One of their big sellers, with literally dozens of items daily, had an auction for an item that should be worth about $200, but is fairly obscure. They made the mistake of not putting a reserve on it.
After it got bid up to $13, and I was the high bidder, the auction ended. I got all the emails saying to contact the seller.
The seller somehow 'lost' the item, and couldn't ship it to me. This after they charged my CC.
After two weeks of calling, finally the seller recredited my CC. My only recourse? I gave them a negative mark. That's it. Nothing else.
As a final insult to injury, they put me on their spam list, so I get spams from them now and again. And I have a strong feeling that they sold my email address to other spammers.
Spoken like someone that hasn't used a 1600x1200 screen before. I've used XMMS in both sizes, normal and double. Double is ugly and bitmapped hell. The interface is still as difficult, and the app is 50% too big. Yep, bitmapped interfaces suck.
There's a real good argument for using standard widgets: when I, the user, decide I want purple Dubblix Italic 92-point antialiased fonts for all my buttons, and a lime-green background, I can have it.
All these lame-ass GTK developers hardcode the backgrounds of their widgets as grey, and half the time my app looks right (purple on lime-green) and half the time they look like shit (purple on grey).
Just make the goddamn widgets standard and let me choose the colours, font styles, sizes, and whatever else I choose because, believe it or not, I actually know better than you what I want to see.
Sorry to rant at you jx100 -- I'm responding to not just you but a lot of other replies in this thread. But I do rant at you to tell you the doublesize option doesn't fix the inherent lame ugliness of the XMMS/WinAMP interface.
GPL Simplified: Don't like my software license? Try writing your own damn code! I'm not in the business of giving you gifts if you're in the business of saying: "Thanks, now screw you." I'm glad you grasp this subtlety. You won't use the GPL.
You don't grasp this subtlety, though: The GPL doesn't violate your freedom. It never has, and it never will. As you said yourself, you won't use the GPL (and I guess you're implying you won't use GPL software). Fine by me.
Along with my GPL-software writing cohorts, I guess I say, good riddance. If you're not the sort who views the GPL as something that enhances the world and makes it a better place, then you're not the sort I want changing and distributing my code.
See? The GPL enhances my freedom without infringing on yours. And I'm the one who wrote the damn code. Seems like we both got a good deal.
Haven't these Clean Edit guys been paying attention recently? The law is really decided by case history, and given the recent history on copyright cases, it's clear that copyright trumps free speech.
If you want to give a speech, but it would violate or potentially allow to violate some copyright, then the speech is forbidden by law.
There are a number of other fundamental rights that are now trumped by copyright as well. Simply read the case history.
Welcome to the new millenium! The Digital Millennium, as defined by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act!
Their fear is a good old 50's style domino effect. First Venezuela, then Costa Rica, then Mexico. Pretty soon, Peru ignore's Bill's gift horse and converts as well. Before you know it, all of Latin America will be running Linux. I don't think this will happen, but I bet Microsoft thinks it could.
Double-huh? Why do you not think this will happen? At what point does it stop making sense that you should convert to the OS that:
Costs Less
Is Better
Is under your control
Let me give you a hint. It doesn't stop making sense. Linux will take over South America as the OS of choice. GPL alternatives to other licensed products will take over South America as the products of choice. The sheer numbers of people working on GPL products will become more sheer (to make up a term).
Linux will dominate. Windows will be relegated to the trash heap, which is exactly what it deserves.
BSD-licensed stuff will be around for a long time, but it will always be a small player for the simple fact that developers have no guarantee that those benefitting from the code have to give back.
Oh, and by the way, this domination won't stop at South America, I'm just keeping the argument in the same scope as you're making it. I think GPL OSes and software will dominate the entire planet before the decade is out.
John Gilmore said:
> That's just because you were silly enough to buy your domains from
Verisign. They rely on millions of people like you, who were too lazy
to switch; that's why their price is so high.
I did switch. I get my domains now through Joker.com, at about $11. each. I
still consider this too expensive.
