Upon further examination, you're completely right! Artists get absolutely no money and the label keeps everything! How foolish of me to overlook this universal truth! I had no idea that artists were signing with major labels simply because they have no desire to get any money out of the deal. Thank you sir, I have learned much from you.
But you've paid for a limited-time rental of the movie, not "backup rights" to the movie. If you download the movie, you have the ability to keep a copy of the movie indefinitely, which is not what you paid for at Blockbuster.
"I usually play DVDs on my PC, and if I bring one home from Blockbuster and it won't play because the MPAA assumes I'm a pirate, I will feel 100% justified in seeking out a rip of that movie in XViD or SVCD (or DVDR) and watching it."
I don't think the MPAA would have any problem with this reasoning so long as you PAY them for that download (not necessarily directly, but by buying the movie itself). Or were you just planning on downloading a movie you had no intention of paying for simply because it won't work on your computer? Yeah, that's what I thought. Hey, laserdiscs won't play in my DVD player, so I guess I have no choice but to download the rip!
And you wonder where they get these crazy ideas about needing copy protection...
Presumably the authors of the works are getting paid somehow, otherwise they wouldn't want to sign with a company. I know this line of thinking doesn't fit in with the usual Slashdot "artists get paid 99%, the people who provided millions of dollars upfront to the artist should only be able to cover costs" mentality, but try to wrap your brain around it.
Did you ever think that maybe -- just maybe -- there are operating systems out there that can do things better than Linux? For what it does, QNX is superb. Linux does not even come close to competing with QNX in the "mission critical RTOS" department. It's not the end of the world.
It would make a difference. Laptop drives average something like 4200 RPM (somewhere in that neighborhood) and the "fast" ones are 5400 RPM. That's slow, Einstein.
"I don't use dialup modems. All my networking is done through ethernet. My internet connection is served through a cable modem. I simply have no need for a dialup modem, but if I did, I would make sure to buy a real one."
That's you. It's likely the person buying Lindows (remember, this is a PC sold at Wal-Mart! The computer-savvy are probably not buying this machine!) is going to use a modem. I think it comes with one. At any rate, if it DIDN'T come with one and the person needed one, I guarantee you they're going to be shit out of luck since it's near-impossible to find a regular modem these days. Strike one for you.
"I've been given machines to use at work, including desktops and laptops, in which I had no voice in what brand to buy, and they've always worked flawlessly. Hard/floppy/CDROM drives, USB/Parallel/Serial ports, video, sound, PCMCIA, ethernet, temperature/voltage sensors -- it all worked 100%. There wasn't a thing that didn't work on these machines. And without exception, these machines were bought for running Windows. Linux compatability was never a consideration."
Again, missing the point. You're not thinking about the big picture. Let's say I'm a redneck who bought my "Lindows PC" from Wal-Mart. I go to Best Buy to buy a webcam so I can "share pictures with my family over the 'in-tur-net'". Unless it HAPPENS to be one of the Linux-supported models of webcam, I'm going to be shit out of luck (webcams generally need manufacturer-provided drivers, you know). There's a lot of hardware that isn't specifically supported by Linux. You have to seek out that hardware and lose the ability to buy ANY piece of PC hardware you see on sale and have it "just work". That's what the people this PC are targeted at care about. And the software side... as soon as they pick up a copy of "Deer Hunter" or TurboTax and try to run it on this Lindows computer the reality is going to come crashing down on them. THAT is why Linux is NOT a replacement for Windows when it comes to the audience these machines are targeted at. YOU are another story... you know what you're doing, so you know how to get around the problems. All these people are going to see is that the hardware and software they bought doesn't work with their PC and they don't know why.
"As for me buying hardware I know will work with Linux, I think that's fairly obvious. Am I to assume you don't do the same with Windows? Do you look through the Mac section of your local computer store when shopping for Windows hardware? Somehow, I doubt it, yet you chastise me for doing the same with Linux. Please stop trying to impose your double standards on me."
Hello, Mac/Windows hardware is the difference between PC AND NON-PC HARDWARE! Are you that dense? Look, all I'm saying is that if you run Windows, ALL PC hardware is available to use. If you run Linux, a SUBSET of that hardware is available to use AND you have to actively seek out the PC hardware that will work on Linux.
