They're in Antec's P180. Power supply and hard drives isolated from the rest of the components (save for the necessary cables) in their own air flow, located at the bottom of the system (away from the processor and videocard) with a 120mm, three speed fan mounted in between the drives and PSU, blowing on the PSU (and also sucking air into the case over the drives).
Two 120mm fans mounted at the upper rear of the case (one on the top, one on the rear panel) blowing the hot air out quickly from around the video card and cpu/heatsink. Space to allow more 120mm fans at the front, to assist with air intake (if desired).
Really? Because in the brief time I had Win2k installed on my new system (and I've had the Win2k disc since shortly after I bought my previous system some ~6 years ago, it's pre service packs) and it partitioned and installed on my SATA drive.
Now, it only reccognized about 130 gigs of the 250, which is one of the reasons why I dumped it. I had the same trouble with my XP (pre-sp1) disc.
Of course, I still had to boot up my old system to download the drivers for my nforce motherboard so I could get it online and listen to my music (the driver disc that came with the board went temporarily missing).
In Linux (Kubuntu). It all worked out of the box. The only finicky thing I had to do was manually install the nvidia drivers for my card (their installer wouldn't work with X running and I couldn't keep X from restarting anytime I killed it, so I just did it the old-fashioned way).
[quote]While any monkey can use a firearm,...[/quote]
Right, I'd like to see you hump your rifle for days on end to your target, figure out where the best kill/escape location to shoot from would be, stay in that position moving as little as possible (including avoiding drinking water or releiving yourself) to avoid detection (which could include an enemy patrol passing as close as 5 meters from you) all to try to kill one person with one shot, and then get your ass out of there before your captured or killed.
Being a sniper is much more than being a good shot. A sniper must make use of many simmilar tactics as a ninja, incliding camoflauge and concealment, stealthly aproaching a target, avoiding the enemy, and being able to live off the land for days or weeks. Stealth is key to a snipers survival.
Sniper school is easily one of the hardest schools the military (any military) has to offer.
As far as a smoke screen, I believe he was referring to the hype that ninja have, and not an actual gas grenade.
How many music retail stores would allow you to return it? Not any that I've come across. Their excuse is, is if they allow people to bring back open CD's and DVD's, people will just take them, copy them and bring them back. Hell, you could do it now, all you need is some shrinkwrap plastic (like the stuff you use to seal up windows in the winter), a vaccuum sealer (as available in the small kitchen appliance section of your preferred Wall/K/S-mart) and a hair dryer (if you live with a woman, you've got one). Wrap the plastic around the case, use the hear wire on the vaccuum sealer to trim it to size and then blowdry it tight. Grab your recepit and get your refund.
Hell, you don't even have to put the disc back in (or put in a blank), they don't check it unless someone wants to preview that disc.
Anyways, I got a little off-topic. Back to the returns. Hell, with the whole DualDisc bullshit, you could legally buy the disc, take it home and play it in your standalone cd player, and it could still not work. The "CD" portion of the disc isn't even an actual audio cd. They even put a warning on it saying it might not work in every player (of course, it's small, out of the way and not noticable unless you're looking for it). There isn't a list of DualDisc incompatable players anywhere I've looked, and definately not on any official page, so it's a craps shoot as to whether you just spent $20 on a coaster. HMV might have given you your money back, if you complained high enough. I can't tell you the amount of times the store I work at (yes, I work at an HMV) had our head office call to tell us to give Customer X their money back.
It's a pain in the ass for both. For the employees, because they're being overruled and made to look like idiots when they're just following standard procedures, and for the customer because a customer could legitimately buy an album and it won't work on their player by design.
You had a great idea there, whenever people come across albums like this, they should complain to the artists, and let them know why they lost a sale.
When I bought my copy of SYstem Shock 2 on ebay a year ago, it took me all of 15 minutes from "Hey, I wonder if I could find that game on ebay" to clicking the buy it now button. $10 including shipping and it was in my hands a week later. I still play it regularily.
Freespace 2 was even easier, I actually found it in a used game/movie store for $5.
