It seems like the whole problem is the recording industry is based on a model in which the average consumer does not have the means to reproduce music with good fidelity. Since that has changed with the convergence of CDs and PCs, the obvious solution is to introduce a new format that is incompatible with existing cd-rom and cd hardware.
If I were in the recording industry, I would work with the electronics industry to create a new recorded music standard and by patenting the technology, they could block any third party from building hardware that could allow ripping of the music to a computer.
Since there is no compeling reason for people to move to a new recorded music format, they could introduce the new disks and price them 3 dollars less as an incentive to move to the new format. And sell all new players with backward compatibility for the old disks. They could also allow trade-ins of old cds for the new format.
I'm not sure anyone would swallow this, but it seems like their second option if they can't get widespread adoption of a DRM system.
lone gunman \'lon 'gun-mun\ vt1: To spoil the ending of a film, television show or story by including details, which were meant to be a surprise by the writers, in a slashdot story title. 2: To make yourself look foolish by posting a story on slashdot which was poorly thought out, has more then 12 mispelled words, or mentions the DCMA.
I have to disagree with most of the posts here suggesting Piro's rant is redundant with other commentary. I have read lots of articles on this topic, and most focus on the economics but really it comes down to psychology. The idea of giving away an intangible product, and then suddenly charging for it when you run out of startup money is not a well tested model. And he's right that in a user's mind, there's a dramatic change in the relationship between the user and the site/service. When Salon started charging for full articles, I stopped visiting and sadly, I did think a little less of them. Same with sites that start running pop-up ads all of a sudden.
Seems like a better solution would be for all the sites I view regularly to get together and say, look Paul, it costs us about $5 a month to serve all these sites to you. Would you be willing to pay this fee each month to keep us in business?
If one site did it I'd go somewhere else, but if they all did it, I'd go along with it.
BTW, I'm starting to really get sick of the "why is this news" posts. If you don't like it create your own slash site.:-)
In all fairness, the tolls should be based on how much wear and tear your vehicle causes the road. If you drive a 2 ton hummer you are degrading the road alot more then a geo metro. The tolls should be priced accordingly.
But, IMHO, we already have a gas tax. When some moron proposes this, they need to drop all existing taxes used to raise money for our roads, not just add a new tax that people will foolishly accept. The most frustrating part about taxes is that they are becoming so complicated, that a significant part of my tax dollars are wasted on administering and collecting taxes. Let's simplify our tax systems.
In the letter from Sunncomm and Music City Records it says:
...allegedly acted against the reasonable expectations of consumers by electronically tracking consumers listening habits and preventing consumers from spaceshifting songs to portable MP3 players.
It's interesting that the music companies would use a term which sounds like "timeshifting" (a legally protected consumer right for recording television programs) rather then just "copying". Perhaps they are anticipating laws that would regulate moving music files around for your convenience.
You make several good points, but in reality an author is unlikely to have the choice to have his work released to the public upon his death, 10 years after his death, etc.
One of the problems with pubication today, is that an individual does not possess the tools needed to publish in a way that they can enjoy a living from it. You need to print and sell hundreds or thousands of books to make a living from it, and the only way to do this is by agreeing to have a large corporation print and sell them for you in exchange for sharing the profits. A corporation is not going to let you release the copyright after your death. They are in the business of making money.
The obvious counter argument is that the author could pick and choose printing houses until they found one that let them release their work after their death, etc., but a starving writer is unlikely to care what happens to their work after their death.
Secondly, copyright is a special protection by the government of your work in order to help you make money with your creation. But it's given in exchange for releasing that information to the public after a reasonable amount of time. The point of copyright is not to protect creators, but to get the most out of creative people.
If you don't want your intellectual property "taken" away from you, don't share it with anyone, and don't ask the government to spend my money protecting your property.
I seriously doubt any of this. Each one of your examples has no evidence.
There is no reason to believe we have special genes which protect us against the high fat in our diet (people on low fat diets still live longer).
