I opened a checking account at my local credit union when I was 14. On my own, with no parental signature. They didn't have check cards back then, but I could have gotten one: I had an ATM card, and the check cards are now built right into ATM cards. Anyone over the age of 12 (or 14, I'm not sure which) can open their own account at the same credit union today without any sort of parental permission.
We do without, until such time as a law is passed that says all new CDs will be automatically distributed to every home in the US and property taxes adjusted accordingly. Don't laugh. It could happen.
In that case a couple of parents went off kilter about their child purchasing a 'Parental Advisery' labeled CD from the company & when they went to return it they were told "We don't do that.". Well they took the company to court & lost...
A friend of mine did this. His 14 year old daughters had bought a few dozen CDs full of nasty lyrics. He took them all back to the music store in the mall and demanded a refund. They refused, and he threw a fit. Yelled, screamed, attracted all sorts of attention and threatened a lawsuit. The manager came out in a hurry and caved in, refunded every last penny.
This makes one wonder: Why even bother putting in the show sharing features if you're going to let the networks opt-out? They'll all opt-out, obviously, so what's the point?
Consider a company who wants to let people share shows but doesn't have the cash to go through a couple dozen major lawsuits. This company could release a device that allows show swapping, let the networks opt-out, but conveniently make it very easy for the end user to hack the box to share anything. This shifts the blame to the users and turns the box into a cult-classic to people like us.
Face it: These boxes have been a hacker's thing for a long time. They were made to be hacked. There is a whole community dedicated to doing neat tricks with a Tivo. Maybe ReplayTV wants a slice of that enthusiasm? The show sharing and the ethernet port (they know someone will write an app to let you copy the shows to your PC - it's got to be painfully obvious to the people developing this box), if easily hackable, will sell a hell of a lot of these.
I wish I could have all of my components share a simple communications channel (hmmm, or complex, like Bluetooth:-) so I could actually control what the devices are doing, instead of just blasting out pre-determined IR codes and hoping for the best.
Well, you can buy a JDS Infrared Xpander. It will work in standalone mode (without the home automation controller) and has a common bus that allows you to hook up various sensors to your devices. Then you can program it with simple if/then/else logic, so if it detects that the TV is already on, it won't issue another power command to it. Integrate it with a Timecommander Plus or Stargate for full home automation pleasure.
I have the Timecommander Plus & IR Xpander and absolutely love it. I can initiate macros from any device - IR, RF remotes, wall mounted touchscreens or keypads - and the JDS equipment takes care of everything, including lighting & appliance control throughout the house.
For considerably less money, the Houselinc will accomplish many of the same tasks. However, these devices are not hand-held controllers, although you can use your computer as one. You'll still need an IR remote to control the bulk of what you want to do. Most people couple them with a Pronto, or Crestron or Phast touchscreen ($$$$$). These systems will simply take care of your macros, sensing the current status of your devices and responding appropriately. If you block out the IR ports on your equipment and channel all IR input through a complete JDS setup, you can use flags & variables to keep track of the status of each device in great detail - for instance, whether your receiver is set to CD, DVD, VCR, etc, or what channel your TV is on.
The only people the record companies are offending here are the "geeks" who play CDs in their computers.
Hmmm. Last I checked, millions of portable MP3 players had been sold and are still being sold in damn near every consumer electronics type store in the country. I think that pretty much discredits the whole idea that only geeks care about this.
Every teenager I know has an MP3 player. How do you think their parents are going to react when the CDs they bought for their kids don't work? "Mom, something is wrong with my Britney Spears CD. I can't copy it to the $300 MP3 player you got me for Christmas last year. Will you drive me to the store and help me exhange it for a new one?" Most parents care about their kids and aren't going to be happy to find out they're being ripped off by The Man...
I'm not unsympathetic to the problem, but according to the law, the secured creditors get everything. If there's anything left over, then the unsecured creditors. Employees and stockholders fall into the latter category.
Yeah, and that's exactly the way it should be::rolleyes::. Better to have a bunch of families face severe hardship than $creditor watch his billion dollar profits sink a couple percentage points.
I don't know what the fuss is about. I'd love to see the bastards try to enforce this.
