The 99 cents per song you already pay is a bit much, especially considering there is NO physical packaging, shipping costs, storefronts with employees and power bills, ad infinitum.
I really LIKE iTunes, and I *KNOW* how to steal music if I want to. I really LIKE the fact that I can buy a specific song for a pittance on a whim instead of hoping someone will upload it to the Usenet.
It's not that $1.49 is too much, but it just shows that they will try to reach a price that people will accept, however grudgingly. But the $1 mark is a psychological barrier; once they reach that, people will start to think, "Is this song worth $1.49?" and might not buy it after all.
In any case, good luck to 'em. I don't buy any new stuff anyway. Most of it is crap pushed by the payola artists.
I know I stand alone on this, but I think the Infanto Ray, from Space Ace, should have made the list.
Also, there's the Big-O-Beam, from the 'Attack From Mars' pinball game. Oh, and who could forget Frylock's eyeball-beams?
Then there's the laser from 'Laserblast,' with the beam-gun from 'Teenagers from Outer Space' coming in a close second. (Cue Crow: See? Proof you can be too rich AND too thin!)
I caught Smith at Zellerbach Hall last year in Berkeley and he has said quite plainly that he would not TOUCH the Star Wars franchise. I'm the one that asked him the question. And, yes, I'm also the one that started the 'Los Angeles steals our water' controversy.
Anyway, he said he doesn't want to be accused of raping people's childhoods by making a Star Wars film. So, no, Kevin Smith will NOT happen, though I'm certain he'd do a good job.
I have a firewall. I have a virus/spybot scanner, and I never download stupid shit. Nonetheless my Windows box has things wrong with it that I find difficult/impossible to repair.
I take exception to you suggesting that this is somehow my fault. Furthermore, I have given others accounts on my Linux box and they have yet to 'fuck that up too,' as you put it, simply because they were completely incapable of doing so.
Don't feel pressured into making excuses for MS. They have made enough money to warrant creating an OS that isn't buggy, bloated, and insecure. Meanwhile the OS community has created an OS and supporting software that is stable, small, and secure for no money whatsoever.
The reason many people don't use Macs is because they are far too expensive. I like Macs and they are too expensive for me to own.
Linux *IS* an alternative, and a damn good one at that. If it wasn't an alternative then nobody would use it at all.
I think perhaps the single most handy (and most used) program on my Linux box, INCLUDING INIT, is PS, specifically PS AUX, and it's partner KILL -9.
When I brought an older computer back from the dead with RH 7.1 one of the first things I taught the guy it was for was how to call up a terminal and use PS and KILL. Because sometimes, rarely but often enough, something will crash on you and you need to know how to kill it and where to look to do it.
Example: Xine crashes on me all the frickin' time. So I kill it about every 3rd time I use it.
The other thing that I pass on about *nix in general (and, really, computers in general) is one of the first things *I* was taught: everything on the computer is a file. Right there, it turned the computer from being a monolithic and enigmatic device into something I could actually use. All I had to do then was understand the parts and how they worked together.
Others have mentioned the file system, and they're right, you should teach them about it. Help them understand INIT.D,.bashrc (if you're a bash-head like I am), and ifup and ifdown. Oh, and PING. Oh, and the terminal and how to call one up under X.
There are about a million things you could teach someone in this course, all of them valid. If I could only teach someone a handful of things before setting them loose these would probably be at the top of the list.
Honestly, I don't know how you're going to teach people enough admin knowledge to do a decent job in just 3 days. It took me at least 6 months of personal instruction to really get the hang of it. Good luck, though!
Lawyers have to pass the BAR exam. I know a couple of people that have tried and, believe me, it isn't easy. There really is no way to cheat on this test. You can't even know what the questions are, really, because they rotate them. So his lawyer most assuredly will NOT have gotten his license the way he (didn't) get his degree.
Of course, all this may not translate in the UK, but I'm certain that the exams the barristers there take are just as stringent.
I also want to make a point here about tests in general: all tests should be open-book. Remember that life IS an open-book test, and research is getting easier. Example: all I have to do now is type in "definition autodidactism" into Google and it will give me not only the correct spelling (did you mean autodidacticism?) but also the definition. That is UNBELIEVABLY handier than a dictionary. Memorization is fine for a lot of things, things that you have to do on the fly. But memorizing the capitals of all 50 states? Virtually useless.
