It shot down Objectivism, but Ayn Rand's major goal of it was that "altruism robs a man's soul" and "if you want something, take it". So yes, I believe it is a good thing to not have 'psychopaths' living for themselves, despising the concept of helping others and just running around taking what is 'theirs'.
Libel law in the US and UK is actually quite similar. Perhaps my point wasn't illustrated clearly enough, but at any rate, I highly doubt this case will be granted any merit given the current state of libel law in a first world nation like the UK.
And the trial is in Harare...so what do UK laws have to do with it? The whole point is that he ISN'T being tried in the UK, he's being targetted and tried in Zimbabwe for something he did in the UK.
Your point is as relevant as saying "Dmitri Skylarov can't be convicted in the US, because Russia doesn't have laws against the code he wrote"*. We only wish it stays that easy (and reasonable, and logical).
* - I know, Skylarov's software was sold in the US putting him at the mercy of US courts, but that wasn't the point of my analogy.
One of their most popular recent movies. No copy protection. Headline in 3 months:
Pirated copies of Harry Potter rampant on the net
Silicon Valley (AP) Senator Hollings has begun pushing the need for even stronger copy protection and monitoring software built into every device, citing the recent explosion in pirated movie trading......
Ever consider that most people who admin IIS for a living weren't in the position to object to its introduction? Or places where they are told they are in control of such things, and submit proposals that get ignored by higher-ups?
I know your pain, as do many others. It's been said that IT groups don't choose Microsoft products, they just install them. One workplace of mine has Exchange, IIS and all the MS side-dishes, and I fought them kicking and screaming. But, the marketing geeks upstairs read in a magazine that something is a "robust solution" and assume it'll work in our environment.
Of course, I'd rather spend my day implementing cool new stuff to make their work better, but instead I sit around coddling a patch-monster.
It should be obvious that to burry copper is completely obsolete.
Wrong! Copper is already strung around every city and home in America (probably a hefty portion of the world). And, there's a standard for gigabit over copper:
It's limited to 100 meters, but for communities, home networks and any switched network, I don't see a point in passing up what is already laid in the building. For future digs, they could go either way, and I'll agree fiber is the way to go. But let's not ditch copper just yet...it seems to have some usefulness left in it.
It's good to finally see a CGI/Perl book pushing strict and warnings. Of course, that's not going to ensure good programming, I've seen some horribly stupid code pass the test with use strict;. Do they use Taint mode at all? Is there any mention of how dumb CGI can be, and the nasty pits it can leave when problems (not obvious to the new guy, like unchecked open filehandles) are ignored?
Also, what's wrong with Mason? They may have recommended it because it makes an easy transition into mod_perl, as it can be used either way.
I bet you use 3rd party apps to make your MP3s. You should be glad Apple isn't preventing 3rd parties from making compatibility software.
Good point. My entire desktop is mainly "third party" stuff.
Even if Apple included something, I'd probably end up seeking out another company who's sole purpose was to build something better...I never got the point of having one company do everything. Would you rather buy MP3 software from an MP3 software company, or a hardware/software/servers/office/home/lamps/scoote rs/mp3-players company?
Yes, I'm frustrated ATM. Nothing personal.
Great, first Sentient ATM now a frustrated one. I'll look forward to oh-so-clever stories of eating cigarettes in the future.;)
some lucky people got a chance to ride on this experimental train
Let's see....get a steel tube hurtling across the ground at ~500km/h, and oh! It's still in a stage being called "experimental"! These people are about as lucky as my one-eyed three-legged ringwormed dog bearing that name.
For now on, you might just want to read the EULA before you click 'accept'.
What is this, the 5000th time I've seen that line in a Slashdot article? Maybe people should start paying attention. RTFEULA. If you don't agree with it, don't install it, and write to the company telling them why (and, as you are legally allowed in the US, demand a refund. No product can be forced on you). Look for an alternative with a license you can agree with. It isn't too tough, and it's the only way to make a point to these companies. Using it anyway doesn't work, bitching on Slashdot doesn't work...a large number of persons telling them they refuse to comply with stupid terms and won't buy it will work.
A "blog" is an online diary. Just because it's a "journal", doesn't make it journalism, by the practical definition. Hopefully, this school is teaching the difference.
My first reaction is: "Great, just when I thought the trend of whining bohemian teenagers was on the decline, more fascinating online drivel about how the Offspring sold out". Rethinking it, though, maybe the internet will take more shape as a source of alternative media. Televised news is a joke, newspapers almost all suck (besides the Indypendant or the National Review, I can't think of any worth a read), the clearchannel or the radio, whatever it's called, is getting more silly by the day...maybe a large group of "bloggers" seeking out stories and drawing the lines between them will form a perfect source.
