Amen to that! Now, maybe Lucas will finally decide that DVD has officially arrived and release the bulk of his movies on it.
I wonder...does the man even own a DVD player? Aside from all the issues with CSS, Macrovision, and region coding, it's a damn good video format. Why he is so damn stubborn about not releasing his back catalog on it is beyond me.
Yes, but how do you record TV shows? Are PVR's being sold in large numbers there, or have people moved to other tape formats, such as Hi-8 and DVC?
Granted, VHS sucks as a recording medium, but it's just about all we have that's cheap and readily available. I like the idea of PVRs, but I don't want to pay a monthly subscription fee for the privilege of being able to use one, and after the crap that TiVo recently pulled in the UK, I definitely have an aversion to them.
I do agree with you, to a point. There are indeed quite a lot of users who don't have a clue as to how their computers work, and those people are going to use whatever they think is easiest. By and large, these are the same people who think AOL is the greatest Internet service available.
But I digress. I do believe that there are users out there who are fairly computer literate who haven't tried Linux for one reason or another. Windows is a known quantity, and it works for them. Is that wrong? Not at all. As long as they get their work done, then they're happy. From their point of view, they have no reason to switch. Why should they switch and have to learn a totally new OS? I'm not defending Windows or attacking Linux here; I'm simply pointing out the reasons people stay with Windows. If you want them to use something else, then you have to convince them that whatever you want them to try can do something better than what they're using, and that "something" has to be a task that's important to them. Can Linux run a word processor better than Windows? How about a Web browser or e-mail client? These users may be quite capable of learning a new OS, but unless you can give them a compelling reason to change, they won't.
I know this has been discussed before, but it seems that now is an appropriate time to bring it up again. It seems high time for an overthrow of ICANN.
Yes, we have alternate registrars with alternate TLDs, but I don't mean that. I mean that there isn't anything stopping anyone from setting up an alternative to ICANN, with all its constituent committees and groups. Give the new organization several key features, such as a charter that can't be changed at the whim of the leadership of the day, a clear method of representation for Internet users and a straightforward method for choosing reps, and a progressive method for selecting new TLDs that doesn't take decades to work through. Make it everything ICANN isn't, and then make a play for control of the root nameservers. If the new organization can't get them directly, then it could set up its own. The best part of this strategy is that if the alternate organization starts to gather support, ICANN, the DoC, and Congress would be forced to acknowledge it or risk breaking the DNS system as the two organizations take divergent paths.
This may not work, and it'll probably be messy as hell, but it'll be fun, and it'll scare the hell out of some people and groups who desperately need the hell scared out of them.
Here's the official SPEWS IP listing. I wonder how long it'll be before these IPs show up in permanent blacklists all over the Internet, never to emerge again.
Way to go, spammers. Watch your connectivity go bye-bye.
I wonder how long it'll be before CG technology gets good enough that some record label will decide to have an entirely artificial "artist" or "band". Imagine the savings. No studio time, no royalties, no contract disputes, just the cost of someone to manipulate the images and sounds. Just plug in the lyrics, and off you go. I realize that these costs will be high at first, but as the technology advances, I'm sure it will come down.
It's true that these artificial creations won't be able to give truly live concerts, but the record company could get by with using a giant projection screen in a venue. All they'd have to do is vary the programming a little for each show in order to customize it.
I can't wait to see this happen. Can you imagine all the stupid little teenage groupies rushing out to buy the latest album from...um...let's see...The DigiBoyz?
Then you bill them for the damage. And if they do it often enough, it's going to look really bad in the media. Can you imagine the fun that will ensue when you call your local TV station to tell them to come over and see how the police destroyed your camera while you were trying to keep them honest by taping them? TV reporters absolutely love stories where a camera gets smashed and/or someone gets knocked down or pushed around. I can guarantee that it'll make the local evening news, and the police will end up looking either like buffoons or jack-booted thugs.
And if you think that something like this might happen, and if you want to catch everything, then you just use two cameras. That way, if they want to check one, then you have the other one rolling so you don't miss any action.
