2 years ago, before I knew the difference myself, we had an inexperienced electrician run 'ethernet' cables into our new house as it was being constructed, only to find out later that he'd used BNC cabling.
To make matters worse, when I tried to pull out the old cable to replace it with better stuff, I realised that he'd used the old electrician's trick of wrapping the cable around nails in the drywall so that it wouldn't pull through any further.
So the moral is: no matter what you decide on now, make sure your electrician runs the cables straight through so that you can leave yourself open for upgrading at a later date.
>> Let M$ put buggy, crap software in the schools and let the new generation get fed up with it early. And often (the blue screens that is). They'll probably learn the lesson sooner than we did.
Sounds good in practice, but the problem is that if you expose kids to bluescreens early on in their computer using, they'll take it for granted that crashing is just another aspect of using an operating system.
We didn't learn the lesson, so how are these kids going to?
(reminds me of that movie with Chevy Chase where they are selling super-duper spy planes that can do everything except when they get wet, they go haywire... someone shouts out, "have you ever heard of RAIN?!?"
umm, dude - reminds me of the B2 and the other stealth aircraft we have flying IN REAL LIFE.
Generally, I tend to agree with most articles modded to +5, but in this case, I'll make an exception for the following comment:
"Order Microsoft to incorporate techniques that would enable users of Windows XP to easily integrate services provided by non-Microsoft companies for online payment, electronic commerce, and other Internet-based commercial activity"
...what's wrong with the other companies? Can't they write code anymore?
Yous see, the problem as stated on many many occasions, is that other companies DO employ good coders. So good, in fact, that MicroSoft is scared that when the public finds out that some 3rd party software is better than theirs then the purchasing public is going to kick up a fuss to ask WHY MS can't fix their bugs pre-release or ensure reliable product operation. Following this big stink, the purchasing public will decide to switch product.
It is this precise situation that MS wants to avoid - the public realising that there are alternatives to MS and moreover that those alternative products are far superior. So, in order to maintain their monopoly, MS 'bundles' all its own products and services in the same package. MS then closes off the standards it used to create its OS, meaning that no external company has a snowball's chance in hell of creating applications that are equally as compatible or integratable as MS' own.
Analogy time: You know when your shampoo says 'Using BrandX shampoo on your hair visibly improves its shine and bounce. To get best results, use with BrandX styling gel, BrandX conditioner, BrandX hairspray and BrandX fungal exfoliator" Notice that these are simply recommendations, and that in the free market you are FREE to choose to use a competitors product if you believe it to be superior.
But MS says "If you use a competitor's product, your hair will fall out and you will get ear cancer. Oh, and we're not going to tell you what's in our product so you can reformulate yours to work better with it."
This is why you do not deserve your +5 mod.
I mean, Jesus - MS can't even get their OWN software to integrate reliably when they're developed under the same roof.
I'm just waiting until you Americans suspend your civil liberties once again in the name of the 'War on Terrorism' and watch it ass-rape you in the same way the 'War on Drugs' has.
Do you really believe the current drug situation as of 10/12/2001 is in any way better than that of 10/12/1901? If so, please tell me how sky-high addiction rates and a higher prisoner:population ratio than China indicate this...
And as of 10/12/2051 following the instigation of the international 'War on Terrorism', your prison population will once again rise to fill with 'terrorists' or those 'profiting from terrorism', police will be able to stop and cavity search anyone suspected of 'terrorist activities'. A rebellious group of teenagers will create an amusing computer game involving smuggling a thumb-tack onto your teachers seat (after all, the media then will be ramming home the message that 'terrorism in school is still terrorism'). Neighbors will be paid for reporting all 'suspicious activities' on their streets. But above all, terrorist groups will provide secret funding to government for maintaining the 'War' that profits them.
Don't you get it yet? Bombing terrorists doesn't kill them off, it just gives them further justification for their acts (in their minds) and spurs them on.
Stop this unwinnable (by current tactics) war before it begins.
You may not be a llama, but you certainly are well, I've decided not to swear today.
