection before), and companies will be free to drop unprofitable DRM products. Of course, those companies (Apple) wise enough to avoid making DRM stuff in the first place, will find themselves profitting from the refugees fleeing Palladium.
"Mothra's attack is working." Shouta, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
> Yeah and graffitiing a mll doesn't stop it selling that day > whereas deleting a site and putting 'I was ere 9T9' on the > root page could lose them all their revenue until the > problem is detected. So whatever.
That is more like breaking into a store and beating all the cash registers to a plastic pulp with a sledge hammer. The crime is still vandalism (with breaking and entering).
And this is still not terrorism, by any stretch of the imagination. Not that I think disappearing without trial is any kind of appropriate punishment for terrorism, either. Scrupulously fair trials and flinging of the book are so much more satisfying, give great closure, and neatly avoid our sinking to their level of inhumanity.
Movie (December 1998): "The great devil will come from the sky!" Video Subtitle (Summer 1999): "The King of Terror is coming!" Moll, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
> Governments and politicians have proven to be quite > ineffective (what did the "Monopoly" status get us?), so > we need to react as consumers, and we need to STOP > BUYING MICROSOFT PRODUCTS!.
Don't just stop buying Microsoft products. Don't react, act! Support Microsoft's competitors! Switch to Apple, Linux, *BSD, whoever fills your needs. Grab an alternative office suite, an alternative browser.
Don't just "consume" (and don't mess with warez), be an active supporter. If it is a proprietary product, pay cold hard cash (and they would probably appreciate bug reports and some kind words if you have the time). If it is an open source project, support it as best you can, whether that is developing, volunteering for documentation of graphics work, donating a pizza, or sending in bug reports, suggestions, and honest positive feedback and encouragement. Don't forget to tell your friends if you found something you like.
Also, spread the word that alternatives exist. There are lots of companies on the fence now over Licensing 6. Help them find what they need to get the job done and get Microsoft off their backs.
Microsoft has been allowed to derail the future of the computer industry for far too long. It's high time to chuck them and their mad dreams of Millennium. The battle for the future has begun!
To Microsoft: The crown is not yours. Footsteps drum a dirge of doom By nuclear rage!
The world's great hero, Dreaded God and Monster King, Millennium ends.
> Hummm...everyone on earth complained about IE being > fully integrated into Windows, but when Apple gets the > bright idea to do it with their next browser, people seem > to think its a good idea.
Safari is integrated into OS X the same way any well written Mac program is.
Otherwise, Safari is just a file. A special file called a package, but from the user's point of view, just a file. Try this little exercise:
Drag the Safari application to the Trash. Now double-click on the Trash, and drag Safari back out of the Trash window. Repeat as many times as necessary.
Now try this on Windows. Well, actually, you can't. But you can hide it on Windows XP (if you haven't already hidden five of your special applications). This is thanks to a settlement in an antitrust case that dragged on for years. In order to get this wonderful feature (of hiding, not uninstalling, the apps you didn't want in the first place), you have to download Service Pack 1 (it's huge), and agree that Microsoft can access all your data and install anything it wants to on your computer. Great, now you don't have to look at the IE icon any more!
If that does not make the difference obvious, consider that Microsoft stated in a court of law that their operating system would cease to function if the browser were uninstalled. Did OS X cease to function when you dragged the Safari icon to the Trash?
The Microsoft case also involved special antitrust rules that only apply to mean bullies who have a monopoly and abuse it. These rules don't apply to Apple. Even if they did, Apple makes it easy for you to chuck their browser and set up another one of your choosing as the default.
Thanks to Apple's little present to the KHTML/Konqueror team, Konqueror and derivatives will share the speediness and improvements Safari made to the core engine. This will benefit Linux (and any other OS Konqueror runs on).
Do you really see Microsoft doing anything that would help Linux, especially if it involved the GPL?
"Your way of thinking is completely different from mine!" Shinoda, "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
> One small step forward for justice. That feels > like such a hollow thing to say when thousands > have disappeared from US streets to be held > secretly (and legally) in internment camps.
It's not hollow. Not to the young man who had three years of his life stolen from him because he wanted to play a DVD. Now, barring an appeal by the prosecution, he has that life back again.
Today is a victory for justice. Rejoice, and don't feel guilty about rejoicing. Without the celebration of victories, how can we possibly find the heart to continue to fight all these injustices? We would give up hope, and that would help no one.
Fight on, and don't give up hope. The great victory of Justice, Liberty, and Peace may be closer than you think.
"Lightning shines on wavey beach, and all clouds are made right:
Happiness Appears!" From the song "Infanto no Musume" in the Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961).
> Most PC users can say "my computer is MUCH faster > then yours" and think thats an argument, but no, a > (true) Mac-user can hug his 5 years old Performa > and say "yes but i love this machine" and truly > mean it.
That's because Apple understands their customers as human beings, and gives them what they need to become emotionally involved with their computer. To a Mac user, the Mac is like a lovingly handcrafted tool, almost a partner in computing. To the user of the average cheap mass produced PC running Windows, the number (the speed) is the only thing important. If the PC user has any emotional involvement at all, it is to swear and fume at Windows.
Mind you, with custom and home built PCs and alternate operating systems, this is starting to change. Now you can build a PC up from components (perhaps even scratch building the case), and make a custom copy of the operating system. In the person who has handcrafted his/her PC and compiled their Linux kernel, I would expect to see some emotional involvement.
> There are rumors about Steve Jobs adding some > of his blood to the Silicon and casting dark > spells over the CPU:s to enchant users using a > Mac long enough
He does no such thing! If there is anything mystical about a Mac at all, it is the blessing of Mothra, for peace and happiness.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us." Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996 (Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
Microsoft has been trying to sell the pen/tablet idea for 10 years now. The current incarnation seems to include a laptop with a reversable screen (ala the Sony Clie PDAs) with a touchscreen you can write on (touchscreens already existed, the writing is ala Apple's Newton or the Palm).
In short, this is an ancient product, based mostly by imitating everything in sight. Not the sort of thing Apple likes to do. Especially since it has more industrial applications than consumer ones.
Of course, if Apple did do it, they would get it right. There we agree.
Windows: "Go talk to my friend, an 800 pound monopoly-abusing gorilla!" Mac: "And here's my good buddy, the 66,000 ton Godzilla!" Godzilla: Stomp!;)
> An equivalent box in the local movie theater > already prescribes what content will apear on the > screen and when - without a physical copy ever > entering the building. Wanna try to get your movie > distributed in a theater like that? Good luck > trying to own the satilite, and escaping the FBI > if you try. The theater owner can't help you even > if they wanted to.
