I haven't tried it yet (1.5Mbps is plenty for all those on my home LAN), but you might want to give Throttled a shot. Certainly not the easiest to use (no GUI), but it is open source and cross platform (Linux/BSD/OS X). Basically it runs a server process that you enables bandwidth throttling in your kernel's firewall. The configuration file is simple enough to understand and is quite flexible. You can change also settings while it is running by sending it signals using the not-so-aptly-named 'kill' command in the terminal.
That's why I said "Anyone remember that episode?" Complex shows don't make much sense out of context. Whereas a simple show like, say, 7th Heaven, or, uhm, SG-1, make perfect sense with very little context. "Powering up! 100%!" See?
Basically what I was describing was a very adept and unsual portrayal of time travel involving excellent writing, good acting, and awesome cinematography, using footage from the pilot episode.
I wouldn't go so far as to say BEST.SCIFI.SHOW.EVER, although how people can compare it to SG-1 is beyond me. "Powering up 100 percent! Captain. sir. Ti'lk, are you OK?" WTF?! Apparently it translates badly from the original whatever-the-hell-language it was originally dubbed in. My loss I guess. (I also don't care much for Anime.)
I much prefer dialog like "You have knowledge of time and the ability unravel events. I should kill you just for that." Does anyone remember that episode? In one scene Crichton gets thrown back to the first day he set foot on Moya, everyone except him is acting exactly the same, with the same camera footage and everything, but he reacts to everything differently. Just when you've had enough of the scene, he turns around, points to the back of his neck, mutters "tongue.", and Dargo wallops him in the back of his neck with his tongue. Then it cuts back to him face down on the island in the void with the Ancient. I thought that was some creative shit. Anyway...
If Farscape goes off the air I think it will be a loss. I'm no Farscape zealot (I'm lots of things, not just Farscape!), but if the SciFi channel cancels it only to replace it with Braveheart (I like the movie and all, but how is it SciFi?) and the X-Files (hello, I saw every good episode 6 times!), they will have just confused away another dedicated viewer. I won't boycott SciFi just for cancelling a cool (IMHO) show, but I can't watch channels whose programming choices give me a headache just trying to comprehend them.
Anyway, I'll watch all the new episodes when they air, or I'll tape them if I'm out. I truly hope anyone who enjoys the show even a little will do the same.
(On a side note: does anyone think Neilsen boxes actually exist (anymore)? Wouldn't it be easier to just put some kind of chip in the TV. I dunno, maybe call it a "V-Chip"?)
Quark: A dying company serving a dying industry (so says Quark) that insists on telling it's largest customer base that they are dying. According to long-term Ziff-Davis trends in corporate longevity predictions, I would say Quark will be around long after we evolve into beings of pure thought. And we'll still hate magazines that insist on changing their layout every 6 months.
Ziff-Davis predictions: Just because they are wrong doesn't make it a bad predicition, but once they've been consistently predicting the *same*wrong*thing* for nearly 1 1/2 decades, it begins to irritate me just a little bit.
Linux economic revolution: Cheaper is almost *never* better, but Linux is not "cheap", it is "free". Freedom comes at a price, and that price changes from seemingly nothing one second to fighting a war the next. Sure, that is an extreme and unrealistic example when we are talking about software, however the point I am trying to make is that while we're living in a world dominated by money, laziness, and a cheaper-is-better atitude, you end up spending lots of money and time to make free software look as good as proprietary software. Please note I said "look", not "work". If everyone were more eager to learn how and why things work, and stop counting the beans, this wouldn't be an issue. That's what I meant by economic and social revolution. It hasn't happened since civilization began, so I'll give it a couple more years.
OpenGL: *I* think it's better too. Then again *I* code in C and script in Perl, instead of Java and PHP. Once again it comes down to people taking the time to learn how and why things work.
WINE and mplayer: Both excellent software packages. Both dependent on proprietary/binary code and the X86 platform. OK, actually small parts of mplayer depend on proprietery X86 code, but they are important codecs. Both are at more risk than I care to get involved with because of technically-illegal EULAs, the DMCA, and mandatory software updates. If Microsoft/Macromedia/Apple/Real wants to crush these projects, the work required on their end becomes less and less with every passing day.
