If he's anything like me he gets three or four preapproved credit card offers in the mail a week. It wouldn't be hard to get a huge stack of credit cards by accumulating a few dozen applications and just sending them all in at once. Granted you would need some sort of system to keep track of which cards you've used and which you havn't (maybe by cancelling each card after you use it?).
What? I guess you missed out on the broadband revolution. Granted not everyone can get broadband, but many many people have it, and think nothing of transmitting 700MB movies over it. Back when CDs came out everyone was using slow modem (back when 9600 baud was rocket fast), and transmitting 650MB worth of data was unheard of. These days it's trivial. There are literally dozens of technologies on the horizon trying to solve the "last mile" problem already, so I don't know why you have such a bleak outlook. Also, ironically, houses that have fibre run to them are the ones who currently can't get DSL. I know a friend of mine who has fibre right to the curb, and can't get DSL because of it. I figure in a few years he'll have way more bandwith than I can get over my (at that point obsolete) cable modem.
That kind of size won't be so scary. Remember when CD media first started coming out and the record industry smugly thought that it was unpiratable because 650M was just so ungodly huge. Even DVD movies, oversized as they are for net piracy, can be recompressed down to a file that can be transferred over a broadband connection with little trouble.
The moral of the story is: size is a poor piracy prevention tool. Technology will eventually catch up no matter how big you make something.
I've got a Palm VIIx (probably the most power hungry Palm ever--I got it from work), and a pair of NiMH AAAs last me about 2-3 weeks of normal use. I only use up about 50kb of data traffic a month though (I'm grandfathered on the $10/month plan). I know I'm not getting the optimal life from my batteries though. I charge up the batteries right after I swap them (Two sets of batteries, one set is always charged and ready to go), so the batteries sit around on the shelf for a couple of weeks discharging into the air waiting to be swapped back in.
Of course I'm not watching movies on my Palm either...
Well, you have your choice. You can either have your X server totally in userland, sending updates to the kernel through some API, or you can have it bang on the hardware directly.
If it talks through the kernel your X server will be dog slow (slower than XFree 3), although if it crashes it won't take your system down (hopefully). You also won't get binary drivers from NVidia and you probably won't have any 3D support at all (which is OK because the server would be too slow to use it effectively anyway). You also won't get hardware scaling/zooming like you get with the Xv extension.
on the other hand, if the server bangs on the hardware directly an X bug can crash your machine entirely. Most people seem to be willing to take this risk since the performance is SO much better.
Disposable toasters? Where were you finding this marvel of modern engineering? All of the toasters I've ever seen have been built just like they were in the 40s (unless they are the high tech ones that have an additional plastic anti-burn sleeve). They last for a lifetime (my toaster is older than I am and it still works fine, although if it broke I could buy one just like it down at WalMart).
Disposable cars? You're thinking of a Mini...but that's a British car.
Or more likely this was just a clumsy troll that was too humerous not to reply to. Disposable toasters. sheesh.
I just hate how RealOne tries to keep sending data back to Real. I have zone alarm preventing it's connections but it tries to connect every 30 minutes or so. Personally I don't trust Real to not sell my data, so I'm rather hesitant to allow any data back to their servers.
It's not like there's an option to turn off the reporting either. It also doesn't help that the player has falled for the "skin" diesease. As soon as any program picks up the ability to skin itself it ships with the most god-awful interface possible (witness WMP7), often with a loss of functionality (witness WMP7).
Finally, here's a hint for you media player writers: do not open webpages automatically (especially "UPGRADE NOW OR THE BUNNY GETS IT" pages) at startup. If I wanted to go to a webpage I would have started my web browser.
Do you also like bread? That doesn't even compare. Now buying pirate games is theft of service, but installing a mod chip so you can back up your games (especially important if you have a dog/small children in the house). And what about those people who import games from Japan and other countries? That may not be looked kindly upon by Sony, but it certainly isn't theft of service (Sony/the game publisher still get the money they deserve).