>I get domains for $8 to $12/year via eNom.com.
I went to their web site and they state that they want $29.95 for a domain.
It was unclear if this was for a one year or two year registration, but
even if it was two years, that means $15./year. But you probably have
connections that I don't.
About US$10/year (EUR12/year) to have any of.COM,.NET, or.ORG domains. I have had all my domains registered through them for about three years.
They even do DNS for you, if you don't have it. And their entire system is automated. I've never had to make a phone call, send a letter, or a FAX. Everything, and I mean everything is done through their web interface.
And just in case you wonder, I'm a U.S. citizen... the fact these guys are based out of France and charge me in Euros doesn't seem to make any difference. I've never had a problem with these guys. They're clued.
Leaving aside any arguments about BSD and WinCE, of course.
Leaving aside arguments about BSD and WinCE? Yeh, this is like talking about moving dirt from one place to another, and not arguing about the relative merits of the pooper scooper and the Bobcat Compact Excavator.
(oh, lordy, when will I ever learn to stop fanning the flames???)
Wow. Then you wouldn't hire me. I fail on almost all counts. But let me elaborate, I think it isn't a good thing you'll miss out on me. Every employer I've *EVER* worked for, be it in the U.S., Taiwan, or New Zealand, has *ALWAYS* fought very hard to keep me from leaving them.
My traits? Hmmm. I'm not a quick thinker. Hell, quite the contrary. I'm a very slow and belaboured thinker. I have a hard time keeping up in conversations because they change quickly. But I'm a very thorough thinker. I think deeper about any given topic than anyone I know. Perhaps this is why I don't follow conversations well... the MTV style of changing topics every 60 seconds don't suit me well. I'd rather stay on one topic for an hour.
You want to ask me what my favourite joke is? I don't have one. But everyone I've *EVER* worked with says I have a great sense of humour. Very... DEEP. I don't tell jokes. Ever. But I often have something to say that makes people laugh or makes them amused.
Well, at least on that "passion" front I can brag. I have no television, and I don't play games. But I do have six computers at home. They run PostgreSQL, Oracle, Sybase, Perl CGI scripts, shell scripts, and who knows what that I've written. I've also written a Dia diagram to SQL converter (tedia2sql).
I'd recommend rethinking your interview technique.
The point isn't to send the people away who, through no fault of their own, don't arrive by the front door. The point is to convert them to your own customers.
Wow, with an attitude like this, you'll probably get fired.
Seems in today's climate (RIAA, MPAA, anyone?) the general consensus is:
Create an overpriced product in a monopoly market
PROFIT!
Piss off your entire customer base
Where's our profit going?
You sound just like one of those dinosaur store owners that thinks customer satisfaction is the key to business success.
Of course, this is EMI's way of raising the entry barrier higher. I imagine the story submitter found this to be a "good thing" because he can't imagine himself as a content producer himself. More artificial restrictions on the people who create thing won't affect him in any way, because he knows he's never going to create anything anyhow.
The media cartel has won...? He not only knows he'll never create anything anyhow, he also knows no-one he knows will ever create anything anyhow.
Why, in 2002, when we have these wonderous machines that allow us to create sublime and wonderful works, does no-one ever figure they'll create anything?
Do we lie down and give up now? Death seeps into our bones?
No, I don't think we will. A revolution will come...
Works under MacOS X, Windows, and Linux. Does DeCSS automagically. Somehow always starts playing the movie immediately, skipping over the annoying FBI commercials and lame pre-movie commercials.
Does subtitling, plays flawlessly under Linux, is GPL, plays DivX:-) format videos, and is just, in general, a great moving-video playback device.
As another poster pointed out, hardware players are a crapshoot, but VLC is just about guaranteed.
You can disclaim these warrantees (see above), but that requires an explicit agreement between the consumer and the vendor, in the form of an EULA or click wrap installer.
The Open Source world doesn't have either right now, at least by and large.