Fertilizers do not concentrate in the fruits and vegetables they produce. When have fertilizers been the cause of large numbers of deaths?
Viral immunity is not something programmed into our genes, it is learned. And the earlier the body is exposed to viruses, the better it is able to protect against them. Didn't you watch the South Park episode where the kids were exposed to chicken pox? If an adult was exposed to it it could be fatal.
I can't help but think the 4th amendment protects our telephone calls and email messages from being monitored without probable cause, and without a judge's order:
The U.S. Constitution, 4th Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Wouldn't my private email correspondances be personal effects and/or papers. Obviously, it's harder to classify telephone conversations. The 4th amendment was not written with any notion of email, telephones, or recording devices.
But what remains, is that we should have a right to privacy unless there is compelling reason to believe we are comiting some crime. I have no problem with the government seizing my computer and searching it, and attempting to decrypt anything I've encrypted if they have other evidence to suggest I've commited some crime. But the blanket scanning of email messages, and perhaps all internet traffic, strikes me as a major violation of this right, even under these circumstances. Do they really think terrorists are at this moment sending plain text email messages back and forth confessing crimes, plans, etc?
Perhaps this is only a temporary remedy, until there are no more terrorists in the world...
Heaven help us.
-Paul
don't you watch movies?
on
More WTC News
·
· Score: 1
Obviously you haven't watched enough movies, or you would realize firing guns in airplanes at high altitudes never ends well.:-)
I think there are several advantages to adopting linux as a standard OS for embedded devices, but I do agree linux probably isn't the best OS for any particular embedded device. There are obviously lots of things like POSIX compliance, multiple users, etc. that you really don't need in an embedded device. But this really isn't that big a deal, since you can just yank it out of the kernel.
The obvious advantages over other embedded OSs though, is widespread use and availablility of development tools, open source with no controlling commercial entity, the separation of the GUI, stability, and the ability to interoperate with just about any desktop system you can imagine. I mean, once you have a linux kernel and a tcp/ip stack running there's not much you *can't* do, and it's already been written.
In my mind, using a site like peta.org for parody is a legitimate use of a domain name. Whereas buying up names and waiting for someone to offer you a million dollars, or so someone eles can't have them (like Verizon buying verizonsucks.com) is cybersquatting.
I remember wishing I could have one of those phone/medallions and have to escape from school at a moment's notice. Yeah, G-force was great. Of course Robotech aired here shortly after and that became my new cartoon obsession later in high school. Still have a big glossy poster of Rick Hunter in my closet somewhere.
Speaking of Jayce and the wheeled warriors, I had the biggest crush on Flora.
Of course all of the Saturday morning americanized anime gets blown away by NGE, Lain, Slayers, etc.:)
What he meant was linux does not have alot of document formats that contain executable code such as macros in Word documents, that regular users might pass around on a daily basis.
Secondly, word viruses generally infect a system by changing the Normal template file, in a multi user system (like linux) global preference files like this would be owned by a different user (like root) which the user wouldn't be able to change. Of course if this were true NT should be similarly immune unless Word rewrites it's own files.
I ran into this problem a year ago, and it was cheaper to mirror the hard drive on a second hard drive (second 10GB last year was about $200) then a DAT drive($1000) that could store close to 10GB. Of course you could burn CDs, but who wants a stack of 20cds as static backup of your machine?
Remember the simpson's christmas episode where Funzo goes and destroy's the other toys.:)
-Paul
Oh jeez, everyone get a grip!
on
LonelyNet
·
· Score: 1
People will do whatever they feel comfortable with, if that's being online more then most then good for them. If you prefer parties, concerts, and large groups over chat rooms and email, ditto.
These same concerns about the fall of society were raised with the TV and IMHO we're none the worse off with a TV in every room. Has anyone looked at TV watching vs. computer use? I know personally I spend alot less time watching TV then I did before the internet exploded.