I can't believe some of you are suggesting that an 8-10 year old child should be introduced to programming by way of C, C++, or Java. Are you kidding? Perhaps you've forgotten what it meant to be NEW to programming and don't realize that children are going to approach programming in a different way than a veteran will.
You've got to think about what's going to make sense for a kid. When I was a kid, if I wanted to print "Hello, world!" to the screen I typed in 'print "Hello, world!"'. That makes sense. Do you honestly think a kid just starting out is going to know what all the extra crap he has to declare just to print something in Java means? What the hell do you think "public static void main" means to a kid? How is he supposed to understand that if he wants to "print" he has to use System.out.println? Furthermore, is a kid just starting out supposed to know what static typing is? Give them a language where they can just declare variables. At least that way they can draw a simple parallel to pre-algebra (children understand "x = 5" in math class... they don't have to say "int x = 5" in a math problem, so why would it make sense right off the bat to do so in a computer program)? Do you think children are going to understand even the basic concepts of OO programming? There are undergrads in colleges across the world who are having a tough enough time with that.
I'm going to recommend Python. It's the modern-day QBasic (not meant in a bad way... Python is very powerful, I mean that it can boil programming down the essentials for novices in much the same way that QBasic did). No static typing, simple syntax, and you can program interactively. It's definitely the best thing going for introducting children to programming today.
"I've never had a piece of hardware Linux couldn't handle, including webcams, digital cameras, printers, home automation kits, etc."
One word: windmodem.
Also, did you ever consider that the reason you've never bought a piece of hardware that Linux couldn't handle is because you were SPECIFICALLY looking for Linux-compatible hardware?
What were you trying to accomplish with this post? Are you trying to convince me that Linux runs more software and supports more hardware than Windows? Linux software/hardware support is a SUBSET of Windows software/hardware support, you fool. Of course there's SOME Linux software that doesn't run on Windows. Big deal. Oh, and show me the hardware that only runs on Linux but WON'T run on Windows.
I smell a double standard. MS is just being competitive, that's all. I wonder how Slashdotters would respond to news that Redhat had a program wherein they would give you Redhat CDs and $50 in exchange for your XP licenses and media.
There are free tools for simply viewing the documents available from Microsoft. Or, you could use OO for Windows (grin). Either way, you're spending $50 to at least be ABLE to have confidence that if you WERE to spend $300 on Office XP that you could have it install and run on your system properly (along with all the OTHER software and hardware you plan on buying). THAT is worth spending $50 to people who have jobs and value their free time.
Well by your logic, Redhat is engaging in "dumping" since they're giving away for free a product which cost them money to develop (there's also an ongoing debugging effort as well, I'm sure). I'm no economics expert, but I imagine their "break even" price is somewhere north of $0.
You need to stop kidding yourself if you think that Lindows can adequately work as a replacement for Windows XP.
On the software side, Lindows can't run a lot of Windows software, and many programs that it can run (via Wine) don't always work correctly. OpenOffice DOES NOT work as a 100% replacement for Office. Just because you can move simple to moderately complex documents back and forth between Office and OO doesn't mean that OO can seamlessly replace Office. It's not just "weird Office features that no one ever uses" that OO can't do, it's a lot of stuff. It'll work pretty well, but it's not a complete replacement for Office by any means. Also, do you really think that you could just buy Windows software off the shelf, pop it into your Lindows machine, and have it autorun, install, and work properly? Keep dreaming.
On the hardware side, unless you go and buy hardware that works in a fairly generic method (hard drives, mice, etc.) you're not going to have a lot of luck. Buy a piece of hardware that needs special drivers (webcams, video input cards, etc.) and you're going to see your chance of successfully getting Lindows working with the hardware drop to zero.
So in light of all this, $50 seems like a deal. Fifty bucks to get software and hardware to "just work" without jumping through hoops. Not a bad deal.
Not a troll, just trying to give you a reality check...
Not sure how the law is in the UK but in the US you can buy OEM copies of software as long as you buy "hardware" with it. One store I go to defines "hardware" as something as simple as a CPU fan. I imagine this is pretty legitimate, as this store is well-known in the area and has been operating for a number of years.
Once again we see the maturity level of Slashdot mods at work. If you don't like what the person is saying, he must be a troll. Yes, that's it. Someone with a well written point is obviously a troll among the ranks of ACs who post goatse.cx links.
