I bought a DRM'd CD from Amazon. It was by the Beastie Boys (had to buy it, the album art is absolutely beautiful, if you love NYC at all, get that record).
P2P "search" networks basically suck. It's a hassle to get what you want, a hassle to find what you want, a hassle to avoid astroturfers and trolls, and a hassle when you discover some joker used the Xing encoder at 112 kbit to encode that rare gem of a Bob Dylan duet that cuts out a minute before the end of the song. Or that the damn thing is in OGG at any bitrate, a fate worse than death for an iPod user (and there are several million of us).
iTunes has, in general, a better selection in higher quality than P2P and the samples are usually good enough to tell if you're going to like it. Unless you're a shmuck who's dead set against paying for music or some quality nut, it's a great solution.
However, I've recently become reacquainted with the Usenet -- not as a download method, but as a method of keeping myself updated with what's coming out. Albums these days hit the Usenet weeks or even months before they hit the streets, meaning that smart critics and music fans should be watching the 'groups for word from their favorite artists. The Madlib/MF Doom collaboration "Madvillainy" hit the groups nearly a year and a half after it "leaked into cyberspace," and as a result of that crappy rip (from a CD left on an airplane in Buenos Aires) the album was greatly anticipated. I'd have bought it on the first day, if any store within 80 miles of here had CARRIED the shit. *sigh*. The internet really is a double edged sword, simultaneous promoting and crushing the industry.
This post violates my copyrights Now I can never release my "Best of Dasmegabyte.org" DVD set, featuring out takes and shocking interviews with the penis pill spammers who comment on my articles. I expect restitution to the tune of $10 US, which reflects the money I would have received marketting said DVD to my mom.
This isn't a fair use issue. Fair Use is a very narrow set of permissions, and they are enforced by the courts. Before a use can be considered fair, the copyright owner must first make a claim against it.
Copyright and fair use are working exactly how they are supposed to.
Incidentally, Fair Use laws, which you should really read as you seem to have NO idea what they say or what they're for, are to protect artistic, non-commercial critical and paradoxical works. Shit like this. They do not give blanket protections, but guidelines for judges involved in Fair Use cases. You may not like this, but what's to stop somebody from tossing a joke into a copyrighted work and releasing the entirety as a new work? Fair Use isn't the loophole to copyright you think it is...and it surely doesn't give you the permission to charge people so you can display somebody else's work and make fun of it for 100 minutes.
Now that was a good flame. It featured obscure references, an insult to Autopr0n and of course it made fun of my fabled weight problem. That's a hat trick!
Such apt satire, and it's about me! I feel like a Kennedy!
Oh god, I hope Bush doesn't instate a draft. The LAST thing America needs is another massive egress of liberal thinkers and cowards. They're our most precious natural resource!
Hey Junior, I dunno if you've noticed the trend yet, but America is an intensely reactive culture. This is partially due to the fact that our representative politicians only have to care about what we REALLY want when it bugs us to the point that not supporting us could mean being out of a job.
Americans don't care about HDTV, at all, because right now it's way too expensive and inaccessible. So of course they don't care about broadcast flags, etc, it's not a problem. It will become a problem in three or four years, if network TV abuses the broadcast flag. Then, maybe there will be support for repealing the new FCC regulations. But not until. It just doesn't matter right now, there's no problem and the potential for one is too speculative.
There are millions of current recording and viewing devices that will be EOL'd after the shift to digital TV. Nuts to HDTV, I just bought a $600 WEGA last year, I don't watch enough TV to justify the expense of all brand new equipment. The demand for cheap converters will be huge...and I don't doubt that many of these converters will lack MacroVision. Which means a crystal clear analog signal you can do what you like with. It won't be high def, but people are willing to waste hours downloading low res DivX rips from second generation VHS sources...being able to copy ANYTHING is enough for me.
Of course the price is high, this is the first one. The first device of its kind, in its size, with its robust feature set. It's new, it's revolutionary and nobody has one. Some people will buy that kind of thing regardless of price -- developers will buy it to design software for it, rich technophiles will buy it just to have one and people who have been waiting for JUST such a device, saving their pennies, are waiting in the wings to buy one. I won't doubt if they're sold out for a year, even if the thing doesn't work! The first SLR digital cameras were like that -- they cost THOUSANDS of dollars and people would snatch them up left and right. Because a few thousand dollars was PEANUTS compared to the time saved by these things.