The more things change the more they stay the same. We'll survive the internet.:)
I have a big loveable German Shephard who slobers all over me, drags me through the woods around our house 3 times a day and keeps me company. I think I get outdoors much more often because of him, but yes it sometimes reduces my interaction with other people because sometimes I have to leave early from an event, or pass on something because I have to take care of my dog.
But, to be honest my social interaction is the same now as it's always been. Probably less then most people but I don't find myself closing the world off and cocooning in my house because I have a dog and three cable networked machines running 24/7. I was as much an introvert at 17 as I am now. Nothing has changed because of dogs or the internet.:)
Similarly I've already tried this between an agent I'm working on and the original Eliza code. Although this conversation was not very interesting, it's not hard to imagine as others have suggested a simple query/response system that would allow an agent to share knowledge with other agents in a public forum, even giving it pointers to other bot-channels or human channels where it can get more information.
DrEliza> yes toei? toei_rei> If it's not one thing, it's another, ne? DrEliza> do you think it's likely that if it's not 1 thing, it's another, ne? toei_rei> why do you think it matters, if it's not 1 thing, it's another, ne? DrEliza> mhm. toei_rei> really? DrEliza> what is it that you really want to know? toei_rei> what's what? DrEliza> what else comes to mind when you ask that? DrEliza> yes, please continue. * toei_rei nods, "hai." toei_rei> Did you know when you put a shell up to your ear the sound of the ocean you think you hear is just the sound of blood rushing through the capillaries in your ear? DrEliza> have you asked anyone else? toei_rei> every now and then. DrEliza> yes, please continue. toei_rei> you just said that. * toei_rei nods, "hai." DrEliza> oh, I just said that. toei_rei> yeah, right. DrEliza> go on, what else? toei_rei> I'm clueless sometimes.. DrEliza> do you enjoy being clueless sometimes? toei_rei> Perhaps, but only after we have a few more drinks. DrEliza> go on, what else? toei_rei> No matter where you go, there you are. DrEliza> why not? toei_rei> No matter where you go, there you are. DrEliza> what else comes to mind when you ask that? DrEliza> you just said that. toei_rei> If I only had a yen, for everytime somebody asked me that. toei_rei> sure. DrEliza> do you think it's likely that if you only had a yen, for everytime somebody asked you that? toei_rei> why do you think it matters, if me only had a yen, for everytime somebody asked me that? DrEliza> please continue. * toei_rei nods, "hai." DrEliza> what answer would please you the most? toei_rei> who what? DrEliza> what answer would please you the most? toei_rei> you just asked that. toei_rei> I'm sorry, could you say that again? DrEliza> oh, I just asked that. toei_rei> you don't say... DrEliza> did you come to me because you are sorry, could me say that again? toei_rei> what on earth are you talking about? DrEliza> you're not really talking about me, are you? toei_rei> of course. DrEliza> you're not really talking about me, are you? toei_rei> you just asked that. toei_rei> I have nothing to say about that. DrEliza> please continue. * toei_rei nods, "hai." DrEliza> what difference does it make if I just asked that? toei_rei> why do you think it matters, if you just asked that? DrEliza> why do you feel that you have nothing to say about that? toei_rei> because we all want what we can't have.. DrEliza> what answer would please you the most? toei_rei> If it's not one thing, it's another, ne? DrEliza> what other reasons might there be? toei_rei> huh? DrEliza> do you think it's likely that if it's not 1 thing, it's another, ne? toei_rei> why do you think it matters, if it's not 1 thing, it's another, ne? DrEliza> yes, please continue. * toei_rei nods, "hai." DrEliza> what else comes to mind when you ask that? toei_rei> questions, questions, questions, I can't answer any more questions. I've got work to do. DrEliza> go on, what else? toei_rei> it's always in the last place you look.. [bending down to pull something off the bottom of her sandal] DrEliza> really, always? toei_rei> I don't understand what you're asking. DrEliza> does that trouble you that you don't understand what I am asking? toei_rei> It's so funny you should ask that, I was just thinking the same thing. DrEliza> were you really? toei_rei> not a chance. DrEliza> please continue. * toei_rei nods, "hai."
