They can't touch me with the DMCA for two reasons: 1) I don't live in the US 2) Denmark doesn't turns over its citizens for breaking US laws while staying in Denmark
What I _AM_ worried about is the comming legislation in Denmark and the EU (http://www.fs.dk/uk/acts/eu/pdf/opin_en.pdf) that will make it illegal for me to basicly do anything with a program designed for circumventing copy protection (and thus CSS), using libCSS could be illigal, whereas a program like PowerDVD is limited to 5 settings, and is using a licensed CSS-key, which is the same as the copyright holders signing a permission. If I were to use a pirated version of PowerDVD on the other hand...
Also, I'm not just blowing smoke out my ass with my "trying to piss off the various copyright holder coorporations", although "constantly" is a bit of a stretch, as I'm only on my second attempt so far, with the first one being rather successfull in Denmark, stirring up quite a debate:-)
I'll tackle them in reverse: 1) I'm running Mandrake, so apt-get install won't work. 2) I already have Xine installed, but I don't really know why, since it "just dies" when I try to run it. No warnings, no nothing. If I run it from the console, it just exits without saying anything.
Play - by using something that uses DeCSS you could end up being in violation of a law, and since I'm constantly trying to piss off the various copyright holder coorporations, I don't really see a big need to violate a law. Using Wine to run something like PowerDVD you can have the best of both worlds - Linux and legal DVDs.
I know it's a bit off topic, as we're discussing games under WineX, but is it possible to get something like PowerDVD or WinDVD to run under WineX, and getting them to run properly (with DMA access to drives etc)?
I've been trying to get Ogle running under Mandrake, and I can play dvds from any region which is cool and all, but the sound often goes out of sync and stuff like that.
I've also been trying to get Miranda ICQ running under Wine, but that requires a new version, and I can't get that running, cause I'm a d0rk when it comes to linux...
What I wouldn't give for a "Window-esque" installer-wizard, that just *works*:-)
When you go out of your way to call you, from Denmark no less, you do what everyone I talk to do... "well, I haven't had time to take a shower today, and I want to do that"...
Maybe it's just me...;-)
Re:X is not what you think it is - docs may help
on
GUIs for Everyone
·
· Score: 2
Probably because you have not looked for any documentation on doing so.
Oh, right, I forgot. A GUI is not supposed to be "intuitive", and you need to read 50 pages to use it... the UNIX way, right?
The problem, and I'm repeating myself here, isn't as much in how X does things, as in how programmers implement the same things.
Examples from my current setup (XFree4.2.0, KDE3/Gnome2)
I mark some text with the mouse, and depending on the program, the text goes into the clipboard. Other programs want me to use ctrl+c, some ctrl+insert some want me to right click and select copy and others have no apparent way of copying the text at all.
I now want to insert the text that I, hopefully, copied. Some programs want me to press ctrl+v, others shift+insert, others want me to press the middle mousebutton and so on.
Yes, I know - that's not X's fault, but it IS in a way, because noone can seem to do it in a standard way, because X, KDE, Gnome and all the others have their own idiotic way, and noone knows how to make a system-wide default, that I as a user can change in a simple way. And it SUCKS ASS!
I don't know how X is built, how it works and I really couldn't care less, because I don't write stuff for X. But - here's how I would imagine a "perfect" system; feel free to use the ideas.
The UI is run by a number of "daemons"/"servers".
Keyboard server - handles all keyboard input, including shortcuts. Mouse server - handles all mouse input, including such things as mouse gestures. Clipboard server - handles all clipboard features, whatever they may be. Window server - handles all windowing functions, including such stuff as a standard CLI.
Make an API for exposing simple functions in each server.
If people want to write their own server (e.g. substituting X-Window-Server with Gnome-Window-Server) they can do so, they just have to implement the full API. This would allow you to mix and match as you please, selecting the window-server that YOU want, without having to use a clipboard- or mouse-server you DON'T want.
Could I program this? Nope, not on your life... not in a usable language anyway, as I can only program java.
Could I design this system, including the API? Probably, but it'd be a lot better, if I had some help, as I'm not that good a developer.
Uhhh, why would you need to change the res if the monitor is busted?
