1. The understanding that Redhat has the above
2. The understanding that, after installing Redhat, your computer will be fast and crash-free
3. The latest games
If the distro had:
-an MSword clone (and plug and play printer support)
-a p2p app
-a CD/DVD player
-a CD burning app
-a browser
-an email client
if all these things had an icon on the desktop that they could just double-click and use; if all of these things had a decent UI so you could use them without having to learn how; if game developers started making the latest games available on linux; and if, and this is the most important if, if people understood that switching to linux would mean that their 1.8 ghz pentium 4 which right now runs like a 386 because it's so smothered in adware, spyware, and conflicting whatevers, would actually run as fast as it should AND it wouldn't crash 3 times a day; they would switch in a second.
If at any point they have to type "make," or even look at a CLI, forget about it.
You need a cover sheet on your TPS reports!!!
on
Superbowl XXXVII
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Terry Tate: Office Linebacker
Classic. Worth watching the whole game just for that commercial.
I dunno, it seems like a hack. The inefficiency of copyright law comes not from their length or method of execution, but from the fact that a copyright is transferrable. If the copyright died with the author, our public domain would much richer. If record labels weren't able to force artists to sign away the rights to their songs, a lot more artists would actually see the fruits of their labor. The constitution says "securing for limited times to authors and inventors." It says nothing about letting anyone else but the original author have control over his work. In fact, I would argue that it's unconstitutional that Michael Jackson is allowed to own the rights to Beatles songs.
I really believe that if we simply stuck to the constitution and secured for limited times (it could even be their lifetime) to authors and inventers, and only authors and inventors ("authors" can include musicians, painters, etc.) the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries, 99% of our problems with copyright would disappear.
But wouldn't that introduce a danger that someone might murder an author so that their work will fall into the public domain? As doubtful as this is, it can be prevented by making the copyright last until the original author's 80th birthday, be he dead or alive. This would also allow him to continue to support his family even in the event of his untimely death.
"the Congress shall have power...to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
Everyone argues about how long the "limited times" should last. And all the arguments have totally missed the point. They all come from the standpoint of "I want to do something with this old work-- it should be public domain so I can," or "I want to keep making money off of this old work-- it should stay copyrighted so I can."
The phrase we need to be concerned with is "promote the progress of science and useful arts." The government should appoint a team of unbiased experts to study the benefits and downfalls of differing lengths and mechanisms of copyright, come to a final conclusion about what would most "promote the progress of science and useful arts," and go with that.
but even I can tell that I have been desensitized to violence to some degree.
Have you now? When was the last time you saw someone get shot?
I guarantee you, if you see someone get shot or beaten, or even do it yourself, you'll feel the same way about it as if you never played video games. Have you even got in a fight recently? Doubtful.
Bruce Springsteen recorded "Nebraska" by himself on a 4-track. If you figure $1000 for the 4-track and $500 for the guitar, you've got a professional album right there for $1500. I'll assume you don't want to figure in time spent practicing the guitar or money spent on lessons. But what about the actual CD? Do you have a computer (if not, add $1500 for say, an iMac and Digidesign's mBox (and if you like, forget the 4-track altogether))? Well, you can burn 1 for a quarter. Or you can get 1000 professionally duplicated for $1000. Or you can get a bazillion duplicated for a quarter-bazillion dollars. But you want to record in a professional studio? $50 an hour then, $100 an hour, whatever you want. Add an orchestra ala Metallica? What's that, $1000 an hour? Studio musicians? Take a wild guess. You'll find someone who works at that rate.
And then there's the marketing. Just put up some flyers. It's free. Want something more effective? Buy a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live. Or negotiate a spot on the Tonight Show. Or something in between.
And don't forget to pay the independent promoters to do their payola thing with the radio stations. Don't want to get involved with those goombas? That's okay. You've still got your album. Just don't expect it to get radio play.
How much does it cost to produce an album? However much you want.
