Are there any regulations regarding dead satellites? Once a bird is placed in a (mostly) stable geosync orbit, it's going to remain in the general neighborhood for quite a while. I would think it wise to require these satellites to bump themselves down into the atmosphere when they've reached the end of their useful lifetime. The more junk that accumulates up there, the greater the chances for impact-related disasters. Last year ~75 civil satellites were launched.. I expect the total is higher.
Chances are that as time goes by, our travels out into space will increase, putting more craft at risk. It'd be a shame for future generations to be stuck dodging a (relatively) thick field of high-speed objects ranging in size from marbles to large houses. Things to keep in mind...
Western Washington University Tales
on
Dorm Storm?
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I'll include some great war stories from the dorm trenches at my particular university:
The Residential Technology department (ResTek) has a program called TekHelps... 8-12 volunteers for each hall process work tickets for students needing to hook up ethernet for the first 2 weeks of school. We moved in 2 days early for training. Their policy was "TekHelps can touch the computer", which meant the user had to sit their and possibly learn how to operate the computer Daddy had bought for them. Cons: no pay, too much work. Pros: experience for resume, early move-in, many ignorant dorm honies. (Many of the girls I helped continued contacting me throughout the school year for my geek prowess.)
As far as ResTek themselves, they wouldn't hire me into a paid position (despite my previous experience as a lab consultant at a previous university). I later discovered they had a policy of avoiding people with experience, and preferred people-skills. They figured they can train them later and be friendly for now. This is what happens when non-techie managers are in charge.
This ignorance extends to their ethernet network. All the residence halls are either 10 mbit or 100 mbit depending. Internal LAN thoroughput is dandy... I was pulling, umm, academic documents off people's FTP servers at 1-2 mbits. Once you left the LAN and went out through the ResTek Qwest Internet link, it all went to hell. ResTek is fond of the term "T1", but they really just have a fractional DS3 connection, and they buy chunks 1.54 mbits at a time.
Picture 2700 students trying to cram data through 4 mbits of pipe. Yeah. That was the beginning of the year, and after many frustrating e-mails and calls to ResTek they added another "T1", or just upped the cap on the Qwest link. Ping times were still 1200+ 24/7 (no gaming for you!), and thoroughput was usually less than a 28.8 modem. More angry calls until the end of winter quarter.
End of winter quarter, and the pipe is cranked to 7 mbits. Ping times go down to 600-800, with decent pings late late at night. There's a twist at this point, though. ResTek was running an HTTP proxy server that leeched off the seperate academic link... 10 mbits of virgin pipe just asking to be sucked up by Napster transfers and porn. Up until that point the proxy had been sucking 3 mbits 24/7 off the academic pipe, and the academic technology dept (my employer, as a matter of fact) finally shut that little scheme down.
This coming year they added two more halls and the pipe is now 9 mbits. The number of people on the network will be close to 3600, and I feel the utmost pity for those poor souls. I will be living in a lake house sitting on a fat DSL connection cackling like a madman.
All in all it was a nightmare dealing with their ignorance and denial of the problem. They remained convinced that if they stopped the top 15 bandwidth users everything would be fine. That's the last time I try to explain to a manager how you can't cram almost 3000 people down 7 mbits. One of their staff members answered my complaint with "move off campus and get a cable modem", which I did at the end of the year.:)
Now that the story is done, here's some tips to reduce headaches:
Paper documentation is a good thing. Keep the wording simple, and remember that kids bring Macs, too.
If you're distributing information to students prior to them moving in (we have an info fair here a month before school), tell them to bring their system disks.
Educate them on file sharing programs. A lot of bandwidth was wasted on out-going Napster/Gnutella/etc connections. Some schmuck in Kansas downloading the latest boy band release does not deserve your bandwidth.
Keep an eye on bandwidth usage. Talk with people who seem to be abusing the system. All good things in moderation.
Keep your staff geeky and smart. Customer service and knowledge can co-exist. Pull in those CS majors and have a ball.
Run a lean ship. Users don't care if your staff have shiny t-shirts, they want reliability and performance. The number of dorm students with computers is approaching 90% these days... plan accordingly as far as bandwidth.
That's my essay, hope it helps people reduce headaches for poor college kids... I don't want my suffering to be in vain.;)
Poor little EFNet has been in sorry shape for a couple years now. I remember back in 96 when things were simpler and easier. Nowadays the channel I frequented has been wracked by immature politics and the like.
EFNet was cool in the freedom you had, and that also caused most of the problems. You have a largely unregulated anarchy where kids are vying for their precious channels 24/7. Never mind server X is hosting over 1000 people, I want #warezpupz31337 back from those bastards in #warezpupz0wn31337h4h4h4 and I'll DDoS whatever server it takes to get it back!