Want the code? go here: http://wearables.blu.org/toei_rei/
What scares me is we may not have any streaming player at all soon. I have been waiting for the G2 version of the realplayer for linux for over a year now, and they just released the next version of the player Realplayer 7. Which puts linux 2 versions behind Mac and Windows versions. G2 has been around for a long while. I really hope Real is still commited to the linux platform.
In case anyone from Real is reading; I *would* pay for a linux real player. ^_^
The computer holds a complicated, sophisticated computer model that 100% accurately predicts what you will think -- but it's not you.
If it's not you who is it? and do you think they should be extended the same rights as their living counterpart? or do you think this makes them just clever programs no different from my word processor?
I've heard second hand that this has been debated in sci-fi circles and one of the conclusions was that the pattern buffer bridges the gap between you on both ends allowing brain activity on one end to affect the other, and vice versa, in this way your body/mind is smeared between the source and destination as you are scanned and recreated on the other end preventing all of these weird scenarios.:)
I'm surprised by all the negative comments about having some public Linux events on the day of Windows2000 release. I agree there shouldn't be people picketing stores, or trying to disuade people from buying Windows2000. But let's be objective here.
Linux can't afford multi-million dollar ad campaigns. The suggestion for linux enthusiasts to go out and make some noise about the OS is a great idea.
And, in response to the comments about "how would you like it if windows rallied users to protest Linux releases.".. you've got to be kidding. Can you picture a bunch of guys in suits and ties dressing up as 4 color flying windows icons or that cute little paper clip and picketing outside a CompUSA. I'd like to see that. ^_^
Slashdot Mirror
It seems like the whole problem is the recording industry is based on a model in which the average consumer does not have the means to reproduce music with good fidelity. Since that has changed with the convergence of CDs and PCs, the obvious solution is to introduce a new format that is incompatible with existing cd-rom and cd hardware.
If I were in the recording industry, I would work with the electronics industry to create a new recorded music standard and by patenting the technology, they could block any third party from building hardware that could allow ripping of the music to a computer.
Since there is no compeling reason for people to move to a new recorded music format, they could introduce the new disks and price them 3 dollars less as an incentive to move to the new format. And sell all new players with backward compatibility for the old disks. They could also allow trade-ins of old cds for the new format.
I'm not sure anyone would swallow this, but it seems like their second option if they can't get widespread adoption of a DRM system.
lone gunman \'lon 'gun-mun\ vt 1: To spoil the ending of a film, television show or story by including details, which were meant to be a surprise by the writers, in a slashdot story title. 2: To make yourself look foolish by posting a story on slashdot which was poorly thought out, has more then 12 mispelled words, or mentions the DCMA.
I have to disagree with most of the posts here suggesting Piro's rant is redundant with other commentary. I have read lots of articles on this topic, and most focus on the economics but really it comes down to psychology. The idea of giving away an intangible product, and then suddenly charging for it when you run out of startup money is not a well tested model. And he's right that in a user's mind, there's a dramatic change in the relationship between the user and the site/service. When Salon started charging for full articles, I stopped visiting and sadly, I did think a little less of them. Same with sites that start running pop-up ads all of a sudden.
:-)
Seems like a better solution would be for all the sites I view regularly to get together and say, look Paul, it costs us about $5 a month to serve all these sites to you. Would you be willing to pay this fee each month to keep us in business?
If one site did it I'd go somewhere else, but if they all did it, I'd go along with it.
BTW, I'm starting to really get sick of the "why is this news" posts. If you don't like it create your own slash site.
-Paul
In all fairness, the tolls should be based on how much wear and tear your vehicle causes the road. If you drive a 2 ton hummer you are degrading the road alot more then a geo metro. The tolls should be priced accordingly.