Agreed. Also, if they have to have someone present at searches, it makes it more difficult to conduct large-scale fishing expeditions, since there are only so many officers to go around. Also, it can serve to protect the ISP, since if some police official later accuses it of not conducting the search in the manner they wanted it to, the ISP can simply respond by saying that if the officer who was there had a problem, then he should have spoken up at the time.
It might also not be a bad idea for the ISP to videotape the whole process to make sure no police officers do anything they shouldn't be doing. Document everything from the time the officer arrives at the front door to the time he leaves.
What popup? I have _never_ seen a popup on this site. You're going to http://slashdot.org, correct? If you're getting popups, then maybe you ought to run Ad-Aware and see if you have spyware installed.
ISPs don't block spammers by domain; they do it by IP ranges. So it doesn't matter whether their domain ends in.jp,.kr,.com, or anything else. Block the appropriate IP range, and you block the spammer.
They may find another provider, but whoever it is, that unfortunate company will quickly find itself on so many blacklists that its employees won't even be able to sneeze without hitting an unfriendly router somewhere.
It'll be interesting to see if anyone is dumb enough or suicidal enough to give these spammers connectivity. If that should happen, I'll make every effort to submit the details to Slashdot so the relevant IP space can be erased from the Internet.
I really have to wonder who'll watch this channel. I happen to like TechTV (which I can't get), but if that channel is falling on hard times, I can't imagine how this one is going to make it.
When you get there, check out the "Protect your rights" link. (It's Javascript that pops open a new window.) They could have provided more details, but i still think it's a good effort that other companies will hopefully copy. Oops, did I say copy? Sorry, Fritz.
According to this NEWS.COM article, Gateway is going to be voicing its opposition to the CBDTPA. The best part is that they're going to begin airing a national TV spot on the topic of downloading and burning music. Doesn't look like it's going to directly reference the bill, but people will doubtless see it, and it will prime them for exposure to information about what's going on. I'd recommend that everyone here watch for the ad and see if it can be used as a reference when writing letters to newspapers or your Congressional reps.
Just because the bill probably won't get out of Judiciary, it still lives. It can be attached as an amendment to another bill and given new life that way. Don't assume anything when dealing with politicians.
I think it's great that Congress is getting all these comments against the CBDTPA, but anyone who thinks it's dead is terribly naive. It won't be officially dead until the end of the Congressional term, and it can and probably will be reintorduced next year. The absolute worst thing we can do is to stop now. If we do, our opposition will soon be forgotten, and the bill will get pushed through.
The best way to put this into perspective is to realize that we do have the power to raise awareness and get people's attention. This doesn't mean we've won. Far from it. It just means that the big media companies and their allies in Congress know we're here, and they'll now have to counter that. Does anyone honestly think that Jack Valenti will call up his buddy Fritz Hollings and say, "Fritz, we honestly didn't know that people would get so riled up over this. Look, we don't want to irritate our customers, so let's just pull this bill." Hell no! If they're talking about anything, they're discussing ways to put a positive spin on this monstrosity.
Now is not the time to get complacent. That will doom us more than anything else. Keep sending those letters, making those phone calls, and talking with friends and colleagues. If we can get their attention by doing what we've done so far, we can do much more if we take this to the next level.
So have you read the mail headers and determined that these spams indeed came from Yahoo or Hotmail? The From: address means nothing. The only thing you can trust are the headers. Most all of the spam that claims to come from these services is sent from somewhere else. Think about it. How long would it take to send 100,000 spams through a Web interface when you're limited to something like 25-50 addresses at a time? Not to mention that each and every one is going to be tagged with the spammer's computer's IP. Hotmail even uses a header called X-Originating-IP so you can't miss it.
If you want a good tutorial on how to read headers, go here. It's a bit dated, but it will give you a good foundation on what headers mean.
Well, if MS does enter the market, then I can see how a toilet crash would go. Instead of the BSOD, you'd get the BWOD (Blue Water of Death), in which the blue water in the bowl would rise and rise until it overflows all over the floor.