In the end, our channel was taken over for the Nth time, and the decent folks that I liked migrated over to DALnet and we're sitting in regulated goodness. Chanserv never felt so good.
As a (former) native of eastern WA, I can tell you this much... Billy-Bob and Susie-Jean McMullet don't give a rat's (cow's?) ass about this new-fangled "In-ter-net." It's nice to see a little sprinkling of technology stagger its way across the Cascades... however, I still anticipate eastern WA will remain a cultural and intellectual black hole for quite some time. Next up: new automotive technology that eliminates the need for gigantic 4x4s from 1980!
Just a rant from a college student who ran across to the west side of WA as fast as his car could carry him.:)
The guys at Fat Wreck Chords sent a prompt reply to my e-mail questioning their inclusion on the RIAA list. It goes as follows:
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 14:14:23 -0700
From: Fat Wreck Chords mailbag@fatwreck.com
To: Adam Fogler afogler@---.---.edu
Subject: Re: Fat Wreck Chords a member of the RIAA? Say it ain't so!
Adam,
We our not part of the RIAA. We are a label that uses RED (though
not exclusively) as a distributor, hence maybe that is why our name appears
on the list. Still we've never signed anything with the RIAA. That being
said, FAT WRECK CHORDS does believe in copyright and is against piracy.
Now on a side note, I hope you are running your computer on LINUX
or some other open source software?
floyd
So there you have it... interpret as you wish. They recognize the validity of Open Source, which I think speaks volumes.
I'd like to respond to some of the issues brought up in thread thread with regard to punk in general as well as Fat Wreck Chords. It is true, there are some terrible punk bands. Some of them do just scream like "teenage rebels". However you will find terrible groups in any genre you encounter. I listen to punk rock not only for the amount of energy that comes out of the music, but for the message that comes across. I listen to a lot of Good Riddance, and their music (yes, it is music) hits a lot of levels that pop-rock can only dream of. The message conveyed is not "go get a piercing and piss off your parents," but would be better expressed as "don't judge people by their race, tolerate those who are different, be open-minded, stop hurting each other." Some of the bands you might take offense to would be the corporate-bred pop-punk bands released these past couple of years to ride the mainstream "punk" phase. Bands like Blink 182 and Offspring decided it was more cost-effective to let the mainstream teenyboppers call the shots rather that maintain a little integrity. Oh well... to each his own.
With regard to Fat Wreck's practices, up until this little RIAA thing I've had no troubles with them, and haven't heard otherwise from any source. I've read several interviews from bands within the label who are totally satisfied with releasing records on Fat. Consider this snippet from an interview with Russ Rankin, lead singer of Good Riddance:
Rob: How is your relationship with FAT? Do they treat you well?
Russ: Yeah, definitely! It's really good. We had a three-record deal, this is our fourth. They basically told us that as long as we keep making records they'll keep putting them out. They let us do what we want. They give us financial support. Yeah, it's been great.
I know all of this may sound like a lame little commercial, but I've never had trouble with these guys... their prices are decent, the music is great, and a portion of their profits go to charities like Food Not Bombs. Try and weasel that out of the majors.
Anyways, I doubt anyone will bother with this thread anyways... but I've said my piece, and I'll continue to buy stuff from Fat Wreck.
Okay, gang... I'll admit my ignorance before by endorsing Fat Wreck when in fact they're a member of the RIAA. I've sent an e-mail to them, which goes as follows:
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 11:39:39 PDT
From: Adam Fogler afogler@----.---.edu
To: mailbag@fatwreck.com
Subject: Fat Wreck Chords a member of the RIAA? Say it ain't so!
Greetings, my name is Adam Fogler and I've been a devoted fan of your
label for a couple of years now. I have stacks of CDs from various Fat
Wreck artists, including NOFX, Good Riddance, Lagwagon, and others. This
morning as I was reading an article on Slashdot.org about independant
record companies and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),
I was quick to post a comment endorsing your label as free from this
corporation's questionable ethics and anti-consumer policies. However,
upon inspection of the member list, available at
http://www.riaa.com/About-Members-1.cfm I saw your company there.
I find it somewhat hypocritical for your label and your bands to espouse
the ideals of anti-corporatism and "not selling out", when you are in fact
part of an organization that is under fire for price gouging and other
unethical practices. I've been such a fan of your label partly because I
wanted to support the idea that a company need not buckle under corporate
pressure in order to be successful.
My queston is as follows... how can you justify being a member of this
corporation and yet continue to release albums expressing ideals
otherwise? One song that comes to mind is "Dinosaurs Will Die" by NOFX.