There seems to be a vocal contingent on Slashdot that assume that anybody using DeCSS, Napster, Mod Chips, etc... must be pirates and should be thrown in jail. Even if there are legitimate uses for a technology the potental for abuse exists and therefore everyone who uses it is therefore guilty.
I've used DeCSS dozens of times (everytime I watch a DVD I bought legally in fact) without infringing on copyright once. Does this mean I should go to jail? I've played import games (at conventions, but still...). Those machines were modded. Should I go to jail? I've backed up my games (although I don't actually have a mod chip yet, I'll install it if one of my originals is destroyed). Am I evil? Do I deserve to be thrown in jail for using technologies that can also be used to pirate?
Well, the problem is the ball is mostly in the NVidias court WRT FreeBSD drivers. Supposedly the Linux drivers should be very similar to the FreeBSD drivers, but so far nothing has come out of NVidia.
Tying up 911 lines costs lives. In many jurisdictions you can be fined for prank calling 911, especially if you are a repeat offender. WebTV users would be well advised to be very careful with their email until this problem is resolved.
To be fair, it is a gif with a transparent background. Even if the JPEG standard even supports alpha channels (IIRC it doesn't), no browser in the world would properly render a JPEG with an alpha channel.
They really should have used a PNG (which has an 8 bit alpha channel) so it wouldn't look so jaggy around the edges.
Remember how you had to pay for that mail to boot? Ahh, those were the days. Metered access and IIRC a full buck for each additional hour (over 5!). Don't you remember the joys of always downloading graphics for AOL and waiting for some slow page to come up? It must have been exceptionally painful on a 2400 baud modem to load all of those graphics heavy pages. I wonder why people get mad at the spammers?
Well, I had the feeling the GiTS movie was supposed to only be based on the Manga, not a direct adaption of the storyline. To be honest, the manga wanders around a lot and it would have made for a rather long and boring movie. Print media is different than film, you can't always do the same thing in both and have it work.
That said, I hope they go into depth about the Fuchikomas in the TV series. I was really disappointed they didn't even make a cameo appearance in the movie. Maybe the TV series will take a minute at some point to explain why you need a full cyborg body if you want to enhance your strength and why you can't just replace your muscles with super strong servoes[1].
[1] Arm bends as commanded.
Re:All servers down - thank you slashdot!
on
Ogg Vorbis 1.0
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Just how long is it going to take to mirror Ogg Vorbis? Last time I downloaded it all three[1] tar.gzs together were less than a meg. It's not like they're mirroring Gnome or Mozilla. Heck, I can CVSup and entire FreeBSD ports tree quicker than these guys are mirroring Ogg.
The only thing I remember was the guy actually using the glove and not sucking at the game (I think it was a racing game). That really impressed me because whenever I used the glove (my friend had it, so it wasn't very often) I completely sucked at the game. It just wasn't a very accurate controller for me.
Obviously the poster wanted a larger phone with a nice radio section and Lithium Ion batteries. It may not fit in a shirt pocket, but those batteries should last for days (weeks?) with regular use and not have an interface so cramped that you need a toothpick to dial. I assume the original poster also has large fingers and finds most modern cellphones difficult to dial even without gloves on.
Re:Why two ethernet controllers?
on
nForce2 Preview
·
· Score: 2
Well, firewalls are becoming very important as more people get "always on" internet access. In addition the number of people getting a second computer is increasing. Plus, chances are they are going to use some
RealTek POS chip on there, so the second controller is only going to cost a few cents.
Also, this might be useful at LAN/fireshare parties where people don't want to saturate the "gaming" network so they set up a second firesharing network.
Is it just me or are two thirds of those challenges, in actuality, dorky plays? I was fidgeting uncomfortably in my seat just reading the challenge description.