You see, folks, we have this nifty little system called WRITING. This WRITING system allows you to use symbols to RECORD things on that you might want to recall later. Why would you not be able to recall something? Because humans are imperfect, and have imperfect memories to go with them. The WRITING system allows you to record anything that you might forget and want to recall later!
It is far, FAR, *FAR* better to teach children how to do research and use reference material than to teach them trivia that they could, in the former case, easily look up in a library. And I assure you that practice in reference will (eventually) lead to memorization of plenty of facts, and thus prepare them for a career on gameshows.
Wow...all power to the University, eh? That's um...not an encouraging thought. But I'm sure you didn't mean that the way I am interpreting.
I understand your concern about your degree being devalued, but I assure you that Random Employer A isn't looking at it as if everyone who has your degree doesn't know jack shit. REA will look at it as that person not knowing jack shit.
As for your worrying about others cheating and PLAGIARISING (check your spelling, University Student...you paid HOW much to go to school and can't spell? They let you down! I would ask for my money back!) stop it. You can't affect their cheating any more than you can affect an alcoholic's drinking. Stop worrying about THEIR cheating and start worrying about YOUR OWN work, Little Mr. Big-Brother Tattle-Tale.
Fight the University Monopoly! Practice auto-didacticism!
You know, I'm just about cheering for this kid, and I'll tell you why:
First, colleges have a tendency to take BUCKETS of your money and make no guarantees with it, e.g. if you don't learn the first time, we'll let you sit in on the class again, FREE! There are PLENTY of accredited specialty schools that have this guarantee, so don't tell me it can't be done. So, just as with almost every institution I've ever run across, it is inherently violent by creating false hope and not taking responsibility. (Think about it...corporations are legal entities that NEVER DIE, but when they fuck up, it's REALLY difficult to get them to take responsibility)
Second, the money...again. College is OUTLANDISHLY expensive! Most people will NEVER have the money it takes to go to one, and the price just keeps going up with no restraints on it at all! Example: just last year, the University of California Regents decided to raise tuition by 30%. Just like that, one simple little vote, and it happens. I complained about this to a former UC Berkeley student and he laughed. "HA! That's nothing! When I was there they raised it by 300%!" I merely looked at him agape. They have a monopoly on the goods, folks, and they raise prices at will.
Third (and this is a lesser complaint), living conditions. I once visited the UC Davis campus to see a couple of friends and they told me about how they had to live on campus the first year. H-A-D to, those were the words they used. The place they HAD to live was a glorified closet that housed not one of them (which would have been cozy but respectable) but T-W-O of them. The entirety of their living quarters was less than that of your average PRISONER. Now, I'm sure that not all colleges have this requirement, but the ones that do are defrauding their students for HUGE amounts of rent for those cramped closets. If any college told me that I had to live under those conditions I would tell the dean to offer me his neck to repay the insult.
Fourth, the kid admitted to plagiarism, I'll grant you that. But doesn't the old saying go that if you steal it from one source, it's plagiarism, if you stal from many, it's research? Okay, no, I can't really defend the kid here. Crow copied Gypsie's paper word-for-word (even if his downbeat was on Basehart) and didn't get to eat the Hostess Snowballs. The kid should have a disembodied floating head in his dorm room for pulling that stunt. But I know how *I* would have dealt with it: I would have made sure my bibliography was complete. Quoting other works in a paper is STANDARD PRACTICE! If it were me, I would have used entire paragraphs from Paglia's works, but I would have given her credit and probably gotten away with it!
But frankly I'm under the impression that the University of Kent is running a scam on him and I hope he repays the favor in a court of law.
Fight the University monopoly! Practice auto-didacticism!
I think your USMC student got it wrong. To the best of my knowledge, the USMC would NEVER support the idea of cheating in an academic environment to get ahead. They would, however, support the idea of good STRATEGY to get ahead in an academic environment, e.g., if you haven't got an original thought on the subject, fine, then do lots of research and make sure your bibliography is complete. Not cheating at all, just a common strategy.
Now, there IS a place in the USMC where anything goes, and that is in war. When you have decided that the other person must die it doesn't matter whether you do it with a gun, or a knife, or a nuclear bomb; dead is dead. This is where the idea of doing 'anything to get ahead' comes in. Dead soldiers aren't effective in combat. Staying alive while reducing the chances that the other guy can kill you is an effective strategy to making sure you continue to function as a soldier, which is the soldier's goal.
