The article was suggesting that Mac users need to be every bit as cautious as the "rest of us" on our Windows boxes.
And that's where the article is wrong. Mac user's aren't as threatened so they don't have to be as cautious. Here's an analogy for you; a guy crossing a high-wire has to be extremely careful each and every step of the way, one small misstep and he could plunge to his death. Another guy walking down the sidewalk doesn't need to be anywhere near as careful, he could still step into a open manhole or in front of a truck but the odds of it happening are very slim and so he doesn't require the same level of care.
There have been numerous incidences where a Windows user gets infected by simply viewing a web site or email. That simply doesn't happen to OS X users. It's true it theoretically could happen but theoretically I could get wacked in the head by a meteor the next time I walk out the door -- but I'm not going to worry about it.
When Mac OS X viruses start being found in the wild, then I'll start worrying about it.
A couple of men went camping. They camped at a remote site, new to them, where they didn't really know everyone else who was camping there. After setting up, one of the men put a little, teeny tiny lock on their tent flap door. His friend looked at the flimsy lock and remarked, "That lock is nowhere near good enough to keep out anyone who might want to get into your tent! Why, I bet I could get through that lock in less than a minute.". The first man replied, "The lock doesn't need to be the best lock in the world; it just needs to be better than that guy's" -- and he pointed to the tent next door, without a lock at all.
That logic isn't valid. If I was going to break into a tent I'd break into the one with the lock, there is something worth protecting in it.
Apple did not try to hide this, and while I agree it would have been a good idea to at least ask politely (and give a clear option to decline), I don't think there is any malicious intent here whatsoever.
Please no. When I install a new app I don't want to spend half an hour clicking through endless dialog boxes detailing the function of each and every feature it has. You don't like the suggestion feature? Turn it off.
Jesus people, save your outrage for things that are truly evil, like the Sony Root-Kit.
If this were windows media player (again - it phoned home when you played DVDs, and was resoundly condemded in many circles) there wouldn't be a person on slashdot without a torch or pitchfork.
Hmmm, let's see if we can spot the difference. One program phoned home with details about what software you were viewing in secret and with no benifit to the user. The other is phoning home with the necessary details about what song you've selected in order to give the user recommendations for other songs they may like, and is doing so out in the open.
One is good, one is bad.
Did you know that when you use a browser to contact a web site it sends the web site your IP address!!!! Ooooh!
Are you kidding me with all this outrage? It's a (new) function of the software. You click on a song and it offers suggestions for other tracks you might like to buy from the iTMS (or acquire from other sources). It doesn't secretly send info on each song in your collection or each song that you play. It's a music recomendation service, how do you expect it to work?
It's not Malware or spyware. At worst it's adware and you can turn it off if you want to use it (hell you can disable the iTMS in iTunes completely). Complaining about this is like complaining that Firefox sends your IP address to all the sites you visit.
Right now I have 2,859 songs in my collection, (mostly ripped from my CDs) which I can transfer to anything I own (or will own) that will play songs. 20 years from now, after you've paid Yahoo more than $1,200 and they drop their subscription service and all your music goes away -- I'll still be able to play every single one of those songs.
Let's say 2,000 of those songs came from CDs you purchased, and the average CD has 15 songs on it. That's 133 CDs. Being the frugal shopper you are, you only paid an average of $10 per CD. There's $1,333. Now 5 years from now your cat knocks over a candle and burns down your house, melting your CDs and frying your hard drive. What are you going to do then? If my house burns down at least I can download the music again.
I've bought the CDs over a 20 year period as I could afford them (i.e. had disposable income) and many of the CDs have been gifts or other freebies. You can also buy CDs for $5 or less from used CD stores around here. If my place burns down I'll take the insurance money and buy new CDs (ignoring, for the sake of the argument, my off-site backup).
And to be honest, I expect that in 20 years someone will have cracked the DRM on the music, but if not, oh well. $1,200 isn't a big deal...and over 20 years? That's trivial. I'm willing to pay for the convenience and the amount of time it saves. How long did it take you to rip 133 CDs and find and download the rest (ensuring each track was a good clean copy)?