Time: Einstein covered this: it's relative. Sure you can use a computer from 1405 if you want, but you'll have to run Minix, and forget about X! I'll bet you can even get hx to compile! Seriously though, I've been using Macs since 1984 (ocassionally having to fight off a case of zealotry), but I believe Linux has endured the so-called "test of time" far better than Apple has. Apple has risen and fallen several times, yet Linux *seems* to keep rising, albeit at a slower and steadier pace. Perhaps this is only an illusion since I can't watch a bar graph of Debian's stock value, but perhaps not, since RedHat's (*cough*corporate scum*cough*) always seems to be going up.
*RedHat and Ximian employees: I'm just fooling. Thank you for all your hard work and contributions!
...and by that time Quark will have finally released a version of QuarkXPress that doesn't corrupt files in the OS X Classic environment. Boy will they be pissed to find out the creative professional OS of choice has changed *again*!
Seriously, (actually that first paragraph was half-serious), has everyone forgotten that every six months (since 1986!) Ziff-Davis predicts that Apple will be brankrupt by the end of the year? Clearly, they know what they are talking about.
Only just recently they have started claiming that Linux will take over the desktop; which, as a Linux advocate, I think is just silly. Then again I'm just a programmer, not a journalist. At least they have finally realized that it won't *ever* have a larger desktop user base than Windows. I don't ever expect them to realize that open source simply cannot tackle proprietery software until we have some sort of major economic and social revolution.
Without support for mainstream media (WiMP, QT, Flash 6, Real), Microsoft Office, and DirectX (negotiable, but witness how many games use the "industry standard" OpenGL), Linux can't even get a seat to watch the game, let alone actually play. Sure WINE is an incredible and useful hack, but it'll be another 2 years at least until setup and compatibility are useful to semi-computer-literate folk, forget about grandma. By the time WINE is ready for the mainstream, Microsoft will make sure it is illegal, at least in the US. Cleanroom reverse-engineering is only semi-legal now, thanks to the DMCA. Even if WINE is legal at that point, it would in and of itself remain a reason to develop only for Windows.
Every OS has its place... and its zealots. Linux and OS X are fantastic in their dedicated niches. Windows XP, as much as I hate to admit it, is a fairly versatile and well-rounded OS. It blows my mind to see free-software supporters drooling over some huge publishing corporation *speculating* that a free software product *might* gain market share. What market? It's free, so there's no market, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. What are the bean counters counting? Some people sound like they are just itching to sell out. Hint: the moment you sell out, you eliminate your most sought-after advantages.
I know this is Slashdot, but can we please try to be realistic? The computer indutry is and always will be extremely volatile, but Microsoft, Apple, and Linux have endured the test of time. They are here to stay, all for different reasons. They all take repeated beatings that would demoralize and sink many other companies/organisations/communities. Just use what you like/need, or any combination thereof.
(No, I'm not new here. Yes, I have a Linux box in my closet. Yes, my cable modem router is a Linux box too. Yes, they both run Debian. Yes, I will miss boot-floppies. Yes, the box on my desktop runs OS X. Yes, I use Windows Evil License Edition too, but only at work. No, I never clicked 'Agree', although yes, I clicked 'Submit'.)
What the fuck? The original poster did not mention child porn, yet you mention it three times in your response! Do you have a lot of child porn? Are you upset because you cannot find child porn by going through other people's trash?
The guy's point is that when a garbage can is sitting on the side of the road, anyone can put garbage in it, whether that garbage happens to be a tissue, a dead body, or your beloved child porn.
I don't see what this has to do with child porn, which a dedicated child pornographer would probably not dispose of, and even if they did, they probably wouldn't throw it in someone else's trash with their real name and/or address still on it.
I repeat: What the fuck?
The person who owns the trash can (my trash cans are bought and paid for, not on loan from the independent carting company that my town pays to take my trash, thank you very much) should not be held legally responsible for what happens to be in it when a law enforcement officer decides to go through it.
Scary? Only if you put the trash out regularly! This means that anyone can dump something illegal in your trash and call the cops. Do you think the cops would rather jump to the obvious conclusion or spend a week having forensics look at it? Oh sure, they'll try option two, but not until after they've done $25000 worth of damage to your home.
Please put your "articles" back online! Brutally assault your "editors" with a semi-automatic combination machine gun/rocket launcher/sword/flame thrower/child-molesting catholic priest if you have to! Don't worry, they'll be fine, it's just a video game!
Anyway, good luck getting the "articles" back online! Please hurry, I need a good laugh!
