You were trying to be a smart-ass but you've hit on the fundamental problem with the DMCA. Cooperation is needed in all studies. Hell, even Einstein needed help with the geometry for Special Relativity.
The DMCA will stop the parent from sharing what he has learned about satellite (not necessarily DirecTV) encryption. It will also stop a colleague from sharing what he's learned. This is analogous to Einstein not being able to get help with non-Euclidean geometry. It stops research!
I've often thought a good defense against the DMCA would be the US constitution itself. You know, that part about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If I cannot satisfy my curiosity because the DMCA blocks my natural need to share my discoveries, then it is unconstitutional.
You have a Toyota Prius traveling at 200 MPH down 101 South through San Francisco. The driver, that's you, gets distracted by a GINORMOUS billboard and crashes scattering pieces of the Prius all over the freeway and surrounding streets.
I come along and gather the pieces.
I notice someone else gathering pieces.
Jealous of the pieces, we hoard them and don't allow the other guy to see what we have. In fact we hoard them so much we don't take time to notice what we are collecting.
When we are finished, we jet off to different locations around the globe to see what we have.
Now here's the tricky part. No matter which piece one pulls from his bag, the other guy will pull the exact opposite. For instance if I pull a crank shaft, the other guy will pull one of your rib-bones from his bag. And vice-versa.
We don't necessarily need each country to standardize to what another country is doing. That might not fit with their culture. But if the process, whatever it is, was transparent, then we could minimize corruption.
As Harlan Ellison often used to write, "it all starts with the word."
I don't know if you ever got the chance to read Ellison's original teleplay for "City On The Edge Of Forever". It was really good, but not the right length. Roddenberry was correct in asking Ellison to either cut it down to an hour, or lengthen it to two hours so they could make a two parter of it. Ellison was a little too full of himself to do this so the story had to be rewritten to fit the hour long format.
The really weird thing about this is that at the turn of the century people were getting it right! WTF happened? Is 9/11 to blame for that too? Did people get stoopid after 9/11?
I have a Mac mini and I feel much the same as you. In the end I'm still running Win98 on an old box not connected to the internet, Fedora Core 6 on a more up to date box, and WinXP so my wife can run the same software she uses at work. Pick what works and run with it.
Another bone I have to pick with Apple is the rate at which they change. My Mac Mini uses the IBM chips. That means if my box dies, all the software I bought for it is dead too. Kinda sucks but that's the way it is in Apple land.
BTW, I like the Mac Mini. I'm just pointing out a draw back that I have found.
Hmmmm, I've got to kill some time because I hit the submit button in less then 17 seconds and the system won't let me post unless some time has passed.
What should I do to kill some time?...
Damn, I just don't know.
Hey, I just killed a bunch of time writing this. Incidently, I also killed a bunch of electrons and wasted bandwidth. But who cares?
Get a copy of DVD Decrypter, IFO Edit, and IMG Tool 0.91.7.
There are a few tricks. You must be using Windoze XP, or 2000 for these programs to work correctly. The major hold up will be with IMG Tool. It will create a file much larger than Win98 can handle. Also, if it complains that a.VOB file is missing you have to create the missing file. This is not difficult. Basically you just open notepad, and save the empty file as missing title.VOB and you're done.
You won't lose any detail with this process unlike the much easier DVD Shrink. Also, this process creates DVDs that work on my Sony PS2, X-Box 360, Mac Mini, Sony DVD player, my computer at work, and every portable DVD player I've tried them on.
I would leave more complete instructions as to the whole process, but I'm about to leave work right now and tomorrow is a summer hours day. That means I get to go home at lunch.:)
If you have any real interest in the details just reply to this and I will post it over the weekend (highly unlikely), or Monday morning (much better chance) when I'm pissed off that I have to wake up early.:)
If you don't already have the software I mentioned above, you will have a devil of a time tracking those programs down, so Monday may not be too far off for you.
BE WARNED! DVD DECRYPTER IS ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD IN THE US THANKS TO THOSE FUCKWAD REPUBLICAN SENATORS AND THAT SHIT FOR BRAINS CLINTON!