That is incorrect. Simply by copying (distributing) the source code of a GPL application, you have EXPLICITLY AND WITH NO AMBIGUITY agreed to the terms of the GPL, which include (if you use the standard template) a disclaimer of warranty.
You the author can provide a warranty if you wish, and you the distributor can also provide a warranty, but you the user cannot create a warranty without contacting the original author and attempting to renegotiate the terms of the software distribution license (ie: the GPL).
Simply the fact that the GPL-licensed software is in your possession means you've agreed there is no warranty on the software.
If you don't agree with the license of the GPL, then you are in violation of copyright law and have no rights whatsoever to use the software nor redistribute it.
The preamble of the GPL doesn't cover the case of you using the software and deciding you don't want to allow the disclaimer of warranty (it covers the case where you want to redistribute the software but disagree with the GPL), but the text seems rather clear to me.
The GPL is similarly clever on the topic of software patents.
In late July, HP convinced an employee to drop plans to demonstrate at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention how to break coding in DVD players that prevents them from being played outside a particular geographical region.
Are they referring to Bruce Perens? Why didn't I hear news of this cancellation if so?
I was at Best Buy a few days ago and found a device into which you plug any two audio/visual devices, and which stated that it would "even out erratic signal levels, enabling the VCR to get a clean image again."
It is a MacroVision-defeating hardware device, prepackaged, for $50 or so.
I was actually a bit astounded that someone hadn't come and stomped on the balls of this company.
Ever since the media execs imprisoned Skylarov (oh, I'll never be able to spell that) I figure they've gotten enough bad karma that it's gotta come back and bite their ass sometime.
Personally, I hope some media execs head down to Sydney for some Matrix 2.0 publicity stunt and get arrested and thrown in the slammer for six months.
Hmmmm. You know, I hadn't even thought about that as being scary, but you know, it is.
It's mighty cool having X working under Cygwin, I'll admit that.
Saaay, why does RXVT run without X, but XTERM must run with X???
Rambling rambling. Really, the thing that struck me is your post, which makes me laugh out loud is moderated "interesting" but my post, which I don't consider the slightest bit funny is moderated "funny."
I have a "Riovolt" MP3 player that plays fullsize CDR-W's and has a good interface. I'm happy except for whatever ungodly WRONG reason it plays WMAs and not Oggs (okay, because the Ogg was not 1.0 at the time).
Now I'm very interested in hardware that has upgradeable firmware and has at least some plan to support Ogg in the future.
Bruce, download and try the Videolan Client, which is available for both Linux and Windows, and includes libdvdcss as part of the distribution.
As far as I'm concerned, the DVD (region-free and encrypted) playback is flawless on a Linux box, assuming your DVD player is a normal IDE device (ie: not also a DVD r/w).
I make some damn good milkshakes, not out of Ice Cream, but frozen fruit and milk... from faemalia dot org's Pina Carrata page, I tell you how to make what I call "Pina Carrota."
It's based on the interesting realisation that carrots taste a lot like coconut when mixed up in a sweet mixture (believe it or not).
Pre-installation:
0. Put large glasses into the freezer
1. Put carrots, pineapple and juice into freezer until juice/pineapple is extremely slushy & carrots frozen
Ingredients:
1/4 cup frozen baby peeled carrots
(following items can be had by buying canned pineapple) 2 cups near-frozen pineapples 1/2 cup near-frozen pineapple juice 1/4 cup Malibu coconut rum 2 cups milk (Lactaid works very well!) 1 tbsp honey
Procedure:
Put frozen pineapple and juice into blender
Put frozen baby peeled carrots into blender
Put 2 cups of milk in blender
Blend the ingredients as well as you can, trying to reduce chunks. You may need to push chunks down toward the blades. Be careful and don't ruin your blender or pushing instrument.
Once blent, add Malibu coconut rum and blend more
If the milkshake is juicy enough that there is a spinning vortex to the blender blades, then add the 1 tbsp honey into the vortex
Note: The same caveats and warnings as in StrawberryMilkshakes apply here, especially allergies to honey and/or tricks and tips.