Cheers, Mike
PS. Couldn't you have chosen a better acronym? Or, hell, a more worthy cause? MAVAV reminds me of the sound a democrat makes when he gets shot in the face by some buffed-up videogame superhero.
Leave it to Microsoft to "extend" the concept of a home directory.
Leave it to Slashdotters to "extend" Microsoft-bashing into realms in which it has no business. ~/Applications is one of OS X's standard application directories, as well as/Applications,/Network/Applications, and/Developer/Applications.
Uh...Taco and Hemos sold out *long* before they go top-of-the-line-last-tear TiBooks. If you don't like the Apple topic, remove Apple from your list of displayed topics. Better yet, don't visit apple.slashdot.org, since this story was *only* posted there.
Please mod the parent up, even if only for linking to the Scientific American article. I found it absolutely fascinating to read that there is an "instinct" at work that enables humans to evaluate and respond quickly to an immediate threat, and television is actually "abusing" this instinct by keeping us in a false "evaluation" state. No wonder we feel so disappointed when we finally turn the damn thing off and there is no threat to react to anymore.
Competition by looking at your "competitor's" code and using what you've learned in your own product? I think the term you are looking for is "cooperation".
No, it really doesn't make sense. If you discriminate against someone simply because they discriminated against you, it doesn't matter who did it first, you are both discriminating. If you choose to love all people without discriminating, you cannot exclude people just because they don't love you back.
I think this license is a nice idea but completely unenforceable. Even if it were, don't you think it would be kind of a secondary (er, tertiary) concern? I mean c'mon: "Hey! Stop raping 4 year-old girls! Stop using slave labour! Oh, and by the way, we are revoking your license to play Ogg files."
I know we aren't supposed to read the article, but I figured this would be funny, so I... clicked the link! Imagine my (lack of) surprise when the article was displayed on my screen! This is my work machine, I just wiped the cookies yesterday, and I do not subscribe to WSJ Online. The only cookie on it is my/. login. What gives? Was the link changed or you people can't even be bothered with an extra click?
You are wrong. My Debian box grabs any patches from security.debian.org every 12 hours, all by itself, and it only has to actually update something on average once a month. How much time does this take me? Other than a few seconds to read the e-mail notification it sends me when it does update something, none at all.
On the other hand, what if the window where spawned invisibly, and closed after 5 seconds? That should be enough to convince these idiots that you have read, and fully understand, how to spy on your nextdoor neighbor having sex with a cool miniature X10 camera.
You are absolutely correct, but I think you are missing the point. Copying digital content will always be (relatively) easy for the tech-savvy.
Joe Schmo, on the other hand, will get pretty fed up with having downloaded the latest Harry Potter flick, only to discover that for the seventh time, he has downloaded an old bootleg filmed with a tripod with an audio track that sounds worse than AM radio and doesn't stay in synch with the video.
I fail to see where I mentioned games, but you bring up another good point. With DVD/PVR becoming more commonplace (OK, PVR is a stretch), who is to stop them from automating "software updates" in the interest of "security"? Granted, this would require an internet connection, but whose to stop them from making deal with cell phone companies? Mod chip your DVD player and you void your "service contract".
On second thought, maybe we should stop discussing this.
This new "protectable" format already exists. It is called DVD. Sure, it isn't "unbreakable" now, nor will it ever be, but...
How many Joe Schmo consumers do you know who have mod-chipped their set-top DVD players with DeCCS? How many people can use "backup" copies of their X-Box games without being kicked off the X-Box live service? How easy and realiable is it (even for us 1337 slashdotters) to get full-length DVD-quality video rips off P2P services? Is this worth your time?
We are reaching the point of dimishing returns, and "they have the technology".
Of course the programmers developing the technology know it will be hacked. The problem is, if they tell management that building a hackproof copy protection scheme is impossible, they might not have a job. "Find someone who doesn't think it's impossible!"
Don't you slashdotters understand yet? The music indsutry is trying to obsolete CDs as quickly as possible so that a more "protectable" format can be produced.
They sent you a "nasty" bill? How was it nasty? Did it include a threatening letter? Were the rates exorbitant? Did you pay it? If it was my charge, there was no discussion of payment beforehand, no written or verbal agreement, and I recieved a "nasty" bill, there is no way I would pay for it. Regardless of how nice the guy was when he did his work. On the other hand, if the situation were the same, and bill was just a professional invoice for services rendered, chance are the contractor/consultant would get paid, although they might not be called back again.