"Shanghai Ghetto" recently appeared in theatres in New York and LA. It wasn't made by Hollywood, but by two people and their Mac on a shoestring budget.
You are right that the **AA want to keep the market to themselves and crush competition. They are, after all, thinly disguised cartels. But that competition is only growing. "Shanghai Ghetto" is not the first movie that two person studio produced. Indie labels and basement music studios are becoming more widespread. Slashdot even had an article recently about a fan produced StarTrek episode.
This isn't a 100 years ago. The technology exists now for the people to create their own movies and music, and the prices are coming down. Heck, I saw a magazine the other day that had instructions on how to build your own video and audio editing computers. Internet radio is here, and will not be here long if they have to rely only on the RIAA and their price gouging to get music to play. P2P, as most indies will admit, is a great way to promote your works. The companies that provide ecommerce services to shareware authors probably wouldn't mind doing the same for individual artists with basement studios.
An indie artist could (and some already do) record in their, or a friend's, basement studio, use internet radio and P2P for promotion, and when there is demand, sell CDs on Kagi and the like. For music, the big labels are unneccessary unless you want big fame (big financial headaches, depression, etc.). Indie movies are a bit harder, but as "Shanghai Ghetto" shows us, they are already possible.
As for machines to play them in, the ones you have work fine for now. When the consumer and computer industries have noticed that we have stopped buying, they will chuck DRM in favor of their own survival (at least they will have that option if the Hollings bill never passes). Without the Hollings bill, some (Apple and certaily the Asian manufacturers who don't give a fig about DRM) will keep making DRM free machines all along.
As for the media sharks, they have had far too long to exploit their exclusive technology. It isn't exclusive anymore. If they can't make good music and movies, if they can't treat their artists and customers right, dump them. It is high time for the people to wake up, stop being dumb consumers, and start singing their own songs and telling their own stories! To do so is a human right, a right that has been denied far too long.
"They bind our hearts: 'Let's sell them again and again!'
Our plan understands the sea; we can wait for her coming." From the song "Infanto no Musume" in the Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961). In "The Daughters of Infant Island", the fairies sing of their slavery and hope of rescue. The people on the ship "Orion" laugh and carouse as they hear the song in their own language. That is why Baby Mothra destroys the ship, the only time she kills in the Japanese version.
> we all know it's coming anyway. There's no way to > stop the copy protection asshats unless a judge > orders them to be stopped.
We know they are trying to bring DRM out and make it some kind of standard. The Hollings bill is the big problem. If it became law, it would be as hard to stop as the DMCA is now, six years after it was enacted. Then you would need a judge to stop it.
But this is now, and it seems the software industry (the BSA is a professional association of software makers as well as Microsoft's private inquisition) has woken up to the danger the Hollings bill poses, or at least are trying to stop it for their own agenda. We need to hear from the consumer electronics industry as well, they are likewise threatened. If both industries were to scream *no* at Congress, they would easily drown out the much smaller entertainment industry. Anyway, Hollings no longer holds the Commerce chair, so he may lack the power in the new Congress to push his bill.
Without the Hollings bill, Microsoft's monopoly and the **AA corner on content may be used (legally or otherwise) to try to push DRM on the market. Copy protection was rejected once by the market already, back when the PC market was much younger. It can be rejected again. DRM does not take the customer into account (except as an untrustworthy person to protect content against), and offers the customer no real value and many headaches. This would accelerate defection from Microsoft to alternative, DRM free, operating systems. Without the Hollings bill, it would be legal for them to exist DRM free and compete.
In the end, if the Hollings bill does not pass, but Linux is unsuccessful in unseating Microsoft's Palladium by itself, help may come from Apple. Apple won't let DRM take over, and they certainly won't let the **AA turn computers into content viewing devices (as opposed to content creation devices). DRM won't succeed, even if it means letting a Jaguar loose on the PC.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us." Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996 (Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
> This is like an American version of Godzilla vs. > Mothra, 2 monsters in suits battling eachother in > the courtroom,
Precisely what I was thinking. Especially since, in the 1964 movie, Mothra used Godzilla (then himself a bad guy) to off the human bad guys while trying to stop Godzilla herself (herselves by the end of the movie, as her twin daughters were the ones to defeat him). The two men Godzilla killed were the greedy execs of Happy Enterprises, a show biz company that thought it owned Mothra's egg, and thought it could buy or enslave her fairies. It thought wrong.
Mothra spent most of the early and mid sixties expounding on how evil the movie and music industries were, long before the **AA came into being. Godzilla (long since a good guy, though he does revert to his nuclear nightmare persona at times) recently did a movie on the evils of Microsoft, called "Godzilla 2000 Millennium".
> you're not quite sure who'll win, you're not > quite sure you care, but you have to watch it > and cheer them on.
You better care. The Goddess of Peace fights the God of the Atom in the heart of the Cold War. Which one can you survive winning?
"Really, gentlemen, if that's the case, let's see the power of attorney given to you by Mothra." Torahata, "Mothra vs. Godzilla", 1964 Good thing this bad dude is dead, or the **AA would recruit him.
"At this moment, it has control of systems all over the world. And...we can't do a damn thing to stop it." Miyasaka, "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version) Miyasaka, that's what you get for installing Windows XP Service Pack 1. Now only Godzilla can save you.
> Maybe not North Korea but what about the US? > Especially with that trigger happy president only > thinking about the axis of evil and terrorism.
Representatives from our esteemed allies, Japan and South Korea, will be visiting with our fearless leader next week. Hopefully they will share with him some tips on the fine arts of diplomacy and peace.
At the moment, our country and North Korea are using the time honored technique employed by angry children of talking to each other through a third party. I do not think this is working at all.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity." Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
> you fucking mac users need to get this through > your heads A MAC IS NOT A FUCKING DESKTOP > COMPUTER.
Hmm, let's see. You have a big block of metal that sits on the floor. I have a computer shaped like a desklamp that sits on my desk. Now exactly which of us has a desktop computer?
> get back to me when mac runs x86
If you are refering to OS X, according to some rumor sites, that could be in less than a week.;)
I'd love to stay and chat, but my Jaguar is hungry again. We are going to mosy on down to the Microsoft paddock and get us a choice Longhorn. Tell Tux that if he ever wants some turf with his surf to come on down, and we'll be happy to share.
Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape." Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges. "Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000
> They're trying to patch holes, or alleviate > symptons, instead of attacking the source of the > problem. Is anyone in government asking what the > source is?
Nope. Our fearless leader listens to his political advisors, but not his policy advisors. So he, and the rest of the government, fixes perceived holes and symptoms, as the people stampede in panic (driven on by the media), and people like Ashcroft and Poindexter try to use the stampede to further their little power trip.
