> Everything he's done with the exception of Full
> Metal Jack has been a snore-fest from start to
> finish
2001 is admittedly l-o-n-g (hey, I watched it for its vision of the future, not to watch stuff blow up:) ). But how can you say _Dr Strangelove_ is a snore-fest? That film was just fun.
You can say you don't like the humor in _Dr Strangelove_, but that's one of Kubrick's films that doesn't plod along...
| Consumers are stupid. Linux has an air about it | that makes the lay people stay away. | (lay people == the majority of console game | players)
Is this because of stupidity, though, or the fact that it can be a royal pain in the ass to play games on a PC, Windows OR Linux?
Call me lazy, but it's nice to pop a CD or cartridge ito a console, turn it on, pick up a controller, and just play the game - on the big screen TV with the surround sound system in the living room.
However, if some interesting (read, not YAFPS) games come out for Linux, I'll probably buy them. The heck with the Windows versions - I don't even have a system that boots Windows at home anymore.
Study or no, isn't it rather obvious that an awful lot of the web isn't accessable (linked) unless you know exactly where the resource you're looking for is? Ask anyone who does web searches routinely - you'll get vastly different results looking with different engines, and you can rest assured you'll miss lots of information that you might find useful.
Case in point - recently I needed to find some information about a specific company. Now this company's name is virtually the same as a popular Unix variant (no, not Linux). Searching for the company name, once all the Unix links were weeded out (this was a chemical company) led to some federal documents about the company, but not much other information at all.
As it turns out, the company in question HAS a web site (and has had one for some time) - it just wasn't linked from anywhere I could access on the common search engines.
Maybe Metallica is just disappointed. They monitor napster for a period of time, and find out that the total number of people who wanted to listen to their songs (for FREE, no less) was about 300K - and that includes people who get songs they don't really care about listening to just so they have them (think people who collect warez).
So they're lashing out at Napster to ease their own pain at being a band that nobody really listens to anymore. Oh the torment of growing old!
| BOSE? Lol! Last thing I expected in this forum | was a BOSE advocate.
I'm not too surprised at anything I read on Slashdot these days. However, even a Bose system is likely to sound better than the "multimedia" crap - and that includes some systems that come with what is billed as a subwoofer - that is put out for use with computers these days. (This is also why so many people think MP3s they download over the net sound as good as CDs...;) )
| Who in their right mind would use windows | programs under WINE for actual work? | There is no way you can reliably run programs | like that
You might ask the same question about Windows iteself.:)
Anyway, depending on the application, you can quite reliably run Windows stuff under x86/Linux with wine. Back before I got leafnode set up, I used to run Agent like this. It simply didn't die on me - worked just like it did under Windows. Now Agent was always a pretty stable application - even under windows - but the point it that you *can* use Wine to get work done.
I've also been running Quicken 98 under WABI since... 1998.
TKO doesn't really stand at all. I'll give it "hobbles", "whimpers", "festers", or "oozes", but that episode would be improved by recording Star Trek V over it. Yeech.
B5 certainly fits the old nursery rhyme. When it was good it was very very good, but when it was bad, it was horrid.
> I wonder if anyones put a Mac into an Amiga > case.
I think many Amiga owners would rather put their Amigas into some other case, so there are probably plenty of gutted Amiga cases out there to experiment on!
(The A500 and A1200 were the most popular Amiga models. They were computer-in-a-keyboard style cases that hindered expansion, so there was quite a business in "towering" these computers to get some expansion room.)
The only reason Microsoft's saying anything right now is to try to derail any momentum Sega's Dreamcast and Sony's PS2 are building up.
Microsoft is an adept at the vapor game. Although they'll have to work to acheive the level of hype Nintendo was able to garner for the release of their N64. Now that was a feat...
| I hate CD's (a hassle to play compared to | MP3's), so I rarely buy them except to support | groups I really like. I immediately rip CD's I | own so I can play them on my | Rio. If the RIAA would institute a fair and | reasonably priced system of music vending, I | would respect it. Is anyone else with me on | this?
Only if it were in addition to CDs. For me, the opposite is true. CDs are more convenient that MP3s. I don't have a Rio and the computer's not in the same room with the good stereo equipment.
Then there's the other issue of sound quality. We don't have cable modem or DSL service here. I'd hate to download an entire album's worth of CD-quality music (which most MP3s on the net aren't) over a 56K modem.