You should always cover your ass. Make sure people know your rates up front. And remember, in business, it never pays to be a just a nice guy. Sure, people like it when you're nice, but if you don't stand up for yourself all the time, you will get stomped on.
I totally agree. I've been searching desperately for reruns of DS9 ever since it went off the air, and just haven't been able to find them (on television). Most people claim that DS9 was a bad ripoff of B5, and I tend to agree, except for the "bad" part. I thought it was well written, fairly well acted ripoff, with much better special effects. I do wish there were equivalent cast members for Leeta and Talya [sic?] on DS9 though.
I loved TNG as a kid, but now I watch it and wonder what I was thinking. People in tights standing in a room talking about "issues" while the camera gets shaken every now and then. Nowadays I just feel bad for Patrick Stewart for having to put up with the whole concept (having experienced several of his performances off-broadway).
I always thought Voyager was a joke. How couldn't it be? First ever (televised, on a Trek) female starship captain. Pilot episode: she gets her crew hopelessly lost and spends the rest of the series trying to find her way back. To add insult to injury, how many times was the Enterprise and its experienced, battle-hardened crew completely destroyed by a broken, underpowered, 20-year old stolen Klingon ship, or a subspace anomaly? Yet Voyager (and its ragtag, fresh-from-the-womb crew) were indestructible, even to the Borg and Species 8579 (or whatever)! Too bad there was never a punchline.
Of course I like TOS, but after you've seen every episode 700 times, it gets hard to watch. Although I still try to watch it now and then just to support "space-oriented" shows on the SciFi channel.
Enterprise? Uhm. Right. WTF? Does _anyone_ enjoy that PC drivel?
As for DS9, does anyone remember the grand finale? I would pay full DVD price just for that. The space battle at the end was absolutely the best I've seen on a TV show to date.
I personally can't wait. I rarely buy DVDs, but DS9 and B5 are "must haves" in my book.
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't tried it yet (1.5Mbps is plenty for all those on my home LAN), but you might want to give Throttled a shot. Certainly not the easiest to use (no GUI), but it is open source and cross platform (Linux/BSD/OS X). Basically it runs a server process that you enables bandwidth throttling in your kernel's firewall. The configuration file is simple enough to understand and is quite flexible. You can change also settings while it is running by sending it signals using the not-so-aptly-named 'kill' command in the terminal.
That's why I said "Anyone remember that episode?" Complex shows don't make much sense out of context. Whereas a simple show like, say, 7th Heaven, or, uhm, SG-1, make perfect sense with very little context. "Powering up! 100%!" See?
Basically what I was describing was a very adept and unsual portrayal of time travel involving excellent writing, good acting, and awesome cinematography, using footage from the pilot episode.
Otherwise, LOL and all that.
I wouldn't go so far as to say BEST.SCIFI.SHOW.EVER, although how people can compare it to SG-1 is beyond me. "Powering up 100 percent! Captain. sir. Ti'lk, are you OK?" WTF?! Apparently it translates badly from the original whatever-the-hell-language it was originally dubbed in. My loss I guess. (I also don't care much for Anime.)
I much prefer dialog like "You have knowledge of time and the ability unravel events. I should kill you just for that." Does anyone remember that episode? In one scene Crichton gets thrown back to the first day he set foot on Moya, everyone except him is acting exactly the same, with the same camera footage and everything, but he reacts to everything differently. Just when you've had enough of the scene, he turns around, points to the back of his neck, mutters "tongue.", and Dargo wallops him in the back of his neck with his tongue. Then it cuts back to him face down on the island in the void with the Ancient. I thought that was some creative shit. Anyway...
If Farscape goes off the air I think it will be a loss. I'm no Farscape zealot (I'm lots of things, not just Farscape!), but if the SciFi channel cancels it only to replace it with Braveheart (I like the movie and all, but how is it SciFi?) and the X-Files (hello, I saw every good episode 6 times!), they will have just confused away another dedicated viewer. I won't boycott SciFi just for cancelling a cool (IMHO) show, but I can't watch channels whose programming choices give me a headache just trying to comprehend them.
Anyway, I'll watch all the new episodes when they air, or I'll tape them if I'm out. I truly hope anyone who enjoys the show even a little will do the same.
(On a side note: does anyone think Neilsen boxes actually exist (anymore)? Wouldn't it be easier to just put some kind of chip in the TV. I dunno, maybe call it a "V-Chip"?)
