You raise some interesting points, and, unfortunatly, I do not have the time to comment on all of them. As such, I'd like to raise issue with your comparison of slavery to information copying.
Slavery was and is bad because it denies a person of their inherant and/or implied worth. By forcing someone to do what you say, you deny them the opportunity to pursue their own desires. This done with no compensation only expounds the problem. In your particular analogy, slaves were forced to pick cotton without proper compensation.
Now, on to copyrights. For clarity's sake, I will use the example of a musician who has released an album. Now, you go to your local record store and buy said album. Let's say you go home and rip this album and upload it to some file sharing service. By so distributing said album for free, you are denying (in variable regards) the right of the artist to compensate from his/her work. Thus, you are more like the slave owner rather than the slave.
The distinction to be made is who is doing the work and who is being compensated for the work. In any fair system, the person doing the work should be the person compensated. In slavery's case, the two were oposite.
The analogy falls apart when looking at information distribution. It also adds in some complexities which make the analogy to slavery inappropriate. The person doing the work is the artist, and it should be that person who choses how they are compensated. Be it sign a record contract, give out the CD for free and hope for concert ticket sales, whatever. A fair, unbarbaric society, lets the person doing the work choose their compensation. You are denying the artist this right by distributing his music, so long as the artist originally chose to sell the music.
Now, I have no issue with those who give away their music. I think that is wonderful. But, it was their descision to do so in the first place. If an artist chooses to sell music, it is not my position to deny him/her that right. Denying people their rights is what made slavery wrong. However, if I were to say I wanted to be whipped and work for nothing, that would be my perrogative. You taking advantage of my descision would not make you a slave owner, because you have to denied me my choice. However, as I am the one chosing, I can walk away at any time.
In conclusion, the fair society lets the those doing the work determine appropriate compensation. And, if you look at the reality of the situation, that is exactly what we do. You have copyrights and patents if you want to distribute your work and receive compensation. There is also the public domain, if you want to freely give away what you have created. Saying that there should be one and only one way to make your works available denies a person of their right to chose which is appropriate for them.
Anyway, this is just my initial freeflowing thoughts. Some time I will take the time and write out a thought out, well organized opinion. However, I find your position intriguing and would like to hear your response.
Sounds like you got pretty lucky. The same scraper is used for both Freevo and MythTV. Its written in perl and gets info from zap2it, or something like that. I had to update it once in the month I expirimented with them, which was a half year ago or so. According to the mailing list, it wasn't an uncommon occurance for the format to change.
A stand-alone 80 hour Series 2 TiVo costs $299. A 40 hour is $199. So, both are cheaper than your computer.
Now, there is no subscription fee with a custom built jobber. TiVo chargess $299/Lifetime or $12.95 per month, which you can pay by working about 2 hours at minimum wage.
I own a TiVo and have built a custom HTPC using both MythTV and Freevo. Trust me, you will spend way more than 2 hours per month configuring and troubleshooting an HTPC (at least one on Linux). The screen scrapers for TV guide data are constantly breaking as the scrapees change their format. Plus, most are still buggy, requiring frequent recompiles of the latest software.
On top of all that, no solution comes close to the ease of use of TiVo. There is nothing that compares to Wish Lists and Season Passes. If you get a TiVo, you simply plug it in and walk through the guided set-up and you are done. Pure television bliss. With an HTPC, none of the enjoyment is there, because you spend more time hacking stuff than actually getting a better TV experience.
Re:I wanted a Linux Annoyances paperback book
on
PC Annoyances
·
· Score: 2
It is funny.
Please quit your day job of booking stand-up comics.
I think it is morally wrong to use the correct meaning of words to describe what you are doing.
Seriously though, settle down on the whole morality thing with regards to minor issues. Once you've done that, go look up the word "sale" in a dictionary and then try and claim that the retailer is lying.
Presumably, if one were going to completly switch to Linux, they would take their files with them over to the new system. Hence, no need for ntfs.sys. Copying files to a CD and then on to Linux (whatever fs) would be the easiest part of the transition.
