Headline: "Name-Your-Cost Radiohead Album Pirated More Than Purchased."
Quote from article:
On the first day that Radiohead's latest became available, around 240,000 users downloaded the album from copyright-infringing peer-to-peer BitTorrent sources, according to Big Champagne, a Los-Angeles-based company that tracks illegal downloading on the Internet. Over the following days, the file was downloaded about 100,000 more times each day--adding up to more than 500,000 total illegal downloads.
That's less than the 1.2 million legitimate online sales of the album reported by the British Web site Gigwise.com. But Eric Garland, Big Champagne's chief executive, says illegal file-sharing is likely to overtake legal downloads in the coming weeks...
Yes, but this doesn't help the console. If Sony would evaluate their options from the consumer's point of view, we could very easily have these features come standard on the PSP. Instead clever individuals like Dark Alex are engaged in an "arms war" of sorts where each month a new incremental firmware is released by Sony in an attempt to keep end users from taking full advantage of, for example, the PS1-PSP capabilities. The scene is forced underground, and the average consumer is kept unaware of what functionality is possible with the PSP.
I personally have a PSP and must say that being able to play FFVII in full speed on the road is nothing short of amazing. I would have easily put down $10-20 for this capability. The unfortunate part for Sony is that they still doesn't realize that *enabling* the consumer is what sells products, not disabling features from them.
Sorry pal but that's how science works. There's no better evidence for a model than the fact that it explains all obtained results.
More to the point, there's no philosophically valid way to "prove" anything conclusively.
Yes, but without data to support a theory that "explains all obtained results" it's no better than saying "nerves use magic to transmit impulses" or "gravity is actually God's will in action."
While it seems that the "question the institution!" crowd has come out en force on this matter (which is certainly not a bad thing, I think science requires constant evaluation of the prevailing opinion), it turns out that electrochemical conduction is a very well-documented phenomenon. True, there are discrepancies at time between the model and reality, but the discovery and isolation of the hundreds of actual proteins involved with propagation of an action potential makes us fairly certain we're on the right track. Note that there are also small discrepancies with gravity (actually big ones), light, DNA, thermodynamics, etc., yet those are generally accepted theories.
Finally this doesn't relate to the parent post, but the slashdot writeup for this article is horrendous. It states the same information - that the old way is wrong, and that sound is correct - three times in a row. If you're going to submit a content-free writeup, at least keep it short.
> Your response depends on the assumption that changes in the frequency of genes within a larger population is not an example of evolution.
You're right - I caught that after I posted. I think the general conception of "evolution" among non-biologists (which includes myself, though I'm in a related field) is of random mutation leading to functionality, rather than horizontal transfer. But again you are correct in saying they both are evolutionary. Either way hopefully someone finds the "random mutation vs. horizontal transfer" idea interesting.
While I agree in principle about the "evolution" argument and education, it's important to note that the overwhelming majority of bacterial acquired resistance has nothing to do with evolution, or random mutation, at least in the present tense. It's a fairly common misconception that there is a "brute force approach" of point mutations across a large (>billions of bacterium) population that somehow constructs a mechanism by which antibiotic resistance is acquired. Even with the selective pressures of antibiotic treatments and the overwhelming number of individuals in a population, the probability of a functional protein or pathway being altered to disable the target of a particular antibiotic while retaining that protein or pathway's functionality is quite low. It can happen, but it's not the primary means by which bacteria acquire resistance.
Instead you have to consider where our antibiotic drugs come from. Penicillin, erythromycin, vancomycin, et al. are all related to the direct products of microorganisms (e.g. Penicillium mold) that have been isolated in nature and chemically modified to be suitable for use in humans. But why would a bacterial organism express an antibiotic chemical in the first place? Competition. Antibiotics are produced by organisms to eradicate local bacteria as a means of competing for nutrients. The question, then, is how are the organisms that produce antibiotic compounds able to survive themselves? And the answer, of course, is that they have previously-established mechanisms for dealing with the action of these various antibiotics.
This would not be important without a means for transfer between pathogens. That there are numerous ways for genes pertaining to virulence, growth, and even resistance to be transferred between various organisms - including between different species of bacteria. Bacteriophages are viruses that can carry genes from species to species, and there are also ways for bacteria to transfer naked DNA through a medium and incorporate functionality from one organism into another. Gene transfer is a very common event, and in a population where certain species are resistant to an antibiotic compound it is only a matter of time before these resistance elements become widespread.