I have to admit, the Chameleon Car sounded like an cool project. I wonder if you had to make a full size (driver sits inside) vehicle, or if you could just do it with radio control? For $135 your budget will be very tight on any full sized car.
Since we aren't even ready to visit planets in our own solar system, I don't see what the big hurry in finding extrasolar terrestrial planets is. Even if we found an Earthlike planet in the Alpha Centauri system, it's not like we'd be ready to even start sending a spacecraft there in the next several decades.
By contrast, the space tourism industry could revitalize the entire space industry (that has been slowly squeezed of funding for years).
Often times the choice isn't between Cable and DSL, rather the choice is between Cable and Modem/T1/ISDN. Modem is of course almost unacceptably slow for people who become accustomed to Cablemodem speeds (or even dorm ethernet speed). ISDN and T1 tend to be priced in the stratosphere (and ISDN is frequently only somewhat faster than modem and priced per megabyte and minute.)
I know locally if ComCast wants to start screwing it's customers even worse than usual the only choice we'll have is to go back to modem. In case anybody has any illusions let me spell it out: modem sucks. I don't want to loose my cablemodem, and I don't know what I'll do if I start getting screwed too hard.
Yeah, and if you throw in another 20B and they might get there in one piece. I'm not sure I'd trust my life to something the Russians threw together on a shoestring budget.
Isn't that what those pesky Europeans are always saying? Not a beer thread goes by when someone doesn't accuse American of only producing Bud and Coors as if we don't have smaller brewers in number in every state.
SHHH! Don't give any of the big brewerys any ideas. It's only a matter of time before patriotic pride comes through and they start the "American Pride" commercials.
I suppose you're one of those people that has to "disinfect" the seats at a restaruant before you sit down? Those joysticks should be no worse than your average store display joystick. Heck, I'd be surprised if they are any worse than your average public door. Relax, you have an immune system, let it do its job and worry about more important things.
Slashdot Mirror
If he's anything like me he gets three or four preapproved credit card offers in the mail a week. It wouldn't be hard to get a huge stack of credit cards by accumulating a few dozen applications and just sending them all in at once. Granted you would need some sort of system to keep track of which cards you've used and which you havn't (maybe by cancelling each card after you use it?).
What? I guess you missed out on the broadband revolution. Granted not everyone can get broadband, but many many people have it, and think nothing of transmitting 700MB movies over it. Back when CDs came out everyone was using slow modem (back when 9600 baud was rocket fast), and transmitting 650MB worth of data was unheard of. These days it's trivial. There are literally dozens of technologies on the horizon trying to solve the "last mile" problem already, so I don't know why you have such a bleak outlook. Also, ironically, houses that have fibre run to them are the ones who currently can't get DSL. I know a friend of mine who has fibre right to the curb, and can't get DSL because of it. I figure in a few years he'll have way more bandwith than I can get over my (at that point obsolete) cable modem.
That kind of size won't be so scary. Remember when CD media first started coming out and the record industry smugly thought that it was unpiratable because 650M was just so ungodly huge. Even DVD movies, oversized as they are for net piracy, can be recompressed down to a file that can be transferred over a broadband connection with little trouble.
The moral of the story is: size is a poor piracy prevention tool. Technology will eventually catch up no matter how big you make something.
I've got a Palm VIIx (probably the most power hungry Palm ever--I got it from work), and a pair of NiMH AAAs last me about 2-3 weeks of normal use. I only use up about 50kb of data traffic a month though (I'm grandfathered on the $10/month plan). I know I'm not getting the optimal life from my batteries though. I charge up the batteries right after I swap them (Two sets of batteries, one set is always charged and ready to go), so the batteries sit around on the shelf for a couple of weeks discharging into the air waiting to be swapped back in.
Of course I'm not watching movies on my Palm either...
Well, you have your choice. You can either have your X server totally in userland, sending updates to the kernel through some API, or you can have it bang on the hardware directly.