Well, I know I'm pretty strange, but it does happen that I take my computer somewhere else without bringning my monitor, and if I hook it up to a monitor that can't do 1600x1200@75Hz it may as well be busted.
Any why would I have to learn how to use VI and edit a conf-file JUST to change my screen resolution? That's kinda like having to learn car mechanics just to use a stick shift...
Re:Chance *is* significant, given the consequences
on
What, Me Worry?
·
· Score: 2
Maybe not quite, but in cases like these theoretical death numbers go flying out the window, because either noone dies because it doesn't hit the earth at all or HUGE numbers of people die because it does hit. Sure, this leaves us with a mean death toll, but that is pretty useless for anything.
The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference.
Everyone keeps saying that there's nothing X can't do, which means that it's not following "the UNIX way", and that it's bloated.
It has a clipboard (that sucks in my humble opinion) so "everyone" uses that one (except those who use one of a gazillion other clipboards), but don't let people configure it. Why MUST I be FORCED to copy EVERYTHING I mark to the clipboard? Why cant _I_ decide when to put something into the clipboard??? What happened to configurability and user choice?
X can handle keyboard shortcuts, so everyone uses that handler. Except those who use one of a gazillion other keyboard handlers. But no one can seem to let me make an application disappear/reappear with a single shortcut.
X can handle [insert ability], so everyone uses that handler. Except those who use one of a gazillion other [insert ability] handlers.
And so the circle goes.
Also - why can't I use X without using the mouse? Oh that's right - who would want to use the keyboard of all things to control the GUI? In Windows I can (well, could) change my desktop resolution on the fly without turning the monitor on. I can do that in Unix as well, but I have to pull up a command line first, which is nice and all, but why the hell do I have to leave my GUI for it? And how do you do it, when the screen is busted? Can you *remember* what line of your x-conf file those settings are? And why should you be fucked, just because your mouse broke?
I'm sure X can do lots of things, but comming from just about any other GUI I can think of, it doesn't do it "the right way", but hey - what the hell do I know? I'm just a l00s3r n00b who doesn't want to conform!
Re:Chance *is* significant, given the consequences
on
What, Me Worry?
·
· Score: 2
A "four in a million" chance of killing, say, 10 million people, would mean that the expected (mean) death toll from this asteroid would be about 40 people
Uhm... I know what you're getting at... BUT (and this IS a VERY large but)
If an asteoroid like NT7 hit earth it would release damage like ~70,000,000 nuclear bombs like the one that wasted Hiroshima.
Granted - there is a fair chance that it could hit somewhere on earth, where the imidiate damage would be VERY small (say central Antartica or arctis), but if it hit basicly anywhere else, I think you could kiss the 40 people death toll goodbye.
It's a ROCK that is ~2 km (~1.2 miles) in diameter traveling at 28 kilometer per second or 17 miles per second. If it were to hit a country like Denmark (souther Scandinavia), you can basicly kiss the population of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland and most of Germany goodbye as a result of the impact alone...
Okay, that's just 42 people, but still...
Crisis in Washington
on
What, Me Worry?
·
· Score: 1, Offtopic
After a brief press conference today, president George W. Bush was seriously mauled, when he declared war on The Rock, actor/wrestler Dwayne Johnson, which resulted in a surprise drop kick attack followed by a head butt and a pile driver by the professional wrestler, before White House Spokesperson Ari Fleisher managed to stop laughing out loud and informing the press and Dwayne Johnson that the President meant "rocks" and not "The Rock". President Bush was rushed to the local hospital where doctors feared severe brain damage, but concluded that "there was nothing there to begin with, so it couldn't be hurt anyhow".
The President later appologised for his mistake blaming it on terrorists who had sabotaged his statement.
I'm contemplating using such a system as a low-end webserver, but I haven't seen any benchmarks/tests on its ability do be a such... any experience with that?
You can even get some very attractive cases for the mini-itx boards, like this one:
http://www.caseoutlet.com/case/2677/CS-2677.html
But I don't know if the hardware is supported under anything other than Windows.
Re:i do not know about mediation comparisions but.
on
Gaming Zone?