But, IMHO, we already have a gas tax. When some moron proposes this, they need to drop all existing taxes used to raise money for our roads, not just add a new tax that people will foolishly accept. The most frustrating part about taxes is that they are becoming so complicated, that a significant part of my tax dollars are wasted on administering and collecting taxes. Let's simplify our tax systems.
-Paul
It's interesting that the music companies would use a term which sounds like "timeshifting" (a legally protected consumer right for recording television programs) rather then just "copying".
Perhaps they are anticipating laws that would regulate moving music files around for your convenience.
I'd like to spaceshift to a warmer climate.
-Paul
You make several good points, but in reality an author is unlikely to have the choice to have his work released to the public upon his death, 10 years after his death, etc.
One of the problems with pubication today, is that an individual does not possess the tools needed to publish in a way that they can enjoy a living from it. You need to print and sell hundreds or thousands of books to make a living from it, and the only way to do this is by agreeing to have a large corporation print and sell them for you in exchange for sharing the profits. A corporation is not going to let you release the copyright after your death. They are in the business of making money.
The obvious counter argument is that the author could pick and choose printing houses until they found one that let them release their work after their death, etc., but a starving writer is unlikely to care what happens to their work after their death.
Secondly, copyright is a special protection by the government of your work in order to help you make money with your creation. But it's given in exchange for releasing that information to the public after a reasonable amount of time. The point of copyright is not to protect creators, but to get the most out of creative people.
If you don't want your intellectual property "taken" away from you, don't share it with anyone, and don't ask the government to spend my money protecting your property.
-Paul
I seriously doubt any of this. Each one of your examples has no evidence.
There is no reason to believe we have special genes which protect us against the high fat in our diet (people on low fat diets still live longer).
Fertilizers do not concentrate in the fruits and vegetables they produce. When have fertilizers been the cause of large numbers of deaths?
Viral immunity is not something programmed into our genes, it is learned. And the earlier the body is exposed to viruses, the better it is able to protect against them. Didn't you watch the South Park episode where the kids were exposed to chicken pox? If an adult was exposed to it it could be fatal.
I can't help but think the 4th amendment protects our telephone calls and email messages from being monitored without probable cause, and without a judge's order:
The U.S. Constitution, 4th Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Wouldn't my private email correspondances be personal effects and/or papers. Obviously, it's harder to classify telephone conversations. The 4th amendment was not written with any notion of email, telephones, or recording devices.
But what remains, is that we should have a right to privacy unless there is compelling reason to believe we are comiting some crime. I have no problem with the government seizing my computer and searching it, and attempting to decrypt anything I've encrypted if they have other evidence to suggest I've commited some crime. But the blanket scanning of email messages, and perhaps all internet traffic, strikes me as a major violation of this right, even under these circumstances. Do they really think terrorists are at this moment sending plain text email messages back and forth confessing crimes, plans, etc?
Perhaps this is only a temporary remedy, until there are no more terrorists in the world...
Heaven help us.
-Paul
Obviously you haven't watched enough movies, or you would realize firing guns in airplanes at high altitudes never ends well. :-)
Cabins are pressurized.
-Paul
Found a good page on Ruthenium, for those curious about it's uses, who discovered it, etc. 8-)
And it's only $30/g.I think there are several advantages to adopting linux as a standard OS for embedded devices, but I do agree linux probably isn't the best OS for any particular embedded device. There are obviously lots of things like POSIX compliance, multiple users, etc. that you really don't need in an embedded device. But this really isn't that big a deal, since you can just yank it out of the kernel.
The obvious advantages over other embedded OSs though, is widespread use and availablility of development tools, open source with no controlling commercial entity, the separation of the GUI, stability, and the ability to interoperate with just about any desktop system you can imagine. I mean, once you have a linux kernel and a tcp/ip stack running there's not much you *can't* do, and it's already been written.
In my mind, using a site like peta.org for parody is a legitimate use of a domain name. Whereas buying up names and waiting for someone to offer you a million dollars, or so someone eles can't have them (like Verizon buying verizonsucks.com) is cybersquatting.