So you plan to "steal" the songs, why not just use P2P software and "steal" them in the first place? Why pay money to steal crappy WMA files when you can steal decent MP3 files or good FLAC format files?
It didn't take much time at all to rip my CD collection (over 200 CDs) because I did it (over a few weeks) while doing other things. The only time it took was inserting the CD, clicking a go button and later removing the CD. If I was stupid enough to sit and wait for each CD to be ripped it would have taken quite awhile. How long did it take to muck around in your on-line store and pick all the songs you want and download them?
But hey, if you want to pay a monthly fee for the rest of your life for the "priviedge" of listening to heavily DRMed low quality WMA files on authorised equipment -- then that's your choice.
I have a subscription to Yahoo Music Unlimited and I've found it is definitely worth the $60/year. Right now I've got 744 songs in my collection, which if purchased at iTunes would cost more than 12 years of subscription fees (assuming the price doesn't go up). I can license 3 computers to access my subscription, so I've got it set up on my home computer, my work computer, and my laptop. The service keeps them in sync so if I add music at home, it gets downloaded at work next time I start the service. Since I download the music to my computer, if the network goes down I can still play music.
Right now I have 2,859 songs in my collection, (mostly ripped from my CDs) which I can transfer to anything I own (or will own) that will play songs. 20 years from now, after you've paid Yahoo more than $1,200 and they drop their subscription service and all your music goes away -- I'll still be able to play every single one of those songs.
Personally, I don't care if the prices go to a tiered structure. I don't buy the "hits" so the songs I'd purchase would probably come out cheaper than $.99.
That's not the way it'd work. Most of the songs will be more than.99 cents and only be a handful (think loss leader) will become cheaper.
<nitpick> It's FUBAR, not foobar. FUBAR is an acronym that stands for "F'ed Up Beyond All Recognition". Besides that, it's funnier if you spell it right. (and yes, I intentionally abbreviated the 'F' word.)</nitpick>
<nitpick^^2>That should be "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair". (and yes I have the balls to actually swear when I swear.)</nitpick^^2>
According to Genesis, there was a flood which covered the whole earth. Everything alive at the time would have been washed away, and eventually settled to the bottom. Small stuff would have fallen through the cracks between the big stuff, resulting in a layer which shows nothing (already there at the time of the flood), a layer which shows small stuff (where all the small stuff settled to) and higher layers showing bigger and bigger life forms.
Explain to me, scientifically, why your viewpoint is the right way to interpret this evidence, and mine is incorrect.
Well to start with, you'd have to show evidence of the flood...
However, I also believe that a law which says "you must not teach ID" is equally in violation of the amendment. Similarly, I believe laws that require the display of the Ten Commandments are unconstiutional but also that laws prohibiting their display are also unconstitutional. The same for prayer in schools, etc.
Such a law is not a violation of the amendment because it's not a blanket law. It only applies to public schools, you are free to teach ID in private schools, churches, your home, street corners, etc. The same goes with banning religious symbolism on government property, the law does not prevent you from erecting a religious display on your property, it just stops the government from doing it on public property.
Now, like I said, you've got a fast computer. So you can rip a CD in about five minutes. Add to that the one minute per disc to check the metadata accuracy and you're looking at six minutes per CD. Good! That's 10 per hour. OK, you've got 400 CDs and you can do 10 an hour. That'll only take you... hrm--I never was any good at math--carry the six, divide by pi... 40 hours. Oh. That's a full time job for a week! Dang.
Once you start the RIP you just get on with whatever it was you were doing on the computer in the first place. Then a little while later you take a micro-break (gotta avoid that carpal tunnel) you change discs and repeat.
To gain an advantage over existing personal computer models, IBM decided to use the new Intel 8088 CPU, which had a 16-bit memory model making it capable of directly addressing 1MB of memory (although unlike the fully 16-bit 8086, the 8088 chip saved money by being 8-bit externally).