I agree with some of the other posters - I'd be happy if CD prices were lower. I'd probably end up spending a good deal money overall on CDs if the price was lower. Guess I can stick to used in the meantime.:)
| I don't think that one person in a million would | have thought to use light that the cat can't see | for this purpose.
| (Hopefully this means that someone using a | regular, visible-light laser pointer isn't | covered by this patent.)
Nope, it's a laser pointer. Read the patent again, particularly claim 3: "wherein said beam remains invisible between said laser and said opaque surface until impinging on said opaque surface." Elsewhere in the patent they talk about a "bright pattern of light" which you get when the laser hits the wall, etc.
Presumably, the patent wouldn't cover using your laser pointer to entertain your cat in a smoky room, though.:)
(Reading that particular patent, I think it almost HAS to be a joke. Someone with a little too much money and time on their hands...)
| As soon as Northland Cable wakes up and gets | cable modems I'm moving off campus.
You'll graduate first. And that's if you stay here and get about seven or eight doctorates in vastly different fields.
Seriously, though, the previous post was highly amusing to those of us who've dealt with Northland cable. Luckily, those of us off-campus can at least get satellite TV. Northland in Clemson can't even get CABLE TV right - who on earth would want them to provide their internet service, too?
Re:This is sad, but I think we all saw it coming
on
RIAA Sues MP3.com
·
· Score: 3
| Most consumers have NOT chosen MP3. Most adults | I know, and most serious music collectors I | know, realize MP3 for what it is - piracy, and | avoid it like the plague, not because they do | not understand how to use it, but because they | realize it is illegal.
"Most consumers" haven't chosen MP3. True enough, but that has nothing to do with the legality of the technology. The techmology's no more illegal than any other storage medium. Can you come up with a compelling reason it *is* illegal? If you can, can you come up with a compelling reason that the same logic can't be applied to technologies like, say, CDR, cassette tape, and (S)VHS?
Most consumers haven't adopted MP3 because it's new, and there isn't much in the way of stereo equipment to play them on. Computer / home entertainment center convergence is NOT here yet.
And then there's the issue of simply not knowing about the format, and the other issue that easily downloadable MP3 files are low quality compared to a well-mastered CD (MP3 at anything you'd want to download over a 56K modem is less than impressive on a high quality sound system).
| The MP3 format is fundamentally flawed from a | commercial standpoint because it has no copy | protection.
Neither do the two most popular home audio formats today (cassette tape and CD).
| There is absolutely no way that they are going | to release their entire library on a | non-copyprotected format.
They *already* have. Several of them, in fact!
| Second, and nobody ever mentions this, the MP3 | format is not as high quality as a regular CD.
Like I also said (and have said many times before), MP3 at modem bandwidth doesn't sound that great to an audiophile. it'd be interesting to see what it sounded like at high bit rates from the original source material (e.g. not a CD).
| Why would the record companies choose to have | quality suffer?
They still distribute music on cassette tape. And are the digital formats they're working on higher quality than a CD?
| Or all that great hardware with a blow chunks | soundcard that comes standard in low end Dell | configurations?
I don't know how well this would work in practice. I've upgraded my system a, er, few times since 1994. However, up until this past November, I still used my old Soundblaster 16 purchased in 1994. And I *still* use the SCSI 7-disc 4x CD changer I bought in (I believe) early 1995.
| In otherwords, to whatever degree, this is one | more internet invasion of my privacy should I | take advantage of it.
*Invasion*? Not as such - that collection of data on you is basically the price of using their service. It becomes an invasion if they don't *tell* you that it's the price of their service (sorta like the flap over Real Jukebox).
Whether it's a price you're willing to pay is, of course, up to you.
| The only uncommon parts are the DVD, the Dolby | decoder, and the WebTV unit.
Consider, though, that a dedicated DVD player can be had for the neighborhood of $200 these days. Also consider that the $400 internet rebate (should you choose to commit yourself to the asylum, er msn, for three years) is also now available for any purchase. See your local Circuit City - they're advertising it like crazy).
It's unlikely you'll be able to get a computer you'd want to plug into a home theater for less than the cost of a dedicated DVD plus a WebTV unit. There are many reasons to NOT use WebTV, but cost isn't one of them - especially by your comparisons.
Heck, if you want something REALLY cheap, you can pick up a Sega Saturn and a Netlink for next to nothing. Not that these are a particularly elegant way to surf the web, but...
| If you add up the cost of a WebTV unit, a DVD | player, and a home theater system, you will | find that a comparably equipped computer (with | TV output) could be purchased for the | same/nearly the same price, and it would be | able to the same job and more than it's | counterparts.