I mean, the WTO protests in Seattle a few years ago had TV/radio/Newspapers reporting protestors rioting, and cops using almost no force against them. Personal accounts contradicted this and soon after, video and photos turn up on the internet of cops firing rubber bullets into crowds of people sitting on the sidewalk, tear gas canisters flying and even one cop ripping someone's gas mask off to pepper-spray(?) him. Who would know, if not for the fact that individuals spread the word independantly, that quite a few innocent people had been lumped in with the couple of assholes that kept showing up on CNN?
You can't take an individual's opinion as fact, but the same could be said of major news outlets. Similarly, you can't expect those major news stations to fess up when some stories don't add up, or are mysteriously omitted. If enough people start reporting what they see, eventually we'll get a much larger idea of what is really going on around here.
It's strange that I've not managed to find a site that Mozilla can't render correctly for the last six months or so.
I'm glad someone brought this up, I thought it was just me. The only sites I've seen that didn't show up perfectly in Mozilla are dopey, overdone personal pages, like any girl who has a webcam and Microsoft's dHTML book. Shut up, you look at them too. Besides that, the closest I found was some fool who put a browser check on the front page and wouldn't let non-MSIE browsers view the content, leaving the message "This site will not display properly in anything but Internet Explorer 5 or above"....so I had Konqueror pretend to be IE 5.5, and everything looked fine. Put the source through to Mozilla, and it looked perfect there, too.
Even Microsoft's website displays well, and I can't imagine anyone with more of an interest in creating a site for IE than its manufacturor.
Unbreakable Linux has NOTHING to do with preventing hacking.
But if it is compromised, couldn't that break whatever they're working on? If my ecommerce company has a cluster working on serving web pages, and I change all the web pages to "HaCkeD bY sOmE HaCkEr!", I don't think the bosses would find much humor in my saying "But, there was no downtime!". Poor example, but you get the idea.
If you're calling something "unbreakable", it has to do what it is intended to do, constantly. Not, "do something, anything, constantly".
On the other hand, I agree with you. 300 comments, 250 are probably people who saw "linux" in the title and wanted to make the BSD or Microsoft joke they've been saving up for weeks.
Re:Unbreakable Linux... is that like my ol'...
on
'Unbreakable Linux'
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· Score: 2
Kind of like calling a ship "The unsinkable"
Or the "Titanic". Ironic, how the proverbial iceburg will sink this penguin.
Either way, it's still pretty cool to see Dell growing their balls back and doing something with an OS not made by Microsoft. Oracle and Dell are two of the wealthier computer/IT companies in the world, so this should turn out interesting. If they'll call it "Unbreakable", they'll at least have to offer vendor support to back up their claims...thus hurdling the stumbling block most companies saw in Linux ("You mean the Admins will have to make the system work without blaming it on Microsoft?"). Sure, Red Hat has vendor support, but these are companies the PHB's have heard of.
Maybe it's just the way the guy was quoted in the article, but if they need to test in a "zero gravity" environment, how would the ISS be applicable?
I'd consider it a "weightless" environment, but not "zero gravity".
True, but I'm sure they've taken that into account. The problem is, when the results come back a certain way, the same persons responsible for this article will write another about how "Einstein was wrong" because they don't understand what was actually decided here.
It's like testing the lifespan of Goldfish in water. But I didn't have any water, so I used Tequila. By the way, it's 26 seconds, but after about 15 the fish started using emacs. But the example remains the same...you can "prove" or "disprove" anything depending on who's reading it. It's all relative.
You, and the other eight of us would have thrown a party?
Of course, we knew this guy's position from the start. I can't see how anyone would be against such a proposal: capitalists thrive on competition, so the government pushing along competition would be a good thing*, anti-capitalist types dislike Microsoft and would like to see a reasonable alternative ($4000 for a powermac doesn't work for most). Boosting someone other than the only game in town, who has been possibly unscrupulous, and definitely been getting money and assistance from the Gov't, seems like a win for everyone.
* - Yes, I know government intervention doesn't jibe with capitalism. But, no capitalists I've met complain that the US government is doing it anyway, by giving money to Microsoft (and several other large companies), so promoting competition shouldn't bother them in this case. It's correcting an error.
