Last time I looked, I got the impression you could only compile XBMP using a warezed copy of the Xbox SDK.
At the risk of sounding like an AOLer, I'll chime in with my "me too!".
I agree the XBMP certainly looks neat, and an inexpensive box that can play DivX movies would kick mucho ass, but I don't have the paitence to hunt down a mod chip from a respectable seller, find the proper "warezed" BIOS image I need and then find the binaries so I can burn an XBMP CD.
The mod chips I have seen are also priced a far cry from the original $8 bucks or so I paid for my PS1 modchip back in the day. All costs considered, I could ALMOST buy a PC with TV-out for just about the same price.
Not that this project isn't cool... It's just not really that cost effective.
Some spammer will set up shop overseas in a country that will provide them a safe haven to use these "Do-Not-Email" lists as "Super-verified-to-exist" lists. That's just as good as replying to a spammer requesting to be removed from their list. Of course they remove you! What they don't tell you is that now you're on a totally new list of e-mail addresses known to be valid and of people who actually read their spam (How else did you know the remove proceedure?). Spam sucks.
I used to love to chat. On my 2 node BBS back in '92 to around '96 I used to frequently get paged by a few of the regular users just to shoot the breese.
I never liked IRC from the moment I first tried it. Happen to get into an argument with someone who is buddy-buddy with the admins in a channel? Wham, bam... banned. If you can play by the rules and not upset anyone (or you're lucky enough to be in a channel that actually has some mature admins), you'll probably enjoy IRC.
A few years ago a friend-of-a-friend showed me a potato cannon he built. I noticed a few flaws in the design:
1. Potatos are tasty. Sure, you could try to get rotten ones to use as ammo by digging through the trash, but that's just sick. I decided I'd rather use projectiles that aren't food.
2. It was hard to aim and fire... The ignitor was on the end cap and it was just a straight length of pipe with a reducing coupling. I decided on an improved design to make it fire and handle more like a bazooka.
The result was a golf ball cannon which was capable of putting a golf ball THROUGH 3/4" plywood. It also did quite a bit of damage to my fence. I later decided I should scale the design down and build something smaller for shooting less-destructive ammo, so I built a paint ball version. Like so many projects of mine, I had planned to one day make a detailed website about the construction of all my PVC weaponry, but the novelty wore off.
Re:Wake up and smell the plot
on
Kazaa Fights Back
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Nope, it won't do anything. The same thought was behind harsh anti-drug sentancing, and it made no difference. Anyone can still get pot, anytime.
Just like the war on drugs, it's not so much a tactic to stop piracy outright as it is to make the general public think twice about it. Those who insist on pirating without getting caught will still find ways to do it.
Right now, the situation on P2P networks is like being able to go to a crowded shopping mall, shouting "I want to buy pot!" and many dealers come running over to you, eager to sell with no notice whatsoever by any members of law enforcement.
Dealing drugs and casual (for private use) music/video/software piracy cannot really be compared. The man selling drugs on the street is most likely well aware of the situation he's putting himself in and is willing to risk capture because he needs the money he's making for one reason or another (addiction, debt, etc.). The man with an open file share has a lot more to lose by being jailed and gains nothing of value by keeping his shared directory open.
Yes. If I heard it on the radio or saw it on TV, why can I not use a P2P application to get my own archive of it? Because it's not funded by ads? Bullshit - if I recorded it myself, I'd remove the ads as well. As long as I can get it by other means (recording off the air or TV), I see nothing wrong about downloading it via P2P networks.
Wake up and smell the plot
on
Kazaa Fights Back
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I doubt the former will work. Kazaa seems to me like it's got its ducks in a row well enough that they won't be touched legally. The latter seems far more likely. Unfortunately for its users, if it is proven that Kazaa itself is legal but is being used by the users for illegal purposes, guess who's going to be the next target for legal action... The users offering large amounts of shared files.
You have to remember, Kazaa isn't fighting for the legal rights of its users, it is fighting to be able to keep running as a business.
Someone once made an analogy on here about unauthorized sharing of copyrighted material over P2P networks to people breaking the speed limits on the highways. To expand that analogy further... You can't ALWAYS break the speed limit on the highway. Sure, you may be able to do 70MPH in a 55MPH zone if it's what everyone else is doing, but you can be damn sure that everyone else is going to slow down once a cop decides to catch whoever is in the lead. You can't break the speed limit when there's a cop in the next lane and you certainly can't do it when it's 3:00AM and you're the only car left on the road.