Three women, wise, courageous, and loving, dared to speak out. If they had been listened to, part of 911 could have been averted, and Enron and Worldcom could have pulled out of their nose dives, lives and fortunes could have been saved. But no one listened, and now it is far too late.
> If a bunch of people are out to get the U.S., > then why are they doing it? With all the > anti-U.S. sentiment that I hear in some > discussion groups, are we doing something wrong?
Al Qaeda is run by a madman, they don't need reasons to hate anybody. As for the rest, try reading some foreign newspapers (many have English versions on the web), and they will give you an earful. Everything from Iraq, to our position on Israel (and supplying the weapons they use to kill kids), to the misbehavior of our troups in the many places they are stationed (South Korea is furious over one of our vehicles running into two of their girls), to our general stance as the world's greatest bully (er, superpower). Our nation may be founded on great ideals, but we aren't exactly measuring up to them these days.
> It's not that we shouldn't patch holes in our > security, because we should.
We can't. Even if we became a totalitarian regime, the country is just too big, we don't have the money, and it would disrupt our infrastructure too badly. We could have fixed the existing communications problems and upgraded the FBI's computers, but that would have been too boring to get funding for.
"Lola, kindness is not enough, look for the reason of hatred and anger.
When you find and understand that, love becomes the strongest power." Belabera, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
> Sounds like a big problem. Maybe we should kill > all the butterflies in Japan.
Not a good idea. You would likely incur the wrath of a certain moth in Japan. When she flaps her wings, she topples towers and creates supertyphoons.
And if you think Mothra can rain on your parade, you should have seen the temper fit her dark twin Battra threw after an early attempt at controlling the weather!
"Mothra, you are Life Eternal! Hear the prayers of your servants. Come back to us from out of the legend. Come and save us with your power of Life!" US release of "Mothra", 1962
For the benefit of those of us who have been asleep or off planet for the past couple of years:
When the PC market crashed in late 2000, the rest of the desktop computer makers slashed prices, shed workers by the tens of thousands, and huddled in a storm shelter. Not Apple. They kept their workers, kept their prices up, innovated like crazy, and worked hard to create a good future for themselves.
As a result, Apple's Macs kept their value, while the x86 PCs badly declined in value. Bad as that was for the x86 market, Microsoft also kept their OS prices up, eating into the x86 makers' profits.
However, the build your own market seems to have come back, with a vengeance, if the selection of components in every computer and software store that I have seen is any indication. Some of these PCs, whether built by yourself or custom built for you, can easily run up into the price range of the Apple G4 towers, especially the gaming ones.
No, Apple's computers are priced just right. If the market wouldn't bear their prices, their sales wouldn't be up again, and PCs wouldn't be rising back up into the same ranges. Apple is, for the times, fairly prosperous and happy. Their service is rated the best in the industry. HP, Dell and Gateway, on the other hand, have tightened their belts too much for their own health. As for Compaq, well...
> What is more, much of Mac OS X is written > outside of Apple (BSD, Mach, gcc, et al). In > theory, Apple's OS development costs should be > somewhat below Microsoft.
Microsoft's OS prices have nothing to do with their development costs. What part of over 80% profit margin are you not getting?
Apple's development costs include:
1) the purchase price of Next 2) the development of Aqua, and merging the two 3) the development of Classic for Mac OS 9 programs 4) the development of a JVM 5) extensive integration and testing 6) ten years of false starts
> I suggest that Apple release a $350 450MHz G3 > with USB and a standard VGA connector.
Why? You can't even get a used Mac at that speed for that cheap on eBay. What makes you think Apple would sell a new one for less that what a used one is worth?
> It could double as a gaming machine.
If you want a PowerPC gaming machine for cheap, buy a GameCube. If you want to use a computer for gaming, get a top of the line one (gamers want more, not less), and be prepared to pay $2000 or more, regardless of whether it is a Mac or a PC.
> Please bundle StarOffice,
They can't, as there is currently no StarOffice for the Mac. AppleWorks is pretty nice though, comes bundled with Macs, and reads and writes Office files. It will have to do until StarOffice gets ported.
> and it is also time to ditch IE (I hate popups).
Finally, we agree. However, no one says you have to use the IE that comes on your Mac. (Wow, you can actually uninstall it on the Mac, imagine that!) This was posted with Chimera (a Mozilla variant for the Mac), which while immature, is shaping up to be a very nice browser. I haven't seen a pop up in a very long time, as only IE is stupid enough to allow them.
> Apple also ought to investigate the embedded > market with OS X, especially since Linux has > made great strides in this area. A Tivo running > a stripped down OS X with Apple branding would > have an enormous impact on Apple's visibility.
OS X is a desktop OS, and it is very bulky. It isn't very well suited to the stripped down embedded world, unlike Linux, which can have a very tiny footprint.
The Apple branding is a good idea. Though it seems to me there is one popular consumer electronics item that already has Apple branding: the iPod.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us." Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996 (Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
> This looks like a plot by Apple who wants to show off their OS X server (it's mac.com..)
It's a plot by Mothra, who:
1) hates the mean film and music industries (who keep trying to kidnap her fairies),
2) is bored of getting back at them by hijacking their executives' yachts for rescue missions ("Godzilla vs. the Seamonster"),
3) finally found herself some nice folks (Apple) with the tools and ability to destroy the media sharks by democratizing the production of movies, TV episodes, and music.
This episode, the movie "Shanghai Ghetto" (made by two people on a Mac, and played in theatres in NY and LA), and college student musicians with basement recording studios are proof that her plan is working.
The power to tell stories and sing songs has always been in the hands of the people. It is high time that power returned to the people, where it belongs. Apple will make that possible, and then we will never have to fear the media sharks or their bought legislation again.
"Our plan understands the sea; we can wait for her coming.
At the end of noon we'll make our prayer.
Lightning shines on wavey beach, and all clouds are made right:
Happiness Appears!" From the song "Infanto no Musume" in the Japanese version of Mothra (1961).
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I (American) think the international quality of the web is great. I love to read news sites from other countries, especially Japan (big Godzilla fan).
Because of this, I am well aware of the Australian wild fires and things like Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad going round and round with Australia's Prime Minister John Howard over Howard wanting to play "MiniMe" to Bush. Also, while CNN portrays the two Koreas as readying for another Korean War, they have actually been holding many reunification talks, complete with plans for running roads through the demilitarized zone and reuniting families.