I don't like the hammer (or knife, or car, or...) analogy, because it doesn't fit.
How many people own hammers and use them on a semi-regular basis? A lot. Better yet, how many people the world over own knives and use them on a regular basis? A large percentage of the world population. How many knife-related crimes are there in proportion to the number of people who own and use knives regularly? Very, very few. It's insignificant. Hence, we can establish that knives, hammers, etc. are primarily used for legitimate purposes. P2P clients on the other hand... come on, stop kidding yourself. They are primarily being used to distribute copyrighted materials. Yeah, wink wink, you're only using Kazaa to download public domain music, Linux ISOs, and GNU utilities. That doesn't change the fact that the software is primarily being used for illegitimate purposes and that the whole appeal of the programs lies in the fact that people can anonymously rip off music and software companies with little or no threat of the activity being traced back to them.
The issue doesn't revolve around "this utility MIGHT have illegitimate uses, so they're attacking it", it revolves around "this utility appeals to people PRIMARILY because of its usefulness in committing illegal acts".
To address the search tool the kid wrote: I think that this kind of search tool is a bit different than say, Google. It allows you to search local Windows shares. For what? Linux source code? The latest version of GCC? Shareware games? Why bother? Why are you going to try and find non-copyrighted materials (which probably aren't going to be shared in the first place) on local shares when you're likely going to have more success just downloading the software from the appropriate website? No, I think this tool aids in copyright infringement since it's going to be used to search the shares of college students, who are most likely sharing music, movies, and software. If you're on a college network, go search the shares for the latest Linux sources or something GNU-related and tell me how many results you get versus a search for "Eminem".
Furthermore, I can't believe that none of you considered that perhaps the RIAA looked at the site's logs and saw -- surprise! -- search after search for music, movies, etc.
I think what happened is that all of the geeks who worship Star Wars do so because they saw the movies when they were 8 to 10 years old and therefore love the movies like any other thing they have a "childhood fascination" with. Fast-forward 20 years and those children who are now (hopefully) more mature adults think the new Star Wars movies are garbage because they are adults watching new movies that, like their predecessors, are targeted at young children. The "magic" just isn't there anymore because you're not a little kid watching a silly sci-fi movie.
Did AOL pull this because of the piracy potential? I imagine so. And, I'd have to say I'm not surprised. I frequent another message board popular with college students and the day WASTE was released (or at least, the day Slashdot reported it) there were threads filled with "ive got 90 gigs whats ur key" and "holy shit ____ has 25 gigs of movies!!!" messages. It would appear that there's a decent sized ring of students who see piracy potential in WASTE. It's like having your own private IRC server that's secure and makes trading easier and faster. I'd imagine this is the case elsewhere, as it seems that any time a new technology is released the first question that's asked is "how can I use this to more efficiently obtain movies, music, and software that I have no intention of paying for?"
I mean, I can see why companies get antsy about software like this. The trend seems to be "decentralized and anonymous file transfer", which allows for massive amounts of piracy. I say that if people are really serious about using P2P apps for legitimate uses, why not make a P2P app that uses a central server (like Napster) and isn't anonymous? It would make searches more efficient (and downloads as well?), make users accountable for the kinds of materials they're sharing, and allow for other enhancements. If you're really just sharing Linux ISOs and MP3s of public domain songs, you're going to be fine. Perhaps with a piece of software like that you might see little concern from various organizations as to the material being traded over the network.
It's quite obvious that Kazaa is the most downloaded program because people want their public domain movies, music, and software and they want it now!
Booting games from CD? You're kidding, right?
on
Gentoo Games
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Wow, how many years has it been since we had to have a "boot disk" in order to run games? That's not something I want to go back to.
Also, how could Linux geeks be in favor of rebooting their machine to play a game? You guys think dual-booting Windows for playing games is absurd, yet don't have any problem rebooting to play the game in Linux? Huh?
NASA's software will have all the bugs it would've had under a closed source model, but at least the space shuttle's interface will have skins and GNOME support!
Slashdot Mirror
Upon further examination, you're completely right! Artists get absolutely no money and the label keeps everything! How foolish of me to overlook this universal truth! I had no idea that artists were signing with major labels simply because they have no desire to get any money out of the deal. Thank you sir, I have learned much from you.