Therefore, the primary means by which bacteria acquire resistance to our antibiotics is by the transfer of previously-existing resistance genes from organisms that themselves produce our antibiotics. The antibiotic that is the subject of the article is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, which was originally cultured from Cephalosporium acremonium, an organism that is obviously resistant to the action of cephalosporin antibiotics. It is likely that this resistance over time will be carried to otherwise sensitive organisms and, in the presence of antibiotic selectivity, resistant organisms will emerge as the dominant flora. So while "evolution" is an applicable concept, it's really not the key to bacterial acquired resistance.
Dave Barry also wrote a great piece on the subject back in early 2003, predicting a "nuclear arms race among razor companies." Read the article here, it's humorous.
Now come on, that's the oldest flame in the book. Whether or not you prefer to call consoles a toy or not, the Wii really isn't much of a different product than the PS3, especially since Sony have adopted motion-sensing technology.
The PS3 and Wii are substantially different. And not just in minor tech specs, but in the entire gaming experience. The PS3 is clearly a continuation of existing gaming paradigms with bigger, better, and faster hardware, plus some minor tilt inputs (which, in my understanding, will be used by a minority of games). It relies on a brand-new high-capacity storage medium, BluRay, and features native 1080p HD video output. The Wii on the other hand is really a revolution into how games are designed and played. The hardware is comparable to a first-gen Xbox and instead of pushing polygons, the goal is to make new types of games that rely on a completely new control scheme on a completely new controller. Not to mention the fact that the PS3 is about three times as expensive as the Wii.
While both systems are certainly exciting, I would hardly say they aren't "different products."
They've been quickly working to pull together a product that they can get out the door before Christmas to start a "customer feedback loop". [...] However, he said that they wanted to get a product out as quickly as possible so that they could start getting comments from customers and partners on what they wanted.
as in past tense? what they expected from a product that they've already purchased? makes me want to run out and buy one!
Okay I realize you have already made up your mind at this point, but I hope you can read my comments below and see why things may not be exactly as they seem.
There's a reason there's not a lot of hype about this. They released a demo with DragonQuest 8.
We've played it. It sucked.
Yes the demo is a piece of shit. I should've prefaced my comments by saying that I too hated the demo. I came into FFXII with very low expectations for playability. Trust me there's simply no comparison between that and the final version.
About the only thing worse than being placed on the strict rails that Final Fantasy games always enforce is having the battles stuck on rails too. The characters play the game for you - there was an article on Slashdot a while back about that when the Japanese version was released.
But what you're overlooking is that the battle system has been redesigned to fit a paradigm completely different from the traditional FF battle system. In old games, your characters would line up on one side and the enemies on the other and you would choose the commands they'd execute. This is no longer: the player is now completely responsible for every action and movement of all characters during battle. FFXII plays like an MMORPG - without the online component. Each character requires the same amount of attention and thought and interaction as a single character does in a traditional MMORPG. The amount of control added to the battle system means that there needs to be some way to step back and not micromanage every character's actions, especially when they often are repetitive.
What Square did was to invent a system of "if...then" statements that are extensively customizeable to allow the player complete control over the party. These rules can be changed on the fly and take the tedium out of playing a game with as much control as FFXII. I would think the addition of a "programming language" of sorts into which battles can be streamlined would appeal to the average/.'er and FF fan.
Give the final game a shot... rent it or something... because I know that your concerns will be alleviated. FFXII is one of the most foreward-thinking FF games released, and it's mostly in part due to its battle system which is as innovative as it is fun to play. There's a reason Famitsu gave it a perfect score, and most industry magazines/websites have given it high scores as well. I say from experience that it's among my 2 or 3 favorite FF titles (FFVI will always remain highest on my list, but that's another story...).
but trust me, it's a GREAT game. i've played through the japanese import, and it's brilliant. combat, storyline, pacing, environments, battles... all well done. it's not dumbed-down like many of the recent games have been either. if you have liked any of the previous ff games (especially those prior to the playstation era) it's worth checking this out. i personally loved it.
