As far as I understand, FZ used the money from his commercial success to finance what he really wanted to do. If you ever listen to Jean-Luc Ponty's "King Kong" in which he convered FZ's music and included a completely new composition written and arranged by FZ and expect something like "Valley Girl", you're in for a surprise.
I know FZ's legacy is very rich, and while I don't get into much of what he did, I enjoy music by many of his proteges, including Steve Vai and Mike Keneally.
Commercial success is bad until itself unless it's an end. With FZ it was a means.
Being independent now, and being independent 20 or 30 years ago are completely different things. I think technology has opened doors for many artists, and as the big music studios become more and more obsolete, it will get even better.
Voyager was "Gilligan's Island" in space. No matter what happened, every episode came full circle to the status quo ante.
They had some good stories, but you knew they'd never get home until the last episode, and they'd just bump into another race of English-speaking humans with a few blobs of Silly-Putty on their faces and almost nothing would ever really change.
"Enterprise" seems better about that, the few episodes I've actually seen, but I'm willing to give it until the second season before I pass judgement, good or bad.
I graduated with a BS in CS from Tech in '87. Is Sean Arthur still there? He was my favorite professor because he p***ed everyone off the first day by informing them rote memorization wouldn't cut it in his assember class. I think I had a 98 average in that class.
It's interesting that Microsoft is almost the only company to contribute almost the same amount to each political party. I guess if you share the wealth with everyone, everyone will be your friend.
draft laws that would punish software firms that do not do enough to make their products secure
What, legally require things like DRM?
No, I know what it means. Who's going to check out all this software? Are we going to have a Federal Department of Bug-Finding, which employees 57,000 people trying to write Code Red 3?
How will this result in anything other than higher prices and no change in the "security" of software?
Agreed. And I believe you're right. However, IANALNDIHARKATLJADOCS. (I am not a lawyer, nor do I have any real knowledge about the law, just a dose of common sense.)
However, there is no "right to privacy" in the Constitution. That was only invented out of eminations of penumbras (or something) to rationalize making abortions legal. (There is also no "Separation of Church and State", but that's another matter).
Since when does the government enforce any kind of right to privacy in other circumstances. If the government cared one whit about the right to privacy, they would immediately stop using your SSN as a U.S. Citizen's ID number, and prevent corporations from doing the same. They would not allow credit companies to compile every piece of financial information about you and effectively put the onus on you to make sure they're right.
There's a right to not be illegally searched
or have your property seized without due process (which I belive was modified by the 83rd Amendment to make exceptions for property that might have once been visited by a species of animal that is endangered, or looks like one, but that's another story, and also modified by the 115th Amendment which says the government can do anything it wants to you (not excluding detaining you indefinitely, shooting you or burning you up) if you are one or more of the following:
1. A member of a religous cult (bonus points if it involves spaceships),
2. Have more than 1 gun,
3. Look even vaguely Middle-Eastern (Arabs, Sikhs, Eskimos, Shriners, anyone who would eat something called Hummus)
4. Are harboring a 6-year-old international criminal or have a goofy name like Marisleysis.
Where was I? Oh, but any rights to "privacy" are only implied, and inconsistently enforced at best.
Of course, with our luck, someone would come up with this product, but:
- The RIAA members would collude to keep prices unreasonably high (2000% markup from manufacturing costs, etc, etc), prices almost unchanged after 20 years, RIAA members sitting on product they own but don't want to release rendering it unavailable
- You would have to spend large amounts of time searching through bins in stores or on-line services to find one of these things. If you're tastes are eclectic like mine, that could be a hassle.
- If you are lucky enough to find one in a store, great, otherwise they would special order it and you'd get it in 4-6 weeks (*cough*Borders*cough)
- If you have to resort to online services, you'll have to pay for shipping, and still wait until the thing to arrive via USPS/UPS/etc.
- And last they'd probably do something stupid like package these things in flimsy and brittle plastic containers that would break when you so much as look at them wrong. Naah, now I'm just being perverse.
Maybe I'm just a cynic, but I don't know if your solution is the best one we can imagine. However, I'm sure the RIAA is trying to find ways to use technology to enhance their customers' buying experience and maximize their legally guaranteed "fair-use" rights.
int main( ) {
for int i = 0 to MAX_BASES_NEEDED do
switch ( rand( 4 ) ) do
case 0
print A
break
case 1
print C
break
case 2
print T
break
case 3
print G
break
end
end
return 0
}
Let me just rattle on a bit to try to get past the lameness filter. It seems to me, if the lameness filter really worked, Slashdot might be pretty hungry for comments. I'm not saying I don't make a lot of lameness myself, but calling something like this a "lameness" filter would be like checking if someone is breathing and calling it an intelligence test.