The September 11th attacks got me in the habit of watching the news. Problem is, as I quickly discovered, news sources like CNN are biased, slant stories to the point of omitting parts that don't agree with their bias, and are woefully inadequate in checking their facts (they actually reported one thing about someone in show-biz based on what their home-page said). Going to other countries' web news sites helps me filter out the bias, round out the facts, and hear stories that our media would never tell.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity."
Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
Reality is stranger than fiction. From the Millennium Project goals page (http://research.microsoft.com/research/sn/Millenn ium/mgoals.html):
"Worldwide scalability. Logically there should be only one system..."
"New machines, network links, and resources should be automatically assimilated."
That gives us Microsoft's next generation OS for a new Millennium: a worldwide distributed network OS automatically assimilating machines.
Now reread the EULA for Windows XP Service Pack 1. You know, the part where Microsoft can install anything it wants to on your machine. Remember what Brilliant pulled with its sneaky distributed network.
The "One OS to rule them all" isn't Windows XP. But it could be Longhorn.
Shinoda: "The age of Millennium."
Io: "What does that mean?"
Shinoda: "A thousand year kingdom. It wants to create a home for itself. There is one flaw in its plan: Godzilla."
"Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
linuxislandsucks wrote:
/. its time to be proactive..
> Okay
>
> How? If Hilary Rosen thinks its okay to tax us lets tax her
> out of buiness!!!
Ms. Rosen is only the head of a lobbying group for the big record labels. They are who you need to stop. Try these ideas:
1) Complete boycott of RIAA member labels. Don't "pirate" their music, don't buy their stuff, don't give them a dime, unless you can't help it (using CDRs and ISPs). At the same time, support enthusiastically indie labels and indie artists.
2) Tell your friends, family, coworkers, etc., what is going on with the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, etc., and explain it in ways that they understand. Write letters to the editor and press releases to newspapers not owned by major media conglomerates. Get ordinary people informed, and you can have a grass roots movement going.
3) Write you congresscritters and make it clear that you expect them to represent the people of your state or district, not represent Disney. Force this as a 2004 campaign issue.
4) If you are a Linux or *BSD programmer, get with your fellows and follow Apple's lead in democratizing the tools of the media industries by writing/porting versions for your favorite OS.
> HOw? Civli disobedience..fill her snail mail address with
> everything from p2p sites fill her real email with teh
> same stuff.. make it so hard for her to be online and the
> rest of RIAA employees that they give up the freakign
> fight!
That is not civil disobedience, that is harrassment. It can still land you in jail, but it will not achieve your aims peacefully.
> Time to kick on RIAA's own door!
Civil disobedience is more like having a hunger strike in front of the RIAA's door.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity."
Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
kdgibson wrote:
> That's the thing, they aren't going to change. The
> industry will eventually lose the support of the big labels
> because they'll go bankrupt.
The big labels are the industry. When they go, their bad old industry and its ways of doing things will go with them. But the music will live on...
> to find music because no labels will be around to push
> new music to radio stations, mtv, etc.
That is all the old way of doing business, the dinosaur going extinct because he forgot to grow feathers and take flying lessons. The Internet is a big part of the future of music. P2P and internet radio (once the current fee system under the RIAA is tossed) will take over the promotion, and dramatically reduce the cost. New technology is already making inexpensive (relatively speaking) and easy to use basement studios a reality. The future will put the artists in the drivers seat, where they belong.
> I care, just because I love music, but I don't care because
> I disagree with how labels run business.
The labels came to power because they had access to technology and contacts that the artists didn't. But music wasn't always that way. Humanity has always had its shamanic drummers and religious choirs, bards and minstrels, folk singers and street performers. Music has always been a part of human expression and culture, the mirror of the human heart.
It's time to put things back the way they should be. Time for anyone with a voice (or skill with an instrument) and a will to be able to put down their virtual hat on the web, and share the music that lives in their hearts with anyone who will listen.
> Win lose situation...
Yeah, music wins, the artists win, everybody wins. Except those bad old greedy labels; they lose.
Me, I love to sing. Heck, I feel the need to right now...
Bells are ringing: Mothra, Mothra! Every heart is calling: Mothra, Mothra!
Come on, Tok Wira, these sharks have gotta pay! New Kirk calling Mothra, we need you today!
An AC wrote:
n ium/mgoals.html). Millennium is a Microsoft Research project from the late 1990's. It was a platform independent (ran on a JVM named "Borg"), distributed network OS that would be worldwide, scalable, and secure.
.Net, the modern replacement for the Borg JVM, will allow Millennium to run on top of Linux and OS X, giving Microsoft that 100% monopoly they crave. Have we forgotten "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" so quickly?
;)
.Net, Palladium, Yukon, etc., Godzilla's own advice is to stay far away lest ye get stomped. One thing is very certain: without some kind of governmental backing, the day Millennium wakes up in the real world is the day Microsoft dies, either due to market stompage, or literal thermonuclear heartburn.
> TCPA is not a tool we can control, it is a tool for
> controlling US.
Remember, we are only now (according to Microsoft's plan) supposed to be hearing about something Microsoft is cooking up called Palladium. And about all we are supposed to know is that it is Windows support for the trusty, secure, feel-good TCPA thingy that's supposed to make our computers more reliable. Having a wise reporter break the story six months or so early was never Microsoft's idea.
Actually, when TCPA was formed, Microsoft was probably very careful to only talk in general terms of security and reliability. The other members probably didn't have much in the way of evil intentions; having more reliable PCs from the hardware up would have sounded good to them.
Only Microsoft would have known of its plans at that point, well them and anyone who did any looking into their research into their next generation OS: Millennium (http://research.microsoft.com/research/sn/Millen
It is in the Millennium documentation that we find such phrases "trust" and "trust domains". It is in Millennium, not Bill's memo, that Palladium and "trustworthy computing" find their root. TCPA creates the ideal platform for Millennium, but
Science fiction and fantasy fans will enjoy these Millennium quotes (from the url above):
"New machines, network links, and resources should be automatically assimilated."
"Worldwide scalability. Logically there should be only one system..." (To rule them all?
Also, serious mention needs to be made to the Japanese version of "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Godzilla vs. Microsoft) with its many references to "controlling systems all over the world", the Millennium alien Embracing and Extending Godzilla (and dying in the attempt), cutting off of oxygen supplies, and those MAME servers displaying the "Millennium" boot screen when completely taken over by the alien. Chances are, they were Compaq servers running "My Custom OS" (Godzilla's name for Linux). Are we paying attention here, Mono?
> The only way to deal with it is to get rid of it.
The hardware part of TCPA may or may not have benign uses. As for any of the Millennium components:
Only deities get thousand year kingdoms, as the Third Reich found out the hard way. When mere mortals try to claim them, they get burned big time. This is the millennium of Godzilla, Dreaded God of the Atom, not Microsoft, dreaded wanna-be god of the BSOD.
