They could have made this project a little simpler (although it wouldn't have been self-contained) if they had used a standard issue netboot ROM and booted the thing across the network. Coulda mounted the filesystem via NFS and had a hell of a lot more space to play with, too...
Lets say this were Windows NT.. the person who wrote the 13900 lines of code would have written the code to blast you with "You must reboot for changes to take effect" dialog box that pops up whenever you dare move the mouse. A worthy contribution, indeed!:]
While this post is offtopic, this post and others like it define a part of Slashdot that hopefully won't die.
I'm not talking about ten page pastes of the same thing over and over or one word attempts at getting a first post. I'm talking about the intelligent trolls. Anyone who reads the above post without cracking a smile - nay, anyone who reads any such post without cracking a smile - has obviously missed the boat.
Trolling on Slashdot has become its own subculture, much like B1FF on Bitnet. OOG, the Don Knotts guy, they are all a part of Slashdot culture.
Trolling has taken a new meaning with Slashdot. Trolling is not necessarily flamebait. Admit it, you've been had by the Don Knotts guy *at least* once, and you felt pretty silly. It was harmless enough, and nobody but you knows you've been had, but thats part of the charm. The OOG posts and poem or song lyric posts, arguably, require intelligence and a certain amount of cleverness to produce.
Most trolls on Slashdot are like graffiti artists; if you let them grow a little bit, they can paint murals that you're somewhat ashamed to envy, like the above spoof of "Gangsta's Paradise."
A standard PC is arguably more than an appliance, but if you'll read what I said, you'll see that I said that "To the average consumer, a computer is just an appliance, like a refrigerator or a couch."
Appliances perform useful tasks and may or may not be a part of your everyday life and may or may not define a piece of your culture. A toaster does not and is not, a television is and does./Most/ people do not take computers as hard-core seriously as most slashdotters. As a Netware and Unix administrator, I'm not afraid to admit that I once had an iMac. It was free to me, I'll grant you, but dammit, it was pretty!:)
It has great aesthetic value, which is important to the mainstream consumer. You know, those of us that don't get wood from specing out our dream computers. To the average consumer, a computer is just an appliance, like a refrigerator or a couch, and they want it to look nice or at least nifty as well as perform some function. Why do teenage girls buy clear phones? Same reason.
WinDSL Lower end machines?
on
WinDSL Coming?
·
· Score: 1
I fail to see how a WinDSL modem could possibly be targeted at lower end machines, Hemos. They eat CPU time, thus they are/bad/ for low end machines...
It appears that the Slashdot authors DO have a sense of humor after all! =]
It would be even funnier if Jamie had modified the code in a subtle manner to make it change your login banner to "owned by jonkatz" if you run it as root..
I have been meaning to write this for a long time, but I haven't really had the time.
I really like Slashdot, and I visit several times a day (okay, I visit several times an hour. Sue me.:)
Cmdr, Hemos, etc, you must be aware that millions of people per day read your website, and you are also no doubt aware that several other news sites use Slashdot use a source for their news.
You are also no doubt aware that your comments and posts can make or break small companies, and seriously affect the reputation and revenue of larger companies, whether the average Slashdot cares about that company (Red Hat being on one end of the Slashdot spectrum, Microsoft being on another.)
I personally charge you (the editors of Slashdot) with maintaining the very same journalistic integrity that your readers so often complain about other sites (Microsoft's "Press Room," ZDNet, PC Magazine, etc.) lacking.
It is not difficult to see, based on comments that can be found under many of your stories, that many of the rumors that you post as stories turn out to be untrue. Some fact-checking is in order. If a real news site (CNN, ZDNet, etc) were to post rumors like this on such a regular basis, it is not hard to imagine that Slashdot readers would throw them to the sharks.
It is the same with beta announcements. When you post the availability of an unannounced beta release, as you have done many times in the past, you cause the servers in question to be Slashdotted (a phenomenon which has even been journaled on Slashdot), sometimes before it can even be mirrored. I can remember one instance in which a beta announcement was posted before the beta product was even complete on the server.
Also, before you post links to small webservers, *ask* the admins for their permission before you unleash the distributed DoS (what else would you call it?) that is Slashdotting upon them (consider the Matrix parody on Prophet Networks.)
Please, in the future, consider the consequences of posting a "story."