So if I spend $150 and buy something, I should not expect it to work? My $150 TV should start flipping channels by itself and maybe the $150 stereo should shut off or only play half the CD's I put in it?
Comparatively, the M10x series are cheaper than the M50x series. But, this is a $150 piece of electronics, not a Cracker-Jack toy. By spending less money, you should expect fewer features, not that the advertised features won't work, and the device doesn't have basic functionality.
It should also be mentioned that on this planet, $150 for something the size, shape and apparantly the functionality of a PopTart, is not "cheap".
As a citizen of the most litigated society ever, I find the old saying 'ignorance is no exuse", though legally true, hard to swallow. I would be surprised to find a law student who was aware of more than 50% of our national and local laws.
They like it that way. Consider it a loophole to censorship and first-ammendment violations. If they don't like what you're saying, chances are there's something they can pin on you. And, once your tucked away in a prison, you're derided as a "felon" and discredited. Mention Mumia Abu Jamal in a conversation and watch how fast the eyes roll (even though someone confessed to the murder for which he was convicted).
Not to say all the dumb laws are part of a grand elaborate scheme...some of them are genuine and sincere fuckups. Others are just a misunderstanding of the repercussions. Still others are paid for by people looking to make a buck. But there are quite a few that serve no purpose other than to control desent.
Re:Good lesson for all
on
Tracking Mafiaboy
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Unless you're truely elite, if the FBI wants you badly enough, they'll find you
or someone else. The FBI isn't infallable, and aren't as amazing as cop shows make them out to be. They rely on informants and the criminal screwing up, just like other police organizations. This kid got caught because he bragged and wanted everyone to know he did it...let's not go patting the FBI on the back too much.
Sometimes though, when the public wants someone caught bad enough, and there are no leads (or they aren't allowed to get the person who did it), it's time to find the person who didn't do it and convict them. There are plenty of prisoners who pled 'not guilty', and the evidence used against them just doesn't add up, but still found themselves stuffed away and never heard from again because these organizations needed to save face in the public eye.
Silicon Valley (AP) - Comcast announced they will providing subsidies for "bandwidth achievers", giving an additional 500kbps in bandwidth to those individuals who have managed to transfer large amounts of data. Dell and General Motors employees will be getting an additional 1mbps for downloading approximately 85 gigs of mp3's in the first quarter, despite the fact most of those mp3's are going to be redistributed from the gnutella servers they moved to Mexico last year.
When asked if this made sense, considering the fact these "bandwidth achievers" could collected such a mass of data because they have many powerful computers sharing the connection, as opposed to smaller customers unable to compete with minimal resources, a Comcast representative said, "We thought that way too, until we saw the potential for kickbacks from these guys when we're up for re-electi..umm...renewal of our car and computer support contracts. God bless America."
It's odd they'd go after AudioGalaxy, considering other filesharing apps don't work to promote artists in the way it does. AG will (or try to) block you from downloading songs where someone has complained, suggest other artists and genres that may appeal and have a message board for discussing each musician. Seems better than just getting mp3's off napster.
I don't see how the RIAA can claim, with a straight face, that the copyrighted-song blocking was 'not as good as a first year CS student'. They've done the best you can realistically do with keyword blocking, without blocking others in the crossfire. For example:
The Cars, Drive = blocked.
According to the RIAA, if the band "Drive" releases a song called "Cars", it should be denied. Given the combinations of keywords, you'd be blocking pretty much everything that isn't obscure and unique, like "the Crucifucks", "Tumor Circus", "Cockmonger" or "Republican Buttocks".
They also have some light content-based filtering. I haven't researched this, but I think it goes by the ID3 tag. It seems to be used mostly to combat misspellings. Obviously, the RIAA's example was the worst-case scenario.
They've really done a fair amount of filtering, and enough in the other areas to show they aren't just a napster clone (which wouldn't be a bad thing by my standards). It seems they just want any type of music far away from computers, because it's easier to control than to just come up with cooler ideas and incentive for people to buy. I suppose it's also easier than releasing something better than the pussified swill I hear booming by from people's car radios.
--
PS: both AG for linux, and the other linux version called xsatellite are spyware free. The official AG linux binary is still supported.
Slashdot Mirror
It shot down Objectivism, but Ayn Rand's major goal of it was that "altruism robs a man's soul" and "if you want something, take it". So yes, I believe it is a good thing to not have 'psychopaths' living for themselves, despising the concept of helping others and just running around taking what is 'theirs'.
Just my opinion.
I just installed 5.0 yesterday. Sigh.
