Well, the real problem here is that Apple *should* have called Jaguar MacOS 11. By calling it OS 10.2, it implies that it's only a point upgrade from 10.1... and as such it should be free or discounted to current 10.1 users.
If they had called it OS 11.0, nobody would have complained about the cost.
Having just installed a shiny new copy of SuSE 8.0 on my PeeCee, I was quite pleased with everything until I tried to get X working.
Ok, so I'm used to this. X11 is a nasty system that feels very much like Microsoft Windows, they've both been getting layer-upon-layer of cruft since the 1980's (it's just that Bill sweeps it under the carpet, whereas the X community at least tries to polish it up). I was a little dismayed to find that attempting to configure X actually physically locked my hardware though.
So, I turn off 3D acceleration and try again. Same thing. In fact, I can't get X to come up at all! Yeah, I have really non-standard hardware to blame right? Well, I have a GeForce 3 video card and a 19" monitor that can handle 1600x1200 @ 70Hz... so why is this so tricky?
Answer... PeeCee hardware. I'm sure it's some legacy BIOS cruft that says "Hey, make sure that AGP 4x card can still be seen by any application that tries to poke at hardware address 0xC000, just in case!" Phagh!
Throw it all away... Yes, proprietary hardware is limiting... but at least they are allowed to innovate. They don't have to continue supporting CPU instructions that were last seen in a calculator (4044)!
From now on, I will "encode" the real filenames of all my files using a cipher that uses song titles from RIAA protected artists.
As a result, when I put my perfectly legal files up for sharing, the RIAA lawyers will undoubtedly see them and try to sue me for copyright violation.
It seems like I could then turn around and sue them for attempting to bypass my copy-protection by reading the filenames (which are my chosen cipher) -- using the DMCA, as well as wrongful prosecution, since my files are NOT illegal warez.
But I think it's the gradual pressures that will need to be dealt with. Sure, a flexible cable can handle instantaneous stress, but how about being dragged along by a moving sheet of ice that you're embedded in? They might lay it atop the surface at the start, but it won't stay on top. Even without any melting, drifts will accumulate and bury it... then it will be dragged along with the direction the ice flows. I don't know how fast things like that move, but since different sections might move in different directions, you'd need quite a bit of slack to last more than 5 or 10 years.
The only way I can think of would be to keep it both strong enough and slightly warm so it "cuts" as the ice moves, instead of being dragged along for the ride. Warmth means power consumption, and I think that would be in short supply for at least half the year.
Might I suggest the fine product AdSubtract , which allows one to block all kinds of things on a site-by-site basis (thus, blocking all pop-ups, except at foo.com where they are useful).
As for tabs, try NetCaptor , which I haven't used myself -- but it looks like it adds that capability.
Normally, I'm not a Micro$oft fan in any way -- but I have to admit that IE generally does a better job at rendering the kinds of pages that actually live on the net.
Standards are nice, but if people are already failing to follow them, must we continue to have "nearly as good" or "works if the web author had followed the standard" browsers? What's the point of staying to a "standard" that isn't used? I'd rather be able to READ what's out there.
If you're duplicating a legitimate source of data, you'd be a fool not to just create a single master image and get it stamped.
Seriously, when you're a small-time band, you burn a few hundred a month... big deal. If you're trying to do a few thousand, you're costing yourself more money in wasted time than you're saving by not having a duplication place do this for you.
OTOH, if your time is worth nothing to you (monetarily OR socially), then by all means, sit and stare at the blinkin' lights all day and flip discs. Imagine they're hamburger patties, but that you're getting paid a negative minimum-wage for doing it.:)
Awesome news. An ISP that actually has a backbone (really, pun not intended!)
Now if only the PC manufacturers would show similar courage, maybe we could convince the RIAA/MPAA that they are just companies and that even money can only go so far.
I think Rosen and Valenti just have an inferiority complex and are trying to be like Bill Gates.:)
Because you are a consumer and cannot be trusted. You will pirate software, and you will steal music. You are a BAD PERSON (TM) and the RIAA/MPAA is working very hard to pass laws to keep People Like You from harming their right to profit.