Not quite. The computer in the scenario basically does the job of the WebTV (internet access) and the DVD player. You still need the majority of the cost of the home theater (amps/preamp, speakers, large screen display) in your scenario, unless you're making the laughable suggestion that a PC with the typical "multimedia speakers" can replace even a low to middle end home theater.
Heck, do what I do - make your own living room internet terminal with a DEC Multia and a wireless keyboard/mouse...
| One thing that I found funny about the article | was when they said that other online retailers | should take a cue from Amazon.com.
Interestingly enough, I was discussing Christmas shopping with someone over lunch. She'd mentioned that she was having problems with (guess who?) Amazon not shipping her order out on time. She's now going to a brick and mortar store to get the book.
Guess Amazon is one of the 25% that are broken, not the 75% that work.:)
From the article: | ``We put all the sequences together and | basically we send the arm's sequence machine an | e-mail with an attachment. So it gets the | e-mail and it says, ``OK, I'll move over here | and I'll dig a trench,'' Slostad said.
Didn't anyone tell NASA to never just blindly open an e-mail attachment? Next thing you know, the lander will be emailing one of the Voyager probles, instructing it to send the latest make.money.fast scheme to the first intelligent life it encounters.
This will be, of course, the REAL reason aliens attack, hell bent on destroying the Earth.
And all because some poor robotic arm on Mars opened an e-mail attachment. The lesson: DON'T DO IT!
Slashdot Mirror
> And thank you for playing --- Krypton was the
:)
p to n.html
> planet.... kryptonite the element from the
> planet
I think the previous poster's point was that kryptonite isn't a real element, while krypton is a real element. Krypton is element 36, in fact.
> man, I hate it when geeks get it wrong
Man, I hate it when geeks don't read. Because I have to grade their papers.
BTW - there *is* supposedly a page for krypton on the site, but it's hopelessly slashdotted at the moment:
http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/html/kry
> Everything he's done with the exception of Full
:) ). But how can you say _Dr Strangelove_ is a snore-fest? That film was just fun.
...
> Metal Jack has been a snore-fest from start to
> finish
2001 is admittedly l-o-n-g (hey, I watched it for its vision of the future, not to watch stuff blow up
You can say you don't like the humor in _Dr Strangelove_, but that's one of Kubrick's films that doesn't plod along
| Consumers are stupid. Linux has an air about it
| that makes the lay people stay away.
| (lay people == the majority of console game
| players)
Is this because of stupidity, though, or the fact that it can be a royal pain in the ass to play games on a PC, Windows OR Linux?
Call me lazy, but it's nice to pop a CD or cartridge ito a console, turn it on, pick up a controller, and just play the game - on the big screen TV with the surround sound system in the living room.
However, if some interesting (read, not YAFPS) games come out for Linux, I'll probably buy them. The heck with the Windows versions - I don't even have a system that boots Windows at home anymore.
Study or no, isn't it rather obvious that an awful lot of the web isn't accessable (linked) unless you know exactly where the resource you're looking for is? Ask anyone who does web searches routinely - you'll get vastly different results looking with different engines, and you can rest assured you'll miss lots of information that you might find useful.
Case in point - recently I needed to find some information about a specific company. Now this company's name is virtually the same as a popular Unix variant (no, not Linux). Searching for the company name, once all the Unix links were weeded out (this was a chemical company) led to some federal documents about the company, but not much other information at all.
As it turns out, the company in question HAS a web site (and has had one for some time) - it just wasn't linked from anywhere I could access on the common search engines.
Still, it's nice to have some data on this...
| Shortly thereafter it dumps you in dselect.
:)
| You reboot the machine and install Slackware
| instead.
As a longtime Slackware user, I tried Debian out when I acquired an Alpha (Slackware may be neat, but it won't do you much good an an Alpha).
Debian caused me to go out and order my first ever Redhat CD.
Maybe Metallica is just disappointed. They monitor napster for a period of time, and find out that the total number of people who wanted to listen to their songs (for FREE, no less) was about 300K - and that includes people who get songs they don't really care about listening to just so they have them (think people who collect warez).
So they're lashing out at Napster to ease their own pain at being a band that nobody really listens to anymore. Oh the torment of growing old!
| BOSE? Lol! Last thing I expected in this forum
;) )
| was a BOSE advocate.
I'm not too surprised at anything I read on Slashdot these days. However, even a Bose system is likely to sound better than the "multimedia" crap - and that includes some systems that come with what is billed as a subwoofer - that is put out for use with computers these days. (This is also why so many people think MP3s they download over the net sound as good as CDs...
| Who in their right mind would use windows
:)
... 1998.
| programs under WINE for actual work?
| There is no way you can reliably run programs
| like that
You might ask the same question about Windows iteself.
