I can hardly see the TV networks marking their adverts digitally; otherwise easily-hacked digital devices could recognise them with no effort at all-- DMCA or not, making ads stand out from normal broadcasts would be enough of an incentive for somebody to invent technology to filter them with 100% effectiveness.
DirecTV feeds encrypted digital signals down to its receivers. You can't decode them or access the digital stream. They can take one of the popular TiVO/DirecTV combo boxes, put a little software in it to recognize a "no fast-forward" code, and you're hosed. End of story.
The networks aren't particularly concerned about the handful of hackers that might find a way to circumvent their commercials. They want the public at large to be forced to see them (remember the scene from A Clockwork Orange?).
So the networks won't mark commercials in an unencrypted manner on broadcast television. But you can bet that they will on DirecTV, Dish Network, and digital cable systems. And they will threaten, or buy contracts with, TiVO and the other PVR manufacturers to make them honor the codes.
This will confirm the biggest fears that the networks and advertisers have about PVRs. In the future, there will be contracts with DirecTV, Dish Network, and PVR manufacturers to assure that you cannot fast-forward over ads (no, I don't care what you can do with you linux-geek-boy-PC-PVR application). Trust me: DirecTV can afford the bandwidth to digitally mark a section of time as "no fast forward." Defeat it, and they will have you prosecuted under the DMCA.
The correct explanation of why you got a PVR (when talking to someone doing a survey for television advertisers) is: "I sometimes miss the toll-free phone numbers on ads and wanted to be able to pause them. I also like to watch really good ads over and over. Don't you just love the Budweiser ads with the frogs and lizards? Advertising has gotten so clever..."
Remember, the television networks took DirecTV to court to prevent DirecTV from giving subscribers network signals from stations outside of their local area. The networks are violently protective of local and national advertising revenue. Telling them that you just found a way to skip all of the ads is as clever as telling a store owner that you found a neat way to shoplift from his store (although the former is not illegal -- yet).
Re:How many decades will these announcements go on
on
An Amiga Round-up
·
· Score: 2
Amiga Inc. has announced that as of "today" the Amiga is on 3,500,000.00 different devices and that they have a goal of 10,000,000 in the next 12 months. The have a partnership with a company of 18,000,000 subscribers NOW so start developing new products as even if you only received $1.00 per unit sold this is nothing to pass up!
Give me an English translation of that. Are you trying to say that old Amiga computers from the 1980s are physically attached to 3.5 million "devices." Do you mean that they are part of embedded or special purpose systems? I'm totally baffled.
And what do you mean by "subscribers?" A subscriber is not necessarily a computer customer. I subscribe to Road Runner cable modem service. If Amiga teams up with Road Runner, I'm not going to rush out and buy and Amiga.
You've got to work on expressing yourself more clearly. I honestly could not follow what you were trying to say.
How many decades will these announcements go on?
on
An Amiga Round-up
·
· Score: 2
How long will we have to hear about the ever-imminent comeback of the Amiga. It's dead. What was a nice bit of engineering back in the 1980s is just another piece of computing history today. There is no compelling capability that the Amiga has that will make people run out and buy it. Sure, there will be a handful of Amiga die-hards that will, but you don't support a hardware and software development staff with the sales you make to a small group of hobbyists.
I can just envision a scenario where countries all over the world, under pressure from the U.S., enact DMCA-like laws only to have the U.S. DMCA law overturned by the Supreme Court. Then the U.S. can point to the DMCA-like laws in those other countries as being examples of how those countries don't respect free speech like the U.S. does...
"Any deficiencies or faults in the quality of the defendant's goods are likely to reflect negatively upon, tarnish and seriously injure the reputation which Lucasfilm has established for goods and services marketed under its Light Saber mark."
Does this mean that if the device fails to hack off patients' limbs when it is wielded that it is deficient and will hurt the reputation of Lucasfilm?
For many of these kids, IRC helped them 'snap out of it'.
If you only talk to people through IRC, how do you know if any of them kill themselves or run away from home and become prostitutes and junkies? All you know is that you stop seeing some people online.
Did you have a control group of depressed kids in the same socioeconomic class that did not use IRC? Do they fare any worse or better than those who use IRC? How do you know that IRC "helped the kids you are talking about 'snap out of it'"? Might they have recovered from depression anyway?
