I second the recommendations for iRiver products. I have an iRiver SlimX 350. It's one of the best electronic devices I have ever purchased. 2 hours of use a day, 5 days a week, for 2 years... hasn't had one glitch yet. Even the original batteries still hold a good 75% of their original charge.
I'm almost hoping for it to break so I can justify upgrading to a higher model. I've read reviews that scream "the SlimX 350 was good, but the cat's pajamas are imp 550."
Note: the SlimX / imp models are CD based mp3 players, not stateless or drive-based.
As discussed here , there was a trick with the original game that allowed for ultra high scores. Basically it involved timing the shots at the bonus flying saucer, to maximise 300 points whenever possible.
I found out about this trick as I met Mr Furrer through work just recently. Basically many a night was wasted in The Bombshelter at Waterloo University (Ontario, Canada) playing that game before he gleamed on the pattern. Last he knew, he had the world record for Space Invaders.
Now he's a J2EE programmer working on Weblogic platforms. Unfortunately playing Space Invaders never turned into a full time career for him.;)
Battle Star Galactica got its genesis from some TV execs who wanted to emulate the success of Star Wars on the small screen. I'm not overly familiar with the back story, but BSG has always struck me as a hodge podge of space opera concepts, strung together long enough to maintain a TV series. Where shows like Dr Who and Star Trek at least had a conceptual basis and tried to do something original, BSG was an attempt to fill a 1 hour timeslot once per week. I don't think BSG deserves to be considered alongside other shows in the great SF series pantheon, even though the Cylons looked cool.
As the article submitter, I have a few issues with what they're trying to accomplish.
1. Trying to make an ISP liable for copyright infringement, thus jeopardising their 'common carrier' protection. In Canada, cable and telephone are pretty much monopolies. I can see potential overhead being mandated through this case which will result in an industry consolidation -- ISPs can't make it on their own anymore with all the administrative overhead, so get gobbled up by traditional media companies that can provide them with protection.
2. Canadian media is already over-regulated IMHO. CANCON insists that certain amounts of Canadian home-grown content are given air-play. I'd hate to see SOCAM try to push this onto the internet.
3. I already pay licenses for "personal use" copying of media through my CD, cassette, VHS tape, taxes.
4. Unilaterally demanding foreign countries/ISPs support a custom Canadian copyright licensing scheme is ludicrous, and arrogant. It is also the best way to kill off Canadian music.
Putting my geek thinking cap on...
1)Regen. Say, 1000HP/round.
Create a spell of vampric regeneration, cast it on the god. If the god regenerates, he takes damage.
2) Really good damage. Kills with one hit.
Easy...mirror image, illusions, temporal displacements, vampric regeneration...lots of ways to avoid combat damage. Or, just bring alot of people with you.:)
3) Mass destruction weapon
Any mass effect spell should at least allow a saving throw. If not, then its in the realm of "impossibility" to kill.
4) Reflect damage
Saving Throw, or "reflect" damage in return. Had this happen in a game, a character cast reflect damage on a low level peon hireling, then faced him off against a god with this ability. Infinite loop! You cast fireball...reflects off of the god...reflects off of Joe Schmoe....reflects off of the god...:)
No where, *anywhere* on that first search results page does it indicate these are "sponsored results". Maybe "featured sites" is a euphemism for "paid for adverstising", but you have to ask yourself...why does Microsoft not come clean? Oh yeah, right, the credibility factor...
Having run a search engine for a major banking internet portal, i know from experience that less than 50% of your users are going to move to a second page of results...more often than not, if they don't find what they're looking for in the first 20 results, users are just going to abort, or chose the closest looking link.
I challenge the argument that they 'did it right'.
1. Its hardware dependent.
2. Until recently it was Mac OS dependent too.
3. Terms of licensing are high with the music labels...recent articles suggest iMusic is a loss-run enterprise intended to drive iPod sales (see #1).
I've seen nothing compelling about their 'invention'...I've no reason to go and purchase an iPod or iMusic. (www.magnatune.com is closer to what i'm looking for!)
