Argh. That's asanine! the only requirements that a music CD should ever have is that your computer has a CD-ROM drive, a pair of speakers, and a program that can tell the CD-ROM drive to play the Disc.
Judging by the list of requirements, I'm going to hazard a guess and say that there will be some crap, low quality, proprietary format and player on the disk as a data track? So....
That means:
1) I can't listen to my music while playing the latest 3D game, becuase playing the damn CD sucks too much CPU to keep from skipping.
2) I like having good, clean sounding, cd-quality music. I can't have that anymore, or at least not from my PC. Notwithstanding the fact that my DVD player rejects it, and my car stereo can't figure out how to play it. So, I'm stuck with 2 options: Put up with the crappy files on the data track, or buy a new DRM CD Player. Not good options on my opinion.
3) Of course, there's really no need to mention that NON-MS OSes will be out in the cold!
Yep, That's right, The New Napster is destined toward failure, by design.
Lesse:
A Proprietary Format - So, I can't just deposit MP3s on a CD and have hours of listening delight? That sucks. I'm paying to get music and I get a lame-ass proprietary crap format that can't be read by anything but Napster's own player. That alone is enough to keep me from paying.
Content is slim - Apparently, the record companies get to pick what is distrubuted. They'll distribute the same crap that plays on the radio, and probably at the same crappy quality. You're better off routing your radio receiver to your soundcard, and you can do that for free!
Do I really want to pay a monthly fee for limited content in a proprietary format? Of course not. This is just a clever way for the RIAA to get it to fail so they can come back and say, "See, we told you so, It wouldn't work. They just want to 'steal' the music, and not obtain it legitmiately."
I'm dissapointed. I was one of the first to say I would pay to download music in MP3 (not proprietary) format, just so long as I can get what I want. It's potentially a great service that I think some people are willing to pay for, less than a dollar per track, and you get what you like! It's perfect. Or, at least it could have been. Now it's just the bastard child of the RIAA.
it is like if I am robed and I give thet thief a chance to bring back my things. Hell no, the most basic common sense says you go to the police.Period
Or, you could send out a mass-mailing to all residents you think might have taken your stuff, threatening legal action, and Federal Marshall "goons" if they don't "audit" their homes.
But, then, busting down peoples doors at random on a speculation that they might have done something is cosidered breaking and entering, whether or not they actually stole anything.
Argh. I dislike BSA. They sent one of these lovenotes to my dad (who, suprise! owns a business). He thoughtfully put it into the circular file. Since he rightfully owns all the software he uses, he figured it was total BS. And rightfully so!
Where in the US constitution does it say, "Innocent until proven guilty, unless the accuser is a large, greedy corporation?"
It's all about greed. Software does not need to cost $500-700 a pop. Maybe $70 for the really really good professional grade stuff. But MS Office? Hell NO! They should be selling it for a reasonable, and very profitable $50 a piece. Windows, because it's an operating system and as widespreas as the plague should be $15 a piece, maybe $50 for the server version.
It's better to overcharge, then intimidate, than it is to ask a reasonable amount for the software you produce.
Crap like this article just rubs me the wrong way. I obey the law, respect licenses, and really don't appreciate being accused of a crime I didn't commit!
But, isn't byte code related to assembly? (granted it's instructions for the.NET runtime, not an Intel x86 compatible machine, but it's still a sequence of instructions.)
Wouldn't the virus still be a seqence of bytes? I mean, it's not like the virus scanners run the code in a virtual machine to determine if it's a virus.
Also, what about macro viruses and e-mail viruses. Isn't this how AV software scans those files?
Um. Yes, It stores energy, then releases it later. But, this sounds like it actually holds the photons and releases them later. Or at least that's what the submission infers.
The article seems a bit sketchy and makes a connection that I don't think is 100% valid, how can this possibly relate to quantum computing? This has nothing to do with electron spin. It has alot to do with trapping photons, then later releasing them by exciting the atoms.
My guess is that the fundamental difference is the wavelength of the light emitted when it is released is the same as the wavelength of the light that was stored in the crystal.
I keep reading posts about lack of DSL in areas and slow-moving Cable companies. Most of these problems are infrastructure. A long time ago, I remember something called PAN (Power Area Network), which was supposed to have some ungodly speeds, but nothing ever materialized.