Libel law in the US and UK is actually quite similar. Perhaps my point wasn't illustrated clearly enough, but at any rate, I highly doubt this case will be granted any merit given the current state of libel law in a first world nation like the UK.
And the trial is in Harare...so what do UK laws have to do with it? The whole point is that he ISN'T being tried in the UK, he's being targetted and tried in Zimbabwe for something he did in the UK.
Your point is as relevant as saying "Dmitri Skylarov can't be convicted in the US, because Russia doesn't have laws against the code he wrote"*. We only wish it stays that easy (and reasonable, and logical).
* - I know, Skylarov's software was sold in the US putting him at the mercy of US courts, but that wasn't the point of my analogy.
One of their most popular recent movies. No copy protection. Headline in 3 months:
Pirated copies of Harry Potter rampant on the net
Silicon Valley (AP) Senator Hollings has begun pushing the need for even stronger copy protection and monitoring software built into every device, citing the recent explosion in pirated movie trading......
Ever consider that most people who admin IIS for a living weren't in the position to object to its introduction? Or places where they are told they are in control of such things, and submit proposals that get ignored by higher-ups?
I know your pain, as do many others. It's been said that IT groups don't choose Microsoft products, they just install them. One workplace of mine has Exchange, IIS and all the MS side-dishes, and I fought them kicking and screaming. But, the marketing geeks upstairs read in a magazine that something is a "robust solution" and assume it'll work in our environment.
Of course, I'd rather spend my day implementing cool new stuff to make their work better, but instead I sit around coddling a patch-monster.
It should be obvious that to burry copper is completely obsolete.
Wrong! Copper is already strung around every city and home in America (probably a hefty portion of the world). And, there's a standard for gigabit over copper:
Deployment Guide
[PDF]
It's limited to 100 meters, but for communities, home networks and any switched network, I don't see a point in passing up what is already laid in the building. For future digs, they could go either way, and I'll agree fiber is the way to go. But let's not ditch copper just yet...it seems to have some usefulness left in it.
It's good to finally see a CGI/Perl book pushing strict and warnings. Of course, that's not going to ensure good programming, I've seen some horribly stupid code pass the test with use strict;. Do they use Taint mode at all? Is there any mention of how dumb CGI can be, and the nasty pits it can leave when problems (not obvious to the new guy, like unchecked open filehandles) are ignored?
Also, what's wrong with Mason? They may have recommended it because it makes an easy transition into mod_perl, as it can be used either way.
Rumors are Apple itself will come out with Windows compatible software or hardware. But since it's Apple there's no way to know for sure.
e rs/mp3-players company?
;)
Yeah, really...after all, look what happens when Jobs says he has something that will change the world.
I bet you use 3rd party apps to make your MP3s. You should be glad Apple isn't preventing 3rd parties from making compatibility software.
Good point. My entire desktop is mainly "third party" stuff. Even if Apple included something, I'd probably end up seeking out another company who's sole purpose was to build something better...I never got the point of having one company do everything. Would you rather buy MP3 software from an MP3 software company, or a hardware/software/servers/office/home/lamps/scoot
Yes, I'm frustrated ATM. Nothing personal.
Great, first Sentient ATM now a frustrated one. I'll look forward to oh-so-clever stories of eating cigarettes in the future.
some lucky people got a chance to ride on this experimental train
Let's see....get a steel tube hurtling across the ground at ~500km/h, and oh! It's still in a stage being called "experimental"! These people are about as lucky as my one-eyed three-legged ringwormed dog bearing that name.
For now on, you might just want to read the EULA before you click 'accept'.
What is this, the 5000th time I've seen that line in a Slashdot article? Maybe people should start paying attention. RTFEULA. If you don't agree with it, don't install it, and write to the company telling them why (and, as you are legally allowed in the US, demand a refund. No product can be forced on you). Look for an alternative with a license you can agree with. It isn't too tough, and it's the only way to make a point to these companies. Using it anyway doesn't work, bitching on Slashdot doesn't work...a large number of persons telling them they refuse to comply with stupid terms and won't buy it will work.
A "blog" is an online diary. Just because it's a "journal", doesn't make it journalism, by the practical definition. Hopefully, this school is teaching the difference.
My first reaction is: "Great, just when I thought the trend of whining bohemian teenagers was on the decline, more fascinating online drivel about how the Offspring sold out". Rethinking it, though, maybe the internet will take more shape as a source of alternative media. Televised news is a joke, newspapers almost all suck (besides the Indypendant or the National Review, I can't think of any worth a read), the clearchannel or the radio, whatever it's called, is getting more silly by the day...maybe a large group of "bloggers" seeking out stories and drawing the lines between them will form a perfect source.
