They don't deserve it for bundling a media player with their OS, but they do deserve it for using their monopoly to push proprietary file formats and protocols (eg. Office file formats) so that it is extremely difficult for people to switch away.
The media player is intended to create exactly the same lockin for media. After a few years, all legal media would come in a choice of MS DRM or nothing.
from TFA "I can assure you that we are continuing to work day and night with our 300 dedicated engineers to create documentation which is complete and accurate to satisfy the European Commission."
300 engineers to document some protocols? I could believe 10, maybe 20 could get the job done in a few weeks. How on earth could 300 engineers work together on such a (excuse my ignorance/naivete) trivial job for two years? Hasn't this guy heard of The Mythical Man Month? MS aren't idiots; they've designed the process to fail. They deserve every cent of the fines.
Planes (and tanks) have reduced casualties. Compare the style of warfare in WWI with WWII.
MIlitary casualties perhaps. But in WWI, millions of soldiers died in the trenches, in WWII, many more millions of civilians were killed by bombs and armour. The London Blitz; Dresden and Tokyo firebombing; Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But first can I say: holy crap! I was one of the main software engineers on this project (heck I still have the source code on my laptop) but that was like 5 years ago. NOW we get slashdotted?
Yeah, I read about this in The Register about 3 years ago. And on the DARPA site, there's a timeline
Program Milestones Spring 2003 Planned Completion of Phase II - Enhanced subsystem performance and 50-plus prototype minefield operational testing and demonstration. System technology transition to the U.S. Army.
Spring 2002 Completion of Phase I - Enabling technology development and small-scale prototype minefield testing.
Spring 2000 Self-Healing Minefield system development contracts awarded.
June 1999 Self-Healing Minefield BAA99-21 released.
June 1998 DARPA Track II Task Force briefed Deputy Secretary of Defense on Self- Healing Minefield as Track II alternative.
October 1997 Deputy Secretary of Defense directs DARPA to execute Antipersonnel Landmine Alternative Track II study.
So it looks like this page (and project?) has been inactive since about 2002. So much for the breathless Slashdot summary "New landmines will soon communicate via a radio network." Right. Real Soon Now.
How's this different from any other search engine (try the 3rd link and 1 more click!)??
Maybe you were more persistent than me, but all I saw at your link was a bunch of spam, dead links and promises of free dowloads, but no actual MP3 files. I'm sure they can be found, but the SEO scumbags have done a good job of making it hard to find.
If you have enough of something people want at the right price then why couldn't you get rich selling things on EBay? It's not really any different then selling things in a shop or through your own website.
Because once you start to make money, people will notice and undercut your price. Some will sell below cost, because they just want to move stuff. So unless you have something unique, with a lock on the supply, you can't keep a fat profit margin. That's the difference with shops; you're competing with the entire planet, not just your neighbours or a small group that can form a cabal.
The annoying thing is sometimes you read a few pages, and notice that continuity is even worse than usual, realise that it has been mirrored, and have to start again...
If you do business in a country, you have to abide by its laws.
They're uin Russia. That's where they do business.
I don't know what's so difficult about this concept. ZOMG INTARWEBS doesn't change anything; when you sell someone something, even if you aren't shipping anything physical, you know damn well where he is, because he has to provide his billing address or you can't charge his credit card.
No they don't. And neither do most companies that sell other pure downloads (porn, software, etc.).
IIRC, AllOfMp3 themselves admit that they are perfectly aware that the product they are selling is illegal in many places outside Russia.
No they don't. They just make a discalimer that it's the buyer's responsibility to comply with local Laws. Same small print as anyone else uses.
According to AllofMP3, they pay a fee to a copyright agency in Russia. Copyright holders are supposed to apply to them for their cut. But the foreign music companies refuse to do so. Their loss.
Seriously, are the frames of Japanese comics meant to be read right to left?
Yes. Also often, but not always, in Chinese. You start reading at what seems to us to to be the back of the book. Translated versions sometimes mirror the images so they follow the western convention. But manga geeks sneer at such conversions.