So laws should be extended so far that anyone can be arrested for any tenuous charge the officer feels is relevant? Ever heard of of 'due process'? Innocent until proven guilty?
Or are you just another retard who believes that the police are always right (hint: they're not) and that anyone in the back of a cop car must be guilty.
That's right, go ahead and suspend your beloved constitution just when it suits you, after all - if a person't in court, they've got to be guilty now don't they!
Thank christ I live in the UK where, for all our *many* shortcomings, we don't pretend to have supreme protection from pieces of paper labelled 'Constitution' or 'Bill of Rights'.
What I'm waiting for is four those four vulture companies to stop ripping us all off by making £120 million per MONTH in text messages alone and to cut text prices from 12p per message down to a more reasonable 1p/0.5p per message - how much does it REALLY cost to send that text message anyway?
But of course, oftel it probably in their back pockets and wont do jack.
Won't somebody please think of the children? THINK OF THE CHILDREEEEEEEEN!
but seriously though, why did you have to mention the names of those two guys? what did it contribute to your point? using scare tactics like that (calling out the worst examples to enforce a point) just detracts from the rest of your piece.
I belive that this post has raised a fundamental point concerning e-book technology.
Whilst transferring your e-novel to a friend should be allowed, and maybe even encouraged, it should only be legal to do so if the copy on your e-reader is destroyed - in other words, e-books, like paper books, can only be transferred between users and not copied between them.
Imagine a situation where all you had to do to make a copy of a paperback was to press a button on the front cover. I'm quite sure you'd see the same rapid drafting of bad laws to prevent/limit this from happening.
However, as it stands, it's a very long and tedious and imprecise process to physically copy a paperback - so everyone just goes out and buys them instead, or hands them around between 'users'.
If we want to get rid of laws like the DMCA and the ones that are sure to follow it, we should make a mode of digital data transfer that ensures only one copy can remain in existence at any one time. This would then make the electronic situation (where copying HUGE amounts of data is easy, rapid and precise) analogous to the physical situation where books can be transferred but not copied between readers.
This is what I believe to be where all the problems stem from and the plughole that publishers (of software/books/whatever form of digital content) are trying to close, and failing badly.
you obviously have no clue how to enforce your patent.
If I hold a valid patent on an invention, now matter how large the company I'm fighting, I will win on the grounds of the invention. However, this is not necessarily the case if I'm contested on a point of prior art.
Courts do respect patents (otherwise the little guys would never bother to patent anything if he felt he couldn't get protection for his ideas, which clearly isn't the case) no matter how large the company you piss off.
Whilst most slashdotters sounds like they disagree with software patents, given the situation described above, they could actually be beneficial in fighting globalisation/corporatisation (is that a word), so long as it's the original programmers who are granted the patent, and not the corporation to which they work.
But, I'm not naive and I don't believe for a second that these companies have contracts granting their employees rights to the software they create.
So it looks like software patents will be granted to corporations and not to individual programmers after all.
so you're telling us that you believe that if your cd gets scratched to shit, it's just your tough luck and you should shell out another £15 for a new copy.....
ok, but what if it's not my CD that's scratched beyond repair (and i stupidly forgot to make a backup copy) but say, a $3000 copy of 3d studio max? yeah, sure i've got another $3000 sitting around here somewhere..
or what if it's a rare vinyl record of mine that's damaged beyond recovery - well mate, that's just tough because you're not allowed to make a backup copy for your own use!
actually, fair use is still legal for most 'old world' (before mp3s) technologies, so whilst I do disagree with piracy, you can go shove your vehement 'everyone on the net is a pir8' opinions where your head must currently be situated.
I personally think they'd fill a neat little niche for luxury air travel - your own rooms, maybe even a buffet/dining area and kitchen....how about a lounge with a piano tinkling away in the background.
I think I'd love it to be honest.....I mean, when you think of going for an ocean voyage, you don't strap on 1000s of Hp of engines to the back of a speedboat and mashing your way across the atlantic at hundreds of knots, instead you take a luxurious, leisurely cruise across.
