It sure hasn't aided me and a lot of other Australians I know who, because of CSS, wouldn't be able to import a bunch of titles that just aren't available in Australia. Sure, have your CSS, but at least make sure all the titles are available for all regions, or you're just asking for your stuff to be pirated.
Of course, the fact that its practically impossible to buy a DVD player that ISN'T region free these days makes the above point moot (the Sony region DVD players are also deliciously ironic given their position within the MPAA (yes, yes, different part of the company, whatever).
That whole statement reeks of pro-control MPAA-press release evil to me.
I can remember back when I was reading print mags for tech subjects, and being very interested in the ads. They were targeted at a subject I was interested in, and some of the products were products I was thinking of buying.
This is why I've always scratched my head about people that scream so loudly about privacy issues as they relate to advertising.
I'm sure advertisers honestly don't want to waste their time (or money) trying to sell you a product that you have no use in (except spammers, who cost-per-view is negligible so they don't care). I'm a guy, yet every time I see an ad for a feminine hygene product on TV, its a wasted space as far as I and the advertiser are concerned (although I do like looking at the girls).
The advertiser doesn't want me to see that ad any more than I do (except for the aforementioned girls). I'm not part of their target demographic, so its completely useless trying to sell it to me.
What sort of weirdo cares that much about data detailing how fast they drive such that they wouldn't want to save 25% on their car insurance!
I think of much more interest was the second one in the article, detailing Norwich Union's plan to track cars via GPS and offer discounts to cars 'that spend more time in safer areas'. That seems like more of an invasion of privacy rather than some random numbers detailing how fast someone is going.
SmartUpdate: A new SmartUpdate feature notifies users of new versions of Firefox to ensure that the browser is always up to date.
However, my FireFox hasn't informed me of it (I just loaded it then this morning), and even when I tried manually to check for updates it reported nothing. As an excercise I'm not going to update immediately, but I'll wait and see how long it takes for FireFox to tell me there's an update available.
Yep, sorry, I didn't phrase it very well - I was more leaning towards input plugins that allow you to read data over the network in various ways - for example so I could stream stuff from this new streaming network server instead of being limited only to streaming from Windows Media servers.
I just got back from my local CD store and after reading this thread thought I'd check out this CD - it definitely says it has some sort of copy protection system on the back cover, so it looks like the DRM stuff extends to Australia as well.
It is client/server, so you'll need a server, but you can get 8 users (I think) on the regular server. It is relatively bandwidth-friendly and awesome quality.
Probably a bit harder for computer illiterates to use but its very cool software.
... the link to legaltorrents.com, the smallest torrent listing in the known universe.
What was the point of referencing this? Aside from the obvious reason of trying to pretend this whole project isn't hugely illegal and going to attract even more negative attention from the mainstream press?
I'd like to think everyone that reads Slashdot is aware that technology isn't inherently evil, and that BitTorrent isn't an evil technology because people use it to distribute movies, but linking to legaltorrents.com - a site which has absolutely zero relevance to the subject matter - is lame. Just like to one of the many sites that are regularly updated with pirated TV feeds and get it over and done with - the waiting is killing me!
I guess its because if you're stealing from one of them, you're just stealing from a two-faced, dirty corporation that is trying to use their market dominance to ream the audience. But the other - uh... the other... Nah, I got nothing.
Frogs changing sex!? Man, I hope noone ever accidentally incorporates frog DNA if they, for example, try to clone dinosaurs. Imagine the chaos that would ensue!
Wired did a good article a few issues ago called 'Eco-traitor' about another environmentalist, Patrick Moore, who (according to the article) is "a firm believer in James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis".
Personally, I think the best thing to come out of Michael Moore's films is that they've drawn enough attention in the otherwise relatively sheep-like mass market (...that happily sit there absorbing what they read in the newspaper/see on TV without question) to get them starting to ask why. I think that each person that now sees a news item somewhere and thinks "hmmmm" about it, rather than just blindly accepting it, more than justifies Moore's work.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know about you, but I'm eagerly awaiting the next Slashdot post about the X-Prize, that's for sure.
It sure hasn't aided me and a lot of other Australians I know who, because of CSS, wouldn't be able to import a bunch of titles that just aren't available in Australia. Sure, have your CSS, but at least make sure all the titles are available for all regions, or you're just asking for your stuff to be pirated.