The 8086 and 8088 both used 20 bit addressing, 2^20 = 1,048,576, it's simple math!!!
If you surround people with "experts" and they tell you that in low-earth orbit there is gravity, then unless you have a good education and faith in it, then wont you believe them? Of course there is gravity, you're only a couple of hundred miles up! Kripes, the moon is held in place by the earth's gravity! The trick is that you're in orbit, in other words you're in free fall with almost no atmosphere to slow you down. You're falling and everything around you (i.e. the ship) is falling at exactly the same speed so there is the illusion of a lack of gravity.
No twonk in a white coat is going to make me believe that I'm in orbit if I'm not experienceing free fall.
You need a constant influx of bacteria and viruses in order to keep our immune system strong. If you "cleanse" your immune system you'll end up getting whipped out by a flu or the common cold.
It doesn't "cleanse" your immune system, it keeps it active (the old "if you don't use it" rule) and you'll get a steady supply of bacteria and viruses from plenty of other sources. It's also an argument of WHICH bacteria and viruses you get. Some are worse than others.
Eating iradiated foods, drinking heavily filtered water and using anti-bacterial soap will all reduce the amount of bacteria (and in the case of irradiation, viruses) you are consuming. That will weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to viral infections and bacterial diseases. Our bodies are capable of dealing with almost any bacteria or virus if our immune systems are in top shape.
Radiation treatment kills LIVING cells, in particular bacteria and viruses and so on... stuff that makes you sick.
You need a constant influx of bacteria and viruses in order to keep our immune system strong. If you "cleanse" your immune system you'll end up getting whipped out by a flu or the common cold.
Also, there are times (rare, yes) when speeding to the hospital is not the worst idea. The hospital where I live is slightly out of town, and to get there you have to go on a highway of sorts. The limit is 60km/h for part of it. Oh a straight road, no lights, no fast turns or merging traffic, if it was 4 in the morning and someone was dying in my backseat, going up to 100 would not be an issue.
I have to disagree, if the person you are rushing to the hospital is in that severe a condition you are going to be under intense stress, the person in the car with you is going to be a major distraction, that is not the time to test out your l33t NASCAR skills. That is the time to drive as calmly and safely as possible.
The retailer will hate this, you've caused a scene in their store, delayed the cashier from ringing through purchases, annoyed other customers and they've lost a sale. If just a couple of people did this per store per day rebates would end in no time.
Not really - at a larger company like Best Buy or Fry's (the ones most enamoured of rebates), it JUST makes problems for the local staff and not the company as a whole. The execs who set national advertising and pricing aren't going to have to deal with it themselves, and they don't care if the frontline workers have to or not.
Yes really. It will take a while but the store manager is aware of it and he'll be passing the news up the food chain. The Execs may not man the tills very often (although they should) but they are very aware that dissatisfied customers are bad news and will change company policy to avoid them. Sitting at home and bitching on slashdot about them won't have any effect at all.
I really wish people would read the article before starting to rant but at least read the fucking submission!
If the car begins to significantly exceed the speed limit for the road on which it's traveling the system responds by making it harder to depress the gas pedal
Point number one: it says "If the car begins to significantly exceed the speed limit", it does not say "if the car exceeds the speed limit by the teensiest amount". So it would only start functioning after you've passed 130 in a 100 zone (example numbers made up by me based on what is considered excessive speed under the law).
Point number two: it says "responds by making it harder to depress the gas pedal", it does not say prevents the car from increasing its speed. So you're doing 130 in a 100 zone you have to press the gas peddle harder to hit 140 than you would if the device wasn't there giving you terrific feedback that you're driving SIGNIFICANTLY above the speed limit.
Point number three: It says nothing about these devices being mandated (in most cases they would be easy to bypass), if you don't want one in your car don't install one.
Point number four: The number of accidents that could be avoided with excessive speed is vanishingly small. It's very rare that a person's best option to avoid an accident is to "gun it", which (see above) you can still do!