We might even see planes becoming things of the past - only to be used by businessmen and people in a rush whilst airships start to take the great unwashed masses at greatly reduced cost...
just a thought.
-Nano.
awww.....come on, creationists knew the speed of light has changed over time, that carbon decays at different rates and various other bullshit....
they beat us all to it!
maybe they're right on other stuff too?
or is that just bollocks.
-Nano.
Much like they use modern drug hysteria to trample on the ability of individuals to make informed opinions about what they choose to introduce into their own bodies?
Interesting thread this, but have any of you heard of 'screeching weasel' (just one randomly selected independant band that produce their own records in the way you mention) or actually listened to the bands out on mp3.com?
To sum it all up - they're just plain old shit! The reason record companies succeed is because they carefully select the bands they promote - occasionally they'll choose a flop but for the most part, if the public don't like one of their bands then they'll be 'let go'.
Don't think that if all the money goes to the artist they'll necessarily make more money, because if they're shit and unpopular then no method of record production will make them sell.
Good music sells, bad music sinks - it's as simple as that - record companies seek out the bands who will sell and all the free music you can get off mp3.com and self-produced music sucks the big one.
Actually, you're quite wrong on one point - if you kill someone in the USA, you will first be put into prison for the duration of your sentence and THEN you will be deported.
This is to ensure that you can't just hop on a plane/boat/whatever over into the US, kill someone and then get off unpunished.
Interestingly though, in the USA whilst they will also do this to convicted drug dealers (catch a Colombian, stick him in jail for 10-odd years and then deport him back to Colombia), they don't do that in the UK
- any Jamaican drug dealers (and yes, whilst the large majority of Jamaicans are law-abiding and very pleasant people, most of the 'yardie' drug dealers in this country do originate from Jamaica) that are caught here simply get deported unpunished back to Jamaica where they just pick up the next shipment and return.
So don't think you can jump over a border and commit a crime and just be deported back home as punishment.
Hey, just come over to the UK.....only a few restricitions on stem cell work over here.....one of the leading Lords is Robert Winston (he's also a specialist in reproductive medicine), and he can't stop talking about the potential of stem cells.
Seeing as you've all been stealing our top academics for years now, I guess we thought it was time we got our own back on y'all:) Reverse brain-draining...
All your geneticists are belong to us! (lame but had to be done)
I almost cried the day I heard that Sierra was taken over by a French (I hated them already, this was just fuel to my fire) megacorp and was shutting down production of ALL the games that made them famous in the first place.
When they killed off Space Quest (amazing stuff!!), Kings Quest, QFG, PQ etc etc. they didn't just take a few games off the market - they killed off an entire GENRE of computer games, games many people grew up playing.
Sure, it's great to get out your awp and blast holes in people when playing counterstrike, or run in guns blazing with Quake, even develop an army and tactical attacks on the latest Dune 2 remake (because let's face it, that's all they are nowadays). But I'll never forget the infuriating, involving and downright entertaining times I had playing Sierra's quest games. Modern 'adventure' games don't even come close - I've played 'Blade of Darkness' and both Diablos, but where is the puzzle that takes an inventive and amusing solution to complete and leaves you with a sense of accomplishment when you get past it?
Where's the involving storyline, the interesting characters?
Quest games (Sierra oldschool) are gone, but they need to be resurrected - both for first time gamers (ages 10+) to develop lateral thinking skills and the idea of following a storyline, but also for us veterans who just miss the genre.
That's my opinion anyway.
-Nano.
p.s. I want to see a Spacequest Movie made:) heh - check out 'Roger Wilco's Broomcloset' run by Jess Morrisette (sorry, don't know HTML)
Slashdot Mirror
2 years ago, before I knew the difference myself, we had an inexperienced electrician run 'ethernet' cables into our new house as it was being constructed, only to find out later that he'd used BNC cabling.
To make matters worse, when I tried to pull out the old cable to replace it with better stuff, I realised that he'd used the old electrician's trick of wrapping the cable around nails in the drywall so that it wouldn't pull through any further.
So the moral is: no matter what you decide on now, make sure your electrician runs the cables straight through so that you can leave yourself open for upgrading at a later date.