Microsoft Lawyer: "Your honor, I call CmdrTaco to the stand."
Taco: (takes stand)
MS: "Did you, on 9/20/2001, purchase a copy of Frontpage 2000?"
Taco: "Yes."
MS: "Did you, on 9/21/2001, use Frontpage 2000 to create a web site?"
Taco: "Yes."
MS: "And did that web site contain pictures of Mr. William H. Gates III engaging in copulation with half a dozen goats while simultaneously using the Microsoft logo to spank cash out of customers, bent over with their palms on the floor, pants around their ankles and stupid smiles on their faces?"
The basic OS installation wasn't too hard (though not for the computer newbie), but I couldn't believe how much time I spent on silly little configuration issues.
Yup. My biggest problem with Linux is this sort of thing. The HOWTOs are very well done but they expect that everything goes smoothly. Most of the time, it doesn't. I'll get to step 4, for instance, in a specific procedure and it will say "type this, and this will happen." I'll do it, but get an error. Then what? The HOWTOs usually do not take this into consideration. It simply says "x will happen", but there needs to be some extra help there: "If you get this error, you need to do this."
So I end up on the web, searching for that particular error. Usually I have good luck finding it and things have always worked out in the end, but not without spending a considerable amount of time. It took me most of a day to upgrade sendmail over one stupid little issue; I had to download and install a couple of other things before the newer version of sendmail would work correctly. Not a problem, but the howto didn't tell me what to do in case of error x and I had to figure it out on my own. 99% of computer users can't even follow simple directions. How are they ever going to run Linux, where you actually have to use some common sense?
Most reasonably intelligent people would have no problem deploying a Windows 2000 domain with a few dozen clients on their own. It's all very basic, and everything pretty much works as expected. Linux, on the other hand... I couldn't imagine most people trying to setup even something as basic as a Samba share. Sad, but true.
The fact is that most users can barely handle Windows. We set my mother in law up with Internet access last week. She walked away and left the thing connected, so her ISP dropped her after some amount of time. She called me up and asked why she couldn't get to any web pages, and wanted to know why there was a button on her screen asking her to reconnect. She was too afraid to just hit the damn button to see what would happen. This is the kind of bullshit that most people pull on a daily basis. If they can't even use Windows, they'll never figure out Linux until it's dumbed way down.
Also conspicuously missing from DVD releases are two major triologies: Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones.
And this is the kind of bullshit that is pressing people to buy bootleg copies. Do you know how easy it is to get these films on DVD? They were released on laserdisc; you can find nice DVD transfers just about anywhere. I already own Star Wars on VHS and I'll tell you what, if Lucas continues to take his sweet ass time in releasing the DVD, eventually I'm just going to up and order myself some bootlegs. My VHS copies are getting worn out and I want to watch a digital version without buying a used laserdisc player. If I have to buy bootlegs Lucas can bite my ass on a real release, because I won't buy it. Same thing applies to BTTF and Indiana Jones.
Just release the movies on DVD already. I don't get what this bullshit hold up is. It shouldn't take years to release these films, considering they've already been released on laserdisc.
Somewhere, probably still in my parent's attic, I have a huge box full of Construx. When I was a kid I made little carts and buggies, hooked them to my Chihuahua, and made him pull them around the house. Great fun, that Chihuahua was...
I'd much rather have soldiers armed with MP5s in airports
Nevermind the fact that had this been in place, it still would have done jack shit in regards to preventing the WTC attack... In fact, none of the new "safety measures" we are putting in would have done a damn thing. No more curbside luggage check in? No plastic knives served with in-flight meals? Give me a break. It wouldn't have prevented this and it won't prevent the next one.
Running cat-5 to every house? No wonder you couldn't get funding. Were you also planning on installing thousands of switches throughout town to make up for distance limitations?;)
Re:It's been said before...
on
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It's primitive as hell and it'll never happen, but still...it *could* work, right?
I think so. You could even have knives or stun guns that drop from sealed compartments above every passenger. Whoops: Mr. Terrorist now has 100+ passengers carrying weapons to deal with. Even the women could attack him with a stun gun...
