While older rippers might not work, you have to keep the data stream unprotected and unencrypted at one point - namely, the point that the customer is actually listening to the music. It's simplicity itself to use a program that captures sound card output (such as TotalRecorder) to make a WAV that can then be turned into an MP3.
You're probably heard of They Might Be Giants. Just a short while ago (in real terms, not Internet time) they released an MP3-only album. This stuff was mostly redone songs from their Dial-A-Song service, with a few rarities thrown in. In so doing, they made some money, and got some songs out that fans wanted but wouldn't be viable for a traditional album. (I bought the MP3 album, by the by.)
Second example: a roommate of mine specializes in rare and interesting songs; he's a big Dr. Demento listener. Thanks to his collection, I've bought (and have resolved to buy more) of some musicians I would NEVER have heard of before.
Yes, in this second case those MP3s *were* pirated, illegal rips... but it certainly worked out for the artists. I fully admit this is due to enlightened self-interest: I buy albums so the musicians can produce more music I like, and there are plenty of warez kiddies who can't see that far... but screw 'em, we're talking about ME.
Yup. I tend to think of "soul" as a synonym for "mind", or alternatively as a term for the synthesis of body and mind, whateverthehell that means.
But suffice to say that when I wake up from being a cyrogenic popsicle in the year 3010, the harem of willing and nubile catwomen I create (or another sufficently chauvinistic-piggy fantasy to subsitute) will certainly have as much of a soul as I do, as far as I'm concerned.
(Notice: The above is an attempt at humor. I'd never abuse such technology for such lowly ends... which means I'll have to make sure the catwomen have IQs of 200 or so. Make 'em useful.;)
Assume that life can be created successfully in a lab. Assume that eventually, some years hence, we get around to creating complex, human-level life. Does the resulting pseudo-human have a soul?
If that pseudo-human does not have one, what about a human that receives such extensive genemodding that it is all but indistinguishable from the pseudo-human?
The flip side of AC posting is while it allows one to speak your mind, neither is there any accountibility, for good or ill. I have a userid because I'm a vain SOB who wants to take credit for everything I say, frex.
Similarly, if someone claims I do some unspeakably vile act as an AC, it's kind of hard to do anything about it. Of course, in/. there's a happy-sappy moderation system to compensate for that - stupid shit gets moderated down... and anyone I give a damn about is smart enough to disregard anonymous comments without verification.
(What vile acts, do you ask? Can't tell you - they're UNSPEAKABLY vile!)
It would seem to me a version of the Principia without formatting that at least approximated the paper book would be sort of... well, not like the Principia.
Personally, I prefer fnord.org's scanned-in copy for an online version.
While there's still, and always will be, "hard" SF, more and more the field has become "speculative fiction" as opposed to "science fiction". Consider Spider Robinson - he's probably my favorite SF writer of recent times, yet his most popular books deal with a bunch of people in a bar who just happen to have real weird shit happen to them from time to time... although his "harder" books are researched well enough.
That is just a single case, but I believe that it reflects an overall trend.
Your attitude is shortsighted. It's impossible to say what good will come from a given advance - history is full of times when the most useful things sprung from apparently trivial facts. Saying "Hubble is pointless because it does not directly benefit me RIGHT THIS MINUTE" shows extreme ignorance.
As for space research in particular, it goes without saying that there is an awful lot of useful resources out there - we'd solve most of the really pressing problems facing us if we invested more into it. If we do decide to go out there, knowing the terrain beforehand would be pretty damned useful.
Thanks to all the spinoffs, the US space program has actually paid for itself, rather than being a boondoggle.
In this age of nigh-anonymous free webpage accounts, it is hardly a difficult matter to find someplace to upload it, and then to post the URL as an AC.
A lawyer that reads Slashdot is by definition technically inclined enough to realize this. Save the paranoia for the stuff you need to be paranoid about.