This is the only reason I have a Windoze machine. I rip the DVD with DVD Decrypter, then split it with IFO Edit, then use IMG Tool to put it into a form DVD Decrypter can use to write it to disk.
I've heard you can use these programs in Linux under Windows emulation but have never tried it. My Windoze machine just sits there otherwise and this gives me an excuse to keep it. I don't play games on it but I do still have Tomb Raider, Duke Nukem, M-1 Tank, and some other primitive stuff just in case I ever want to give it a go.:)
FYI, the stuff I copy is stuff I can't find anywhere or is no longer available. And as has been stated before, DVDs change. George Lucas is not the only revisionist around.
I MUCH prefer to buy the DVD because bought DVDs are two layer and have the whole movie on a single disk. Besides, it is a pain in the ass to copy a disk and I prefer not to if I don't have to.
Have you ever actually watched a movie on your PSP?
I'm not trolling or anything, just curious. I have two UMD movies: Spider-man 2, came with my PSP, and Blade was a gift. I love both movies and have them on DVD where I've watched them many times.
I have tried to watch them on my PSP. Never got more than a half-hour into either before I shut it down.
Has anyone ever managed to watch an entire movie on a PSP?
Maybe I'm watching the wrong type of movie for that small screen.
...Ummm, excuse me but that should read "All females that cyberlord_seven finds attractive *should* be legally required to stay naked on warm days because they have nothing to hide.
I don't agree with all of it, but it was well worth the time to read it.
You asked the question:
If it was your job to protect the people and property of New York City, what kinds of initiatives would you be undertaking? Hint: if your answer is along the lines that it's much better to stomach the errant terrorist attack every now and then rather than take proactive action to attempt to prevent them using whatever means you have at your disposal, you probably won't be in that job for long.
You are right. I would not last long in the job because unlike most people in the US I don't sit and watch cop shows on TV. One big problem I have with those shows is that they are always solving crimes. When was the last time you saw one of those shows prevent a crime?
I think that goes a long way towards understanding what the people of the US are looking for. "Go out and solve crimes," they say. No one has any real interest in prevention. Why?
Because prevention requires you to ask why a crime was commited. Once you ask that you are compelled to ask why "terrorists" have targeted the US. I don't think these people really want to ask that question for fear of the answer.
You have a child. Your wife (or you if you're female) is not producing enough milk. Do you not buy the milk because it's priced too high?
You drive to work everyday because, unlike me, your city does not have good mass transit like AC Transit or BART. Do you not buy gasoline so you can drive to work because it's priced too high?
Those are extreme examples to be sure but consider newegg and TigerDirect. Two web-sites I buy a lot of electronics from. A manufacturer can now tell them that they cannot reduce my price below a set level.
And if you're not worried about that, consider WalMart! They have to power to force manufacturers to reduce prices. I know this because everytime WalMart says "shit", my Sales and Marketing departments squat and ask, "what color?"
They have already killed off the Mom & Pops. With this decision I'm starting to wonder who's next to fall?
You can try to hide important details but it will be obvious.
How do you hide the fact that the cows were not milked, or a road was not paved, or homes not painted, or cargo from boats was not offloaded?
You can remove official mention from all documents but the effect will be felt everywhere and recorded implicitly. For instance, if my boats were not loaded or unloaded while in KMT ports, I'm very likely to shift my fleet to another port leaving cargo in KMT or not bringing them goods they are expecting.
No matter how you slice it, if an appreciable number of slaves depart, it will be felt and recorded.
Hell, I just had a thought. Let's remove all Mexicans from the United States right now. Do you think you could hide that even if you wanted to? Whose gonna' break their backs picking my damn strawberries? Even if you could find someone dumb enough to do it, what's going to happen to the price of strawberries? Do you really think I'm not gonna' notice that a basket of strawberries now costs me twelve dollars? Do you really think that's not gonna' make it into many varied records even though you don't specifically mention that we kicked all the Mexicans out?
Yeah, I'm being a smart-ass with that analogy, but I think it works.:)
Take all of the slaves out of Georgia in 1840. Just that one state. Imagine trying to hide the impact.