At $1/song locked into a propietary platform, I may as well stick to CDs. Future Shop in Canada has dropped prices 30-40% in recent weeks to try and drive up sales. $10 canadian per CD will bring me BACK to the CD format and BACK to supporting the 'labels, unfortunately.
A. We are 'outside' the normal evolutionary controls. Disease, famine, competition, etc we've all pretty much managed. More importantly, we live LONG after our reproductive age...after reproduction & a reasonable timeframe to raise our young, natural selection no longer has any impact. If you die at 60 because of a weak heart, doesn't matter...you're as good as an 80 or 90 year old from the eco-system's perspective.
B. Evolution -- natural selection -- take FAR longer than 1,000 years for larger mammals. Unless we're talking about extinction level events, we're not going to change overnight as a species overall. Variation is our strength, and its not natural for us to 'streamline' into a single genetic makeup. Especially with 6+ billion of us...
Before you make a general comment like what you just did -- something that contradicts decades of conventional accepted intrepretations of historical events -- it's responsible to provide references, a summary of the new 'theories', etc.
Oh, BTW, just because and idea is published doesn't give it any credence. An Ann Coulter revisitonist history diatribe is only good for my bird cage liner.
I've been trying this site for the past 48 hours. Their music selection is limited, but its a starting label...its a chicken & egg scenario i think -- Need customers to attract musicians.
I found its offerings to be professional and compentent, if unremarkable. So far the site seems to deliver on what its promising. FREE downloads, FREE streaming audio. Their business model appears to be ethical (by my standards).
Basically I'm waiting a week or two to see in the media if things are kosher before buying something: e.g. this is a legitimate venture?; they're on the up & up?; people don't have nasty customer service problems, etc.
Slashdot users -- this is probably THE busienss model we've been biatching for. If this venture fails, lets try to make sure its not because of lack of demand.
NOTE: I have NO affiliation with this site whatsoever. I can can barely read music.;)
With all due respect, if the revival Dr Who is equivalent to the quality of Enterprise, I'd rather they not revive the series at all.
I am still very skeptical, despite this article. I've heard at least a dozen 'credible' rumours of the past decade referring to the resurrection of the series -- Speilberg has optioned it; it will become a weekly radio play; Fox has optioned it; etc.
Rockefeller also provided great donations to medical research, arts & culture organisations, etc... it still exists today as the Rockefeller Foundation.
But oh yeah, he also encouraged shanty towns near his oil wells, which were less than 3rd world living in the US for his workers. (see: Hoover-villes) And he hired union and strike breakers who conveniently we rarely charged with assault (or manslaughter). And his circumvention of what limited taxation laws exist are legendary...etc etc
Yes, Gates has (and will) donate huge sums of money but don't give him a wash on DRM technology. His company is attempting to push it through as innocuous (its not). Gates the person may be a nice guy, but Gates the spokesperson for Microsoft deserves the 3rd degree at all times.
I too am interested in comments pertaining to Solairs. I am not an admin, but my ASP runs Solaris and I don't see any patches in the change records for OpenSSH for several months.
Would this mean that RIAA is liable for some form of electronic version of trespass? I guess the problem would be that if you make your files available as 'open' shares it's hard to argue RIAA wasn't allowed to index your collection.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Caligula was killed by his own guards if I'm not mistaken.
Score one for Machiavelli.
I think people at this point would rather not buy music in general than capitulate to the labels. I can't think of anyone I know who would defend the RIAA at this point. MPAA maybe (need to protect actors, screenwriters, production crews, etc), but the RIAA serves NO purpose.
Without trying to be too much of a Troll, can someone explain to me as a mathematical lay man as to why this problem has any significance? Given that a chess board is an arbitrary 8x8 set of constraints, is there anything that can be learned and applied to the real world (or even theoretical mathematics?) through solving this problem?
Also, I was under the impression that the objective of mathematical puzzles like this would be to find a simple, elegant proof. Does a brute-force calculation approach carry as much weight?
