"Yes, Intel sells cheap, under-wrought chips (it isn't for lack of trying). But if it weren't for those, you wouldn't have a computer. "
By that logic, we wouldn't be using computers today without MS either. Which is pure and unadulterated BS. Making the "cheapest and the mostest" doesn't do anything but lead people to accept lower and lower quality in the name of convenience and profits for the seller. Intel is just lucky that it's much more difficult to pull off an open-source processor than OS. And to take your McD's analogy one step further, while McNuggets may be fine for the kids occasionally, would you serve it at a board meeting? Didn't think so. So why settle for less in your server room? Or even at home. God knows I'd be ready to scream after a couple days of nothing but McD's.
Did you actually read the paper? There was no "system" described and more importantly, your sweeping generalization about the "founding precept" is completely wrong. The fundamental concept put forth could be more accurately summarized as: The recording industry has been constricting the market for two decades in an effort to maximize profits. Inventory and such makes it in their best interest to market a few bands to the most people possible. Pent up demand for more variety and choice has found an avenue of supply via the net. What happens from there is anyones guess. Try reading before posting.
You're reading way too much into this. People still watch Chaplin and the Stooges for the love o'Pete. If something is really well done, almost no matter what it may be, it will generally have a fairly long shelf-life.
BTW, who do you think will be remembered more 100 years from now? The Python players or PeeWee? Nuff said.
I would argue that it is nearly always in the best interest of a buyer to go directly to the seller to make a deal, rather than through a percentage taking middle-man. You may be an easier mark for scammers than someone who does nothing but make deals, but a little homework can go a long way. If you dont want to do the homework fine, use an agent. Just please don't vote for structuring the system so that one is required. As a seller on the other hand, it is a different story, for reasons such as advertising coverage etc.
Looks like you may be confusing ease of learning with ease of create a large-scale app with a given language. Learning assembly well enough to get a better idea of how a computer really works is significantly easier than learning and using assembly well enough to create the next Quake from scratch with it.
This is supported by my experience anyway. It isn't the keyboard which hurts me, it the damned mouse. Switched to an MS Trackball Explorer and have had 80% of my right side arm/wrist/shoulder aches disappear. Tried several other trackballs but unfortunately they just didn't quite compare to the one signed with the mark of the beast hehe. And switching pointer devices is a hell of a lot cheaper than getting a new chair and/or desk that are more ergo perfect. Hope this encourages even one person with pains on their mouse side to try an alternative because it really does help. No more bottles of generic ibuprofen on the desktop!
You mentioned what I feel is the built-in safety valve for consumers should the music or movie industries make a successful short term push for all devices/programs to operate under their regs. Namely that it WILL ultimately fail in the face of consumer demand for non-crippled/right infringing products. And it only takes ONE company to do it once the magical state of unity sought by the RIAA/MPAA is reached. Here's hoping we don't come to the point of needing this to happen though!
Patience, Grasshopper. It takes time to do these things. I'm willing to bet the majority of the announcements of which you speak came out in the last 6 months to 1 year. Rome was not built in a day.
Seems lots of the +5 posters (and the people who put them there) are more concerned with taking shots at Katz than thinking through their statements in any meaningful way.
Ex:
Beyond that, fast food franchises obliterated a sense of geographical and cultural differences among different regions of the United StatesThe appeal of fast food -- that people would know just what to expect no matter where they bought their Whoppers or Taco Bell burritos -- was also one of its most devastating consequences.
This is a devastating consequence? The fact that you can get McDonald's everywhere? Shudder! The blood's running in the street. What exactly does this have to do with "corporatism," anyway? I can get Chinese food everywhere, despite the notable absence of any national Chinese food chains. Seriously, Katz, are you saying we need laws to preserve regional cuisine? Is that what you want?
Of course that's not what any sane person would want. The replier _completely_ misses the point. And is sitting at +5. Love it.
Agreed, connecting to MSSQL from Java sucks. Seems they have gone out of their way not to play ball. A company in Germany though has written a killer Java library called JADOZoom. Exposes all the essential ADO objects to Java. Connections, parameters, recordsets, etc. Check it out: Infozoom. Not open source or free ($150euro for continued use), and comes with NO docs but a longish demo program, but it works and works well.