I don't see how that's possible. That means 25 songs an hour, which is like a song every two minutes. Assuming you've got a broadband connection with the bandwidth to download a song in 2 minutes, how do you go about finding someone else willing to serve it at that rate, every two minutes? And on top of that, wading through all the corrupted (some by RIAA) songs and dealing with servers that crap out, not to mention staying up all night (can you put 200 songs in your queue? will they all download?). I just don't see how it's possible. They might as well just say he was downloading a gajillion songs a day.
I wonder if things like this make people afraid to download songs from legal sources, like my own site. And what about things like Emuisc? Do they assume every mp3 is illegally gotten?
I mean that they won't be making their money off of other people's work for much longer. If success to you is making your living by taking advantage of other people's talent, well, good for you. You apparently have lots of company.
Like they would care even if they did. No, that post was to the/. crowd, and you can call me on it when I get into a position of influence in the music industry.
You can keep me from teaching and singing songs to people by cutting my throat. Failing that, stay the fuck out of my way.
Music is an Art form, not a business. It comes from and belongs to the people. Your greed is one step less than that of the money-changers that Christ threw out of the temple. I am not alone. Our numbers are growing. Enjoy your yachts and cocaine now, because we have you in our sights and mark my words, we will take you down.
I totally agree. The problem with Science Fiction is that the writer is so concerned with fantasy that there's no room for plain old good writing. Same reason you don't see Van Gogh painting dragons, and you don't see Boris Vallejo in museums. (of course, you can't discount the pre-raphaelites, but I digress...)
Go to a bookstore or library and read Hemingway's short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." I swear it'll get you hooked on Ernie for life. Even if it doesn't, I guarantee you won't consider your time wasted. After that, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is about as perfect a book as you can get. Action, adventure, romance, war, death, happiness, a little comedy... a masterpiece.
I read Neverwhere. Meh. It was like a lesser Michael Crichton book. His Sandman series, however, is some of the best writing of any genre. It starts getting really good around the "Season of Mists" story arc, and by the end of the series, you're cursing Gaiman for ending it. But oh! What an ending!
Also, his short storys "Troll Bridge" and "Murder Mysteries" are absolutely wonderful.
Weird. At the Apple store around here, it's been packed (well not packed, but has as many customers as the average mall store) every time I've been in there. And every time I've bought something (2 or 3 times), I've had to wait in line while someone else was buying a system.
Game interfaces are cool and whatnot, but wouldn't it be cool if I could bike around a city and my laptop got charged as I looked for warchalked areas? Anyone know of any R&D going into that?
That's a great idea! I'd think about getting into EQ if the only characters with horses were the people who bought some contraption they could hook up to their exercise bike. And it would be perfect if your horse's speed was directly related to how fast you pedaled!
Some time ago, my roommate bought a couple small bottles of this oil, thinking it was the kind you dip bread in. I didn't see why it wouldn't be; it sure smelled good.
Interesting. But for me, most of the stress was from dragging stuff all around in Photoshop and Illustrator, and positioning it in exactly the right spot. Interestingly, sometimes I'd get a sore wrist and take a break and play some Quake. It actually made my wrist feel a little better! I'm guessing the quick movements + no dragging were helpful somehow.
If your problem is not with the keyboard, but with the mouse, an easy solution that cuts your pain in half is to simply learn to mouse with your off-hand. It's so obvious, it's easy to overlook. That way, when one starts to hurt, just switch over. Of course, this is irrelevant to typists.
Also, guitarists have had this problem sinch before keyboards were invented. Stretches for the guitarist are equally useful to the computer scientist.
A whole season of The Simpsons (22 episodes) is $40. The complete Cowboy Bebop (26 episodes) is $100. Escaflowne (or the first season of Farscape for that matter) is $150. Okay, you win--I won't watch your goddamn show.
Obviously, any anime/sci-fi fan is freakishly addicted and will buy a DVD at any cost. No need to price our shows low enough to be attractive to the casual buyer. We have no faith in our product. Suck them dry, dammit!
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah but it's missing 3 important things:
1. The understanding that Redhat has the above
2. The understanding that, after installing Redhat, your computer will be fast and crash-free
3. The latest games
Until we have all this, people won't migrate.