Good point. It's the fact of the matter that sequels are actually harder to make than completely new plotlines, because there's no easy way to deal with all the equipment/experience/magic/statistics/etc. gathered by the end of the first game at the start of the sequel.
XIII could be exciting, but everyone in the US should be very excited about FFXII coming to these shores later this year. I have imported the Japanese version and it is one of the greatest games in the FF series. As an aside, I have played FF games since the first on the NES and, like many gamers, I was not very enthusiastic about the FFXII demo disc that was released here last November. Forget that. XII is a great game and you have a lot to look forward to.
If you're interested in reading more specific details about XII, read my spoiler-free import impressions of the first 15 hours of gameplay over at ufck.
This is an example of a bad rumor that will never die. There is no way to resurrect Aeris. Period. I have owned the Japanese version since it was released in January of 1997 and I can assure you there is no such feature.
That's exactly what the Republicans are aiming for. In recent years, the ruling party has enacted the Clean Skies act, Healthy Forests Initiative, No Child Left Behind, and the PATRIOT act - all of which are (a) ironically named - the skies are not cleaner, forests are less healthy, children are left behind, and eradicating civil liberties is hardly "patriotic" - yet (b) difficult if not impossible to vote against. Even though it's only a front for the deregulation of the logging industry, what politician is going to vote against the "Healthy Forests Initiative"?
The government of Brazil manufactured generic AZT in the 90's and the United States was on the brink of an ugly lawsuit in protection of the rights of GlaxoSmithKline. (I believe) the rest of the world eventually put pressure on the US to back away and a compromise was reached.
Given the current climate of fear with respect to the bird flu scare, I would imagine Taiwan will ultimately face little opposition for such a move.
Finale's a piece of crap. On either Win or a Mac. My composition professor is a beta tester for them, and they routinely ignore his common-sense-oriented advice. If Office has as many flaws as does Finale, the corporate world would be up in arms. And that's from someone who hates Office.
The problem with Apple developing an alternative (and I'm sure they could) is that music notation software is very specialized. Something like Garageband appeals to a much wider userbase than does Finale.
Sibelius, which is a legitimate competitor to Finale, is used in some circles though IMHO it has enough flaws to make it a bad situation either way.
2 important things to note:
1. John Platt is officially "Manager of the Knowledge Tools Group at Microsoft Research." Which would be very bad for Apple, except that...
2. This isn't a final rejection, and certainly isn't as serious as the AppleInsider article makes it sound. Read the article on the Register for more info (I know this is/., but it's worth a shot). Basically Apple has a lot of patents on the iPod, such that even if Mr. Platt's patent were to stand the test of time (it has several rejections against it as well), the iPod's most important features would be safe from litigation.
Nah, it was an article entitled Message from Kabul that stands as Jon Katz's most infamous moment. The story - about a boy named Junis who loads up his Commodore after the fall of the Taliban and discovers present-day culture - had so many holes that, as a reader, it was difficult to discern if the work was merely an act of fabrication or if, in fact, Katz was truly crazy.
This stuff's been done for years - just google "gompertz cancer" and you'll see what I mean. I was part of a team that developed a mathematical model for the growth (and cure - using a modified virus, but that's a whole different story) of multiple myeloma in immunodeficient mice. Perhaps they've applied a new model (I only glanced at the paper), but this certainly isn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last time research along these lines has taken place. A lot of very smart people have spent decades working on such research.
Of course it's great to see an advancement in science, particularly applied math, but those calling for the Nobel should take a deep breath and relax - cancer isn't going away anytime soon.
Maybe they're waiting until there's a nice little plugin to Firefox that will let me click on a.torrent and download using bittorrent
This can be done very easily with Azureus. Have Firefox auto-associate.torrent files with Az; then in the Az preferences you can have it automatically move the torrent file to a particular directory and begin the transfer from there.
Furthermore you can even have Azureus upon completion move the.torrent and the data to a different folder for your enjoyment.
This was done 12 years ago with Gershwin
That project was similar, but it's not quite the same thing. The Gershwin recordings were done using player piano rolls recorded by Gershwin himself - i.e.: his performances were already in a MIDI-like format - whereas this project is starting from the raw audio recordings of Gould and Cortot and creating MIDI files. In both cases the "concert" featuring dead performers' MIDI files is the headline grabbing story.
