Re:Fast CPUs might be bad.
on
CPU Wars
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· Score: 1
Staying a year or 18 months behind state of the art is about the best balance for the common user. Heck, MOST games will play fine on a system that old. I buy a lot (lot!) of my games off the 9.99 rack at EB, and I find that I generally get at least as much play value out of them as I do any of the $50 games. And they'll run great on a PC thats a couple years old.
Ok, you will be ripping real time, but big deal. Let it go overnight.
I've got a fairly small cd collection, maybe 30 or 40. Thats over a MONTH to rip them all. Maybe 2 weeks, if I do one in the morning before I go to work as well. OR, I could just download them all off Kazaa/Limewire/Whatever in a couple days.
There may or may not be constant, unchanging rights and wrongs. Thats a philosphical problem, and doesn't have any real bearing. The fact is, that if enough people think that murder and rape is the moral thing, then it certainly WILL become so - at least for/in that society. In fact, it's happened before - read your bible. Part of our current social morality (law) ackowledges that it may change, and makes provision for it, so that our society can gradually change with changing morals rather than having to change violently and abruptly.
There may not be constant moral standards in the long view, but I certainly have moral beliefs. I even act on them, and try to convince others to hold the same belifes. Thats not hypocritical.
I'd like to confirm that it absolutely is NOT illegal to talk about killing our leaders. It's illegal to actively advocate it("Go kill George Bush!"), or to actually send threats, as you mentioned, but talking about it is 100% protected ("Someone should kill that fuck George Bush!"). It's not even illegal to send "sort of" threats. ("I hope someone kills you, George Bush!"). However, any of these things most certainly can get you investigated, as the SS does take it's job very seriously.
Well, thats the point, morality is subjective. But within Southern society at that time, it certainly was.
Re:Better(?) translation of original webwereld.nl
on
Kazaa to be shut down?
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· Score: 1
Here's the way I see things going down. Kazaa talks to Buma/Sterma about moving to a pay service. Buma/Sterma says thats great, and we're really interested, but you'll have to prove that you can control the network and prevent open source clients from connecting so we can be sure you'll be able to implement DRM. So Kazaa adds in the central servers and encryption. Buma/Sterma instantally calls off talks and calls the lawyers.
Morality and law alike are determined by the weight of the people. If enough people think that file sharing is a moral thing to do, then it will become so. The current entertainment buissness model will collapse. This is not neccesarily a bad thing. And when it's all over, you'll waggle your finger and your grandchildren and tell them how it was so much better in the Old Days(tm), just like your grandparents did to you.
There is no "fooling yourself" in matters or morality - it's a purely personal decision. If your personal moral decision aligns close enough with that of other people, you are a moral person. If it doesn't, you are a "bad" person. This is how societies work, and also how they change.
It must however be noted that at least in monkeys it was found that the genes changed the blood to look like ketchup, with all the hazards that go along with that.
Great! Now cheap ratburger places can save on ketchup as well as beef!
All true enough, but I should point out that the idea of the Noble Athlete goes back much farther than the Olypic committee and the media. They are capitalizing on it, sure, but they didn't invent it and pass it off on the populace. I'm sure to a greater or lesser degree many of them even believe it, just as Joe Sixpack does.
More than a few bad sci-fi movies on this subject:P Also a couple good ones. I believe theres a couple short stories about cyber-athletes in Burning Chrome. In any case, the popular view authors seem to have is that "pro" leagues - ones that are there to make money - will be fairly quick to adopt any and all new techniques. Pure "sport" areas - like the Olympics, and sports where theres little to no entertainment market (fencing, water polo) would remain "pure".
On a side note, I reccommend "Achilles Choice", by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes (quick Amazon search reveals that it's out of print, check your local used book store) for a very interesting view of future Olympics.
If it's target audience is a demograhpic that prides itself on rebellion, anarchy, and screwing it to the man, I'm thinking they shouldn't be so suprised that they don't sell alot of MP3s.