·
· Score: 2
When i am in the thick of action - [...] - my reflexes are sharp - they better be or i am dead meat.
I know that exact feeling - I don't play much anymore, but when I was at the peak of my game (Rainbow Six) I was SHARP when I was playing.
I remember one fun session, where I was playing at a small R6 tournament at a computer cafe, and one guy thought it would be fun to throw a ball of paper at me to distract me (I had already won that game, we were just playing for points) and he, along with all the spectators and me went WOW! when I just grabbed it out of the air (it was comming at me at the most extreme angle you can see things at, almost straight into my ear) threw it back to him, grabbed the mouse and killed my two opponents with a frag...
Heh... couldn't help but laugh when I saw that Ash comment, because that is how I see the US government acting. Except that they apparently truely believe that they are the good guys. From what I've seen, read and heard, the only one with some brains in that government is Powell (well, I hardly ever hear of anyone but the president, vice president, defence secretary and the secretary of state), but sadly that only adds up to what... 150 IQ points, with Powel raking up some 160 or so of those...
Hej Martin (fedt navn i øvrigt - samme her, blot Schou til efternavn:-)
You are absolutely correct about the situation in Denmark at the current time, but come December 23 (as far as I have been able to find out, which is sadly mostly hear-say) Denmark will ratify the European Unions charter, which you can find in Danish here: http://www.fs.dk/jura/loveregl/mfl/eu/pdf/opin_dk. pdf (page 8, chapter III, article 6) and in English here: http://www.fs.dk/uk/acts/eu/pdf/opin_en.pdf
This charter would make it illegal to basically import/create/sell/buy anything that can be used to circumvent copy protection mechanisms, if those mechanisms are "effective"... what an "effective" protection is, isn't mentioned, so it could very well include the CSS, even though it has been public knowledge how to defeat that since what... 1999, using what... 512 bytes of code or a prime number?
Just to plug my site (which I hope won't get slashdotted, as that would set my 512kbit U/Dline on fire) I have written an interesting article attempting to start a debate on the subject (which has failed so far). The site can be found at http://fair-use.dk - I can't link to the article, as the annoying CMS doesn't fully support multiple languages, but it's the only article on the site (both in English and Danish) and it's titled "Fair use". Anyway, this is just me rambling.
Forreste - Martin Møller... det navn lyder bekendt, men jeg kan ikke lige sætte en finger på det... kan jeg få et hint?
Okay, well - I didn't notice the "it's not free, but well worth the price", but I almost broke my jaw from it hitting the floor when I noticed the $390 price tag. Yikes... that might fly if I wanted one a work, but I'm not gonna spend that amount of money for something at home.
As for eclipse, last I checked (around March this year) I couldn't find head nor tail of the interface, and couldn't find out how to use java-files in projects and stuff like that. My reaction was "this must be like VI - those who know how to use it (and/or have the patience to spend 3 months on learning) probably like it..."
Instead of piping bytes from/dev/null have it repeat instances of something like the Copyright Law or the DMCA.
For kicks, get sued by the MPAA/RIAA and get them to open your files in something like notepad - in court. Smack them with a countersuit for being insanely stupid (which you're bound to win for obvious reasons), retire and live happily ever after, knowing that you've done us all a big favor.
Stastical numbering (yes that's right, MATH, a cold science) says that we produce more for the money we're given than any other worker on the planet. Well, maybe you're just underpaying your workers... I've talked with skilled labor in the US, and some of them earn less (yes, less, not as much, fewer money) than the minimum wage here (Denmark), meaning they have to have two jobs to make a living, again causing them not to be able to spend time with their family and so the spiral goes. Sometimes those statistics means that something is wrong... sometimes 49.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
My point... well... I think it turned into a blunt object...
Thank you - it makes me feel better knowing that I do, in fact, have a sense of humour. Besides, I had 50 karma-points, now I just have an Excelent karma.
"Write a program that will display a "spiral" of NxN numbers, using constant space (no arrays allowed). For example, here's what the spiral looks like for N=10:"
And then he displays a spiral that's 11x10... nice...
Slashdot Mirror
They can't touch me with the DMCA for two reasons:
...