If this thing is capable of creating such intense heat (with, as far as I can tell, very little environmental impact such as that created when making solar panels) then perhaps it could be used as an alternative (and portable) power source?
I need to look into this. Heat energy can be converted into electric energy, even if it isn't all that efficient.
Yes, I want the cost of a book added to the price if it will show me how to use the software I just purchased. If the overall cost is not worth it then I will not purchase it.
How could I not need a manual for a piece of software I've not used before, unless it's so intuitive that an idiot could use it? Am I supposed to GUESS at what menu items do when they could be very cryptic? Example: I know what a mask is when I apply one to my face for a Masquerade Ball. I don't know what one is in Photoshop because I've not used one before. See where I'm going with this?
Yes, at 1500 pages I'd say that the manual you refer to is pretty comprehensive. It must be a necessary manual if it's not so intuitive that an idiot could figure it out even if many try. And if I don't need a manual then the program must be pretty intuitive, wouldn't you say?
I'm sorry you feel that way about a software company's responsibility about informing their customers as to the function of what they just sold them. On one hand you have a point: telling them what the program does and leaving it at that is fine. If, however, you usurp definitions of common words in your software and then don't tell people what YOU mean when you use that word then you are not giving a complete explanation.
An explanation is not an explanation until it is C-L-E-A-R to the person on the receiving end of the explanation. If you do not provide a clear explanation of what you mean then you are setting your customers up for failure.
(Another example: what the hell is a History Brush? Does it automatically paint pictures from historic times? Will it give me a portrait of Lincoln? How about a Magic Wand Tool? Did I get magical powers when I purchased this program?)
Finally, you wouldn't be paying to show 'nubes and the clueless' how to use the software YOU buy unless the software was NOT intuitive, in which case YOU WOULD BE ONE OF THE 'NUBE/CLUELESS' crowd!
What would you say to the software salesman that told you: "Our program is simple! It does everything you could possibly want it to do when it comes to web-design and graphics manipulation! Just be sure to press the Monkey-Flatulence Indicator button if you want Capricorn Results! Or, you can automatically preview your Zippity-Doo-Dah by fluffelgamming your Wattlehatchers!" without offering a damn bit of explanation as to what Capricorn Results were?
You'd (rightfully) throw his ass out on the street and tell him not to return. Why should I be any less forgiving of any software company who is guilty of pulling the same stunt?
Bottom line, as a consumer I do not want the cost of showing someone how to use the software included in my purchase.
Okay, you don't want to show them how to use your software? How about making a comprehensive manual? Or is that 'showing' them how to use your software? Intentionally setting people up to fail is not only bad business it's also bad ethics.
You mention that your software comes with a manual but I'd be willing to bet that it isn't comprehensive. Few manuals are anymore.
If your software is sufficiently complicated enough to warrant a Sybex/O'Reilly/No-Starch-type book on it then it really should be included with the purchase of your software. Unless, of course, your software is *SO* intuitive that an idiot could figure it out.
I am appalled at the absolute paranoia that these companies experience regarding their 'proprietary' software used to run e-voting machines.
Look, folks, it isn't that hard! If situation X occurs, then y (being the number of votes for Situation X) = y + 1. At the end, y = the number of votes for (candidate, proposition, measure, etc.) z.
Simple! *I* could probably program the stupid thing, and I've got CRAP for programming skills! Why does this need to be proprietary? Why does it need to be so damned EXPENSIVE?
Enter the Ape, eh? Alright, I'll see if I can find it.
Now, just to be clear: we actually made it for more like $100. The DV tapes are about $7 a pop by themselves. The ten dollar bet didn't actually happen, it was more or less just a premise to goof around with obviously bad props a'la MST3K.
"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts (la la la) then repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax For Mystery Science Theater 3000.....twang!
Anywho...to the other guy who didn't like the opening two minutes, well...I guess you'd have to know your ViewAskewniverse pretty well to get the joke. I guess you don't.
By the way, if you've got a copy and your financial situation has changed see if you can get it hosted. Maybe TF.N will host it for you, no cost. I'd love to see it if I can't find it elsewhere.
Yeah, it's huge and it's great quality. Suitable for VCD as the filename implies. Besides, I don't want to go through my entire life without having been/.'d at least once!