I mean, the WTO protests in Seattle a few years ago had TV/radio/Newspapers reporting protestors rioting, and cops using almost no force against them. Personal accounts contradicted this and soon after, video and photos turn up on the internet of cops firing rubber bullets into crowds of people sitting on the sidewalk, tear gas canisters flying and even one cop ripping someone's gas mask off to pepper-spray(?) him. Who would know, if not for the fact that individuals spread the word independantly, that quite a few innocent people had been lumped in with the couple of assholes that kept showing up on CNN?
You can't take an individual's opinion as fact, but the same could be said of major news outlets. Similarly, you can't expect those major news stations to fess up when some stories don't add up, or are mysteriously omitted. If enough people start reporting what they see, eventually we'll get a much larger idea of what is really going on around here.
It's strange that I've not managed to find a site that Mozilla can't render correctly for the last six months or so.
I'm glad someone brought this up, I thought it was just me. The only sites I've seen that didn't show up perfectly in Mozilla are dopey, overdone personal pages, like any girl who has a webcam and Microsoft's dHTML book. Shut up, you look at them too. Besides that, the closest I found was some fool who put a browser check on the front page and wouldn't let non-MSIE browsers view the content, leaving the message "This site will not display properly in anything but Internet Explorer 5 or above"....so I had Konqueror pretend to be IE 5.5, and everything looked fine. Put the source through to Mozilla, and it looked perfect there, too.
Even Microsoft's website displays well, and I can't imagine anyone with more of an interest in creating a site for IE than its manufacturor.
Unbreakable Linux has NOTHING to do with preventing hacking.
But if it is compromised, couldn't that break whatever they're working on? If my ecommerce company has a cluster working on serving web pages, and I change all the web pages to "HaCkeD bY sOmE HaCkEr!", I don't think the bosses would find much humor in my saying "But, there was no downtime!". Poor example, but you get the idea.
If you're calling something "unbreakable", it has to do what it is intended to do, constantly. Not, "do something, anything, constantly".
On the other hand, I agree with you. 300 comments, 250 are probably people who saw "linux" in the title and wanted to make the BSD or Microsoft joke they've been saving up for weeks.
Kind of like calling a ship "The unsinkable"
Or the "Titanic". Ironic, how the proverbial iceburg will sink this penguin.
Either way, it's still pretty cool to see Dell growing their balls back and doing something with an OS not made by Microsoft. Oracle and Dell are two of the wealthier computer/IT companies in the world, so this should turn out interesting. If they'll call it "Unbreakable", they'll at least have to offer vendor support to back up their claims...thus hurdling the stumbling block most companies saw in Linux ("You mean the Admins will have to make the system work without blaming it on Microsoft?"). Sure, Red Hat has vendor support, but these are companies the PHB's have heard of.
Maybe it's just the way the guy was quoted in the article, but if they need to test in a "zero gravity" environment, how would the ISS be applicable?
I'd consider it a "weightless" environment, but not "zero gravity".
True, but I'm sure they've taken that into account. The problem is, when the results come back a certain way, the same persons responsible for this article will write another about how "Einstein was wrong" because they don't understand what was actually decided here.
It's like testing the lifespan of Goldfish in water. But I didn't have any water, so I used Tequila. By the way, it's 26 seconds, but after about 15 the fish started using emacs. But the example remains the same...you can "prove" or "disprove" anything depending on who's reading it. It's all relative.
It's GNU/gle, not gnoogle.
Now you've done it...you've made the Debian team cry!
I wonder what would have happened if he had one.
You, and the other eight of us would have thrown a party?
Of course, we knew this guy's position from the start. I can't see how anyone would be against such a proposal: capitalists thrive on competition, so the government pushing along competition would be a good thing*, anti-capitalist types dislike Microsoft and would like to see a reasonable alternative ($4000 for a powermac doesn't work for most). Boosting someone other than the only game in town, who has been possibly unscrupulous, and definitely been getting money and assistance from the Gov't, seems like a win for everyone.
* - Yes, I know government intervention doesn't jibe with capitalism. But, no capitalists I've met complain that the US government is doing it anyway, by giving money to Microsoft (and several other large companies), so promoting competition shouldn't bother them in this case. It's correcting an error.
Compiling all my apps from source removes worries about this kinda thing ;)
;)
In case you were wondering, he's posting from a machine running the Linux kernel, version 1.1, which he just recently finished checking.