Quark:
A dying company serving a dying industry (so says Quark) that insists on telling it's largest customer base that they are dying. According to long-term Ziff-Davis trends in corporate longevity predictions, I would say Quark will be around long after we evolve into beings of pure thought. And we'll still hate magazines that insist on changing their layout every 6 months.
Ziff-Davis predictions:
Just because they are wrong doesn't make it a bad predicition, but once they've been consistently predicting the *same*wrong*thing* for nearly 1 1/2 decades, it begins to irritate me just a little bit.
Linux economic revolution:
Cheaper is almost *never* better, but Linux is not "cheap", it is "free". Freedom comes at a price, and that price changes from seemingly nothing one second to fighting a war the next. Sure, that is an extreme and unrealistic example when we are talking about software, however the point I am trying to make is that while we're living in a world dominated by money, laziness, and a cheaper-is-better atitude, you end up spending lots of money and time to make free software look as good as proprietary software. Please note I said "look", not "work". If everyone were more eager to learn how and why things work, and stop counting the beans, this wouldn't be an issue. That's what I meant by economic and social revolution. It hasn't happened since civilization began, so I'll give it a couple more years.
OpenGL:
*I* think it's better too. Then again *I* code in C and script in Perl, instead of Java and PHP. Once again it comes down to people taking the time to learn how and why things work.
WINE and mplayer:
Both excellent software packages. Both dependent on proprietary/binary code and the X86 platform. OK, actually small parts of mplayer depend on proprietery X86 code, but they are important codecs. Both are at more risk than I care to get involved with because of technically-illegal EULAs, the DMCA, and mandatory software updates. If Microsoft/Macromedia/Apple/Real wants to crush these projects, the work required on their end becomes less and less with every passing day.
Time:
Einstein covered this: it's relative. Sure you can use a computer from 1405 if you want, but you'll have to run Minix, and forget about X! I'll bet you can even get hx to compile! Seriously though, I've been using Macs since 1984 (ocassionally having to fight off a case of zealotry), but I believe Linux has endured the so-called "test of time" far better than Apple has. Apple has risen and fallen several times, yet Linux *seems* to keep rising, albeit at a slower and steadier pace. Perhaps this is only an illusion since I can't watch a bar graph of Debian's stock value, but perhaps not, since RedHat's (*cough*corporate scum*cough*) always seems to be going up.
*RedHat and Ximian employees: I'm just fooling. Thank you for all your hard work and contributions!
...and by that time Quark will have finally released a version of QuarkXPress that doesn't corrupt files in the OS X Classic environment. Boy will they be pissed to find out the creative professional OS of choice has changed *again*!
Seriously, (actually that first paragraph was half-serious), has everyone forgotten that every six months (since 1986!) Ziff-Davis predicts that Apple will be brankrupt by the end of the year? Clearly, they know what they are talking about.
Only just recently they have started claiming that Linux will take over the desktop; which, as a Linux advocate, I think is just silly. Then again I'm just a programmer, not a journalist. At least they have finally realized that it won't *ever* have a larger desktop user base than Windows. I don't ever expect them to realize that open source simply cannot tackle proprietery software until we have some sort of major economic and social revolution.
Without support for mainstream media (WiMP, QT, Flash 6, Real), Microsoft Office, and DirectX (negotiable, but witness how many games use the "industry standard" OpenGL), Linux can't even get a seat to watch the game, let alone actually play. Sure WINE is an incredible and useful hack, but it'll be another 2 years at least until setup and compatibility are useful to semi-computer-literate folk, forget about grandma. By the time WINE is ready for the mainstream, Microsoft will make sure it is illegal, at least in the US. Cleanroom reverse-engineering is only semi-legal now, thanks to the DMCA. Even if WINE is legal at that point, it would in and of itself remain a reason to develop only for Windows.
Every OS has its place... and its zealots. Linux and OS X are fantastic in their dedicated niches. Windows XP, as much as I hate to admit it, is a fairly versatile and well-rounded OS. It blows my mind to see free-software supporters drooling over some huge publishing corporation *speculating* that a free software product *might* gain market share. What market? It's free, so there's no market, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. What are the bean counters counting? Some people sound like they are just itching to sell out. Hint: the moment you sell out, you eliminate your most sought-after advantages.