What's the movie about? We made a bet...a bad bet. We bet that we could make a Star Wars fan film for under $10. Watch the hilarious hi-jinks unfold as we do anything to get the shot! You won't believe the ending! With music from Alice in Chains, Iggy Pop, Jane's Addiction and more!
Includes trailer for possible upcoming project.
Download and enjoy! Burn it to VCD and give it to friends! Give it to enemies! Put it on Bit Torrent sites! And meet the stars at Wondercon at Moscone Center in San Francisco at the East Bay Star Wars Fan Club booth April 30-May 2.
"...yeah, but we'd have to be talkin' 'bout one charming muthafuckin' pig. I mean, she'd have to be, like, 10 times more charmin' than that Arnold on Green Acres."
Keep in mind that iMovie (well, iMovie 2.0.3, anyway) can import only mp3's as sound files. BUT! There is the lame encoder and bladeenc. Lame is insanely fast on the command line (well, under Linux anyway) turning.wav's into mp3's, and there must be a.wav file for just about everything under the friggin' sun out there!
So import your wav's to where your lame encoder is THEN import them into iMovie as mp3's.
Say...I don't suppose you could point me in the direction of some of those plug-ins, could you?
Yeah, but there ARE some nifty things you can do with it if you work hard enough at it.
Example: Here's a short movie I put together (10 secs, 5.9 MB) I was trying to find a way to add lightsaber effects to my videos without having to purchase Adobe products. So here's what I did:
I shot the video and imported it into iMovie. (BTW, I'm using iMovie 2.03 on Mac OS 9.1) I exported it with the Sorenson codec after turning it into B&W (I thought it would be cool to have B&W video but a nice green-glowing lightsaber) I moved the movie over to my Linux box and used MPlayer (do I get bonus points for incorporating another topic on the homepage?) to split the video into individual frames. From there I imported the frames into the GIMP and used the Perl-Fu plug-in 'lightsaber' (from jfedor.org...thanks for making that! You rule!) and added the effect to each frame individually.
I then imported the individual frames back into iMovie (as 1 frame stills) and turned it back into a movie.
Yes, this took friggin' forever. About 4 hours for 10 lousy seconds of video. (However, had I known about the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts to any menu item under the GIMP it would have saved me a lot of right-clicking on the image)
But in the end I did NOT have to use an Adobe product, neither Premiere NOR After Effects.
BTW, if anyone can tell me a simpler way to do this I'm listening! But, yeah, if you have the GIMP you could potentially do some incredible stuff with iMovie.
Re:I Think They Forgot...BONUS POINT ATTEMPT!
on
Dotcom Era Fads
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· Score: 1
Ate my balls Hamster Jar Jar Binks and Napster Clinton's caught Indy rock Gothic phase Hot Bot
Hubble Reno AOL I Love You and Online sales Ellen's sexuality Gates' culpability
Buy Dot Com, Force Dot Net Larry needs a new jet Slashdot and it's flame wars! I can't take it anymore!
(And a few verses I've been thinking about but don't quite fit)
EFF War on drugs Bobbit's penis Peet's Starbucks LCD Spike TV Jolt Cola caffeine
Linux vs. BSD C++ and PHP Apple uses Unix Sorenson vs. DivX
Coleman vs. Schwarzenneger Bob Hope says 'I'll see you later' President's an idjit Rice a mental midget
We didn't start the fire It was always burning since the worlds been turning! We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it but we're trying to fight it
Who puts potholes in the road?
Who owns all the source code?
WE DO! WE DO!
Who put Microsoft on top?
Who gives the public code that's slop?
WE DO! WE DO!
The surviving family of Jackie Gleason is suing for patent infringement.
They claim that Jackie Gleason held the intellectual property for going to the moon some 15 years prior to the 1969 lunar landing. "To the moon, Alice!" is the phrase being used as proof that the business model was originally Gleason's.
TransOrbital could not be reached for comment due to a massive Slashdot effect, but expects that their poor webservers will be replaced sometime next week after being/.'d into slag.
"Our ancestor, The Great One, would have wanted us to protect his intellectual property," one of the relatives was quoted as saying.
Slashdot Mirror
The 99 cents per song you already pay is a bit much, especially considering there is NO physical packaging, shipping costs, storefronts with employees and power bills, ad infinitum.