Anyway, depending on the application, you can quite reliably run Windows stuff under x86/Linux with wine. Back before I got leafnode set up, I used to run Agent like this. It simply didn't die on me - worked just like it did under Windows. Now Agent was always a pretty stable application - even under windows - but the point it that you *can* use Wine to get work done.
I've also been running Quicken 98 under WABI since
> Why to all the aliens have french accents?
So you can tell they're ALIENS, silly! Much like the forehead bumps on the various Star Trek programs.
Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!
> "TKO" pretty much stands alone.
TKO doesn't really stand at all. I'll give it "hobbles", "whimpers", "festers", or "oozes", but that episode would be improved by recording Star Trek V over it. Yeech.
B5 certainly fits the old nursery rhyme. When it was good it was very very good, but when it was bad, it was horrid.
> I wonder if anyones put a Mac into an Amiga
> case.
I think many Amiga owners would rather put their Amigas into some other case, so there are probably plenty of gutted Amiga cases out there to experiment on!
(The A500 and A1200 were the most popular Amiga models. They were computer-in-a-keyboard style cases that hindered expansion, so there was quite a business in "towering" these computers to get some expansion room.)
The only reason Microsoft's saying anything right now is to try to derail any momentum Sega's Dreamcast and Sony's PS2 are building up.
...
Microsoft is an adept at the vapor game. Although they'll have to work to acheive the level of hype Nintendo was able to garner for the release of their N64. Now that was a feat
| David Strom is an experimental particle
| physicist with ties to CERN and University of
| Oregon's physics department.
The inventor: Strom; David *L.* from Aurora, CO
The physicist from UO: David *M.* Strom
I don't think the inventor and your physicist are the same person.
| The Atari Jaguar still has things in
| development?
It wouldn't be unheard of. Would you be surprised to learn that there are still people out there developing Atari 2600 games and Vectrex games?
What's surprising to me about this game, though, is that it actually got released. It's been in the vaporware category for *years*.
| I hate CD's (a hassle to play compared to
:)
| MP3's), so I rarely buy them except to support
| groups I really like. I immediately rip CD's I
| own so I can play them on my
| Rio. If the RIAA would institute a fair and
| reasonably priced system of music vending, I
| would respect it. Is anyone else with me on
| this?
Only if it were in addition to CDs. For me, the opposite is true. CDs are more convenient that MP3s. I don't have a Rio and the computer's not in the same room with the good stereo equipment.
Then there's the other issue of sound quality. We don't have cable modem or DSL service here. I'd hate to download an entire album's worth of CD-quality music (which most MP3s on the net aren't) over a 56K modem.
I agree with some of the other posters - I'd be happy if CD prices were lower. I'd probably end up spending a good deal money overall on CDs if the price was lower. Guess I can stick to used in the meantime.
| I don't think that one person in a million would
:)
...)
| have thought to use light that the cat can't see
| for this purpose.
| (Hopefully this means that someone using a
| regular, visible-light laser pointer isn't
| covered by this patent.)
Nope, it's a laser pointer. Read the patent again, particularly claim 3: "wherein said beam remains invisible between said laser and said opaque surface until impinging on said opaque surface." Elsewhere in the patent they talk about a "bright pattern of light" which you get when the laser hits the wall, etc.
Presumably, the patent wouldn't cover using your laser pointer to entertain your cat in a smoky room, though.
(Reading that particular patent, I think it almost HAS to be a joke. Someone with a little too much money and time on their hands
| Windows, apart from being more stable,
:)
Never, *ever* read Slashdot while drinking a Coke. Hey, Coward! You owe me a Logitech cordless desktop!
Pity, though - if I were a moderator, I'd modify the original post +1 Funny.
| As soon as Northland Cable wakes up and gets
| cable modems I'm moving off campus.
You'll graduate first. And that's if you stay here and get about seven or eight doctorates in vastly different fields.
Seriously, though, the previous post was highly amusing to those of us who've dealt with Northland cable. Luckily, those of us off-campus can at least get satellite TV. Northland in Clemson can't even get CABLE TV right - who on earth would want them to provide their internet service, too?
| Most consumers have NOT chosen MP3. Most adults
| I know, and most serious music collectors I
| know, realize MP3 for what it is - piracy, and
| avoid it like the plague, not because they do
| not understand how to use it, but because they
| realize it is illegal.