But you've paid for a limited-time rental of the movie, not "backup rights" to the movie. If you download the movie, you have the ability to keep a copy of the movie indefinitely, which is not what you paid for at Blockbuster.
"I usually play DVDs on my PC, and if I bring one home from Blockbuster and it won't play because the MPAA assumes I'm a pirate, I will feel 100% justified in seeking out a rip of that movie in XViD or SVCD (or DVDR) and watching it."
I don't think the MPAA would have any problem with this reasoning so long as you PAY them for that download (not necessarily directly, but by buying the movie itself). Or were you just planning on downloading a movie you had no intention of paying for simply because it won't work on your computer? Yeah, that's what I thought. Hey, laserdiscs won't play in my DVD player, so I guess I have no choice but to download the rip!
And you wonder where they get these crazy ideas about needing copy protection...
Presumably the authors of the works are getting paid somehow, otherwise they wouldn't want to sign with a company. I know this line of thinking doesn't fit in with the usual Slashdot "artists get paid 99%, the people who provided millions of dollars upfront to the artist should only be able to cover costs" mentality, but try to wrap your brain around it.
Yeah really, with a title like "QNX vs. Linux" how could I have possibly thought that Linux had something to do with it?
Did you ever think that maybe -- just maybe -- there are operating systems out there that can do things better than Linux? For what it does, QNX is superb. Linux does not even come close to competing with QNX in the "mission critical RTOS" department. It's not the end of the world.
It would make a difference. Laptop drives average something like 4200 RPM (somewhere in that neighborhood) and the "fast" ones are 5400 RPM. That's slow, Einstein.
"I'll be filing a lawsuit against the New York Times for slander"
Looks like Thedeacon knows where his next check is coming from!
"Windmodems (nice Freudian slip, BTW)"
It's called a typo, not a Freudian slip.
"I don't use dialup modems. All my networking is done through ethernet. My internet connection is served through a cable modem. I simply have no need for a dialup modem, but if I did, I would make sure to buy a real one."
That's you. It's likely the person buying Lindows (remember, this is a PC sold at Wal-Mart! The computer-savvy are probably not buying this machine!) is going to use a modem. I think it comes with one. At any rate, if it DIDN'T come with one and the person needed one, I guarantee you they're going to be shit out of luck since it's near-impossible to find a regular modem these days. Strike one for you.
"I've been given machines to use at work, including desktops and laptops, in which I had no voice in what brand to buy, and they've always worked flawlessly. Hard/floppy/CDROM drives, USB/Parallel/Serial ports, video, sound, PCMCIA, ethernet, temperature/voltage sensors -- it all worked 100%. There wasn't a thing that didn't work on these machines. And without exception, these machines were bought for running Windows. Linux compatability was never a consideration."
Again, missing the point. You're not thinking about the big picture. Let's say I'm a redneck who bought my "Lindows PC" from Wal-Mart. I go to Best Buy to buy a webcam so I can "share pictures with my family over the 'in-tur-net'". Unless it HAPPENS to be one of the Linux-supported models of webcam, I'm going to be shit out of luck (webcams generally need manufacturer-provided drivers, you know). There's a lot of hardware that isn't specifically supported by Linux. You have to seek out that hardware and lose the ability to buy ANY piece of PC hardware you see on sale and have it "just work". That's what the people this PC are targeted at care about. And the software side... as soon as they pick up a copy of "Deer Hunter" or TurboTax and try to run it on this Lindows computer the reality is going to come crashing down on them. THAT is why Linux is NOT a replacement for Windows when it comes to the audience these machines are targeted at. YOU are another story... you know what you're doing, so you know how to get around the problems. All these people are going to see is that the hardware and software they bought doesn't work with their PC and they don't know why.
"As for me buying hardware I know will work with Linux, I think that's fairly obvious. Am I to assume you don't do the same with Windows? Do you look through the Mac section of your local computer store when shopping for Windows hardware? Somehow, I doubt it, yet you chastise me for doing the same with Linux. Please stop trying to impose your double standards on me."
Hello, Mac/Windows hardware is the difference between PC AND NON-PC HARDWARE! Are you that dense? Look, all I'm saying is that if you run Windows, ALL PC hardware is available to use. If you run Linux, a SUBSET of that hardware is available to use AND you have to actively seek out the PC hardware that will work on Linux.