Real story: first year student friend of mine returns home for Thanksgiving, meets her father in the doorway with the credit card bill for a shared account. "I know how i raised you, but I have no idea how you could get yourself into these things!!! Where's your self respect!?!"
Apparently he had been managing a slow burn for about 2 months since the first bill arrived, with regular charges for weekly visits to 'Kinkos'. All her tutorial notes were arranged by the professors for pickups at the local copy-shop.
PS Re: public terminals. i don't trust my freakin' LAN admin at work so i don't do any personal financial stuff here...why would i trust a public terminal!?!?
Where do you get your stats? I doubt your numbers, with the exception maybe of high-end print graphics/media.
Most 3d graphics are done on linux/solaris/sgi workstations/rendering farms. Most vector graphics are done on the PC, using Photoshop or some paired down software. For home digital video editing, I'd say the majority of home users use what they have available -- a WinTel PC.
As for professional DV creators, i ask you this: calculate the cost of a Mac with a 2+ ghz processor, a gig of ram, 120+gb of storage, a DVD burner, and a local RAID configuration. I'm willing to bet you could get the equivalent config on WinTel for 50% of the $ value, with the advantage of more easily accessible parts. Anyone i know in professional video editing these days have been WinTel in the past two years, justifying their transition from Mac to Intel by "Premiere works the same on both".
The stats for Final Cut Pro (which probably is a better program) having up to 80% of Mac install base should really say "80% of the users who stuck with Mac".
Slashdot Mirror
I second the recommendations for iRiver products. I have an iRiver SlimX 350. It's one of the best electronic devices I have ever purchased. 2 hours of use a day, 5 days a week, for 2 years... hasn't had one glitch yet. Even the original batteries still hold a good 75% of their original charge.
I'm almost hoping for it to break so I can justify upgrading to a higher model. I've read reviews that scream "the SlimX 350 was good, but the cat's pajamas are imp 550."
Note: the SlimX / imp models are CD based mp3 players, not stateless or drive-based.
As discussed here , there was a trick with the original game that allowed for ultra high scores. Basically it involved timing the shots at the bonus flying saucer, to maximise 300 points whenever possible.
;)
I found out about this trick as I met Mr Furrer through work just recently. Basically many a night was wasted in The Bombshelter at Waterloo University (Ontario, Canada) playing that game before he gleamed on the pattern. Last he knew, he had the world record for Space Invaders.
Now he's a J2EE programmer working on Weblogic platforms. Unfortunately playing Space Invaders never turned into a full time career for him.
Beware of this Karma whore. See his jounral here:
/
http://slashdot.org/~Steve%20'Rim'%20Jobs/journal
Mods, please respond accordingly.
Battle Star Galactica got its genesis from some TV execs who wanted to emulate the success of Star Wars on the small screen. I'm not overly familiar with the back story, but BSG has always struck me as a hodge podge of space opera concepts, strung together long enough to maintain a TV series. Where shows like Dr Who and Star Trek at least had a conceptual basis and tried to do something original, BSG was an attempt to fill a 1 hour timeslot once per week. I don't think BSG deserves to be considered alongside other shows in the great SF series pantheon, even though the Cylons looked cool.
As the article submitter, I have a few issues with what they're trying to accomplish.
1. Trying to make an ISP liable for copyright infringement, thus jeopardising their 'common carrier' protection. In Canada, cable and telephone are pretty much monopolies. I can see potential overhead being mandated through this case which will result in an industry consolidation -- ISPs can't make it on their own anymore with all the administrative overhead, so get gobbled up by traditional media companies that can provide them with protection.
2. Canadian media is already over-regulated IMHO. CANCON insists that certain amounts of Canadian home-grown content are given air-play. I'd hate to see SOCAM try to push this onto the internet.
3. I already pay licenses for "personal use" copying of media through my CD, cassette, VHS tape, taxes.
4. Unilaterally demanding foreign countries/ISPs support a custom Canadian copyright licensing scheme is ludicrous, and arrogant. It is also the best way to kill off Canadian music.