I also have Strawberry and Strawberry/Blueberry recipes there. They're similar.
Probably not many of you have been in one-on-one conversations with Rasterman. I have.
Back in the day, when FVWM'95 was the state-of-the-art, I got into contact with him because he was doing something new and cool.
I recommended that he not just create a WM, but a desktop environment. I was willing to help him do it. He obviously was good at making the widgets and all, but didn't have anything to help apps communicate with one another.
He was uninterested. The future, he figured, was in the WM.
It doesn't surprise me that since not too many are very interested in his WM (Sawfish and KWM are far more oft-used) -- that he thinks Linux desktop is dead and has no future.
He still doesn't get it.
But never mind. He's a techie. His genius doesn't lie in predicting the future of Linux, it lies in creating cool assembly-tweaked embedded whatsit solutions (as you can tell, where my genius *DOESN'T* lie). Let him be, but for god's sake, don't ask him the future of Linux.
You'll get the same drivel I got from him back in the 90's.
Basically, I've gotten Cygwin with OpenSSH working on Win2K with zero problems.
It's an eery feeling typing "ssh philov@win2kbox" and then getting a Bash prompt.
Remember, once you install Cygwin to learn how to install *ANY* Unix server as a service on your Windows box. I got Apache and SSHd and a few others working trivially once I figured out that strange Cygwin addservice command.
It runs windows and can play three movies! That's great! What three movies can it play? Well, let's see. Gone with the Wind is out. Copyrighted to high heaven. Maybe Matrix? Ooops. No way. No MPAA-licensed DVD player on this one. Uh. Thumbwars? Nope!
Slashdot Mirror
offtopic? you be the judge...
I've got screwed on eBay:
One of their big sellers, with literally dozens of items daily, had an auction for an item that should be worth about $200, but is fairly obscure. They made the mistake of not putting a reserve on it.
After it got bid up to $13, and I was the high bidder, the auction ended. I got all the emails saying to contact the seller.
The seller somehow 'lost' the item, and couldn't ship it to me. This after they charged my CC.
After two weeks of calling, finally the seller recredited my CC. My only recourse? I gave them a negative mark. That's it. Nothing else.
As a final insult to injury, they put me on their spam list, so I get spams from them now and again. And I have a strong feeling that they sold my email address to other spammers.
There's a real good argument for using standard widgets: when I, the user, decide I want purple Dubblix Italic 92-point antialiased fonts for all my buttons, and a lime-green background, I can have it.
All these lame-ass GTK developers hardcode the backgrounds of their widgets as grey, and half the time my app looks right (purple on lime-green) and half the time they look like shit (purple on grey).
Just make the goddamn widgets standard and let me choose the colours, font styles, sizes, and whatever else I choose because, believe it or not, I actually know better than you what I want to see.
Sorry to rant at you jx100 -- I'm responding to not just you but a lot of other replies in this thread. But I do rant at you to tell you the doublesize option doesn't fix the inherent lame ugliness of the XMMS/WinAMP interface.
GPL Simplified: Don't like my software license? Try writing your own damn code! I'm not in the business of giving you gifts if you're in the business of saying: "Thanks, now screw you." I'm glad you grasp this subtlety. You won't use the GPL.
You don't grasp this subtlety, though: The GPL doesn't violate your freedom. It never has, and it never will. As you said yourself, you won't use the GPL (and I guess you're implying you won't use GPL software). Fine by me.
Along with my GPL-software writing cohorts, I guess I say, good riddance. If you're not the sort who views the GPL as something that enhances the world and makes it a better place, then you're not the sort I want changing and distributing my code.
See? The GPL enhances my freedom without infringing on yours. And I'm the one who wrote the damn code. Seems like we both got a good deal.
Haven't these Clean Edit guys been paying attention recently? The law is really decided by case history, and given the recent history on copyright cases, it's clear that copyright trumps free speech.