I really LIKE iTunes, and I *KNOW* how to steal music if I want to. I really LIKE the fact that I can buy a specific song for a pittance on a whim instead of hoping someone will upload it to the Usenet.
It's not that $1.49 is too much, but it just shows that they will try to reach a price that people will accept, however grudgingly. But the $1 mark is a psychological barrier; once they reach that, people will start to think, "Is this song worth $1.49?" and might not buy it after all.
In any case, good luck to 'em. I don't buy any new stuff anyway. Most of it is crap pushed by the payola artists.
I know I stand alone on this, but I think the Infanto Ray, from Space Ace, should have made the list.
Also, there's the Big-O-Beam, from the 'Attack From Mars' pinball game. Oh, and who could forget Frylock's eyeball-beams?
Then there's the laser from 'Laserblast,' with the beam-gun from 'Teenagers from Outer Space' coming in a close second. (Cue Crow: See? Proof you can be too rich AND too thin!)
I caught Smith at Zellerbach Hall last year in Berkeley and he has said quite plainly that he would not TOUCH the Star Wars franchise. I'm the one that asked him the question. And, yes, I'm also the one that started the 'Los Angeles steals our water' controversy.
Anyway, he said he doesn't want to be accused of raping people's childhoods by making a Star Wars film. So, no, Kevin Smith will NOT happen, though I'm certain he'd do a good job.
Just as long as Affleck keeps his mug out of it.
This is what I've been waiting for...two solid hours of lightsaber duels!
Because, let's face it, SW is really all about the lightsabers. You know you want one, and so do I.
I have a firewall. I have a virus/spybot scanner, and I never download stupid shit. Nonetheless my Windows box has things wrong with it that I find difficult/impossible to repair.
I take exception to you suggesting that this is somehow my fault. Furthermore, I have given others accounts on my Linux box and they have yet to 'fuck that up too,' as you put it, simply because they were completely incapable of doing so.
Don't feel pressured into making excuses for MS. They have made enough money to warrant creating an OS that isn't buggy, bloated, and insecure. Meanwhile the OS community has created an OS and supporting software that is stable, small, and secure for no money whatsoever.
The reason many people don't use Macs is because they are far too expensive. I like Macs and they are too expensive for me to own.
Linux *IS* an alternative, and a damn good one at that. If it wasn't an alternative then nobody would use it at all.
I think perhaps the single most handy (and most used) program on my Linux box, INCLUDING INIT, is PS, specifically PS AUX, and it's partner KILL -9.
.bashrc (if you're a bash-head like I am), and ifup and ifdown. Oh, and PING. Oh, and the terminal and how to call one up under X.
When I brought an older computer back from the dead with RH 7.1 one of the first things I taught the guy it was for was how to call up a terminal and use PS and KILL. Because sometimes, rarely but often enough, something will crash on you and you need to know how to kill it and where to look to do it.
Example: Xine crashes on me all the frickin' time. So I kill it about every 3rd time I use it.
The other thing that I pass on about *nix in general (and, really, computers in general) is one of the first things *I* was taught: everything on the computer is a file. Right there, it turned the computer from being a monolithic and enigmatic device into something I could actually use. All I had to do then was understand the parts and how they worked together.
Others have mentioned the file system, and they're right, you should teach them about it. Help them understand INIT.D,
There are about a million things you could teach someone in this course, all of them valid. If I could only teach someone a handful of things before setting them loose these would probably be at the top of the list.
Honestly, I don't know how you're going to teach people enough admin knowledge to do a decent job in just 3 days. It took me at least 6 months of personal instruction to really get the hang of it. Good luck, though!
Okay, a couple of points here:
Lawyers have to pass the BAR exam. I know a couple of people that have tried and, believe me, it isn't easy. There really is no way to cheat on this test. You can't even know what the questions are, really, because they rotate them. So his lawyer most assuredly will NOT have gotten his license the way he (didn't) get his degree.
Of course, all this may not translate in the UK, but I'm certain that the exams the barristers there take are just as stringent.
I also want to make a point here about tests in general: all tests should be open-book. Remember that life IS an open-book test, and research is getting easier. Example: all I have to do now is type in "definition autodidactism" into Google and it will give me not only the correct spelling (did you mean autodidacticism?) but also the definition. That is UNBELIEVABLY handier than a dictionary. Memorization is fine for a lot of things, things that you have to do on the fly. But memorizing the capitals of all 50 states? Virtually useless.