Putting my geek thinking cap on...
:)
:)
1)Regen. Say, 1000HP/round. Create a spell of vampric regeneration, cast it on the god. If the god regenerates, he takes damage.
2) Really good damage. Kills with one hit. Easy...mirror image, illusions, temporal displacements, vampric regeneration...lots of ways to avoid combat damage. Or, just bring alot of people with you.
3) Mass destruction weapon Any mass effect spell should at least allow a saving throw. If not, then its in the realm of "impossibility" to kill.
4) Reflect damage Saving Throw, or "reflect" damage in return. Had this happen in a game, a character cast reflect damage on a low level peon hireling, then faced him off against a god with this ability. Infinite loop! You cast fireball...reflects off of the god...reflects off of Joe Schmoe....reflects off of the god...
Wasn't he overthrown after about 20 years by Chairman Mao? Bad analogy for Open Source if you're optimistic for a future for the movement...
No where, *anywhere* on that first search results page does it indicate these are "sponsored results". Maybe "featured sites" is a euphemism for "paid for adverstising", but you have to ask yourself...why does Microsoft not come clean? Oh yeah, right, the credibility factor...
Having run a search engine for a major banking internet portal, i know from experience that less than 50% of your users are going to move to a second page of results...more often than not, if they don't find what they're looking for in the first 20 results, users are just going to abort, or chose the closest looking link.
I challenge the argument that they 'did it right'.
1. Its hardware dependent.
2. Until recently it was Mac OS dependent too.
3. Terms of licensing are high with the music labels...recent articles suggest iMusic is a loss-run enterprise intended to drive iPod sales (see #1).
I've seen nothing compelling about their 'invention'...I've no reason to go and purchase an iPod or iMusic. (www.magnatune.com is closer to what i'm looking for!)
At $1/song locked into a propietary platform, I may as well stick to CDs. Future Shop in Canada has dropped prices 30-40% in recent weeks to try and drive up sales. $10 canadian per CD will bring me BACK to the CD format and BACK to supporting the 'labels, unfortunately.
Unfortunately we won't improve very much. Why?
A. We are 'outside' the normal evolutionary controls. Disease, famine, competition, etc we've all pretty much managed. More importantly, we live LONG after our reproductive age...after reproduction & a reasonable timeframe to raise our young, natural selection no longer has any impact. If you die at 60 because of a weak heart, doesn't matter...you're as good as an 80 or 90 year old from the eco-system's perspective.
B. Evolution -- natural selection -- take FAR longer than 1,000 years for larger mammals. Unless we're talking about extinction level events, we're not going to change overnight as a species overall. Variation is our strength, and its not natural for us to 'streamline' into a single genetic makeup. Especially with 6+ billion of us...
Before you make a general comment like what you just did -- something that contradicts decades of conventional accepted intrepretations of historical events -- it's responsible to provide references, a summary of the new 'theories', etc.
Oh, BTW, just because and idea is published doesn't give it any credence. An Ann Coulter revisitonist history diatribe is only good for my bird cage liner.
I've been trying this site for the past 48 hours. Their music selection is limited, but its a starting label...its a chicken & egg scenario i think -- Need customers to attract musicians.
;)
I found its offerings to be professional and compentent, if unremarkable. So far the site seems to deliver on what its promising. FREE downloads, FREE streaming audio. Their business model appears to be ethical (by my standards).
Basically I'm waiting a week or two to see in the media if things are kosher before buying something: e.g. this is a legitimate venture?; they're on the up & up?; people don't have nasty customer service problems, etc.
Slashdot users -- this is probably THE busienss model we've been biatching for. If this venture fails, lets try to make sure its not because of lack of demand.
NOTE: I have NO affiliation with this site whatsoever. I can can barely read music.