OH MY GOD! WHERE OH WHERE ARE IS MY MOD ABILITY WHEN I NEED IT! This is -1 Flamebait sitting pretty at +5 Insightful!!!
OK, point by point since I have nothing but time at the moment.
I don't understand why people criticise Echelon all the time. Prima Facie , it may appear insidious and dangerous, but really it is just a branch of the modern military, and a legitimate form of defense.
Yeah, and while a rattlesnake may appear dangerous, it is in fact simply a branch of the lizard family and not to be concerned about.
In the modern world, defense through physical aggression really doesn't work. Armies and bombs are becoming an archaic thing of the past, as modern states attack each other in the infosphere.
Thank god you aren't controlling our military budget. Even today one has to occupy enemy land to own it. NO nation is so wired that it can be 'run remotely'. Not unless you have big fat missiles pointed at them, which brings you back in to the world of physical force.
Echelon is our defense. It has provided an incredible amount of information for the Anglo Saxon world, and was first set up by the Anglo Saxon nations to provide a defense against the socialism and communism gripping europe. It provided much defense against the nazi threat in WWII. I think perhaps that our European friends forget their history when they criticise Echeleon - if it were not for Echelon, the fascists and communists would have plunged Western Europe into a pit of darkness the like of which the world has never scene.
"449 In this year Mauricius and Valentinian obtained the Kingdom and reigned seven years. In their days Hengest and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, King of the Britons, came to Britain at a place called Ebbsfleet at first to help the Britons, but later they fought against them. The king ordered them to fight against the Picts, and so they did and had victory wherever they came. They then sent to Angeln; ordered them to send them more aid and to be told of the worthlessness of the Britons and of the excellence of the land. They sent them more aid. These men came from three nations of Germany: from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes."
Ignorant racist.
At the end of the day, Echelon is controlled by our democratic governments, and the information it reveals is used responsibly. We very rarely give information out to companies or the public, unlike the french.
Just how the fsck do you know for certain what our gov't does and does not do? This I would like to know.
Echelon is controlled democratically, but it is the undemocratic knife edge that defends and ensures the existance of our democratic Anglo Saxon realms. Those who would see it disbanded - like the Europeans with their PR campaign, when they do just the same thing unsuccessfully - are just seeking to plunge our nation into decline and guilt, where we should be strong, proud and altruistic. I hope to see echelon continue its good work, for all our people, in its defense of the Anglo Saxon worldview. UKUSA needs echelon.
Yeah, altruistic. Great, good and decent America dispensing the fruits of our moral high-ground to the great unwashed of the world. Jesushfuckingchristsittingonaspinfuckchairspewingb lasphemies! Go ask the Panamanians how thankfull they are for what the Bush admin did to them. Or the Cambodians we ignored while they died by the millions. I think I need to go puke.
Hello pot, this is kettle...if you had been paying attention in high school civics you would have learned that "any law is ok since I'm perfect" is about the dumbest thing a member of a (supposedly) free society can think. DAMN our society is rapidly becoming intellectually bankrupt. Jesus wept.
Three things jumped out at me reading the spec sheet:
1 - DVB System running on separate RTOS
DVB, ATVEF and MHP Compliant
2 - Macrovision 7 compliant
3 - Intel Celeron ® 366 Mhz CPU or faster
(listed separately) Full MPEG2/DVB compatible engine
This seems boils down to an entirely separate sub-system that handles _all_ broadcast type digital video. The overall DVB spec has two specs inside of it that deal with content encryption/protection. No telling from the site just _how_ compliant their DVB imlpementation is, but with Macrovision also listed, it seems safe to assume they are leaning towards the look-but-dont-copy side of things. This thing may be able to be hacked up to run some games, but looks like you can forget doing much digital video hacking with it.
I'm starting to wonder if aliens/the feds aren't busy kidnapping/.'ers and replacing them with drones.
Here we have a company that was willing to try and bring out a reasonably priced and decently performing handheld unit that runs Linux and runs it well. They have been nothing but open, friendly and helpful to those who are trying to develop for it.
Is it perfect? No. What version 1.0 of nearly anything is these days? Especially with a product that IS geared toward the geeks among us?(There are at least a couple left I'm sure...)