Of course, the fact that its practically impossible to buy a DVD player that ISN'T region free these days makes the above point moot (the Sony region DVD players are also deliciously ironic given their position within the MPAA (yes, yes, different part of the company, whatever).
That whole statement reeks of pro-control MPAA-press release evil to me.
I'm sure advertisers honestly don't want to waste their time (or money) trying to sell you a product that you have no use in (except spammers, who cost-per-view is negligible so they don't care). I'm a guy, yet every time I see an ad for a feminine hygene product on TV, its a wasted space as far as I and the advertiser are concerned (although I do like looking at the girls).
The advertiser doesn't want me to see that ad any more than I do (except for the aforementioned girls). I'm not part of their target demographic, so its completely useless trying to sell it to me.
What sort of weirdo cares that much about data detailing how fast they drive such that they wouldn't want to save 25% on their car insurance!
I think of much more interest was the second one in the article, detailing Norwich Union's plan to track cars via GPS and offer discounts to cars 'that spend more time in safer areas'. That seems like more of an invasion of privacy rather than some random numbers detailing how fast someone is going.
Welcome to LegalTorrents.com, the smallest website on the Internet!
However, my FireFox hasn't informed me of it (I just loaded it then this morning), and even when I tried manually to check for updates it reported nothing. As an excercise I'm not going to update immediately, but I'll wait and see how long it takes for FireFox to tell me there's an update available.
Yep, sorry, I didn't phrase it very well - I was more leaning towards input plugins that allow you to read data over the network in various ways - for example so I could stream stuff from this new streaming network server instead of being limited only to streaming from Windows Media servers.
...there's a Winamp plugin!
Its a pity that Windows Media Player doesn't have a plugin architecture that lets people create their own input plugins.
I just got back from my local CD store and after reading this thread thought I'd check out this CD - it definitely says it has some sort of copy protection system on the back cover, so it looks like the DRM stuff extends to Australia as well.
.... from the experts! (No DRM included!)
Lucky you've got your guns then, eh! :)
(smiley included in case you do, actually, have guns)
Doh! Totally correct. My bad; I saw the Linux and Mac OS things on the download page and got excited.
Don't say that too loud or they'll notice and you'll lose that right as well!
http://ventrilo.com
Has Win32, Mac and Linux clients.
It is client/server, so you'll need a server, but you can get 8 users (I think) on the regular server. It is relatively bandwidth-friendly and awesome quality.
Probably a bit harder for computer illiterates to use but its very cool software.
... the link to legaltorrents.com, the smallest torrent listing in the known universe.
What was the point of referencing this? Aside from the obvious reason of trying to pretend this whole project isn't hugely illegal and going to attract even more negative attention from the mainstream press?
I'd like to think everyone that reads Slashdot is aware that technology isn't inherently evil, and that BitTorrent isn't an evil technology because people use it to distribute movies, but linking to legaltorrents.com - a site which has absolutely zero relevance to the subject matter - is lame. Just like to one of the many sites that are regularly updated with pirated TV feeds and get it over and done with - the waiting is killing me!
I just thought it was a funny expression to use about a person!
You have favourite programmers?
I guess its because if you're stealing from one of them, you're just stealing from a two-faced, dirty corporation that is trying to use their market dominance to ream the audience. But the other - uh... the other... Nah, I got nothing.
Celebrity web deathmatch!
Frogs changing sex!? Man, I hope noone ever accidentally incorporates frog DNA if they, for example, try to clone dinosaurs. Imagine the chaos that would ensue!
Phew, a working (and blisteringly fast) mirror.
Wired did a good article a few issues ago called 'Eco-traitor' about another environmentalist, Patrick Moore, who (according to the article) is "a firm believer in James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis".
Reckon!
Personally, I think the best thing to come out of Michael Moore's films is that they've drawn enough attention in the otherwise relatively sheep-like mass market (...that happily sit there absorbing what they read in the newspaper/see on TV without question) to get them starting to ask why. I think that each person that now sees a news item somewhere and thinks "hmmmm" about it, rather than just blindly accepting it, more than justifies Moore's work.
Quick, bring on more stuff to make things go even slower!
I'm happy with web pages with pictures on them. In fact, uninvent Flash and I'll be even happier!