Shinoda: "The age of Millennium."
Io: "What does that mean?"
Shinoda: "A thousand year kingdom. It wants to create a home for itself. There is one flaw in its plan: Godzilla."
"Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
An AC wrote:
> So you really have no idea if that improved the quality of
> employees?
It isn't about the quality of employees. It's about this mountain of resumes from desparate people that has to be trimmed down to a handful to be interviewed. The role of HR at this stage in the hiring process is to eliminate all but that handful.
Take a look at the IT job market. There are tons of unemployed and underemployed workers, and very few jobs. If it trims down that mountain, companies will happily hold out for any requirement. Thus, the ideal candidate for most IT positions will possess at least a BS (if not an MS) in computer science, a half dozen certifications, ten or more years experience (in exactly what this person will be doing here), be willing to work lots of overtime, travel anywhere at a moments notice, and work for less than an H1B. Having the same hobby as the company president is a plus, otherwise the candidate should not have a life (or even require much sleep). Benefits? Having a job is benefit enough. Be quiet and remember to scrub the floor on your way to your nightly one hour break in the corporate bunk bed.
Okay, hopefully things are not that bad (though I have to wonder about those places that used to give you climbing walls with their 16 hour days and $80,000/year salaries). But it is an employer's market right now, and they can afford to be very choosy.
Oh, and in case you are curious, I have a BS and have been in the industry since 1986. I've been laid off 3 times (including in 1991, not fun), and have done 5 jobhunts. Even though things have improved a bit recently, it's still as bad a job market as I've ever seen. I'm going to wait until things get a whole lot better before I even try to improve my situation.
"All our tomorrows, Great Sun, by the Light, are very forgotten.
The Light dies. We pray and it sleeps."
"Oh Peace Oh Light Return" (national song of mourning), "Gojira", 1954
WPIDalamar wrote:
> Isn't one of the best signs of good-designed software
> when people do things with it that you never imagined?
So what is people doing things with your software that you announced and demoed over six months ago a sign of?
Sorry, but I had not even heard of iCommune before today, and I have no desire to use it. I will continue to wait for Apple's original, and far more elegant, implementation that will let me share music without breaking the law.
Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape."
Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges.
"Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000
Apple is fighting the RIAA/MPAA, only it is not dirtying itself with P2P, copyright violations, and legal mud wrestling.
Apple is fighting the RIAA/MPAA by democratizing the tools of music and movie production. This makes music and movie production outside the RIAA/MPAA possible for small indies, individual musicians, and small business studios.
The big five labels especially form a sort of cartel that has been ripping off artists and customers alike, and fixing prices. By giving that cartel competition from many small sources, Apple is weakening that cartel, draining its power. Given enough time, the cartel will collapse, and a new, better, music industry will rise in its place, with an abundance of good music, good prices, and rights for the artists.
P2P will never defeat the media sharks by itself, though it will provide promotion to indie artists. Apple is taking the high road, and solving the real problem: the RIAA/MPAA and the monopoly power their members hold over their industries.
"Mothra Leo, the fluttering of your wings is life!
Between the sky and the water,
You wake up.
A flock of moths turns him to stone.
Sleep defeats him."
Japanese language "Mothra Leo", "Rebirth of Mothra"
Geekenstein wrote:
> Ok, a company with a proprietary product creates a
> license agreement that governs its interfaces with other
> products. Some guy comes along and uses that interface
> in a way that violates what he agreed upon, and said
> company says to take his toys and go home. Yep, sounds
> perfectly reasonable to me.
There is a few lessons we can all learn here. Read the license agreements (proprietary or otherwise) when using APIs and other people's programs. Follow them.
Also, do not copy features in your add on program that were announced to be coming in the main program over six months ago! You have to be innovative and stay ahead of the main program to remain useful at all. That includes rewriting and repositioning your add-on everytime the original program expands. If you don't like having to do this, you don't belong in the add-on business.
Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape."
Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges.
"Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000
Anonvmous Coward wrote:
... what sparked this change of heart. Is the RIAA afraid
2 6grammy. html
>
> of Intel and other big companies entering the legal
> battle? Do they finally realize that they could make
> money by making internet specific products with these
> people as allies? Have they figured out that by getting
> the laws passed, the consumers out there would be made
> aware of the RIAA's attempts to mess with their rights?
>
> I can't help but think there's a juicy story behind this
> decision.
Oh, I bet it was juicy alright, as in Apple juice. And not a change of heart so much as one voice finally making itself heard. That would be the voice of Steve Jobs, the only one to run a hardware and software company, as well as a company involved in the making of CGI movies, who has also spoken against DRM in a Grammy acceptance speech. Here is a little sample of what he had to say at the 2002 Grammies:
"Apple strives to protect the rights of both intellectual property owners and consumers alike and believes there is a 'middle path' in digital music distribution which actively discourages the theft of music, while at the same time preserving consumers rights to manage and listen to their legally acquired music on whatever devices they own."
Steve Jobs, 2002 Grammy Awards
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/feb/
(Not in quotes on this particular page, but older stories no longer on the web attributed it to Jobs as a direct quote.)
Shortly after that speech, Gateway jumped on the same bandwagon. Boucher introduced his bill in defense of fair use rights. Where Apple leads, the industry follows.
Microsoft was the big computer industry holdout. If they could have used the Hollings bill to enshrine Palladium into law, they would have supported it (to save all that nasty antitrust bother). But the RIAA and MPAA rejected Microsoft's scheme, and there was some implication that the law would not allow Microsoft to use its DRMOS patents to turn the law into a 100% monopoly for itself. In the end, Microsoft must have decided Palladium was safer without the law, and capitulated, bringing with it the rest of the BSA.
How the heck they got the RIAA to go along with them, I don't know. It could have started with Jobs' speech. Or it could be the huge computer and consumer electronics industries that dwarf the entertainment industry. Or maybe the RIAA puts too much faith in their stupid broken disks. All I do know is that the computer industry, the consumer electronics industry, and the RIAA should be enough to persuade Hollings to drop his bill. And since Hollings has lost his Commerce chair, he doesn't have a platform from which to launch it anyway.
It is high time the computer and consumer electronics industries spoke out against this bill. Government enforced DRM threatens to destroy them. Now if they bring out DRM products, the market is free to reject them (as it rejected copy protection before), and companies will be free to drop unprofitable DRM products. Of course, those companies (Apple) wise enough to avoid making DRM stuff in the first place, will find themselves profitting from the refugees fleeing Palladium.