Anyone with a moment to mess around on Yahoo! can find a few online lists of comic strips, but I'd like to add to the "funnier than UF" list Sluggy Freelance - www.sluggy.com. He manages to get in the occasional tech joke without harping on as UF does.
At that, I actually kind of like UF, but I find it to be second-tier... funny sometimes, but not consistently or with enough variety.
Yes, it uses a laptop-style portable hard drive. Yes, it will be a bad idea to have the hard drive powered on while jogging. Yes, it will basically be a hard drive with a vestigal MP3 player attached.
But this is the kind of product *I* would use. I could put all of my favorite music in 4 and a half gigs, I mostly listen to my music in non-bumpy situations, and just having the portable hard drive without having to deal with the expense of a full-blown laptop is useful.
Time to drop hints to the family for Christmas...:)
Glow-in-the-dark plants sound like they could have a lot of potental. Lots of people have a small plant or two around the house - what if your aloe doubled as a nightlight?
Granted, it might not work, or require special expensive fertilizer... but ultimately this goes beyond crassly commercial glowing Xmas trees. This goes to crassly commercial house foilage in general!:)
If these things get popular, will Motel 6 leave a tree out for you?
Other folks have suggested Heinlein, but I'd like to specifically suggest one of his lesser-known books, Job: A Comedy of Justice. It's funny in an intelligent fashion, and an interesting take on alternate worlds to boot.
And speaking of the Illuminati and the Illuminatus! trilogy, you WILL locate and read the Principia Discordia. You'll laugh at some bits, be enlightened by others, and be amazed at the sheer STUPIDITY of yet other bits. It's on the web, but I haven't seen a web version that quite gives the impact of the paper.
Humor is definitely personal. I love Spider Robinson's Callahan's Place stories; others can't get past the puns. (But I still think people who can't get Pratchett are fooey. neener, neener.)
... could you possibly fit in a couple more incorrect stereotypes?
Yeah, there's a lot of unbathing, overweight geeks who play D&D (or other roleplaying games). There's a lot of "normal people" who do too. I like to count myself amongst those normal people.
Gaming *is* my interest.
On another note, I can understand slamming Piers Anthony... but PRATCHETT!? Someone needs to install a sense of humor. Like yesterday.
AD&D is actually one of the more complex rules systems out there. Not quite as bad as GURPS with all the options turned on, but the only reason AD&D is considered "newbie friendly", I think, it the fact that it's older than dirt. You can find people who know the system everywhere.
It would be relatively simple to say both of the possible meanings. In that specific case, "body" can be used to mean corpse as well, so the still simpler solution of always using "body" presents itself.
The problem is that sort of thing has nothing to do with a command-line-interface vs. a GUI. File manipulation of that sort can be done just as well in a GUI as in a CLI. The difference there is then you have the difference between simple, pandering GUIs (Windows, anyone?) and ones that can function complexly.
However, a complex GUI is more difficult to learn, just as a complex CLI is difficult to learn. (If Windows is a simple GUI, then the command-line equivilent might be something like a simple menu system.) It may not be AS difficult to learn, but it is certainly more difficult than the simple GUI.
Unix with X isn't quite there as a "complex GUI", but it's almost acceptable.
Is there reason to not worry here? Paradoxially enough, also yes.
Maybe it'll turn into 1984. Maybe not. Personally, if it turns out that all it does is deliver a more accurate Neilsen-style rating, I'm all for it; maybe the TV companies would finally get it through their head that some people actually prefer quality TV.
As long as MST3K, Space Ghost, and anything by Matt Groening is on TV, my box gets a stay of execution. Oh, wait, they're cancelling MST, aren't they? Blarg.
Slashdot Mirror
While older rippers might not work, you have to keep the data stream unprotected and unencrypted at one point - namely, the point that the customer is actually listening to the music. It's simplicity itself to use a program that captures sound card output (such as TotalRecorder) to make a WAV that can then be turned into an MP3.
--
These are *MY* opinions.