This is how they view us. To the industry, we are nothing more than a source of income, and they will go to any length to protect that. Producing good products at reasonable costs isn't possible due to their limited mindsets, so they attempt to maintain their archaic model at the expense of our freedoms. Afterall, what does our freedom mean to them? Nothing.
As long as people like us continue to accept whatever people in Hollywood or Redmond say as the only alternative, we will reap the fruit they plant. If you don't want Bill Gates and Jack Valenti to tell you what you are allowed to do with your computer, you need to stop buying their products and tell your congressmen that you won't be a part of their system anymore. You can't avoid the law, but you can choose to not listen to music from the RIAA, not watch movies from the MPAA, not use software from Redmond, and not buy hardware with DRM. If that means becoming Amish, then hey... raise a barn and think back to the good old days before the corporations took over.
The problem is that it's a very tiny step to go from WMP not playing "licensed" material, to having the DRM blocking implemented in the kernel. Once that is done, unlicensed material won't even get to your sound card, the kernel won't allow it to be sent. It may not even allow it to reside in RAM.
If the other hardware manufacturers jump on the bandwagon (as they supposedly will have to), the sound card itself will refuse anything it can't verify as legal. So even if you use encryption and write your own drivers to get around the kernel's restrictions, the card itself may still refuse to play ball.
DRM is not compatible with free computing. If and when DRM becomes mandatory, you will only be a client leasing certain services on your machine. Welcome to the new millennium!
With cortical implants, and our friendly DRM hardware as a part of them, any thoughts you have will first be transferred to a special section of eBay, whereupon all large corporations will get a chance to bid on them. After the auction, the thought will be modified as nescessary to avoid copyright infringement, and returned to the consumer's brain. The consumer will then experience the non-infringing, politically correct thought and feel an intense desire to contact the winning bidder about it.
Any thought which is not bid upon is considered your own original material.
I don't agree with a *law* requiring open source, anymore than I'd agree with a law requiring Microsoft. The consumer should have the freedom to choose the product they feel best suits their needs... that's called a market economy.
The implications of this law are that if an open-source project is available for a task, then they MUST use it. Think about that for a moment. If a pre-alpha version of an open-source traffic-grid-control-system package is available, you would be required *BY LAW* to use that untested, unfinished work instead of the propritary but well-tested package that's also available. Hospitals would be required *BY LAW* to use potentially untested IV rate control software if such a thing were available as open source.
Is that the kind of thing you really want? Is hurting Microsoft worth the death of hundreds? Thousands? More???
This already makes the open source community look like a bunch of zealots who want nothing more than blood. Imagine what it will do for the community when such a system is put in place (because they had no choice) and a pair of 747's land on the same runway and collide? I can see the headlines already... "Open Source Movement Responsible Tragedy in Los Angelos, Hundreds Dead."
Don't get me wrong. I'd love to see Microsoft put humbly back in their place... but not at the cost of the corruption of our legal system any further than it already is. The trick is to defeat the enemy without becoming the enemy.
Hey, don't forget to nail these bastards for giving you TONS of free publicity!
Oh wait, some of them are dead? Fine, the lawyers can sue their descendants!
In fact, screw a national ID system. Every American needs a Personal Assigned Lawyer. Then we can all just have our PAL's sue each other until the entire world collapses under the weight of our beloved democratic Red Tape (TM).
Damnit! I'm not OLD enough to be this SICK of our society yet!!!
So, what you're saying is that when I run an application inside this framework, it has to be rendered by the "homebase" rendering system, which invokes the mozilla renderer, which in turn will call on my gnome/kde window manager's rendering engine (for widgets), which has to invoke X11's rendering system to manipulate the background structures of the generic X11 system, which then has to be rendered into the specific display actions for the display it's being routed to, which has to go through the device drivers to be turned into actual commands for my accelerated video card to then render into pixels that my monitor can display?
And exactly how is this going to make anything faster, better, or simpler?
Hmmmm, but you are posting to slashdot. This implies that you have a computer (yes, you could be posting from a public machine, but if you read/. enough to post, you probably do own one). Computers require electricity. *GASP* You're paying to use something after you bought it!