Re:It's been said before...
on
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· Score: 2
the pilots already have a "panic button" in the event of a skyjacking. This could easily also put the plane irreversibly on automatic pilot, or remote piloting, to ensure that the vehicle -could- not be used in this way, and WOULD land safely at the nearest suitable emergency runway.
That's a good idea, but I've got one better: A "terrorist" button. Drops ONLY the oxygen masks for the pilot & copilot, then fills the entire aircraft with a gas that puts all on board to sleep. Place these buttons in secure areas around the plane and train flight attendants to use them. Also, make sure the cockpit doors stay locked - maybe strengthen them. If all hell breaks loose back there, they can put everyone to sleep and make an emergency landing somewhere.
Of course, then you get into a situation where the hijackers bring gas masks. Perhaps you could add very strong cockpit doors, and/or some sort of a system that stuns anyone who gets near the cockpit after the gas has been released.
Re:Coordinated Efforts
on
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And if we cannot shame our media into adopting this code of ethics, we must legally force them to.
Oh, and throw free speech out the window? Great idea! Where can I sign up?
I agree with your idea that the media should give zero press to these types of people, but forcing them to do so is out of the question.
Re:And here comes Carnivore...
on
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Heck, we already had enough information on these guys that we should have known there were suspected terrorists on the flight. Simply connecting that info with "planes off of their flight plans" would have revealed that we had a problem with about 20-30 minutes to get our attack jets in the air.
Get our attack jets in the air? To do what? Shoot the planes down? Until Tuesday, nobody ever thought that planes would be used as missiles. Most hijackers just want to be flown somewhere. They rarely kill everyone on board, let alone thousands on the ground. Are you going to shoot down a plane full of innocent people because some terrorist just wants to be flown somewhere? Nobody had any idea what their real intentions were.
Once those planes were in the air, the only thing that could have stopped them was the passengers and flight crew. Even if you could have known what was going to happen, there wouldn't have been time to intercept and shoot them down unless you already had military jets on patrol in the vicinity. The hijacked aircraft were not in the air for very long, nor did they cover a great distance.
I want to know where the logic is that gets this comment modded "Insightful", and a nearly identical comment above it scored "Flamebait". Not to step on you, Brento: I agree with you 100%, and I agree with the Insightfulness of your post. I simply think it's insane that the other comment was modded "Flamebait".
Re:DIVX could extend rental period indefinitely
on
DivX;) Goes Legit
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· Score: 2
Wrong. All DIVX players had an option to extend a disc's rental period indefinitely (i.e. until the DIVX program ended) for US$25.
Let's see, $5 to rent the disc in the first place, and another $25 to "buy" it. So for $30 you can "own" a movie. I pay less than $20 for my DVDs. Which is the better deal? Not to mention you couldn't play the discs on the player in your bedroom, or loan them to a friend. Nor could you play them on any future player you might buy. If your current player broke, you'd just be out the $x thousands you spent on your movie collection.
This conversation is moot, though, since DIVX was squashed. Most consumers were smart enough to refuse to adopt a pay-per-view format like this. These "new" ideas of doing similar things with MP3s and CDs won't fly, either.
A buddy of mine played Everquest every night for months. His wife constantly told him what a waste of time it was. Then, one day, he got tired of the game and sold his high level character on EBay for $1500. She hasn't bothered him about playing games since.
This sort of thing is no worse than the Beanie Baby craze. If you can make good money playing games (or buying and selling stuffed dolls for hundreds more than the 50 cents worth of material they're made of), more power to you. I'm not into gaming as much as I used to be, but if I was I'd be more than happy to harvest items and sell them for cash. Talk about the ultimate job.
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I opened a checking account at my local credit union when I was 14. On my own, with no parental signature. They didn't have check cards back then, but I could have gotten one: I had an ATM card, and the check cards are now built right into ATM cards. Anyone over the age of 12 (or 14, I'm not sure which) can open their own account at the same credit union today without any sort of parental permission.
Then what do we do?
We do without, until such time as a law is passed that says all new CDs will be automatically distributed to every home in the US and property taxes adjusted accordingly. Don't laugh. It could happen.