I can easily say that those two are my favourite games I have ever played.
Maybe he didn't have a direct hand in iTMS, but where was the company headed during his absence? He rejoined Apple and revitalized the company with the iMac. An inexpensive, easy to setup and operate computer for those who don't like computers. Then they brought out the iPod. No it wasn't the first hard drive portable mp3 player out there, but pretty much since, it's been the first one that comes to mind for most people when they think of an mp3 player.
iTunes is also the most popular digital song file online store. I'm pretty sure that it's share is greater than all the rest combined (with a little help from it's integration with the iPod).
He wasn't directly involved, but do you think Apple could have done all this without him leading the company?
No, he means Intel. What I gather he's getting at is AMD wants developers to code their programs to work better on AMD systems, but Intel systems will still run it without trouble. Intel may not run it as smoothly/quickly, but it will be stable and functional.
A positive experience for the end user is the goal, AMD would prefer AMD chips provide that experience, but they don't want anyone to suffer if they use Intel.
You see it with ATI and Nvidia. Some games have a "Designed to run with ATI" but they'll still run great with an Nvidia card, and some have "Designed for NVidia/GeForce", but will still run great with ATI.
[quote]Apple will *not* be putting OS X on a PC ever, it kills the whole image and that's why they are successful.[/quote]
Right, and Apple also said they'd never go to the "inferior" x86 architecture, either. Always touting the superiority of the G4/G5's, eh? Now look at what they're using.
That being said, I'm going to get a Mac for my next system, after I finish building my athalon 64 system.
Who's that book written by? I'd like to check it out. Since you have read the book, maybe you can answer this for me.
How, exactly, does adding more programmers to a project make it take longer? By that logic, couldn't you say that one programmer be able to finish the same project faster than any group.
Or that could also be applied to computers themselves. How many people have dual processor or dual-core processor systems? Why did you get them? Because they perform better (on the whole) than a simmilarily equipped single core/processor system, right?
Well, it's the same thing with people, 2 people can get more work done than 1 person, as person 1 can do one thing while person 2 can do another task. It might not be twice as much work (depending on how fast they work and if person 2's work require person 1 to finish before 2 can get started, etc.).
Of course, I haven't read the book, so it probably explains all this.
I guess it depends, as you said, on the type of data the file contains, and what purpose it serves. However, isn't manually deleting information like credit card numbers and other sensitive information yourself part of proper/secure browsing techniques?
[quote]Unfortunately, I can't. I'm better off going to NVidia and trusting their product sheets. Why? Because I'm not looking to play Need for Speed Most Wanted or Quake Four or Half Life Two, I'm looking to do some actual graphics processing with an SLI setup. Yes, brace yourselves, I don't actually use these beasts for gaming. [/quote]
Really? Wow? But you should "brace yourself" as well, as I would guess that 99% of people who are interested in this new product are gamers. Not to mention that, from my limited contact with the manufacturers, their main concern is how these product perform in gaming situations, as that is their largest customer base, and how they make the money on these cards.
That is why most, if not all, of the reviews center around gaming.
You can't compare simplicity and ease of use between a full blown PC and an Xbox360. The Xbox is there to play games, and nothing else. It's entirely designed to operate via putting a disc in and using the small controllers (and a remote(?) for DVD funtions).
Your standard home computer, in addition to everything the Xbox does, has hundreds, if not thousands of more uses. Thousands of more programs, many different Operating Systems, and that's just software. Then you have the various hardware you can use, or the hundreds of designer cases (or make your own). You can build a computer to the size of a Mac Mini, or you can have it in a 2.5 foot high * 3 foot deep * 3/4 foot wide case with three optical drives, a front panel audio interface (or cooler control, or remote control interface or whatever) and a 7 in 1 memory card reader.
In the end, what you find simple and easy to use may be anothers agrivating and annoying. It's all what you want out of it, and PC's have so many more options for those who know how to configure them (or know what they want and know someone who can configure it for them).