If you want to give a speech, but it would violate or potentially allow to violate some copyright, then the speech is forbidden by law.
There are a number of other fundamental rights that are now trumped by copyright as well. Simply read the case history.
Welcome to the new millenium! The Digital Millennium, as defined by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act!
Thank you for filling in that vitally-important detail.
Here's a good reference: Forty Hour Week on c2.com, which seems to be the best web authority for Extreme Programming discussions and patterns.
Give it a gander.
- Costs Less
- Is Better
- Is under your control
Let me give you a hint. It doesn't stop making sense. Linux will take over South America as the OS of choice. GPL alternatives to other licensed products will take over South America as the products of choice. The sheer numbers of people working on GPL products will become more sheer (to make up a term).Linux will dominate. Windows will be relegated to the trash heap, which is exactly what it deserves.
BSD-licensed stuff will be around for a long time, but it will always be a small player for the simple fact that developers have no guarantee that those benefitting from the code have to give back.
Oh, and by the way, this domination won't stop at South America, I'm just keeping the argument in the same scope as you're making it. I think GPL OSes and software will dominate the entire planet before the decade is out.
About US$10/year (EUR12/year) to have any of .COM, .NET, or .ORG domains. I have had all my domains registered through them for about three years.
They even do DNS for you, if you don't have it. And their entire system is automated. I've never had to make a phone call, send a letter, or a FAX. Everything, and I mean everything is done through their web interface.
And just in case you wonder, I'm a U.S. citizen... the fact these guys are based out of France and charge me in Euros doesn't seem to make any difference. I've never had a problem with these guys. They're clued.
(oh, lordy, when will I ever learn to stop fanning the flames???)
My traits? Hmmm. I'm not a quick thinker. Hell, quite the contrary. I'm a very slow and belaboured thinker. I have a hard time keeping up in conversations because they change quickly. But I'm a very thorough thinker. I think deeper about any given topic than anyone I know. Perhaps this is why I don't follow conversations well... the MTV style of changing topics every 60 seconds don't suit me well. I'd rather stay on one topic for an hour.
You want to ask me what my favourite joke is? I don't have one. But everyone I've *EVER* worked with says I have a great sense of humour. Very... DEEP. I don't tell jokes. Ever. But I often have something to say that makes people laugh or makes them amused.
Well, at least on that "passion" front I can brag. I have no television, and I don't play games. But I do have six computers at home. They run PostgreSQL, Oracle, Sybase, Perl CGI scripts, shell scripts, and who knows what that I've written. I've also written a Dia diagram to SQL converter (tedia2sql).
I'd recommend rethinking your interview technique.
Seems in today's climate (RIAA, MPAA, anyone?) the general consensus is:
- Create an overpriced product in a monopoly market
- PROFIT!
- Piss off your entire customer base
- Where's our profit going?
You sound just like one of those dinosaur store owners that thinks customer satisfaction is the key to business success.Why, in 2002, when we have these wonderous machines that allow us to create sublime and wonderful works, does no-one ever figure they'll create anything?
Do we lie down and give up now? Death seeps into our bones?
No, I don't think we will. A revolution will come...
Go here: Videolan Client.
:-) format videos, and is just, in general, a great moving-video playback device.
Works under MacOS X, Windows, and Linux. Does DeCSS automagically. Somehow always starts playing the movie immediately, skipping over the annoying FBI commercials and lame pre-movie commercials.
Does subtitling, plays flawlessly under Linux, is GPL, plays DivX
As another poster pointed out, hardware players are a crapshoot, but VLC is just about guaranteed.
You the author can provide a warranty if you wish, and you the distributor can also provide a warranty, but you the user cannot create a warranty without contacting the original author and attempting to renegotiate the terms of the software distribution license (ie: the GPL).
Simply the fact that the GPL-licensed software is in your possession means you've agreed there is no warranty on the software.
If you don't agree with the license of the GPL, then you are in violation of copyright law and have no rights whatsoever to use the software nor redistribute it.