You're probably heard of They Might Be Giants. Just a short while ago (in real terms, not Internet time) they released an MP3-only album. This stuff was mostly redone songs from their Dial-A-Song service, with a few rarities thrown in. In so doing, they made some money, and got some songs out that fans wanted but wouldn't be viable for a traditional album. (I bought the MP3 album, by the by.)
Second example: a roommate of mine specializes in rare and interesting songs; he's a big Dr. Demento listener. Thanks to his collection, I've bought (and have resolved to buy more) of some musicians I would NEVER have heard of before.
Yes, in this second case those MP3s *were* pirated, illegal rips... but it certainly worked out for the artists. I fully admit this is due to enlightened self-interest: I buy albums so the musicians can produce more music I like, and there are plenty of warez kiddies who can't see that far... but screw 'em, we're talking about ME.
--
These are *MY* opinions.
Yup. I tend to think of "soul" as a synonym for "mind", or alternatively as a term for the synthesis of body and mind, whateverthehell that means.
;)
But suffice to say that when I wake up from being a cyrogenic popsicle in the year 3010, the harem of willing and nubile catwomen I create (or another sufficently chauvinistic-piggy fantasy to subsitute) will certainly have as much of a soul as I do, as far as I'm concerned.
(Notice: The above is an attempt at humor. I'd never abuse such technology for such lowly ends... which means I'll have to make sure the catwomen have IQs of 200 or so. Make 'em useful.
Assume that life can be created successfully in a lab. Assume that eventually, some years hence, we get around to creating complex, human-level life.
Does the resulting pseudo-human have a soul?
If that pseudo-human does not have one, what about a human that receives such extensive genemodding that it is all but indistinguishable from the pseudo-human?
The flip side of AC posting is while it allows one to speak your mind, neither is there any accountibility, for good or ill. I have a userid because I'm a vain SOB who wants to take credit for everything I say, frex.
/. there's a happy-sappy moderation system to compensate for that - stupid shit gets moderated down... and anyone I give a damn about is smart enough to disregard anonymous comments without verification.
Similarly, if someone claims I do some unspeakably vile act as an AC, it's kind of hard to do anything about it. Of course, in
(What vile acts, do you ask? Can't tell you - they're UNSPEAKABLY vile!)
It would seem to me a version of the Principia without formatting that at least approximated the paper book would be sort of... well, not like the Principia.
Personally, I prefer fnord.org's scanned-in copy for an online version.
While there's still, and always will be, "hard" SF, more and more the field has become "speculative fiction" as opposed to "science fiction". Consider Spider Robinson - he's probably my favorite SF writer of recent times, yet his most popular books deal with a bunch of people in a bar who just happen to have real weird shit happen to them from time to time... although his "harder" books are researched well enough.
That is just a single case, but I believe that it reflects an overall trend.
Your attitude is shortsighted. It's impossible to say what good will come from a given advance - history is full of times when the most useful things sprung from apparently trivial facts. Saying "Hubble is pointless because it does not directly benefit me RIGHT THIS MINUTE" shows extreme ignorance.
As for space research in particular, it goes without saying that there is an awful lot of useful resources out there - we'd solve most of the really pressing problems facing us if we invested more into it. If we do decide to go out there, knowing the terrain beforehand would be pretty damned useful.
Thanks to all the spinoffs, the US space program has actually paid for itself, rather than being a boondoggle.
In this age of nigh-anonymous free webpage accounts, it is hardly a difficult matter to find someplace to upload it, and then to post the URL as an AC.
A lawyer that reads Slashdot is by definition technically inclined enough to realize this. Save the paranoia for the stuff you need to be paranoid about.
If I read this correctly, does that mean I can tell my boss "the music made me do it" when he catches me at a porn site? :)
Anyone with a moment to mess around on Yahoo! can find a few online lists of comic strips, but I'd like to add to the "funnier than UF" list Sluggy Freelance - www.sluggy.com. He manages to get in the occasional tech joke without harping on as UF does.