It seems like if something like this ever got off the ground, everyone would have access, and at very high speeds. IIRC, the only equipment needed was a unit at the power company to modulate the signal over the power lines, and a receiver at home, with converters for wall plugs. You could litterallty have your broadband connection anywhere there's an electrical outlet.
no it's more like eating at a resturant and sharing a plate, you still have to pay for 2 seats
Umm.. I don't know what country you're from, but... Here in the USA, I don't pay for the privelege of sitting down at the resturaunt. I pay for the food I order. If I choose to share that food with whomever I want, then I can. No extra cost is incurred. Your argument is flawed.
This law didn't interfere with the creator's write to make a video game, it prevented minors (who are not, and shouldn't be, granted full Constitutional protections) from using that game. There is a difference. While I personally disagree with the ordinance, you have to recognize that this issue, like most, is not so cut-and-dried as most people here like to think
You're absolutely right. It just banned it from being available for anyone to use. Which amounts to silencing free expression.
How is this politicians' faults? I mean, we blame them for everything under the sun, but what "soft parenting" laws have they created? I feel that people don't discipline their children as much anymore because they're not around to do so. We've created a society where in most families both the parents have to work simply to make ends meet. Children are not monitored suffiently not because of moral failure on someone's part (except maybe the corporations that have created this situation), but because of economic necessity.
Encouragement and laws are 2 different things. Nowadays you can get arrested for spanking your child. I should have been more clear, or less single-minded about this one, there are many more factors than political. But, when I'm in a resturaunt and there's someone there with a child the overwhelming majority of the time the child will be running around, making a nuicence of themselves, but the parent does absolutely nothing.
There are people out there that push just that agenda. I call them political, you may call them something else.
Why is this guy a troll? Because he didn't follow the majority, and actually decided to post as such?
It's pretty simple, but for someone as short-sighted as you...
Look around you. It's not the pioneer days anymore. It's not even the 1950s. Those children lucky enough to even have two parents are still waiting for them both to get home from work. Kids watch a lot more TV today than they did even 10 years ago. Media is becoming pervasive faster than parents can be expected to react. Games, movies, and telivision are much more realistic, special-effects-wise than they ever were.
Nope. Sure aint pioneer days for sure.
Why should childeren be "lucky" to have 2 parents. Guess one of those 2 parents didn't se a very good example, did they. Ok. 1 strike for bad parents, they can't even get along, how can they expect their children to be a functioning member of society?
The simple solution to the "too much TV" problem is to encourage your kids to interact with other children instead of a picture tube, but then again, who wants that, the TV is such an easy thing. You just plop the brat in front of it and turn it on. Freddy Kruger can teach him how to interact with people, now.
This is one of my main pet-peeves. There is no excuse for bad parents. No matter how much you try to blame it on the media or videogames or that weird guy down the street, there is no excuse for bad parents.
I see examples of bad parenting every day. But, I won't go into detail here.
All of which they learned from their own parents, who grew up believing that many of the things we take for granted in media were sick and depraved. Our parents saw a little more adult material growing up than their parents, and we more than our own. What takes place in GTA would have been unthinkable even to market to adults 20 years ago.
And, yet, good parents are still to this day perfectly capable of teaching right from wrong. It just doesn't happen as often anymore.
So did I...
Chopped down to reduce drivel factor. Yes, and you were probably raised by good parents. Parents that tought you right from wrong.
Anyone who has taken a gun to school to mass-murder their classmates probably didn't have the best of upbringing.
Ugh. If you let media teach your kids, then you deserve what they become.
... however, we don't live in a perfect society so if banning violent video games stops some numbskull bodyslamming his sister to death it is certainly worth considering rather than dismissing out of hand!
And I'll have to respectfully disagree with that statement.
1. We're a free society. we have certain freedoms, guaranteed by the constitution. This means we have freedom of expression. A video game is someone's expression.
2. Most of the violence today has nothing to do with video games. It's mostly because of the soft parenting that politicians have promoted in recent years. People don't dicipline their children anymore. They let their children get away with murder (figuratively speaking, but, then again...)
Lameness filter automatically filters out content that includes the worlds "M$", "goatse.xc", "IMO", "INAL", "IRDCWYSBITYAWSIKE" (I really don't care what you say because I think you are wrong since I know everything).
Actually, a lameness filter that dumped any message that has that horrid site in any HREF would be great, and quite useful.
Due to the ever more "clever" (and, I use that term loosely) trolls burying that thing in legitimate-looking URLs, it's become a pain in the ass to proof every URL I click.
Come to think of it, that little red perl next to their name would be a dead give away, because it only takes 1 link to make them my foe...
Ahh. That's why having an icon with text next to it (i.e. like later versions of internet exporer) in appropirate places where the meaning of an icon isn't clear, but it is a common tool. Soo..