Slashdot Mirror
Quote from article:
Yes, but this doesn't help the console. If Sony would evaluate their options from the consumer's point of view, we could very easily have these features come standard on the PSP. Instead clever individuals like Dark Alex are engaged in an "arms war" of sorts where each month a new incremental firmware is released by Sony in an attempt to keep end users from taking full advantage of, for example, the PS1-PSP capabilities. The scene is forced underground, and the average consumer is kept unaware of what functionality is possible with the PSP.
I personally have a PSP and must say that being able to play FFVII in full speed on the road is nothing short of amazing. I would have easily put down $10-20 for this capability. The unfortunate part for Sony is that they still doesn't realize that *enabling* the consumer is what sells products, not disabling features from them.
Sorry pal but that's how science works. There's no better evidence for a model than the fact that it explains all obtained results.
More to the point, there's no philosophically valid way to "prove" anything conclusively.
Yes, but without data to support a theory that "explains all obtained results" it's no better than saying "nerves use magic to transmit impulses" or "gravity is actually God's will in action."
While it seems that the "question the institution!" crowd has come out en force on this matter (which is certainly not a bad thing, I think science requires constant evaluation of the prevailing opinion), it turns out that electrochemical conduction is a very well-documented phenomenon. True, there are discrepancies at time between the model and reality, but the discovery and isolation of the hundreds of actual proteins involved with propagation of an action potential makes us fairly certain we're on the right track. Note that there are also small discrepancies with gravity (actually big ones), light, DNA, thermodynamics, etc., yet those are generally accepted theories.
Finally this doesn't relate to the parent post, but the slashdot writeup for this article is horrendous. It states the same information - that the old way is wrong, and that sound is correct - three times in a row. If you're going to submit a content-free writeup, at least keep it short.
> Your response depends on the assumption that changes in the frequency of genes within a larger population is not an example of evolution.
You're right - I caught that after I posted. I think the general conception of "evolution" among non-biologists (which includes myself, though I'm in a related field) is of random mutation leading to functionality, rather than horizontal transfer. But again you are correct in saying they both are evolutionary. Either way hopefully someone finds the "random mutation vs. horizontal transfer" idea interesting.
While I agree in principle about the "evolution" argument and education, it's important to note that the overwhelming majority of bacterial acquired resistance has nothing to do with evolution, or random mutation, at least in the present tense. It's a fairly common misconception that there is a "brute force approach" of point mutations across a large (>billions of bacterium) population that somehow constructs a mechanism by which antibiotic resistance is acquired. Even with the selective pressures of antibiotic treatments and the overwhelming number of individuals in a population, the probability of a functional protein or pathway being altered to disable the target of a particular antibiotic while retaining that protein or pathway's functionality is quite low. It can happen, but it's not the primary means by which bacteria acquire resistance.
Instead you have to consider where our antibiotic drugs come from. Penicillin, erythromycin, vancomycin, et al. are all related to the direct products of microorganisms (e.g. Penicillium mold) that have been isolated in nature and chemically modified to be suitable for use in humans. But why would a bacterial organism express an antibiotic chemical in the first place? Competition. Antibiotics are produced by organisms to eradicate local bacteria as a means of competing for nutrients. The question, then, is how are the organisms that produce antibiotic compounds able to survive themselves? And the answer, of course, is that they have previously-established mechanisms for dealing with the action of these various antibiotics.
This would not be important without a means for transfer between pathogens. That there are numerous ways for genes pertaining to virulence, growth, and even resistance to be transferred between various organisms - including between different species of bacteria. Bacteriophages are viruses that can carry genes from species to species, and there are also ways for bacteria to transfer naked DNA through a medium and incorporate functionality from one organism into another. Gene transfer is a very common event, and in a population where certain species are resistant to an antibiotic compound it is only a matter of time before these resistance elements become widespread.
Therefore, the primary means by which bacteria acquire resistance to our antibiotics is by the transfer of previously-existing resistance genes from organisms that themselves produce our antibiotics. The antibiotic that is the subject of the article is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, which was originally cultured from Cephalosporium acremonium, an organism that is obviously resistant to the action of cephalosporin antibiotics. It is likely that this resistance over time will be carried to otherwise sensitive organisms and, in the presence of antibiotic selectivity, resistant organisms will emerge as the dominant flora. So while "evolution" is an applicable concept, it's really not the key to bacterial acquired resistance.