I have been meaning to write this for a long time, but I haven't really had the time. I really like Slashdot, and I visit several times a day (okay, I visit several times an hour. Sue me.:) Cmdr, Hemos, etc, you must be aware that millions of people per day read your website, and you are also no doubt aware that several other news sites use Slashdot use a source for their news. You are also no doubt aware that your comments and posts can make or break small companies, and seriously affect the reputation and revenue of larger companies, whether the average Slashdot cares about that company (Red Hat being on one end of the Slashdot spectrum, Microsoft being on another.) I personally charge you (the editors of Slashdot) with maintaining the very same journalistic integrity that your readers so often complain about other sites (Microsoft's "Press Room," ZDNet, PC Magazine, etc.) lacking. It is not difficult to see, based on comments that can be found under many of your stories, that many of the rumors that you post as stories turn out to be untrue. Some fact-checking is in order. If a real news site (CNN, ZDNet, etc) were to post rumors like this on such a regular basis, it is not hard to imagine that Slashdot readers would throw them to the sharks. It is the same with beta announcements. When you post the availability of an unannounced beta release, as you have done many times in the past, you cause the servers in question to be Slashdotted (a phenomenon which has even been journaled on Slashdot), sometimes before it can even be mirrored. I can remember one instance in which a beta announcement was posted before the beta product was even complete on the server. Also, before you post links to small webservers, *ask* the admins for their permission before you unleash the distributed DoS (what else would you call it?) that is Slashdotting upon them (consider the Matrix parody on Prophet Networks.) Please, in the future, consider the consequences of posting a "story." Thanks, Conrad
I hadn't hear the $10M figure before, actually I never heard any figure. Usually the terms of licensing agreements are closely guarded info. Licenses also usually sold by a certain dollar amount, for a certain number.
The rest of the replies in this thread fairly well cover the rest of your questions, but when you buy a DVD license, you are not buying the rights to make X number of decoders, you are buying space in the encryption keys section of encrypted DVDs. If a DVD doesn't have your manufacturer's encrypted key in it, you can't watch the DVD.
One, the recording industry isn't going to release the movies unless they think the format provides some method of limiting or reducing pirating.
In case you haven't been paying attention, DeCSS doesn't help you pirate a DVD movie. It lets you play a DVD disc, regardless of whether it is legal or not. You can pirate a DVD disc, and you end up with.. A copy of an encrypted DVD disc is still encrypted, and you need a decoder to watch it. Companies (like Xing) paid $10M apiece to get a license to build DVD players or write DVD software.
There is nothing preventing a software company from licensing the technology to create DVD software that runs under Linux.
Again, you obviously have not been paying attention. Several companies have applied for licenses to make DVD decoders for Linux, and have been denied each and every time.
What we are witnessing is not the DVD industry trying to protect DVDs, we are witnessing the DVD industry posturing to make the DVD hardware companies happy, since they promised the involved companies that by buying a license, they would become part of the elite DVD player oligopoly.
Slashdot Mirror
They could have made this project a little simpler (although it wouldn't have been self-contained) if they had used a standard issue netboot ROM and booted the thing across the network. Coulda mounted the filesystem via NFS and had a hell of a lot more space to play with, too...
Postscript is owned by adobe, the same people who own PDF.
... of course.
Lets say this were Windows NT .. the person who wrote the 13900 lines of code would have written the code to blast you with "You must reboot for changes to take effect" dialog box that pops up whenever you dare move the mouse. A worthy contribution, indeed! :]
Use the Source, Luke.
I'm not talking about ten page pastes of the same thing over and over or one word attempts at getting a first post. I'm talking about the intelligent trolls. Anyone who reads the above post without cracking a smile - nay, anyone who reads any such post without cracking a smile - has obviously missed the boat.
Trolling on Slashdot has become its own subculture, much like B1FF on Bitnet. OOG, the Don Knotts guy, they are all a part of Slashdot culture.
Trolling has taken a new meaning with Slashdot. Trolling is not necessarily flamebait. Admit it, you've been had by the Don Knotts guy *at least* once, and you felt pretty silly. It was harmless enough, and nobody but you knows you've been had, but thats part of the charm. The OOG posts and poem or song lyric posts, arguably, require intelligence and a certain amount of cleverness to produce.
Most trolls on Slashdot are like graffiti artists; if you let them grow a little bit, they can paint murals that you're somewhat ashamed to envy, like the above spoof of "Gangsta's Paradise."
Handguns are popular precisely because they have the ability to kill stuff...
Appliances perform useful tasks and may or may not be a part of your everyday life and may or may not define a piece of your culture. A toaster does not and is not, a television is and does. /Most/ people do not take computers as hard-core seriously as most slashdotters. As a Netware and Unix administrator, I'm not afraid to admit that I once had an iMac. It was free to me, I'll grant you, but dammit, it was pretty! :)
It has great aesthetic value, which is important to the mainstream consumer. You know, those of us that don't get wood from specing out our dream computers. To the average consumer, a computer is just an appliance, like a refrigerator or a couch, and they want it to look nice or at least nifty as well as perform some function. Why do teenage girls buy clear phones? Same reason.
I fail to see how a WinDSL modem could possibly be targeted at lower end machines, Hemos. They eat CPU time, thus they are /bad/ for low end machines...
It would be even funnier if Jamie had modified the code in a subtle manner to make it change your login banner to "owned by jonkatz" if you run it as root..
Would you like Raisin Bran, Total, or Cocoa Puffs?