I can't believe some of you are suggesting that an 8-10 year old child should be introduced to programming by way of C, C++, or Java. Are you kidding? Perhaps you've forgotten what it meant to be NEW to programming and don't realize that children are going to approach programming in a different way than a veteran will.
You've got to think about what's going to make sense for a kid. When I was a kid, if I wanted to print "Hello, world!" to the screen I typed in 'print "Hello, world!"'. That makes sense. Do you honestly think a kid just starting out is going to know what all the extra crap he has to declare just to print something in Java means? What the hell do you think "public static void main" means to a kid? How is he supposed to understand that if he wants to "print" he has to use System.out.println? Furthermore, is a kid just starting out supposed to know what static typing is? Give them a language where they can just declare variables. At least that way they can draw a simple parallel to pre-algebra (children understand "x = 5" in math class... they don't have to say "int x = 5" in a math problem, so why would it make sense right off the bat to do so in a computer program)? Do you think children are going to understand even the basic concepts of OO programming? There are undergrads in colleges across the world who are having a tough enough time with that.
I'm going to recommend Python. It's the modern-day QBasic (not meant in a bad way... Python is very powerful, I mean that it can boil programming down the essentials for novices in much the same way that QBasic did). No static typing, simple syntax, and you can program interactively. It's definitely the best thing going for introducting children to programming today.
"I've never had a piece of hardware Linux couldn't handle, including webcams, digital cameras, printers, home automation kits, etc."
One word: windmodem.
Also, did you ever consider that the reason you've never bought a piece of hardware that Linux couldn't handle is because you were SPECIFICALLY looking for Linux-compatible hardware?
What were you trying to accomplish with this post? Are you trying to convince me that Linux runs more software and supports more hardware than Windows? Linux software/hardware support is a SUBSET of Windows software/hardware support, you fool. Of course there's SOME Linux software that doesn't run on Windows. Big deal. Oh, and show me the hardware that only runs on Linux but WON'T run on Windows.
I smell a double standard. MS is just being competitive, that's all. I wonder how Slashdotters would respond to news that Redhat had a program wherein they would give you Redhat CDs and $50 in exchange for your XP licenses and media.
There are free tools for simply viewing the documents available from Microsoft. Or, you could use OO for Windows (grin). Either way, you're spending $50 to at least be ABLE to have confidence that if you WERE to spend $300 on Office XP that you could have it install and run on your system properly (along with all the OTHER software and hardware you plan on buying). THAT is worth spending $50 to people who have jobs and value their free time.
Well by your logic, Redhat is engaging in "dumping" since they're giving away for free a product which cost them money to develop (there's also an ongoing debugging effort as well, I'm sure). I'm no economics expert, but I imagine their "break even" price is somewhere north of $0.
You need to stop kidding yourself if you think that Lindows can adequately work as a replacement for Windows XP.
On the software side, Lindows can't run a lot of Windows software, and many programs that it can run (via Wine) don't always work correctly. OpenOffice DOES NOT work as a 100% replacement for Office. Just because you can move simple to moderately complex documents back and forth between Office and OO doesn't mean that OO can seamlessly replace Office. It's not just "weird Office features that no one ever uses" that OO can't do, it's a lot of stuff. It'll work pretty well, but it's not a complete replacement for Office by any means. Also, do you really think that you could just buy Windows software off the shelf, pop it into your Lindows machine, and have it autorun, install, and work properly? Keep dreaming.
On the hardware side, unless you go and buy hardware that works in a fairly generic method (hard drives, mice, etc.) you're not going to have a lot of luck. Buy a piece of hardware that needs special drivers (webcams, video input cards, etc.) and you're going to see your chance of successfully getting Lindows working with the hardware drop to zero.
So in light of all this, $50 seems like a deal. Fifty bucks to get software and hardware to "just work" without jumping through hoops. Not a bad deal.
Not a troll, just trying to give you a reality check...
Not sure how the law is in the UK but in the US you can buy OEM copies of software as long as you buy "hardware" with it. One store I go to defines "hardware" as something as simple as a CPU fan. I imagine this is pretty legitimate, as this store is well-known in the area and has been operating for a number of years.
