I don't know if I'm suffering from buster browser cache, but the official site (http://fedora.redhat.com/) hasn't been updated with news of this release, nor has the usual official Torrent location (http://torrent.dulug.duke.edu/)?
Also, the fact that the torrents are on Suprnova makes me a bit suspicious (not that I'm casting aspersions on the quality of that site - I'd download them to check them out but I don't want the FEDS to see me hitting that site with BitTorrent:)
I heard this scary story on the radio a couple of days ago - just dug up a quick Google news link which has some of the facts that I heard:
"Aids is affecting the entire planet, but currently 70 percent of its victims die and are born in Africa," said the ministers from the Central African Republic, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania and Togo.
"The epidemic cuts down as many human lifes as a world war."
In sub-Saharan Africa around 26.6 million people were infected with HIV at the end of 2003, out of an estimated global tally of 40 million, according to United Nations estimates.
I find it sad that the 'coalition against evil' doesn't think this is something that might be worth lending a hand on as well. I wonder what fraction of the military budget it would take to make a difference to the millions of people that are at risk in Africa?
You do not have the right? Or you should not have the right?
My understanding is that EULAs I'm constantly agreeing to when I install software dictate my rights - most of which tell me what I can and can't do with the software I've just purchased. Blizzard software, for example, tells me I can't use any third party matchmaking/game network software, so I can't play on any other gaming networks other that Blizzard's Battle.net.
Also, I should point out that I didn't mean users shouldn't be able to do what they want with the software - merely that Microsoft should be able to control what stuff is in their operating system by default.
As an aside - I'm not sure what the relationship is between Dell and MS (in your example) from a business perspective. I would have thought Dell were merely Microsoft resellers or whatever - just like my local supermarket sells bottles of soft drink. I don't want my supermarket opening up my bottles of Coke and adding in salt because they reckon it makes them taste better!
I think the big problem is, most people just don't care enough about it to learn. Maybe after they've been SODOMIZED a little more by spyware companies and viruses stealing their CD keys and credit card numbers they'll realise that having a computer (...connected to the Internet) is like having a pet - it requires some level of responsibility.
The point of my original gripe (which was actually supposed to be 'Funny':) was that just about anything Microsoft do from now on is going to get nailed as 'anti-competitive behaviour' if some company is going to lose out because of it, because of their 'monopoly' on the operating system.
That said, I don't really consider what they did/do with IE anti-competitive, but just from the perspective that I think its their operating system and they should be the ones who can say what happens with it and what doesn't happen with it. Anyone else is welcome to make their own operating system from scratch, build up market share, and tell other people what can and can't happen on their software!
Who's the moron that thought it'd be cool to embed executable code in a web page anyway? Well, he's not as big of a moron as the guy who let it execute ANY code.
Probably the same guy who thought it might be a good idea to let Windows users keep their systems up to date via a single web page!
Moral of the story - use pop-up blockers. Run AdAware. Run AV software. Get some software that wipes unused areas of your hard disk and "shreds" files you delete. Be paranoid.
It sure is a pity this stuff isn't built into the Windows operating system.
Oh, yeh, that's right - if Microsoft did actually do this, they'd just absorb another anti-trust suit and get accused of using their 'monopoly' to put all those hard working anti-virus/anti-spyware companies out of business.
I recently bought an HP iPaq 4150 for the specific purpose of reading ebooks. I got sick of having to shell out AU$20 for a new paperback every week (I buy a lot of books) only to have them fall apart a few weeks later (or for my friends to pinch them, savage them, or lose them).
The first thing I did was grab some Gutenburg books and have a read, then I bought Neuromancer from Amazon.com (after a lengthy technical battle - if your Temporary Internet Files in IE is full, you'll download your ebook only to have it not actually get installed. Repeat 4 times in confusion, then get told by Amazon that you've already downloaded it so you can't download it again. Punch monitor in frustration screaming about why this is so goddamn hard. Fortunately the Amazon guys believed my story and re-issued the book, cleared my Temporary Internet Files, downloaded again, and then it worked. But I digress).
The quality of the screen on the 4150 is great. I've only used Microsoft Reader to try and read books so far, and it works - that's about all you can say for a text reader, I guess.