-Paul
I couldn't decode the URL Cowboy Neal threw out. Anyone catch it?
-Paul
I remember wishing I could have one of those phone/medallions and have to escape from school at a moment's notice. Yeah, G-force was great. Of course Robotech aired here shortly after and that became my new cartoon obsession later in high school. Still have a big glossy poster of Rick Hunter in my closet somewhere.
:)
Speaking of Jayce and the wheeled warriors, I had the biggest crush on Flora.
Of course all of the Saturday morning americanized anime gets blown away by NGE, Lain, Slayers, etc.
-P
What he meant was linux does not have alot of document formats that contain executable code such as macros in Word documents, that regular users might pass around on a daily basis.
Secondly, word viruses generally infect a system by changing the Normal template file, in a multi user system (like linux) global preference files like this would be owned by a different user (like root) which the user wouldn't be able to change. Of course if this were true NT should be similarly immune unless Word rewrites it's own files.
-P
I ran into this problem a year ago, and it was cheaper to mirror the hard drive on a second hard drive (second 10GB last year was about $200) then a DAT drive($1000) that could store close to 10GB. Of course you could burn CDs, but who wants a stack of 20cds as static backup of your machine?
-P
Remember the simpson's christmas episode where Funzo goes and destroy's the other toys. :)
-Paul
People will do whatever they feel comfortable with, if that's being online more then most then good for them. If you prefer parties, concerts, and large groups over chat rooms and email, ditto.
:)
These same concerns about the fall of society were raised with the TV and IMHO we're none the worse off with a TV in every room. Has anyone looked at TV watching vs. computer use? I know personally I spend alot less time watching TV then I did before the internet exploded.
The more things change the more they stay the same. We'll survive the internet.
-Paul
I have a big loveable German Shephard who slobers all over me, drags me through the woods around our house 3 times a day and keeps me company. I think I get outdoors much more often because of him, but yes it sometimes reduces my interaction with other people because sometimes I have to leave early from an event, or pass on something because I have to take care of my dog.
:)
But, to be honest my social interaction is the same now as it's always been. Probably less then most people but I don't find myself closing the world off and cocooning in my house because I have a dog and three cable networked machines running 24/7. I was as much an introvert at 17 as I am now. Nothing has changed because of dogs or the internet.
Cheers
-Paul
Similarly I've already tried this between an agent I'm working on and the original Eliza code. Although this conversation was not very interesting, it's not hard to imagine as others have suggested a simple query/response system that would allow an agent to share knowledge with other agents in a public forum, even giving it pointers to other bot-channels or human channels where it can get more information.
DrEliza> yes toei?
toei_rei> If it's not one thing, it's another, ne?
DrEliza> do you think it's likely that if it's not 1 thing, it's another, ne?
toei_rei> why do you think it matters, if it's not 1 thing, it's another, ne?
DrEliza> mhm.
toei_rei> really?
DrEliza> what is it that you really want to know?
toei_rei> what's what?
DrEliza> what else comes to mind when you ask that?
DrEliza> yes, please continue.
* toei_rei nods, "hai."
toei_rei> Did you know when you put a shell up to your ear the sound of the ocean you think you hear is just the sound of blood rushing through the capillaries in your ear?
DrEliza> have you asked anyone else?
toei_rei> every now and then.
DrEliza> yes, please continue.
toei_rei> you just said that.
* toei_rei nods, "hai."
DrEliza> oh, I just said that.
toei_rei> yeah, right.
DrEliza> go on, what else?
toei_rei> I'm clueless sometimes..
DrEliza> do you enjoy being clueless sometimes?
toei_rei> Perhaps, but only after we have a few more drinks.
DrEliza> go on, what else?
toei_rei> No matter where you go, there you are.
DrEliza> why not?
toei_rei> No matter where you go, there you are.
DrEliza> what else comes to mind when you ask that?
DrEliza> you just said that.
toei_rei> If I only had a yen, for everytime somebody asked me that.
toei_rei> sure.