In a bitter case of irony, I screwed with his compiler to make that kernel bundle in a trojan.
That's because your Mac is a virus..
/me ducks the ensuing flamewar.
Cheap equals cheap
So if I spend $150 and buy something, I should not expect it to work? My $150 TV should start flipping channels by itself and maybe the $150 stereo should shut off or only play half the CD's I put in it?
Comparatively, the M10x series are cheaper than the M50x series. But, this is a $150 piece of electronics, not a Cracker-Jack toy. By spending less money, you should expect fewer features, not that the advertised features won't work, and the device doesn't have basic functionality.
It should also be mentioned that on this planet, $150 for something the size, shape and apparantly the functionality of a PopTart, is not "cheap".
As a citizen of the most litigated society ever, I find the old saying 'ignorance is no exuse", though legally true, hard to swallow. I would be surprised to find a law student who was aware of more than 50% of our national and local laws.
They like it that way. Consider it a loophole to censorship and first-ammendment violations. If they don't like what you're saying, chances are there's something they can pin on you. And, once your tucked away in a prison, you're derided as a "felon" and discredited. Mention Mumia Abu Jamal in a conversation and watch how fast the eyes roll (even though someone confessed to the murder for which he was convicted).
Not to say all the dumb laws are part of a grand elaborate scheme...some of them are genuine and sincere fuckups. Others are just a misunderstanding of the repercussions. Still others are paid for by people looking to make a buck. But there are quite a few that serve no purpose other than to control desent.
Unless you're truely elite, if the FBI wants you badly enough, they'll find you
or someone else. The FBI isn't infallable, and aren't as amazing as cop shows make them out to be. They rely on informants and the criminal screwing up, just like other police organizations. This kid got caught because he bragged and wanted everyone to know he did it...let's not go patting the FBI on the back too much.
Sometimes though, when the public wants someone caught bad enough, and there are no leads (or they aren't allowed to get the person who did it), it's time to find the person who didn't do it and convict them. There are plenty of prisoners who pled 'not guilty', and the evidence used against them just doesn't add up, but still found themselves stuffed away and never heard from again because these organizations needed to save face in the public eye.
Or, to keep a government analogy, just for fun:
Silicon Valley (AP) - Comcast announced they will providing subsidies for "bandwidth achievers", giving an additional 500kbps in bandwidth to those individuals who have managed to transfer large amounts of data. Dell and General Motors employees will be getting an additional 1mbps for downloading approximately 85 gigs of mp3's in the first quarter, despite the fact most of those mp3's are going to be redistributed from the gnutella servers they moved to Mexico last year.
When asked if this made sense, considering the fact these "bandwidth achievers" could collected such a mass of data because they have many powerful computers sharing the connection, as opposed to smaller customers unable to compete with minimal resources, a Comcast representative said, "We thought that way too, until we saw the potential for kickbacks from these guys when we're up for re-electi..umm...renewal of our car and computer support contracts. God bless America."
It's odd they'd go after AudioGalaxy, considering other filesharing apps don't work to promote artists in the way it does. AG will (or try to) block you from downloading songs where someone has complained, suggest other artists and genres that may appeal and have a message board for discussing each musician. Seems better than just getting mp3's off napster.
I don't see how the RIAA can claim, with a straight face, that the copyrighted-song blocking was 'not as good as a first year CS student'. They've done the best you can realistically do with keyword blocking, without blocking others in the crossfire. For example:
The Cars, Drive = blocked.
According to the RIAA, if the band "Drive" releases a song called "Cars", it should be denied. Given the combinations of keywords, you'd be blocking pretty much everything that isn't obscure and unique, like "the Crucifucks", "Tumor Circus", "Cockmonger" or "Republican Buttocks".
They also have some light content-based filtering. I haven't researched this, but I think it goes by the ID3 tag. It seems to be used mostly to combat misspellings. Obviously, the RIAA's example was the worst-case scenario.
They've really done a fair amount of filtering, and enough in the other areas to show they aren't just a napster clone (which wouldn't be a bad thing by my standards). It seems they just want any type of music far away from computers, because it's easier to control than to just come up with cooler ideas and incentive for people to buy. I suppose it's also easier than releasing something better than the pussified swill I hear booming by from people's car radios.
--
PS: both AG for linux, and the other linux version called xsatellite are spyware free. The official AG linux binary is still supported.
This is essentially useless. Great, you can remove the icons if they were really bothering you so much...but can the OEM's?
Doubt it.