If it talks through the kernel your X server will be dog slow (slower than XFree 3), although if it crashes it won't take your system down (hopefully). You also won't get binary drivers from NVidia and you probably won't have any 3D support at all (which is OK because the server would be too slow to use it effectively anyway). You also won't get hardware scaling/zooming like you get with the Xv extension.
on the other hand, if the server bangs on the hardware directly an X bug can crash your machine entirely. Most people seem to be willing to take this risk since the performance is SO much better.
Disposable toasters? Where were you finding this marvel of modern engineering? All of the toasters I've ever seen have been built just like they were in the 40s (unless they are the high tech ones that have an additional plastic anti-burn sleeve). They last for a lifetime (my toaster is older than I am and it still works fine, although if it broke I could buy one just like it down at WalMart).
Disposable cars? You're thinking of a Mini...but that's a British car.
Or more likely this was just a clumsy troll that was too humerous not to reply to. Disposable toasters. sheesh.
I just hate how RealOne tries to keep sending data back to Real. I have zone alarm preventing it's connections but it tries to connect every 30 minutes or so. Personally I don't trust Real to not sell my data, so I'm rather hesitant to allow any data back to their servers.
It's not like there's an option to turn off the reporting either. It also doesn't help that the player has falled for the "skin" diesease. As soon as any program picks up the ability to skin itself it ships with the most god-awful interface possible (witness WMP7), often with a loss of functionality (witness WMP7).
Finally, here's a hint for you media player writers: do not open webpages automatically (especially "UPGRADE NOW OR THE BUNNY GETS IT" pages) at startup. If I wanted to go to a webpage I would have started my web browser.
Do you also like bread? That doesn't even compare. Now buying pirate games is theft of service, but installing a mod chip so you can back up your games (especially important if you have a dog/small children in the house). And what about those people who import games from Japan and other countries? That may not be looked kindly upon by Sony, but it certainly isn't theft of service (Sony/the game publisher still get the money they deserve).
There seems to be a vocal contingent on Slashdot that assume that anybody using DeCSS, Napster, Mod Chips, etc... must be pirates and should be thrown in jail. Even if there are legitimate uses for a technology the potental for abuse exists and therefore everyone who uses it is therefore guilty.
I've used DeCSS dozens of times (everytime I watch a DVD I bought legally in fact) without infringing on copyright once. Does this mean I should go to jail? I've played import games (at conventions, but still...). Those machines were modded. Should I go to jail? I've backed up my games (although I don't actually have a mod chip yet, I'll install it if one of my originals is destroyed). Am I evil? Do I deserve to be thrown in jail for using technologies that can also be used to pirate?
Well, the problem is the ball is mostly in the NVidias court WRT FreeBSD drivers. Supposedly the Linux drivers should be very similar to the FreeBSD drivers, but so far nothing has come out of NVidia.
Tying up 911 lines costs lives. In many jurisdictions you can be fined for prank calling 911, especially if you are a repeat offender. WebTV users would be well advised to be very careful with their email until this problem is resolved.
To be fair, it is a gif with a transparent background. Even if the JPEG standard even supports alpha channels (IIRC it doesn't), no browser in the world would properly render a JPEG with an alpha channel.
They really should have used a PNG (which has an 8 bit alpha channel) so it wouldn't look so jaggy around the edges.
Remember how you had to pay for that mail to boot? Ahh, those were the days. Metered access and IIRC a full buck for each additional hour (over 5!). Don't you remember the joys of always downloading graphics for AOL and waiting for some slow page to come up? It must have been exceptionally painful on a 2400 baud modem to load all of those graphics heavy pages. I wonder why people get mad at the spammers?
Well, I had the feeling the GiTS movie was supposed to only be based on the Manga, not a direct adaption of the storyline. To be honest, the manga wanders around a lot and it would have made for a rather long and boring movie. Print media is different than film, you can't always do the same thing in both and have it work.