Once again we see the maturity level of Slashdot mods at work. If you don't like what the person is saying, he must be a troll. Yes, that's it. Someone with a well written point is obviously a troll among the ranks of ACs who post goatse.cx links.
I don't like the hammer (or knife, or car, or...) analogy, because it doesn't fit.
How many people own hammers and use them on a semi-regular basis? A lot. Better yet, how many people the world over own knives and use them on a regular basis? A large percentage of the world population. How many knife-related crimes are there in proportion to the number of people who own and use knives regularly? Very, very few. It's insignificant. Hence, we can establish that knives, hammers, etc. are primarily used for legitimate purposes. P2P clients on the other hand... come on, stop kidding yourself. They are primarily being used to distribute copyrighted materials. Yeah, wink wink, you're only using Kazaa to download public domain music, Linux ISOs, and GNU utilities. That doesn't change the fact that the software is primarily being used for illegitimate purposes and that the whole appeal of the programs lies in the fact that people can anonymously rip off music and software companies with little or no threat of the activity being traced back to them.
The issue doesn't revolve around "this utility MIGHT have illegitimate uses, so they're attacking it", it revolves around "this utility appeals to people PRIMARILY because of its usefulness in committing illegal acts".
To address the search tool the kid wrote: I think that this kind of search tool is a bit different than say, Google. It allows you to search local Windows shares. For what? Linux source code? The latest version of GCC? Shareware games? Why bother? Why are you going to try and find non-copyrighted materials (which probably aren't going to be shared in the first place) on local shares when you're likely going to have more success just downloading the software from the appropriate website? No, I think this tool aids in copyright infringement since it's going to be used to search the shares of college students, who are most likely sharing music, movies, and software. If you're on a college network, go search the shares for the latest Linux sources or something GNU-related and tell me how many results you get versus a search for "Eminem".
Furthermore, I can't believe that none of you considered that perhaps the RIAA looked at the site's logs and saw -- surprise! -- search after search for music, movies, etc.
Star Wars? A masterpiece? Are you kidding?
I think what happened is that all of the geeks who worship Star Wars do so because they saw the movies when they were 8 to 10 years old and therefore love the movies like any other thing they have a "childhood fascination" with. Fast-forward 20 years and those children who are now (hopefully) more mature adults think the new Star Wars movies are garbage because they are adults watching new movies that, like their predecessors, are targeted at young children. The "magic" just isn't there anymore because you're not a little kid watching a silly sci-fi movie.
No, anything that has shown itself to be used PRIMARILY for illegitimate use has been attacked (Napster, Gnutella).
Did AOL pull this because of the piracy potential? I imagine so. And, I'd have to say I'm not surprised. I frequent another message board popular with college students and the day WASTE was released (or at least, the day Slashdot reported it) there were threads filled with "ive got 90 gigs whats ur key" and "holy shit ____ has 25 gigs of movies!!!" messages. It would appear that there's a decent sized ring of students who see piracy potential in WASTE. It's like having your own private IRC server that's secure and makes trading easier and faster. I'd imagine this is the case elsewhere, as it seems that any time a new technology is released the first question that's asked is "how can I use this to more efficiently obtain movies, music, and software that I have no intention of paying for?"
I mean, I can see why companies get antsy about software like this. The trend seems to be "decentralized and anonymous file transfer", which allows for massive amounts of piracy. I say that if people are really serious about using P2P apps for legitimate uses, why not make a P2P app that uses a central server (like Napster) and isn't anonymous? It would make searches more efficient (and downloads as well?), make users accountable for the kinds of materials they're sharing, and allow for other enhancements. If you're really just sharing Linux ISOs and MP3s of public domain songs, you're going to be fine. Perhaps with a piece of software like that you might see little concern from various organizations as to the material being traded over the network.
It's quite obvious that Kazaa is the most downloaded program because people want their public domain movies, music, and software and they want it now!
Wow, how many years has it been since we had to have a "boot disk" in order to run games? That's not something I want to go back to.
Also, how could Linux geeks be in favor of rebooting their machine to play a game? You guys think dual-booting Windows for playing games is absurd, yet don't have any problem rebooting to play the game in Linux? Huh?
NASA's software will have all the bugs it would've had under a closed source model, but at least the space shuttle's interface will have skins and GNOME support!