Since many of you who have posted to this topic obviously won't ever look for yourselves, believe me when I say that you CAN in fact use this device in as brain-dead a fashion as a Palm. Set an appointment, jot down a contact, etc WITHOUT having to type in command lines. But you can do so much more when the guts of the machine are readily available and familiar to you in the form of Linux. (Though I suspect that no longer are the majority of/.'ers Linux users, AT ALL!)
So, finally it's ready for release and what do you guys do? Shit all over it. From people who are obviously feeling threatened (oh no! MY cool shiny thing isn't so cool anymore! Wait a minute, I'll just throw mud at everyone else and proclaim how great my toy REALLY is and then it will still be shiniest! Yeah, that's a plan!) by it to just plain ignoramuses who think it requires command lines to do anything.
What the hell is wrong with you people? Could one of the ex-/.'ers of old who might still be lurking please tell this straggler where you all have migrated to?
Mod this.parent down, the poster obviously hasn't read the docs, actually used an Agenda or consulted with anyone who had done one of those two things before dissing it.
Not that I'm really that big of an EQ fan, but to be fair, you may be taking a bit of an extreme position. To my knowledge, never been there, Planes raids often require five plus groups of six characters each, working together, to be successful. Grouping into six man (or less) teams is pretty fundamental to survival in EQ for the part of the game I have seen too. Also there are about six camera positions, including two zoomable 360 degree panning views, that you have to choose from at any moment. The game is _far_ from perfect, but as far as immersiveness goes, selectable view 3D kicks static overhead 2D right in the kahones. Really though, the vector graphics in Wizardry I are all you actually need right? It's all about imagination right? We dont want things to seem _too_ real do we? Riiiight.
The MPAA probably is not keen on the idea of a worldwide team forming to do a movie across the internet, or any other challenge to their rule.
I'm being serious when I ask what the fsck the MPAA could do about it if myself and some friends (in other countries) were to collaborate on a independent film. Deny us the right to show it in the US? At what level? Just theatres or even private distribution on tape? Would SAG and their ilk come after us with legal batons? This is thoroughly depressing to think about...
Movies are (can be anyway heh) ART goddammit. If a friend in Honduras and I put together a VHS tape of a screeplay we created and I want to show it in my front yard, WTF right does any legal authority have to say squat about it?
Right, so for now we have to extrapolate from a sample size of one, and some logic. As for the logic, note I'm not using any features of earthly life, aside from it's ability to evolve and adapt. If something evolves and adapts, it will therefor radiates and finds new habitats. If not then well, it's not life at all.
So if we find something that does fit our preconceived notions as to what life is, based on our limited experience with a single life-bearing planet, it's automatically not life at all? OK, so you may not be an outright troll, but I still say your logic is fucked.
But..but...but...everyone knows dilithium is used to power warp drives! 'Core dump' takes on whole new levels of horror if they actually make computers out of that stuff!
Just because one planet exhibits life in a certain way is NO indication that ALL life-bearing planets will exhibit the same features.
"Expect..." my ass. And of course we look at Mars for signs of past or present life. It IS right next door to the only planet on which we have found life to date.
It is likely that the concept of a planet having traces of life is not a valid one: there will be diversity and many filled niches, or nothing. Even if there are or were a few bacteria on mars, then it's not what we think of as life: there is no ecology, no biosphere, no diversity.
Hello, McFly? If there were something recognizable as a bacteria found on Mars, and a bacteria is recognized as a living organism, then it's pretty safe to say we would have found life on Mars eh? Ecospheres be damned.
You sir, define snotty. Or is it "holier than thou". Not sure.
And get over your own self besides. The Universe will soon sort you out too. Then look where all your chest-pounding will have gotten you. Six feet under just like the rest of us.
Slashdot Mirror
"Yes, Intel sells cheap, under-wrought chips (it isn't for lack of trying). But if it weren't for those, you wouldn't have a computer. "
By that logic, we wouldn't be using computers today without MS either. Which is pure and unadulterated BS. Making the "cheapest and the mostest" doesn't do anything but lead people to accept lower and lower quality in the name of convenience and profits for the seller. Intel is just lucky that it's much more difficult to pull off an open-source processor than OS. And to take your McD's analogy one step further, while McNuggets may be fine for the kids occasionally, would you serve it at a board meeting? Didn't think so. So why settle for less in your server room? Or even at home. God knows I'd be ready to scream after a couple days of nothing but McD's.