If the distro had:
-an MSword clone (and plug and play printer support)
-a p2p app
-a CD/DVD player
-a CD burning app
-a browser
-an email client
if all these things had an icon on the desktop that they could just double-click and use; if all of these things had a decent UI so you could use them without having to learn how; if game developers started making the latest games available on linux; and if, and this is the most important if, if people understood that switching to linux would mean that their 1.8 ghz pentium 4 which right now runs like a 386 because it's so smothered in adware, spyware, and conflicting whatevers, would actually run as fast as it should AND it wouldn't crash 3 times a day; they would switch in a second.
If at any point they have to type "make," or even look at a CLI, forget about it.
Terry Tate: Office Linebacker
Classic. Worth watching the whole game just for that commercial.
I dunno, it seems like a hack. The inefficiency of copyright law comes not from their length or method of execution, but from the fact that a copyright is transferrable. If the copyright died with the author, our public domain would much richer. If record labels weren't able to force artists to sign away the rights to their songs, a lot more artists would actually see the fruits of their labor. The constitution says "securing for limited times to authors and inventors." It says nothing about letting anyone else but the original author have control over his work. In fact, I would argue that it's unconstitutional that Michael Jackson is allowed to own the rights to Beatles songs.
I really believe that if we simply stuck to the constitution and secured for limited times (it could even be their lifetime) to authors and inventers, and only authors and inventors ("authors" can include musicians, painters, etc.) the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries, 99% of our problems with copyright would disappear.
But wouldn't that introduce a danger that someone might murder an author so that their work will fall into the public domain? As doubtful as this is, it can be prevented by making the copyright last until the original author's 80th birthday, be he dead or alive. This would also allow him to continue to support his family even in the event of his untimely death.
"the Congress shall have power...to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
Everyone argues about how long the "limited times" should last. And all the arguments have totally missed the point. They all come from the standpoint of "I want to do something with this old work-- it should be public domain so I can," or "I want to keep making money off of this old work-- it should stay copyrighted so I can."
The phrase we need to be concerned with is "promote the progress of science and useful arts." The government should appoint a team of unbiased experts to study the benefits and downfalls of differing lengths and mechanisms of copyright, come to a final conclusion about what would most "promote the progress of science and useful arts," and go with that.
I read it as:
crYOgenically freeze yoUR body bEfore mArch second. we will amalgaMate OR destroy all nOn-frozeN life then.
.27 gigs is crop circle pictures. The rest is alien pr0n.
Just like those tree-dwelling elephants.
but even I can tell that I have been desensitized to violence to some degree.
Have you now? When was the last time you saw someone get shot?
I guarantee you, if you see someone get shot or beaten, or even do it yourself, you'll feel the same way about it as if you never played video games. Have you even got in a fight recently? Doubtful.
Bruce Springsteen recorded "Nebraska" by himself on a 4-track. If you figure $1000 for the 4-track and $500 for the guitar, you've got a professional album right there for $1500. I'll assume you don't want to figure in time spent practicing the guitar or money spent on lessons. But what about the actual CD? Do you have a computer (if not, add $1500 for say, an iMac and Digidesign's mBox (and if you like, forget the 4-track altogether))? Well, you can burn 1 for a quarter. Or you can get 1000 professionally duplicated for $1000. Or you can get a bazillion duplicated for a quarter-bazillion dollars. But you want to record in a professional studio? $50 an hour then, $100 an hour, whatever you want. Add an orchestra ala Metallica? What's that, $1000 an hour? Studio musicians? Take a wild guess. You'll find someone who works at that rate.
And then there's the marketing. Just put up some flyers. It's free. Want something more effective? Buy a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live. Or negotiate a spot on the Tonight Show. Or something in between.
And don't forget to pay the independent promoters to do their payola thing with the radio stations. Don't want to get involved with those goombas? That's okay. You've still got your album. Just don't expect it to get radio play.
How much does it cost to produce an album? However much you want.
I don't see how that's possible. That means 25 songs an hour, which is like a song every two minutes. Assuming you've got a broadband connection with the bandwidth to download a song in 2 minutes, how do you go about finding someone else willing to serve it at that rate, every two minutes? And on top of that, wading through all the corrupted (some by RIAA) songs and dealing with servers that crap out, not to mention staying up all night (can you put 200 songs in your queue? will they all download?). I just don't see how it's possible. They might as well just say he was downloading a gajillion songs a day.