The preamble of the GPL doesn't cover the case of you using the software and deciding you don't want to allow the disclaimer of warranty (it covers the case where you want to redistribute the software but disagree with the GPL), but the text seems rather clear to me.
The GPL is similarly clever on the topic of software patents.
What happened there?
I was at Best Buy a few days ago and found a device into which you plug any two audio/visual devices, and which stated that it would "even out erratic signal levels, enabling the VCR to get a clean image again."
It is a MacroVision-defeating hardware device, prepackaged, for $50 or so.
I was actually a bit astounded that someone hadn't come and stomped on the balls of this company.
For my money, though, it's VideoLan Client or nothing.
Ever since the media execs imprisoned Skylarov (oh, I'll never be able to spell that) I figure they've gotten enough bad karma that it's gotta come back and bite their ass sometime.
Personally, I hope some media execs head down to Sydney for some Matrix 2.0 publicity stunt and get arrested and thrown in the slammer for six months.
That would be poetic justice.
Haven't we learnt anything? When presented with "mumblemumble or Vapourware(tm)" the answer is ALWAYS Vapourware(tm).
Hmmmm. You know, I hadn't even thought about that as being scary, but you know, it is.
It's mighty cool having X working under Cygwin, I'll admit that.
Saaay, why does RXVT run without X, but XTERM must run with X???
Rambling rambling. Really, the thing that struck me is your post, which makes me laugh out loud is moderated "interesting" but my post, which I don't consider the slightest bit funny is moderated "funny."
Moderation is... +1 funny.
Does anyone have a list of Ogg hardware players?
I have a "Riovolt" MP3 player that plays fullsize CDR-W's and has a good interface. I'm happy except for whatever ungodly WRONG reason it plays WMAs and not Oggs (okay, because the Ogg was not 1.0 at the time).
Now I'm very interested in hardware that has upgradeable firmware and has at least some plan to support Ogg in the future.
Bruce, download and try the Videolan Client, which is available for both Linux and Windows, and includes libdvdcss as part of the distribution.
As far as I'm concerned, the DVD (region-free and encrypted) playback is flawless on a Linux box, assuming your DVD player is a normal IDE device (ie: not also a DVD r/w).
Videolan dot Org
It's based on the interesting realisation that carrots taste a lot like coconut when mixed up in a sweet mixture (believe it or not).
Pre-installation:
0. Put large glasses into the freezer
1. Put carrots, pineapple and juice into freezer until juice/pineapple is extremely slushy & carrots frozen
Ingredients:
Procedure:
Note: The same caveats and warnings as in StrawberryMilkshakes apply here, especially allergies to honey and/or tricks and tips.
I also have Strawberry and Strawberry/Blueberry recipes there. They're similar.
Probably not many of you have been in one-on-one conversations with Rasterman. I have.
Back in the day, when FVWM'95 was the state-of-the-art, I got into contact with him because he was doing something new and cool.
I recommended that he not just create a WM, but a desktop environment. I was willing to help him do it. He obviously was good at making the widgets and all, but didn't have anything to help apps communicate with one another.
He was uninterested. The future, he figured, was in the WM.
It doesn't surprise me that since not too many are very interested in his WM (Sawfish and KWM are far more oft-used) -- that he thinks Linux desktop is dead and has no future.
He still doesn't get it.
But never mind. He's a techie. His genius doesn't lie in predicting the future of Linux, it lies in creating cool assembly-tweaked embedded whatsit solutions (as you can tell, where my genius *DOESN'T* lie). Let him be, but for god's sake, don't ask him the future of Linux.
You'll get the same drivel I got from him back in the 90's.
Mod parent up.
Basically, I've gotten Cygwin with OpenSSH working on Win2K with zero problems.
It's an eery feeling typing "ssh philov@win2kbox" and then getting a Bash prompt.
Remember, once you install Cygwin to learn how to install *ANY* Unix server as a service on your Windows box. I got Apache and SSHd and a few others working trivially once I figured out that strange Cygwin addservice command.
I want my money back.