And, while I'm at it... how did you get your computer? Did you happen to drive somewhere in a car? Did you have to put gasoline in it? OMG! You had to pay for something after you bought it!!!!
Sorry, you probably also have an internet connection of some sort... which you need to make use of your modem, which is yet again, paying to use something you already own.
Yeah, it's called a "service". If you don't want services that interact with other humans (and thus usually cost money for their time), you need to be Self-Sufficient (TM). For examples of this, you could check out http://www.amish.net/ -- although that is itself a rather amusing contradiction and example of yet more interdependant services.
Hmmm, perhaps being a lone trapper in the Canadian wilderness would get you away from those pesky "services"? Let's look at http://www.ranger1.ca/CNTA/issues.html AHHHH! They have a comitte, which means human interaction.. and... NOOOOO! $5/year membership fees.
There is, at least ONE thing you can buy which will not entail any ongoing service contracts or other fees. A cemetary plot. Or is it????
Step 1: Fully computer generated GOLF tournament. This may have already happened, and the public would be none the wiser.
Step 2: Fully computer generated and scripted soap-opera. This may have already happened, and the public would be none the wiser.
Step 3: Fully computer generated, scripted, and supported news broadcast with physical evidence fabricated by "unnamed agencies" as needed. This may have already happened, and the public would be none the wiser.
Step 4: Greetings citizen. Please place your tongue on the screen for clearance level verification.
True, although *most* libraries don't prevent anyone from coming in and using the materials on the shelves, regardless of who you are. For example, not being a current student, I can't go check out books from our local University without paying a (rather high IMHO) fee to get a non-student library card. I can, however, sit down in the library and read anything I want.
What this idea would do is allow the wealthy to research in the comfort of their own home, whereas the poor would have to take notes and do the work at the library.
So this guy has been sniffing glue for how many years??? Clearly, his ability as a leader is second to none... We all know that the video rental business was responsible for the utter downfall of the movie industry, and that their sales keep declining with every new release.
I think someone needs to throw this guy out on his ass and let him go live out in normal society for a while, instead of the pampered room full of yes-men and monkeys with typewriters that he's obviously living in now.
From this point forwards, any author will be forced to accept one of the established DRM schemes as an integrated part of any work they create, or their work will be prohibited from distribution by law.
Think I'm overreacting? Well, how is the validity of a DRM certificate/watermark/whatever going to be established? Sure, *I* can go generate a PGP key and claim it's mine... but unless I'm an already-established presence -- or have the backing of one -- how are YOU going to know which of two different keys with my name is the "real" me? More importantly, how is any DRM mechanism going to know?
When in doubt, industry always takes the simpler, more expensive route. An open, public system to try and do this will rely on exactly the kind of freedom that these DRM laws suppress... which points us back towards a small set of corporate DRM Key Vendors who will gladly sell you a key, for a price. It might be an upfront "pay $5 per key" kind of price, or it may be a "we now own your work" kind of price, but you will pay something for it!
So, given that climate, anyone who refuses to buy into the DRM key system (whatever form it takes) will not be able to digitally sign their work in a way that the DRM hardware/software can validate, which would mark it as illegal to copy.
See what happens when politics and science meet?
This post is probably in violation of the DMCA or Homeland Security in some way. Since it is NOT signed by a valid DRM mechanism, everyone of you who has this in your browser cache is also in violation. Enjoy!
A single number won't cut it. I will need my own class C subnet for all the implants I'll have by the time it passes through congress. I guess my nanobots can be behind a masquarading firewall.:)
Actually, it depends on how you want to write your game. If you want to use all Micro$lop's native API libraries, then yes.. it would be nasty to try and then port it to other platforms without a good guarentee of ROI.
OTOH, if you write using universal libraries that are available for all platforms (OpenGL, etc.) then it becomes a matter of writing a little bit of glue for each new platform and cross-compiling.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, the real problem here is that Apple *should* have called Jaguar MacOS 11. By calling it OS 10.2, it implies that it's only a point upgrade from 10.1... and as such it should be free or discounted to current 10.1 users.
If they had called it OS 11.0, nobody would have complained about the cost.
Amen to that!