Point number five: For the miniscule number of accidents that speeding up will help you avoid -- the system is using GPS to calculate speed, it wouldn't be instantaneous, there would be a few second (at least) lag (latency for the geeks reading this) before the system kicks in. Plenty of time to avoid whatever accident you're almost part of.
I have recently thought about getting into D&D. Does anyone have suggestions on how to get into this game? Is there anything I should do other than "buy the basic set and start playing"?
Step zero: Give up on the idea of ever getting laid. Step one: Find other people who are playing already. Step two: Sit in with them and see how the game goes. Step three: If you had fun in step two, offer to take over an NPC for a couple of sessions. Step four: If you enjoyed step three and the others enjoyed your company talk to the DM about rolling up your own character. Step five: Buy the Player's Handbook (or whatever rule book the people in your group are using). Step six: If they are playing D&D, get a (second) job to finance the purchase of all the add on books and plastic figurines.
If at any time these rules break down, return to step one and begin again.
So you don't like rebates? Here's what you should do.
Go to the store and take the flyer showing the rebated price in big letters (and the real price in teeny letters) with you, pick the item up off the shelf and take it to the counter. When the sales-droid rings up your purchase and tells you the price tell them they're wrong and show them the ad. When they point out the fine print, point out the big print and tell them that's what you're going to pay. Argue with them for a bit. When they won't give you the advertised price call the manager over. Argue with him for a bit. When he won't give you the advertised price leave the item on the counter and walk out.
The retailer will hate this, you've caused a scene in their store, delayed the cashier from ringing through purchases, annoyed other customers and they've lost a sale. If just a couple of people did this per store per day rebates would end in no time.
If you're really keen, after this file a complaint with the consumer protection department of your local government (don't bother with the BBB) claiming "bait and switch", unethical business practices and deceptive advertising.
If I watched MTV, CNN, and the Country Music Network, I wouldn't care. But since I watch the History Channel, the Science Channel, Discovery, etc, I do care. These channels will probably fall by the wayside as their revenue is reduced by a huge margin. =(
So you think your entertainment should be subsidised? Why is that?
Everyone seems to be missing the point that if the RIAA forces Apple to change it's pricing--that's price fixing. The record labels can't tell Apple what they (Apple) can charge for their (Apple's) goods and services. The record labels can only tell Apple what they (the record labels) will charge them (Apple) for their (the record label's) goods and services.
Slashdot Mirror
The article was suggesting that Mac users need to be every bit as cautious as the "rest of us" on our Windows boxes.
And that's where the article is wrong. Mac user's aren't as threatened so they don't have to be as cautious. Here's an analogy for you; a guy crossing a high-wire has to be extremely careful each and every step of the way, one small misstep and he could plunge to his death. Another guy walking down the sidewalk doesn't need to be anywhere near as careful, he could still step into a open manhole or in front of a truck but the odds of it happening are very slim and so he doesn't require the same level of care.
There have been numerous incidences where a Windows user gets infected by simply viewing a web site or email. That simply doesn't happen to OS X users. It's true it theoretically could happen but theoretically I could get wacked in the head by a meteor the next time I walk out the door -- but I'm not going to worry about it.
When Mac OS X viruses start being found in the wild, then I'll start worrying about it.
A couple of men went camping. They camped at a remote site, new to them, where they didn't really know everyone else who was camping there. After setting up, one of the men put a little, teeny tiny lock on their tent flap door. His friend looked at the flimsy lock and remarked, "That lock is nowhere near good enough to keep out anyone who might want to get into your tent! Why, I bet I could get through that lock in less than a minute.". The first man replied, "The lock doesn't need to be the best lock in the world; it just needs to be better than that guy's" -- and he pointed to the tent next door, without a lock at all.
That logic isn't valid. If I was going to break into a tent I'd break into the one with the lock, there is something worth protecting in it.
The moral? Security issues are very complex.