LEXX
Did you actually read the paper? There was no "system" described and more importantly, your sweeping generalization about the "founding precept" is completely wrong. The fundamental concept put forth could be more accurately summarized as: The recording industry has been constricting the market for two decades in an effort to maximize profits. Inventory and such makes it in their best interest to market a few bands to the most people possible. Pent up demand for more variety and choice has found an avenue of supply via the net. What happens from there is anyones guess. Try reading before posting.
LEXX
You're reading way too much into this. People still watch Chaplin and the Stooges for the love o'Pete. If something is really well done, almost no matter what it may be, it will generally have a fairly long shelf-life.
BTW, who do you think will be remembered more 100 years from now? The Python players or PeeWee? Nuff said.
LEXX
I would argue that it is nearly always in the best interest of a buyer to go directly to the seller to make a deal, rather than through a percentage taking middle-man. You may be an easier mark for scammers than someone who does nothing but make deals, but a little homework can go a long way. If you dont want to do the homework fine, use an agent. Just please don't vote for structuring the system so that one is required. As a seller on the other hand, it is a different story, for reasons such as advertising coverage etc.
:)
There, I replied
LEXX
Looks like you may be confusing ease of learning with ease of create a large-scale app with a given language. Learning assembly well enough to get a better idea of how a computer really works is significantly easier than learning and using assembly well enough to create the next Quake from scratch with it.
LEXX
This is supported by my experience anyway. It isn't the keyboard which hurts me, it the damned mouse. Switched to an MS Trackball Explorer and have had 80% of my right side arm/wrist/shoulder aches disappear. Tried several other trackballs but unfortunately they just didn't quite compare to the one signed with the mark of the beast hehe. And switching pointer devices is a hell of a lot cheaper than getting a new chair and/or desk that are more ergo perfect. Hope this encourages even one person with pains on their mouse side to try an alternative because it really does help. No more bottles of generic ibuprofen on the desktop!
LEXX
I want the kind that guy in Ghost in the Shell had! With the pop-out fingers that became two each...man could he type!!! :)
LEXX
You mentioned what I feel is the built-in safety valve for consumers should the music or movie industries make a successful short term push for all devices/programs to operate under their regs. Namely that it WILL ultimately fail in the face of consumer demand for non-crippled/right infringing products. And it only takes ONE company to do it once the magical state of unity sought by the RIAA/MPAA is reached. Here's hoping we don't come to the point of needing this to happen though!
LEXX
Patience, Grasshopper. It takes time to do these things. I'm willing to bet the majority of the announcements of which you speak came out in the last 6 months to 1 year. Rome was not built in a day.
LEXX
Ugh...yup, uses a .dll. :( Sorry. Get 'em in the eye for me hehe.
Wish I had mod points for you right now.
Seems lots of the +5 posters (and the people who put them there) are more concerned with taking shots at Katz than thinking through their statements in any meaningful way.
Ex:
Beyond that, fast food franchises obliterated a sense of geographical and cultural differences among different regions of the United StatesThe appeal of fast food -- that people would know just what to expect no matter where they bought their Whoppers or Taco Bell burritos -- was also one of its most devastating consequences.
This is a devastating consequence? The fact that you can get McDonald's everywhere? Shudder! The blood's running in the street. What exactly does this have to do with "corporatism," anyway? I can get Chinese food everywhere, despite the notable absence of any national Chinese food chains. Seriously, Katz, are you saying we need laws to preserve regional cuisine? Is that what you want?
Of course that's not what any sane person would want. The replier _completely_ misses the point. And is sitting at +5. Love it.
LEXX
Agreed, connecting to MSSQL from Java sucks. Seems they have gone out of their way not to play ball. A company in Germany though has written a killer Java library called JADOZoom. Exposes all the essential ADO objects to Java. Connections, parameters, recordsets, etc. Check it out: Infozoom. Not open source or free ($150euro for continued use), and comes with NO docs but a longish demo program, but it works and works well.