-Nano.
>> Let M$ put buggy, crap software in the schools and let the new generation get fed up with it early. And often (the blue screens that is). They'll probably learn the lesson sooner than we did.
Sounds good in practice, but the problem is that if you expose kids to bluescreens early on in their computer using, they'll take it for granted that crashing is just another aspect of using an operating system.
We didn't learn the lesson, so how are these kids going to?
-Nano.
So it's perfectly OK then that they kick around all packages NOT labelled 'FRAGILE'.
Dumbass.
-Nano.
(reminds me of that movie with Chevy Chase where they are selling super-duper spy planes that can do everything except when they get wet, they go haywire... someone shouts out, "have you ever heard of RAIN?!?"
umm, dude - reminds me of the B2 and the other stealth aircraft we have flying IN REAL LIFE.
-Nano.
'nuff said.
-Nano.
Generally, I tend to agree with most articles modded to +5, but in this case, I'll make an exception for the following comment:
"Order Microsoft to incorporate techniques that would enable users of Windows XP to easily integrate services provided by non-Microsoft companies for online payment, electronic commerce, and other Internet-based commercial activity"
...what's wrong with the other companies? Can't they write code anymore?
Yous see, the problem as stated on many many occasions, is that other companies DO employ good coders. So good, in fact, that MicroSoft is scared that when the public finds out that some 3rd party software is better than theirs then the purchasing public is going to kick up a fuss to ask WHY MS can't fix their bugs pre-release or ensure reliable product operation. Following this big stink, the purchasing public will decide to switch product.
It is this precise situation that MS wants to avoid - the public realising that there are alternatives to MS and moreover that those alternative products are far superior. So, in order to maintain their monopoly, MS 'bundles' all its own products and services in the same package. MS then closes off the standards it used to create its OS, meaning that no external company has a snowball's chance in hell of creating applications that are equally as compatible or integratable as MS' own.
Analogy time: You know when your shampoo says 'Using BrandX shampoo on your hair visibly improves its shine and bounce. To get best results, use with BrandX styling gel, BrandX conditioner, BrandX hairspray and BrandX fungal exfoliator" Notice that these are simply recommendations, and that in the free market you are FREE to choose to use a competitors product if you believe it to be superior.
But MS says "If you use a competitor's product, your hair will fall out and you will get ear cancer. Oh, and we're not going to tell you what's in our product so you can reformulate yours to work better with it."
This is why you do not deserve your +5 mod.
I mean, Jesus - MS can't even get their OWN software to integrate reliably when they're developed under the same roof.
-Nano.
Speaking of planet-busters.....does anyone else here think that someone ought to make a game set in Peter F. Hamilton's 'Night's Dawn' universe?
kewl.
-Nano.
I'm just waiting until you Americans suspend your civil liberties once again in the name of the 'War on Terrorism' and watch it ass-rape you in the same way the 'War on Drugs' has.
Do you really believe the current drug situation as of 10/12/2001 is in any way better than that of 10/12/1901? If so, please tell me how sky-high addiction rates and a higher prisoner:population ratio than China indicate this...
And as of 10/12/2051 following the instigation of the international 'War on Terrorism', your prison population will once again rise to fill with 'terrorists' or those 'profiting from terrorism', police will be able to stop and cavity search anyone suspected of 'terrorist activities'. A rebellious group of teenagers will create an amusing computer game involving smuggling a thumb-tack onto your teachers seat (after all, the media then will be ramming home the message that 'terrorism in school is still terrorism'). Neighbors will be paid for reporting all 'suspicious activities' on their streets. But above all, terrorist groups will provide secret funding to government for maintaining the 'War' that profits them.
Don't you get it yet? Bombing terrorists doesn't kill them off, it just gives them further justification for their acts (in their minds) and spurs them on.
Stop this unwinnable (by current tactics) war before it begins.
You may not be a llama, but you certainly are well, I've decided not to swear today.
So laws should be extended so far that anyone can be arrested for any tenuous charge the officer feels is relevant? Ever heard of of 'due process'? Innocent until proven guilty?