However, if the thing is even moderately popular, expect to see scads of poorly made clones some time next year, followed by the introduction of a new "entry level" model.
Damnit, if I'm gonna reboot my computer just to play a game, it's not gonna be freakin' Go. It's gonna be Microsoft Decathlon, which combined the fun of an IBM computer with the stability of a Microsoft OS.
Actually, that's pretty good. I run ArcView (map and dataset viewer) with data (land use, wetlands, zoning, USGS grid and gradients, orthoimagery, etc.) for JUST New York State on a similar machine. It uses 10 times the disk space and it's slowwwww. Of course, if this is just a picture viewer, it doesn't have to do all the projection correction across layers that ArcView does...nor does it need uncompressed TIF representations of everything.
Yeah, moderation is very simple. Somebody agrees with you, +1, Insightful even if it's the same, tired, flawed opinion that's been posted for years. Somebody disagrees with you, -1 Troll even if it's new, perceptive and well argued.
For example, you got a +5 for pointing out the same, tired argument that some people whine about OGG and get moderated for it. I will get modded -1 Troll, because of my vitriolic.sig.
You know what? Fuck Slashdot. I'm going to start reading Fark, which is just as retarded but shows me boobies.
Yeah. I'm thinking about burning it onto CD. I can look at it when I get older as a testament to good ole' days, when a bunch of sad technology fans were so annoyed by my outlook that they felt the need to mildly inconvenience me. I mean, flames are one thing, but when you have active grassroots oppression against you, you've really made it as a troll.
Thanks for the definitional correction, by the way...Safari checks my spelling but not my grammar, and I type FAST.
Yeah, well the original requirements were to create a non-corporate, non-business oriented clone of UNIX for use by hobbiests.
Linux has, in the meantime, grown out of the lazy hobbiest requirements into a full blown industrial strength high performance yet immensely flexible kernel and toolset slash political movement. It has outgrown the fat penguin metaphor. I like the image of the sleek, powerful, art deco Peng, I think it fits. It conveys reliability. Tux conveys a powerful warning about drinking and Down's Syndrome.
And have you ever SEEN a phallus? Mine does not look like that. It's mostly cylindrical with a mushroomy bit at the top. Peng, on the other hand, is distinctly triangular. In fact, the only thing in nature as sleek as Peng that I can think of is, well, a penguin racing through the water.
Sure you can. My buddy just bought a clamshell iBook, thing cost him $300 and for email and web browsing it's a dream. Sure, it's a shame it can't play Doom 3...but isn't that a bit like lamenting you can't take your SmartCar on the Le Mans circuit?
Re:um... I'd have a different perspective
on
Less Might Be More
·
· Score: 1
Posted anonymously, of course, so Doc Samson can't track down the flophouse hotel or desert diner he is posting from...
I think both Microsoft and Sun now realize you can't "beat Linux" the way you can beat Lotus or you can beat Digital. Linux isn't a company. It will never disappear or go chapter 11. It's a technology, like XML or TCP/IP, and like those technologies there's no real money it.
The money is in services: installation, maintenance, outsourcing and customization of this technology. And Red Hat, posing as a software company, snuck right into this market.
If I were Sun, I would definitely try to crush the upstart Red Hat. There isn't enough room in the services sector as it is, and with Red Hat's name being synonymous in many executive's minds with Linux, it makes sense to attack them.
It isn't an attack on Linux. It's an attack on its symbolic open market leaders. And it's an attack that's not entirely without merit. I'd take a Sun support contract over a Red Hat any day of the week...though I'd prefer it with the overactive Linux community...
Tux is not the Rock. The Rock is funny. Tux is never funny. He's a fat, retarded piece of shit. Real men prefer Peng, who besides being a cool logo that doesn't make a grown man embarrassed once held the X-division title.
Hey, thanks man. I was wondering about the phenomenon and was pretty sure I was wrong about it being the underrated thing. Hence why I put it in my sig...it was sure to attract one of Slashdot's many archivists to answer my question sans effort.
I can't see PC component manufacturers -- who still make a TON of money off upgrades, which are much higher margin than bulk buys -- ever locking people out of their own machines. It's much more likely they'll include utilities to re-level your PC when you upgrade.
Even still, remeber: the client is in the hands of the enemy. If you REALLY want to suffer through a Level 8 game on your Level 2 Palm Pilot, somebody will hack a way, DMCA or no.