[quote]First impressions last a very long time, and you want the first impression to be a good one. You want people to believe that they can achieve something interesting.[/quote]
What do you think would make a better impression, them making a program via a few buttons in some fancy IDE, or them making the same programs out of some keystrokes, a text file and a compiler?
[qutoe]Coding everything by hand does not mean you understand the basics.[/quote]
No, it doesn't. However, many people figure out what code to put in there by reading tutorials and books which generally give a piece by piece explanation of the code. That will help the programmer/student a better chance of understanding the basics than they would have with just pressing buttons and the like.
I can tell you of my own experience with VB and C. In highschool the computer class I taught had us doing some basic crap (and it was crap) in VB4/5 (we upgraded mid-semester). I learned nothing (partially because our "computer" teacher was an English teacher with little programming experience).
Now, fast forward a couple years of disinterest in programming. I find a discounted C book at the library during one of their unused book sale, rummage through the first little bit and create a few small programs on my own with nothing more than VIm and gcc.
When it came to VB, I felt no connection to actuall programming. I felt like I was creating a word document. With C, I felt like I was actually doing something.
Of course, I'm still inept at it, but that's mainly due to a lack of time to be able to devote to it.
[quote]Or it will cause extreme boredom and frusteration. Not necessarily, but quite possibly.[/quote]
Shouldn't someone who's really interested in becoming a programmer be able to make it interesting for themselves (or find someone who knows what they're doing to help them)? Do you really want people to think programming is simple, or would you rather have people experience the real grit of programming to see if they like it or not?
How many here complain about those who create webpages through point-and-click programs like Frontpage? How many say that they should learn to handtype the code in a simple text editor before they go onto more professional tools? It's the same with programming, or with ANYTHING. You must learn the basics before you can get fancy. As you said, you must learn to crawl before you can walk.
The flipside to the statement, "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about," is if you're not doing anything wrong, why are they so interested? Just because you do something out-of-the-ordinary doesn't mean you're importing a nuke. So they wanted to do a large payment on their bill. Maybe they came off better than normal on a trip to the casinos. Or maybe they won a nice prize on a scratch ticket, or sold off some stock.
It's all really a matter of how much "freedom" DHS should be given with regards to "protecting" the freedoms and liberties of the United States. If they have too much power, it is likely lead to a reduction or elimination of the same freedoms, liberties and rights they were created to protect.
[quote]Reread my reply. I said charge (as in surcharge) by byte (kilo, mega, giga, take your pick) for UPSTREAM usage. Like cell phone charges, your first N "minutes" would be free.[/quote]
I did reread your reply, and I still didn't get this out of what you wrote. If you're saying that it would be like cell phones, then SAY IT. People can't read minds. Also, a lot of broadband ISPs have policies like that in effect already. Mine, I technically get 15 gigs of data both ways (split 10 down 5 up) and they charge per gig for additional data transferred. Now, I don't know what they charge per gig as they've never actually charged me (even though I generally go 20+ gigs per month), but they have the "policy" in place and part of the User Agreement.
[quote]As to some of your other complaints, most of the big ISPs don't (for good or bad) let home accounts run websites anyway. And I suspect the profile difference between a worker or student who needs to upload a "large" file and a torrent server is rather significant. Yes, there are "legitimate" uses, but you know, I suspect every computer on the planet ought to be running Linux by now... given the number of "legitimate" distros being downloaded off bittorrent.[/quote]
Most ISP's I know of may say that they don't allow home users to run servers on their systems, but they also don't stop you if you do (as long as you dont go nuts with it). I've run FTP servers, web servers, chat servers, game servers, and a bunch of other crap, and I've never had a problem.
And what you suspect is flawed. A download does not equal installation. I myself have downloaded 15+ distros in the past year. I only have two computers, one dual boots between Debian and Win2k (for games, though it is an old hunk of crap) and the other is my test bed system for trying out different distros and OS. What happens to the other 13? Sitting on a spindle collecting dust.
Of course, that could be balanced out by those who download once, copy it several times and give them to friends/family.