Apple did not try to hide this, and while I agree it would have been a good idea to at least ask politely (and give a clear option to decline), I don't think there is any malicious intent here whatsoever.
Please no. When I install a new app I don't want to spend half an hour clicking through endless dialog boxes detailing the function of each and every feature it has. You don't like the suggestion feature? Turn it off.
Jesus people, save your outrage for things that are truly evil, like the Sony Root-Kit.
If this were windows media player (again - it phoned home when you played DVDs, and was resoundly condemded in many circles) there wouldn't be a person on slashdot without a torch or pitchfork.
Hmmm, let's see if we can spot the difference. One program phoned home with details about what software you were viewing in secret and with no benifit to the user. The other is phoning home with the necessary details about what song you've selected in order to give the user recommendations for other songs they may like, and is doing so out in the open.
One is good, one is bad.
Did you know that when you use a browser to contact a web site it sends the web site your IP address!!!! Ooooh!
Are you kidding me with all this outrage? It's a (new) function of the software. You click on a song and it offers suggestions for other tracks you might like to buy from the iTMS (or acquire from other sources). It doesn't secretly send info on each song in your collection or each song that you play. It's a music recomendation service, how do you expect it to work?
It's not Malware or spyware. At worst it's adware and you can turn it off if you want to use it (hell you can disable the iTMS in iTunes completely). Complaining about this is like complaining that Firefox sends your IP address to all the sites you visit.
Let's say 2,000 of those songs came from CDs you purchased, and the average CD has 15 songs on it. That's 133 CDs. Being the frugal shopper you are, you only paid an average of $10 per CD. There's $1,333. Now 5 years from now your cat knocks over a candle and burns down your house, melting your CDs and frying your hard drive. What are you going to do then? If my house burns down at least I can download the music again.
I've bought the CDs over a 20 year period as I could afford them (i.e. had disposable income) and many of the CDs have been gifts or other freebies. You can also buy CDs for $5 or less from used CD stores around here. If my place burns down I'll take the insurance money and buy new CDs (ignoring, for the sake of the argument, my off-site backup).
And to be honest, I expect that in 20 years someone will have cracked the DRM on the music, but if not, oh well. $1,200 isn't a big deal...and over 20 years? That's trivial. I'm willing to pay for the convenience and the amount of time it saves. How long did it take you to rip 133 CDs and find and download the rest (ensuring each track was a good clean copy)?
So you plan to "steal" the songs, why not just use P2P software and "steal" them in the first place? Why pay money to steal crappy WMA files when you can steal decent MP3 files or good FLAC format files?
It didn't take much time at all to rip my CD collection (over 200 CDs) because I did it (over a few weeks) while doing other things. The only time it took was inserting the CD, clicking a go button and later removing the CD. If I was stupid enough to sit and wait for each CD to be ripped it would have taken quite awhile. How long did it take to muck around in your on-line store and pick all the songs you want and download them?
But hey, if you want to pay a monthly fee for the rest of your life for the "priviedge" of listening to heavily DRMed low quality WMA files on authorised equipment -- then that's your choice.
I have a subscription to Yahoo Music Unlimited and I've found it is definitely worth the $60/year. Right now I've got 744 songs in my collection, which if purchased at iTunes would cost more than 12 years of subscription fees (assuming the price doesn't go up). I can license 3 computers to access my subscription, so I've got it set up on my home computer, my work computer, and my laptop. The service keeps them in sync so if I add music at home, it gets downloaded at work next time I start the service. Since I download the music to my computer, if the network goes down I can still play music.
Right now I have 2,859 songs in my collection, (mostly ripped from my CDs) which I can transfer to anything I own (or will own) that will play songs. 20 years from now, after you've paid Yahoo more than $1,200 and they drop their subscription service and all your music goes away -- I'll still be able to play every single one of those songs.
Personally, I don't care if the prices go to a tiered structure. I don't buy the "hits" so the songs I'd purchase would probably come out cheaper than $.99.
.99 cents and only be a handful (think loss leader) will become cheaper.