Why, all of the really great intuitive processing tasks we've never been able to do because we've been so reliant on disk speed/memory speed/video speed. There's no reason why computers can't better than humans at performing complex sorting, association and identification tasks, except their previously limited speed.
Soon you'll be able to sort your porn by hair colour, breast size and apparent age without doing any of the work yourself. And that, my friend, is the true digital dream.
Right. Of course, since this would only apply to new software, it would carry with it new pressure. If your software is working fine on your level 3 PC, you don't have to upgrade. If you need new software, and it requries a level 5, well you're getting a new machine.
It is much easier to understand the need. And it is much easier to GET what you need. Salesmen could still con you into getting the best Level 5 for your money, but it's certainly more understandable than questions like "Will task X be faster if I upgrade my memory, my motherboard, or my processor?"
What's wrong with that? Make the levels like model years, and bump them up every six months. So today's baseline PC would be, say, a 2002 (corresponding to when its hardware was bleeding edge), and a top of the line model would be a 2004.5.
We software drones then need only say "PCs certified 2001 or better."
The best part is that said rating system could apply retroactively to machines currently in existence. Give people a little program, something like Sandra, that benchmarks the PC and gives it a maximum rating. Upgrading the PC? Cool, just rerun the benchmark.
All this information is covered in the owner's manual in your glove compartment and would only be used in emergencies. You don't need to know it. Anybody with solid reading comprehension skills willing to take their time can fix a flat tire.
If repairing a computer were as straightforward and easily explained as fixing a flat, we'd all be better off. In fact, my PowerBook came with a manual and instructions on how to reinstall the OS if need be. It's laid out with photographs and instructions. That's good design, man.
To continue the retarded analogy even further: do you know what kind of brakes you car has? Do you know what type of steering box your car has? Do you know how many watts your alternator outputs or what your final drive ratio is on your gearbox?
My guess is, probably not. For the average driver, just knowing whether you got the Sport model or the Luxury model is probably enough. For some, even that's too much. It's specialized knowledge and should not be required.
I should not have to compile a kernel to use a computer. This is bad design. I should have the CHOICE to compile a kernel if I want to...but that's it.
Slashdot Mirror
I bought a DRM'd CD from Amazon. It was by the Beastie Boys (had to buy it, the album art is absolutely beautiful, if you love NYC at all, get that record).
Luckily, iTunes ripped it with no problems.
P2P "search" networks basically suck. It's a hassle to get what you want, a hassle to find what you want, a hassle to avoid astroturfers and trolls, and a hassle when you discover some joker used the Xing encoder at 112 kbit to encode that rare gem of a Bob Dylan duet that cuts out a minute before the end of the song. Or that the damn thing is in OGG at any bitrate, a fate worse than death for an iPod user (and there are several million of us).
iTunes has, in general, a better selection in higher quality than P2P and the samples are usually good enough to tell if you're going to like it. Unless you're a shmuck who's dead set against paying for music or some quality nut, it's a great solution.
However, I've recently become reacquainted with the Usenet -- not as a download method, but as a method of keeping myself updated with what's coming out. Albums these days hit the Usenet weeks or even months before they hit the streets, meaning that smart critics and music fans should be watching the 'groups for word from their favorite artists. The Madlib/MF Doom collaboration "Madvillainy" hit the groups nearly a year and a half after it "leaked into cyberspace," and as a result of that crappy rip (from a CD left on an airplane in Buenos Aires) the album was greatly anticipated. I'd have bought it on the first day, if any store within 80 miles of here had CARRIED the shit. *sigh*. The internet really is a double edged sword, simultaneous promoting and crushing the industry.
This post violates my copyrights Now I can never release my "Best of Dasmegabyte.org" DVD set, featuring out takes and shocking interviews with the penis pill spammers who comment on my articles. I expect restitution to the tune of $10 US, which reflects the money I would have received marketting said DVD to my mom.
This isn't a fair use issue. Fair Use is a very narrow set of permissions, and they are enforced by the courts. Before a use can be considered fair, the copyright owner must first make a claim against it.
Copyright and fair use are working exactly how they are supposed to.
Incidentally, Fair Use laws, which you should really read as you seem to have NO idea what they say or what they're for, are to protect artistic, non-commercial critical and paradoxical works. Shit like this. They do not give blanket protections, but guidelines for judges involved in Fair Use cases. You may not like this, but what's to stop somebody from tossing a joke into a copyrighted work and releasing the entirety as a new work? Fair Use isn't the loophole to copyright you think it is...and it surely doesn't give you the permission to charge people so you can display somebody else's work and make fun of it for 100 minutes.