That sort of thing is exactly what this is good for. Let's say you give a Linux distro to a friend so he can try it out. This could be a Live CD or a distro that will make your system dual boot.
In any case, your friend probably has a bunch of files on his Windows partition (likely NTFS formatted) that he wants to see if he can edit/view in Linux. If he can do what he wants, then switching to Linux becomes an option. So, with this, his NTFS partition is available and everything just works(TM). After all, your friend doesn't even know what NTFS is, but he does know when he can't get at his files.
In short, this makes transitions to Linux much smoother. People shouldn't have to keep a copy of a file on both partitions just so its available in both environmets. It becomes a pain to figure out which document is the most recent, etc. etc. And, BTW, I'm talking about the average user who doesn't have a network drive.
Excellent, I'm glad too see it. A couple people on my friends list are people who were previously foes. I've had some good discussions and learned some things from arguments here on Slashdot. Its always nice to hear and discuss differing opinions, because it challenges your own ideas.
Incidentally, I may come off somewhat harsh on some of my replies, though I hope that isn't taken too badly. On some of your posts, you've actually made some good points or posted some interesting context which really forced me to think. I hope you do so more in the future, because those are the best comments.
Anyway, anyone who can respect difference that much is a friend of mine. So, you will be added to my friends list soon enough. I usually wait about a week for "transition" time. I'll continue to reply to your posts with counterpoints of my own (unless we agree on something, which so far I don't think has happened:) ).
Magnatune is very different from Best Buy. Those who go to Magnatune for their music are familiar, or become familiar, with how it works. When they go their for the first time, they are likely linked from a site that is having a discussion on the issues of downloading and/or artist compensation.
Joe User has never heard of Magnatune. Joe User doesn't care all that much whose getting screwed by whom in the record business. He just wants to go buy a CD/DVD/Game/Whatever. If Best Buy took out a huge, full page ad in every newspaper announcing that the day after Thanksgiving everything would be given away for free, and donations would be accepted at the door and online, I would bet that the ratio of donations received to sticker price would be incredibly low.
Sure, it is a nice idea, but it would fail in any large scale practice.
No it wouldn't. Most of the developers would sit there with a calculator converting the hex to decimal just to understand what the hell is going on. This would be a huge waste of time and productivity.
But, if you're so hell bent on your idea, why stop there? Run all the code through gcc and have it generate assembly output. Then remove all the.h and.c files from the server and upload the assembly files instead. But, even that is not the best solution, we should just upload the binary files and let the true hackers continue on in straight 1s and 0s. I bet development would increase at an exponential rate then. Oh wait, no it wouldn't.
Humans like things they can understand, computers like things computers can understand. Since it is humans developing the software, it is the compilers job to understand how to translate (and the people who write the compilers.)
If they walked into a Best Buy and saw game with a price tag that read "Please take this game for free and feel free to donate at www.somegamedeveloper.com" they'd take the game and probably never even visit the website. Sure, 0.05% may donate 5-10 bucks, but the developer would be out of business quicker than you can say fuckedcompany.com
Uhh, you, since the original comment got bitchslapped down redundant, and this guy got +5 funny.
In addition, the moderation system takes time. Of course he will be only at +2 for a while or so after posting since fewer people will have actually seen his comment. Comments like yours stick around, just waiting for people like me to proclaim your ignorance of how things work.
Also, for your information, the +1 doesn't go away when you use it. You still get to keep it unless you constantly post worthless comments. Which, incidentally, is why you will never even get the +1 modifier.
Re:Tipware makes it beautiful on the inside.
on
Project Plex-Box
·
· Score: 1
Do you even bother to understand the article before spouting off?
This guy is not making games. He made a clear plastic box to put the components of his Xbox inside. You don't see prices, because he is NOT SELLING ANYTHING. Hell, all the info on the page is FREE.
You can buy the thing he built on eBay, probably because even he realises it is ugly and wants to get rid of it.
Three Microsoft employees and three Apple employees are boarding a train to attend a conference. The three MS people walk up and buy their tickets. Then, only one of the Apple employees buys a ticket.
The MS guys say, "Whoa! Wait a minute, how are you all going to ride with only one ticket."