Yeah, it may be sneaky and underhanded to attach a bill to another one to get it passed, but it happens all the time. This is done in precisely this situation, when the bill would be dead otherwise. This often happens with budget bills because the president is often under pressure to just sign them in order to keep the government running, so someone will load them up with junk that wouldn't otherwise get passed.
We'd better be vigilant, or this could happen here.
How am I supposed to set up an interview with him on Slashdot? Don't get me wrong, I'd like to do that, but that's something the admins will have to do.
No, unfortunately, he doesn't have a Web site. I need to talk to him about that. I don't know him that well, but since I used to work in college radio, he wants to talk to me about getting his CD out to more stations.
But I can share a Web site of a really good band from Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas. Their name is Oreo Blue, and they play a rock/blues mix. To tell you the truth, they sound best in live concerts, but
they have some really good albums. "Live by Demand" is one of their best, I think. They have some of their stuff MP3'ed on the site, but whoever was doing it wasn't paying attention to the quality because there's often skipping and other errors in the tracks. Still, their music is awesome.
1. No, he doesn't have a Web site.
2. My point was, since you obviously weren't reading the post thoroughly, is that there are good independent artists out there, maybe closer than you think.
3. Don't go off like an asshole just because you haven't read carefully.
And in case anyone's thinking that they have to buy music from the Big Five, I just purchased a CD from my upstairs neighbor last night. He's in a band, and they're trying desperately to get some exposure. I paid $5 for the disc, and you know what, it's damn good. There's one song that could actually take off, given some airplay. My point being, you can find good music all around you, if you're willing to look.
And don't forget that this thing could still find its way into another bill as an amendment. That's how the CDA was passed, as an emendment to the 1996 telecom act.
OT: If one of the admins is reading this, could you go in and delete or modify the post that screwed up the page formatting?
Slashdot Mirror
Amen to that! Now, maybe Lucas will finally decide that DVD has officially arrived and release the bulk of his movies on it.
I wonder...does the man even own a DVD player? Aside from all the issues with CSS, Macrovision, and region coding, it's a damn good video format. Why he is so damn stubborn about not releasing his back catalog on it is beyond me.
Yes, but how do you record TV shows? Are PVR's being sold in large numbers there, or have people moved to other tape formats, such as Hi-8 and DVC?
Granted, VHS sucks as a recording medium, but it's just about all we have that's cheap and readily available. I like the idea of PVRs, but I don't want to pay a monthly subscription fee for the privilege of being able to use one, and after the crap that TiVo recently pulled in the UK, I definitely have an aversion to them.
I do agree with you, to a point. There are indeed quite a lot of users who don't have a clue as to how their computers work, and those people are going to use whatever they think is easiest. By and large, these are the same people who think AOL is the greatest Internet service available.
But I digress. I do believe that there are users out there who are fairly computer literate who haven't tried Linux for one reason or another. Windows is a known quantity, and it works for them. Is that wrong? Not at all. As long as they get their work done, then they're happy. From their point of view, they have no reason to switch. Why should they switch and have to learn a totally new OS? I'm not defending Windows or attacking Linux here; I'm simply pointing out the reasons people stay with Windows. If you want them to use something else, then you have to convince them that whatever you want them to try can do something better than what they're using, and that "something" has to be a task that's important to them. Can Linux run a word processor better than Windows? How about a Web browser or e-mail client? These users may be quite capable of learning a new OS, but unless you can give them a compelling reason to change, they won't.
I know this has been discussed before, but it seems that now is an appropriate time to bring it up again. It seems high time for an overthrow of ICANN.
Yes, we have alternate registrars with alternate TLDs, but I don't mean that. I mean that there isn't anything stopping anyone from setting up an alternative to ICANN, with all its constituent committees and groups. Give the new organization several key features, such as a charter that can't be changed at the whim of the leadership of the day, a clear method of representation for Internet users and a straightforward method for choosing reps, and a progressive method for selecting new TLDs that doesn't take decades to work through. Make it everything ICANN isn't, and then make a play for control of the root nameservers. If the new organization can't get them directly, then it could set up its own. The best part of this strategy is that if the alternate organization starts to gather support, ICANN, the DoC, and Congress would be forced to acknowledge it or risk breaking the DNS system as the two organizations take divergent paths.
