Read the link. This is a hack to burn all those songs for you get for $20 into a permanent, no-DRM format.
It doesn't really matter to me, since neither Napster or iTunes has any music I want to listen to. But for anyone interested in building a huge catalog of unrestricted MP3s, this is the way to go.
In other news, Dr. Jack Kevorkian has been appointed National Director of Health and Human Services, Kenneth Lay was appointed Director of the Treasury and Bill Gates was appointed CIO of the whole Federal Government.
This is an invitation to enter the field of merchandising the games they built directly to consumers at the retail level. WalMart, Best Buy and Target are all hiring, and can use people knowledgable about the games themselves.
Seriously, how much money does that company make from building these games? All the hard work, blood, sweat and tears that go into being an EA employee and this is all they have to give their developers. And you know their executives are going to receive higher bonuses this year for trimming the fat.
I guess all we can say is thank you for the nedless hours of high-tech distraction your guys have provided us, at least the gaming community appreciates you.
Following Microsoft's lead, my ass today announced plans to begin charging for dingleberries produced through the explusion of fecal matter. Said my ass, 'Dingleberries usually are a product of human error, so it only makes sense to charge for them.'
Industry groups complained my ass has a monopoly on dingleberry production.
HDD - That's hard disk drive, which is a useful and important feature the Sony device possesses over some of it's competitors. Oher devices make use of more primitive, potentially dangerous playback and storage mechanisms, including:
Copper wire connecting 2 tin cans, which is limited by geographic proximity to external broadcasting device (approximately 5 feet) and subject to external interference
Flintstones-style singing miniature Pterodactyl, which is known to develop an attitude over time and make gut-busting wisecracks in place of music
'Space-Time Continuum' abnormality actually linking listeners with original performance, which occasionally disintegrates the listener
Shrunken city whose sole purpose is to exactly recreate tracks on penalty of death, which is limited by lifespan and extremely sensitive to shaking and tapping on the device
Ghosts of the band, which have a penchant for telekinetically elevating the listener during emotionally charged tracks and sometimes becoming visible to young children
Specially trained M&M Minis forced to sing, which are hard to keep housed within the device and nearly impossible to reinsert when the device's housing is breached
I cannot imagine MicroSoft hiring a team to develop Longhorn, then hiring another team to fix XP and Longhorn problems.
There's a big difference between virus definition updates and OS-level patches. A virus definition recognizes whether or not patterns exist on a machine and takes corrective steps. An OS patch affects how the machine works, and the teams of people knowledgable enough to correct problems are probably engaged in other tasks anyways.
There are hardware and software compatibility assurances contractually established between all large vendors, meaning OS level patches cannot be rapidly deployed without risk of legal action in the event of a problem. This kind of testing takes time, often cannot be completely automated, and would definitely be burdensome.
I don't know if any software has the ability to write a patch, as you state, but I think I see your meaning.
The one problem with this idea is that the incentive for the company to patch the vulnerability has to come from within. Market forces are only beginning to force Microsoft into a position where they MUST fix the gaping holes in their products. I don't know if a smaller company (let's use Real Media for the sake of argument) would have a similar imperative.
I trust public disclosure for exactly that reason: business decisions are driven by business needs. If the perception of a problem goes away, you remove the impetus to fix it.
You know what? Business needs remain the same regardless of how fast hackers are writing exploits. Few companies, Microsoft included, could afford to have a 24x7 staff of patch writers for all of the applications they have deployed.
This is the greatest argument for open source software I have ever seen. A proprietary model of development is going to get creamed as people take advantage of their limited resources and exploit the woo wang out of their apps. FOSS apps, on the other hand, potentially have hundreds of thousands of people ready to go worldwide at any given moment to correct problems as they happen.
The adoption rate is definitely going to suffer as people choke on the prices of all this HD stuff. The problem is they do not hold their value - I have seen the same HDTV's I saw on the shelves last year at BB going for less than 25% of their price used on EBay.
On the one hand, I feel really bad for all those people having to find places to go in the NOVA job market. Right before the holidays too, raw deal.
On the other hand, I bet that whinny, nasally actress in the commercials playing the mother sneaking into the AOL boardroom is having a fantasic Christmas. She's probably making tons in residuals for one or two days work.
AOL must have spent hundreds of millions broadcasting those commericals, I hardly even watch TV and see them all the time. It's almost as bad as the promotional CDs that still pile up everywhere in my home.
1999 taught me never to trust a company that spends that heavily on marketing.