Hearing about someone sharing files on Kazaa being busted will most certainly have the same effect as the cop busting the person in the lead on the highway. Everyone who gives a rats ass about not being the NEXT example is going to disable sharing or get off Kazaa altogether.
With a major drop in files, it will cause many users to just leave. Then you'll be left with the 3:00AM highway situation - they'll be so few users actually sharing content on Kazaa that busting them all could be realistically done.
Kazaa surviving isn't a win for the users, it's just the first battle in an ensuing war.
If I hear a song on the radio that I enjoy, I can just search for it on Kazaa Lite and download it. It doesn't matter if it's an unreleased promo-only track or a promo-only mix that isn't for sale on the album, chances are it's already been leaked online and I can get it.
I'm sick of the games the music industry plays by not releasing certain mixes of tracks they play on the air, only releasing some songs as singles and bullshit release dates for tracks the radio already has. If you're going to play it on the air - sell it or I'll just get it elsewhere.
Once I noticed I'd been downloading more than a few MP3s by the same artist, I'd actually buy the albums. Not only was this to show support for the artist, but it allowed me to make a high-bitrate rip to MP3 of the entire CD for my own personal use. With the introduction of copy protection, however, I doubt I'll ever buy another CD again unless the music industry sees the error of its ways.
By itself, a security coprocessor is no different than using the PIII's serial number to create a unique hash and processing encryption on the main CPU.
Imagine you already have this TCPA processor on your board. You download the newest RIAA-approved secure media player and start downloading tons of songs. The media player wants to use your TCPA processor to encrypt the songs while you're downloading them so only your PC can play them. Evil, yes, but it can be done TODAY on a PC without a dedicated TCPA processor.
The application is happily encrypting its audio, however, in the background you're running an application that acts as a virtual soundcard and you're capturing open, unencrypted audio and saving THAT to your hard drive as well. So much for TCPA.
This is where Palladium comes in, it would not allow you to run a virtual sound card driver. Palladium is about a trusted secure enviorment, which requires the cooperation of the BIOS (ensure the OS that is about to be booted is trusted, and possibly in the future BLOCK booting of non-trusted OSes entirely), the OS, the main processor (for secure memory protection) and the video and sound cards. It is highly likely implementations of Palladium systems will not even HAVE a dedicated TCPA chip that can be easily attacked and disabled - the features will be built right into the main CPU.
On the sidewalk in urban areas, you can (IANAL, so this is just based on experience and what I've known cops to give you a talking-to for) ride skates (inline or the older non-trendy kind), non-powered Razor(TM)-type scooters and your Nike Air Force Ones. Yea, you can stop down the sidewalk in your... Ugh, I wish I could get that song out of my head.
The problem I see the Segway having is the same problem Go-peds have. You can't ride go-peds on the sidewalk. You can't ride them in the street either, most of them lack the equipment and certification required to make them street legal.
The smallest gas powered (as in engine displacement) street legal vehicle is a 49.9cc moped/scooter. If you take a look at one, you'll notice it has DOT approved lighting, turn and brake signals. I'm sure if the Segway was modified to be street legal, it could be driven on the street, but ask anyone who has driven a moped (usually with a top speed of about 30MPH) what it's like having people not see you and passing you going 10-25MPH faster than you in most cases. If the Segway has a top speed of 12MPH and is less visible than a biycle, sharing the road with cars would be nothing short of suicide.
As others have said many times before (especially those who ride 49.9cc mopeds/scooters), there needs to be a dedicated lane for low-speed powered vehicles on roadways. Mixing low-speed vehicles with cars and trucks is just as dangerous as mixing low-speed vehicles with pedestrians.
Issues like these make me glad I'm old enough to have a driver's licence and just drive a car.
The semantics of what consists of popular music aside*, my problem with satellite radio is the subscription model and the requirement of specific reception/decoding hardware that resides in a single vehicle (unless you purchase another receiver).
Satellite radio would be something I'd be interested in if it was more feature-rich and Internet enabled. Imagine a service with a Tivo-like reciever that is capable of storing songs, seeking new songs you might be interested in based on your past preferences and allowing you to build your own playlist.