I wonder if things like this make people afraid to download songs from legal sources, like my own site. And what about things like Emuisc? Do they assume every mp3 is illegally gotten?
I mean that they won't be making their money off of other people's work for much longer. If success to you is making your living by taking advantage of other people's talent, well, good for you. You apparently have lots of company.
Like they would care even if they did. No, that post was to the /. crowd, and you can call me on it when I get into a position of influence in the music industry.
You can keep me from teaching and singing songs to people by cutting my throat. Failing that, stay the fuck out of my way.
Music is an Art form, not a business. It comes from and belongs to the people. Your greed is one step less than that of the money-changers that Christ threw out of the temple. I am not alone. Our numbers are growing. Enjoy your yachts and cocaine now, because we have you in our sights and mark my words, we will take you down.
I totally agree. The problem with Science Fiction is that the writer is so concerned with fantasy that there's no room for plain old good writing. Same reason you don't see Van Gogh painting dragons, and you don't see Boris Vallejo in museums. (of course, you can't discount the pre-raphaelites, but I digress...)
Go to a bookstore or library and read Hemingway's short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." I swear it'll get you hooked on Ernie for life. Even if it doesn't, I guarantee you won't consider your time wasted. After that, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is about as perfect a book as you can get. Action, adventure, romance, war, death, happiness, a little comedy... a masterpiece.
I read Neverwhere. Meh. It was like a lesser Michael Crichton book. His Sandman series, however, is some of the best writing of any genre. It starts getting really good around the "Season of Mists" story arc, and by the end of the series, you're cursing Gaiman for ending it. But oh! What an ending!
Also, his short storys "Troll Bridge" and "Murder Mysteries" are absolutely wonderful.
Weird. At the Apple store around here, it's been packed (well not packed, but has as many customers as the average mall store) every time I've been in there. And every time I've bought something (2 or 3 times), I've had to wait in line while someone else was buying a system.
I was reading literature in America, and it was like, bleep beep ka-ching, and then, like, half the public domain was gone.
And I was like, euh?
There was some rillygood stuff about to go in it.
And then poor people could only read stuff by hippie writers who didn't copyright their works, so it wasn't as good.
It kind of, a bummer.
Game interfaces are cool and whatnot, but wouldn't it be cool if I could bike around a city and my laptop got charged as I looked for warchalked areas? Anyone know of any R&D going into that?
That's a great idea! I'd think about getting into EQ if the only characters with horses were the people who bought some contraption they could hook up to their exercise bike. And it would be perfect if your horse's speed was directly related to how fast you pedaled!
Some time ago, my roommate bought a couple small bottles of this oil, thinking it was the kind you dip bread in. I didn't see why it wouldn't be; it sure smelled good.
Yuck.
Interesting. But for me, most of the stress was from dragging stuff all around in Photoshop and Illustrator, and positioning it in exactly the right spot. Interestingly, sometimes I'd get a sore wrist and take a break and play some Quake. It actually made my wrist feel a little better! I'm guessing the quick movements + no dragging were helpful somehow.
Very informative; thanks. Let me add to it:
If your problem is not with the keyboard, but with the mouse, an easy solution that cuts your pain in half is to simply learn to mouse with your off-hand. It's so obvious, it's easy to overlook. That way, when one starts to hurt, just switch over. Of course, this is irrelevant to typists.
Also, guitarists have had this problem sinch before keyboards were invented. Stretches for the guitarist are equally useful to the computer scientist.
IN SOVIET RUSSIA!
apologies for extending this lame bit...
A whole season of The Simpsons (22 episodes) is $40. The complete Cowboy Bebop (26 episodes) is $100. Escaflowne (or the first season of Farscape for that matter) is $150. Okay, you win--I won't watch your goddamn show.
Obviously, any anime/sci-fi fan is freakishly addicted and will buy a DVD at any cost. No need to price our shows low enough to be attractive to the casual buyer. We have no faith in our product. Suck them dry, dammit!