"Mothra's attack is working."
Shouta, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
yatest5 wrote:
> Yeah and graffitiing a mll doesn't stop it selling that day
> whereas deleting a site and putting 'I was ere 9T9' on the
> root page could lose them all their revenue until the
> problem is detected. So whatever.
That is more like breaking into a store and beating all the cash registers to a plastic pulp with a sledge hammer. The crime is still vandalism (with breaking and entering).
And this is still not terrorism, by any stretch of the imagination. Not that I think disappearing without trial is any kind of appropriate punishment for terrorism, either. Scrupulously fair trials and flinging of the book are so much more satisfying, give great closure, and neatly avoid our sinking to their level of inhumanity.
Movie (December 1998): "The great devil will come from the sky!"
Video Subtitle (Summer 1999): "The King of Terror is coming!"
Moll, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
edstromp wrote:
> Governments and politicians have proven to be quite
> ineffective (what did the "Monopoly" status get us?), so
> we need to react as consumers, and we need to STOP
> BUYING MICROSOFT PRODUCTS!.
Don't just stop buying Microsoft products. Don't react, act! Support Microsoft's competitors! Switch to Apple, Linux, *BSD, whoever fills your needs. Grab an alternative office suite, an alternative browser.
Don't just "consume" (and don't mess with warez), be an active supporter. If it is a proprietary product, pay cold hard cash (and they would probably appreciate bug reports and some kind words if you have the time). If it is an open source project, support it as best you can, whether that is developing, volunteering for documentation of graphics work, donating a pizza, or sending in bug reports, suggestions, and honest positive feedback and encouragement. Don't forget to tell your friends if you found something you like.
Also, spread the word that alternatives exist. There are lots of companies on the fence now over Licensing 6. Help them find what they need to get the job done and get Microsoft off their backs.
Microsoft has been allowed to derail the future of the computer industry for far too long. It's high time to chuck them and their mad dreams of Millennium. The battle for the future has begun!
To Microsoft:
The crown is not yours.
Footsteps drum a dirge of doom
By nuclear rage!
The world's great hero,
Dreaded God and Monster King,
Millennium ends.
dfj225 wrote:
> Hummm...everyone on earth complained about IE being
> fully integrated into Windows, but when Apple gets the
> bright idea to do it with their next browser, people seem
> to think its a good idea.
Safari is integrated into OS X the same way any well written Mac program is.
Otherwise, Safari is just a file. A special file called a package, but from the user's point of view, just a file. Try this little exercise:
Drag the Safari application to the Trash. Now double-click on the Trash, and drag Safari back out of the Trash window. Repeat as many times as necessary.
Now try this on Windows. Well, actually, you can't. But you can hide it on Windows XP (if you haven't already hidden five of your special applications). This is thanks to a settlement in an antitrust case that dragged on for years. In order to get this wonderful feature (of hiding, not uninstalling, the apps you didn't want in the first place), you have to download Service Pack 1 (it's huge), and agree that Microsoft can access all your data and install anything it wants to on your computer. Great, now you don't have to look at the IE icon any more!
If that does not make the difference obvious, consider that Microsoft stated in a court of law that their operating system would cease to function if the browser were uninstalled. Did OS X cease to function when you dragged the Safari icon to the Trash?
The Microsoft case also involved special antitrust rules that only apply to mean bullies who have a monopoly and abuse it. These rules don't apply to Apple. Even if they did, Apple makes it easy for you to chuck their browser and set up another one of your choosing as the default.
Thanks to Apple's little present to the KHTML/Konqueror team, Konqueror and derivatives will share the speediness and improvements Safari made to the core engine. This will benefit Linux (and any other OS Konqueror runs on).
Do you really see Microsoft doing anything that would help Linux, especially if it involved the GPL?
"Your way of thinking is completely different from mine!"
Shinoda, "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
Anarchofascist wrote:
> One small step forward for justice. That feels
> like such a hollow thing to say when thousands
> have disappeared from US streets to be held
> secretly (and legally) in internment camps.
It's not hollow. Not to the young man who had three years of his life stolen from him because he wanted to play a DVD. Now, barring an appeal by the prosecution, he has that life back again.
Today is a victory for justice. Rejoice, and don't feel guilty about rejoicing. Without the celebration of victories, how can we possibly find the heart to continue to fight all these injustices? We would give up hope, and that would help no one.
Fight on, and don't give up hope. The great victory of Justice, Liberty, and Peace may be closer than you think.
"Lightning shines on wavey beach, and all clouds are made right:
Happiness Appears!"
From the song "Infanto no Musume" in the Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961).
Zinob wrote:
> Most PC users can say "my computer is MUCH faster
> then yours" and think thats an argument, but no, a
> (true) Mac-user can hug his 5 years old Performa
> and say "yes but i love this machine" and truly
> mean it.
That's because Apple understands their customers as human beings, and gives them what they need to become emotionally involved with their computer. To a Mac user, the Mac is like a lovingly handcrafted tool, almost a partner in computing. To the user of the average cheap mass produced PC running Windows, the number (the speed) is the only thing important. If the PC user has any emotional involvement at all, it is to swear and fume at Windows.
Mind you, with custom and home built PCs and alternate operating systems, this is starting to change. Now you can build a PC up from components (perhaps even scratch building the case), and make a custom copy of the operating system. In the person who has handcrafted his/her PC and compiled their Linux kernel, I would expect to see some emotional involvement.
> There are rumors about Steve Jobs adding some
> of his blood to the Silicon and casting dark
> spells over the CPU:s to enchant users using a
> Mac long enough
He does no such thing! If there is anything mystical about a Mac at all, it is the blessing of Mothra, for peace and happiness.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us."
Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996
(Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
Microsoft has been trying to sell the pen/tablet idea for 10 years now. The current incarnation seems to include a laptop with a reversable screen (ala the Sony Clie PDAs) with a touchscreen you can write on (touchscreens already existed, the writing is ala Apple's Newton or the Palm).
;)
In short, this is an ancient product, based mostly by imitating everything in sight. Not the sort of thing Apple likes to do. Especially since it has more industrial applications than consumer ones.
Of course, if Apple did do it, they would get it right. There we agree.
Windows: "Go talk to my friend, an 800 pound monopoly-abusing gorilla!"
Mac: "And here's my good buddy, the 66,000 ton Godzilla!"
Godzilla: Stomp!
twitter wrote:
> An equivalent box in the local movie theater
> already prescribes what content will apear on the
> screen and when - without a physical copy ever
> entering the building. Wanna try to get your movie
> distributed in a theater like that? Good luck
> trying to own the satilite, and escaping the FBI
> if you try. The theater owner can't help you even
> if they wanted to.