If you don't like that year pick another. If you don't like that state, pick another. Or pick another society like ancient Rome. Remove the slaves and then try to hide the impact on the economy. Then remember there's a reason we all know of Spartacus.
If what we call menial tasks don't get done, someone else has to do it or it will not be done. Suddenly menial tasks are so menial.
I wasn't trying to suggest that the Hebrews built the pyramids. But if they were slaves they would have done all the menial chores one expects a slave to do. You know, tending cattle, bringing in the crops, hauling things. All the little stuff you want a robot to do for you today like sweeping and mopping your floors.
No one wants to brag about their low points but the KMT people did keep meticulous records about everything. The only records they would not keep were names. In KMT culture passing your name down meant you had acquired a level of immortality. If you pissed off someone who gained power after your death, that person might be tempted to remove your name, thus remove you from everlasting life.
It would be very difficult to hide the fact that herds were abandoned, crops were not brought in, ships were not built, and many other menial tasks were not done because some jackass let the Jews go. The effect on the KMT economy would have been felt quickly and would have lasted for a while. It's kind of hard to imagine not finding these records if there had been any exodus of any appreciable size.
I'm not so certain KMT used so many slaves as we once thought. New evidence is coming to light that suggests that the builders of the pyramids were paid employees rather than slaves.
In addition, the Bibles recording of the Jews as leaving KMT with Moses (A KMT name) is odd because the people of the Nile were meticulous record keepers. If so many people had departed as suggested in the Bible, then many critical tasks would have gone undone or would have been performed poorly due to low staffing or unskilled workers performing the tasks in the place of the slaves.
There are no records to indicate any such crisis to the KMT economy.
Anyway, they did achieve a sort of immortality. You do know the names of many of these people despite the fact that you don't know which body belongs to which name.
I grew up in the Oakland/SF Bay Area. Back in the sixties and seventies you could just spin the dial on your radio and get anything from country, to jazz, to blues, to folk, to whatever obscure recordings they chose to play on KPFA. Music was everywhere and available.
Try that now. Pure Clear Channel crap across the dial with the exception of talk radio which is what I listen to now. I can't stand the endless repetition of a few songs.
So, to your point, if they've driven me away from the music stations, where do I hear the music I might want to buy?
Answer: I don't. So I don't buy.
True, I'm an old fart, but I see the same thing among my son, and my nieces and nephews. They don't listen to the radio as I did at their age. From what I can tell, they buy directly from the artists or download tracks from the internet.
CDs may be dying now, but I do wonder about radio next.
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The DMCA will stop the parent from sharing what he has learned about satellite (not necessarily DirecTV) encryption. It will also stop a colleague from sharing what he's learned. This is analogous to Einstein not being able to get help with non-Euclidean geometry. It stops research!
I've often thought a good defense against the DMCA would be the US constitution itself. You know, that part about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If I cannot satisfy my curiosity because the DMCA blocks my natural need to share my discoveries, then it is unconstitutional.
You have a Toyota Prius traveling at 200 MPH down 101 South through San Francisco. The driver, that's you, gets distracted by a GINORMOUS billboard and crashes scattering pieces of the Prius all over the freeway and surrounding streets.
I come along and gather the pieces.
I notice someone else gathering pieces.
Jealous of the pieces, we hoard them and don't allow the other guy to see what we have. In fact we hoard them so much we don't take time to notice what we are collecting.
When we are finished, we jet off to different locations around the globe to see what we have.
Now here's the tricky part. No matter which piece one pulls from his bag, the other guy will pull the exact opposite. For instance if I pull a crank shaft, the other guy will pull one of your rib-bones from his bag. And vice-versa.
It's like that. :)
We don't necessarily need each country to standardize to what another country is doing. That might not fit with their culture. But if the process, whatever it is, was transparent, then we could minimize corruption.
As Harlan Ellison often used to write, "it all starts with the word."