I know this is Slashdot, but can we please try to be realistic? The computer indutry is and always will be extremely volatile, but Microsoft, Apple, and Linux have endured the test of time. They are here to stay, all for different reasons. They all take repeated beatings that would demoralize and sink many other companies/organisations/communities. Just use what you like/need, or any combination thereof.
(No, I'm not new here. Yes, I have a Linux box in my closet. Yes, my cable modem router is a Linux box too. Yes, they both run Debian. Yes, I will miss boot-floppies. Yes, the box on my desktop runs OS X. Yes, I use Windows Evil License Edition too, but only at work. No, I never clicked 'Agree', although yes, I clicked 'Submit'.)
What the fuck? The original poster did not mention child porn, yet you mention it three times in your response! Do you have a lot of child porn? Are you upset because you cannot find child porn by going through other people's trash?
The guy's point is that when a garbage can is sitting on the side of the road, anyone can put garbage in it, whether that garbage happens to be a tissue, a dead body, or your beloved child porn.
I don't see what this has to do with child porn, which a dedicated child pornographer would probably not dispose of, and even if they did, they probably wouldn't throw it in someone else's trash with their real name and/or address still on it.
I repeat: What the fuck?
The person who owns the trash can (my trash cans are bought and paid for, not on loan from the independent carting company that my town pays to take my trash, thank you very much) should not be held legally responsible for what happens to be in it when a law enforcement officer decides to go through it.
Scary? Only if you put the trash out regularly! This means that anyone can dump something illegal in your trash and call the cops. Do you think the cops would rather jump to the obvious conclusion or spend a week having forensics look at it? Oh sure, they'll try option two, but not until after they've done $25000 worth of damage to your home.
Dear MAVAV:
Please put your "articles" back online! Brutally assault your "editors" with a semi-automatic combination machine gun/rocket launcher/sword/flame thrower/child-molesting catholic priest if you have to! Don't worry, they'll be fine, it's just a video game!
Anyway, good luck getting the "articles" back online! Please hurry, I need a good laugh!
Cheers,
Mike
PS. Couldn't you have chosen a better acronym? Or, hell, a more worthy cause? MAVAV reminds me of the sound a democrat makes when he gets shot in the face by some buffed-up videogame superhero.
Leave it to Microsoft to "extend" the concept of a home directory.
/Applications, /Network/Applications, and /Developer/Applications.
Leave it to Slashdotters to "extend" Microsoft-bashing into realms in which it has no business. ~/Applications is one of OS X's standard application directories, as well as
Uh...Taco and Hemos sold out *long* before they go top-of-the-line-last-tear TiBooks. If you don't like the Apple topic, remove Apple from your list of displayed topics. Better yet, don't visit apple.slashdot.org, since this story was *only* posted there.
Please mod the parent up, even if only for linking to the Scientific American article. I found it absolutely fascinating to read that there is an "instinct" at work that enables humans to evaluate and respond quickly to an immediate threat, and television is actually "abusing" this instinct by keeping us in a false "evaluation" state. No wonder we feel so disappointed when we finally turn the damn thing off and there is no threat to react to anymore.
Competition by looking at your "competitor's" code and using what you've learned in your own product? I think the term you are looking for is "cooperation".
No, it really doesn't make sense. If you discriminate against someone simply because they discriminated against you, it doesn't matter who did it first, you are both discriminating. If you choose to love all people without discriminating, you cannot exclude people just because they don't love you back.
I think this license is a nice idea but completely unenforceable. Even if it were, don't you think it would be kind of a secondary (er, tertiary) concern? I mean c'mon: "Hey! Stop raping 4 year-old girls! Stop using slave labour! Oh, and by the way, we are revoking your license to play Ogg files."
Except that EQ for PocketPC is single player only.
I know we aren't supposed to read the article, but I figured this would be funny, so I... clicked the link! Imagine my (lack of) surprise when the article was displayed on my screen! This is my work machine, I just wiped the cookies yesterday, and I do not subscribe to WSJ Online. The only cookie on it is my /. login. What gives? Was the link changed or you people can't even be bothered with an extra click?
You are wrong. My Debian box grabs any patches from security.debian.org every 12 hours, all by itself, and it only has to actually update something on average once a month. How much time does this take me? Other than a few seconds to read the e-mail notification it sends me when it does update something, none at all.
Can you say "memory leak"?