Science and statistics are not that hard. I'm not trying to pick on you personally because I see these leaps of faith and assumption throughout the posts I read. You just happened to be post n+1 where n is the number of posts of that type I can read without replying.
What ever happened to the idea of just playing a game? So you lost some imaginary things. Get over it. Play the game some more. Get some more imaginary things.
And what is with this stupidity of buying imaginary items on ebay? The idea of the games was not to have the winners be the people that have the most disposable income/least common sense. The winners were supposed to be the people who played the games the most skillfully. It's reminds me of Tanya Harding -- she didn't think she could win in the rink, so she payed someone to break her opponent's knees.
Utter B.S. Microwave ovens use low-end embedded microcontrollers like the PIC and Atmel AVR series -- none with more than a few K of RAM. Show me any normal microwave oven controller that can run Linux.
In fact, you can run Linux in a 32 mm square chip.
So what? Is the chip inexpensive enough to put in a $40 thermostat or an $80 microwave oven? I doubt it. A 32mm square chip is HUGE! I can get complete microcontrollers in 8-pin packages (Atmel AVR Tiny series).
Haven't you heard of TiVo?
Yes, I own one. TiVo is a complete friggin' computer based on a 54 MHz PowerPC 403GCX processor with 16MB of RAM plus a large capacity hard disk. Of course it can run Linux!
Linux can run on more architectures than WinCE, in fact, it has less hardware requirements. So watch who you're bashing.
How is it "bashing" Linux to point out that it is too much of a resource hog to use in something normally designed with a $4 microcontroller? Linux is fine for some high-end embedded applications (e.g. TiVo) and completely absurd for others (e.g. solid state MP3 player).
I didn't want a glorified $32 pocket organizer.
Now who's doing the bashing? Since when is a fully programmable 68K series machine a "glorified $32 pocket organizer"? I can develop apps for it with the GNU C compiler. I have a BASIC interpreter. There are hundreds of commercial apps already available. I have everything from terminal emulators to spreadsheets on it. You want games? I have chess, reversi, missile command, Galaxian, Go, Minesweeper, Sim City, and more. Does it do first-person shooters? No, but I won't play one on anything less than a full computer with 800x600 and a 3D accelerator board. It's obvious that you don't know a lot about the Palm.
Why get a greyscale organizer when I can have a full-color system.
The Palm is not an "organizer." Like your WinCE device, it is a handheld computer, so stop the bashing. The reasons for greyscale are many. First, it uses less battery power. Secondly, greyscale displays are more rugged. Third, it costs less. (I could afford a gold-plated shift knob for my car, but, that doesn't mean it's a smart investment.) Fourth, it's easier to read (that's why e-book displays are greyscale). Besides, if color is important to you, Palm makes the m505, with 65K colors -- which you would know if you did a little research.
A better question is why get a Palm over a WinCE handheld. Plenty of reasons:
Battery life. Your WinCE with dead batteries at the end of the day is infinitely less useful than a Palm that's ready to run for another week.
Size and weight. Big, clunky, heavy PDAs are just silly.
The Palm OS has an easier, faster, and more efficient interface than the one-size-fits-all Windows interface. This has been borne out time and again in reviews and tests.
Because they are simpler and generally have fewer, cooler-running components, Palms tend to be a lot more rugged than WinCE handhelds.
It's not "flamebait" you moronic moderator (that's why other moderators rated it Interesting and Insightful). It's a well-researched, intelligently written explanation of why WinCE does not enjoy a greater market share. Get over it.
By the same account you could also say Linux is bloated because it runs on diverse architectures of hardware.
You are correct. That's why things like microwave ovens, setback thermostats, and portable MP3 players don't run Linux. It's too big and too much of a resource hog for those applications.
You can stay with your grey-scale palm while I go play Quake on my Pocket PC.
Different markets. I am a professional software engineer and need a PDA for my work while you apparently need a really expensive version of a color Game Boy. Besides, I have a gigahertz Athlon with a 19" monitor, lots of RAM and hard disk space, and a GeForce video card. Why would I want to play outdated games on a slow handheld with a tiny display and not much memory?