A Hollywood actor can get $zillions because everyone recognises their face. Few people will recognise an actor from behind the CG mask. Actors for computer generated will be easily replacable and probably not earn anything like their Hollywood counterparts
HOWEVER: even if the A-list star is mediocre as a voice artist, the CGI is invariably a caricature of them, thus capitalising on their "brand name". And even more importantly, the stars have an entre to the talk show circuit to promote the film. Bruce Willis is all over the media at the moment for his role as a raccoon in Over the Hedge. And like a live-action movie, having a star "attached" to a film is necessary to get the finance and distribution deals in place. No matter how talented the voice actor, he wouldn't have got that exposure. Stars get $zillions because they can "open the film".
See Robert Altman's The Player, in which a screenwriter tries to sell a script based on "talent, not stars". By the time it gets into production, it's got Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts starring in it.
Exactly. There are no real differences. Slight frequencies differences based on areas. But, there isn't really any biological race as such. It's mostly social ideas and racism.
Right. I know lots of Zulus who could pass for Eskimos.
The article fails to consider the Australian Aborigines, who crossed into Australia via a land bridge from Asia around 40,000 - 50,000 years ago.
Well, there were other land bridges during the last Ice Age, 10,000 or so years ago. And since then fishermen and traders from Indonesia have been dropping on at the far north, deliberately or blown off course. There really isn't anywhere that's totally isolated.
As to being a security issue, unless someone compiles all quotes from all movies into a text file, it is not.
As TFA says, the line was in clear text elsewhere in the file. So it was like hiding the front door key under the doormat. Maybe its real purpose is to give legal weight to a claim that it wasn't published freely, in case they want to shut down anyone leeching it commercially. Probably it's a DMCA violation to crack the encryption.
And I think you'll find that movie quotes ARE compiled into text files to run against codes. They could just scrape them from IMDB. I remember some years ago somene complaining in a newsgroup how someone had used their password to abuse an account. They were so sure that no one would guess "THX1138", as it came from an "obscure movie". Lines and names from geeky "obscure" movies, books, TV shows, comics are the first things crackers try.
recorded years before the DVD came onto market... I've heard several introductions for commentaries mark that they were created in '92 or so. I've always wondered why film studios would go to the trouble...
For the (Pioneer) laserdisc release. These were available from the late 70s; especially popular in Japan. Criterion did a lot of laserdiscs movies with exras like commentary tracks.
To make matters worse, they (the Russians) do not go arround bragging about their achievements.
In Soviet Russia.... they certainly did brag about their achievements. For instance, Sputnik and Gagarin got huge exposure. But until they had achieved their aim, they preferred to keep quiet, so if it did go pear shaped they could just pretend they weren't even trying.
you should be using XCOPY in preference to windows explorer.
Better, use xxcopy. Similar CLI, free; avoids the common problem of long/short file names getting scrambled. The "pro" version apparently has network features, but I've never used that.
You need the presence of odontoblasts, etc in order for a new tooth to grow.
Put this together with these guys and we could have a solution. That story dated 2004 says: "it could be five years before the technology is widely available to the general public"; probably too optimistic though.
Easy enough to add things to the diet to impart a color into the tooth while it grows (one reason why kids aren't given tetracycline -- it makes their growing teeth permanaently orange). A mouthful of glow-in-the-dark teeth? No problem. How about teeth that glow orange or green under a blacklight, instead of violet?,
I'm missing three teeth, including 2 incisors, and have a couple of root canals that will probably eventually need to be pulled. At this point I don't care if they're white, black or green; I'd just love to get a full set of healthy teeth. But I've been hearing tantalising stuff like this for 20 years, I'll probably die with a mouth full of porcelain.
"with low frequency ultrasound pulses" is pretty uninformative for me. If they can regrow theeth, do they first have to implant a 'seed' that will focus the growth? Every theeth has a quite specific form, how will this device influence that?
TFA says "stimulates tooth growth from the root once inserted into a person's mouth".
t is my opinion (no, I don't have the data, but it seems reasonable) that the only reason someone would look at quasi child porn is that sexualized images of children excite them. I think that those excited by sexualized images of children is the defining characteristic of the child porn market. Therefore, it is my belief that the market for real child porn and quasi child porn is one and the same. Further, it is my opinion that the only reason people look and quasi child porn instead of real child porn is that they believe (falsely) that it is legal and that they won't get into trouble for looking at the quasi porn.