Having just installed a shiny new copy of SuSE 8.0 on my PeeCee, I was quite pleased with everything until I tried to get X working.
Ok, so I'm used to this. X11 is a nasty system that feels very much like Microsoft Windows, they've both been getting layer-upon-layer of cruft since the 1980's (it's just that Bill sweeps it under the carpet, whereas the X community at least tries to polish it up). I was a little dismayed to find that attempting to configure X actually physically locked my hardware though.
So, I turn off 3D acceleration and try again. Same thing. In fact, I can't get X to come up at all! Yeah, I have really non-standard hardware to blame right? Well, I have a GeForce 3 video card and a 19" monitor that can handle 1600x1200 @ 70Hz... so why is this so tricky?
Answer... PeeCee hardware. I'm sure it's some legacy BIOS cruft that says "Hey, make sure that AGP 4x card can still be seen by any application that tries to poke at hardware address 0xC000, just in case!" Phagh!
Throw it all away... Yes, proprietary hardware is limiting... but at least they are allowed to innovate. They don't have to continue supporting CPU instructions that were last seen in a calculator (4044)!
From now on, I will "encode" the real filenames of all my files using a cipher that uses song titles from RIAA protected artists.
As a result, when I put my perfectly legal files up for sharing, the RIAA lawyers will undoubtedly see them and try to sue me for copyright violation.
It seems like I could then turn around and sue them for attempting to bypass my copy-protection by reading the filenames (which are my chosen cipher) -- using the DMCA, as well as wrongful prosecution, since my files are NOT illegal warez.
True enough,
But I think it's the gradual pressures that will need to be dealt with. Sure, a flexible cable can handle instantaneous stress, but how about being dragged along by a moving sheet of ice that you're embedded in? They might lay it atop the surface at the start, but it won't stay on top. Even without any melting, drifts will accumulate and bury it... then it will be dragged along with the direction the ice flows. I don't know how fast things like that move, but since different sections might move in different directions, you'd need quite a bit of slack to last more than 5 or 10 years.
The only way I can think of would be to keep it both strong enough and slightly warm so it "cuts" as the ice moves, instead of being dragged along for the ride. Warmth means power consumption, and I think that would be in short supply for at least half the year.
As for tabs, try NetCaptor , which I haven't used myself -- but it looks like it adds that capability.
Normally, I'm not a Micro$oft fan in any way -- but I have to admit that IE generally does a better job at rendering the kinds of pages that actually live on the net.
Standards are nice, but if people are already failing to follow them, must we continue to have "nearly as good" or "works if the web author had followed the standard" browsers? What's the point of staying to a "standard" that isn't used? I'd rather be able to READ what's out there.
Only if you're a software pirate. :)
:)
If you're duplicating a legitimate source of data, you'd be a fool not to just create a single master image and get it stamped.
Seriously, when you're a small-time band, you burn a few hundred a month... big deal. If you're trying to do a few thousand, you're costing yourself more money in wasted time than you're saving by not having a duplication place do this for you.
OTOH, if your time is worth nothing to you (monetarily OR socially), then by all means, sit and stare at the blinkin' lights all day and flip discs. Imagine they're hamburger patties, but that you're getting paid a negative minimum-wage for doing it.
Awesome news. An ISP that actually has a backbone (really, pun not intended!)
:)
Now if only the PC manufacturers would show similar courage, maybe we could convince the RIAA/MPAA that they are just companies and that even money can only go so far.
I think Rosen and Valenti just have an inferiority complex and are trying to be like Bill Gates.
I hope the range is long enough... otherwise the poor machine would be encrypting/decrypting data all the time while people are watching pr0n.
Because you are a consumer and cannot be trusted. You will pirate software, and you will steal music. You are a BAD PERSON (TM) and the RIAA/MPAA is working very hard to pass laws to keep People Like You from harming their right to profit.
This is how they view us. To the industry, we are nothing more than a source of income, and they will go to any length to protect that. Producing good products at reasonable costs isn't possible due to their limited mindsets, so they attempt to maintain their archaic model at the expense of our freedoms. Afterall, what does our freedom mean to them? Nothing.