With all due respect, if the revival Dr Who is equivalent to the quality of Enterprise, I'd rather they not revive the series at all. I am still very skeptical, despite this article. I've heard at least a dozen 'credible' rumours of the past decade referring to the resurrection of the series -- Speilberg has optioned it; it will become a weekly radio play; Fox has optioned it; etc.
Less than the required # of hackneyed American comedians?
Rockefeller also provided great donations to medical research, arts & culture organisations, etc... it still exists today as the Rockefeller Foundation.
But oh yeah, he also encouraged shanty towns near his oil wells, which were less than 3rd world living in the US for his workers. (see: Hoover-villes) And he hired union and strike breakers who conveniently we rarely charged with assault (or manslaughter). And his circumvention of what limited taxation laws exist are legendary...etc etc
Yes, Gates has (and will) donate huge sums of money but don't give him a wash on DRM technology. His company is attempting to push it through as innocuous (its not). Gates the person may be a nice guy, but Gates the spokesperson for Microsoft deserves the 3rd degree at all times.
Ironically, 1996 is about the same time MS Office stopped including useful features making an upgrade worthwhile.
I too am interested in comments pertaining to Solairs. I am not an admin, but my ASP runs Solaris and I don't see any patches in the change records for OpenSSH for several months.
PBS Frontline continually impresses me. Don't give up all hope.
In Canada our news is not quite to corporate-whorey. We also get BBC feeds as well. Those BBC interviewers go right for the throat.
BBC Interviewer: "So Mr Prime Minister, with (can't remember name)'s death, would you say you have blood on your hands?" Blair: "Uh..."
Do you work for Utopia Corp?
Would this mean that RIAA is liable for some form of electronic version of trespass? I guess the problem would be that if you make your files available as 'open' shares it's hard to argue RIAA wasn't allowed to index your collection.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Caligula was killed by his own guards if I'm not mistaken.
Score one for Machiavelli.
I think people at this point would rather not buy music in general than capitulate to the labels. I can't think of anyone I know who would defend the RIAA at this point. MPAA maybe (need to protect actors, screenwriters, production crews, etc), but the RIAA serves NO purpose.
"Still no cure for cancer."
Without trying to be too much of a Troll, can someone explain to me as a mathematical lay man as to why this problem has any significance? Given that a chess board is an arbitrary 8x8 set of constraints, is there anything that can be learned and applied to the real world (or even theoretical mathematics?) through solving this problem?
Also, I was under the impression that the objective of mathematical puzzles like this would be to find a simple, elegant proof. Does a brute-force calculation approach carry as much weight?
Its okay, he's so far behind the technology curve (dial up???) that he doesn't deserve power.
Real story: first year student friend of mine returns home for Thanksgiving, meets her father in the doorway with the credit card bill for a shared account. "I know how i raised you, but I have no idea how you could get yourself into these things!!! Where's your self respect!?!"
Apparently he had been managing a slow burn for about 2 months since the first bill arrived, with regular charges for weekly visits to 'Kinkos'. All her tutorial notes were arranged by the professors for pickups at the local copy-shop.
PS Re: public terminals. i don't trust my freakin' LAN admin at work so i don't do any personal financial stuff here...why would i trust a public terminal!?!?
Where do you get your stats? I doubt your numbers, with the exception maybe of high-end print graphics/media.
Most 3d graphics are done on linux/solaris/sgi workstations/rendering farms. Most vector graphics are done on the PC, using Photoshop or some paired down software. For home digital video editing, I'd say the majority of home users use what they have available -- a WinTel PC.
As for professional DV creators, i ask you this: calculate the cost of a Mac with a 2+ ghz processor, a gig of ram, 120+gb of storage, a DVD burner, and a local RAID configuration. I'm willing to bet you could get the equivalent config on WinTel for 50% of the $ value, with the advantage of more easily accessible parts. Anyone i know in professional video editing these days have been WinTel in the past two years, justifying their transition from Mac to Intel by "Premiere works the same on both".
The stats for Final Cut Pro (which probably is a better program) having up to 80% of Mac install base should really say "80% of the users who stuck with Mac".