You see, folks, we have this nifty little system called WRITING. This WRITING system allows you to use symbols to RECORD things on that you might want to recall later. Why would you not be able to recall something? Because humans are imperfect, and have imperfect memories to go with them. The WRITING system allows you to record anything that you might forget and want to recall later!
It is far, FAR, *FAR* better to teach children how to do research and use reference material than to teach them trivia that they could, in the former case, easily look up in a library. And I assure you that practice in reference will (eventually) lead to memorization of plenty of facts, and thus prepare them for a career on gameshows.
Wow...all power to the University, eh? That's um...not an encouraging thought. But I'm sure you didn't mean that the way I am interpreting.
I understand your concern about your degree being devalued, but I assure you that Random Employer A isn't looking at it as if everyone who has your degree doesn't know jack shit. REA will look at it as that person not knowing jack shit.
As for your worrying about others cheating and PLAGIARISING (check your spelling, University Student...you paid HOW much to go to school and can't spell? They let you down! I would ask for my money back!) stop it. You can't affect their cheating any more than you can affect an alcoholic's drinking. Stop worrying about THEIR cheating and start worrying about YOUR OWN work, Little Mr. Big-Brother Tattle-Tale.
Fight the University Monopoly! Practice auto-didacticism!
You know, I'm just about cheering for this kid, and I'll tell you why:
First, colleges have a tendency to take BUCKETS of your money and make no guarantees with it, e.g. if you don't learn the first time, we'll let you sit in on the class again, FREE! There are PLENTY of accredited specialty schools that have this guarantee, so don't tell me it can't be done. So, just as with almost every institution I've ever run across, it is inherently violent by creating false hope and not taking responsibility. (Think about it...corporations are legal entities that NEVER DIE, but when they fuck up, it's REALLY difficult to get them to take responsibility)
Second, the money...again. College is OUTLANDISHLY expensive! Most people will NEVER have the money it takes to go to one, and the price just keeps going up with no restraints on it at all! Example: just last year, the University of California Regents decided to raise tuition by 30%. Just like that, one simple little vote, and it happens. I complained about this to a former UC Berkeley student and he laughed. "HA! That's nothing! When I was there they raised it by 300%!" I merely looked at him agape. They have a monopoly on the goods, folks, and they raise prices at will.
Third (and this is a lesser complaint), living conditions. I once visited the UC Davis campus to see a couple of friends and they told me about how they had to live on campus the first year. H-A-D to, those were the words they used. The place they HAD to live was a glorified closet that housed not one of them (which would have been cozy but respectable) but T-W-O of them. The entirety of their living quarters was less than that of your average PRISONER. Now, I'm sure that not all colleges have this requirement, but the ones that do are defrauding their students for HUGE amounts of rent for those cramped closets. If any college told me that I had to live under those conditions I would tell the dean to offer me his neck to repay the insult.
Fourth, the kid admitted to plagiarism, I'll grant you that. But doesn't the old saying go that if you steal it from one source, it's plagiarism, if you stal from many, it's research? Okay, no, I can't really defend the kid here. Crow copied Gypsie's paper word-for-word (even if his downbeat was on Basehart) and didn't get to eat the Hostess Snowballs. The kid should have a disembodied floating head in his dorm room for pulling that stunt. But I know how *I* would have dealt with it: I would have made sure my bibliography was complete. Quoting other works in a paper is STANDARD PRACTICE! If it were me, I would have used entire paragraphs from Paglia's works, but I would have given her credit and probably gotten away with it!
But frankly I'm under the impression that the University of Kent is running a scam on him and I hope he repays the favor in a court of law.
Fight the University monopoly! Practice auto-didacticism!
I think your USMC student got it wrong. To the best of my knowledge, the USMC would NEVER support the idea of cheating in an academic environment to get ahead. They would, however, support the idea of good STRATEGY to get ahead in an academic environment, e.g., if you haven't got an original thought on the subject, fine, then do lots of research and make sure your bibliography is complete. Not cheating at all, just a common strategy.
Now, there IS a place in the USMC where anything goes, and that is in war. When you have decided that the other person must die it doesn't matter whether you do it with a gun, or a knife, or a nuclear bomb; dead is dead. This is where the idea of doing 'anything to get ahead' comes in. Dead soldiers aren't effective in combat. Staying alive while reducing the chances that the other guy can kill you is an effective strategy to making sure you continue to function as a soldier, which is the soldier's goal.