That said, I hope they go into depth about the Fuchikomas in the TV series. I was really disappointed they didn't even make a cameo appearance in the movie. Maybe the TV series will take a minute at some point to explain why you need a full cyborg body if you want to enhance your strength and why you can't just replace your muscles with super strong servoes[1].
[1] Arm bends as commanded.
Just how long is it going to take to mirror Ogg Vorbis? Last time I downloaded it all three[1] tar.gzs together were less than a meg. It's not like they're mirroring Gnome or Mozilla. Heck, I can CVSup and entire FreeBSD ports tree quicker than these guys are mirroring Ogg.
[1] libogg, libvorbis, and vorbistools
The only thing I remember was the guy actually using the glove and not sucking at the game (I think it was a racing game). That really impressed me because whenever I used the glove (my friend had it, so it wasn't very often) I completely sucked at the game. It just wasn't a very accurate controller for me.
Obviously the poster wanted a larger phone with a nice radio section and Lithium Ion batteries. It may not fit in a shirt pocket, but those batteries should last for days (weeks?) with regular use and not have an interface so cramped that you need a toothpick to dial. I assume the original poster also has large fingers and finds most modern cellphones difficult to dial even without gloves on.
Well, firewalls are becoming very important as more people get "always on" internet access. In addition the number of people getting a second computer is increasing. Plus, chances are they are going to use some RealTek POS chip on there, so the second controller is only going to cost a few cents.
Also, this might be useful at LAN/fireshare parties where people don't want to saturate the "gaming" network so they set up a second firesharing network.
Note to austad: Stop listening to advertisements. They appear to be having some sort of ill effect on your brain.
While Dell is certainly popular, I've never heard of this "new computer" == "Dell" meme before.
Is it just me or are two thirds of those challenges, in actuality, dorky plays? I was fidgeting uncomfortably in my seat just reading the challenge description.
I have to admit, the Chameleon Car sounded like an cool project. I wonder if you had to make a full size (driver sits inside) vehicle, or if you could just do it with radio control? For $135 your budget will be very tight on any full sized car.
Since we aren't even ready to visit planets in our own solar system, I don't see what the big hurry in finding extrasolar terrestrial planets is. Even if we found an Earthlike planet in the Alpha Centauri system, it's not like we'd be ready to even start sending a spacecraft there in the next several decades.
By contrast, the space tourism industry could revitalize the entire space industry (that has been slowly squeezed of funding for years).
Often times the choice isn't between Cable and DSL, rather the choice is between Cable and Modem/T1/ISDN. Modem is of course almost unacceptably slow for people who become accustomed to Cablemodem speeds (or even dorm ethernet speed). ISDN and T1 tend to be priced in the stratosphere (and ISDN is frequently only somewhat faster than modem and priced per megabyte and minute.)
I know locally if ComCast wants to start screwing it's customers even worse than usual the only choice we'll have is to go back to modem. In case anybody has any illusions let me spell it out: modem sucks. I don't want to loose my cablemodem, and I don't know what I'll do if I start getting screwed too hard.
Yeah, and if you throw in another 20B and they might get there in one piece. I'm not sure I'd trust my life to something the Russians threw together on a shoestring budget.
Imagine if Coors Lite was called "American Beer"
Isn't that what those pesky Europeans are always saying? Not a beer thread goes by when someone doesn't accuse American of only producing Bud and Coors as if we don't have smaller brewers in number in every state.
SHHH! Don't give any of the big brewerys any ideas. It's only a matter of time before patriotic pride comes through and they start the "American Pride" commercials.
I suppose you're one of those people that has to "disinfect" the seats at a restaruant before you sit down? Those joysticks should be no worse than your average store display joystick. Heck, I'd be surprised if they are any worse than your average public door. Relax, you have an immune system, let it do its job and worry about more important things.
What? I'm not going to mod up some random offtopic post, even if it includes a badly quoted line from the Simpsons.
The real line should be: My eyes...the goggles--they do nothing!"