Just because M$ acts in its own self interest (like any other company which acts in its self interest) doesn't mean that we all have to cave in and stop trying to defend ourselves from their evil practices.
I have the right to act in my own self interest and, say, boycott any piece of software written by M$.
Just because what they do is sometimes legal doesn't make it ethical. And just because it's legal doesn't mean that I have to go along with it.
Also, if we stopped focusing on the bad things M$ does, we would not be able to learn how to use any of their crap software, since figuring out how to use it involves first categorizing exactly how it is broken.
We don't have enough of a grasp on understanding the structure of the planet to be able to say what sites will be stable for that long.
And water gets around. The Tao will tell you that.
Sunflowers have been used for the same purpose, using floating rafts of them to clean radioactive materials from open ponds. Then you need to dispose of the sunflowers.
Hey, I have an idea! How about if we stop making the stuff? Wow! How revolutionary. It's a really stupid way to make power anyway, and there is absolutely no need whatsoever if we look at alternatives which have already been developed.
Tom Schultz did the first Boston album on a 4-track.
Parts of Sgt. Peppers were done with two 4-tracks linked together.
Can anyone tell me that the production quality achieved by spending $1M on Britney-in-a-box compares? If you want sound quality, get someone who understands sound, not a bunch of expensive equipment which you don't know how to use.
You really can make professional quality music on very simple equipment. In addition, your mix doesn't end up sounding exactly like every other song on the radio.
I have had several experiences (and especially one in particular) where we had an engineering team largely composed of good friends. I found this to be not only rewarding, but also very successful from an engineering perspective.
In this day and age of large software projects, engineers need to be able to communicate with each other well in order to work together well especially when telecommuting.
Getting to know the other members in a remote group sometimes takes more effort and perception (you miss a lot of body language), but through establishing real social interaction, even over the phone, you end up with better communication between team members and, ultimately, a better hunk of software.
As far as I know, it is a republic, not a democracy.
Like the US, the people have little say except to determine which corrupt slob is going to pass which garbage legislation.
The idea behind the US republic is that it 'balances' the rights of the people with the 'rights of property', but when the rights of the powerful are protected over the rights of the common person, the powerful get more and more powerful, and the balance is blown.
In a society where these rights are 'balanced', the idea is that the smart, well-to-do folks basically run things, and the opinion of the common man keeps things from getting totally out of hand. This obviously is not happening here, nor do I believe that the "smart, well-to-do folks" are really capable of keeping in touch with the rest of the world to the point where they could make good decisions for the society as a whole.
I'm afraid that if it is acceptable to term unpopular (and possibly bogus) beliefs about the history of the human race as 'revisionist' then when important but unpopular genuine historical discoveries are made, the same term may be applied.
Although I certainly don't believe those who say the nazi's never had gas chambers, remember that much of Gallileo's work was published posthumously for fear that he would be considered a revisionist and killed by the Catholic church (and in relativistic terms, his assertions were just as innacurate as those of the church - it doesn't have to be correct to be usefull).
The point is that when you allow one group to determine what historical 'truths' are acceptible to believe, you ultimately create a system in which only the official beliefs are legal, and you have yourself a police state.
Remember how much trouble AOL had with their auto-cencorship sw that left breast cancer support groups finding all sorts of creative ways to talk seriously about breast cancer without ever using the word 'breast'?
The FCC pulls a similar scam with regard to fining radio stations for obscenity.
According to NSW bill, the potential offender has to second guess how some panel would rate the content in question.
The FCC's decision to fine a radio staion for obscenity is based on the community's reaction after the broadcast. There is no way to find out ahead of time whether you will be fined for broadcasting a particular item.
I think the issue is that fanatical parents, "religious leaders", and legislators are terrified of any potential for evil thought-provoking entities to gain access to the minds of the children. Free speech in any medium is just about as scary to these people as LSD (same basic result - there is the potential that people will stop believing the BS being shoved down their throats).
A low tech system (well, back when I got it, the Aplle][+ was state of the art) and a good imagination will get you much better graphics than any max'ed out gaming system.
I remember a great Sopwith Camel flight simulator for the apple that had almost nonexistent graphics, but it behaved basically like a Sopwith Camel. We used to play that game all night.