A book, with the word "Thesarus" to the right, another book, perhaps of a different color with the word "Dictionary" to the right, and A pair of links chained together with "Hyperlink" next to it, but that icon may suffice by itself. Or maybe the text "Link" would be better. Heck, on the dictionary and thesarus icons, you might be able to put a D or a T on the book itself.
This does limit the real-estate for toolbar buttons. But, the toolbar was intended to have most of the common functions on it anyway. Less frequently used function should be made available in the menuing system, and, of course, toolbars should be configurable (most already are), maybe even allow the user to remove the text, when they've become experienced with the app.
Anyway, that's beside the point. The point I was making was that very inexperienced users don't yet have the concept of a tooltip. Maybe they'll discover it by accident, eventually, but it's not readily apparent that such a feature exists.
If you have to rely on tooltips, then the icons you're using aren't very intuitive.
No one is being lazy. You've got joe manager that needs to type up a report, and send it in on a dealine. He just upgraded to the next Whiz-bang(tm) Word processor. He needs to finish the document, and make it look nice for the CEO, but has no idea how to do that because the tools available are labeled in a confusing and counter-intuitive manner.
Granted, that situation won't happen in the real world, it is an example of what could happen if say, Microsoft, changed their icons in MS Word.
Yes, tooltips have a purpose for helping with some of the more esoteric features of a program, but they shouldn't be required for everything you did. Besides, who's to say that they even know what a tooltip is and how to get one to show up if they're new to a computer?
It's not lazyness, dammit! It's lack of experience, and that is forgivable.
Slashdot Mirror
You have to be kidding!
Argh. That's asanine! the only requirements that a music CD should ever have is that your computer has a CD-ROM drive, a pair of speakers, and a program that can tell the CD-ROM drive to play the Disc.
Judging by the list of requirements, I'm going to hazard a guess and say that there will be some crap, low quality, proprietary format and player on the disk as a data track? So....
That means:
1) I can't listen to my music while playing the latest 3D game, becuase playing the damn CD sucks too much CPU to keep from skipping.
2) I like having good, clean sounding, cd-quality music. I can't have that anymore, or at least not from my PC. Notwithstanding the fact that my DVD player rejects it, and my car stereo can't figure out how to play it. So, I'm stuck with 2 options: Put up with the crappy files on the data track, or buy a new DRM CD Player. Not good options on my opinion.
3) Of course, there's really no need to mention that NON-MS OSes will be out in the cold!
UMG is committed to protecting the rights of its artists and copyright holders.
That speaks volumes.
Wow. what a world it would be if they had said "UMG is commited to the satisfaction of our customers and that they enjoy our product (music)"
They are commited to their pocketbooks. Not to anyone else.
Yep, That's right, The New Napster is destined toward failure, by design.
Lesse:
A Proprietary Format - So, I can't just deposit MP3s on a CD and have hours of listening delight? That sucks. I'm paying to get music and I get a lame-ass proprietary crap format that can't be read by anything but Napster's own player. That alone is enough to keep me from paying.
Content is slim - Apparently, the record companies get to pick what is distrubuted. They'll distribute the same crap that plays on the radio, and probably at the same crappy quality. You're better off routing your radio receiver to your soundcard, and you can do that for free!
Do I really want to pay a monthly fee for limited content in a proprietary format? Of course not. This is just a clever way for the RIAA to get it to fail so they can come back and say, "See, we told you so, It wouldn't work. They just want to 'steal' the music, and not obtain it legitmiately."
I'm dissapointed. I was one of the first to say I would pay to download music in MP3 (not proprietary) format, just so long as I can get what I want. It's potentially a great service that I think some people are willing to pay for, less than a dollar per track, and you get what you like! It's perfect. Or, at least it could have been. Now it's just the bastard child of the RIAA.
Wonderful.
My GOD! They're a brainwashing propaganda machine.
I think I'm gonna be sick to my stomach, now. This is horrific. This makes them even more disgusting.
I cry for this world, and what it is becoming.
it is like if I am robed and I give thet thief a chance to bring back my things. Hell no, the most basic common sense says you go to the police.Period
Or, you could send out a mass-mailing to all residents you think might have taken your stuff, threatening legal action, and Federal Marshall "goons" if they don't "audit" their homes.
But, then, busting down peoples doors at random on a speculation that they might have done something is cosidered breaking and entering, whether or not they actually stole anything.
Argh. I dislike BSA. They sent one of these lovenotes to my dad (who, suprise! owns a business). He thoughtfully put it into the circular file. Since he rightfully owns all the software he uses, he figured it was total BS. And rightfully so!