As long as people like us continue to accept whatever people in Hollywood or Redmond say as the only alternative, we will reap the fruit they plant. If you don't want Bill Gates and Jack Valenti to tell you what you are allowed to do with your computer, you need to stop buying their products and tell your congressmen that you won't be a part of their system anymore. You can't avoid the law, but you can choose to not listen to music from the RIAA, not watch movies from the MPAA, not use software from Redmond, and not buy hardware with DRM. If that means becoming Amish, then hey... raise a barn and think back to the good old days before the corporations took over.
This means they can now sue anyone who might happen to combine the classic "vacation" email responder with an icq->email gateway???
Can we hold the Patent Office in contempt? They clearly are NOT fulfilling their mandate.
The problem is that it's a very tiny step to go from WMP not playing "licensed" material, to having the DRM blocking implemented in the kernel. Once that is done, unlicensed material won't even get to your sound card, the kernel won't allow it to be sent. It may not even allow it to reside in RAM.
If the other hardware manufacturers jump on the bandwagon (as they supposedly will have to), the sound card itself will refuse anything it can't verify as legal. So even if you use encryption and write your own drivers to get around the kernel's restrictions, the card itself may still refuse to play ball.
DRM is not compatible with free computing. If and when DRM becomes mandatory, you will only be a client leasing certain services on your machine. Welcome to the new millennium!
Nothing sticky about it.
With cortical implants, and our friendly DRM hardware as a part of them, any thoughts you have will first be transferred to a special section of eBay, whereupon all large corporations will get a chance to bid on them. After the auction, the thought will be modified as nescessary to avoid copyright infringement, and returned to the consumer's brain. The consumer will then experience the non-infringing, politically correct thought and feel an intense desire to contact the winning bidder about it.
Any thought which is not bid upon is considered your own original material.
I don't agree with a *law* requiring open source, anymore than I'd agree with a law requiring Microsoft. The consumer should have the freedom to choose the product they feel best suits their needs... that's called a market economy.
The implications of this law are that if an open-source project is available for a task, then they MUST use it. Think about that for a moment. If a pre-alpha version of an open-source traffic-grid-control-system package is available, you would be required *BY LAW* to use that untested, unfinished work instead of the propritary but well-tested package that's also available. Hospitals would be required *BY LAW* to use potentially untested IV rate control software if such a thing were available as open source.
Is that the kind of thing you really want? Is hurting Microsoft worth the death of hundreds? Thousands? More???
This already makes the open source community look like a bunch of zealots who want nothing more than blood. Imagine what it will do for the community when such a system is put in place (because they had no choice) and a pair of 747's land on the same runway and collide? I can see the headlines already... "Open Source Movement Responsible Tragedy in Los Angelos, Hundreds Dead."
Don't get me wrong. I'd love to see Microsoft put humbly back in their place... but not at the cost of the corruption of our legal system any further than it already is. The trick is to defeat the enemy without becoming the enemy.
Hey, don't forget to nail these bastards for giving you TONS of free publicity!
Oh wait, some of them are dead? Fine, the lawyers can sue their descendants!
In fact, screw a national ID system. Every American needs a Personal Assigned Lawyer. Then we can all just have our PAL's sue each other until the entire world collapses under the weight of our beloved democratic Red Tape (TM).
Damnit! I'm not OLD enough to be this SICK of our society yet!!!
So, what you're saying is that when I run an application inside this framework, it has to be rendered by the "homebase" rendering system, which invokes the mozilla renderer, which in turn will call on my gnome/kde window manager's rendering engine (for widgets), which has to invoke X11's rendering system to manipulate the background structures of the generic X11 system, which then has to be rendered into the specific display actions for the display it's being routed to, which has to go through the device drivers to be turned into actual commands for my accelerated video card to then render into pixels that my monitor can display?
And exactly how is this going to make anything faster, better, or simpler?
Hmmmm, but you are posting to slashdot. This implies that you have a computer (yes, you could be posting from a public machine, but if you read /. enough to post, you probably do own one). Computers require electricity. *GASP* You're paying to use something after you bought it!
And, while I'm at it... how did you get your computer? Did you happen to drive somewhere in a car? Did you have to put gasoline in it? OMG! You had to pay for something after you bought it!!!!