Some of us would rather carry around large bills than dollar bills and coins. What about us? Shall you to oppress us?
Better solution:
New story category - Software announcements
How, precisely, do you infect a living being with cancer?
I have been meaning to write this for a long time, but I haven't really had the time.
:)
I really like Slashdot, and I visit several times a day (okay, I visit several times an hour. Sue me.
Cmdr, Hemos, etc, you must be aware that millions of people per day read your website, and you are also no doubt aware that several other news sites use Slashdot use a source for their news.
You are also no doubt aware that your comments and posts can make or break small companies, and seriously affect the reputation and revenue of larger companies, whether the average Slashdot cares about that company (Red Hat being on one end of the Slashdot spectrum, Microsoft being on another.)
I personally charge you (the editors of Slashdot) with maintaining the very same journalistic integrity that your readers so often complain about other sites (Microsoft's "Press Room," ZDNet, PC Magazine, etc.) lacking.
It is not difficult to see, based on comments that can be found under many of your stories, that many of the rumors that you post as stories turn out to be untrue. Some fact-checking is in order. If a real news site (CNN, ZDNet, etc) were to post rumors like this on such a regular basis, it is not hard to imagine that Slashdot readers would throw them to the sharks.
It is the same with beta announcements. When you post the availability of an unannounced beta release, as you have done many times in the past, you cause the servers in question to be Slashdotted (a phenomenon which has even been journaled on Slashdot), sometimes before it can even be mirrored. I can remember one instance in which a beta announcement was posted before the beta product was even complete on the server.
Also, before you post links to small webservers, *ask* the admins for their permission before you unleash the distributed DoS (what else would you call it?) that is Slashdotting upon them (consider the Matrix parody on Prophet Networks.)
Please, in the future, consider the consequences of posting a "story."
Thanks,
Conrad
I have been meaning to write this for a long time, but I haven't really had the time. I really like Slashdot, and I visit several times a day (okay, I visit several times an hour. Sue me. :) Cmdr, Hemos, etc, you must be aware that millions of people per day read your website, and you are also no doubt aware that several other news sites use Slashdot use a source for their news. You are also no doubt aware that your comments and posts can make or break small companies, and seriously affect the reputation and revenue of larger companies, whether the average Slashdot cares about that company (Red Hat being on one end of the Slashdot spectrum, Microsoft being on another.) I personally charge you (the editors of Slashdot) with maintaining the very same journalistic integrity that your readers so often complain about other sites (Microsoft's "Press Room," ZDNet, PC Magazine, etc.) lacking. It is not difficult to see, based on comments that can be found under many of your stories, that many of the rumors that you post as stories turn out to be untrue. Some fact-checking is in order. If a real news site (CNN, ZDNet, etc) were to post rumors like this on such a regular basis, it is not hard to imagine that Slashdot readers would throw them to the sharks. It is the same with beta announcements. When you post the availability of an unannounced beta release, as you have done many times in the past, you cause the servers in question to be Slashdotted (a phenomenon which has even been journaled on Slashdot), sometimes before it can even be mirrored. I can remember one instance in which a beta announcement was posted before the beta product was even complete on the server. Also, before you post links to small webservers, *ask* the admins for their permission before you unleash the distributed DoS (what else would you call it?) that is Slashdotting upon them (consider the Matrix parody on Prophet Networks.) Please, in the future, consider the consequences of posting a "story." Thanks, Conrad
The rest of the replies in this thread fairly well cover the rest of your questions, but when you buy a DVD license, you are not buying the rights to make X number of decoders, you are buying space in the encryption keys section of encrypted DVDs. If a DVD doesn't have your manufacturer's encrypted key in it, you can't watch the DVD.
In case you haven't been paying attention, DeCSS doesn't help you pirate a DVD movie. It lets you play a DVD disc, regardless of whether it is legal or not. You can pirate a DVD disc, and you end up with.. A copy of an encrypted DVD disc is still encrypted, and you need a decoder to watch it. Companies (like Xing) paid $10M apiece to get a license to build DVD players or write DVD software.
There is nothing preventing a software company from licensing the technology to create DVD software that runs under Linux.
Again, you obviously have not been paying attention. Several companies have applied for licenses to make DVD decoders for Linux, and have been denied each and every time.
What we are witnessing is not the DVD industry trying to protect DVDs, we are witnessing the DVD industry posturing to make the DVD hardware companies happy, since they promised the involved companies that by buying a license, they would become part of the elite DVD player oligopoly.
Conrad
Uh, this makes no sense.
:)
So basically, Microsoft is restricting them to pirating just the standard and premium versions, right?
A blatant "Telltale Heart" ripoff.
No more alcohol for this man.
What if you're a cunning linguist?
Why not? Microsoft could make a KILLING from blue screen ads alone! ;)
$400 rebate checks from Microsoft don't count as exploitation?