A big, well publicised site that specialised in the brainless mind-candy of today - that might sell. Then again, it might not.
They're also based in the Netherlands, so I don't see how this ruling can do anything but force them to stop suporting Morpheus in the US. Of course, if they're on US soil right now they better boogey it right back out.
You don't think that racial profiling or voyeurism is harmful? And you don't think that a (long) past history of the abuse of powers doesn't imply that powers will be abused in the future?
Name me one example where the government or similar large, powerful body was given extensive power to monitor it's consituents that was NOT abused. Given that cameras in malls are commonly used to track black people and to zoom in on girls boobs, I'd say that abuse most certainly is a given. The only question is how widespread and extreme the abuse is.
Re:What the hell is wrong with the Judiciary
on
DMCA 2, Freedom 0
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· Score: 1
This case was, at root, an attempt to hold people liable for using clever lawer-speak to intimidate without being legally accountable. As such, it was doomed to failure. It's clear to anyone with more than a pea-brain that the intent of the letter was to intimidate and to silence Felton. The fact that it was wrapped up in lawertalk shouldn't mitigate that, but since theres a huge industry out there of people who make thier living writing lawertalk, and these are the same poeple who become judges, I don't think we'll be able to do anything about this kind of behavior anytime soon.
I believe it's actually patents. I'm sure there are patents on some of the DVD decoding hardware, and you aren't gonna get a license for that if you don't agree to put in all the other crap.
An interesting analagy. They DO post guards on landfills. And you know why? So that you have to pay them before you can dump your own garbage out there. It just seems to fitting.
And the drake equation somehow makes clear what these terms are in a way that no one else thought of? I'd never even HEARD of the Drake Equation before today, and I'd already made it up (yes, made it up, not anything any more techinical or scientific than that) in 9th grade science class.
You're confusing trademark issues with copyright issues. Trademakrs are symbols of the company. Copyrights are artistic works. Trademarks can be (and often are) copyrighted.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. It should be opt-in, and off by default.
Staying a year or 18 months behind state of the art is about the best balance for the common user. Heck, MOST games will play fine on a system that old. I buy a lot (lot!) of my games off the 9.99 rack at EB, and I find that I generally get at least as much play value out of them as I do any of the $50 games. And they'll run great on a PC thats a couple years old.
Simple. It's not a hacker school. It's a H@@xorz sk001.
I've got a fairly small cd collection, maybe 30 or 40. Thats over a MONTH to rip them all. Maybe 2 weeks, if I do one in the morning before I go to work as well. OR, I could just download them all off Kazaa/Limewire/Whatever in a couple days.
There may or may not be constant, unchanging rights and wrongs. Thats a philosphical problem, and doesn't have any real bearing. The fact is, that if enough people think that murder and rape is the moral thing, then it certainly WILL become so - at least for/in that society. In fact, it's happened before - read your bible. Part of our current social morality (law) ackowledges that it may change, and makes provision for it, so that our society can gradually change with changing morals rather than having to change violently and abruptly.
There may not be constant moral standards in the long view, but I certainly have moral beliefs. I even act on them, and try to convince others to hold the same belifes. Thats not hypocritical.
I'd like to confirm that it absolutely is NOT illegal to talk about killing our leaders. It's illegal to actively advocate it("Go kill George Bush!"), or to actually send threats, as you mentioned, but talking about it is 100% protected ("Someone should kill that fuck George Bush!"). It's not even illegal to send "sort of" threats. ("I hope someone kills you, George Bush!"). However, any of these things most certainly can get you investigated, as the SS does take it's job very seriously.
Well, thats the point, morality is subjective. But within Southern society at that time, it certainly was.
Here's the way I see things going down. Kazaa talks to Buma/Sterma about moving to a pay service. Buma/Sterma says thats great, and we're really interested, but you'll have to prove that you can control the network and prevent open source clients from connecting so we can be sure you'll be able to implement DRM. So Kazaa adds in the central servers and encryption. Buma/Sterma instantally calls off talks and calls the lawyers.