LEXX
OH MY GOD! WHERE OH WHERE ARE IS MY MOD ABILITY WHEN I NEED IT! This is -1 Flamebait sitting pretty at +5 Insightful!!!
b lasphemies! Go ask the Panamanians how thankfull they are for what the Bush admin did to them. Or the Cambodians we ignored while they died by the millions. I think I need to go puke.
OK, point by point since I have nothing but time at the moment.
I don't understand why people criticise Echelon all the time. Prima Facie , it may appear insidious and dangerous, but really it is just a branch of the modern military, and a legitimate form of defense.
Yeah, and while a rattlesnake may appear dangerous, it is in fact simply a branch of the lizard family and not to be concerned about.
In the modern world, defense through physical aggression really doesn't work. Armies and bombs are becoming an archaic thing of the past, as modern states attack each other in the infosphere.
Thank god you aren't controlling our military budget. Even today one has to occupy enemy land to own it. NO nation is so wired that it can be 'run remotely'. Not unless you have big fat missiles pointed at them, which brings you back in to the world of physical force.
Echelon is our defense. It has provided an incredible amount of information for the Anglo Saxon world, and was first set up by the Anglo Saxon nations to provide a defense against the socialism and communism gripping europe. It provided much defense against the nazi threat in WWII. I think perhaps that our European friends forget their history when they criticise Echeleon - if it were not for Echelon, the fascists and communists would have plunged Western Europe into a pit of darkness the like of which the world has never scene.
"449 In this year Mauricius and Valentinian obtained the Kingdom and reigned seven years. In their days Hengest and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, King of the Britons, came to Britain at a place called Ebbsfleet at first to help the Britons, but later they fought against them. The king ordered them to fight against the Picts, and so they did and had victory wherever they came. They then sent to Angeln; ordered them to send them more aid and to be told of the worthlessness of the Britons and of the excellence of the land. They sent them more aid. These men came from three nations of Germany: from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes."
Ignorant racist.
At the end of the day, Echelon is controlled by our democratic governments, and the information it reveals is used responsibly. We very rarely give information out to companies or the public, unlike the french.
Just how the fsck do you know for certain what our gov't does and does not do? This I would like to know.
Echelon is controlled democratically, but it is the undemocratic knife edge that defends and ensures the existance of our democratic Anglo Saxon realms. Those who would see it disbanded - like the Europeans with their PR campaign, when they do just the same thing unsuccessfully - are just seeking to plunge our nation into decline and guilt, where we should be strong, proud and altruistic. I hope to see echelon continue its good work, for all our people, in its defense of the Anglo Saxon worldview. UKUSA needs echelon.
Yeah, altruistic. Great, good and decent America dispensing the fruits of our moral high-ground to the great unwashed of the world. Jesushfuckingchristsittingonaspinfuckchairspewing
Grrrrr!
LEXX
Hello pot, this is kettle...if you had been paying attention in high school civics you would have learned that "any law is ok since I'm perfect" is about the dumbest thing a member of a (supposedly) free society can think. DAMN our society is rapidly becoming intellectually bankrupt. Jesus wept.
LEXX
Three things jumped out at me reading the spec sheet:
1 - DVB System running on separate RTOS
DVB, ATVEF and MHP Compliant
2 - Macrovision 7 compliant
3 - Intel Celeron ® 366 Mhz CPU or faster
(listed separately) Full MPEG2/DVB compatible engine
This seems boils down to an entirely separate sub-system that handles _all_ broadcast type digital video. The overall DVB spec has two specs inside of it that deal with content encryption/protection. No telling from the site just _how_ compliant their DVB imlpementation is, but with Macrovision also listed, it seems safe to assume they are leaning towards the look-but-dont-copy side of things. This thing may be able to be hacked up to run some games, but looks like you can forget doing much digital video hacking with it.
LEXX
I can see it now...
The MS History Revision Server!
Don't let those pesky facts ever get in the way again! Would be hugely popular with corporations everywhere I'm sure...
Reminds me of a Bob-ism: You'd pay good money to know what you really think!
LEXX
I'm starting to wonder if aliens/the feds aren't busy kidnapping /.'ers and replacing them with drones.
/.'ers Linux users, AT ALL!)
Here we have a company that was willing to try and bring out a reasonably priced and decently performing handheld unit that runs Linux and runs it well. They have been nothing but open, friendly and helpful to those who are trying to develop for it.