If Fat Mike is certain of the coming destruction of the "parasitic music
industry", why does his own company, and Epitaph, remain members of said
industry? If you could please answer these questions, I would be most
grateful.
Sincerely,
Adam Fogler
I'll hopefully get a response from them answering my question. I did get an e-mail this morning from one of the people at Fat Free Radio thanking me for the original post. After they read the above e-mail they may be singing a different tune, no pun intended.;)
Well crud, serves me right for not reading the list of members first. Fat Wreck is the last label I would expect to see on that page. I think this warrants an e-mail to then asking how they can justify being involved with such an organization, given their views on the "parasitic music industry."
Apologies for my ignorance... my punk rock zealotry nearly exceeds my passion for Linux.;)
NOFX releases most of their full-lengths through Epitaph, but they aren't contractually obligated (7 record deal, etc etc) to them. A few other bands on the Fat label may have some releases through Epitaph, but Fat is an autonomous company run by Fat Mike himself.:)
p.s. I did link to Fat's site on my original post... yours seems to be broken.;)
These days I avoid the record stores completely and find my music online. My label of choice is Fat Wreck Chords. It's a punk rock label that's managed to be extremely succesful without any corporate involvement. They charge $10 sor CDs including shipping and handling, which is a lot more reasonable than the $16-18 one would be charged elsewhere.
Just my little contribution to bringing the RIAA down... if you enjoy punk rock I'd give these guys a whirl... they even have full-length mp3's.:)
A note on the CD's and some more geeky Martha Stewart type of stuff I've done... I've found that gluing together 4-5 AOL/other ISP CD's with the shiny side out makes a really neat coaster. I mean we call them coasters anyways... it's just nice to have a little thicker version, that way you can differentiate from your useful CD's... I wouldn't want to plop a hot cup of coffee on my Slackware disk regardless of the protective plastic.;)
Another sorta geek-related project I did one particularly boring Saturday afternoon was to take all my empty 12/24 pop boxes (I had about 10) and cut them up until I had all the sides seperated. Some of the panels were useless or didn't look good but for the most part they looked decent. An hour of Star Gate SG1 later, I'd stapled them together to make this really cool looking collage that's on my wall now. Maybe I'm just a frugal packrat, but all the pretty colors and "Pepsi" and "Mt. Dew" make a pretty cool 3' square decoration.
Just a few more thoughts for geeks with lots of time and the need to flex their creative muscle.:)
We're all creative geeks, some of us even artistic. My recent project has been pulling the panels off my case and using some spray paint and stencils. It's a little more work, and it doesn't look quite as professional, but it is a lot more satisfying and gobs cheaper than buying a new case. I heavily encourage anyone with a little time and creativity to try it out. Most cases are surprisingly easy to paint... most of the buttons and stuff just pop right out, and after a couple coats of spray enamel you'd swear it came in that color straight out of the factory. If you feel you're not qualified, let an artsy friend at it... if you're in college there's bound to be folks who'd love to have a crack at a computer case. Personally my project cost $10 for paint and will have taken me 3-4 hours by the time I'm done, including sitting on IRC while a coat of paint dries.;) The point is that you SHOULDN'T have to pay to have a cool case... my case is Open Source, Open Paint... as soon as I post pics on my web site.:) So my fellow geeks, take what I've said and make beautiful cases that put the beige boxes to shame.
Slackware just recently jumped from 4 to 7. Here's their explanation why. Personally I think its peer pressure... RedHat is in the 6.whatever tree and people look at Slack 4.0 and think, perhaps even subconsciously, "Hey this RedHat thing has a bigger number... that must mean it's better!" It's all a matter of marketing and psychology.
I'm just waiting for the day where version numbers skyrocket into absurd numbers. "Yeah I installed Windows 2010 the other day.." "2010 as in the year?" "No, just version 2010.";)
Since you heartily agree with spam ever so much, I concluded the most generous course of action is to forward every piece of unsolicited e-mail I receive to you, the president of the premier spamming company. If I will be inconvenienced, why shouldn't you?
----Original Message Follows----
From: virtualnet@freemail.hu
To: @hotmail.com
Subject: This One is for Real!!
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 13:01:51 -0800
From virtualnet@freemail.hu Fri Nov 12 13:08:04 1999
Received: from [208.196.111.166] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id MHotMailB9F5CC8C0055D820F3CDD0C46FA605720; Fri Nov 12 13:07:57 1999
Having been in several online relationships and flings... one lasting for over 1.5 years... I feel I can shed some light on the subject. It takes a special brand of woman/man in order for it to work at all. You have to be willing to put your physical urges aside, at least until you've gotten to know them and (gasp) meet them. It's bittersweet torture... because you have a significant other, but OTOH you're missing out on a lot when you can't see them.