I have a few minor complaints about Reader. First and foremost, there's quite a bit of whitespace around the edges of the page. This means that there isn't as much text on the page, increasing the number of pages per book - meaning you'll be turning pages pretty regularly. There's no option to shrink text (despite 10 years of staring at screens my eyes still surprisingly work ok) so you'll be doing quite a lot of page flipping to get through any decent amount of books.
There's no auto page-flipping function. I'm lazy, I'd like to just hold the thing and have it turn pages for me. One of the main reasons I got it was so I could just lie in bed reading at night and try to relax so I can get to sleep; if it was flipping pages for me that'd be handy!
A non-Reader complaint that I feel is a little relevant is that Pocket Word can't open large.txt files. The first thing I tried to open was The Iliad (800k), and Word bombed out. You can of course dump it on a proper version of Word and export it to Reader format with the press of a button, but if you're regularly reading large.doc files, then that might be a problem.
I haven't tried Adobe Acrobat yet (in fact I don't even know if there's a version for this device) so can't comment on that.
My only other comment is that I've been a bit disappointed with the range of available ebooks - I was hoping it would make my book-buying easier to get a lot of titles that my local bookstores don't stock (.. and have a 3-4 week order time from the US), but sadly quite a number of publishers don't make ebook versions available yet.
- doesn't appear to be as good - doesn't have a corresponding awesome hardware component that is appealing to the masses and nerds alike and allows people to carry their entire music collection around wherever they are (without carrying a suitcase full of minidiscs or memory sticks or whatever)
As the predominate software vendor in the world, Microsoft is in the unique and enviable position of defining everyone's digital rights.
I sort of disagree with this, although admittedly I'm the sort of person that knows what a computer is and what 'fair use' is and keeps on top of new technology and all that jazz.
I tend to believe that Microsoft are in the position of being able to define these digital rights _out of the box_. After that, well, everything else is fair game. Nothing is ever going to stop me being able to play my mp3s on my computer (ie, the one I own now), or ripping CDs to mp3, or converting DVDs to DivX.
As long as people can do that, people can share them on the Internet (aside: I don't share, nor do I download stuff off the 'net that I don't own - both because of ethical reasons and because I'm simply too lazy). Whatever Microsoft do with any new technology isn't going to affect the bajillions of mp3s and movies that are created and shared every day. I think we've already seen that users don't need to be too tech savvy to install Kazaa and DivX and then download a movie.
If you don't mind a bit more messing around and can deal mentally with the stress of not actually having something that "makes calls", check out TeamSpeak or Ventrilo, both great voice communications packages.
I don't get what's so awesome about a peer-to-peer voice communications system. The fact that its encrypted sure is neat, but it doesn't seem to be a quantum leap over most of the other stuff we have now. Its not like a regular p2p system where you're going to get massive advantages - each voice call is different so its not like your client is going to be able to search these peers to get improved performance.
Surely, to decrease latency, you're going to connect directly between the peers anyway - hence, 'p2p', but it seems the marketing department are just focusing on the phrase 'p2p' to try and encourage more users to check it out. I found the explanation of Intelligent Routing on their p2p explained page a bit vague.
Anyway. Looks good for the newbies.
Also, there's a bunch of posts earlier whining about how Skype will be soon full of spyware. I'm not, and have never been, a Kazaa user so I'm not sure at which point the spyware stuff was introduced, but I feel its worth pointing out that the guys making Skype are NOT the same guys that currently manage Kazaa these days.
We're also stuck with the not-in-the-US-then-you-can't-get-this-cool-thing problem here in.au. Its especially annoying with services like iTunes, which for me, is something that I'd use regularly. I'm about to invest in an iPaq with the goal of buying a lot of eBooks (actual softcover paper books cost like AU$25 now - the new Tom Clancy was _$50_ in hardcover when it was released, are you kidding?!). I forgot to check to see if I can buy eBooks online, so hopefully I can.
If not, I'm giving up on waiting for the world to get their ass into gear about it, and I'll do whatever I can to get these eBooks (and iTunes/Napster/whatever is best at the time tracks). Fortunately I have relatives in the US, so if worse comes to worse, I can get them to run a proxy there and use their billing details to do it all. Still, I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO. The whole point of this stupid Internet thing is that its global.