"Shanghai Ghetto" recently appeared in theatres in New York and LA. It wasn't made by Hollywood, but by two people and their Mac on a shoestring budget.
You are right that the **AA want to keep the market to themselves and crush competition. They are, after all, thinly disguised cartels. But that competition is only growing. "Shanghai Ghetto" is not the first movie that two person studio produced. Indie labels and basement music studios are becoming more widespread. Slashdot even had an article recently about a fan produced StarTrek episode.
This isn't a 100 years ago. The technology exists now for the people to create their own movies and music, and the prices are coming down. Heck, I saw a magazine the other day that had instructions on how to build your own video and audio editing computers. Internet radio is here, and will not be here long if they have to rely only on the RIAA and their price gouging to get music to play. P2P, as most indies will admit, is a great way to promote your works. The companies that provide ecommerce services to shareware authors probably wouldn't mind doing the same for individual artists with basement studios.
An indie artist could (and some already do) record in their, or a friend's, basement studio, use internet radio and P2P for promotion, and when there is demand, sell CDs on Kagi and the like. For music, the big labels are unneccessary unless you want big fame (big financial headaches, depression, etc.). Indie movies are a bit harder, but as "Shanghai Ghetto" shows us, they are already possible.
As for machines to play them in, the ones you have work fine for now. When the consumer and computer industries have noticed that we have stopped buying, they will chuck DRM in favor of their own survival (at least they will have that option if the Hollings bill never passes). Without the Hollings bill, some (Apple and certaily the Asian manufacturers who don't give a fig about DRM) will keep making DRM free machines all along.
As for the media sharks, they have had far too long to exploit their exclusive technology. It isn't exclusive anymore. If they can't make good music and movies, if they can't treat their artists and customers right, dump them. It is high time for the people to wake up, stop being dumb consumers, and start singing their own songs and telling their own stories! To do so is a human right, a right that has been denied far too long.
"They bind our hearts: 'Let's sell them again and again!'
Our plan understands the sea; we can wait for her coming."
From the song "Infanto no Musume" in the Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961).
In "The Daughters of Infant Island", the fairies sing of their slavery and hope of rescue.
The people on the ship "Orion" laugh and carouse as they hear the song in their own language.
That is why Baby Mothra destroys the ship, the only time she kills in the Japanese version.
pummer wrote:
> we all know it's coming anyway. There's no way to
> stop the copy protection asshats unless a judge
> orders them to be stopped.
We know they are trying to bring DRM out and make it some kind of standard. The Hollings bill is the big problem. If it became law, it would be as hard to stop as the DMCA is now, six years after it was enacted. Then you would need a judge to stop it.
But this is now, and it seems the software industry (the BSA is a professional association of software makers as well as Microsoft's private inquisition) has woken up to the danger the Hollings bill poses, or at least are trying to stop it for their own agenda. We need to hear from the consumer electronics industry as well, they are likewise threatened. If both industries were to scream *no* at Congress, they would easily drown out the much smaller entertainment industry. Anyway, Hollings no longer holds the Commerce chair, so he may lack the power in the new Congress to push his bill.
Without the Hollings bill, Microsoft's monopoly and the **AA corner on content may be used (legally or otherwise) to try to push DRM on the market. Copy protection was rejected once by the market already, back when the PC market was much younger. It can be rejected again. DRM does not take the customer into account (except as an untrustworthy person to protect content against), and offers the customer no real value and many headaches. This would accelerate defection from Microsoft to alternative, DRM free, operating systems. Without the Hollings bill, it would be legal for them to exist DRM free and compete.
In the end, if the Hollings bill does not pass, but Linux is unsuccessful in unseating Microsoft's Palladium by itself, help may come from Apple. Apple won't let DRM take over, and they certainly won't let the **AA turn computers into content viewing devices (as opposed to content creation devices). DRM won't succeed, even if it means letting a Jaguar loose on the PC.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us."
Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996
(Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
Iamthefallen wrote:
> This is like an American version of Godzilla vs.
> Mothra, 2 monsters in suits battling eachother in
> the courtroom,
Precisely what I was thinking. Especially since, in the 1964 movie, Mothra used Godzilla (then himself a bad guy) to off the human bad guys while trying to stop Godzilla herself (herselves by the end of the movie, as her twin daughters were the ones to defeat him). The two men Godzilla killed were the greedy execs of Happy Enterprises, a show biz company that thought it owned Mothra's egg, and thought it could buy or enslave her fairies. It thought wrong.
Mothra spent most of the early and mid sixties expounding on how evil the movie and music industries were, long before the **AA came into being. Godzilla (long since a good guy, though he does revert to his nuclear nightmare persona at times) recently did a movie on the evils of Microsoft, called "Godzilla 2000 Millennium".
> you're not quite sure who'll win, you're not
> quite sure you care, but you have to watch it
> and cheer them on.
You better care. The Goddess of Peace fights the God of the Atom in the heart of the Cold War. Which one can you survive winning?
"Really, gentlemen, if that's the case, let's see the power of attorney given to you by Mothra."
Torahata, "Mothra vs. Godzilla", 1964
Good thing this bad dude is dead, or the **AA would recruit him.
"At this moment, it has control of systems all over the world. And...we can't do a damn thing to stop it."
Miyasaka, "Godzilla 2000 Millennium" (Japanese version)
Miyasaka, that's what you get for installing Windows XP Service Pack 1. Now only Godzilla can save you.
An AC wrote:
> Maybe not North Korea but what about the US?
> Especially with that trigger happy president only
> thinking about the axis of evil and terrorism.
Representatives from our esteemed allies, Japan and South Korea, will be visiting with our fearless leader next week. Hopefully they will share with him some tips on the fine arts of diplomacy and peace.
At the moment, our country and North Korea are using the time honored technique employed by angry children of talking to each other through a third party. I do not think this is working at all.
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity."
Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
An AC wrote:
;)
> you fucking mac users need to get this through
> your heads A MAC IS NOT A FUCKING DESKTOP
> COMPUTER.
Hmm, let's see. You have a big block of metal that sits on the floor. I have a computer shaped like a desklamp that sits on my desk. Now exactly which of us has a desktop computer?
> get back to me when mac runs x86
If you are refering to OS X, according to some rumor sites, that could be in less than a week.
I'd love to stay and chat, but my Jaguar is hungry again. We are going to mosy on down to the Microsoft paddock and get us a choice Longhorn. Tell Tux that if he ever wants some turf with his surf to come on down, and we'll be happy to share.
Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape."
Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges.
"Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000
burNtchicken wrote:
> They're trying to patch holes, or alleviate
> symptons, instead of attacking the source of the
> problem. Is anyone in government asking what the
> source is?
Nope. Our fearless leader listens to his political advisors, but not his policy advisors. So he, and the rest of the government, fixes perceived holes and symptoms, as the people stampede in panic (driven on by the media), and people like Ashcroft and Poindexter try to use the stampede to further their little power trip.
Three women, wise, courageous, and loving, dared to speak out. If they had been listened to, part of 911 could have been averted, and Enron and Worldcom could have pulled out of their nose dives, lives and fortunes could have been saved. But no one listened, and now it is far too late.
> If a bunch of people are out to get the U.S.,
> then why are they doing it? With all the
> anti-U.S. sentiment that I hear in some
> discussion groups, are we doing something wrong?
Al Qaeda is run by a madman, they don't need reasons to hate anybody. As for the rest, try reading some foreign newspapers (many have English versions on the web), and they will give you an earful. Everything from Iraq, to our position on Israel (and supplying the weapons they use to kill kids), to the misbehavior of our troups in the many places they are stationed (South Korea is furious over one of our vehicles running into two of their girls), to our general stance as the world's greatest bully (er, superpower). Our nation may be founded on great ideals, but we aren't exactly measuring up to them these days.
> It's not that we shouldn't patch holes in our
> security, because we should.
We can't. Even if we became a totalitarian regime, the country is just too big, we don't have the money, and it would disrupt our infrastructure too badly. We could have fixed the existing communications problems and upgraded the FBI's computers, but that would have been too boring to get funding for.
"Lola, kindness is not enough, look for the reason of hatred and anger.
When you find and understand that, love becomes the strongest power."
Belabera, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
outsider007 wrote:
> Sounds like a big problem. Maybe we should kill
> all the butterflies in Japan.
Not a good idea. You would likely incur the wrath of a certain moth in Japan. When she flaps her wings, she topples towers and creates supertyphoons.
And if you think Mothra can rain on your parade, you should have seen the temper fit her dark twin Battra threw after an early attempt at controlling the weather!
"Mothra, you are Life Eternal! Hear the prayers of your servants. Come back to us from out of the legend. Come and save us with your power of Life!"
US release of "Mothra", 1962
emil wrote:
> the equipment is quite simply overpriced.
For the benefit of those of us who have been asleep or off planet for the past couple of years:
When the PC market crashed in late 2000, the rest of the desktop computer makers slashed prices, shed workers by the tens of thousands, and huddled in a storm shelter. Not Apple. They kept their workers, kept their prices up, innovated like crazy, and worked hard to create a good future for themselves.
As a result, Apple's Macs kept their value, while the x86 PCs badly declined in value. Bad as that was for the x86 market, Microsoft also kept their OS prices up, eating into the x86 makers' profits.
However, the build your own market seems to have come back, with a vengeance, if the selection of components in every computer and software store that I have seen is any indication. Some of these PCs, whether built by yourself or custom built for you, can easily run up into the price range of the Apple G4 towers, especially the gaming ones.
No, Apple's computers are priced just right. If the market wouldn't bear their prices, their sales wouldn't be up again, and PCs wouldn't be rising back up into the same ranges. Apple is, for the times, fairly prosperous and happy. Their service is rated the best in the industry. HP, Dell and Gateway, on the other hand, have tightened their belts too much for their own health. As for Compaq, well...
> What is more, much of Mac OS X is written
> outside of Apple (BSD, Mach, gcc, et al). In
> theory, Apple's OS development costs should be
> somewhat below Microsoft.
Microsoft's OS prices have nothing to do with their development costs. What part of over 80% profit margin are you not getting?
Apple's development costs include:
1) the purchase price of Next
2) the development of Aqua, and merging the two
3) the development of Classic for Mac OS 9 programs
4) the development of a JVM
5) extensive integration and testing
6) ten years of false starts
> I suggest that Apple release a $350 450MHz G3
> with USB and a standard VGA connector.
Why? You can't even get a used Mac at that speed for that cheap on eBay. What makes you think Apple would sell a new one for less that what a used one is worth?
> It could double as a gaming machine.
If you want a PowerPC gaming machine for cheap, buy a GameCube. If you want to use a computer for gaming, get a top of the line one (gamers want more, not less), and be prepared to pay $2000 or more, regardless of whether it is a Mac or a PC.
> Please bundle StarOffice,
They can't, as there is currently no StarOffice for the Mac. AppleWorks is pretty nice though, comes bundled with Macs, and reads and writes Office files. It will have to do until StarOffice gets ported.
> and it is also time to ditch IE (I hate popups).
Finally, we agree. However, no one says you have to use the IE that comes on your Mac. (Wow, you can actually uninstall it on the Mac, imagine that!) This was posted with Chimera (a Mozilla variant for the Mac), which while immature, is shaping up to be a very nice browser. I haven't seen a pop up in a very long time, as only IE is stupid enough to allow them.
> Apple also ought to investigate the embedded
> market with OS X, especially since Linux has
> made great strides in this area. A Tivo running
> a stripped down OS X with Apple branding would
> have an enormous impact on Apple's visibility.
OS X is a desktop OS, and it is very bulky. It isn't very well suited to the stripped down embedded world, unlike Linux, which can have a very tiny footprint.
The Apple branding is a good idea. Though it seems to me there is one popular consumer electronics item that already has Apple branding: the iPod.
"No one's going to die, mister. Mothra's going to come and save us."
Taiki Goto, "Mothra", December 14, 1996
(Released in Japan six days before Apple's surprise announcement of the return of Steve Jobs.)
netsharc wrote:
> This looks like a plot by Apple who wants to show off their OS X server (it's mac.com..)
It's a plot by Mothra, who:
1) hates the mean film and music industries (who keep trying to kidnap her fairies),
2) is bored of getting back at them by hijacking their executives' yachts for rescue missions ("Godzilla vs. the Seamonster"),
3) finally found herself some nice folks (Apple) with the tools and ability to destroy the media sharks by democratizing the production of movies, TV episodes, and music.
This episode, the movie "Shanghai Ghetto" (made by two people on a Mac, and played in theatres in NY and LA), and college student musicians with basement recording studios are proof that her plan is working.
The power to tell stories and sing songs has always been in the hands of the people. It is high time that power returned to the people, where it belongs. Apple will make that possible, and then we will never have to fear the media sharks or their bought legislation again.
"Our plan understands the sea; we can wait for her coming.
At the end of noon we'll make our prayer.
Lightning shines on wavey beach, and all clouds are made right:
Happiness Appears!"
From the song "Infanto no Musume" in the Japanese version of Mothra (1961).