Another pain in the ass is not knowing if someone is being totally honest. This is by no means a factual argument, but I was involved with a girl who more or less lied about everything, and if they are good liars it can last for months before you begin to realize. Being lied to is no fun in any situation, especially in the love department.
My advice when it comes to getting involved online? Though none of my relationships worked out for the best, I won't completely argue against it. However, like others have said on here, don't get too serious about it while it remains exclusively over IRC, ICQ, e-mail, etc etc. Meet them, get to know the actual person, because we all present online personas that are not who we really are. Some aren't very different in person, and others completely change.
So, before you settle down with a wife/husband/significant other, make sure they don't possess some personality trait that will make you regret ever getting involved. I'm stealing someone's quote here, but loving someone isn't about finding their perfections, but appreciating their imperfections.
Cybersex? Puh-leeze, 1/2 the time it's a 14 year-old boy named Jimmy from Wisconsin having some fun at your expense. You're missing out on a lot when you're tapping out animal noises on a keyboard.
The bottom line? If you meet someone and you've got good vibes, meet the person for crissakes! If they're still golden, go with it. Thanks for your time, and thanks for humoring a lovelorn geek who's run the gamut of online relationships.
"For the low low price of $0.15 a minute you too can play tetris against your buddies anywhere* in the US!
* Additional charges may apply. Void in Tennessee, Redmond, and all precincts with the word 'cotton' in their titles. $0.15 charge is a 3 month introductory rate, whereafter users will be charged a $59.99 monthly fee for our TeleTetris package...
I was just talking about this to a guy I know who just recently joined the Dark Side and was going through assimilation-- err, orientation. From what he told me, this mouse will work on almost any surface, besides glass and polished marble. Interesting idea... I wonder how they managed to pull that off? Optical mice of old usually had some kind of reflective grid mousepad or something similar... surely they'd encounter problems on the variety of surfaces we work on. Anyways, that's the skinny from inside... hope this provides the teeniest bit of info.
Frankly my expectations for Futurama weren't all that great... the media hype had me a little worried there, but on the whole I'd say it was consistantly funny, even for a premier. It had a lot of geek appeal (Light saber police batons. A riot!) Let's just hope we'll see the tongue-in-cheek satire that made The Simpsons so great. I also hope to see a variety in the episodes... no one wants to see a "Fry goes to Planet X and screws something up" story every week. The sci-fi genre gives Groening incredible freedom in what he can do. keep up the good work, and I look forward to another big hit!
MP3's may never be a viable commerical endevour... at least until some company decides to embrace and extend and replace good ole MP3 with a proprietary format you need to pay $$$ for. The fact is, though, that MP3's have been great for small-time bands who can't or won't sell out to the big music establishment who fear the implications of the MP3 format. They're cracking down on artists because they're scared, not because it's some "doomed to fail format". Just a few of my thoughts... flame at your discretion.
How much will this cost?
on
Space Hotel
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· Score: 1
This is only going to be for the super-rich, unless they manage to cut space shipping costs big-time within the next 10 years. It costs thousands of dollars per pound to put stuff in space, and they plan on supporting 100 guests as well as support staff? The idea is an awesome one, but prolly won't turn a profit without charging the GNP of a small country. I hate to be a skeptic, but don't hold your breath, folks.
I really hope none of your arguments were serious, because none of them were really valid. Windows isn't the end-all, be-all of GUIs. Considering all the worthless FUD you've spewed, I doubt you'd consider any valid points. So, continue on as one of millions in the M$ collective... resistance is futile.
You've missed the point. Regardless of what's popular and in demand, consumers are being forced to pay for Windows whether they like it or not. These people aren't even asking for alternative OS's... they'd like to install it themselves, yet the OEM's are telling them they have a contract with Microsoft that requires every machine they crank out have Windows installed. Could this be one reason why consumers are so hooked on Windows, because it's being jammed up every orifice from every marketing angle? You betcha! Millions of people like Coke, but that doesn't mean when I walk into a store it's the only drink available. Defend M$ all you like, but consumers have the right to free choice, especially when shelling out thousands of dollars for a computer. Frankly, I find $$$ more appealing than a shoddy OS I wouldn't use anyways.
Boy, this should knock some wind out of the already-sputtering M$ defense in the DOJ suit. Reading all of the horror stories of people trying to get a refund, there's only one word to describe the OEM-Microsoft relationship: MONOPOLY. M$ can't sit there and say they don't hold a monopoly when every major OEM is REQUIRED to sell systems with windoze installed, regardless of what the consumer wants/needs. That's bad business, folks, and I dearly hope M$ pays the price... BIG TIME.