Actually, it works great. That's why my Karma always hovers around 50 and I post at +2. Sorry if I said something negative about your heroes (the Backdoor Boys?).
Why would I want emulated Palm with shorter battery life, less compatability, at a greater cost? Palm still rules the handheld market for a simple reason: It's the best platform for that market. Palm does everything that 99+% of the users need.
Take an HP Jornada 420 and compare it to a Palm M500. The M500 weighs half as much (4oz. vs. 8oz.) The M500 is just over half as thick as the HP and is.7" shorter top to bottom. That matters a lot for users who carry them. The battery life on the Jornada is a piddling 8 hours of "normal" use according to HP while the Palm can be expected to last days even under heavy use.
The Palm OS is finely tuned to a specific purpose while Microsoft wants to get WinCE in everything from handhelds to cell phones. Microsoft's own web page even suggests WinCE for:...Handheld PCs, "wallet" PCs, wireless-communication devices such as digital information pagers and cellular smart phones, next-generation entertainment and multimedia consoles including DVD players, and purpose-built Internet access devices such as Internet TVs, digital set-top boxes and Internet "Web phones." Cripes! It's no wonder that WinCE is so bloated that it requires 133mhz CPUs.
You are in a well-lit room containing a mace, boots, and a plant.
>Take mace
I don't know the word "mace"
>Take boots
I don't know the word "boots"
>Take plant
I don't know the word "plant"
>quit
...
No longer can a game company develop and release a game quickly and at a low cost. Gone are the days when simple, addictive games like Tetris, pinball, and so forth can be developed in a short time by a small staff and sold for a profit.
The average game development model now involves huge staffs with scary-big salary and support costs. No longer is it a few talented programmers. Now we have level designers, graphic artists, and testing staffs to create the incredibly complex games we demand. If the company guesses wrong about what will sell, what hardware to target, or how many man-hours will be invested in development and testing, they can be facing a multi-million dollar catastrophe. For every successful game series like Quake, Unreal, and Tomb Raider, there are hundreds of games that will never turn a profit.
We, as consumers, keep raising the stakes. We're willing to blow $50-$60 on a game now, but we demand a level of cinematic polish that would be daunting to a Hollywood movie studio. I don't know where it will end or how.
I see that I am dealing with quite the intelligent and mature adversary already.
when you get out of high school, go take even the most basic microeconomics class. then you'll be prepared to discuss this subject.
Then I was prepared about 22 years ago when I graduated at age 18.
oh, and FYI, "six figures" generally means to the left of the decimal point, and doesn't count commas.
Yes, I know that. My annual income is in excess of $150K.
Now, if you are finished with your childish insults and feel that you are ready to debate like an adult, feel free to give it your best shot. As it is, all that you have done so far is make ad hominem attacks.
Right wing conservatives who don't want to pay taxes will find a hundred ways to rationalize why they should pay less. They will couch it in claims that welfare degrades the recipients (so does starvation and having to beg on the street). They will say that the government does too much. They will claim that most tax dollars go towards wasteful programs (i.e., programs that don't directly benefit them). Many will even claim that the government does not have a "right" to tax them. They beat their chests proclaiming pride to be citizens of the U.S.A. but then claim that the government that was elected by the people of the U.S.A. is evil and corrupt.
What it all boils down to is self-centered greed. I've got a six-figure income. Bush's tax scheme gives a lot of money back to me. But I'm not so self-centered that I am for it. I do not believe that I should get a tax refund at the expense of people who really need the government assistance -- whether they are poor widows or struggling farmers. I also have enough sense to recognize that we, as a country, need to save up for the greying of America when a much greater percentage of Americans will be retired and drawing on Social Security.
The amount of money that you will get out of Bush's tax scheme is inversely proportional to the amount that you need. If you are a widow struggling to make ends meet on a small, fixed income, you will get little to nothing. If you have a six (or seven or eight) figure income, you will get lots back. That's Bush's idea of a "fair" tax plan.
But, how many parents would even consider CBS.com has content or links to sponsored content which is violent or sexually explicit.
How many parents give credit cars to their young, impressionable children and leave them in front of the computer to wander the web unsupervised? That's what it would take for some kid to see the material mentioned by Jon Katz.