This may not work, and it'll probably be messy as hell, but it'll be fun, and it'll scare the hell out of some people and groups who desperately need the hell scared out of them.
Here's the official SPEWS IP listing. I wonder how long it'll be before these IPs show up in permanent blacklists all over the Internet, never to emerge again.
Way to go, spammers. Watch your connectivity go bye-bye.
T3Group
|--------------------
1, 202.154.73.131, t3direct.com.au
1, 202.154.79.66, mail.t3direct.com.au
1, 202.154.79.0/25, t3direct.com.au
1, 202.139.241.136, www.t3direct.com.au
1, 202.139.241.128/25, t3direct.com.au
1, 203.55.16.6, titan.t3direct.com.au
1, 203.55.16.0/25, t3direct.com.au
---------------------|
Amen!
I wonder how long it'll be before CG technology gets good enough that some record label will decide to have an entirely artificial "artist" or "band". Imagine the savings. No studio time, no royalties, no contract disputes, just the cost of someone to manipulate the images and sounds. Just plug in the lyrics, and off you go. I realize that these costs will be high at first, but as the technology advances, I'm sure it will come down.
It's true that these artificial creations won't be able to give truly live concerts, but the record company could get by with using a giant projection screen in a venue. All they'd have to do is vary the programming a little for each show in order to customize it.
I can't wait to see this happen. Can you imagine all the stupid little teenage groupies rushing out to buy the latest album from...um...let's see...The DigiBoyz?
Then you bill them for the damage. And if they do it often enough, it's going to look really bad in the media. Can you imagine the fun that will ensue when you call your local TV station to tell them to come over and see how the police destroyed your camera while you were trying to keep them honest by taping them? TV reporters absolutely love stories where a camera gets smashed and/or someone gets knocked down or pushed around. I can guarantee that it'll make the local evening news, and the police will end up looking either like buffoons or jack-booted thugs.
And if you think that something like this might happen, and if you want to catch everything, then you just use two cameras. That way, if they want to check one, then you have the other one rolling so you don't miss any action.
Agreed. Also, if they have to have someone present at searches, it makes it more difficult to conduct large-scale fishing expeditions, since there are only so many officers to go around. Also, it can serve to protect the ISP, since if some police official later accuses it of not conducting the search in the manner they wanted it to, the ISP can simply respond by saying that if the officer who was there had a problem, then he should have spoken up at the time.
It might also not be a bad idea for the ISP to videotape the whole process to make sure no police officers do anything they shouldn't be doing. Document everything from the time the officer arrives at the front door to the time he leaves.
What popup? I have _never_ seen a popup on this site. You're going to http://slashdot.org, correct? If you're getting popups, then maybe you ought to run Ad-Aware and see if you have spyware installed.
ISPs don't block spammers by domain; they do it by IP ranges. So it doesn't matter whether their domain ends in .jp, .kr, .com, or anything else. Block the appropriate IP range, and you block the spammer.
They may find another provider, but whoever it is, that unfortunate company will quickly find itself on so many blacklists that its employees won't even be able to sneeze without hitting an unfriendly router somewhere.
It'll be interesting to see if anyone is dumb enough or suicidal enough to give these spammers connectivity. If that should happen, I'll make every effort to submit the details to Slashdot so the relevant IP space can be erased from the Internet.
It's no joke. It's already on my cable system.
I really have to wonder who'll watch this channel. I happen to like TechTV (which I can't get), but if that channel is falling on hard times, I can't imagine how this one is going to make it.
Scientology has been infamous for intimidating its critics for years. Nothing new here, except that they now have the DMCA as a weapon.
Sorry to follow up on myself, but it looks like Gateway has already gotten started. Here's a link.
http://www.gateway.com/home/deals/offers/music/dmz . html
When you get there, check out the "Protect your rights" link. (It's Javascript that pops open a new window.) They could have provided more details, but i still think it's a good effort that other companies will hopefully copy. Oops, did I say copy? Sorry, Fritz.