Then again, my company is not looking to do business with China. What real use does a tiny search engine have for me right now? (Not to mention the Chinese state probably censors the thing.)
For the present, I will stick with the tried and least-untrustworthy solution.
Kathy Feaganes Allen is the lady from Florida who ran down a couple of teenagers for letting their golf ball hit her SUV. Compelling story, something that I really want to know about.
No mention of it on Accoona at all, plenty on Google.
Something about this story bothers me. If Curtis has been involved in a long running dispute with Feeney ranging back to 2002, why would Feeney have anything to do with him? I mean, this would not be the first example of foolishness in politics, but it would certainly be the dumbest.
You mean all I have to do is write 240,000 complaints to the FCC and I can control what goes on television and radio? I can write a script to do that in about an hour.
Producers of the biased, left-wing Today show - fear me.
This is excellent news from a user standpoint. I use Bittorrent for just about everything - downloading Linux distributions, game betas and, uh... other commonly downloaded files. But I always seem to be a bit behind the tracker, and when I go to download there are hardly ever more than 5 peers at a time.
What I want to know is: basically, this is an indexing server that will allow torrents to be searchable. What happens with multiple versions of the same torrent? For instance, let's say there are 2 torrent distributions of Gentoo, identical files within the torrents. It would seem this server would ideally be able to recognize the similarities and kind of 'merge' the files - is this possible?
Some records should be sealed. For instance, if evidence is brought up in a trial that represents a trade secret (the formula for some bizarre compound, for instance) no one needs to be looking at it outside the trial.
The records sealed in the SCO case, of course, probably have nothing to do with anything important and will simply be used to try and smear IBM. I kind of want to see them, but I also realize there's not going to be anything there.
Bother. I am so sick of this case and all the empty threats.
Slashdot Mirror
Read the link. This is a hack to burn all those songs for you get for $20 into a permanent, no-DRM format.
It doesn't really matter to me, since neither Napster or iTunes has any music I want to listen to. But for anyone interested in building a huge catalog of unrestricted MP3s, this is the way to go.
M
http://blog.kordix.com/marv/archives/000400.html
Need to learn to preview my posts.
M
Not making any claims about right and wrong here.
With prices on the rise and the cost to legally fill an 40GB iPod in the 5 digits, the Napster trick looks better and better every day.
M
In other news, Dr. Jack Kevorkian has been appointed National Director of Health and Human Services, Kenneth Lay was appointed Director of the Treasury and Bill Gates was appointed CIO of the whole Federal Government.
M
All I have to say is...
I look forward to welcoming our new Milfabot overlords.
M
Techsoldaten can transform into a plane, yes it's true.
M
Does Amazon Prime compete with Optimus for leadership of the Autobots?
Perhaps he is the UPS truck to Optimus's tractor trailer?
M
Don't look at this as a layoff.
This is an invitation to enter the field of merchandising the games they built directly to consumers at the retail level. WalMart, Best Buy and Target are all hiring, and can use people knowledgable about the games themselves.
Seriously, how much money does that company make from building these games? All the hard work, blood, sweat and tears that go into being an EA employee and this is all they have to give their developers. And you know their executives are going to receive higher bonuses this year for trimming the fat.
I guess all we can say is thank you for the nedless hours of high-tech distraction your guys have provided us, at least the gaming community appreciates you.
M
Following Microsoft's lead, my ass today announced plans to begin charging for dingleberries produced through the explusion of fecal matter. Said my ass, 'Dingleberries usually are a product of human error, so it only makes sense to charge for them.'
Industry groups complained my ass has a monopoly on dingleberry production.
M
- Copper wire connecting 2 tin cans, which is limited by geographic proximity to external broadcasting device (approximately 5 feet) and subject to external interference
- Flintstones-style singing miniature Pterodactyl, which is known to develop an attitude over time and make gut-busting wisecracks in place of music
- 'Space-Time Continuum' abnormality actually linking listeners with original performance, which occasionally disintegrates the listener
- Shrunken city whose sole purpose is to exactly recreate tracks on penalty of death, which is limited by lifespan and extremely sensitive to shaking and tapping on the device
- Ghosts of the band, which have a penchant for telekinetically elevating the listener during emotionally charged tracks and sometimes becoming visible to young children
- Specially trained M&M Minis forced to sing, which are hard to keep housed within the device and nearly impossible to reinsert when the device's housing is breached
MI cannot imagine MicroSoft hiring a team to develop Longhorn, then hiring another team to fix XP and Longhorn problems.