"You'll see," they replied.
Everyone boards the train and the MS employees take their seats while all three Apple employees cram into the bathroom. A while later the ticket taker comes down the isles and takes the tickets from the MS employees. He passes the bathroom, notes that it says "Occupied" and softly knocks on the door. "Ticket please," he says. Slowly, the door cracks open, one hand reaches out and hands him a ticket. A few minutes later, the Apple employees emerge from the bathroom and take seats, much to the amazement of the MS employees.
After the conference, on the way back home, the same employees are reboarding the train. The MS people, having deftly learned a new trick, buy just one ticket. The Apple employees then say, we aren't going to buy a ticket this time. MS peoples' jaws drop, but everyone gets on the train.
The MS people quickly cram into the bathroom, and the Apple employees go into a different bathroom. After a couple of minutes, one of the Apple employees comes out of the bathroom, walks up to the door of the bathroom that the MS employees are hiding in, knocks on it, and says:
Now, let your mind slip a little bit further into the gutter, and I think you will see that he did name it what you said. It's just a little more thinly veiled.
I think his reason for making it vague was that SCO needs to have everything in the open to see things (think GPL code). By making it more vague, they are less likely to be in on the joke.
Re:Computer simulation?
on
Superball!
·
· Score: 1
The other poster is right about the three gravity problem. The three bodies in question need to each exert gravitational forces on each other in significant amounts. With items located on Earth (balls in this case) the gravitational pull off Earth itself on the balls far, far, far... (continue for approximately infinity) outweighs the incredibly miniscule forces the balls may have on each other. Thus, the inter-ball forces can effectively be ignored.
For example, you do not have to take into account the forces of other satellites already in orbit when lauching a new satellite. The others simply have no effect..
In space however, very large bodies can exert forces on each other, making calculations more complicated.
I know few people on Slashdot rant for abolishment. I never specified what the solution is they rant for, just that they were ranting. Few even propose a solution, and thus I mostly ignore their comments.
Anyway, I think it is a good thing that more people don't advocate abolishment, because that would be a very bad solution. While I respect your passion, you never present a logical argument. This I have a problem with.
I can handle having my opinions challenged however, and I'm hoping one day you will post a reasonable argument. After all, challenging people's opinions is the only way to bring about change. I don't believe your change would be a good one however, which is why I usually reply to your non-comments with statements of my own. I beleive you have a somewhat reasonable opinion, but that it just needs to be tempered with a bit of reality and reason. When that happens, you might just present a position worth noticing.
I doubt it. Abolishing patent law would only raise more questions and create more, albeit different, problems.
The current state of affairs is a mess, however. No one questions that. Most sensible people realise that what is needed is patent reform. That is because patents can actually be a good thing, though the ranting on Slashdot might make you question this. We definately would not be where we are today, idustrially, if it were not for patents.
Adam Smith was, simply put, a genious. You can thank him and his free market philosophies for almost everything you have today. He had ideas and presented them quite well. I challenge you to come up with anyone presenting logic arguments for the abolition of patent law. The idea is absurd.
I love TiVo. I have one Series 1 model and am planning on getting two Series 2 models. However, you're cost analysis is a bit off.
$299 for Squeezebox or...
$199 TiVo $12.95/Month or $299/Lifetime $99 Home Media Option $50 Wireless USB Adapter
Grand Total: $647, assuming this is your first TiVo purchase and you opt for the product lifetime subscription.
Anyway, the two devices are quite different. Sure, they overlap functionality, but one requires a TV and the other doesn't. They can be quite complimentary devices. Analyze your situation and buy the device that best suits your needs. If you've got money to blow, get one of each, or multiples of each. Both devices come from great companies that do their best to support the community. Don't trash one over the other.
Slashdot Mirror
You raise some interesting points, and, unfortunatly, I do not have the time to comment on all of them. As such, I'd like to raise issue with your comparison of slavery to information copying.
Slavery was and is bad because it denies a person of their inherant and/or implied worth. By forcing someone to do what you say, you deny them the opportunity to pursue their own desires. This done with no compensation only expounds the problem. In your particular analogy, slaves were forced to pick cotton without proper compensation.