Furthermore, how could a site for "nerds" be set up to filter out a small snippet of source code. Hello! Earth to/.
Anyhow, I'm hoping that if I spew enough lame but not-lame-looking text I can actually post, what I thought was an amusing joke, but/. might thwart my budding comedy career.
In desperation I have now changed my nicely formatted C++ code to pseudo-code.
...a few years back. I just stuck an old 5.25" drive in my machine and tried to do it all at once over a few weeks. I never did quite finish and now I'm in the same boat as you. However, I do have some old PC's sitting around.
I pulled a working 386 out of the trash at work about a year ago. I'm thinking I could use the floppy drive on there and dump everything to the 100-some-old MB IDE harddrive and just plug that in to my regular machine to copy them all off... or pop an old network card into it, but that's probably too much work. I've also got pcAnywhere and that funky yellow parallel cable that came with it.
The advantage I have is that I have quite a bit of old hardware sitting around. If you can't find a new drive, go to a computer consignment shop and pick one up. Or possibly even get an old '386 machine (or so) for less than $100 bucks.
I don't know what the current availability of 5-1/4" drives is, but it's not too hard to get ahold of old computers these days. It seems almost everyone's got an old clunker in the closet or basement that you could borrow.
So Microsoft had to invent "pre-rusted" software. It's kind of like planned obsolescence, but rather than having something break after a pre-determined time, you just ship it broken. Of course, you have to walk a fine line between shipping something so broken no one will buy it and shipping something that works well enough that customers are satisfied... at least until you achieve a monopoly.
First off, CD's actually came out about two decades ago, and I recall that that they were about $20-$25 or so when I first saw them some time around 83-85. However, your point is still extremely valid. CD's cost pennies a piece to create, and recall that the major record companies were wrist-slapped for colluding on prices artificially inflating CD prices to the tune of about $5/CD. I figure the record companies owe me about $4000. Maybe there'll be a class action suit so I can spend 3 hours of time to get $4.27.
Ironically, one of my favorite shows, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is almost always cheaper on DVD than VHS, except for the really old episodes.
Too bad they haven't released many episodes on DVD.
A lot of DVD's do offer additional material that is worth the price, but again, you're right. You are paying for higher quality, even when the higher quality product is cheaper. Why do they do this? Because they can. I applaud your stand, and if I weren't such a weak-willed individual, I might take a similar stand.
Nice scenario, but I'm not holding my breath for anything to come of it.
I know I'm not buying less music. (but I usually buy from smaller labels which may or may not be complicit in the conspiracy to maintain a monopoly on the distribution of media.)
BTW, I primarily used Napster to hear things I've never been able to find for sale or sample music before purchasing it... and I purchased several CD's I would not have otherwise because of Napster.
You mean like the U.S. Government taxing your income, then taxing it again when you invest it and make money? And taxing it again if you use that money to pay an employee?...
Does that really change whether we will be saddled with it or not?
We all know the story:
ConHugeCo does something evil and of dubious legality. Someone calls them on it (like the high tech community's good friend Rick Boucher or the Justice Department, or Ralph Nader), the matter gets talking head time on the enws channels... gets debated for a while... maybe goes to court... drags on a few years... Congress passes a law that would have helped before the fact, but not after... even the media get bored with the story... and finally gets resolved with a slap on the wrist long to ConHugeCo after the issue has ceased to be relevant.
Slashdot Mirror
1. Question 1 involves butter, toast, and carpets of varying qualities. I skimmed over the details. It seemed more like a math problem to me.
2. Transmutation of coat hangars into paper clips.
3. Relative attractiveness of homely aging baby-boomer rock stars and model/actress wives compared to average Joe and Jane Twelvepack.
4. How do they cut the potatoes to get the Pringles chips all the same size and shape?
5. Why don't psychics clean up on the lotteries?
6. The question of the conundrum of having both tea and no tea.
7. Belly button lint accumulation and its relation to dark matter distribution in the universe.
8. Televisual weight gain and Relativity... the camera _really does_ put on 10 pounds.
9. How _did_ they get the hot side to stay hot and cool side to stay cool? And why was seaweed involved?
10. Dick Clark and the Mystery of Non-necrotic Mummification.
11. What's that funny 1x4x9 black thing orbiting Jupiter?
I noticed that after I posted. Replace "until" with "unto" and "is" with "is not".