Now that was a good flame. It featured obscure references, an insult to Autopr0n and of course it made fun of my fabled weight problem. That's a hat trick!
Such apt satire, and it's about me! I feel like a Kennedy!
Oh god, I hope Bush doesn't instate a draft. The LAST thing America needs is another massive egress of liberal thinkers and cowards. They're our most precious natural resource!
Hey Junior, I dunno if you've noticed the trend yet, but America is an intensely reactive culture. This is partially due to the fact that our representative politicians only have to care about what we REALLY want when it bugs us to the point that not supporting us could mean being out of a job.
Americans don't care about HDTV, at all, because right now it's way too expensive and inaccessible. So of course they don't care about broadcast flags, etc, it's not a problem. It will become a problem in three or four years, if network TV abuses the broadcast flag. Then, maybe there will be support for repealing the new FCC regulations. But not until. It just doesn't matter right now, there's no problem and the potential for one is too speculative.
There are millions of current recording and viewing devices that will be EOL'd after the shift to digital TV. Nuts to HDTV, I just bought a $600 WEGA last year, I don't watch enough TV to justify the expense of all brand new equipment. The demand for cheap converters will be huge...and I don't doubt that many of these converters will lack MacroVision. Which means a crystal clear analog signal you can do what you like with. It won't be high def, but people are willing to waste hours downloading low res DivX rips from second generation VHS sources...being able to copy ANYTHING is enough for me.
Of course the price is high, this is the first one. The first device of its kind, in its size, with its robust feature set. It's new, it's revolutionary and nobody has one. Some people will buy that kind of thing regardless of price -- developers will buy it to design software for it, rich technophiles will buy it just to have one and people who have been waiting for JUST such a device, saving their pennies, are waiting in the wings to buy one. I won't doubt if they're sold out for a year, even if the thing doesn't work! The first SLR digital cameras were like that -- they cost THOUSANDS of dollars and people would snatch them up left and right. Because a few thousand dollars was PEANUTS compared to the time saved by these things.
However, if the thing is even moderately popular, expect to see scads of poorly made clones some time next year, followed by the introduction of a new "entry level" model.
Damnit, if I'm gonna reboot my computer just to play a game, it's not gonna be freakin' Go. It's gonna be Microsoft Decathlon, which combined the fun of an IBM computer with the stability of a Microsoft OS.
Actually, that's pretty good. I run ArcView (map and dataset viewer) with data (land use, wetlands, zoning, USGS grid and gradients, orthoimagery, etc.) for JUST New York State on a similar machine. It uses 10 times the disk space and it's slowwwww. Of course, if this is just a picture viewer, it doesn't have to do all the projection correction across layers that ArcView does...nor does it need uncompressed TIF representations of everything.
;)
And I'm wishing for an OS X port
Good one! XXXL shirt, man where do you guys come UP with such hilarious shit? Is there a school I don't know about?
Thanks for writing!
Yeah, moderation is very simple. Somebody agrees with you, +1, Insightful even if it's the same, tired, flawed opinion that's been posted for years. Somebody disagrees with you, -1 Troll even if it's new, perceptive and well argued.
.sig.
For example, you got a +5 for pointing out the same, tired argument that some people whine about OGG and get moderated for it. I will get modded -1 Troll, because of my vitriolic
You know what? Fuck Slashdot. I'm going to start reading Fark, which is just as retarded but shows me boobies.
Yeah. I'm thinking about burning it onto CD. I can look at it when I get older as a testament to good ole' days, when a bunch of sad technology fans were so annoyed by my outlook that they felt the need to mildly inconvenience me. I mean, flames are one thing, but when you have active grassroots oppression against you, you've really made it as a troll.
Thanks for the definitional correction, by the way...Safari checks my spelling but not my grammar, and I type FAST.
Yeah, well the original requirements were to create a non-corporate, non-business oriented clone of UNIX for use by hobbiests.
Linux has, in the meantime, grown out of the lazy hobbiest requirements into a full blown industrial strength high performance yet immensely flexible kernel and toolset slash political movement. It has outgrown the fat penguin metaphor. I like the image of the sleek, powerful, art deco Peng, I think it fits. It conveys reliability. Tux conveys a powerful warning about drinking and Down's Syndrome.