Sorry, you probably also have an internet connection of some sort... which you need to make use of your modem, which is yet again, paying to use something you already own.
Yeah, it's called a "service". If you don't want services that interact with other humans (and thus usually cost money for their time), you need to be Self-Sufficient (TM). For examples of this, you could check out http://www.amish.net/ -- although that is itself a rather amusing contradiction and example of yet more interdependant services.
Hmmm, perhaps being a lone trapper in the Canadian wilderness would get you away from those pesky "services"? Let's look at http://www.ranger1.ca/CNTA/issues.html AHHHH! They have a comitte, which means human interaction.. and... NOOOOO! $5/year membership fees.
There is, at least ONE thing you can buy which will not entail any ongoing service contracts or other fees. A cemetary plot. Or is it????
Step 1: Fully computer generated GOLF tournament. This may have already happened, and the public would be none the wiser.
Step 2: Fully computer generated and scripted soap-opera. This may have already happened, and the public would be none the wiser.
Step 3: Fully computer generated, scripted, and supported news broadcast with physical evidence fabricated by "unnamed agencies" as needed. This may have already happened, and the public would be none the wiser.
Step 4: Greetings citizen. Please place your tongue on the screen for clearance level verification.
True, although *most* libraries don't prevent anyone from coming in and using the materials on the shelves, regardless of who you are. For example, not being a current student, I can't go check out books from our local University without paying a (rather high IMHO) fee to get a non-student library card. I can, however, sit down in the library and read anything I want.
What this idea would do is allow the wealthy to research in the comfort of their own home, whereas the poor would have to take notes and do the work at the library.
Yes, much like the chicken who's been decapitated some time ago. It doesn't make it any less dead.
So this guy has been sniffing glue for how many years??? Clearly, his ability as a leader is second to none... We all know that the video rental business was responsible for the utter downfall of the movie industry, and that their sales keep declining with every new release.
I think someone needs to throw this guy out on his ass and let him go live out in normal society for a while, instead of the pampered room full of yes-men and monkeys with typewriters that he's obviously living in now.
Heh.
My file server (no X11, no monitor) has an Nvidia Geforce 2MX... hey, it was already in the barebones system I used as a base to start from!
Look, it's simple.
:)
1) Spam lots of people with unsolicited email.
2) ???
3) Profit.
See?
From this point forwards, any author will be forced to accept one of the established DRM schemes as an integrated part of any work they create, or their work will be prohibited from distribution by law.
Think I'm overreacting? Well, how is the validity of a DRM certificate/watermark/whatever going to be established? Sure, *I* can go generate a PGP key and claim it's mine... but unless I'm an already-established presence -- or have the backing of one -- how are YOU going to know which of two different keys with my name is the "real" me? More importantly, how is any DRM mechanism going to know?
When in doubt, industry always takes the simpler, more expensive route. An open, public system to try and do this will rely on exactly the kind of freedom that these DRM laws suppress... which points us back towards a small set of corporate DRM Key Vendors who will gladly sell you a key, for a price. It might be an upfront "pay $5 per key" kind of price, or it may be a "we now own your work" kind of price, but you will pay something for it!
So, given that climate, anyone who refuses to buy into the DRM key system (whatever form it takes) will not be able to digitally sign their work in a way that the DRM hardware/software can validate, which would mark it as illegal to copy.
See what happens when politics and science meet?
This post is probably in violation of the DMCA or Homeland Security in some way. Since it is NOT signed by a valid DRM mechanism, everyone of you who has this in your browser cache is also in violation. Enjoy!
A single number won't cut it. I will need my own class C subnet for all the implants I'll have by the time it passes through congress. I guess my nanobots can be behind a masquarading firewall. :)
Actually, it depends on how you want to write your game. If you want to use all Micro$lop's native API libraries, then yes.. it would be nasty to try and then port it to other platforms without a good guarentee of ROI.
OTOH, if you write using universal libraries that are available for all platforms (OpenGL, etc.) then it becomes a matter of writing a little bit of glue for each new platform and cross-compiling.
Plan ahead or fall behind... your choice.