I don't have kids and my world should not be child-proofed just because other people had them. Having a kid does not give someone the right to censor every library, web site, and newstand on the face of the Earth because they are afraid that their little Timmy will see violence or sex or violent sex. Parents either have to (over)protect their children through constant vigilance or they have to accept that their kids will occasionally see material unsuitable for children. Besides, most kids see porn and violence and are not screwed up for life by it.
That was a superb rant that beautifully pokes holes in the Bush-sponsored tax cut. Bravo! It's nice to see someone smart enough to think beyond this week's checking account balance.
What may be happening here is that the networks are realizing that the web is an interactive medium while TV is not. While a scene may be too upsetting, violent, or graphically sexual to broadcast into every living room that's tuned in, it may be reasonable to allow someone to see that scene if they so choose to do so online.
I also do not feel that it is the web site's responsibility to raise your children. If your under-18 year old kid steals a credit card and uses it to buy access to a web site, it's not the web site's job to police your child. Jon's chastisement of the web site for not having age restrictions is ludicrous. How many kids who steal credit cards are going to click on the I-am-not-old-enough-to-view-this button?
That being said, the scene in question holds no fascination for me and I find it offensive that the show filmed it rather than intervening on behalf of the young woman. But it's not my place to determine what should, and should not, appear on someone else's screen. If that's what they want to see, so be it. The networks should have the freedom to put what they want on their web sites, for free or for profit, and the market should decide whether it stays or goes.
Your evidence will be when they stop producing Office because new "freedom fighters" like you decided not to pay for their stuff.
I don't know where you came up with the idea that I am, or think I am, a "freedom fighter." I would be willing to bet that I have purchased more software than you have. I could send you digitized photos of multiple bookcases filled with commercial software packages I have purchased. So don't make slanderous accusations based on suppositions.
You missed the point: A 13 year old kid with a pirated copy of a $3000 software package hasn't cost anyone anything. It's not analogous to a theft of an SUV. Did you think he should save his allowance to buy the $3000 software package?
Beatifull moral relativism. If go that route we will end up in a lot of shit.
You might consider purchasing a copy of Office. It includes a spell checker and grammar checker that would help you avoid embarassing mistakes like the three in the one line shown above.
You are a childish little fuck, aren't you? Pretty stupid, too. Why don't you just go back to playing your Nintendo and having mom drive you to soccer practice?
UNIX is about 30 years old and ran on machines much slower than a Palm. There is, in fact, lots of software that runs on such systems. Furthermore, who says that a Palm running Linux would be used as a PDA? It's a great little embedded system at a reasonable price. The only problem with it for such applications is PalmOS.
The above reply is so wrong on so many fronts:
1. What sane person would want to run decades-old text-based applications on something with no keyboard and a 3" screen? If you have to play Zork on it, it's been ported to the PalmOS already.
2. Linux bears ittle resemblence to the Unix of 30 years ago, which was written in DEC PDP-7 assembly language, had no pipes, and no support for networking, among many other basic differences.
3. I've been doing embedded system development since 1980 and the Palm is *not* an embedded system. It may be something that some hobbyist could duct tape to some homemade robot, but that does not make it into an embedded system.
4. There is no problem with the PalmOS and it is perfectly suited to the device. If you doubt me, explain the plethora of small, efficient, graphical apps that are readily available for it.
This is just another look-what-we-ported-Linux-to project. It does not serve a useful purpose. There is no glaring deficiency in PalmOS or the apps available for it.
Now tell me what you need it to do that it cannot.
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DirecTV feeds encrypted digital signals down to its receivers. You can't decode them or access the digital stream. They can take one of the popular TiVO/DirecTV combo boxes, put a little software in it to recognize a "no fast-forward" code, and you're hosed. End of story.
The networks aren't particularly concerned about the handful of hackers that might find a way to circumvent their commercials. They want the public at large to be forced to see them (remember the scene from A Clockwork Orange?).
So the networks won't mark commercials in an unencrypted manner on broadcast television. But you can bet that they will on DirecTV, Dish Network, and digital cable systems. And they will threaten, or buy contracts with, TiVO and the other PVR manufacturers to make them honor the codes.