Incidentally, there are a few online music retailers in Australia. Destra Music and BigPond Music. Both of these only supply heavily DRM'ed WMA versions (which I've heard are at a fairly low bit rate), so most people with a clue aren't interested (not to mention their range of music is extremely limited).
I've spent a good chunk of time in the last couple of months trying to figure out what is involved in setting up a legal online music distribution thing - either for streaming/Internet radio or to sell music - our company is one of the largest content distributors (via our mirrors sites) in Australia so I think it'd be something we'd be good at.
However, it is practically impossible to find out what you need. While APRA, the company responsible for licensing the musical work, have been quite helpful, that is only half of what licensing you need - you also need to license the mechanical work (the recording). At this point in time, no one in Australia represents record companies to do this (eg, there's noone like the Harry Fox Agency in Australia). There's the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia, but they don't issue licenses for online applications (apparently, they will be "in the next few months"...).
So, as far as I'm aware, your only option is to try and contact the record companies (each one) individually (this is what APRA told me almost straight off the bat, but I didn't believe them, so kept researching). Of the several I've tried to contact, I've had no reply (not just email - even leaving phone messages with the appropriate licensing department and not getting called back). I've contacted the Harry Fox Agency - apparently they do international licensing - but haven't heard back from them either.
To me, its no wonder the state of the industry is in such a state of shenanigans. You probably have to drive a dump truck full of money up to these guys to actually get their attention. The pathetic options available everywhere outside the US are obviously not enough to stop people pirating music - why would you bother when you're going to get a superior product (if you don't mind a bit more searching, of course) for free?
Has anyone read, or have a copy of, the NDA that you are required to sign before the alleged infringing source?
I'm curious as to why some random Linux hacker hasn't signed the NDA, found the alleged offending code (assuming SCO provide it all, instead of a single snippet which they probably don't), and re-released 'SCO-safe' versions of those files. Unless such activitiy is specifically prohibited by the NDA, ie "after reading this NDA, you can't do anything, ever again" sort of dealie.
not really relevant, but may still be of interest to some (just sounds so neat): "Since disk drives are cheap, backup should be cheap too. Of course it does not help to mirror your data by adding more disks to your own computer because a fire, flood, power surge, etc. could still wipe out your local data center. Instead, you should give your files to peers (and in return store their files) so that if a catastrophe strikes your area, you can recover data from surviving peers. The Distributed Internet Backup System (DIBS) is designed to implement this vision. "
Slashdot Mirror
... PETER JACKSON??!!
qed
I don't know if I'm suffering from buster browser cache, but the official site (http://fedora.redhat.com/) hasn't been updated with news of this release, nor has the usual official Torrent location (http://torrent.dulug.duke.edu/)?
:)
Also, the fact that the torrents are on Suprnova makes me a bit suspicious (not that I'm casting aspersions on the quality of that site - I'd download them to check them out but I don't want the FEDS to see me hitting that site with BitTorrent
What does suffering Iraqis have to do with anything in the States either?!! ... Oh yeh, it was about WMD.
You do not have the right? Or you should not have the right?
My understanding is that EULAs I'm constantly agreeing to when I install software dictate my rights - most of which tell me what I can and can't do with the software I've just purchased. Blizzard software, for example, tells me I can't use any third party matchmaking/game network software, so I can't play on any other gaming networks other that Blizzard's Battle.net.
Also, I should point out that I didn't mean users shouldn't be able to do what they want with the software - merely that Microsoft should be able to control what stuff is in their operating system by default.
As an aside - I'm not sure what the relationship is between Dell and MS (in your example) from a business perspective. I would have thought Dell were merely Microsoft resellers or whatever - just like my local supermarket sells bottles of soft drink. I don't want my supermarket opening up my bottles of Coke and adding in salt because they reckon it makes them taste better!
I think the big problem is, most people just don't care enough about it to learn. Maybe after they've been SODOMIZED a little more by spyware companies and viruses stealing their CD keys and credit card numbers they'll realise that having a computer (...connected to the Internet) is like having a pet - it requires some level of responsibility.