In that case a couple of parents went off kilter about their child purchasing a 'Parental Advisery' labeled CD from the company & when they went to return it they were told "We don't do that.". Well they took the company to court & lost...
A friend of mine did this. His 14 year old daughters had bought a few dozen CDs full of nasty lyrics. He took them all back to the music store in the mall and demanded a refund. They refused, and he threw a fit. Yelled, screamed, attracted all sorts of attention and threatened a lawsuit. The manager came out in a hurry and caved in, refunded every last penny.
This makes one wonder: Why even bother putting in the show sharing features if you're going to let the networks opt-out? They'll all opt-out, obviously, so what's the point?
Consider a company who wants to let people share shows but doesn't have the cash to go through a couple dozen major lawsuits. This company could release a device that allows show swapping, let the networks opt-out, but conveniently make it very easy for the end user to hack the box to share anything. This shifts the blame to the users and turns the box into a cult-classic to people like us.
Face it: These boxes have been a hacker's thing for a long time. They were made to be hacked. There is a whole community dedicated to doing neat tricks with a Tivo. Maybe ReplayTV wants a slice of that enthusiasm? The show sharing and the ethernet port (they know someone will write an app to let you copy the shows to your PC - it's got to be painfully obvious to the people developing this box), if easily hackable, will sell a hell of a lot of these.
I wish I could have all of my components share a simple communications channel (hmmm, or complex, like Bluetooth :-) so I could actually control what the devices are doing, instead of just blasting out pre-determined IR codes and hoping for the best.
Well, you can buy a JDS Infrared Xpander. It will work in standalone mode (without the home automation controller) and has a common bus that allows you to hook up various sensors to your devices. Then you can program it with simple if/then/else logic, so if it detects that the TV is already on, it won't issue another power command to it. Integrate it with a Timecommander Plus or Stargate for full home automation pleasure.
I have the Timecommander Plus & IR Xpander and absolutely love it. I can initiate macros from any device - IR, RF remotes, wall mounted touchscreens or keypads - and the JDS equipment takes care of everything, including lighting & appliance control throughout the house.
For considerably less money, the Houselinc will accomplish many of the same tasks. However, these devices are not hand-held controllers, although you can use your computer as one. You'll still need an IR remote to control the bulk of what you want to do. Most people couple them with a Pronto, or Crestron or Phast touchscreen ($$$$$). These systems will simply take care of your macros, sensing the current status of your devices and responding appropriately. If you block out the IR ports on your equipment and channel all IR input through a complete JDS setup, you can use flags & variables to keep track of the status of each device in great detail - for instance, whether your receiver is set to CD, DVD, VCR, etc, or what channel your TV is on.
The only people the record companies are offending here are the "geeks" who play CDs in their computers.
Hmmm. Last I checked, millions of portable MP3 players had been sold and are still being sold in damn near every consumer electronics type store in the country. I think that pretty much discredits the whole idea that only geeks care about this.
Every teenager I know has an MP3 player. How do you think their parents are going to react when the CDs they bought for their kids don't work? "Mom, something is wrong with my Britney Spears CD. I can't copy it to the $300 MP3 player you got me for Christmas last year. Will you drive me to the store and help me exhange it for a new one?" Most parents care about their kids and aren't going to be happy to find out they're being ripped off by The Man...
Man, all this talk about how to send private messages to Bin Laden is going to get Taco a visit by the FBI...
I'm not unsympathetic to the problem, but according to the law, the secured creditors get everything. If there's anything left over, then the unsecured creditors. Employees and stockholders fall into the latter category.
::rolleyes::. Better to have a bunch of families face severe hardship than $creditor watch his billion dollar profits sink a couple percentage points.
Yeah, and that's exactly the way it should be
I don't know what the fuss is about. I'd love to see the bastards try to enforce this.
Microsoft Lawyer: "Your honor, I call CmdrTaco to the stand."
Taco: (takes stand)
MS: "Did you, on 9/20/2001, purchase a copy of Frontpage 2000?"
Taco: "Yes."
MS: "Did you, on 9/21/2001, use Frontpage 2000 to create a web site?"