Or are you just another retard who believes that the police are always right (hint: they're not) and that anyone in the back of a cop car must be guilty.
That's right, go ahead and suspend your beloved constitution just when it suits you, after all - if a person't in court, they've got to be guilty now don't they!
Thank christ I live in the UK where, for all our *many* shortcomings, we don't pretend to have supreme protection from pieces of paper labelled 'Constitution' or 'Bill of Rights'.
-Nano.
What I'm waiting for is four those four vulture companies to stop ripping us all off by making £120 million per MONTH in text messages alone and to cut text prices from 12p per message down to a more reasonable 1p/0.5p per message - how much does it REALLY cost to send that text message anyway?
But of course, oftel it probably in their back pockets and wont do jack.
-Nano.
johnny mnemonic......dude....
:)
sorry - needed to make a lame post just for kicks
-Nano.
oh for the want of a true Privacy Act in the uk (and not just the weak-assed and digitally-oriented Data Protection Act).
-Nano.
Won't somebody please think of the children? THINK OF THE CHILDREEEEEEEEN!
but seriously though, why did you have to mention the names of those two guys? what did it contribute to your point? using scare tactics like that (calling out the worst examples to enforce a point) just detracts from the rest of your piece.
-Nano.
It's like re-inventing the eye for every species that needs one - why bother reworking from the ground up when you've found an apporach that works?
-Nano.
I belive that this post has raised a fundamental point concerning e-book technology.
Whilst transferring your e-novel to a friend should be allowed, and maybe even encouraged, it should only be legal to do so if the copy on your e-reader is destroyed - in other words, e-books, like paper books, can only be transferred between users and not copied between them.
Imagine a situation where all you had to do to make a copy of a paperback was to press a button on the front cover. I'm quite sure you'd see the same rapid drafting of bad laws to prevent/limit this from happening.
However, as it stands, it's a very long and tedious and imprecise process to physically copy a paperback - so everyone just goes out and buys them instead, or hands them around between 'users'.
If we want to get rid of laws like the DMCA and the ones that are sure to follow it, we should make a mode of digital data transfer that ensures only one copy can remain in existence at any one time. This would then make the electronic situation (where copying HUGE amounts of data is easy, rapid and precise) analogous to the physical situation where books can be transferred but not copied between readers.
This is what I believe to be where all the problems stem from and the plughole that publishers (of software/books/whatever form of digital content) are trying to close, and failing badly.
-Nano.
you obviously have no clue how to enforce your patent.
If I hold a valid patent on an invention, now matter how large the company I'm fighting, I will win on the grounds of the invention. However, this is not necessarily the case if I'm contested on a point of prior art.
Courts do respect patents (otherwise the little guys would never bother to patent anything if he felt he couldn't get protection for his ideas, which clearly isn't the case) no matter how large the company you piss off.
-Nano.
This guy makes an interesting point:
Whilst most slashdotters sounds like they disagree with software patents, given the situation described above, they could actually be beneficial in fighting globalisation/corporatisation (is that a word), so long as it's the original programmers who are granted the patent, and not the corporation to which they work.
But, I'm not naive and I don't believe for a second that these companies have contracts granting their employees rights to the software they create.
So it looks like software patents will be granted to corporations and not to individual programmers after all.
shit.
-Nano.
so you're telling us that you believe that if your cd gets scratched to shit, it's just your tough luck and you should shell out another £15 for a new copy.....
ok, but what if it's not my CD that's scratched beyond repair (and i stupidly forgot to make a backup copy) but say, a $3000 copy of 3d studio max? yeah, sure i've got another $3000 sitting around here somewhere..
or what if it's a rare vinyl record of mine that's damaged beyond recovery - well mate, that's just tough because you're not allowed to make a backup copy for your own use!
actually, fair use is still legal for most 'old world' (before mp3s) technologies, so whilst I do disagree with piracy, you can go shove your vehement 'everyone on the net is a pir8' opinions where your head must currently be situated.
-Nano.