Imagine you can also access this service through the Internet and stream your music on your computer so inside your home or at work you can enjoy your music as well.
Imagine the hardware isn't an in-dash reciever but a portable iPod-sized device. You can bring it with you if you happen to own more than one vehicle (which I do), or carry it with you like a Walkman(TM).
That is a product and service I'd be happy to pay money for.
* I enjoy a large percentage of current popular music. If you do not enjoy so-called mainstream radio, YMMV.
The first time I read the title I was thinking "[George] Bush had fires that damaged the observatory"
I always thought the term was "brush fires". When you say "bush" I think: 1.) The obvious presidential reference, 2.) The wilderness in the land downunder, 3.) Revenge of the Nerds slang for -ahem-... You've seen the movie.
All of the sudden, the phrase "bush fires" brings a whole new set of mental images to my mind.
I think AOL is really being blamed for a lot of spam it shouldn't be.
Send spam using AOL's e-mail client and your account is nearly-instant toast, thanks to automated rate-limiting software.
AOL set up rate limiting sometime around 07/98. Yes, it was THAT long ago. Note, as another poster has said, this wouldn't stop someone from using AOL as their ISP and connecting to another SMTP server for spamming purposes, but considering how slow (not to mention expensive) AOL-provided net access is, I doubt any real spammer would use it for even that.
Since most of the/. readers are probably not still using AOL, here's what can be found at AOL keyword: Rate Limiting.
America Online has received an overwhelming amount of complaints concerning unsolicited commercial e-mail, or "junk" mail, and we are doing everything we can to protect our members' online experience. Because many junk e-mailers collect screen names from AOL chat rooms, we put a "Rate Limit" feature in place to deter junk e-mailers from collecting member screen names from chat rooms. The Rate Limit feature is also used to deter members from sending mass numbers of e-mail, Instant Message(TM) notes, or Buddy Chat(TM) invitations that can disrupt the normal member experience.
AOL imposes a rate limit on an AOL member's account for any of the following:
* When a member exceeds the acceptable number of Instant Message notes or Buddy Chat invitations they send in a given time period.
* When a member exceeds the acceptable number of chat room changes or "Who's Chatting" requests in a given time period.
When an account is rate limited, the ability to send Instant Message notes and Buddy Chat invitations or to see who's chatting in a room or move from room to room is blocked for a certain period of time or the screen name's connection to AOL may be disconnected.
While we are working hard to stop junk e-mailers, there are steps that we also encourage our members to take to avoid junk e-mail. For example, you can create a screen name (Keyword: Names) that you use when you enter chat rooms, then use Mail Controls to block all e-mail to that screen name. When you want to e-mail with someone you meet in chat, give them your regular screen name OR go back to Mail Controls, select the "Allow e-mail only from selected AOL screen names, Internet domains, and addresses" option and add your friend's name.
AOL considers the sending of mass numbers of unwanted, disruptive messages or the gathering of AOL screen names to be abusive online conduct and a violation of AOL's Terms of Service. Rate Limits have been put in place to curtail abuse and ensure an enjoyable online experience.
It's because the music industry has nothing but artists that suck and you refuse to buy any of it, right? If you believe that, all you're doing is proving that you're NOT the target market they're looking to sell to and they won't listen to you anyway!
Of course, if you're someone who has problems with "target markets" and feel the recording industry should sign and promote every single artist they find until they put themselves into chapter 11, you don't understand the basis of for-profit business. They want to sign the artists that are going to have the biggest mass appeal so they can produce the biggest profit. If that's not your cup of tea, the major labels simply just accept the fact that you're NOT their customer and realize you'll buy your music from independant artists.
Karma be damned, I'm going to voice my opinion on this matter. I enjoy mainstream entertainment, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm one of the customers the RIAA should listen to because if their distrobution methods were improved, I would buy more of their products!
Since I DO enjoy the music produced by RIAA-signed artists, why am I not purchasing more of it?
I refuse to buy a copy protected disc resembling a CD. My portable music player is an MP3 player, if I can't convert the album I've purchased the rights to listen to the format I want, I'm not buying it. The Florida sun heats the interior of my car to CD-destroying tempatures. If I cannot copy the CD and keep the original in a safe place, I refuse to buy it.