Where in the US constitution does it say, "Innocent until proven guilty, unless the accuser is a large, greedy corporation?"
It's all about greed. Software does not need to cost $500-700 a pop. Maybe $70 for the really really good professional grade stuff. But MS Office? Hell NO! They should be selling it for a reasonable, and very profitable $50 a piece. Windows, because it's an operating system and as widespreas as the plague should be $15 a piece, maybe $50 for the server version.
It's better to overcharge, then intimidate, than it is to ask a reasonable amount for the software you produce.
Crap like this article just rubs me the wrong way. I obey the law, respect licenses, and really don't appreciate being accused of a crime I didn't commit!
Just think of the benefits:
Yes, it's viruses
But, isn't byte code related to assembly? (granted it's instructions for the .NET runtime, not an Intel x86 compatible machine, but it's still a sequence of instructions.)
Wouldn't the virus still be a seqence of bytes? I mean, it's not like the virus scanners run the code in a virtual machine to determine if it's a virus.
Also, what about macro viruses and e-mail viruses. Isn't this how AV software scans those files?
Maybe I'm missing the boat here...
Um. Yes, It stores energy, then releases it later. But, this sounds like it actually holds the photons and releases them later. Or at least that's what the submission infers.
The article seems a bit sketchy and makes a connection that I don't think is 100% valid, how can this possibly relate to quantum computing? This has nothing to do with electron spin. It has alot to do with trapping photons, then later releasing them by exciting the atoms.
My guess is that the fundamental difference is the wavelength of the light emitted when it is released is the same as the wavelength of the light that was stored in the crystal.
I keep reading posts about lack of DSL in areas and slow-moving Cable companies. Most of these problems are infrastructure. A long time ago, I remember something called PAN (Power Area Network), which was supposed to have some ungodly speeds, but nothing ever materialized.
Here's a link to some companies looking into the technology
It seems like if something like this ever got off the ground, everyone would have access, and at very high speeds. IIRC, the only equipment needed was a unit at the power company to modulate the signal over the power lines, and a receiver at home, with converters for wall plugs. You could litterallty have your broadband connection anywhere there's an electrical outlet.
You know,
If you just remove the flashy buzzwords. Their press release compresses ~100:1
Here's the result:
Bullshit.
Actually, truely random data would not have any redundancy whatsoever.
no it's more like eating at a resturant and sharing a plate, you still have to pay for 2 seats
... Here in the USA, I don't pay for the privelege of sitting down at the resturaunt. I pay for the food I order. If I choose to share that food with whomever I want, then I can. No extra cost is incurred. Your argument is flawed.
Umm.. I don't know what country you're from, but
Thanks! couldn't have said it better myself.
This law didn't interfere with the creator's write to make a video game, it prevented minors (who are not, and shouldn't be, granted full Constitutional protections) from using that game. There is a difference. While I personally disagree with the ordinance, you have to recognize that this issue, like most, is not so cut-and-dried as most people here like to think
You're absolutely right. It just banned it from being available for anyone to use. Which amounts to silencing free expression.
How is this politicians' faults? I mean, we blame them for everything under the sun, but what "soft parenting" laws have they created? I feel that people don't discipline their children as much anymore because they're not around to do so. We've created a society where in most families both the parents have to work simply to make ends meet. Children are not monitored suffiently not because of moral failure on someone's part (except maybe the corporations that have created this situation), but because of economic necessity.
Encouragement and laws are 2 different things. Nowadays you can get arrested for spanking your child. I should have been more clear, or less single-minded about this one, there are many more factors than political. But, when I'm in a resturaunt and there's someone there with a child the overwhelming majority of the time the child will be running around, making a nuicence of themselves, but the parent does absolutely nothing.
There are people out there that push just that agenda. I call them political, you may call them something else.
Why is this guy a troll? Because he didn't follow the majority, and actually decided to post as such?
...
It's pretty simple, but for someone as short-sighted as you
Look around you. It's not the pioneer days anymore. It's not even the 1950s. Those children lucky enough to even have two parents are still waiting for them both to get home from work. Kids watch a lot more TV today than they did even 10 years ago. Media is becoming pervasive faster than parents can be expected to react. Games, movies, and telivision are much more realistic, special-effects-wise than they ever were.
Nope. Sure aint pioneer days for sure.
Why should childeren be "lucky" to have 2 parents. Guess one of those 2 parents didn't se a very good example, did they. Ok. 1 strike for bad parents, they can't even get along, how can they expect their children to be a functioning member of society?