Our first system came with two games: Adventure (by Softwin I think it said on the floppy?), and Brickout. I never played Brickout much, but we basically played Adventure night and day until we had all solved it.
It lacks digital audio I/O, though, if I am not mistaken.
SPDIF sure comes in handy for making professional audio recordings on the road. In fact, any serious audio interface makes a big difference on a laptop (I haven't seen much in the way of pro audio built in for laptops, and a lot of the audio gear for computers is designed just like any other electronics, so the noise level and general sound quality are terrible).
An invitation to early blindness, like the solid white background which so many winders users use for their document windows.
I would sooner use a really nice display with an old junker, than the other way around. Most people don't need the speed they have (to wait for their DSL connection to load up/.), but even an Apple ][+ looks better on a 21" screen.
I forgot to mention that they covered the equipment no matter where it is or in whose posession, so if she had been shipping it with insurance, she would have scored double.
I'm sure there's a certain point where they start checking.
A friend of mine made about $1200 off of getting her bass amp and speaker stolen, though. Both were used. One was a present, the other cost her $200. In brand new condition, each listed for $700. When she reported them stolen, the insurance company (Clarion) gave her $1400 for her claim, again, no questions (except that they wanted the police report since the stuff was stolen).
When I looked over her policy, I found that virtually the only thing that wasn't covered was nuclear attack or damage from nuclear radiation. Acts of war were fine, and it looked like if you intentionally threw your equipment out a twelfth story window, that was covered, too.
I have definately known UPS to be abusive to packages. They destroyed a DAT player and a Kurzweil 2600 keyboard which my roommate had his mom ship from PA to CA. Both were packaged well in the original boxes. The Keyboard has a very sturdy metal chassis which they managed to bend badly.
That being said, both claims were resolved quickly. They showed up within a week or so, confiscated the damaged equipment (minus a few goodies they didn't know about, like the Kurzweil foot pedal), and sent my roommate's mom a check for the amount of the insurance. They didn't check any receipts, so if he had had the $3000 keyboard insured for $5000, he presumably would have gotten the whole $5000.
It would be nice to see some of the file sharing services actively promoting the undeniably legitimate aspects of file sharing.
By providing exposure to independant artists and software developers who specifically want their work distributed freely in this way, the file sharing services could establish that file sharing has an inherent legitimate purpose, while also providing a medium through which independant artists could publish.
Currently, independant music is lacking in these systems because the users don't know to search for it. If I were to share music which I had created, no one would know to search for it, and therefore no one would download it from me.
If these services actively promoted artists and developers, they could protect themselves legally while possibly chipping away at the record companies' monopoly on music by providing a real publishing alternative.
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I have the right to act in my own self interest and, say, boycott any piece of software written by M$.
Just because what they do is sometimes legal doesn't make it ethical. And just because it's legal doesn't mean that I have to go along with it.
Also, if we stopped focusing on the bad things M$ does, we would not be able to learn how to use any of their crap software, since figuring out how to use it involves first categorizing exactly how it is broken.
We don't have enough of a grasp on understanding the structure of the planet to be able to say what sites will be stable for that long. And water gets around. The Tao will tell you that.
Sunflowers have been used for the same purpose, using floating rafts of them to clean radioactive materials from open ponds. Then you need to dispose of the sunflowers.
Hey, I have an idea! How about if we stop making the stuff? Wow! How revolutionary. It's a really stupid way to make power anyway, and there is absolutely no need whatsoever if we look at alternatives which have already been developed.
Parts of Sgt. Peppers were done with two 4-tracks linked together.
Can anyone tell me that the production quality achieved by spending $1M on Britney-in-a-box compares? If you want sound quality, get someone who understands sound, not a bunch of expensive equipment which you don't know how to use.
You really can make professional quality music on very simple equipment. In addition, your mix doesn't end up sounding exactly like every other song on the radio.
In this day and age of large software projects, engineers need to be able to communicate with each other well in order to work together well especially when telecommuting.
Getting to know the other members in a remote group sometimes takes more effort and perception (you miss a lot of body language), but through establishing real social interaction, even over the phone, you end up with better communication between team members and, ultimately, a better hunk of software.
Same way the flashy graphics have pushed out games (like IF) which use the imagination for the rendering engine.
Like the US, the people have little say except to determine which corrupt slob is going to pass which garbage legislation.