That's possible on any Sprint PCS Vision phone, using the *777 (PPP) code and a USB adapter. It's THE reason why I'm still with Sprint.
Dave Barry also wrote a great piece on the subject back in early 2003, predicting a "nuclear arms race among razor companies." Read the article here, it's humorous.
Now come on, that's the oldest flame in the book. Whether or not you prefer to call consoles a toy or not, the Wii really isn't much of a different product than the PS3, especially since Sony have adopted motion-sensing technology.
The PS3 and Wii are substantially different. And not just in minor tech specs, but in the entire gaming experience. The PS3 is clearly a continuation of existing gaming paradigms with bigger, better, and faster hardware, plus some minor tilt inputs (which, in my understanding, will be used by a minority of games). It relies on a brand-new high-capacity storage medium, BluRay, and features native 1080p HD video output. The Wii on the other hand is really a revolution into how games are designed and played. The hardware is comparable to a first-gen Xbox and instead of pushing polygons, the goal is to make new types of games that rely on a completely new control scheme on a completely new controller. Not to mention the fact that the PS3 is about three times as expensive as the Wii.
While both systems are certainly exciting, I would hardly say they aren't "different products."
They've been quickly working to pull together a product that they can get out the door before Christmas to start a "customer feedback loop". [...] However, he said that they wanted to get a product out as quickly as possible so that they could start getting comments from customers and partners on what they wanted.
as in past tense? what they expected from a product that they've already purchased? makes me want to run out and buy one!
Okay I realize you have already made up your mind at this point, but I hope you can read my comments below and see why things may not be exactly as they seem.
/.'er and FF fan.
There's a reason there's not a lot of hype about this. They released a demo with DragonQuest 8.
We've played it. It sucked.
Yes the demo is a piece of shit. I should've prefaced my comments by saying that I too hated the demo. I came into FFXII with very low expectations for playability. Trust me there's simply no comparison between that and the final version.
About the only thing worse than being placed on the strict rails that Final Fantasy games always enforce is having the battles stuck on rails too. The characters play the game for you - there was an article on Slashdot a while back about that when the Japanese version was released.
But what you're overlooking is that the battle system has been redesigned to fit a paradigm completely different from the traditional FF battle system. In old games, your characters would line up on one side and the enemies on the other and you would choose the commands they'd execute. This is no longer: the player is now completely responsible for every action and movement of all characters during battle. FFXII plays like an MMORPG - without the online component. Each character requires the same amount of attention and thought and interaction as a single character does in a traditional MMORPG. The amount of control added to the battle system means that there needs to be some way to step back and not micromanage every character's actions, especially when they often are repetitive.
What Square did was to invent a system of "if...then" statements that are extensively customizeable to allow the player complete control over the party. These rules can be changed on the fly and take the tedium out of playing a game with as much control as FFXII. I would think the addition of a "programming language" of sorts into which battles can be streamlined would appeal to the average
Give the final game a shot... rent it or something... because I know that your concerns will be alleviated. FFXII is one of the most foreward-thinking FF games released, and it's mostly in part due to its battle system which is as innovative as it is fun to play. There's a reason Famitsu gave it a perfect score, and most industry magazines/websites have given it high scores as well. I say from experience that it's among my 2 or 3 favorite FF titles (FFVI will always remain highest on my list, but that's another story...).
but trust me, it's a GREAT game. i've played through the japanese import, and it's brilliant. combat, storyline, pacing, environments, battles... all well done. it's not dumbed-down like many of the recent games have been either. if you have liked any of the previous ff games (especially those prior to the playstation era) it's worth checking this out. i personally loved it.
Good point. It's the fact of the matter that sequels are actually harder to make than completely new plotlines, because there's no easy way to deal with all the equipment/experience/magic/statistics/etc. gathered by the end of the first game at the start of the sequel.