I personally think they'd fill a neat little niche for luxury air travel - your own rooms, maybe even a buffet/dining area and kitchen....how about a lounge with a piano tinkling away in the background. I think I'd love it to be honest.....I mean, when you think of going for an ocean voyage, you don't strap on 1000s of Hp of engines to the back of a speedboat and mashing your way across the atlantic at hundreds of knots, instead you take a luxurious, leisurely cruise across. We might even see planes becoming things of the past - only to be used by businessmen and people in a rush whilst airships start to take the great unwashed masses at greatly reduced cost... just a thought. -Nano.
awww.....come on, creationists knew the speed of light has changed over time, that carbon decays at different rates and various other bullshit.... they beat us all to it! maybe they're right on other stuff too? or is that just bollocks. -Nano.
Much like they use modern drug hysteria to trample on the ability of individuals to make informed opinions about what they choose to introduce into their own bodies?
-Nano.
Interesting thread this, but have any of you heard of 'screeching weasel' (just one randomly selected independant band that produce their own records in the way you mention) or actually listened to the bands out on mp3.com?
To sum it all up - they're just plain old shit! The reason record companies succeed is because they carefully select the bands they promote - occasionally they'll choose a flop but for the most part, if the public don't like one of their bands then they'll be 'let go'.
Don't think that if all the money goes to the artist they'll necessarily make more money, because if they're shit and unpopular then no method of record production will make them sell.
Good music sells, bad music sinks - it's as simple as that - record companies seek out the bands who will sell and all the free music you can get off mp3.com and self-produced music sucks the big one.
That's the way it is, now go deal with it.
-Nano.
Actually, you're quite wrong on one point - if you kill someone in the USA, you will first be put into prison for the duration of your sentence and THEN you will be deported.
This is to ensure that you can't just hop on a plane/boat/whatever over into the US, kill someone and then get off unpunished.
Interestingly though, in the USA whilst they will also do this to convicted drug dealers (catch a Colombian, stick him in jail for 10-odd years and then deport him back to Colombia), they don't do that in the UK
- any Jamaican drug dealers (and yes, whilst the large majority of Jamaicans are law-abiding and very pleasant people, most of the 'yardie' drug dealers in this country do originate from Jamaica) that are caught here simply get deported unpunished back to Jamaica where they just pick up the next shipment and return.
So don't think you can jump over a border and commit a crime and just be deported back home as punishment.
-Nano.
Hey, just come over to the UK.....only a few restricitions on stem cell work over here.....one of the leading Lords is Robert Winston (he's also a specialist in reproductive medicine), and he can't stop talking about the potential of stem cells.
:) Reverse brain-draining...
Seeing as you've all been stealing our top academics for years now, I guess we thought it was time we got our own back on y'all
All your geneticists are belong to us! (lame but had to be done)
-Nano.
I almost cried the day I heard that Sierra was taken over by a French (I hated them already, this was just fuel to my fire) megacorp and was shutting down production of ALL the games that made them famous in the first place.
:) heh - check out 'Roger Wilco's Broomcloset' run by Jess Morrisette (sorry, don't know HTML)
When they killed off Space Quest (amazing stuff!!), Kings Quest, QFG, PQ etc etc. they didn't just take a few games off the market - they killed off an entire GENRE of computer games, games many people grew up playing.
Sure, it's great to get out your awp and blast holes in people when playing counterstrike, or run in guns blazing with Quake, even develop an army and tactical attacks on the latest Dune 2 remake (because let's face it, that's all they are nowadays). But I'll never forget the infuriating, involving and downright entertaining times I had playing Sierra's quest games. Modern 'adventure' games don't even come close - I've played 'Blade of Darkness' and both Diablos, but where is the puzzle that takes an inventive and amusing solution to complete and leaves you with a sense of accomplishment when you get past it?
Where's the involving storyline, the interesting characters?
Quest games (Sierra oldschool) are gone, but they need to be resurrected - both for first time gamers (ages 10+) to develop lateral thinking skills and the idea of following a storyline, but also for us veterans who just miss the genre.
That's my opinion anyway.
-Nano.
p.s. I want to see a Spacequest Movie made