The idea behind the US republic is that it 'balances' the rights of the people with the 'rights of property', but when the rights of the powerful are protected over the rights of the common person, the powerful get more and more powerful, and the balance is blown.
In a society where these rights are 'balanced', the idea is that the smart, well-to-do folks basically run things, and the opinion of the common man keeps things from getting totally out of hand. This obviously is not happening here, nor do I believe that the "smart, well-to-do folks" are really capable of keeping in touch with the rest of the world to the point where they could make good decisions for the society as a whole.
I'm afraid that if it is acceptable to term unpopular (and possibly bogus) beliefs about the history of the human race as 'revisionist' then when important but unpopular genuine historical discoveries are made, the same term may be applied.
Although I certainly don't believe those who say the nazi's never had gas chambers, remember that much of Gallileo's work was published posthumously for fear that he would be considered a revisionist and killed by the Catholic church (and in relativistic terms, his assertions were just as innacurate as those of the church - it doesn't have to be correct to be usefull).
The point is that when you allow one group to determine what historical 'truths' are acceptible to believe, you ultimately create a system in which only the official beliefs are legal, and you have yourself a police state.
Remember how much trouble AOL had with their auto-cencorship sw that left breast cancer support groups finding all sorts of creative ways to talk seriously about breast cancer without ever using the word 'breast'?
According to NSW bill, the potential offender has to second guess how some panel would rate the content in question.
The FCC's decision to fine a radio staion for obscenity is based on the community's reaction after the broadcast. There is no way to find out ahead of time whether you will be fined for broadcasting a particular item.
I think the issue is that fanatical parents, "religious leaders", and legislators are terrified of any potential for evil thought-provoking entities to gain access to the minds of the children. Free speech in any medium is just about as scary to these people as LSD (same basic result - there is the potential that people will stop believing the BS being shoved down their throats).
Thanks!
I remember a great Sopwith Camel flight simulator for the apple that had almost nonexistent graphics, but it behaved basically like a Sopwith Camel. We used to play that game all night.
Our first system came with two games: Adventure (by Softwin I think it said on the floppy?), and Brickout. I never played Brickout much, but we basically played Adventure night and day until we had all solved it.
SPDIF sure comes in handy for making professional audio recordings on the road. In fact, any serious audio interface makes a big difference on a laptop (I haven't seen much in the way of pro audio built in for laptops, and a lot of the audio gear for computers is designed just like any other electronics, so the noise level and general sound quality are terrible).
An invitation to early blindness, like the solid white background which so many winders users use for their document windows.
I would sooner use a really nice display with an old junker, than the other way around. Most people don't need the speed they have (to wait for their DSL connection to load up /.), but even an Apple ][+ looks better on a 21" screen.
I forgot to mention that they covered the equipment no matter where it is or in whose posession, so if she had been shipping it with insurance, she would have scored double.
A friend of mine made about $1200 off of getting her bass amp and speaker stolen, though. Both were used. One was a present, the other cost her $200. In brand new condition, each listed for $700. When she reported them stolen, the insurance company (Clarion) gave her $1400 for her claim, again, no questions (except that they wanted the police report since the stuff was stolen).
When I looked over her policy, I found that virtually the only thing that wasn't covered was nuclear attack or damage from nuclear radiation. Acts of war were fine, and it looked like if you intentionally threw your equipment out a twelfth story window, that was covered, too.
That being said, both claims were resolved quickly. They showed up within a week or so, confiscated the damaged equipment (minus a few goodies they didn't know about, like the Kurzweil foot pedal), and sent my roommate's mom a check for the amount of the insurance. They didn't check any receipts, so if he had had the $3000 keyboard insured for $5000, he presumably would have gotten the whole $5000.
It would be nice to see some of the file sharing services actively promoting the undeniably legitimate aspects of file sharing.
By providing exposure to independant artists and software developers who specifically want their work distributed freely in this way, the file sharing services could establish that file sharing has an inherent legitimate purpose, while also providing a medium through which independant artists could publish.
Currently, independant music is lacking in these systems because the users don't know to search for it. If I were to share music which I had created, no one would know to search for it, and therefore no one would download it from me.
If these services actively promoted artists and developers, they could protect themselves legally while possibly chipping away at the record companies' monopoly on music by providing a real publishing alternative.