[quote]Who pays retail prices for movies?[/quote]
A lot more than you'd think. Hell I see people pay $40+ (Canadian) for a movie which was $20 a few weeks earlier, just because they're in the store and don't want to waste time hunting for a cheaper price (which would require time, and transportation, both of which cost money, bringing the "cheaper" price closer to the higher price).
[quote]My question to you is why, instead of ranting at me, are you not ranting at the people who think they're entitled to whatever it is they want, without charge or consequence, and who're escalating this thing just as much as the "labels" who simply want to protect their investments. Talk about "the actions of a few" who're spoiling it for everyone else...[/quote]
I'm ranting at you, here, because I disagree with what you've been saying. I rant to the freeloaders elsewhere (work, school, etc.). I'm also ranting at you, here, because from what I've read, you seem to think that the RIAA (and other nation's equivalents) should have their cake (suing 11 year old Timmy for downloading the Spongebob theme) and eat it too (forcing through legislation giving more power to the corporations and taxing/levying law abiding citizens for crimes they didn't commit).
That is wrong, that is not fair, that is not a middle ground. A middle ground would be to have the blank media levy, but make free, unencumbered downloading legal.
Another middle ground would be to not have the levy, have "illegal" downloading still illegal, but don't force those of us who actually buy the music/movies and don't distribute them locked in with unnecessary restrictions that just make our lives more difficult.
As many have said, those who ignore the laws about this will continute to do so, and will always find a way around any restriction put in place, a lot easier and faster than what it took to implement the restriction. It only hurts those who abide by such law (like gun control/registration. The bad guys will still buy them out of the back of vans, where the good guys have to jump through loops and treated like they're going out to kill babies).
Paying ber byte? That would certainly kill broadband internet. Again, you're trying to argue for punishing everyone for the actions of an increasing few (an increase that can be directly attributed to your attempt to increase your control).
There are too many legitimate uses for the internet, BitTorrent and the like to justify charging for data transferred. What about people who run websites off of their systems (legitimate websites)? What about those who need to transfer large files for work or school reasons?
What about those who create their own CDs/movies/programs and wish to distribute them online for free (even if it's just to some family or friends)?
[quote]Odd, because, I can buy a lot of DVDs on sale for $6 at WalMart, and many more for $9.95.[/quote]
Yeah, I've seen those, too. My question is why would you WANT to buy those? Most of them are C-movies at best. Any "decent" film is still $20 or more. A lot of those are probably writeoffs from the suppliers because they couldn't sell at a regular price, so they get written off, and sold for practically pennies.
Shut ebay down because of illegitimate auctions? What's next, shutting down the internet because it helps terrorists build weapons?
No, they can not and will not do that. There is too much of a legitimate userbase for ebay, and too many people around the world (because, as you should know, ebay is available in many countries as a subsite tailored to that specific country, featuring auctions by people in those countries) who use it daily.
Besides, if they did shut it down, another would pop up to take it's place, much like the P2P programs/networks.
Ok, the average cost of a broadband connection is $50, give or take. How much is dialup (it's been about 7 years since I last had it)? I've seen bargain-basement no-name ISP's go as low as $5, but most "decent" dialups were $15+ a month.
Now, you're using a phone line, so any time you're online, you block up your phone, unable to make or receive any calls (and if someone tries to call out, they get an earfull of hiss and disconnect you). Solution? Get a second phone line, at a cost (at my phone co.) of around $20 a month per line. That brings your internet costs up to around $35.
Now, that's $15 less than a broadband connection, but for dialup speeds, having to dial-up and log on (which are succeptable to busy signals and the like). Buy one less coffee a day and you'll save up enough to make the difference. As others have said, once you go broadband, you'll wonder how you'd ever survive on dialup.
Makes what faster? It sure doesn't make my system any faster (quite the opposite, my machine sometimes slows to a crawl, where I can't even listen to music at the same time, and it takes 2-3 minutes to switch applications. Yes, I have an old system).
As far as my internet usage, it's already plenty fast enough. Any increase in browsing/rendering time is minimal at best, in my experience.