Slashdot Mirror
Are there any regulations regarding dead satellites? Once a bird is placed in a (mostly) stable geosync orbit, it's going to remain in the general neighborhood for quite a while. I would think it wise to require these satellites to bump themselves down into the atmosphere when they've reached the end of their useful lifetime. The more junk that accumulates up there, the greater the chances for impact-related disasters. Last year ~75 civil satellites were launched.. I expect the total is higher.
Chances are that as time goes by, our travels out into space will increase, putting more craft at risk. It'd be a shame for future generations to be stuck dodging a (relatively) thick field of high-speed objects ranging in size from marbles to large houses. Things to keep in mind...
I'll include some great war stories from the dorm trenches at my particular university:
The Residential Technology department (ResTek) has a program called TekHelps... 8-12 volunteers for each hall process work tickets for students needing to hook up ethernet for the first 2 weeks of school. We moved in 2 days early for training. Their policy was "TekHelps can touch the computer", which meant the user had to sit their and possibly learn how to operate the computer Daddy had bought for them. Cons: no pay, too much work. Pros: experience for resume, early move-in, many ignorant dorm honies. (Many of the girls I helped continued contacting me throughout the school year for my geek prowess.)
As far as ResTek themselves, they wouldn't hire me into a paid position (despite my previous experience as a lab consultant at a previous university). I later discovered they had a policy of avoiding people with experience, and preferred people-skills. They figured they can train them later and be friendly for now. This is what happens when non-techie managers are in charge.
This ignorance extends to their ethernet network. All the residence halls are either 10 mbit or 100 mbit depending. Internal LAN thoroughput is dandy... I was pulling, umm, academic documents off people's FTP servers at 1-2 mbits. Once you left the LAN and went out through the ResTek Qwest Internet link, it all went to hell. ResTek is fond of the term "T1", but they really just have a fractional DS3 connection, and they buy chunks 1.54 mbits at a time.
Picture 2700 students trying to cram data through 4 mbits of pipe. Yeah. That was the beginning of the year, and after many frustrating e-mails and calls to ResTek they added another "T1", or just upped the cap on the Qwest link. Ping times were still 1200+ 24/7 (no gaming for you!), and thoroughput was usually less than a 28.8 modem. More angry calls until the end of winter quarter.
End of winter quarter, and the pipe is cranked to 7 mbits. Ping times go down to 600-800, with decent pings late late at night. There's a twist at this point, though. ResTek was running an HTTP proxy server that leeched off the seperate academic link... 10 mbits of virgin pipe just asking to be sucked up by Napster transfers and porn. Up until that point the proxy had been sucking 3 mbits 24/7 off the academic pipe, and the academic technology dept (my employer, as a matter of fact) finally shut that little scheme down.
This coming year they added two more halls and the pipe is now 9 mbits. The number of people on the network will be close to 3600, and I feel the utmost pity for those poor souls. I will be living in a lake house sitting on a fat DSL connection cackling like a madman.
All in all it was a nightmare dealing with their ignorance and denial of the problem. They remained convinced that if they stopped the top 15 bandwidth users everything would be fine. That's the last time I try to explain to a manager how you can't cram almost 3000 people down 7 mbits. One of their staff members answered my complaint with "move off campus and get a cable modem", which I did at the end of the year. :)
Now that the story is done, here's some tips to reduce headaches:
That's my essay, hope it helps people reduce headaches for poor college kids... I don't want my suffering to be in vain. ;)
Poor little EFNet has been in sorry shape for a couple years now. I remember back in 96 when things were simpler and easier. Nowadays the channel I frequented has been wracked by immature politics and the like.
EFNet was cool in the freedom you had, and that also caused most of the problems. You have a largely unregulated anarchy where kids are vying for their precious channels 24/7. Never mind server X is hosting over 1000 people, I want #warezpupz31337 back from those bastards in #warezpupz0wn31337h4h4h4 and I'll DDoS whatever server it takes to get it back!
In the end, our channel was taken over for the Nth time, and the decent folks that I liked migrated over to DALnet and we're sitting in regulated goodness. Chanserv never felt so good.
As a (former) native of eastern WA, I can tell you this much... Billy-Bob and Susie-Jean McMullet don't give a rat's (cow's?) ass about this new-fangled "In-ter-net." It's nice to see a little sprinkling of technology stagger its way across the Cascades... however, I still anticipate eastern WA will remain a cultural and intellectual black hole for quite some time. Next up: new automotive technology that eliminates the need for gigantic 4x4s from 1980!