Your claims that the markets for real and fake porn are the same are no more than your suppositions.
Why is it fine to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre but not a real snuff movie? Because one is fantasy, no one was hurt making it, the other is real and someone real was killed to make it. By your logic, the audience for both are indistinguishable, both should be condemned and anyone who purchased either should be imprisoned.
Again, I must say, people distinguish between reality and fantasy, except for a few extremely disturbed individuals.
Possession of quasi child porn is no more thoughtcrime than possession of homegrown drugs (no one hurt in its manufacture.) I'd rather see someone locked up for child porn thoughtcrime than marijuana thoughtcrime.
Drugs aren't criminalised because of how they're made, but their (supposed) effects on the users.
It seems to me (I could be wrong) that a major component of cartoon porn depicts minors.
I don't think so, most cartoon porn seems to depict women with unfeasibly large breasts (and men with unfeasibly large penises). Other does sexualise popular child heroes. It all comes down to caricature and exaggeration and unlikely juxtapositions. Humour is a large part of it; and that is one thing you won't find in real porn.
Slashdot Mirror
The media player is intended to create exactly the same lockin for media. After a few years, all legal media would come in a choice of MS DRM or nothing.
300 engineers to document some protocols? I could believe 10, maybe 20 could get the job done in a few weeks. How on earth could 300 engineers work together on such a (excuse my ignorance/naivete) trivial job for two years? Hasn't this guy heard of The Mythical Man Month? MS aren't idiots; they've designed the process to fail. They deserve every cent of the fines.
If course not, but some people do it, maybe because they don't know their true costs and overheads.
MIlitary casualties perhaps. But in WWI, millions of soldiers died in the trenches, in WWII, many more millions of civilians were killed by bombs and armour. The London Blitz; Dresden and Tokyo firebombing; Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But first can I say: holy crap! I was one of the main software engineers on this project (heck I still have the source code on my laptop) but that was like 5 years ago. NOW we get slashdotted?
Yeah, I read about this in The Register about 3 years ago. And on the DARPA site, there's a timeline
Program Milestones
Spring 2003 Planned Completion of Phase II - Enhanced subsystem performance and 50-plus prototype minefield operational testing and demonstration. System technology transition to the U.S. Army.
Spring 2002 Completion of Phase I - Enabling technology development and small-scale prototype minefield testing.
Spring 2000 Self-Healing Minefield system development contracts awarded.
June 1999 Self-Healing Minefield BAA99-21 released.
June 1998 DARPA Track II Task Force briefed Deputy Secretary of Defense on Self- Healing Minefield as Track II alternative.
October 1997 Deputy Secretary of Defense directs DARPA to execute Antipersonnel Landmine Alternative Track II study.
So it looks like this page (and project?) has been inactive since about 2002. So much for the breathless Slashdot summary "New landmines will soon communicate via a radio network." Right. Real Soon Now.
Maybe you were more persistent than me, but all I saw at your link was a bunch of spam, dead links and promises of free dowloads, but no actual MP3 files. I'm sure they can be found, but the SEO scumbags have done a good job of making it hard to find.
Because once you start to make money, people will notice and undercut your price. Some will sell below cost, because they just want to move stuff. So unless you have something unique, with a lock on the supply, you can't keep a fat profit margin. That's the difference with shops; you're competing with the entire planet, not just your neighbours or a small group that can form a cabal.
Reading TFA for one thing.
The annoying thing is sometimes you read a few pages, and notice that continuity is even worse than usual, realise that it has been mirrored, and have to start again...
They're uin Russia. That's where they do business.
I don't know what's so difficult about this concept. ZOMG INTARWEBS doesn't change anything; when you sell someone something, even if you aren't shipping anything physical, you know damn well where he is, because he has to provide his billing address or you can't charge his credit card.
No they don't. And neither do most companies that sell other pure downloads (porn, software, etc.).
IIRC, AllOfMp3 themselves admit that they are perfectly aware that the product they are selling is illegal in many places outside Russia.
No they don't. They just make a discalimer that it's the buyer's responsibility to comply with local Laws. Same small print as anyone else uses.