I can't believe, with all the talk of putting one in space, nobody has used the words "DEATH" and "STAR" just yet.
Glad I'm the first. I think.
If this thing is capable of creating such intense heat (with, as far as I can tell, very little environmental impact such as that created when making solar panels) then perhaps it could be used as an alternative (and portable) power source?
I need to look into this. Heat energy can be converted into electric energy, even if it isn't all that efficient.
Yes, I want the cost of a book added to the price if it will show me how to use the software I just purchased. If the overall cost is not worth it then I will not purchase it.
How could I not need a manual for a piece of software I've not used before, unless it's so intuitive that an idiot could use it? Am I supposed to GUESS at what menu items do when they could be very cryptic? Example: I know what a mask is when I apply one to my face for a Masquerade Ball. I don't know what one is in Photoshop because I've not used one before. See where I'm going with this?
Yes, at 1500 pages I'd say that the manual you refer to is pretty comprehensive. It must be a necessary manual if it's not so intuitive that an idiot could figure it out even if many try. And if I don't need a manual then the program must be pretty intuitive, wouldn't you say?
I'm sorry you feel that way about a software company's responsibility about informing their customers as to the function of what they just sold them. On one hand you have a point: telling them what the program does and leaving it at that is fine. If, however, you usurp definitions of common words in your software and then don't tell people what YOU mean when you use that word then you are not giving a complete explanation.
An explanation is not an explanation until it is C-L-E-A-R to the person on the receiving end of the explanation. If you do not provide a clear explanation of what you mean then you are setting your customers up for failure.
(Another example: what the hell is a History Brush? Does it automatically paint pictures from historic times? Will it give me a portrait of Lincoln? How about a Magic Wand Tool? Did I get magical powers when I purchased this program?)
Finally, you wouldn't be paying to show 'nubes and the clueless' how to use the software YOU buy unless the software was NOT intuitive, in which case YOU WOULD BE ONE OF THE 'NUBE/CLUELESS' crowd!
What would you say to the software salesman that told you: "Our program is simple! It does everything you could possibly want it to do when it comes to web-design and graphics manipulation! Just be sure to press the Monkey-Flatulence Indicator button if you want Capricorn Results! Or, you can automatically preview your Zippity-Doo-Dah by fluffelgamming your Wattlehatchers!" without offering a damn bit of explanation as to what Capricorn Results were?
You'd (rightfully) throw his ass out on the street and tell him not to return. Why should I be any less forgiving of any software company who is guilty of pulling the same stunt?
Okay, you don't want to show them how to use your software? How about making a comprehensive manual? Or is that 'showing' them how to use your software? Intentionally setting people up to fail is not only bad business it's also bad ethics. You mention that your software comes with a manual but I'd be willing to bet that it isn't comprehensive. Few manuals are anymore. If your software is sufficiently complicated enough to warrant a Sybex/O'Reilly/No-Starch-type book on it then it really should be included with the purchase of your software. Unless, of course, your software is *SO* intuitive that an idiot could figure it out.
I am appalled at the absolute paranoia that these companies experience regarding their 'proprietary' software used to run e-voting machines.
Look, folks, it isn't that hard! If situation X occurs, then y (being the number of votes for Situation X) = y + 1. At the end, y = the number of votes for (candidate, proposition, measure, etc.) z.
Simple! *I* could probably program the stupid thing, and I've got CRAP for programming skills! Why does this need to be proprietary? Why does it need to be so damned EXPENSIVE?
Enter the Ape, eh? Alright, I'll see if I can find it.
Now, just to be clear: we actually made it for more like $100. The DV tapes are about $7 a pop by themselves. The ten dollar bet didn't actually happen, it was more or less just a premise to goof around with obviously bad props a'la MST3K.
"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts
(la la la)
then repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax
For Mystery Science Theater 3000.....twang!
Anywho...to the other guy who didn't like the opening two minutes, well...I guess you'd have to know your ViewAskewniverse pretty well to get the joke. I guess you don't.
By the way, if you've got a copy and your financial situation has changed see if you can get it hosted. Maybe TF.N will host it for you, no cost. I'd love to see it if I can't find it elsewhere.
Well, yeah, I would if I was making a damn dime off of it myself. They could sue me and get the $1.50 I have in my bank account I suppose.