The correct explanation of why you got a PVR (when talking to someone doing a survey for television advertisers) is: "I sometimes miss the toll-free phone numbers on ads and wanted to be able to pause them. I also like to watch really good ads over and over. Don't you just love the Budweiser ads with the frogs and lizards? Advertising has gotten so clever..."
Remember, the television networks took DirecTV to court to prevent DirecTV from giving subscribers network signals from stations outside of their local area. The networks are violently protective of local and national advertising revenue. Telling them that you just found a way to skip all of the ads is as clever as telling a store owner that you found a neat way to shoplift from his store (although the former is not illegal -- yet).
Give me an English translation of that. Are you trying to say that old Amiga computers from the 1980s are physically attached to 3.5 million "devices." Do you mean that they are part of embedded or special purpose systems? I'm totally baffled.
And what do you mean by "subscribers?" A subscriber is not necessarily a computer customer. I subscribe to Road Runner cable modem service. If Amiga teams up with Road Runner, I'm not going to rush out and buy and Amiga.
You've got to work on expressing yourself more clearly. I honestly could not follow what you were trying to say.
How long will we have to hear about the ever-imminent comeback of the Amiga. It's dead. What was a nice bit of engineering back in the 1980s is just another piece of computing history today. There is no compelling capability that the Amiga has that will make people run out and buy it. Sure, there will be a handful of Amiga die-hards that will, but you don't support a hardware and software development staff with the sales you make to a small group of hobbyists.
I can just envision a scenario where countries all over the world, under pressure from the U.S., enact DMCA-like laws only to have the U.S. DMCA law overturned by the Supreme Court. Then the U.S. can point to the DMCA-like laws in those other countries as being examples of how those countries don't respect free speech like the U.S. does...
Does this mean that if the device fails to hack off patients' limbs when it is wielded that it is deficient and will hurt the reputation of Lucasfilm?
If you only talk to people through IRC, how do you know if any of them kill themselves or run away from home and become prostitutes and junkies? All you know is that you stop seeing some people online.
Did you have a control group of depressed kids in the same socioeconomic class that did not use IRC? Do they fare any worse or better than those who use IRC? How do you know that IRC "helped the kids you are talking about 'snap out of it'"? Might they have recovered from depression anyway?
Science and statistics are not that hard. I'm not trying to pick on you personally because I see these leaps of faith and assumption throughout the posts I read. You just happened to be post n+1 where n is the number of posts of that type I can read without replying.
And what is with this stupidity of buying imaginary items on ebay? The idea of the games was not to have the winners be the people that have the most disposable income/least common sense. The winners were supposed to be the people who played the games the most skillfully. It's reminds me of Tanya Harding -- she didn't think she could win in the rink, so she payed someone to break her opponent's knees.
Utter B.S. Microwave ovens use low-end embedded microcontrollers like the PIC and Atmel AVR series -- none with more than a few K of RAM. Show me any normal microwave oven controller that can run Linux.
In fact, you can run Linux in a 32 mm square chip.
So what? Is the chip inexpensive enough to put in a $40 thermostat or an $80 microwave oven? I doubt it. A 32mm square chip is HUGE! I can get complete microcontrollers in 8-pin packages (Atmel AVR Tiny series).
Haven't you heard of TiVo?
Yes, I own one. TiVo is a complete friggin' computer based on a 54 MHz PowerPC 403GCX processor with 16MB of RAM plus a large capacity hard disk. Of course it can run Linux!
Linux can run on more architectures than WinCE, in fact, it has less hardware requirements. So watch who you're bashing.
How is it "bashing" Linux to point out that it is too much of a resource hog to use in something normally designed with a $4 microcontroller? Linux is fine for some high-end embedded applications (e.g. TiVo) and completely absurd for others (e.g. solid state MP3 player).
I didn't want a glorified $32 pocket organizer.
Now who's doing the bashing? Since when is a fully programmable 68K series machine a "glorified $32 pocket organizer"? I can develop apps for it with the GNU C compiler. I have a BASIC interpreter. There are hundreds of commercial apps already available. I have everything from terminal emulators to spreadsheets on it. You want games? I have chess, reversi, missile command, Galaxian, Go, Minesweeper, Sim City, and more. Does it do first-person shooters? No, but I won't play one on anything less than a full computer with 800x600 and a 3D accelerator board. It's obvious that you don't know a lot about the Palm.