Just a rant from a college student who ran across to the west side of WA as fast as his car could carry him. :)
Isn't something this old place it in the public domain? I know it would here in the states....
The guys at Fat Wreck Chords sent a prompt reply to my e-mail questioning their inclusion on the RIAA list. It goes as follows:
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 14:14:23 -0700
From: Fat Wreck Chords mailbag@fatwreck.com
To: Adam Fogler afogler@---.---.edu
Subject: Re: Fat Wreck Chords a member of the RIAA? Say it ain't so!
Adam,
We our not part of the RIAA. We are a label that uses RED (though not exclusively) as a distributor, hence maybe that is why our name appears on the list. Still we've never signed anything with the RIAA. That being said, FAT WRECK CHORDS does believe in copyright and is against piracy.
Now on a side note, I hope you are running your computer on LINUX or some other open source software?
floyd
So there you have it... interpret as you wish. They recognize the validity of Open Source, which I think speaks volumes.
I'd like to respond to some of the issues brought up in thread thread with regard to punk in general as well as Fat Wreck Chords. It is true, there are some terrible punk bands. Some of them do just scream like "teenage rebels". However you will find terrible groups in any genre you encounter. I listen to punk rock not only for the amount of energy that comes out of the music, but for the message that comes across. I listen to a lot of Good Riddance, and their music (yes, it is music) hits a lot of levels that pop-rock can only dream of. The message conveyed is not "go get a piercing and piss off your parents," but would be better expressed as "don't judge people by their race, tolerate those who are different, be open-minded, stop hurting each other." Some of the bands you might take offense to would be the corporate-bred pop-punk bands released these past couple of years to ride the mainstream "punk" phase. Bands like Blink 182 and Offspring decided it was more cost-effective to let the mainstream teenyboppers call the shots rather that maintain a little integrity. Oh well... to each his own.
With regard to Fat Wreck's practices, up until this little RIAA thing I've had no troubles with them, and haven't heard otherwise from any source. I've read several interviews from bands within the label who are totally satisfied with releasing records on Fat. Consider this snippet from an interview with Russ Rankin, lead singer of Good Riddance:
Rob: How is your relationship with FAT? Do they treat you well?
Russ: Yeah, definitely! It's really good. We had a three-record deal, this is our fourth. They basically told us that as long as we keep making records they'll keep putting them out. They let us do what we want. They give us financial support. Yeah, it's been great.
I know all of this may sound like a lame little commercial, but I've never had trouble with these guys... their prices are decent, the music is great, and a portion of their profits go to charities like Food Not Bombs. Try and weasel that out of the majors.
Anyways, I doubt anyone will bother with this thread anyways... but I've said my piece, and I'll continue to buy stuff from Fat Wreck.
Peace and Punk Rock!
Okay, gang... I'll admit my ignorance before by endorsing Fat Wreck when in fact they're a member of the RIAA. I've sent an e-mail to them, which goes as follows:
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 11:39:39 PDT
From: Adam Fogler afogler@----.---.edu
To: mailbag@fatwreck.com
Subject: Fat Wreck Chords a member of the RIAA? Say it ain't so!
Greetings, my name is Adam Fogler and I've been a devoted fan of your label for a couple of years now. I have stacks of CDs from various Fat Wreck artists, including NOFX, Good Riddance, Lagwagon, and others. This morning as I was reading an article on Slashdot.org about independant record companies and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), I was quick to post a comment endorsing your label as free from this corporation's questionable ethics and anti-consumer policies. However, upon inspection of the member list, available at http://www.riaa.com/About-Members-1.cfm I saw your company there.
I find it somewhat hypocritical for your label and your bands to espouse the ideals of anti-corporatism and "not selling out", when you are in fact part of an organization that is under fire for price gouging and other unethical practices. I've been such a fan of your label partly because I wanted to support the idea that a company need not buckle under corporate pressure in order to be successful.
My queston is as follows... how can you justify being a member of this corporation and yet continue to release albums expressing ideals otherwise? One song that comes to mind is "Dinosaurs Will Die" by NOFX. If Fat Mike is certain of the coming destruction of the "parasitic music industry", why does his own company, and Epitaph, remain members of said industry? If you could please answer these questions, I would be most grateful.
Sincerely,
Adam Fogler
I'll hopefully get a response from them answering my question. I did get an e-mail this morning from one of the people at Fat Free Radio thanking me for the original post. After they read the above e-mail they may be singing a different tune, no pun intended. ;)
Trying to save the world, one punk at a time...
Well crud, serves me right for not reading the list of members first. Fat Wreck is the last label I would expect to see on that page. I think this warrants an e-mail to then asking how they can justify being involved with such an organization, given their views on the "parasitic music industry."