That ten dollars wiped me out! Brother, can you spare a dime?
The Ten Dollar Star Wars Fan Film
Yeah, it's huge and it's great quality. Suitable for VCD as the filename implies. Besides, I don't want to go through my entire life without having been /.'d at least once!
What's the movie about? We made a bet...a bad bet. We bet that we could make a Star Wars fan film for under $10. Watch the hilarious hi-jinks unfold as we do anything to get the shot! You won't believe the ending! With music from Alice in Chains, Iggy Pop, Jane's Addiction and more!
Includes trailer for possible upcoming project.
Download and enjoy! Burn it to VCD and give it to friends! Give it to enemies! Put it on Bit Torrent sites! And meet the stars at Wondercon at Moscone Center in San Francisco at the East Bay Star Wars Fan Club booth April 30-May 2.
"...yeah, but we'd have to be talkin' 'bout one charming muthafuckin' pig. I mean, she'd have to be, like, 10 times more charmin' than that Arnold on Green Acres."
You can download it here as well.
Good luck to you! I hope it pays off!
.wav's into mp3's, and there must be a .wav file for just about everything under the friggin' sun out there!
Keep in mind that iMovie (well, iMovie 2.0.3, anyway) can import only mp3's as sound files. BUT! There is the lame encoder and bladeenc. Lame is insanely fast on the command line (well, under Linux anyway) turning
So import your wav's to where your lame encoder is THEN import them into iMovie as mp3's.
Say...I don't suppose you could point me in the direction of some of those plug-ins, could you?
Example: Here's a short movie I put together (10 secs, 5.9 MB) I was trying to find a way to add lightsaber effects to my videos without having to purchase Adobe products. So here's what I did:
I shot the video and imported it into iMovie. (BTW, I'm using iMovie 2.03 on Mac OS 9.1) I exported it with the Sorenson codec after turning it into B&W (I thought it would be cool to have B&W video but a nice green-glowing lightsaber) I moved the movie over to my Linux box and used MPlayer (do I get bonus points for incorporating another topic on the homepage?) to split the video into individual frames. From there I imported the frames into the GIMP and used the Perl-Fu plug-in 'lightsaber' (from jfedor.org...thanks for making that! You rule!) and added the effect to each frame individually.
I then imported the individual frames back into iMovie (as 1 frame stills) and turned it back into a movie.
Yes, this took friggin' forever. About 4 hours for 10 lousy seconds of video. (However, had I known about the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts to any menu item under the GIMP it would have saved me a lot of right-clicking on the image)
But in the end I did NOT have to use an Adobe product, neither Premiere NOR After Effects.
BTW, if anyone can tell me a simpler way to do this I'm listening! But, yeah, if you have the GIMP you could potentially do some incredible stuff with iMovie.
Ate my balls
Hamster
Jar Jar Binks and
Napster
Clinton's caught
Indy rock
Gothic phase
Hot Bot
Hubble
Reno
AOL
I Love You and
Online sales
Ellen's sexuality
Gates' culpability
Buy Dot Com, Force Dot Net
Larry needs a new jet
Slashdot and it's flame wars!
I can't take it anymore!
(And a few verses I've been thinking about but don't quite fit)
EFF
War on drugs
Bobbit's penis
Peet's
Starbucks
LCD
Spike TV
Jolt Cola caffeine
Linux vs. BSD
C++ and PHP
Apple uses Unix
Sorenson vs. DivX
Coleman vs. Schwarzenneger
Bob Hope says 'I'll see you later'
President's an idjit
Rice a mental midget
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the worlds been turning!
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it but we're trying to fight it
Who puts potholes in the road?
Who owns all the source code?
WE DO! WE DO!
Who put Microsoft on top?
Who gives the public code that's slop?
WE DO! WE DO!
The surviving family of Jackie Gleason is suing for patent infringement.
/.'d into slag.
They claim that Jackie Gleason held the intellectual property for going to the moon some 15 years prior to the 1969 lunar landing. "To the moon, Alice!" is the phrase being used as proof that the business model was originally Gleason's.
TransOrbital could not be reached for comment due to a massive Slashdot effect, but expects that their poor webservers will be replaced sometime next week after being
"Our ancestor, The Great One, would have wanted us to protect his intellectual property," one of the relatives was quoted as saying.