Why get a greyscale organizer when I can have a full-color system.
The Palm is not an "organizer." Like your WinCE device, it is a handheld computer, so stop the bashing. The reasons for greyscale are many. First, it uses less battery power. Secondly, greyscale displays are more rugged. Third, it costs less. (I could afford a gold-plated shift knob for my car, but, that doesn't mean it's a smart investment.) Fourth, it's easier to read (that's why e-book displays are greyscale). Besides, if color is important to you, Palm makes the m505, with 65K colors -- which you would know if you did a little research.
A better question is why get a Palm over a WinCE handheld. Plenty of reasons:
Battery life. Your WinCE with dead batteries at the end of the day is infinitely less useful than a Palm that's ready to run for another week.
Size and weight. Big, clunky, heavy PDAs are just silly.
The Palm OS has an easier, faster, and more efficient interface than the one-size-fits-all Windows interface. This has been borne out time and again in reviews and tests.
Because they are simpler and generally have fewer, cooler-running components, Palms tend to be a lot more rugged than WinCE handhelds.
It's not "flamebait" you moronic moderator (that's why other moderators rated it Interesting and Insightful). It's a well-researched, intelligently written explanation of why WinCE does not enjoy a greater market share. Get over it.
You are correct. That's why things like microwave ovens, setback thermostats, and portable MP3 players don't run Linux. It's too big and too much of a resource hog for those applications.
You can stay with your grey-scale palm while I go play Quake on my Pocket PC.
Different markets. I am a professional software engineer and need a PDA for my work while you apparently need a really expensive version of a color Game Boy. Besides, I have a gigahertz Athlon with a 19" monitor, lots of RAM and hard disk space, and a GeForce video card. Why would I want to play outdated games on a slow handheld with a tiny display and not much memory?
Actually, it works great. That's why my Karma always hovers around 50 and I post at +2. Sorry if I said something negative about your heroes (the Backdoor Boys?).
Take an HP Jornada 420 and compare it to a Palm M500. The M500 weighs half as much (4oz. vs. 8oz.) The M500 is just over half as thick as the HP and is .7" shorter top to bottom. That matters a lot for users who carry them. The battery life on the Jornada is a piddling 8 hours of "normal" use according to HP while the Palm can be expected to last days even under heavy use.
The Palm OS is finely tuned to a specific purpose while Microsoft wants to get WinCE in everything from handhelds to cell phones. Microsoft's own web page even suggests WinCE for: ...Handheld PCs, "wallet" PCs, wireless-communication devices such as digital information pagers and cellular smart phones, next-generation entertainment and multimedia consoles including DVD players, and purpose-built Internet access devices such as Internet TVs, digital set-top boxes and Internet "Web phones." Cripes! It's no wonder that WinCE is so bloated that it requires 133mhz CPUs.
I'll keep my Palm M105. It works just fine.
You are in a well-lit room containing a mace, boots, and a plant.
>Take mace
I don't know the word "mace"
>Take boots
I don't know the word "boots"
>Take plant
I don't know the word "plant"
>quit
...
First post is even more impressive now that we know that you typed it with only one hand!
The average game development model now involves huge staffs with scary-big salary and support costs. No longer is it a few talented programmers. Now we have level designers, graphic artists, and testing staffs to create the incredibly complex games we demand. If the company guesses wrong about what will sell, what hardware to target, or how many man-hours will be invested in development and testing, they can be facing a multi-million dollar catastrophe. For every successful game series like Quake, Unreal, and Tomb Raider, there are hundreds of games that will never turn a profit.
We, as consumers, keep raising the stakes. We're willing to blow $50-$60 on a game now, but we demand a level of cinematic polish that would be daunting to a Hollywood movie studio. I don't know where it will end or how.
I see that I am dealing with quite the intelligent and mature adversary already.
when you get out of high school, go take even the most basic microeconomics class. then you'll be prepared to discuss this subject.