The point of my original gripe (which was actually supposed to be 'Funny' :) was that just about anything Microsoft do from now on is going to get nailed as 'anti-competitive behaviour' if some company is going to lose out because of it, because of their 'monopoly' on the operating system.
That said, I don't really consider what they did/do with IE anti-competitive, but just from the perspective that I think its their operating system and they should be the ones who can say what happens with it and what doesn't happen with it. Anyone else is welcome to make their own operating system from scratch, build up market share, and tell other people what can and can't happen on their software!
Oh, yeh, that's right - if Microsoft did actually do this, they'd just absorb another anti-trust suit and get accused of using their 'monopoly' to put all those hard working anti-virus/anti-spyware companies out of business.
So, in conclusion, shouldn't we abolish p2p software AND guns?
I recently bought an HP iPaq 4150 for the specific purpose of reading ebooks. I got sick of having to shell out AU$20 for a new paperback every week (I buy a lot of books) only to have them fall apart a few weeks later (or for my friends to pinch them, savage them, or lose them).
.txt files. The first thing I tried to open was The Iliad (800k), and Word bombed out. You can of course dump it on a proper version of Word and export it to Reader format with the press of a button, but if you're regularly reading large .doc files, then that might be a problem.
The first thing I did was grab some Gutenburg books and have a read, then I bought Neuromancer from Amazon.com (after a lengthy technical battle - if your Temporary Internet Files in IE is full, you'll download your ebook only to have it not actually get installed. Repeat 4 times in confusion, then get told by Amazon that you've already downloaded it so you can't download it again. Punch monitor in frustration screaming about why this is so goddamn hard. Fortunately the Amazon guys believed my story and re-issued the book, cleared my Temporary Internet Files, downloaded again, and then it worked. But I digress).
The quality of the screen on the 4150 is great. I've only used Microsoft Reader to try and read books so far, and it works - that's about all you can say for a text reader, I guess.
I have a few minor complaints about Reader. First and foremost, there's quite a bit of whitespace around the edges of the page. This means that there isn't as much text on the page, increasing the number of pages per book - meaning you'll be turning pages pretty regularly. There's no option to shrink text (despite 10 years of staring at screens my eyes still surprisingly work ok) so you'll be doing quite a lot of page flipping to get through any decent amount of books.
There's no auto page-flipping function. I'm lazy, I'd like to just hold the thing and have it turn pages for me. One of the main reasons I got it was so I could just lie in bed reading at night and try to relax so I can get to sleep; if it was flipping pages for me that'd be handy!
A non-Reader complaint that I feel is a little relevant is that Pocket Word can't open large
I haven't tried Adobe Acrobat yet (in fact I don't even know if there's a version for this device) so can't comment on that.
My only other comment is that I've been a bit disappointed with the range of available ebooks - I was hoping it would make my book-buying easier to get a lot of titles that my local bookstores don't stock (.. and have a 3-4 week order time from the US), but sadly quite a number of publishers don't make ebook versions available yet.
Especially with a system that:
- doesn't appear to be as good
- doesn't have a corresponding awesome hardware component that is appealing to the masses and nerds alike and allows people to carry their entire music collection around wherever they are (without carrying a suitcase full of minidiscs or memory sticks or whatever)
Uh oh - I think after saying that publicly, you now ARE a terrorist.
I tend to believe that Microsoft are in the position of being able to define these digital rights _out of the box_. After that, well, everything else is fair game. Nothing is ever going to stop me being able to play my mp3s on my computer (ie, the one I own now), or ripping CDs to mp3, or converting DVDs to DivX.
As long as people can do that, people can share them on the Internet (aside: I don't share, nor do I download stuff off the 'net that I don't own - both because of ethical reasons and because I'm simply too lazy). Whatever Microsoft do with any new technology isn't going to affect the bajillions of mp3s and movies that are created and shared every day. I think we've already seen that users don't need to be too tech savvy to install Kazaa and DivX and then download a movie.
Mp3 Order form:
Name: John Doe
Address: 123 Fake St
If you don't mind a bit more messing around and can deal mentally with the stress of not actually having something that "makes calls", check out TeamSpeak or Ventrilo, both great voice communications packages.