XIII could be exciting, but everyone in the US should be very excited about FFXII coming to these shores later this year. I have imported the Japanese version and it is one of the greatest games in the FF series. As an aside, I have played FF games since the first on the NES and, like many gamers, I was not very enthusiastic about the FFXII demo disc that was released here last November. Forget that. XII is a great game and you have a lot to look forward to.
If you're interested in reading more specific details about XII, read my spoiler-free import impressions of the first 15 hours of gameplay over at ufck.
This is an example of a bad rumor that will never die. There is no way to resurrect Aeris. Period. I have owned the Japanese version since it was released in January of 1997 and I can assure you there is no such feature.
That's exactly what the Republicans are aiming for. In recent years, the ruling party has enacted the Clean Skies act, Healthy Forests Initiative, No Child Left Behind, and the PATRIOT act - all of which are (a) ironically named - the skies are not cleaner, forests are less healthy, children are left behind, and eradicating civil liberties is hardly "patriotic" - yet (b) difficult if not impossible to vote against. Even though it's only a front for the deregulation of the logging industry, what politician is going to vote against the "Healthy Forests Initiative"?
The government of Brazil manufactured generic AZT in the 90's and the United States was on the brink of an ugly lawsuit in protection of the rights of GlaxoSmithKline. (I believe) the rest of the world eventually put pressure on the US to back away and a compromise was reached.
Given the current climate of fear with respect to the bird flu scare, I would imagine Taiwan will ultimately face little opposition for such a move.
Finale's a piece of crap. On either Win or a Mac. My composition professor is a beta tester for them, and they routinely ignore his common-sense-oriented advice. If Office has as many flaws as does Finale, the corporate world would be up in arms. And that's from someone who hates Office.
The problem with Apple developing an alternative (and I'm sure they could) is that music notation software is very specialized. Something like Garageband appeals to a much wider userbase than does Finale.
Sibelius, which is a legitimate competitor to Finale, is used in some circles though IMHO it has enough flaws to make it a bad situation either way.
(without a screen included!)
Did I miss something? Do they expect people to just plug in to someone else's monitor whenever they want to use it?
This case has been around for a long time. And it's ugly as sin.
Why again is this front-page worthy?
2 important things to note: /., but it's worth a shot). Basically Apple has a lot of patents on the iPod, such that even if Mr. Platt's patent were to stand the test of time (it has several rejections against it as well), the iPod's most important features would be safe from litigation.
1. John Platt is officially "Manager of the Knowledge Tools Group at Microsoft Research." Which would be very bad for Apple, except that...
2. This isn't a final rejection, and certainly isn't as serious as the AppleInsider article makes it sound. Read the article on the Register for more info (I know this is
Nah, it was an article entitled Message from Kabul that stands as Jon Katz's most infamous moment. The story - about a boy named Junis who loads up his Commodore after the fall of the Taliban and discovers present-day culture - had so many holes that, as a reader, it was difficult to discern if the work was merely an act of fabrication or if, in fact, Katz was truly crazy.
This stuff's been done for years - just google "gompertz cancer" and you'll see what I mean. I was part of a team that developed a mathematical model for the growth (and cure - using a modified virus, but that's a whole different story) of multiple myeloma in immunodeficient mice. Perhaps they've applied a new model (I only glanced at the paper), but this certainly isn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last time research along these lines has taken place. A lot of very smart people have spent decades working on such research.
Of course it's great to see an advancement in science, particularly applied math, but those calling for the Nobel should take a deep breath and relax - cancer isn't going away anytime soon.
Maybe they're waiting until there's a nice little plugin to Firefox that will let me click on a .torrent and download using bittorrent
.torrent files with Az; then in the Az preferences you can have it automatically move the torrent file to a particular directory and begin the transfer from there.
.torrent and the data to a different folder for your enjoyment.
This can be done very easily with Azureus. Have Firefox auto-associate
Furthermore you can even have Azureus upon completion move the
This was done 12 years ago with Gershwin
That project was similar, but it's not quite the same thing. The Gershwin recordings were done using player piano rolls recorded by Gershwin himself - i.e.: his performances were already in a MIDI-like format - whereas this project is starting from the raw audio recordings of Gould and Cortot and creating MIDI files. In both cases the "concert" featuring dead performers' MIDI files is the headline grabbing story.
And the White House and adjoining buildings are colored over?