Morality and law alike are determined by the weight of the people. If enough people think that file sharing is a moral thing to do, then it will become so. The current entertainment buissness model will collapse. This is not neccesarily a bad thing. And when it's all over, you'll waggle your finger and your grandchildren and tell them how it was so much better in the Old Days(tm), just like your grandparents did to you.
There is no "fooling yourself" in matters or morality - it's a purely personal decision. If your personal moral decision aligns close enough with that of other people, you are a moral person. If it doesn't, you are a "bad" person. This is how societies work, and also how they change.
Great! Now cheap ratburger places can save on ketchup as well as beef!
All true enough, but I should point out that the idea of the Noble Athlete goes back much farther than the Olypic committee and the media. They are capitalizing on it, sure, but they didn't invent it and pass it off on the populace. I'm sure to a greater or lesser degree many of them even believe it, just as Joe Sixpack does.
Olympic Priapism would likely draw record audiences, tho. Although only Fox would air it.
More than a few bad sci-fi movies on this subject :P Also a couple good ones. I believe theres a couple short stories about cyber-athletes in Burning Chrome. In any case, the popular view authors seem to have is that "pro" leagues - ones that are there to make money - will be fairly quick to adopt any and all new techniques. Pure "sport" areas - like the Olympics, and sports where theres little to no entertainment market (fencing, water polo) would remain "pure".
On a side note, I reccommend "Achilles Choice", by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes (quick Amazon search reveals that it's out of print, check your local used book store) for a very interesting view of future Olympics.
If it's target audience is a demograhpic that prides itself on rebellion, anarchy, and screwing it to the man, I'm thinking they shouldn't be so suprised that they don't sell alot of MP3s.
A big, well publicised site that specialised in the brainless mind-candy of today - that might sell. Then again, it might not.
They're also based in the Netherlands, so I don't see how this ruling can do anything but force them to stop suporting Morpheus in the US. Of course, if they're on US soil right now they better boogey it right back out.
You don't think that racial profiling or voyeurism is harmful? And you don't think that a (long) past history of the abuse of powers doesn't imply that powers will be abused in the future?
Name me one example where the government or similar large, powerful body was given extensive power to monitor it's consituents that was NOT abused. Given that cameras in malls are commonly used to track black people and to zoom in on girls boobs, I'd say that abuse most certainly is a given. The only question is how widespread and extreme the abuse is.
This case was, at root, an attempt to hold people liable for using clever lawer-speak to intimidate without being legally accountable. As such, it was doomed to failure. It's clear to anyone with more than a pea-brain that the intent of the letter was to intimidate and to silence Felton. The fact that it was wrapped up in lawertalk shouldn't mitigate that, but since theres a huge industry out there of people who make thier living writing lawertalk, and these are the same poeple who become judges, I don't think we'll be able to do anything about this kind of behavior anytime soon.
They do that as a "convenience" to you. Talk to your HR department and tell them not to withdraw any and you'll be set.
I believe it's actually patents. I'm sure there are patents on some of the DVD decoding hardware, and you aren't gonna get a license for that if you don't agree to put in all the other crap.
An interesting analagy. They DO post guards on landfills. And you know why? So that you have to pay them before you can dump your own garbage out there. It just seems to fitting.
Waaaah! Our terrorism is worse than your terrorism, you pinky-extending continentals!
And the drake equation somehow makes clear what these terms are in a way that no one else thought of? I'd never even HEARD of the Drake Equation before today, and I'd already made it up (yes, made it up, not anything any more techinical or scientific than that) in 9th grade science class.
No, it involves a MD5 checksum of the magic lantern code.
You're confusing trademark issues with copyright issues. Trademakrs are symbols of the company. Copyrights are artistic works. Trademarks can be (and often are) copyrighted.