Apologies for my ignorance... my punk rock zealotry nearly exceeds my passion for Linux. ;)
To the Pine-mobile, and make it snappy!
NOFX releases most of their full-lengths through Epitaph, but they aren't contractually obligated (7 record deal, etc etc) to them. A few other bands on the Fat label may have some releases through Epitaph, but Fat is an autonomous company run by Fat Mike himself. :)
p.s. I did link to Fat's site on my original post... yours seems to be broken. ;)
Hasta Lasagna!
These days I avoid the record stores completely and find my music online. My label of choice is Fat Wreck Chords. It's a punk rock label that's managed to be extremely succesful without any corporate involvement. They charge $10 sor CDs including shipping and handling, which is a lot more reasonable than the $16-18 one would be charged elsewhere.
Just my little contribution to bringing the RIAA down... if you enjoy punk rock I'd give these guys a whirl... they even have full-length mp3's. :)
Cheers!
Damn, guess CowboyNeal jumped the gun and made me look like an idiot. ;)
Users are invited to route their IRC packets through their local Black Hole Chronological Vortex, sending them back in time one week. :)
A note on the CD's and some more geeky Martha Stewart type of stuff I've done... I've found that gluing together 4-5 AOL/other ISP CD's with the shiny side out makes a really neat coaster. I mean we call them coasters anyways... it's just nice to have a little thicker version, that way you can differentiate from your useful CD's... I wouldn't want to plop a hot cup of coffee on my Slackware disk regardless of the protective plastic. ;)
:)
Another sorta geek-related project I did one particularly boring Saturday afternoon was to take all my empty 12/24 pop boxes (I had about 10) and cut them up until I had all the sides seperated. Some of the panels were useless or didn't look good but for the most part they looked decent. An hour of Star Gate SG1 later, I'd stapled them together to make this really cool looking collage that's on my wall now. Maybe I'm just a frugal packrat, but all the pretty colors and "Pepsi" and "Mt. Dew" make a pretty cool 3' square decoration.
Just a few more thoughts for geeks with lots of time and the need to flex their creative muscle.
We're all creative geeks, some of us even artistic. My recent project has been pulling the panels off my case and using some spray paint and stencils. It's a little more work, and it doesn't look quite as professional, but it is a lot more satisfying and gobs cheaper than buying a new case. I heavily encourage anyone with a little time and creativity to try it out. Most cases are surprisingly easy to paint... most of the buttons and stuff just pop right out, and after a couple coats of spray enamel you'd swear it came in that color straight out of the factory. If you feel you're not qualified, let an artsy friend at it... if you're in college there's bound to be folks who'd love to have a crack at a computer case. Personally my project cost $10 for paint and will have taken me 3-4 hours by the time I'm done, including sitting on IRC while a coat of paint dries. ;) The point is that you SHOULDN'T have to pay to have a cool case... my case is Open Source, Open Paint... as soon as I post pics on my web site. :) So my fellow geeks, take what I've said and make beautiful cases that put the beige boxes to shame.
Slackware just recently jumped from 4 to 7. Here's their explanation why. Personally I think its peer pressure... RedHat is in the 6.whatever tree and people look at Slack 4.0 and think, perhaps even subconsciously, "Hey this RedHat thing has a bigger number... that must mean it's better!" It's all a matter of marketing and psychology.
;)
I'm just waiting for the day where version numbers skyrocket into absurd numbers. "Yeah I installed Windows 2010 the other day.." "2010 as in the year?" "No, just version 2010."
Here's me having some fun with a lying snake. :)
To: president@the-dma.org
Subject: Fwd: This One is for Real!!
Since you heartily agree with spam ever so much,
I concluded the most generous course of action is
to forward every piece of unsolicited e-mail I
receive to you, the president of the premier
spamming company. If I will be inconvenienced,
why shouldn't you?
----Original Message Follows----
From: virtualnet@freemail.hu
To: @hotmail.com
Subject: This One is for Real!!
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 13:01:51 -0800
From virtualnet@freemail.hu Fri Nov 12 13:08:04 1999
Received: from [208.196.111.166] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id MHotMailB9F5CC8C0055D820F3CDD0C46FA605720; Fri Nov 12 13:07:57 1999
Message-Id:
X-Mailer: ÐÏà±á
Having been in several online relationships and flings... one lasting for over 1.5 years... I feel I can shed some light on the subject. It takes a special brand of woman/man in order for it to work at all. You have to be willing to put your physical urges aside, at least until you've gotten to know them and (gasp) meet them. It's bittersweet torture... because you have a significant other, but OTOH you're missing out on a lot when you can't see them.