That's not the way it'd work. Most of the songs will be more than
<nitpick> It's FUBAR, not foobar. FUBAR is an acronym that stands for "F'ed Up Beyond All Recognition". Besides that, it's funnier if you spell it right. (and yes, I intentionally abbreviated the 'F' word.)</nitpick>
<nitpick^^2>That should be "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair". (and yes I have the balls to actually swear when I swear.)</nitpick^^2>
According to Genesis, there was a flood which covered the whole earth. Everything alive at the time would have been washed away, and eventually settled to the bottom. Small stuff would have fallen through the cracks between the big stuff, resulting in a layer which shows nothing (already there at the time of the flood), a layer which shows small stuff (where all the small stuff settled to) and higher layers showing bigger and bigger life forms.
Explain to me, scientifically, why your viewpoint is the right way to interpret this evidence, and mine is incorrect.
Well to start with, you'd have to show evidence of the flood...
However, I also believe that a law which says "you must not teach ID" is equally in violation of the amendment. Similarly, I believe laws that require the display of the Ten Commandments are unconstiutional but also that laws prohibiting their display are also unconstitutional. The same for prayer in schools, etc.
Such a law is not a violation of the amendment because it's not a blanket law. It only applies to public schools, you are free to teach ID in private schools, churches, your home, street corners, etc. The same goes with banning religious symbolism on government property, the law does not prevent you from erecting a religious display on your property, it just stops the government from doing it on public property.
I wonder what happens if you sent in a bunch of CD-R mixes?
Now, like I said, you've got a fast computer. So you can rip a CD in about five minutes. Add to that the one minute per disc to check the metadata accuracy and you're looking at six minutes per CD. Good! That's 10 per hour. OK, you've got 400 CDs and you can do 10 an hour. That'll only take you... hrm--I never was any good at math--carry the six, divide by pi... 40 hours. Oh. That's a full time job for a week! Dang.
Once you start the RIP you just get on with whatever it was you were doing on the computer in the first place. Then a little while later you take a micro-break (gotta avoid that carpal tunnel) you change discs and repeat.
The 8086 and 8088 both used 20 bit addressing, 2^20 = 1,048,576, it's simple math!!!
If you surround people with "experts" and they tell you that in low-earth orbit there is gravity, then unless you have a good education and faith in it, then wont you believe them?
Of course there is gravity, you're only a couple of hundred miles up! Kripes, the moon is held in place by the earth's gravity! The trick is that you're in orbit, in other words you're in free fall with almost no atmosphere to slow you down. You're falling and everything around you (i.e. the ship) is falling at exactly the same speed so there is the illusion of a lack of gravity.
No twonk in a white coat is going to make me believe that I'm in orbit if I'm not experienceing free fall.
Eating iradiated foods, drinking heavily filtered water and using anti-bacterial soap will all reduce the amount of bacteria (and in the case of irradiation, viruses) you are consuming. That will weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to viral infections and bacterial diseases. Our bodies are capable of dealing with almost any bacteria or virus if our immune systems are in top shape.
Radiation treatment kills LIVING cells, in particular bacteria and viruses and so on... stuff that makes you sick.
You need a constant influx of bacteria and viruses in order to keep our immune system strong. If you "cleanse" your immune system you'll end up getting whipped out by a flu or the common cold.
Also, there are times (rare, yes) when speeding to the hospital is not the worst idea. The hospital where I live is slightly out of town, and to get there you have to go on a highway of sorts. The limit is 60km/h for part of it. Oh a straight road, no lights, no fast turns or merging traffic, if it was 4 in the morning and someone was dying in my backseat, going up to 100 would not be an issue.
I have to disagree, if the person you are rushing to the hospital is in that severe a condition you are going to be under intense stress, the person in the car with you is going to be a major distraction, that is not the time to test out your l33t NASCAR skills. That is the time to drive as calmly and safely as possible.