Now, on to copyrights. For clarity's sake, I will use the example of a musician who has released an album. Now, you go to your local record store and buy said album. Let's say you go home and rip this album and upload it to some file sharing service. By so distributing said album for free, you are denying (in variable regards) the right of the artist to compensate from his/her work. Thus, you are more like the slave owner rather than the slave.
The distinction to be made is who is doing the work and who is being compensated for the work. In any fair system, the person doing the work should be the person compensated. In slavery's case, the two were oposite.
The analogy falls apart when looking at information distribution. It also adds in some complexities which make the analogy to slavery inappropriate. The person doing the work is the artist, and it should be that person who choses how they are compensated. Be it sign a record contract, give out the CD for free and hope for concert ticket sales, whatever. A fair, unbarbaric society, lets the person doing the work choose their compensation. You are denying the artist this right by distributing his music, so long as the artist originally chose to sell the music.
Now, I have no issue with those who give away their music. I think that is wonderful. But, it was their descision to do so in the first place. If an artist chooses to sell music, it is not my position to deny him/her that right. Denying people their rights is what made slavery wrong. However, if I were to say I wanted to be whipped and work for nothing, that would be my perrogative. You taking advantage of my descision would not make you a slave owner, because you have to denied me my choice. However, as I am the one chosing, I can walk away at any time.
In conclusion, the fair society lets the those doing the work determine appropriate compensation. And, if you look at the reality of the situation, that is exactly what we do. You have copyrights and patents if you want to distribute your work and receive compensation. There is also the public domain, if you want to freely give away what you have created. Saying that there should be one and only one way to make your works available denies a person of their right to chose which is appropriate for them.
Anyway, this is just my initial freeflowing thoughts. Some time I will take the time and write out a thought out, well organized opinion. However, I find your position intriguing and would like to hear your response.
Sounds like you got pretty lucky. The same scraper is used for both Freevo and MythTV. Its written in perl and gets info from zap2it, or something like that. I had to update it once in the month I expirimented with them, which was a half year ago or so. According to the mailing list, it wasn't an uncommon occurance for the format to change.
Just my experience.
A stand-alone 80 hour Series 2 TiVo costs $299. A 40 hour is $199. So, both are cheaper than your computer.
Now, there is no subscription fee with a custom built jobber. TiVo chargess $299/Lifetime or $12.95 per month, which you can pay by working about 2 hours at minimum wage.
I own a TiVo and have built a custom HTPC using both MythTV and Freevo. Trust me, you will spend way more than 2 hours per month configuring and troubleshooting an HTPC (at least one on Linux). The screen scrapers for TV guide data are constantly breaking as the scrapees change their format. Plus, most are still buggy, requiring frequent recompiles of the latest software.
On top of all that, no solution comes close to the ease of use of TiVo. There is nothing that compares to Wish Lists and Season Passes. If you get a TiVo, you simply plug it in and walk through the guided set-up and you are done. Pure television bliss. With an HTPC, none of the enjoyment is there, because you spend more time hacking stuff than actually getting a better TV experience.
It is funny.
Please quit your day job of booking stand-up comics.
I think it is morally wrong to use the correct meaning of words to describe what you are doing.
Seriously though, settle down on the whole morality thing with regards to minor issues. Once you've done that, go look up the word "sale" in a dictionary and then try and claim that the retailer is lying.
Presumably, if one were going to completly switch to Linux, they would take their files with them over to the new system. Hence, no need for ntfs.sys. Copying files to a CD and then on to Linux (whatever fs) would be the easiest part of the transition.
That sort of thing is exactly what this is good for. Let's say you give a Linux distro to a friend so he can try it out. This could be a Live CD or a distro that will make your system dual boot.
In any case, your friend probably has a bunch of files on his Windows partition (likely NTFS formatted) that he wants to see if he can edit/view in Linux. If he can do what he wants, then switching to Linux becomes an option. So, with this, his NTFS partition is available and everything just works(TM). After all, your friend doesn't even know what NTFS is, but he does know when he can't get at his files.