:-)
1) I don't live in the US
2) Denmark doesn't turns over its citizens for breaking US laws while staying in Denmark
What I _AM_ worried about is the comming legislation in Denmark and the EU (http://www.fs.dk/uk/acts/eu/pdf/opin_en.pdf) that will make it illegal for me to basicly do anything with a program designed for circumventing copy protection (and thus CSS), using libCSS could be illigal, whereas a program like PowerDVD is limited to 5 settings, and is using a licensed CSS-key, which is the same as the copyright holders signing a permission. If I were to use a pirated version of PowerDVD on the other hand
Also, I'm not just blowing smoke out my ass with my "trying to piss off the various copyright holder coorporations", although "constantly" is a bit of a stretch, as I'm only on my second attempt so far, with the first one being rather successfull in Denmark, stirring up quite a debate
I'll tackle them in reverse:
1) I'm running Mandrake, so apt-get install won't work.
2) I already have Xine installed, but I don't really know why, since it "just dies" when I try to run it. No warnings, no nothing. If I run it from the console, it just exits without saying anything.
Play - by using something that uses DeCSS you could end up being in violation of a law, and since I'm constantly trying to piss off the various copyright holder coorporations, I don't really see a big need to violate a law. Using Wine to run something like PowerDVD you can have the best of both worlds - Linux and legal DVDs.
I know it's a bit off topic, as we're discussing games under WineX, but is it possible to get something like PowerDVD or WinDVD to run under WineX, and getting them to run properly (with DMA access to drives etc)?
...
:-)
I've been trying to get Ogle running under Mandrake, and I can play dvds from any region which is cool and all, but the sound often goes out of sync and stuff like that.
I've also been trying to get Miranda ICQ running under Wine, but that requires a new version, and I can't get that running, cause I'm a d0rk when it comes to linux
What I wouldn't give for a "Window-esque" installer-wizard, that just *works*
It's rather nice to be able to put your monsterously loud 1337-computer in another house, but how do you handle removable media (cd/dvd/disk)?
When you go out of your way to call you, from Denmark no less, you do what everyone I talk to do ... "well, I haven't had time to take a shower today, and I want to do that" ...
... ;-)
Maybe it's just me
Probably because you have not looked for any documentation on doing so.
... the UNIX way, right?
... not in a usable language anyway, as I can only program java.
Oh, right, I forgot. A GUI is not supposed to be "intuitive", and you need to read 50 pages to use it
The problem, and I'm repeating myself here, isn't as much in how X does things, as in how programmers implement the same things.
Examples from my current setup (XFree4.2.0, KDE3/Gnome2)
I mark some text with the mouse, and depending on the program, the text goes into the clipboard. Other programs want me to use ctrl+c, some ctrl+insert some want me to right click and select copy and others have no apparent way of copying the text at all.
I now want to insert the text that I, hopefully, copied. Some programs want me to press ctrl+v, others shift+insert, others want me to press the middle mousebutton and so on.
Yes, I know - that's not X's fault, but it IS in a way, because noone can seem to do it in a standard way, because X, KDE, Gnome and all the others have their own idiotic way, and noone knows how to make a system-wide default, that I as a user can change in a simple way. And it SUCKS ASS!
I don't know how X is built, how it works and I really couldn't care less, because I don't write stuff for X. But - here's how I would imagine a "perfect" system; feel free to use the ideas.
The UI is run by a number of "daemons"/"servers".
Keyboard server - handles all keyboard input, including shortcuts.
Mouse server - handles all mouse input, including such things as mouse gestures.
Clipboard server - handles all clipboard features, whatever they may be.
Window server - handles all windowing functions, including such stuff as a standard CLI.
Make an API for exposing simple functions in each server.
If people want to write their own server (e.g. substituting X-Window-Server with Gnome-Window-Server) they can do so, they just have to implement the full API. This would allow you to mix and match as you please, selecting the window-server that YOU want, without having to use a clipboard- or mouse-server you DON'T want.
Could I program this? Nope, not on your life
Could I design this system, including the API? Probably, but it'd be a lot better, if I had some help, as I'm not that good a developer.