At that, I actually kind of like UF, but I find it to be second-tier... funny sometimes, but not consistently or with enough variety.
Yes, it uses a laptop-style portable hard drive. Yes, it will be a bad idea to have the hard drive powered on while jogging. Yes, it will basically be a hard drive with a vestigal MP3 player attached.
:)
But this is the kind of product *I* would use. I could put all of my favorite music in 4 and a half gigs, I mostly listen to my music in non-bumpy situations, and just having the portable hard drive without having to deal with the expense of a full-blown laptop is useful.
Time to drop hints to the family for Christmas...
Maybe so, maybe not, but OMCLs are more Illuminated. Dullards blow things up, smart folks make you blow yourself up.
Glow-in-the-dark plants sound like they could have a lot of potental. Lots of people have a small plant or two around the house - what if your aloe doubled as a nightlight?
:)
Granted, it might not work, or require special expensive fertilizer... but ultimately this goes beyond crassly commercial glowing Xmas trees. This goes to crassly commercial house foilage in general!
If these things get popular, will Motel 6 leave a tree out for you?
Either that or they're joking. Much like my Beowulf cluster of abacuses.
Other folks have suggested Heinlein, but I'd like to specifically suggest one of his lesser-known books, Job: A Comedy of Justice. It's funny in an intelligent fashion, and an interesting take on alternate worlds to boot.
And speaking of the Illuminati and the Illuminatus! trilogy, you WILL locate and read the Principia Discordia. You'll laugh at some bits, be enlightened by others, and be amazed at the sheer STUPIDITY of yet other bits.
It's on the web, but I haven't seen a web version that quite gives the impact of the paper.
Humor is definitely personal. I love Spider Robinson's Callahan's Place stories; others can't get past the puns. (But I still think people who can't get Pratchett are fooey. neener, neener.)
... could you possibly fit in a couple more incorrect stereotypes?
Yeah, there's a lot of unbathing, overweight geeks who play D&D (or other roleplaying games).
There's a lot of "normal people" who do too. I like to count myself amongst those normal people.
Gaming *is* my interest.
On another note, I can understand slamming Piers Anthony... but PRATCHETT!? Someone needs to install a sense of humor. Like yesterday.
AD&D is actually one of the more complex rules systems out there. Not quite as bad as GURPS with all the options turned on, but the only reason AD&D is considered "newbie friendly", I think, it the fact that it's older than dirt. You can find people who know the system everywhere.
It would be relatively simple to say both of the possible meanings. In that specific case, "body" can be used to mean corpse as well, so the still simpler solution of always using "body" presents itself.
'Wouldn't it be great if you could have a 3D viewer that was fed images through a computer? Perhaps it exists, but I haven't yet heard of it.'
Hard-core VR-heads have been doing that for years now. Saner folks can use shutter glasses, as mentioned - but some people like to go whole hog.
So, I take it you only recently took a look at the human race? :P
The problem is that sort of thing has nothing to do with a command-line-interface vs. a GUI. File manipulation of that sort can be done just as well in a GUI as in a CLI. The difference there is then you have the difference between simple, pandering GUIs (Windows, anyone?) and ones that can function complexly.
However, a complex GUI is more difficult to learn, just as a complex CLI is difficult to learn. (If Windows is a simple GUI, then the command-line equivilent might be something like a simple menu system.) It may not be AS difficult to learn, but it is certainly more difficult than the simple GUI.
Unix with X isn't quite there as a "complex GUI", but it's almost acceptable.
Is there reason to worry here? Yes.
Is there reason to not worry here? Paradoxially enough, also yes.
Maybe it'll turn into 1984. Maybe not. Personally, if it turns out that all it does is deliver a more accurate Neilsen-style rating, I'm all for it; maybe the TV companies would finally get it through their head that some people actually prefer quality TV.
As long as MST3K, Space Ghost, and anything by Matt Groening is on TV, my box gets a stay of execution. Oh, wait, they're cancelling MST, aren't they? Blarg.