Not really - at a larger company like Best Buy or Fry's (the ones most enamoured of rebates), it JUST makes problems for the local staff and not the company as a whole. The execs who set national advertising and pricing aren't going to have to deal with it themselves, and they don't care if the frontline workers have to or not.
Yes really. It will take a while but the store manager is aware of it and he'll be passing the news up the food chain. The Execs may not man the tills very often (although they should) but they are very aware that dissatisfied customers are bad news and will change company policy to avoid them. Sitting at home and bitching on slashdot about them won't have any effect at all.
I really wish people would read the article before starting to rant but at least read the fucking submission!
If the car begins to significantly exceed the speed limit for the road on which it's traveling the system responds by making it harder to depress the gas pedal
Point number one: it says "If the car begins to significantly exceed the speed limit", it does not say "if the car exceeds the speed limit by the teensiest amount". So it would only start functioning after you've passed 130 in a 100 zone (example numbers made up by me based on what is considered excessive speed under the law).
Point number two: it says "responds by making it harder to depress the gas pedal", it does not say prevents the car from increasing its speed. So you're doing 130 in a 100 zone you have to press the gas peddle harder to hit 140 than you would if the device wasn't there giving you terrific feedback that you're driving SIGNIFICANTLY above the speed limit.
Point number three: It says nothing about these devices being mandated (in most cases they would be easy to bypass), if you don't want one in your car don't install one.
Point number four: The number of accidents that could be avoided with excessive speed is vanishingly small. It's very rare that a person's best option to avoid an accident is to "gun it", which (see above) you can still do!
Point number five: For the miniscule number of accidents that speeding up will help you avoid -- the system is using GPS to calculate speed, it wouldn't be instantaneous, there would be a few second (at least) lag (latency for the geeks reading this) before the system kicks in. Plenty of time to avoid whatever accident you're almost part of.
I have recently thought about getting into D&D. Does anyone have suggestions on how to get into this game? Is there anything I should do other than "buy the basic set and start playing"?
Step zero: Give up on the idea of ever getting laid.
Step one: Find other people who are playing already.
Step two: Sit in with them and see how the game goes.
Step three: If you had fun in step two, offer to take over an NPC for a couple of sessions.
Step four: If you enjoyed step three and the others enjoyed your company talk to the DM about rolling up your own character.
Step five: Buy the Player's Handbook (or whatever rule book the people in your group are using).
Step six: If they are playing D&D, get a (second) job to finance the purchase of all the add on books and plastic figurines.
If at any time these rules break down, return to step one and begin again.
So you don't like rebates? Here's what you should do.
Go to the store and take the flyer showing the rebated price in big letters (and the real price in teeny letters) with you, pick the item up off the shelf and take it to the counter. When the sales-droid rings up your purchase and tells you the price tell them they're wrong and show them the ad. When they point out the fine print, point out the big print and tell them that's what you're going to pay. Argue with them for a bit. When they won't give you the advertised price call the manager over. Argue with him for a bit. When he won't give you the advertised price leave the item on the counter and walk out.
The retailer will hate this, you've caused a scene in their store, delayed the cashier from ringing through purchases, annoyed other customers and they've lost a sale. If just a couple of people did this per store per day rebates would end in no time.
If you're really keen, after this file a complaint with the consumer protection department of your local government (don't bother with the BBB) claiming "bait and switch", unethical business practices and deceptive advertising.
If I watched MTV, CNN, and the Country Music Network, I wouldn't care. But since I watch the History Channel, the Science Channel, Discovery, etc, I do care. These channels will probably fall by the wayside as their revenue is reduced by a huge margin. =(
So you think your entertainment should be subsidised? Why is that?
There is no patch, but since it is a javascript exploit, you can work around it by disabling javascript.
Or by not using IE in the first place.
Everyone seems to be missing the point that if the RIAA forces Apple to change it's pricing--that's price fixing. The record labels can't tell Apple what they (Apple) can charge for their (Apple's) goods and services. The record labels can only tell Apple what they (the record labels) will charge them (Apple) for their (the record label's) goods and services.