And have you ever SEEN a phallus? Mine does not look like that. It's mostly cylindrical with a mushroomy bit at the top. Peng, on the other hand, is distinctly triangular. In fact, the only thing in nature as sleek as Peng that I can think of is, well, a penguin racing through the water.
Sure you can. My buddy just bought a clamshell iBook, thing cost him $300 and for email and web browsing it's a dream. Sure, it's a shame it can't play Doom 3...but isn't that a bit like lamenting you can't take your SmartCar on the Le Mans circuit?
Posted anonymously, of course, so Doc Samson can't track down the flophouse hotel or desert diner he is posting from...
I think both Microsoft and Sun now realize you can't "beat Linux" the way you can beat Lotus or you can beat Digital. Linux isn't a company. It will never disappear or go chapter 11. It's a technology, like XML or TCP/IP, and like those technologies there's no real money it.
The money is in services: installation, maintenance, outsourcing and customization of this technology. And Red Hat, posing as a software company, snuck right into this market.
If I were Sun, I would definitely try to crush the upstart Red Hat. There isn't enough room in the services sector as it is, and with Red Hat's name being synonymous in many executive's minds with Linux, it makes sense to attack them.
It isn't an attack on Linux. It's an attack on its symbolic open market leaders. And it's an attack that's not entirely without merit. I'd take a Sun support contract over a Red Hat any day of the week...though I'd prefer it with the overactive Linux community...
Tux is not the Rock. The Rock is funny. Tux is never funny. He's a fat, retarded piece of shit. Real men prefer Peng, who besides being a cool logo that doesn't make a grown man embarrassed once held the X-division title.
Hey, thanks man. I was wondering about the phenomenon and was pretty sure I was wrong about it being the underrated thing. Hence why I put it in my sig...it was sure to attract one of Slashdot's many archivists to answer my question sans effort.
I can't see PC component manufacturers -- who still make a TON of money off upgrades, which are much higher margin than bulk buys -- ever locking people out of their own machines. It's much more likely they'll include utilities to re-level your PC when you upgrade.
Even still, remeber: the client is in the hands of the enemy. If you REALLY want to suffer through a Level 8 game on your Level 2 Palm Pilot, somebody will hack a way, DMCA or no.
Why, all of the really great intuitive processing tasks we've never been able to do because we've been so reliant on disk speed/memory speed/video speed. There's no reason why computers can't better than humans at performing complex sorting, association and identification tasks, except their previously limited speed.
Soon you'll be able to sort your porn by hair colour, breast size and apparent age without doing any of the work yourself. And that, my friend, is the true digital dream.
Right. Of course, since this would only apply to new software, it would carry with it new pressure. If your software is working fine on your level 3 PC, you don't have to upgrade. If you need new software, and it requries a level 5, well you're getting a new machine.
It is much easier to understand the need. And it is much easier to GET what you need. Salesmen could still con you into getting the best Level 5 for your money, but it's certainly more understandable than questions like "Will task X be faster if I upgrade my memory, my motherboard, or my processor?"
What's wrong with that? Make the levels like model years, and bump them up every six months. So today's baseline PC would be, say, a 2002 (corresponding to when its hardware was bleeding edge), and a top of the line model would be a 2004.5.
We software drones then need only say "PCs certified 2001 or better."
The best part is that said rating system could apply retroactively to machines currently in existence. Give people a little program, something like Sandra, that benchmarks the PC and gives it a maximum rating. Upgrading the PC? Cool, just rerun the benchmark.
All this information is covered in the owner's manual in your glove compartment and would only be used in emergencies. You don't need to know it. Anybody with solid reading comprehension skills willing to take their time can fix a flat tire.
If repairing a computer were as straightforward and easily explained as fixing a flat, we'd all be better off. In fact, my PowerBook came with a manual and instructions on how to reinstall the OS if need be. It's laid out with photographs and instructions. That's good design, man.
To continue the retarded analogy even further: do you know what kind of brakes you car has? Do you know what type of steering box your car has? Do you know how many watts your alternator outputs or what your final drive ratio is on your gearbox?
My guess is, probably not. For the average driver, just knowing whether you got the Sport model or the Luxury model is probably enough. For some, even that's too much. It's specialized knowledge and should not be required.
I should not have to compile a kernel to use a computer. This is bad design. I should have the CHOICE to compile a kernel if I want to...but that's it.