You skipped the question "why would I have to learn how to use VI and edit a conf-file JUST to change my screen resolution?"
WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?
For example, when I want to display X on my TV I start it up with "startx -- -screen TVout".
Why? Why can't you just start the TV-out from inside X? Why do you have to do it the hard way?
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - X does too much! Either that or NO ONE has any idea how to expose its abilities in a GUI.
Using a text-editor and CLI to modify a GUI, is like using a GUI-point-and-click-interface to create scripts for VI and/or Emacs.
Any why would I have to learn how to use VI and edit a conf-file JUST to change my screen resolution? That's kinda like having to learn car mechanics just to use a stick shift
Maybe not quite, but in cases like these theoretical death numbers go flying out the window, because either noone dies because it doesn't hit the earth at all or HUGE numbers of people die because it does hit. Sure, this leaves us with a mean death toll, but that is pretty useless for anything.
The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference.
Everyone keeps saying that there's nothing X can't do, which means that it's not following "the UNIX way", and that it's bloated.
It has a clipboard (that sucks in my humble opinion) so "everyone" uses that one (except those who use one of a gazillion other clipboards), but don't let people configure it. Why MUST I be FORCED to copy EVERYTHING I mark to the clipboard? Why cant _I_ decide when to put something into the clipboard??? What happened to configurability and user choice?
X can handle keyboard shortcuts, so everyone uses that handler. Except those who use one of a gazillion other keyboard handlers. But no one can seem to let me make an application disappear/reappear with a single shortcut.
X can handle [insert ability], so everyone uses that handler. Except those who use one of a gazillion other [insert ability] handlers.
And so the circle goes.
Also - why can't I use X without using the mouse? Oh that's right - who would want to use the keyboard of all things to control the GUI? In Windows I can (well, could) change my desktop resolution on the fly without turning the monitor on. I can do that in Unix as well, but I have to pull up a command line first, which is nice and all, but why the hell do I have to leave my GUI for it? And how do you do it, when the screen is busted? Can you *remember* what line of your x-conf file those settings are? And why should you be fucked, just because your mouse broke?
I'm sure X can do lots of things, but comming from just about any other GUI I can think of, it doesn't do it "the right way", but hey - what the hell do I know? I'm just a l00s3r n00b who doesn't want to conform!
If an asteoroid like NT7 hit earth it would release damage like ~70,000,000 nuclear bombs like the one that wasted Hiroshima.
Granted - there is a fair chance that it could hit somewhere on earth, where the imidiate damage would be VERY small (say central Antartica or arctis), but if it hit basicly anywhere else, I think you could kiss the 40 people death toll goodbye.
It's a ROCK that is ~2 km (~1.2 miles) in diameter traveling at 28 kilometer per second or 17 miles per second. If it were to hit a country like Denmark (souther Scandinavia), you can basicly kiss the population of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland and most of Germany goodbye as a result of the impact alone
Okay, that's just 42 people, but still
After a brief press conference today, president George W. Bush was seriously mauled, when he declared war on The Rock, actor/wrestler Dwayne Johnson, which resulted in a surprise drop kick attack followed by a head butt and a pile driver by the professional wrestler, before White House Spokesperson Ari Fleisher managed to stop laughing out loud and informing the press and Dwayne Johnson that the President meant "rock s " and not " The Rock". President Bush was rushed to the local hospital where doctors feared severe brain damage, but concluded that "there was nothing there to begin with, so it couldn't be hurt anyhow".
The President later appologised for his mistake blaming it on terrorists who had sabotaged his statement.
That depends on _how_ cheap it is :-)
... any experience with that?
I'm contemplating using such a system as a low-end webserver, but I haven't seen any benchmarks/tests on its ability do be a such
The other posts above this one are interesting, but what about using a C3 processor of some sort - perhaps one like this:
e 00 11L.jpg
l
http://www.mini-itx.com/hardware/images/hardwar
You can even get some very attractive cases for the mini-itx boards, like this one:
http://www.caseoutlet.com/case/2677/CS-2677.htm
But I don't know if the hardware is supported under anything other than Windows.