There's a big difference between virus definition updates and OS-level patches. A virus definition recognizes whether or not patterns exist on a machine and takes corrective steps. An OS patch affects how the machine works, and the teams of people knowledgable enough to correct problems are probably engaged in other tasks anyways.
There are hardware and software compatibility assurances contractually established between all large vendors, meaning OS level patches cannot be rapidly deployed without risk of legal action in the event of a problem. This kind of testing takes time, often cannot be completely automated, and would definitely be burdensome.
M
I don't know if any software has the ability to write a patch, as you state, but I think I see your meaning.
The one problem with this idea is that the incentive for the company to patch the vulnerability has to come from within. Market forces are only beginning to force Microsoft into a position where they MUST fix the gaping holes in their products. I don't know if a smaller company (let's use Real Media for the sake of argument) would have a similar imperative.
I trust public disclosure for exactly that reason: business decisions are driven by business needs. If the perception of a problem goes away, you remove the impetus to fix it.
M
You know what? Business needs remain the same regardless of how fast hackers are writing exploits. Few companies, Microsoft included, could afford to have a 24x7 staff of patch writers for all of the applications they have deployed.
This is the greatest argument for open source software I have ever seen. A proprietary model of development is going to get creamed as people take advantage of their limited resources and exploit the woo wang out of their apps. FOSS apps, on the other hand, potentially have hundreds of thousands of people ready to go worldwide at any given moment to correct problems as they happen.
M
The adoption rate is definitely going to suffer as people choke on the prices of all this HD stuff. The problem is they do not hold their value - I have seen the same HDTV's I saw on the shelves last year at BB going for less than 25% of their price used on EBay.
M
On the one hand, I feel really bad for all those people having to find places to go in the NOVA job market. Right before the holidays too, raw deal.
On the other hand, I bet that whinny, nasally actress in the commercials playing the mother sneaking into the AOL boardroom is having a fantasic Christmas. She's probably making tons in residuals for one or two days work.
AOL must have spent hundreds of millions broadcasting those commericals, I hardly even watch TV and see them all the time. It's almost as bad as the promotional CDs that still pile up everywhere in my home.
1999 taught me never to trust a company that spends that heavily on marketing.
M
I don't see an Accoona News to switch to. I guess a lack of features and an inferior result set is a good reason to move to another search engine.
Again, it's the package that delivers the value.
M
Google News, sweetheart.
It's all part of the package.
M
No doubt.
Then again, my company is not looking to do business with China. What real use does a tiny search engine have for me right now? (Not to mention the Chinese state probably censors the thing.)
For the present, I will stick with the tried and least-untrustworthy solution.
M
Kathy Feaganes Allen is the lady from Florida who ran down a couple of teenagers for letting their golf ball hit her SUV. Compelling story, something that I really want to know about.
No mention of it on Accoona at all, plenty on Google.
'Nuff said.
M
Something about this story bothers me. If Curtis has been involved in a long running dispute with Feeney ranging back to 2002, why would Feeney have anything to do with him? I mean, this would not be the first example of foolishness in politics, but it would certainly be the dumbest.
Perhaps Feeney was trying to set Curtis up?
M
You mean all I have to do is write 240,000 complaints to the FCC and I can control what goes on television and radio? I can write a script to do that in about an hour.
Producers of the biased, left-wing Today show - fear me.
M
This is excellent news from a user standpoint. I use Bittorrent for just about everything - downloading Linux distributions, game betas and, uh... other commonly downloaded files. But I always seem to be a bit behind the tracker, and when I go to download there are hardly ever more than 5 peers at a time.
What I want to know is: basically, this is an indexing server that will allow torrents to be searchable. What happens with multiple versions of the same torrent? For instance, let's say there are 2 torrent distributions of Gentoo, identical files within the torrents. It would seem this server would ideally be able to recognize the similarities and kind of 'merge' the files - is this possible?
M
I just hope they make it multiplayer and include a deathmatch mode. Also, does the system support skinning?
M
If we wanted more transparency in the world...
/.
they could start by unsealing the usernames of all these anonymous cowards on
M
Some records should be sealed. For instance, if evidence is brought up in a trial that represents a trade secret (the formula for some bizarre compound, for instance) no one needs to be looking at it outside the trial.
The records sealed in the SCO case, of course, probably have nothing to do with anything important and will simply be used to try and smear IBM. I kind of want to see them, but I also realize there's not going to be anything there.
Bother. I am so sick of this case and all the empty threats.
M