Sorry... caffeine fingers.
As far as I understand, FZ used the money from his commercial success to finance what he really wanted to do. If you ever listen to Jean-Luc Ponty's "King Kong" in which he convered FZ's music and included a completely new composition written and arranged by FZ and expect something like "Valley Girl", you're in for a surprise.
I know FZ's legacy is very rich, and while I don't get into much of what he did, I enjoy music by many of his proteges, including Steve Vai and Mike Keneally.
Commercial success is bad until itself unless it's an end. With FZ it was a means.
Being independent now, and being independent 20 or 30 years ago are completely different things. I think technology has opened doors for many artists, and as the big music studios become more and more obsolete, it will get even better.
Voyager was "Gilligan's Island" in space. No matter what happened, every episode came full circle to the status quo ante.
They had some good stories, but you knew they'd never get home until the last episode, and they'd just bump into another race of English-speaking humans with a few blobs of Silly-Putty on their faces and almost nothing would ever really change.
"Enterprise" seems better about that, the few episodes I've actually seen, but I'm willing to give it until the second season before I pass judgement, good or bad.
I graduated with a BS in CS from Tech in '87. Is Sean Arthur still there? He was my favorite professor because he p***ed everyone off the first day by informing them rote memorization wouldn't cut it in his assember class. I think I had a 98 average in that class.
It's interesting that Microsoft is almost the only company to contribute almost the same amount to each political party. I guess if you share the wealth with everyone, everyone will be your friend.
draft laws that would punish software firms that do not do enough to make their products secure
What, legally require things like DRM?
No, I know what it means. Who's going to check out all this software? Are we going to have a Federal Department of Bug-Finding, which employees 57,000 people trying to write Code Red 3?
How will this result in anything other than higher prices and no change in the "security" of software?
However, there is no "right to privacy" in the Constitution. That was only invented out of eminations of penumbras (or something) to rationalize making abortions legal. (There is also no "Separation of Church and State", but that's another matter).
Since when does the government enforce any kind of right to privacy in other circumstances. If the government cared one whit about the right to privacy, they would immediately stop using your SSN as a U.S. Citizen's ID number, and prevent corporations from doing the same. They would not allow credit companies to compile every piece of financial information about you and effectively put the onus on you to make sure they're right.
There's a right to not be illegally searched
or have your property seized without due process (which I belive was modified by the 83rd Amendment to make exceptions for property that might have once been visited by a species of animal that is endangered, or looks like one, but that's another story, and also modified by the 115th Amendment which says the government can do anything it wants to you (not excluding detaining you indefinitely, shooting you or burning you up) if you are one or more of the following:
1. A member of a religous cult (bonus points if it involves spaceships),
2. Have more than 1 gun,
3. Look even vaguely Middle-Eastern (Arabs, Sikhs, Eskimos, Shriners, anyone who would eat something called Hummus)
4. Are harboring a 6-year-old international criminal or have a goofy name like Marisleysis.
Where was I? Oh, but any rights to "privacy" are only implied, and inconsistently enforced at best.
Score: -3: Off-topic
Of course, with our luck, someone would come up with this product, but:
- The RIAA members would collude to keep prices unreasonably high (2000% markup from manufacturing costs, etc, etc), prices almost unchanged after 20 years, RIAA members sitting on product they own but don't want to release rendering it unavailable
- You would have to spend large amounts of time searching through bins in stores or on-line services to find one of these things. If you're tastes are eclectic like mine, that could be a hassle.
- If you are lucky enough to find one in a store, great, otherwise they would special order it and you'd get it in 4-6 weeks (*cough*Borders*cough)
- If you have to resort to online services, you'll have to pay for shipping, and still wait until the thing to arrive via USPS/UPS/etc.
- And last they'd probably do something stupid like package these things in flimsy and brittle plastic containers that would break when you so much as look at them wrong. Naah, now I'm just being perverse.
Maybe I'm just a cynic, but I don't know if your solution is the best one we can imagine. However, I'm sure the RIAA is trying to find ways to use technology to enhance their customers' buying experience and maximize their legally guaranteed "fair-use" rights.