According to AllofMP3, they pay a fee to a copyright agency in Russia. Copyright holders are supposed to apply to them for their cut. But the foreign music companies refuse to do so. Their loss.
If you're already a suspect, how does that help them? At that point they need physical evidence. I've read it and I haven't blown anything up (yet).
Yes. Also often, but not always, in Chinese. You start reading at what seems to us to to be the back of the book. Translated versions sometimes mirror the images so they follow the western convention. But manga geeks sneer at such conversions.
HOWEVER: even if the A-list star is mediocre as a voice artist, the CGI is invariably a caricature of them, thus capitalising on their "brand name". And even more importantly, the stars have an entre to the talk show circuit to promote the film. Bruce Willis is all over the media at the moment for his role as a raccoon in Over the Hedge. And like a live-action movie, having a star "attached" to a film is necessary to get the finance and distribution deals in place. No matter how talented the voice actor, he wouldn't have got that exposure. Stars get $zillions because they can "open the film".
See Robert Altman's The Player, in which a screenwriter tries to sell a script based on "talent, not stars". By the time it gets into production, it's got Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts starring in it.
Right. I know lots of Zulus who could pass for Eskimos.
Well, there were other land bridges during the last Ice Age, 10,000 or so years ago. And since then fishermen and traders from Indonesia have been dropping on at the far north, deliberately or blown off course. There really isn't anywhere that's totally isolated.
As TFA says, the line was in clear text elsewhere in the file. So it was like hiding the front door key under the doormat. Maybe its real purpose is to give legal weight to a claim that it wasn't published freely, in case they want to shut down anyone leeching it commercially. Probably it's a DMCA violation to crack the encryption.
And I think you'll find that movie quotes ARE compiled into text files to run against codes. They could just scrape them from IMDB. I remember some years ago somene complaining in a newsgroup how someone had used their password to abuse an account. They were so sure that no one would guess "THX1138", as it came from an "obscure movie". Lines and names from geeky "obscure" movies, books, TV shows, comics are the first things crackers try.
For the (Pioneer) laserdisc release. These were available from the late 70s; especially popular in Japan. Criterion did a lot of laserdiscs movies with exras like commentary tracks.
In Soviet Russia.... they certainly did brag about their achievements. For instance, Sputnik and Gagarin got huge exposure. But until they had achieved their aim, they preferred to keep quiet, so if it did go pear shaped they could just pretend they weren't even trying.
See my earlier post about XXcopy, http://www.xxcopy.com./
Better, use xxcopy. Similar CLI, free; avoids the common problem of long/short file names getting scrambled. The "pro" version apparently has network features, but I've never used that.
Put this together with these guys and we could have a solution. That story dated 2004 says: "it could be five years before the technology is widely available to the general public"; probably too optimistic though.
I'm missing three teeth, including 2 incisors, and have a couple of root canals that will probably eventually need to be pulled. At this point I don't care if they're white, black or green; I'd just love to get a full set of healthy teeth. But I've been hearing tantalising stuff like this for 20 years, I'll probably die with a mouth full of porcelain.
TFA says "stimulates tooth growth from the root once inserted into a person's mouth".
Your claims that the markets for real and fake porn are the same are no more than your suppositions.
Why is it fine to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre but not a real snuff movie? Because one is fantasy, no one was hurt making it, the other is real and someone real was killed to make it. By your logic, the audience for both are indistinguishable, both should be condemned and anyone who purchased either should be imprisoned.
Again, I must say, people distinguish between reality and fantasy, except for a few extremely disturbed individuals.
Possession of quasi child porn is no more thoughtcrime than possession of homegrown drugs (no one hurt in its manufacture.) I'd rather see someone locked up for child porn thoughtcrime than marijuana thoughtcrime.
Drugs aren't criminalised because of how they're made, but their (supposed) effects on the users.
It seems to me (I could be wrong) that a major component of cartoon porn depicts minors.
I don't think so, most cartoon porn seems to depict women with unfeasibly large breasts (and men with unfeasibly large penises). Other does sexualise popular child heroes. It all comes down to caricature and exaggeration and unlikely juxtapositions. Humour is a large part of it; and that is one thing you won't find in real porn.