According to this NEWS.COM article, Gateway is going to be voicing its opposition to the CBDTPA. The best part is that they're going to begin airing a national TV spot on the topic of downloading and burning music. Doesn't look like it's going to directly reference the bill, but people will doubtless see it, and it will prime them for exposure to information about what's going on. I'd recommend that everyone here watch for the ad and see if it can be used as a reference when writing letters to newspapers or your Congressional reps.
Definitely a good thing here.
Just because the bill probably won't get out of Judiciary, it still lives. It can be attached as an amendment to another bill and given new life that way. Don't assume anything when dealing with politicians.
I think it's great that Congress is getting all these comments against the CBDTPA, but anyone who thinks it's dead is terribly naive. It won't be officially dead until the end of the Congressional term, and it can and probably will be reintorduced next year. The absolute worst thing we can do is to stop now. If we do, our opposition will soon be forgotten, and the bill will get pushed through.
The best way to put this into perspective is to realize that we do have the power to raise awareness and get people's attention. This doesn't mean we've won. Far from it. It just means that the big media companies and their allies in Congress know we're here, and they'll now have to counter that. Does anyone honestly think that Jack Valenti will call up his buddy Fritz Hollings and say, "Fritz, we honestly didn't know that people would get so riled up over this. Look, we don't want to irritate our customers, so let's just pull this bill." Hell no! If they're talking about anything, they're discussing ways to put a positive spin on this monstrosity.
Now is not the time to get complacent. That will doom us more than anything else. Keep sending those letters, making those phone calls, and talking with friends and colleagues. If we can get their attention by doing what we've done so far, we can do much more if we take this to the next level.
So have you read the mail headers and determined that these spams indeed came from Yahoo or Hotmail? The From: address means nothing. The only thing you can trust are the headers. Most all of the spam that claims to come from these services is sent from somewhere else. Think about it. How long would it take to send 100,000 spams through a Web interface when you're limited to something like 25-50 addresses at a time? Not to mention that each and every one is going to be tagged with the spammer's computer's IP. Hotmail even uses a header called X-Originating-IP so you can't miss it.
If you want a good tutorial on how to read headers, go here. It's a bit dated, but it will give you a good foundation on what headers mean.
Well, if MS does enter the market, then I can see how a toilet crash would go. Instead of the BSOD, you'd get the BWOD (Blue Water of Death), in which the blue water in the bowl would rise and rise until it overflows all over the floor.
Yeah, it may be sneaky and underhanded to attach a bill to another one to get it passed, but it happens all the time. This is done in precisely this situation, when the bill would be dead otherwise. This often happens with budget bills because the president is often under pressure to just sign them in order to keep the government running, so someone will load them up with junk that wouldn't otherwise get passed.
We'd better be vigilant, or this could happen here.
How am I supposed to set up an interview with him on Slashdot? Don't get me wrong, I'd like to do that, but that's something the admins will have to do.
No, unfortunately, he doesn't have a Web site. I need to talk to him about that. I don't know him that well, but since I used to work in college radio, he wants to talk to me about getting his CD out to more stations.
But I can share a Web site of a really good band from Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas. Their name is Oreo Blue, and they play a rock/blues mix. To tell you the truth, they sound best in live concerts, but they have some really good albums. "Live by Demand" is one of their best, I think. They have some of their stuff MP3'ed on the site, but whoever was doing it wasn't paying attention to the quality because there's often skipping and other errors in the tracks. Still, their music is awesome.
1. No, he doesn't have a Web site.
2. My point was, since you obviously weren't reading the post thoroughly, is that there are good independent artists out there, maybe closer than you think.
3. Don't go off like an asshole just because you haven't read carefully.
And in case anyone's thinking that they have to buy music from the Big Five, I just purchased a CD from my upstairs neighbor last night. He's in a band, and they're trying desperately to get some exposure. I paid $5 for the disc, and you know what, it's damn good. There's one song that could actually take off, given some airplay. My point being, you can find good music all around you, if you're willing to look.
And don't forget that this thing could still find its way into another bill as an amendment. That's how the CDA was passed, as an emendment to the 1996 telecom act.
OT: If one of the admins is reading this, could you go in and delete or modify the post that screwed up the page formatting?