Taco: "Yes."
MS: "And did that web site contain pictures of Mr. William H. Gates III engaging in copulation with half a dozen goats while simultaneously using the Microsoft logo to spank cash out of customers, bent over with their palms on the floor, pants around their ankles and stupid smiles on their faces?"
The basic OS installation wasn't too hard (though not for the computer newbie), but I couldn't believe how much time I spent on silly little configuration issues.
Yup. My biggest problem with Linux is this sort of thing. The HOWTOs are very well done but they expect that everything goes smoothly. Most of the time, it doesn't. I'll get to step 4, for instance, in a specific procedure and it will say "type this, and this will happen." I'll do it, but get an error. Then what? The HOWTOs usually do not take this into consideration. It simply says "x will happen", but there needs to be some extra help there: "If you get this error, you need to do this."
So I end up on the web, searching for that particular error. Usually I have good luck finding it and things have always worked out in the end, but not without spending a considerable amount of time. It took me most of a day to upgrade sendmail over one stupid little issue; I had to download and install a couple of other things before the newer version of sendmail would work correctly. Not a problem, but the howto didn't tell me what to do in case of error x and I had to figure it out on my own. 99% of computer users can't even follow simple directions. How are they ever going to run Linux, where you actually have to use some common sense?
Most reasonably intelligent people would have no problem deploying a Windows 2000 domain with a few dozen clients on their own. It's all very basic, and everything pretty much works as expected. Linux, on the other hand... I couldn't imagine most people trying to setup even something as basic as a Samba share. Sad, but true.
The fact is that most users can barely handle Windows. We set my mother in law up with Internet access last week. She walked away and left the thing connected, so her ISP dropped her after some amount of time. She called me up and asked why she couldn't get to any web pages, and wanted to know why there was a button on her screen asking her to reconnect. She was too afraid to just hit the damn button to see what would happen. This is the kind of bullshit that most people pull on a daily basis. If they can't even use Windows, they'll never figure out Linux until it's dumbed way down.
I can sit back, put my legs up on the coffee table and relax without being bitched at.
I can pause the movie if I have to take a leak.
If some asshole leaves his cellphone on, I can kick his inconsiderate ass out of my house.
The popcorn costs ten cents a bag and tastes better, too.
Pizza & beer. Need I say more?
No chance of some morons bringing their screaming 2 year old in to watch Sleepy Hollow.
No chance of being hit with popcorn thrown by a group of obnoxious teenagers.
I can watch almost any movie I want, any time I want, as many times as I want.
I don't rent, however. I buy. The point of an HT isn't to save money, anyway. If I wanted to save money I never would have gotten into this hobby...
Also conspicuously missing from DVD releases are two major triologies: Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones.
And this is the kind of bullshit that is pressing people to buy bootleg copies. Do you know how easy it is to get these films on DVD? They were released on laserdisc; you can find nice DVD transfers just about anywhere. I already own Star Wars on VHS and I'll tell you what, if Lucas continues to take his sweet ass time in releasing the DVD, eventually I'm just going to up and order myself some bootlegs. My VHS copies are getting worn out and I want to watch a digital version without buying a used laserdisc player. If I have to buy bootlegs Lucas can bite my ass on a real release, because I won't buy it. Same thing applies to BTTF and Indiana Jones.
Just release the movies on DVD already. I don't get what this bullshit hold up is. It shouldn't take years to release these films, considering they've already been released on laserdisc.
Anyone else remember Construx?
Somewhere, probably still in my parent's attic, I have a huge box full of Construx. When I was a kid I made little carts and buggies, hooked them to my Chihuahua, and made him pull them around the house. Great fun, that Chihuahua was...
I'd much rather have soldiers armed with MP5s in airports
Nevermind the fact that had this been in place, it still would have done jack shit in regards to preventing the WTC attack... In fact, none of the new "safety measures" we are putting in would have done a damn thing. No more curbside luggage check in? No plastic knives served with in-flight meals? Give me a break. It wouldn't have prevented this and it won't prevent the next one.
we trench cat-5 up to every house in the area
;)
Running cat-5 to every house? No wonder you couldn't get funding. Were you also planning on installing thousands of switches throughout town to make up for distance limitations?