Then I was prepared about 22 years ago when I graduated at age 18.
oh, and FYI, "six figures" generally means to the left of the decimal point, and doesn't count commas.
Yes, I know that. My annual income is in excess of $150K.
Now, if you are finished with your childish insults and feel that you are ready to debate like an adult, feel free to give it your best shot. As it is, all that you have done so far is make ad hominem attacks.
What it all boils down to is self-centered greed. I've got a six-figure income. Bush's tax scheme gives a lot of money back to me. But I'm not so self-centered that I am for it. I do not believe that I should get a tax refund at the expense of people who really need the government assistance -- whether they are poor widows or struggling farmers. I also have enough sense to recognize that we, as a country, need to save up for the greying of America when a much greater percentage of Americans will be retired and drawing on Social Security.
The amount of money that you will get out of Bush's tax scheme is inversely proportional to the amount that you need. If you are a widow struggling to make ends meet on a small, fixed income, you will get little to nothing. If you have a six (or seven or eight) figure income, you will get lots back. That's Bush's idea of a "fair" tax plan.
make me seem like a '1337 h4x0r!
Good reply and a great one-line summary of the real reason that many people are hyped about this.
How many parents give credit cars to their young, impressionable children and leave them in front of the computer to wander the web unsupervised? That's what it would take for some kid to see the material mentioned by Jon Katz.
I don't have kids and my world should not be child-proofed just because other people had them. Having a kid does not give someone the right to censor every library, web site, and newstand on the face of the Earth because they are afraid that their little Timmy will see violence or sex or violent sex. Parents either have to (over)protect their children through constant vigilance or they have to accept that their kids will occasionally see material unsuitable for children. Besides, most kids see porn and violence and are not screwed up for life by it.
That was a superb rant that beautifully pokes holes in the Bush-sponsored tax cut. Bravo! It's nice to see someone smart enough to think beyond this week's checking account balance.
I also do not feel that it is the web site's responsibility to raise your children. If your under-18 year old kid steals a credit card and uses it to buy access to a web site, it's not the web site's job to police your child. Jon's chastisement of the web site for not having age restrictions is ludicrous. How many kids who steal credit cards are going to click on the I-am-not-old-enough-to-view-this button?
That being said, the scene in question holds no fascination for me and I find it offensive that the show filmed it rather than intervening on behalf of the young woman. But it's not my place to determine what should, and should not, appear on someone else's screen. If that's what they want to see, so be it. The networks should have the freedom to put what they want on their web sites, for free or for profit, and the market should decide whether it stays or goes.
I don't know where you came up with the idea that I am, or think I am, a "freedom fighter." I would be willing to bet that I have purchased more software than you have. I could send you digitized photos of multiple bookcases filled with commercial software packages I have purchased. So don't make slanderous accusations based on suppositions.
You missed the point: A 13 year old kid with a pirated copy of a $3000 software package hasn't cost anyone anything. It's not analogous to a theft of an SUV. Did you think he should save his allowance to buy the $3000 software package?
Beatifull moral relativism. If go that route we will end up in a lot of shit.
You might consider purchasing a copy of Office. It includes a spell checker and grammar checker that would help you avoid embarassing mistakes like the three in the one line shown above.
You are a childish little fuck, aren't you? Pretty stupid, too. Why don't you just go back to playing your Nintendo and having mom drive you to soccer practice?
The above reply is so wrong on so many fronts:
1. What sane person would want to run decades-old text-based applications on something with no keyboard and a 3" screen? If you have to play Zork on it, it's been ported to the PalmOS already.
2. Linux bears ittle resemblence to the Unix of 30 years ago, which was written in DEC PDP-7 assembly language, had no pipes, and no support for networking, among many other basic differences.
3. I've been doing embedded system development since 1980 and the Palm is *not* an embedded system. It may be something that some hobbyist could duct tape to some homemade robot, but that does not make it into an embedded system.
4. There is no problem with the PalmOS and it is perfectly suited to the device. If you doubt me, explain the plethora of small, efficient, graphical apps that are readily available for it.
This is just another look-what-we-ported-Linux-to project. It does not serve a useful purpose. There is no glaring deficiency in PalmOS or the apps available for it. Now tell me what you need it to do that it cannot.