"Most consumers" haven't chosen MP3. True enough, but that has nothing to do with the legality of the technology. The techmology's no more illegal than any other storage medium. Can you come up with a compelling reason it *is* illegal? If you can, can you come up with a compelling reason that the same logic can't be applied to technologies like, say, CDR, cassette tape, and (S)VHS?
Most consumers haven't adopted MP3 because it's new, and there isn't much in the way of stereo equipment to play them on. Computer / home entertainment center convergence is NOT here yet.
And then there's the issue of simply not knowing about the format, and the other issue that easily downloadable MP3 files are low quality compared to a well-mastered CD (MP3 at anything you'd want to download over a 56K modem is less than impressive on a high quality sound system).
| The MP3 format is fundamentally flawed from a
| commercial standpoint because it has no copy
| protection.
Neither do the two most popular home audio formats today (cassette tape and CD).
| There is absolutely no way that they are going
| to release their entire library on a
| non-copyprotected format.
They *already* have. Several of them, in fact!
| Second, and nobody ever mentions this, the MP3
| format is not as high quality as a regular CD.
Like I also said (and have said many times before), MP3 at modem bandwidth doesn't sound that great to an audiophile. it'd be interesting to see what it sounded like at high bit rates from the original source material (e.g. not a CD).
| Why would the record companies choose to have
| quality suffer?
They still distribute music on cassette tape. And are the digital formats they're working on higher quality than a CD?
| Or all that great hardware with a blow chunks
| soundcard that comes standard in low end Dell
| configurations?
I don't know how well this would work in practice. I've upgraded my system a, er, few times since 1994. However, up until this past November, I still used my old Soundblaster 16 purchased in 1994. And I *still* use the SCSI 7-disc 4x CD changer I bought in (I believe) early 1995.
Depends on what you do with the machine, I guess.
| In otherwords, to whatever degree, this is one
| more internet invasion of my privacy should I
| take advantage of it.
*Invasion*? Not as such - that collection of data on you is basically the price of using their service. It becomes an invasion if they don't *tell* you that it's the price of their service (sorta like the flap over Real Jukebox).
Whether it's a price you're willing to pay is, of course, up to you.
| The only uncommon parts are the DVD, the Dolby
...
| decoder, and the WebTV unit.
Consider, though, that a dedicated DVD player can be had for the neighborhood of $200 these days. Also consider that the $400 internet rebate (should you choose to commit yourself to the asylum, er msn, for three years) is also now available for any purchase. See your local Circuit City - they're advertising it like crazy).
It's unlikely you'll be able to get a computer you'd want to plug into a home theater for less than the cost of a dedicated DVD plus a WebTV unit. There are many reasons to NOT use WebTV, but cost isn't one of them - especially by your comparisons.
Heck, if you want something REALLY cheap, you can pick up a Sega Saturn and a Netlink for next to nothing. Not that these are a particularly elegant way to surf the web, but
| If you add up the cost of a WebTV unit, a DVD
| player, and a home theater system, you will
| find that a comparably equipped computer (with
| TV output) could be purchased for the
| same/nearly the same price, and it would be
| able to the same job and more than it's
| counterparts.
Not quite. The computer in the scenario basically does the job of the WebTV (internet access) and the DVD player. You still need the majority of the cost of the home theater (amps/preamp, speakers, large screen display) in your scenario, unless you're making the laughable suggestion that a PC with the typical "multimedia speakers" can replace even a low to middle end home theater.
Heck, do what I do - make your own living room internet terminal with a DEC Multia and a wireless keyboard/mouse...
| One thing that I found funny about the article
:)
| was when they said that other online retailers
| should take a cue from Amazon.com.
Interestingly enough, I was discussing Christmas shopping with someone over lunch. She'd mentioned that she was having problems with (guess who?) Amazon not shipping her order out on time. She's now going to a brick and mortar store to get the book.
Guess Amazon is one of the 25% that are broken, not the 75% that work.
From the article:
| ``We put all the sequences together and
| basically we send the arm's sequence machine an
| e-mail with an attachment. So it gets the
| e-mail and it says, ``OK, I'll move over here
| and I'll dig a trench,'' Slostad said.
Didn't anyone tell NASA to never just blindly open an e-mail attachment? Next thing you know, the lander will be emailing one of the Voyager probles, instructing it to send the latest make.money.fast scheme to the first intelligent life it encounters.
This will be, of course, the REAL reason aliens attack, hell bent on destroying the Earth.
And all because some poor robotic arm on Mars opened an e-mail attachment. The lesson: DON'T DO IT!
;)