It's primitive as hell and it'll never happen, but still...it *could* work, right?
I think so. You could even have knives or stun guns that drop from sealed compartments above every passenger. Whoops: Mr. Terrorist now has 100+ passengers carrying weapons to deal with. Even the women could attack him with a stun gun...
the pilots already have a "panic button" in the event of a skyjacking. This could easily also put the plane irreversibly on automatic pilot, or remote piloting, to ensure that the vehicle -could- not be used in this way, and WOULD land safely at the nearest suitable emergency runway.
That's a good idea, but I've got one better: A "terrorist" button. Drops ONLY the oxygen masks for the pilot & copilot, then fills the entire aircraft with a gas that puts all on board to sleep. Place these buttons in secure areas around the plane and train flight attendants to use them. Also, make sure the cockpit doors stay locked - maybe strengthen them. If all hell breaks loose back there, they can put everyone to sleep and make an emergency landing somewhere.
Of course, then you get into a situation where the hijackers bring gas masks. Perhaps you could add very strong cockpit doors, and/or some sort of a system that stuns anyone who gets near the cockpit after the gas has been released.
And if we cannot shame our media into adopting this code of ethics, we must legally force them to.
Oh, and throw free speech out the window? Great idea! Where can I sign up?
I agree with your idea that the media should give zero press to these types of people, but forcing them to do so is out of the question.
Heck, we already had enough information on these guys that we should have known there were suspected terrorists on the flight. Simply connecting that info with "planes off of their flight plans" would have revealed that we had a problem with about 20-30 minutes to get our attack jets in the air.
Get our attack jets in the air? To do what? Shoot the planes down? Until Tuesday, nobody ever thought that planes would be used as missiles. Most hijackers just want to be flown somewhere. They rarely kill everyone on board, let alone thousands on the ground. Are you going to shoot down a plane full of innocent people because some terrorist just wants to be flown somewhere? Nobody had any idea what their real intentions were.
Once those planes were in the air, the only thing that could have stopped them was the passengers and flight crew. Even if you could have known what was going to happen, there wouldn't have been time to intercept and shoot them down unless you already had military jets on patrol in the vicinity. The hijacked aircraft were not in the air for very long, nor did they cover a great distance.
Type 'God' in your search engine and you come up with jack
Funny, I got a number of results.
There is no reference to this quote in the Nostradamus quote search engine. Nevermind the fact that Nostradamus died in 1566.
Please, check your facts before spreading rumors...
I want to know where the logic is that gets this comment modded "Insightful", and a nearly identical comment above it scored "Flamebait". Not to step on you, Brento: I agree with you 100%, and I agree with the Insightfulness of your post. I simply think it's insane that the other comment was modded "Flamebait".
Wrong. All DIVX players had an option to extend a disc's rental period indefinitely (i.e. until the DIVX program ended) for US$25.
Let's see, $5 to rent the disc in the first place, and another $25 to "buy" it. So for $30 you can "own" a movie. I pay less than $20 for my DVDs. Which is the better deal? Not to mention you couldn't play the discs on the player in your bedroom, or loan them to a friend. Nor could you play them on any future player you might buy. If your current player broke, you'd just be out the $x thousands you spent on your movie collection.
This conversation is moot, though, since DIVX was squashed. Most consumers were smart enough to refuse to adopt a pay-per-view format like this. These "new" ideas of doing similar things with MP3s and CDs won't fly, either.
A buddy of mine played Everquest every night for months. His wife constantly told him what a waste of time it was. Then, one day, he got tired of the game and sold his high level character on EBay for $1500. She hasn't bothered him about playing games since.
This sort of thing is no worse than the Beanie Baby craze. If you can make good money playing games (or buying and selling stuffed dolls for hundreds more than the 50 cents worth of material they're made of), more power to you. I'm not into gaming as much as I used to be, but if I was I'd be more than happy to harvest items and sell them for cash. Talk about the ultimate job.
Really, people will buy low ICQ numbers? Tell me where! I've got a number just below 325,000... Enough money & it's yours.