Sometimes I don't enjoy all the tracks on an album, sometimes there's just one hit song I want. The RIAA does not want to sell me music by-the-track. Pity, I would like to buy it....and the reason repeated on/. like a broken record (pun intended), I want to purchase music online in a NON-DRM'ed format. Now please excuse me while I cast "Wingardeum Leviosa" on some swine.
What they forgot to mention was the fact that all these messages were sent to the same guy's phone by one REALLY pissed off girlfriend. If the exploding phone didn't kill him, the bill he's gonna get certainly will.
All of the watches will have a small, rectangular liquid crystal display and the ability to receive short data messages, much like a pager. This technology will allow the watch to identify where it is and what the local time is -- and the local weather forecast -- as the wearer travels.
And if they add the ability to run micro Java applications, a phone book, a microbrowser, a picture viewer and midi player, a voice memo recorder and wireless phone capabilities, they'd have invented my PCS Vision phone I already carry around with me. Sure, my cell phone isn't watch-sized, but I don't need some of its features duplicated just cause the device can be on my wrist instead of in my pocket.
Now the video iPod thing... Would be cool if it could play my DIV3/XViD collection and OGG files, but since it's obviously going to be DRM'ed up the arse, it's just another hard drive MP3 player. Yawn.
Hey Microsoft, how about taking two bad ideas and combining the two? An MP3 player on a watch... Sorry, Casio already tried that.
what the hell would you ever need something this powerful for?
"I'll take trolls that got modded up for $100, Alex."
<sarcasm> Oh, I don't know... I swear, these people buying these new-fangled computer things are out of their mindes. They've obviously never seen the kick ass integer benchmarks of my abacus. </sarcasm>
Life is not a constant stream of entertainment. The most rewarding things in life come from blood, sweat and tears
You work for the DMV, don't you?;)
Might as well go after Universal Pictures too
on
Dow vs. Parody
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· Score: 1
The movie Problem Child 2 has a scene where LaWanda Dumore is going through Junior's file which has most of his shenanigans from the first movie and also reveals... He's the one resposible for the Union Carbide plant explosion.
Of course, when you're a movie studio, your right to parody is backed up by your high priced lawyers.
As I write this, my cell phone is chirping to inform me that it is switching in and out of roaming mode. The reception at my home is horrible.
Every time I read an article about "next generation network features", I'm curious as to when they'll make the first generation feature - voice communication work better.
Maybe it's different in other parts of the country, but here in Lake Mary, FL, Sprint PCS and their suppose-ed "next generation network" is a bunch of features and fluff surrounded by unusable service.
I think I'm going to make my New Year's resolution to switch cell phone providers.
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I don't think it's really needed either. I had 3 seperate replacement 40GB Western Digital drives fail within a few months...
If you want to get rid of sensitive data, just put it on an unreliable hard drive to begin with and the problem will take care of itself.
Course, with how angry I was about having so many drive failures, I wouldn't mind mailing back one of their drives in the form of hardened slag.
Last time I looked, I got the impression you could only compile XBMP using a warezed copy of the Xbox SDK.
At the risk of sounding like an AOLer, I'll chime in with my "me too!".
I agree the XBMP certainly looks neat, and an inexpensive box that can play DivX movies would kick mucho ass, but I don't have the paitence to hunt down a mod chip from a respectable seller, find the proper "warezed" BIOS image I need and then find the binaries so I can burn an XBMP CD.
The mod chips I have seen are also priced a far cry from the original $8 bucks or so I paid for my PS1 modchip back in the day. All costs considered, I could ALMOST buy a PC with TV-out for just about the same price.
Not that this project isn't cool... It's just not really that cost effective.
Some spammer will set up shop overseas in a country that will provide them a safe haven to use these "Do-Not-Email" lists as "Super-verified-to-exist" lists. That's just as good as replying to a spammer requesting to be removed from their list. Of course they remove you! What they don't tell you is that now you're on a totally new list of e-mail addresses known to be valid and of people who actually read their spam (How else did you know the remove proceedure?). Spam sucks.
My monitor has an automatic defrost feature.
DVD-R - Lite On 16x DVD, 48x CD-ROM 34.50
(snip)
Course these prices are a couple days old.
I had no idea DVD-R prices were that volatile.