The simple solution to the "too much TV" problem is to encourage your kids to interact with other children instead of a picture tube, but then again, who wants that, the TV is such an easy thing. You just plop the brat in front of it and turn it on. Freddy Kruger can teach him how to interact with people, now.
This is one of my main pet-peeves. There is no excuse for bad parents. No matter how much you try to blame it on the media or videogames or that weird guy down the street, there is no excuse for bad parents.
I see examples of bad parenting every day. But, I won't go into detail here.
All of which they learned from their own parents, who grew up believing that many of the things we take for granted in media were sick and depraved. Our parents saw a little more adult material growing up than their parents, and we more than our own. What takes place in GTA would have been unthinkable even to market to adults 20 years ago.
And, yet, good parents are still to this day perfectly capable of teaching right from wrong. It just doesn't happen as often anymore.
So did I...
Chopped down to reduce drivel factor. Yes, and you were probably raised by good parents. Parents that tought you right from wrong.
Anyone who has taken a gun to school to mass-murder their classmates probably didn't have the best of upbringing.
Ugh. If you let media teach your kids, then you deserve what they become.
And I'll have to respectfully disagree with that statement.
1. We're a free society. we have certain freedoms, guaranteed by the constitution. This means we have freedom of expression. A video game is someone's expression.
2. Most of the violence today has nothing to do with video games. It's mostly because of the soft parenting that politicians have promoted in recent years. People don't dicipline their children anymore. They let their children get away with murder (figuratively speaking, but, then again
Actually, a lameness filter that dumped any message that has that horrid site in any HREF would be great, and quite useful.
Due to the ever more "clever" (and, I use that term loosely) trolls burying that thing in legitimate-looking URLs, it's become a pain in the ass to proof every URL I click.
Come to think of it, that little red perl next to their name would be a dead give away, because it only takes 1 link to make them my foe...
Could it be that somewhere, far, far away they're actually sugarcoating the asteroids as they send them to us?
"Yawn Factor" (Yon-Fak-tur) n: The realisation that the product being showcased in an article registers as barely exciting.
Hmm. Fits this. Whee, a 64MB PROM. Big Flappin Deal.
So, just exactly how useful is this miracle device? About as useful as 1/10 of a CD-R. Probably less than that.
I'm trying to think of something to make this little gem exciting. I just can't. Er. Maybe we could have 512MBIT SNES cartridges now?
Really, I think I'll stick with my 64M compact flash card.
Maybe they'll find some cheap interactive toy to stuff this miracle invention in. I can't think of the use for it, when CD-Rs are so prevalent.
Ahh. That's why having an icon with text next to it (i.e. like later versions of internet exporer) in appropirate places where the meaning of an icon isn't clear, but it is a common tool. Soo..
A book, with the word "Thesarus" to the right, another book, perhaps of a different color with the word "Dictionary" to the right, and A pair of links chained together with "Hyperlink" next to it, but that icon may suffice by itself. Or maybe the text "Link" would be better. Heck, on the dictionary and thesarus icons, you might be able to put a D or a T on the book itself.
This does limit the real-estate for toolbar buttons. But, the toolbar was intended to have most of the common functions on it anyway. Less frequently used function should be made available in the menuing system, and, of course, toolbars should be configurable (most already are), maybe even allow the user to remove the text, when they've become experienced with the app.
Anyway, that's beside the point. The point I was making was that very inexperienced users don't yet have the concept of a tooltip. Maybe they'll discover it by accident, eventually, but it's not readily apparent that such a feature exists.
I thought they already killed the PrimeCo pink alien guy...?
If you have to rely on tooltips, then the icons you're using aren't very intuitive.
No one is being lazy. You've got joe manager that needs to type up a report, and send it in on a dealine. He just upgraded to the next Whiz-bang(tm) Word processor. He needs to finish the document, and make it look nice for the CEO, but has no idea how to do that because the tools available are labeled in a confusing and counter-intuitive manner.
Granted, that situation won't happen in the real world, it is an example of what could happen if say, Microsoft, changed their icons in MS Word.
Yes, tooltips have a purpose for helping with some of the more esoteric features of a program, but they shouldn't be required for everything you did. Besides, who's to say that they even know what a tooltip is and how to get one to show up if they're new to a computer?
It's not lazyness, dammit! It's lack of experience, and that is forgivable.
A submenu should never invoke a dialog ...
What would you suggest as an alternative to a dialog?
Yep. This is how you know when the government and law systems in the united states have gone beserk.
I think I'll file for a patent on my first born child.