I don't know if you ever got the chance to read Ellison's original teleplay for "City On The Edge Of Forever". It was really good, but not the right length. Roddenberry was correct in asking Ellison to either cut it down to an hour, or lengthen it to two hours so they could make a two parter of it. Ellison was a little too full of himself to do this so the story had to be rewritten to fit the hour long format.
Battery life.
The really weird thing about this is that at the turn of the century people were getting it right! WTF happened? Is 9/11 to blame for that too? Did people get stoopid after 9/11?
I have a Mac mini and I feel much the same as you. In the end I'm still running Win98 on an old box not connected to the internet, Fedora Core 6 on a more up to date box, and WinXP so my wife can run the same software she uses at work. Pick what works and run with it.
Another bone I have to pick with Apple is the rate at which they change. My Mac Mini uses the IBM chips. That means if my box dies, all the software I bought for it is dead too. Kinda sucks but that's the way it is in Apple land.
BTW, I like the Mac Mini. I'm just pointing out a draw back that I have found.
Think of it this way: the human player was playing against a "coach" who could vary his personality through the game.
Yes, you need sound.
Hmmmm, I've got to kill some time because I hit the submit button in less then 17 seconds and the system won't let me post unless some time has passed.
What should I do to kill some time?...
Damn, I just don't know.
Hey, I just killed a bunch of time writing this. Incidently, I also killed a bunch of electrons and wasted bandwidth. But who cares?
Guess I'll hit the submit button now...
Or should I kill some more electrons?
Naw, I'll hit the submit button now!
There are a few tricks. You must be using Windoze XP, or 2000 for these programs to work correctly. The major hold up will be with IMG Tool. It will create a file much larger than Win98 can handle. Also, if it complains that a .VOB file is missing you have to create the missing file. This is not difficult. Basically you just open notepad, and save the empty file as missing title.VOB and you're done.
You won't lose any detail with this process unlike the much easier DVD Shrink. Also, this process creates DVDs that work on my Sony PS2, X-Box 360, Mac Mini, Sony DVD player, my computer at work, and every portable DVD player I've tried them on.
I would leave more complete instructions as to the whole process, but I'm about to leave work right now and tomorrow is a summer hours day. That means I get to go home at lunch. :)
If you have any real interest in the details just reply to this and I will post it over the weekend (highly unlikely), or Monday morning (much better chance) when I'm pissed off that I have to wake up early. :)
If you don't already have the software I mentioned above, you will have a devil of a time tracking those programs down, so Monday may not be too far off for you.
BE WARNED! DVD DECRYPTER IS ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD IN THE US THANKS TO THOSE FUCKWAD REPUBLICAN SENATORS AND THAT SHIT FOR BRAINS CLINTON!
I've heard you can use these programs in Linux under Windows emulation but have never tried it. My Windoze machine just sits there otherwise and this gives me an excuse to keep it. I don't play games on it but I do still have Tomb Raider, Duke Nukem, M-1 Tank, and some other primitive stuff just in case I ever want to give it a go. :)
FYI, the stuff I copy is stuff I can't find anywhere or is no longer available. And as has been stated before, DVDs change. George Lucas is not the only revisionist around.
I MUCH prefer to buy the DVD because bought DVDs are two layer and have the whole movie on a single disk. Besides, it is a pain in the ass to copy a disk and I prefer not to if I don't have to.
I'm not trolling or anything, just curious. I have two UMD movies: Spider-man 2, came with my PSP, and Blade was a gift. I love both movies and have them on DVD where I've watched them many times.
I have tried to watch them on my PSP. Never got more than a half-hour into either before I shut it down.
Has anyone ever managed to watch an entire movie on a PSP?
Maybe I'm watching the wrong type of movie for that small screen.
There, that's MUCH better. :)
I don't agree with all of it, but it was well worth the time to read it.
You asked the question:
You are right. I would not last long in the job because unlike most people in the US I don't sit and watch cop shows on TV. One big problem I have with those shows is that they are always solving crimes. When was the last time you saw one of those shows prevent a crime?I think that goes a long way towards understanding what the people of the US are looking for. "Go out and solve crimes," they say. No one has any real interest in prevention. Why?