I used to love to chat. On my 2 node BBS back in '92 to around '96 I used to frequently get paged by a few of the regular users just to shoot the breese.
I never liked IRC from the moment I first tried it. Happen to get into an argument with someone who is buddy-buddy with the admins in a channel? Wham, bam... banned. If you can play by the rules and not upset anyone (or you're lucky enough to be in a channel that actually has some mature admins), you'll probably enjoy IRC.
A few years ago a friend-of-a-friend showed me a potato cannon he built. I noticed a few flaws in the design:
1. Potatos are tasty. Sure, you could try to get rotten ones to use as ammo by digging through the trash, but that's just sick. I decided I'd rather use projectiles that aren't food.
2. It was hard to aim and fire... The ignitor was on the end cap and it was just a straight length of pipe with a reducing coupling. I decided on an improved design to make it fire and handle more like a bazooka.
The result was a golf ball cannon which was capable of putting a golf ball THROUGH 3/4" plywood. It also did quite a bit of damage to my fence. I later decided I should scale the design down and build something smaller for shooting less-destructive ammo, so I built a paint ball version. Like so many projects of mine, I had planned to one day make a detailed website about the construction of all my PVC weaponry, but the novelty wore off.
Nope, it won't do anything. The same thought was behind harsh anti-drug sentancing, and it made no difference. Anyone can still get pot, anytime.
Just like the war on drugs, it's not so much a tactic to stop piracy outright as it is to make the general public think twice about it. Those who insist on pirating without getting caught will still find ways to do it.
Right now, the situation on P2P networks is like being able to go to a crowded shopping mall, shouting "I want to buy pot!" and many dealers come running over to you, eager to sell with no notice whatsoever by any members of law enforcement.
Dealing drugs and casual (for private use) music/video/software piracy cannot really be compared. The man selling drugs on the street is most likely well aware of the situation he's putting himself in and is willing to risk capture because he needs the money he's making for one reason or another (addiction, debt, etc.). The man with an open file share has a lot more to lose by being jailed and gains nothing of value by keeping his shared directory open.
Freedom to get music and videos for free
Yes. If I heard it on the radio or saw it on TV, why can I not use a P2P application to get my own archive of it? Because it's not funded by ads? Bullshit - if I recorded it myself, I'd remove the ads as well. As long as I can get it by other means (recording off the air or TV), I see nothing wrong about downloading it via P2P networks.
There's 2 ways to kill Kazaa. One is to get rid of the beast itself... This is what they're trying. The other, to scare off all the users offering files.
I doubt the former will work. Kazaa seems to me like it's got its ducks in a row well enough that they won't be touched legally. The latter seems far more likely. Unfortunately for its users, if it is proven that Kazaa itself is legal but is being used by the users for illegal purposes, guess who's going to be the next target for legal action... The users offering large amounts of shared files.
You have to remember, Kazaa isn't fighting for the legal rights of its users, it is fighting to be able to keep running as a business.
Someone once made an analogy on here about unauthorized sharing of copyrighted material over P2P networks to people breaking the speed limits on the highways. To expand that analogy further... You can't ALWAYS break the speed limit on the highway. Sure, you may be able to do 70MPH in a 55MPH zone if it's what everyone else is doing, but you can be damn sure that everyone else is going to slow down once a cop decides to catch whoever is in the lead. You can't break the speed limit when there's a cop in the next lane and you certainly can't do it when it's 3:00AM and you're the only car left on the road.
Hearing about someone sharing files on Kazaa being busted will most certainly have the same effect as the cop busting the person in the lead on the highway. Everyone who gives a rats ass about not being the NEXT example is going to disable sharing or get off Kazaa altogether.
With a major drop in files, it will cause many users to just leave. Then you'll be left with the 3:00AM highway situation - they'll be so few users actually sharing content on Kazaa that busting them all could be realistically done.
Kazaa surviving isn't a win for the users, it's just the first battle in an ensuing war.
If I hear a song on the radio that I enjoy, I can just search for it on Kazaa Lite and download it. It doesn't matter if it's an unreleased promo-only track or a promo-only mix that isn't for sale on the album, chances are it's already been leaked online and I can get it.
I'm sick of the games the music industry plays by not releasing certain mixes of tracks they play on the air, only releasing some songs as singles and bullshit release dates for tracks the radio already has. If you're going to play it on the air - sell it or I'll just get it elsewhere.