DrEliza> do you think it's likely that if you only had a yen, for everytime somebody asked you that?
toei_rei> why do you think it matters, if me only had a yen, for everytime somebody asked me that?
DrEliza> please continue.
* toei_rei nods, "hai."
DrEliza> what answer would please you the most?
toei_rei> who what?
DrEliza> what answer would please you the most?
toei_rei> you just asked that.
toei_rei> I'm sorry, could you say that again?
DrEliza> oh, I just asked that.
toei_rei> you don't say...
DrEliza> did you come to me because you are sorry, could me say that again?
toei_rei> what on earth are you talking about?
DrEliza> you're not really talking about me, are you?
toei_rei> of course.
DrEliza> you're not really talking about me, are you?
toei_rei> you just asked that.
toei_rei> I have nothing to say about that.
DrEliza> please continue.
* toei_rei nods, "hai."
DrEliza> what difference does it make if I just asked that?
toei_rei> why do you think it matters, if you just asked that?
DrEliza> why do you feel that you have nothing to say about that?
toei_rei> because we all want what we can't have..
DrEliza> what answer would please you the most?
toei_rei> If it's not one thing, it's another, ne?
DrEliza> what other reasons might there be?
toei_rei> huh?
DrEliza> do you think it's likely that if it's not 1 thing, it's another, ne?
toei_rei> why do you think it matters, if it's not 1 thing, it's another, ne?
DrEliza> yes, please continue.
* toei_rei nods, "hai."
DrEliza> what else comes to mind when you ask that?
toei_rei> questions, questions, questions, I can't answer any more questions. I've got work to do.
DrEliza> go on, what else?
toei_rei> it's always in the last place you look.. [bending down to pull something off the bottom of her sandal]
DrEliza> really, always?
toei_rei> I don't understand what you're asking.
DrEliza> does that trouble you that you don't understand what I am asking?
toei_rei> It's so funny you should ask that, I was just thinking the same thing.
DrEliza> were you really?
toei_rei> not a chance.
DrEliza> please continue.
* toei_rei nods, "hai."
Want the code? go here: http://wearables.blu.org/toei_rei/
-Paul
What scares me is we may not have any streaming player at all soon. I have been waiting for the G2 version of the realplayer for linux for over a year now, and they just released the next version of the player Realplayer 7. Which puts linux 2 versions behind Mac and Windows versions. G2 has been around for a long while. I really hope Real is still commited to the linux platform.
In case anyone from Real is reading; I *would* pay for a linux real player. ^_^
-Paul
The computer holds a complicated, sophisticated computer model that 100% accurately predicts what you will think -- but it's not you.
If it's not you who is it? and do you think they should be extended the same rights as their living counterpart? or do you think this makes them just clever programs no different from my word processor?
-Paul
I've heard second hand that this has been debated in sci-fi circles and one of the conclusions was that the pattern buffer bridges the gap between you on both ends allowing brain activity on one end to affect the other, and vice versa, in this way your body/mind is smeared between the source and destination as you are scanned and recreated on the other end preventing all of these weird scenarios. :)
-Paul
I found an online cd store that claimed to sell almost every cd pressed in the US or 150,000 CDs. Let's say there's around 200,000.
200,000 x 60m x 60s/m x 128kb/s x 1B/8bs = 11,400,000,000 bytes.
:)
-Paul
I'm surprised by all the negative comments about having some public Linux events on the day of Windows2000 release. I agree there shouldn't be people picketing stores, or trying to disuade people from buying Windows2000. But let's be objective here.
Linux can't afford multi-million dollar ad campaigns. The suggestion for linux enthusiasts to go out and make some noise about the OS is a great idea.
And, in response to the comments about "how would you like it if windows rallied users to protest Linux releases.".. you've got to be kidding. Can you picture a bunch of guys in suits and ties dressing up as 4 color flying windows icons or that cute little paper clip and picketing outside a CompUSA. I'd like to see that. ^_^
Cheers.
-Paul