In short, this makes transitions to Linux much smoother. People shouldn't have to keep a copy of a file on both partitions just so its available in both environmets. It becomes a pain to figure out which document is the most recent, etc. etc. And, BTW, I'm talking about the average user who doesn't have a network drive.
Excellent, I'm glad too see it. A couple people on my friends list are people who were previously foes. I've had some good discussions and learned some things from arguments here on Slashdot. Its always nice to hear and discuss differing opinions, because it challenges your own ideas.
:) ).
Incidentally, I may come off somewhat harsh on some of my replies, though I hope that isn't taken too badly. On some of your posts, you've actually made some good points or posted some interesting context which really forced me to think. I hope you do so more in the future, because those are the best comments.
Anyway, anyone who can respect difference that much is a friend of mine. So, you will be added to my friends list soon enough. I usually wait about a week for "transition" time. I'll continue to reply to your posts with counterpoints of my own (unless we agree on something, which so far I don't think has happened
Magnatune is very different from Best Buy. Those who go to Magnatune for their music are familiar, or become familiar, with how it works. When they go their for the first time, they are likely linked from a site that is having a discussion on the issues of downloading and/or artist compensation.
Joe User has never heard of Magnatune. Joe User doesn't care all that much whose getting screwed by whom in the record business. He just wants to go buy a CD/DVD/Game/Whatever. If Best Buy took out a huge, full page ad in every newspaper announcing that the day after Thanksgiving everything would be given away for free, and donations would be accepted at the door and online, I would bet that the ratio of donations received to sticker price would be incredibly low.
Sure, it is a nice idea, but it would fail in any large scale practice.
No it wouldn't. Most of the developers would sit there with a calculator converting the hex to decimal just to understand what the hell is going on. This would be a huge waste of time and productivity.
.h and .c files from the server and upload the assembly files instead. But, even that is not the best solution, we should just upload the binary files and let the true hackers continue on in straight 1s and 0s. I bet development would increase at an exponential rate then. Oh wait, no it wouldn't.
But, if you're so hell bent on your idea, why stop there? Run all the code through gcc and have it generate assembly output. Then remove all the
Humans like things they can understand, computers like things computers can understand. Since it is humans developing the software, it is the compilers job to understand how to translate (and the people who write the compilers.)
They're not.
If they walked into a Best Buy and saw game with a price tag that read "Please take this game for free and feel free to donate at www.somegamedeveloper.com" they'd take the game and probably never even visit the website. Sure, 0.05% may donate 5-10 bucks, but the developer would be out of business quicker than you can say fuckedcompany.com
I've had the +1 modifier for months on this account.
There are a LOT of dumb fucks with the +1 modifier, ya know.
Well, case in point I guess. You've certainly left me with no room to argue.
Uhh, you, since the original comment got bitchslapped down redundant, and this guy got +5 funny.
In addition, the moderation system takes time. Of course he will be only at +2 for a while or so after posting since fewer people will have actually seen his comment. Comments like yours stick around, just waiting for people like me to proclaim your ignorance of how things work.
Also, for your information, the +1 doesn't go away when you use it. You still get to keep it unless you constantly post worthless comments. Which, incidentally, is why you will never even get the +1 modifier.
Do you even bother to understand the article before spouting off?
This guy is not making games. He made a clear plastic box to put the components of his Xbox inside. You don't see prices, because he is NOT SELLING ANYTHING. Hell, all the info on the page is FREE.
You can buy the thing he built on eBay, probably because even he realises it is ugly and wants to get rid of it.
A +5 Funny awarded to someone too lazy to read the article (the first link even). Really shows the quality of the moderation system.
Now at least I know why I see the most retarded comments get modded up insightful or informative.
Three Microsoft employees and three Apple employees are boarding a train to attend a conference. The three MS people walk up and buy their tickets. Then, only one of the Apple employees buys a ticket.
The MS guys say, "Whoa! Wait a minute, how are you all going to ride with only one ticket."
"You'll see," they replied.