On the other hand, what if the window where spawned invisibly, and closed after 5 seconds? That should be enough to convince these idiots that you have read, and fully understand, how to spy on your nextdoor neighbor having sex with a cool miniature X10 camera.
You are absolutely correct, but I think you are missing the point. Copying digital content will always be (relatively) easy for the tech-savvy.
Joe Schmo, on the other hand, will get pretty fed up with having downloaded the latest Harry Potter flick, only to discover that for the seventh time, he has downloaded an old bootleg filmed with a tripod with an audio track that sounds worse than AM radio and doesn't stay in synch with the video.
I fail to see where I mentioned games, but you bring up another good point. With DVD/PVR becoming more commonplace (OK, PVR is a stretch), who is to stop them from automating "software updates" in the interest of "security"? Granted, this would require an internet connection, but whose to stop them from making deal with cell phone companies? Mod chip your DVD player and you void your "service contract".
On second thought, maybe we should stop discussing this.
This new "protectable" format already exists. It is called DVD. Sure, it isn't "unbreakable" now, nor will it ever be, but...
How many Joe Schmo consumers do you know who have mod-chipped their set-top DVD players with DeCCS? How many people can use "backup" copies of their X-Box games without being kicked off the X-Box live service? How easy and realiable is it (even for us 1337 slashdotters) to get full-length DVD-quality video rips off P2P services? Is this worth your time?
We are reaching the point of dimishing returns, and "they have the technology".
Of course the programmers developing the technology know it will be hacked. The problem is, if they tell management that building a hackproof copy protection scheme is impossible, they might not have a job. "Find someone who doesn't think it's impossible!"
Don't you slashdotters understand yet? The music indsutry is trying to obsolete CDs as quickly as possible so that a more "protectable" format can be produced.
Why has IBM not yet taken a keen interest in *BSD?
They sent you a "nasty" bill? How was it nasty? Did it include a threatening letter? Were the rates exorbitant? Did you pay it? If it was my charge, there was no discussion of payment beforehand, no written or verbal agreement, and I recieved a "nasty" bill, there is no way I would pay for it. Regardless of how nice the guy was when he did his work. On the other hand, if the situation were the same, and bill was just a professional invoice for services rendered, chance are the contractor/consultant would get paid, although they might not be called back again.
You should always cover your ass. Make sure people know your rates up front. And remember, in business, it never pays to be a just a nice guy. Sure, people like it when you're nice, but if you don't stand up for yourself all the time, you will get stomped on.
Damn. +3 funny? I was being totally serious. I should have left out the exclamation point.
I totally agree. I've been searching desperately for reruns of DS9 ever since it went off the air, and just haven't been able to find them (on television). Most people claim that DS9 was a bad ripoff of B5, and I tend to agree, except for the "bad" part. I thought it was well written, fairly well acted ripoff, with much better special effects. I do wish there were equivalent cast members for Leeta and Talya [sic?] on DS9 though.
I loved TNG as a kid, but now I watch it and wonder what I was thinking. People in tights standing in a room talking about "issues" while the camera gets shaken every now and then. Nowadays I just feel bad for Patrick Stewart for having to put up with the whole concept (having experienced several of his performances off-broadway).
I always thought Voyager was a joke. How couldn't it be? First ever (televised, on a Trek) female starship captain. Pilot episode: she gets her crew hopelessly lost and spends the rest of the series trying to find her way back. To add insult to injury, how many times was the Enterprise and its experienced, battle-hardened crew completely destroyed by a broken, underpowered, 20-year old stolen Klingon ship, or a subspace anomaly? Yet Voyager (and its ragtag, fresh-from-the-womb crew) were indestructible, even to the Borg and Species 8579 (or whatever)! Too bad there was never a punchline.
Of course I like TOS, but after you've seen every episode 700 times, it gets hard to watch. Although I still try to watch it now and then just to support "space-oriented" shows on the SciFi channel.
Enterprise? Uhm. Right. WTF? Does _anyone_ enjoy that PC drivel?
As for DS9, does anyone remember the grand finale? I would pay full DVD price just for that. The space battle at the end was absolutely the best I've seen on a TV show to date.
I personally can't wait. I rarely buy DVDs, but DS9 and B5 are "must haves" in my book.
It's not bugzilla, but it's here. Requires at least a free ADC membership.
Besides, if Microsoft did administer a public bug database, they would have to run it on some form of *NIX. Windows doesn't support enough processors!