I don't get what's so awesome about a peer-to-peer voice communications system. The fact that its encrypted sure is neat, but it doesn't seem to be a quantum leap over most of the other stuff we have now. Its not like a regular p2p system where you're going to get massive advantages - each voice call is different so its not like your client is going to be able to search these peers to get improved performance.
Surely, to decrease latency, you're going to connect directly between the peers anyway - hence, 'p2p', but it seems the marketing department are just focusing on the phrase 'p2p' to try and encourage more users to check it out. I found the explanation of Intelligent Routing on their p2p explained page a bit vague.
Anyway. Looks good for the newbies.
Also, there's a bunch of posts earlier whining about how Skype will be soon full of spyware. I'm not, and have never been, a Kazaa user so I'm not sure at which point the spyware stuff was introduced, but I feel its worth pointing out that the guys making Skype are NOT the same guys that currently manage Kazaa these days.
We're also stuck with the not-in-the-US-then-you-can't-get-this-cool-thing problem here in .au. Its especially annoying with services like iTunes, which for me, is something that I'd use regularly. I'm about to invest in an iPaq with the goal of buying a lot of eBooks (actual softcover paper books cost like AU$25 now - the new Tom Clancy was _$50_ in hardcover when it was released, are you kidding?!). I forgot to check to see if I can buy eBooks online, so hopefully I can.
If not, I'm giving up on waiting for the world to get their ass into gear about it, and I'll do whatever I can to get these eBooks (and iTunes/Napster/whatever is best at the time tracks). Fortunately I have relatives in the US, so if worse comes to worse, I can get them to run a proxy there and use their billing details to do it all. Still, I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO. The whole point of this stupid Internet thing is that its global.
Incidentally, there are a few online music retailers in Australia. Destra Music and BigPond Music. Both of these only supply heavily DRM'ed WMA versions (which I've heard are at a fairly low bit rate), so most people with a clue aren't interested (not to mention their range of music is extremely limited).
I've spent a good chunk of time in the last couple of months trying to figure out what is involved in setting up a legal online music distribution thing - either for streaming/Internet radio or to sell music - our company is one of the largest content distributors (via our mirrors sites) in Australia so I think it'd be something we'd be good at.
However, it is practically impossible to find out what you need. While APRA, the company responsible for licensing the musical work, have been quite helpful, that is only half of what licensing you need - you also need to license the mechanical work (the recording). At this point in time, no one in Australia represents record companies to do this (eg, there's noone like the Harry Fox Agency in Australia). There's the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia, but they don't issue licenses for online applications (apparently, they will be "in the next few months"...).
So, as far as I'm aware, your only option is to try and contact the record companies (each one) individually (this is what APRA told me almost straight off the bat, but I didn't believe them, so kept researching). Of the several I've tried to contact, I've had no reply (not just email - even leaving phone messages with the appropriate licensing department and not getting called back). I've contacted the Harry Fox Agency - apparently they do international licensing - but haven't heard back from them either.
To me, its no wonder the state of the industry is in such a state of shenanigans. You probably have to drive a dump truck full of money up to these guys to actually get their attention. The pathetic options available everywhere outside the US are obviously not enough to stop people pirating music - why would you bother when you're going to get a superior product (if you don't mind a bit more searching, of course) for free?
... does Ad Aware stop these people from tracking you, or what?
Has anyone read, or have a copy of, the NDA that you are required to sign before the alleged infringing source?
I'm curious as to why some random Linux hacker hasn't signed the NDA, found the alleged offending code (assuming SCO provide it all, instead of a single snippet which they probably don't), and re-released 'SCO-safe' versions of those files. Unless such activitiy is specifically prohibited by the NDA, ie "after reading this NDA, you can't do anything, ever again" sort of dealie.
http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/9733
not really relevant, but may still be of interest to some (just sounds so neat): "Since disk drives are cheap, backup should be cheap too. Of course it does not help to mirror your data by adding more disks to your own computer because a fire, flood, power surge, etc. could still wipe out your local data center. Instead, you should give your files to peers (and in return store their files) so that if a catastrophe strikes your area, you can recover data from surviving peers. The Distributed Internet Backup System (DIBS) is designed to implement this vision. "
d ib s/
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~emin/source_code/