Another pain in the ass is not knowing if someone is being totally honest. This is by no means a factual argument, but I was involved with a girl who more or less lied about everything, and if they are good liars it can last for months before you begin to realize. Being lied to is no fun in any situation, especially in the love department.
My advice when it comes to getting involved online? Though none of my relationships worked out for the best, I won't completely argue against it. However, like others have said on here, don't get too serious about it while it remains exclusively over IRC, ICQ, e-mail, etc etc. Meet them, get to know the actual person, because we all present online personas that are not who we really are. Some aren't very different in person, and others completely change.
So, before you settle down with a wife/husband/significant other, make sure they don't possess some personality trait that will make you regret ever getting involved. I'm stealing someone's quote here, but loving someone isn't about finding their perfections, but appreciating their imperfections.
Cybersex? Puh-leeze, 1/2 the time it's a 14 year-old boy named Jimmy from Wisconsin having some fun at your expense. You're missing out on a lot when you're tapping out animal noises on a keyboard.
The bottom line? If you meet someone and you've got good vibes, meet the person for crissakes! If they're still golden, go with it. Thanks for your time, and thanks for humoring a lovelorn geek who's run the gamut of online relationships.
"For the low low price of $0.15 a minute you too can play tetris against your buddies anywhere* in the US!
:)
* Additional charges may apply. Void in Tennessee, Redmond, and all precincts with the word 'cotton' in their titles. $0.15 charge is a 3 month introductory rate, whereafter users will be charged a $59.99 monthly fee for our TeleTetris package...
Etc, etc... Isn't technology spiffy?
I was just talking about this to a guy I know who just recently joined the Dark Side and was going through assimilation-- err, orientation. From what he told me, this mouse will work on almost any surface, besides glass and polished marble. Interesting idea... I wonder how they managed to pull that off? Optical mice of old usually had some kind of reflective grid mousepad or something similar... surely they'd encounter problems on the variety of surfaces we work on. Anyways, that's the skinny from inside... hope this provides the teeniest bit of info.
Frankly my expectations for Futurama weren't all
that great... the media hype had me a little worried there,
but on the whole I'd say it was consistantly funny,
even for a premier. It had a lot of geek appeal
(Light saber police batons. A riot!) Let's just hope we'll
see the tongue-in-cheek satire that made The Simpsons so great.
I also hope to see a variety in the episodes...
no one wants to see a "Fry goes to Planet X and screws something up" story every week.
The sci-fi genre gives Groening incredible freedom in what he can do.
keep up the good work, and I look forward to another big hit!
MP3's may never be a viable commerical endevour...
at least until some company decides to embrace and extend
and replace good ole MP3 with a proprietary format
you need to pay $$$ for. The fact is, though, that
MP3's have been great for small-time bands who can't
or won't sell out to the big music establishment who
fear the implications of the MP3 format. They're
cracking down on artists because they're scared, not because
it's some "doomed to fail format". Just a few of my
thoughts... flame at your discretion.
This is only going to be for the super-rich, unless they manage to cut space shipping costs big-time within the next 10 years. It costs thousands of dollars per pound to put stuff in space, and they plan on supporting 100 guests as well as support staff? The idea is an awesome one, but prolly won't turn a profit without charging the GNP of a small country. I hate to be a skeptic, but don't hold your breath, folks.
I really hope none of your arguments were serious,
because none of them were really valid. Windows isn't
the end-all, be-all of GUIs. Considering all the
worthless FUD you've spewed, I doubt you'd consider
any valid points. So, continue on as one of millions
in the M$ collective... resistance is futile.
You've missed the point. Regardless of what's popular and in demand, consumers are being forced to pay for Windows whether they like it or not.
These people aren't even asking for alternative OS's... they'd like to install it themselves, yet the OEM's are telling them they have a contract with Microsoft that requires every machine they crank out have Windows installed. Could this be one reason why consumers are so hooked on Windows, because it's being jammed up every orifice from every marketing angle? You betcha! Millions of people like Coke, but that doesn't mean when I walk into a store it's the only drink available. Defend M$ all you like, but consumers have the right to free choice, especially when shelling out thousands of dollars for a computer. Frankly, I find $$$ more appealing than a shoddy OS I wouldn't use anyways.
Boy, this should knock some wind out of the already-sputtering M$ defense in the DOJ suit. Reading all of the horror stories of people trying to get a refund, there's only one word to describe the OEM-Microsoft relationship: MONOPOLY. M$ can't sit there and say they don't hold a monopoly when every major OEM is REQUIRED to sell systems with windoze installed, regardless of what the consumer wants/needs. That's bad business, folks, and I dearly hope M$ pays the price... BIG TIME.