I remember one fun session, where I was playing at a small R6 tournament at a computer cafe, and one guy thought it would be fun to throw a ball of paper at me to distract me (I had already won that game, we were just playing for points) and he, along with all the spectators and me went WOW! when I just grabbed it out of the air (it was comming at me at the most extreme angle you can see things at, almost straight into my ear) threw it back to him, grabbed the mouse and killed my two opponents with a frag
THAT was fun
That's your job - I guess I'll have to settle with selling my body to Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Sigh - why do *I* always have to do that.
Heh ... couldn't help but laugh when I saw that Ash comment, because that is how I see the US government acting. Except that they apparently truely believe that they are the good guys. From what I've seen, read and heard, the only one with some brains in that government is Powell (well, I hardly ever hear of anyone but the president, vice president, defence secretary and the secretary of state), but sadly that only adds up to what ... 150 IQ points, with Powel raking up some 160 or so of those ...
Hej Martin (fedt navn i øvrigt - samme her, blot Schou til efternavn :-)
. pdf (page 8, chapter III, article 6) and in English here: http://www.fs.dk/uk/acts/eu/pdf/opin_en.pdf
... what an "effective" protection is, isn't mentioned, so it could very well include the CSS, even though it has been public knowledge how to defeat that since what ... 1999, using what ... 512 bytes of code or a prime number?
... det navn lyder bekendt, men jeg kan ikke lige sætte en finger på det ... kan jeg få et hint?
You are absolutely correct about the situation in Denmark at the current time, but come December 23 (as far as I have been able to find out, which is sadly mostly hear-say) Denmark will ratify the European Unions charter, which you can find in Danish here: http://www.fs.dk/jura/loveregl/mfl/eu/pdf/opin_dk
This charter would make it illegal to basically import/create/sell/buy anything that can be used to circumvent copy protection mechanisms, if those mechanisms are "effective"
Just to plug my site (which I hope won't get slashdotted, as that would set my 512kbit U/Dline on fire) I have written an interesting article attempting to start a debate on the subject (which has failed so far). The site can be found at http://fair-use.dk - I can't link to the article, as the annoying CMS doesn't fully support multiple languages, but it's the only article on the site (both in English and Danish) and it's titled "Fair use".
Anyway, this is just me rambling.
Forreste - Martin Møller
Because the judicial system aparently thinks that might makes right and that money makes might ... ?
I haven't heard of the case in question, but given what you hear about the US legal system it sounds perfectly plausible.
Okay, well - I didn't notice the "it's not free, but well worth the price", but I almost broke my jaw from it hitting the floor when I noticed the $390 price tag. Yikes ... that might fly if I wanted one a work, but I'm not gonna spend that amount of money for something at home.
..."
As for eclipse, last I checked (around March this year) I couldn't find head nor tail of the interface, and couldn't find out how to use java-files in projects and stuff like that. My reaction was "this must be like VI - those who know how to use it (and/or have the patience to spend 3 months on learning) probably like it
Instead of piping bytes from /dev/null have it repeat instances of something like the Copyright Law or the DMCA.
For kicks, get sued by the MPAA/RIAA and get them to open your files in something like notepad - in court. Smack them with a countersuit for being insanely stupid (which you're bound to win for obvious reasons), retire and live happily ever after, knowing that you've done us all a big favor.
Stastical numbering (yes that's right, MATH, a cold science) says that we produce more for the money we're given than any other worker on the planet. Well, maybe you're just underpaying your workers ... I've talked with skilled labor in the US, and some of them earn less (yes, less, not as much, fewer money) than the minimum wage here (Denmark), meaning they have to have two jobs to make a living, again causing them not to be able to spend time with their family and so the spiral goes. Sometimes those statistics means that something is wrong ... sometimes 49.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
... well ... I think it turned into a blunt object ...
My point
Thank you - it makes me feel better knowing that I do, in fact, have a sense of humour. Besides, I had 50 karma-points, now I just have an Excelent karma.
Too bad I can't say that about my sex-life.
"Write a program that will display a "spiral" of NxN numbers, using constant space (no arrays allowed). For example, here's what the spiral looks like for N=10:"
... nice ...
And then he displays a spiral that's 11x10
Well, you'd have to get out of the way first ...