You mean God might take me to court for circumventing His encryption!?
Let me just rattle on a bit to try to get past the lameness filter. It seems to me, if the lameness filter really worked, Slashdot might be pretty hungry for comments. I'm not saying I don't make a lot of lameness myself, but calling something like this a "lameness" filter would be like checking if someone is breathing and calling it an intelligence test.
Furthermore, how could a site for "nerds" be set up to filter out a small snippet of source code. Hello! Earth to
Anyhow, I'm hoping that if I spew enough lame but not-lame-looking text I can actually post, what I thought was an amusing joke, but
In desperation I have now changed my nicely formatted C++ code to pseudo-code.
I pulled a working 386 out of the trash at work about a year ago. I'm thinking I could use the floppy drive on there and dump everything to the 100-some-old MB IDE harddrive and just plug that in to my regular machine to copy them all off... or pop an old network card into it, but that's probably too much work. I've also got pcAnywhere and that funky yellow parallel cable that came with it.
The advantage I have is that I have quite a bit of old hardware sitting around. If you can't find a new drive, go to a computer consignment shop and pick one up. Or possibly even get an old '386 machine (or so) for less than $100 bucks.
I don't know what the current availability of 5-1/4" drives is, but it's not too hard to get ahold of old computers these days. It seems almost everyone's got an old clunker in the closet or basement that you could borrow.
Good luck!
Yeah, but everyone else gets what they (the purchaser) deserves too.
Nope. Although that text file the other user found was weird. The exact script with different characters.
Uh oh, I'm glad my Mom never knew that. I played viola for 5 years growing up.
Software dosn't rust at all
So Microsoft had to invent "pre-rusted" software. It's kind of like planned obsolescence, but rather than having something break after a pre-determined time, you just ship it broken. Of course, you have to walk a fine line between shipping something so broken no one will buy it and shipping something that works well enough that customers are satisfied... at least until you achieve a monopoly.
Rick
First off, CD's actually came out about two decades ago, and I recall that that they were about $20-$25 or so when I first saw them some time around 83-85. However, your point is still extremely valid. CD's cost pennies a piece to create, and recall that the major record companies were wrist-slapped for colluding on prices artificially inflating CD prices to the tune of about $5/CD. I figure the record companies owe me about $4000. Maybe there'll be a class action suit so I can spend 3 hours of time to get $4.27.
Ironically, one of my favorite shows, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is almost always cheaper on DVD than VHS, except for the really old episodes.
Too bad they haven't released many episodes on DVD.
A lot of DVD's do offer additional material that is worth the price, but again, you're right. You are paying for higher quality, even when the higher quality product is cheaper. Why do they do this? Because they can. I applaud your stand, and if I weren't such a weak-willed individual, I might take a similar stand.
If by "on fire" you mean I've got terminal nerdiness, then break out the asbestos.
I used to... but most of the used CD places near me are gone now. :-(
Besides, I have a hard enough time finding most of the things I want new, leave alone used.
I know I'm not buying less music. (but I usually buy from smaller labels which may or may not be complicit in the conspiracy to maintain a monopoly on the distribution of media.)
BTW, I primarily used Napster to hear things I've never been able to find for sale or sample music before purchasing it... and I purchased several CD's I would not have otherwise because of Napster.
Did you do a "make CONFIGURE"?
Did you use the Intensifier Disk? If so, turn it 18 degrees to the left.
Do you need a European adapter?
Are you in the Southern Hemisphere? If so, invert your monitor.
You mean like the U.S. Government taxing your income, then taxing it again when you invest it and make money? And taxing it again if you use that money to pay an employee?
You thief! Turn yourself in to the proper authorities immediately!
And several billion dollars says Napster shouldn't exist and "fair use" is theft.
Who wins?
#include "I_realize_Napster_is_not_equivalent_to_Fair_Use.
Is CD copy protection legal?
Does that really change whether we will be saddled with it or not?
We all know the story:
ConHugeCo does something evil and of dubious legality. Someone calls them on it (like the high tech community's good friend Rick Boucher or the Justice Department, or Ralph Nader), the matter gets talking head time on the enws channels... gets debated for a while... maybe goes to court... drags on a few years... Congress passes a law that would have helped before the fact, but not after... even the media get bored with the story... and finally gets resolved with a slap on the wrist long to ConHugeCo after the issue has ceased to be relevant.