Once I noticed I'd been downloading more than a few MP3s by the same artist, I'd actually buy the albums. Not only was this to show support for the artist, but it allowed me to make a high-bitrate rip to MP3 of the entire CD for my own personal use. With the introduction of copy protection, however, I doubt I'll ever buy another CD again unless the music industry sees the error of its ways.
By itself, a security coprocessor is no different than using the PIII's serial number to create a unique hash and processing encryption on the main CPU.
Imagine you already have this TCPA processor on your board. You download the newest RIAA-approved secure media player and start downloading tons of songs. The media player wants to use your TCPA processor to encrypt the songs while you're downloading them so only your PC can play them. Evil, yes, but it can be done TODAY on a PC without a dedicated TCPA processor.
The application is happily encrypting its audio, however, in the background you're running an application that acts as a virtual soundcard and you're capturing open, unencrypted audio and saving THAT to your hard drive as well. So much for TCPA.
This is where Palladium comes in, it would not allow you to run a virtual sound card driver. Palladium is about a trusted secure enviorment, which requires the cooperation of the BIOS (ensure the OS that is about to be booted is trusted, and possibly in the future BLOCK booting of non-trusted OSes entirely), the OS, the main processor (for secure memory protection) and the video and sound cards. It is highly likely implementations of Palladium systems will not even HAVE a dedicated TCPA chip that can be easily attacked and disabled - the features will be built right into the main CPU.
Oh yeah, don't forget that the federal government is marketing war games to our teenagers to boost enlistment rates.
And if this doesn't boost enlistment rates, will that prove violent video games do not affect kids/teens?
On the sidewalk in urban areas, you can (IANAL, so this is just based on experience and what I've known cops to give you a talking-to for) ride skates (inline or the older non-trendy kind), non-powered Razor(TM)-type scooters and your Nike Air Force Ones. Yea, you can stop down the sidewalk in your... Ugh, I wish I could get that song out of my head.
The problem I see the Segway having is the same problem Go-peds have. You can't ride go-peds on the sidewalk. You can't ride them in the street either, most of them lack the equipment and certification required to make them street legal.
The smallest gas powered (as in engine displacement) street legal vehicle is a 49.9cc moped/scooter. If you take a look at one, you'll notice it has DOT approved lighting, turn and brake signals. I'm sure if the Segway was modified to be street legal, it could be driven on the street, but ask anyone who has driven a moped (usually with a top speed of about 30MPH) what it's like having people not see you and passing you going 10-25MPH faster than you in most cases. If the Segway has a top speed of 12MPH and is less visible than a biycle, sharing the road with cars would be nothing short of suicide.
As others have said many times before (especially those who ride 49.9cc mopeds/scooters), there needs to be a dedicated lane for low-speed powered vehicles on roadways. Mixing low-speed vehicles with cars and trucks is just as dangerous as mixing low-speed vehicles with pedestrians.
Issues like these make me glad I'm old enough to have a driver's licence and just drive a car.
Only creed? What a sheltered life you must live. You could make terrorists surrender with a Justin Timberlake marathon.
The semantics of what consists of popular music aside*, my problem with satellite radio is the subscription model and the requirement of specific reception/decoding hardware that resides in a single vehicle (unless you purchase another receiver).
Satellite radio would be something I'd be interested in if it was more feature-rich and Internet enabled. Imagine a service with a Tivo-like reciever that is capable of storing songs, seeking new songs you might be interested in based on your past preferences and allowing you to build your own playlist.
Imagine you can also access this service through the Internet and stream your music on your computer so inside your home or at work you can enjoy your music as well.
Imagine the hardware isn't an in-dash reciever but a portable iPod-sized device. You can bring it with you if you happen to own more than one vehicle (which I do), or carry it with you like a Walkman(TM).
That is a product and service I'd be happy to pay money for.
* I enjoy a large percentage of current popular music. If you do not enjoy so-called mainstream radio, YMMV.
The first time I read the title I was thinking "[George] Bush had fires that damaged the observatory"
I always thought the term was "brush fires". When you say "bush" I think: 1.) The obvious presidential reference, 2.) The wilderness in the land downunder, 3.) Revenge of the Nerds slang for -ahem-... You've seen the movie.