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They're in Antec's P180. Power supply and hard drives isolated from the rest of the components (save for the necessary cables) in their own air flow, located at the bottom of the system (away from the processor and videocard) with a 120mm, three speed fan mounted in between the drives and PSU, blowing on the PSU (and also sucking air into the case over the drives).
Two 120mm fans mounted at the upper rear of the case (one on the top, one on the rear panel) blowing the hot air out quickly from around the video card and cpu/heatsink. Space to allow more 120mm fans at the front, to assist with air intake (if desired).
Yeah, I tried that, too.
Since when has dual-booting with NTFS been a problem? I've never had trouble in the 6-ish years that I've had Linux and Win2k.
Reading/Writing NTFS partitions from Linux is another matter.
Really? Because in the brief time I had Win2k installed on my new system (and I've had the Win2k disc since shortly after I bought my previous system some ~6 years ago, it's pre service packs) and it partitioned and installed on my SATA drive.
Now, it only reccognized about 130 gigs of the 250, which is one of the reasons why I dumped it. I had the same trouble with my XP (pre-sp1) disc.
Of course, I still had to boot up my old system to download the drivers for my nforce motherboard so I could get it online and listen to my music (the driver disc that came with the board went temporarily missing).
In Linux (Kubuntu). It all worked out of the box. The only finicky thing I had to do was manually install the nvidia drivers for my card (their installer wouldn't work with X running and I couldn't keep X from restarting anytime I killed it, so I just did it the old-fashioned way).
[quote]While any monkey can use a firearm,...[/quote]
Right, I'd like to see you hump your rifle for days on end to your target, figure out where the best kill/escape location to shoot from would be, stay in that position moving as little as possible (including avoiding drinking water or releiving yourself) to avoid detection (which could include an enemy patrol passing as close as 5 meters from you) all to try to kill one person with one shot, and then get your ass out of there before your captured or killed.
Being a sniper is much more than being a good shot. A sniper must make use of many simmilar tactics as a ninja, incliding camoflauge and concealment, stealthly aproaching a target, avoiding the enemy, and being able to live off the land for days or weeks. Stealth is key to a snipers survival.
Sniper school is easily one of the hardest schools the military (any military) has to offer.
As far as a smoke screen, I believe he was referring to the hype that ninja have, and not an actual gas grenade.
How many music retail stores would allow you to return it? Not any that I've come across. Their excuse is, is if they allow people to bring back open CD's and DVD's, people will just take them, copy them and bring them back. Hell, you could do it now, all you need is some shrinkwrap plastic (like the stuff you use to seal up windows in the winter), a vaccuum sealer (as available in the small kitchen appliance section of your preferred Wall/K/S-mart) and a hair dryer (if you live with a woman, you've got one). Wrap the plastic around the case, use the hear wire on the vaccuum sealer to trim it to size and then blowdry it tight. Grab your recepit and get your refund.
Hell, you don't even have to put the disc back in (or put in a blank), they don't check it unless someone wants to preview that disc.
Anyways, I got a little off-topic. Back to the returns. Hell, with the whole DualDisc bullshit, you could legally buy the disc, take it home and play it in your standalone cd player, and it could still not work. The "CD" portion of the disc isn't even an actual audio cd. They even put a warning on it saying it might not work in every player (of course, it's small, out of the way and not noticable unless you're looking for it). There isn't a list of DualDisc incompatable players anywhere I've looked, and definately not on any official page, so it's a craps shoot as to whether you just spent $20 on a coaster. HMV might have given you your money back, if you complained high enough. I can't tell you the amount of times the store I work at (yes, I work at an HMV) had our head office call to tell us to give Customer X their money back.
It's a pain in the ass for both. For the employees, because they're being overruled and made to look like idiots when they're just following standard procedures, and for the customer because a customer could legitimately buy an album and it won't work on their player by design.
You had a great idea there, whenever people come across albums like this, they should complain to the artists, and let them know why they lost a sale.