Because prevention requires you to ask why a crime was commited. Once you ask that you are compelled to ask why "terrorists" have targeted the US. I don't think these people really want to ask that question for fear of the answer.
wait for it...
There's nobody to catch!
Nice post.
You have a child. Your wife (or you if you're female) is not producing enough milk. Do you not buy the milk because it's priced too high?
You drive to work everyday because, unlike me, your city does not have good mass transit like AC Transit or BART. Do you not buy gasoline so you can drive to work because it's priced too high?
Those are extreme examples to be sure but consider newegg and TigerDirect. Two web-sites I buy a lot of electronics from. A manufacturer can now tell them that they cannot reduce my price below a set level.
And if you're not worried about that, consider WalMart! They have to power to force manufacturers to reduce prices. I know this because everytime WalMart says "shit", my Sales and Marketing departments squat and ask, "what color?"
They have already killed off the Mom & Pops. With this decision I'm starting to wonder who's next to fall?
How do you hide the fact that the cows were not milked, or a road was not paved, or homes not painted, or cargo from boats was not offloaded?
You can remove official mention from all documents but the effect will be felt everywhere and recorded implicitly. For instance, if my boats were not loaded or unloaded while in KMT ports, I'm very likely to shift my fleet to another port leaving cargo in KMT or not bringing them goods they are expecting.
No matter how you slice it, if an appreciable number of slaves depart, it will be felt and recorded.
Hell, I just had a thought. Let's remove all Mexicans from the United States right now. Do you think you could hide that even if you wanted to? Whose gonna' break their backs picking my damn strawberries? Even if you could find someone dumb enough to do it, what's going to happen to the price of strawberries? Do you really think I'm not gonna' notice that a basket of strawberries now costs me twelve dollars? Do you really think that's not gonna' make it into many varied records even though you don't specifically mention that we kicked all the Mexicans out?
Yeah, I'm being a smart-ass with that analogy, but I think it works. :)
I meant to write Suddenly menial tasks are NOT so menial. :)
If you don't like that year pick another. If you don't like that state, pick another. Or pick another society like ancient Rome. Remove the slaves and then try to hide the impact on the economy. Then remember there's a reason we all know of Spartacus.
If what we call menial tasks don't get done, someone else has to do it or it will not be done. Suddenly menial tasks are so menial.
No one wants to brag about their low points but the KMT people did keep meticulous records about everything. The only records they would not keep were names. In KMT culture passing your name down meant you had acquired a level of immortality. If you pissed off someone who gained power after your death, that person might be tempted to remove your name, thus remove you from everlasting life.
It would be very difficult to hide the fact that herds were abandoned, crops were not brought in, ships were not built, and many other menial tasks were not done because some jackass let the Jews go. The effect on the KMT economy would have been felt quickly and would have lasted for a while. It's kind of hard to imagine not finding these records if there had been any exodus of any appreciable size.
In addition, the Bibles recording of the Jews as leaving KMT with Moses (A KMT name) is odd because the people of the Nile were meticulous record keepers. If so many people had departed as suggested in the Bible, then many critical tasks would have gone undone or would have been performed poorly due to low staffing or unskilled workers performing the tasks in the place of the slaves.
There are no records to indicate any such crisis to the KMT economy.
Anyway, they did achieve a sort of immortality. You do know the names of many of these people despite the fact that you don't know which body belongs to which name.
I grew up in the Oakland/SF Bay Area. Back in the sixties and seventies you could just spin the dial on your radio and get anything from country, to jazz, to blues, to folk, to whatever obscure recordings they chose to play on KPFA. Music was everywhere and available.
Try that now. Pure Clear Channel crap across the dial with the exception of talk radio which is what I listen to now. I can't stand the endless repetition of a few songs.
So, to your point, if they've driven me away from the music stations, where do I hear the music I might want to buy?
Answer: I don't. So I don't buy.
True, I'm an old fart, but I see the same thing among my son, and my nieces and nephews. They don't listen to the radio as I did at their age. From what I can tell, they buy directly from the artists or download tracks from the internet.
CDs may be dying now, but I do wonder about radio next.