Everyone boards the train and the MS employees take their seats while all three Apple employees cram into the bathroom. A while later the ticket taker comes down the isles and takes the tickets from the MS employees. He passes the bathroom, notes that it says "Occupied" and softly knocks on the door. "Ticket please," he says. Slowly, the door cracks open, one hand reaches out and hands him a ticket. A few minutes later, the Apple employees emerge from the bathroom and take seats, much to the amazement of the MS employees.
After the conference, on the way back home, the same employees are reboarding the train. The MS people, having deftly learned a new trick, buy just one ticket. The Apple employees then say, we aren't going to buy a ticket this time. MS peoples' jaws drop, but everyone gets on the train.
The MS people quickly cram into the bathroom, and the Apple employees go into a different bathroom. After a couple of minutes, one of the Apple employees comes out of the bathroom, walks up to the door of the bathroom that the MS employees are hiding in, knocks on it, and says:
"Ticket please"
It wasn't the car's fault, it was bad drivers.
Because I think Linux is a good kernel, and Linus is a great engineer, I must always laugh when he makes a joke. Nope, two completely separate things.
You are a FUCKING IDIOT EXTRAORDINAIRE.
(PS: You need to get the sac to post non anonymously.)
It WASN'T funny there, and IT isn't FUNNY here.
Now DO you UNDERSTAND?
I think you need to reread the name:
Beaver In Detox
Now, let your mind slip a little bit further into the gutter, and I think you will see that he did name it what you said. It's just a little more thinly veiled.
I think his reason for making it vague was that SCO needs to have everything in the open to see things (think GPL code). By making it more vague, they are less likely to be in on the joke.
These are not funny.
The other poster is right about the three gravity problem. The three bodies in question need to each exert gravitational forces on each other in significant amounts. With items located on Earth (balls in this case) the gravitational pull off Earth itself on the balls far, far, far... (continue for approximately infinity) outweighs the incredibly miniscule forces the balls may have on each other. Thus, the inter-ball forces can effectively be ignored.
For example, you do not have to take into account the forces of other satellites already in orbit when lauching a new satellite. The others simply have no effect..
In space however, very large bodies can exert forces on each other, making calculations more complicated.
I know few people on Slashdot rant for abolishment. I never specified what the solution is they rant for, just that they were ranting. Few even propose a solution, and thus I mostly ignore their comments.
Anyway, I think it is a good thing that more people don't advocate abolishment, because that would be a very bad solution. While I respect your passion, you never present a logical argument. This I have a problem with.
I can handle having my opinions challenged however, and I'm hoping one day you will post a reasonable argument. After all, challenging people's opinions is the only way to bring about change. I don't believe your change would be a good one however, which is why I usually reply to your non-comments with statements of my own. I beleive you have a somewhat reasonable opinion, but that it just needs to be tempered with a bit of reality and reason. When that happens, you might just present a position worth noticing.
Have a good night.
I doubt it. Abolishing patent law would only raise more questions and create more, albeit different, problems.
The current state of affairs is a mess, however. No one questions that. Most sensible people realise that what is needed is patent reform. That is because patents can actually be a good thing, though the ranting on Slashdot might make you question this. We definately would not be where we are today, idustrially, if it were not for patents.
Adam Smith was, simply put, a genious. You can thank him and his free market philosophies for almost everything you have today. He had ideas and presented them quite well. I challenge you to come up with anyone presenting logic arguments for the abolition of patent law. The idea is absurd.
I love TiVo. I have one Series 1 model and am planning on getting two Series 2 models. However, you're cost analysis is a bit off.
$299 for Squeezebox or...
$199 TiVo
$12.95/Month or $299/Lifetime
$99 Home Media Option
$50 Wireless USB Adapter
Grand Total: $647, assuming this is your first TiVo purchase and you opt for the product lifetime subscription.
Anyway, the two devices are quite different. Sure, they overlap functionality, but one requires a TV and the other doesn't. They can be quite complimentary devices. Analyze your situation and buy the device that best suits your needs. If you've got money to blow, get one of each, or multiples of each. Both devices come from great companies that do their best to support the community. Don't trash one over the other.