Is it perfect? No. What version 1.0 of nearly anything is these days? Especially with a product that IS geared toward the geeks among us?(There are at least a couple left I'm sure...)
Since many of you who have posted to this topic obviously won't ever look for yourselves, believe me when I say that you CAN in fact use this device in as brain-dead a fashion as a Palm. Set an appointment, jot down a contact, etc WITHOUT having to type in command lines. But you can do so much more when the guts of the machine are readily available and familiar to you in the form of Linux. (Though I suspect that no longer are the majority of
So, finally it's ready for release and what do you guys do? Shit all over it. From people who are obviously feeling threatened (oh no! MY cool shiny thing isn't so cool anymore! Wait a minute, I'll just throw mud at everyone else and proclaim how great my toy REALLY is and then it will still be shiniest! Yeah, that's a plan!) by it to just plain ignoramuses who think it requires command lines to do anything.
What the hell is wrong with you people? Could one of the ex-/.'ers of old who might still be lurking please tell this straggler where you all have migrated to?
LEXX
Mod this.parent down, the poster obviously hasn't read the docs, actually used an Agenda or consulted with anyone who had done one of those two things before dissing it.
LEXX
And what does that say about /. when what I see on the Reg is more timely, interesting and accurate than what I've seen here lately?
LEXX
Not that I'm really that big of an EQ fan, but to be fair, you may be taking a bit of an extreme position. To my knowledge, never been there, Planes raids often require five plus groups of six characters each, working together, to be successful. Grouping into six man (or less) teams is pretty fundamental to survival in EQ for the part of the game I have seen too. Also there are about six camera positions, including two zoomable 360 degree panning views, that you have to choose from at any moment. The game is _far_ from perfect, but as far as immersiveness goes, selectable view 3D kicks static overhead 2D right in the kahones. Really though, the vector graphics in Wizardry I are all you actually need right? It's all about imagination right? We dont want things to seem _too_ real do we? Riiiight.
LEXX
The MPAA probably is not keen on the idea of a worldwide team forming to do a movie across the internet, or any other challenge to their rule.
I'm being serious when I ask what the fsck the MPAA could do about it if myself and some friends (in other countries) were to collaborate on a independent film. Deny us the right to show it in the US? At what level? Just theatres or even private distribution on tape? Would SAG and their ilk come after us with legal batons? This is thoroughly depressing to think about...
Movies are (can be anyway heh) ART goddammit. If a friend in Honduras and I put together a VHS tape of a screeplay we created and I want to show it in my front yard, WTF right does any legal authority have to say squat about it?
LEXX
Right, so for now we have to extrapolate from a sample size of one, and some logic. As for the logic, note I'm not using any features of earthly life, aside from it's ability to evolve and adapt. If something evolves and adapts, it will therefor radiates and finds new habitats. If not then well, it's not life at all.
So if we find something that does fit our preconceived notions as to what life is, based on our limited experience with a single life-bearing planet, it's automatically not life at all? OK, so you may not be an outright troll, but I still say your logic is fucked.
LEXX
But..but...but...everyone knows dilithium is used to power warp drives! 'Core dump' takes on whole new levels of horror if they actually make computers out of that stuff!
LEXX
Just because one planet exhibits life in a certain way is NO indication that ALL life-bearing planets will exhibit the same features. "Expect..." my ass. And of course we look at Mars for signs of past or present life. It IS right next door to the only planet on which we have found life to date.
It is likely that the concept of a planet having traces of life is not a valid one: there will be diversity and many filled niches, or nothing. Even if there are or were a few bacteria on mars, then it's not what we think of as life: there is no ecology, no biosphere, no diversity.
Hello, McFly? If there were something recognizable as a bacteria found on Mars, and a bacteria is recognized as a living organism, then it's pretty safe to say we would have found life on Mars eh? Ecospheres be damned.
Oh wait, you're a troll. Never mind...
LEXX
My cornflakes tasted funny this morning...
Hello pot, this is kettle.
You sir, define snotty. Or is it "holier than thou". Not sure.
And get over your own self besides. The Universe will soon sort you out too. Then look where all your chest-pounding will have gotten you. Six feet under just like the rest of us.
SHEESH
The LEXX