All of the sudden, the phrase "bush fires" brings a whole new set of mental images to my mind.
Send spam using AOL's e-mail client and your account is nearly-instant toast, thanks to automated rate-limiting software.
AOL set up rate limiting sometime around 07/98. Yes, it was THAT long ago. Note, as another poster has said, this wouldn't stop someone from using AOL as their ISP and connecting to another SMTP server for spamming purposes, but considering how slow (not to mention expensive) AOL-provided net access is, I doubt any real spammer would use it for even that.
Since most of the
It's because the music industry has nothing but artists that suck and you refuse to buy any of it, right? If you believe that, all you're doing is proving that you're NOT the target market they're looking to sell to and they won't listen to you anyway!
...and the reason repeated on /. like a broken record (pun intended), I want to purchase music online in a NON-DRM'ed format. Now please excuse me while I cast "Wingardeum Leviosa" on some swine.
Of course, if you're someone who has problems with "target markets" and feel the recording industry should sign and promote every single artist they find until they put themselves into chapter 11, you don't understand the basis of for-profit business. They want to sign the artists that are going to have the biggest mass appeal so they can produce the biggest profit. If that's not your cup of tea, the major labels simply just accept the fact that you're NOT their customer and realize you'll buy your music from independant artists.
Karma be damned, I'm going to voice my opinion on this matter. I enjoy mainstream entertainment, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm one of the customers the RIAA should listen to because if their distrobution methods were improved, I would buy more of their products!
Since I DO enjoy the music produced by RIAA-signed artists, why am I not purchasing more of it?
I refuse to buy a copy protected disc resembling a CD. My portable music player is an MP3 player, if I can't convert the album I've purchased the rights to listen to the format I want, I'm not buying it. The Florida sun heats the interior of my car to CD-destroying tempatures. If I cannot copy the CD and keep the original in a safe place, I refuse to buy it.
Sometimes I don't enjoy all the tracks on an album, sometimes there's just one hit song I want. The RIAA does not want to sell me music by-the-track. Pity, I would like to buy it.
two-week, 26,000 message test-period
What they forgot to mention was the fact that all these messages were sent to the same guy's phone by one REALLY pissed off girlfriend. If the exploding phone didn't kill him, the bill he's gonna get certainly will.
All of the watches will have a small, rectangular liquid crystal display and the ability to receive short data messages, much like a pager. This technology will allow the watch to identify where it is and what the local time is -- and the local weather forecast -- as the wearer travels.
And if they add the ability to run micro Java applications, a phone book, a microbrowser, a picture viewer and midi player, a voice memo recorder and wireless phone capabilities, they'd have invented my PCS Vision phone I already carry around with me. Sure, my cell phone isn't watch-sized, but I don't need some of its features duplicated just cause the device can be on my wrist instead of in my pocket.
Now the video iPod thing... Would be cool if it could play my DIV3/XViD collection and OGG files, but since it's obviously going to be DRM'ed up the arse, it's just another hard drive MP3 player. Yawn.
Hey Microsoft, how about taking two bad ideas and combining the two? An MP3 player on a watch... Sorry, Casio already tried that.
what the hell would you ever need something this powerful for?
"I'll take trolls that got modded up for $100, Alex."
<sarcasm>
Oh, I don't know... I swear, these people buying these new-fangled computer things are out of their mindes. They've obviously never seen the kick ass integer benchmarks of my abacus.
</sarcasm>
Life is not a constant stream of entertainment. The most rewarding things in life come from blood, sweat and tears
;)
You work for the DMV, don't you?
The movie Problem Child 2 has a scene where LaWanda Dumore is going through Junior's file which has most of his shenanigans from the first movie and also reveals... He's the one resposible for the Union Carbide plant explosion.
Of course, when you're a movie studio, your right to parody is backed up by your high priced lawyers.
As I write this, my cell phone is chirping to inform me that it is switching in and out of roaming mode. The reception at my home is horrible.
Every time I read an article about "next generation network features", I'm curious as to when they'll make the first generation feature - voice communication work better.
Maybe it's different in other parts of the country, but here in Lake Mary, FL, Sprint PCS and their suppose-ed "next generation network" is a bunch of features and fluff surrounded by unusable service.
I think I'm going to make my New Year's resolution to switch cell phone providers.