When I bought my copy of SYstem Shock 2 on ebay a year ago, it took me all of 15 minutes from "Hey, I wonder if I could find that game on ebay" to clicking the buy it now button. $10 including shipping and it was in my hands a week later. I still play it regularily.
Freespace 2 was even easier, I actually found it in a used game/movie store for $5.
I can easily say that those two are my favourite games I have ever played.
Maybe he didn't have a direct hand in iTMS, but where was the company headed during his absence? He rejoined Apple and revitalized the company with the iMac. An inexpensive, easy to setup and operate computer for those who don't like computers. Then they brought out the iPod. No it wasn't the first hard drive portable mp3 player out there, but pretty much since, it's been the first one that comes to mind for most people when they think of an mp3 player.
iTunes is also the most popular digital song file online store. I'm pretty sure that it's share is greater than all the rest combined (with a little help from it's integration with the iPod).
He wasn't directly involved, but do you think Apple could have done all this without him leading the company?
No, he means Intel. What I gather he's getting at is AMD wants developers to code their programs to work better on AMD systems, but Intel systems will still run it without trouble. Intel may not run it as smoothly/quickly, but it will be stable and functional.
A positive experience for the end user is the goal, AMD would prefer AMD chips provide that experience, but they don't want anyone to suffer if they use Intel.
You see it with ATI and Nvidia. Some games have a "Designed to run with ATI" but they'll still run great with an Nvidia card, and some have "Designed for NVidia/GeForce", but will still run great with ATI.
[quote]Apple will *not* be putting OS X on a PC ever, it kills the whole image and that's why they are successful.[/quote]
Right, and Apple also said they'd never go to the "inferior" x86 architecture, either. Always touting the superiority of the G4/G5's, eh? Now look at what they're using.
That being said, I'm going to get a Mac for my next system, after I finish building my athalon 64 system.
Well, that's Kubuntu, not KDE.
Who's that book written by? I'd like to check it out. Since you have read the book, maybe you can answer this for me.
How, exactly, does adding more programmers to a project make it take longer? By that logic, couldn't you say that one programmer be able to finish the same project faster than any group.
Or that could also be applied to computers themselves. How many people have dual processor or dual-core processor systems? Why did you get them? Because they perform better (on the whole) than a simmilarily equipped single core/processor system, right?
Well, it's the same thing with people, 2 people can get more work done than 1 person, as person 1 can do one thing while person 2 can do another task. It might not be twice as much work (depending on how fast they work and if person 2's work require person 1 to finish before 2 can get started, etc.).
Of course, I haven't read the book, so it probably explains all this.
I guess it depends, as you said, on the type of data the file contains, and what purpose it serves. However, isn't manually deleting information like credit card numbers and other sensitive information yourself part of proper/secure browsing techniques?
[quote]Unfortunately, I can't. I'm better off going to NVidia and trusting their product sheets. Why? Because I'm not looking to play Need for Speed Most Wanted or Quake Four or Half Life Two, I'm looking to do some actual graphics processing with an SLI setup. Yes, brace yourselves, I don't actually use these beasts for gaming. [/quote]
Really? Wow? But you should "brace yourself" as well, as I would guess that 99% of people who are interested in this new product are gamers. Not to mention that, from my limited contact with the manufacturers, their main concern is how these product perform in gaming situations, as that is their largest customer base, and how they make the money on these cards.
That is why most, if not all, of the reviews center around gaming.
You can't compare simplicity and ease of use between a full blown PC and an Xbox360. The Xbox is there to play games, and nothing else. It's entirely designed to operate via putting a disc in and using the small controllers (and a remote(?) for DVD funtions).
Your standard home computer, in addition to everything the Xbox does, has hundreds, if not thousands of more uses. Thousands of more programs, many different Operating Systems, and that's just software. Then you have the various hardware you can use, or the hundreds of designer cases (or make your own). You can build a computer to the size of a Mac Mini, or you can have it in a 2.5 foot high * 3 foot deep * 3/4 foot wide case with three optical drives, a front panel audio interface (or cooler control, or remote control interface or whatever) and a 7 in 1 memory card reader.
In the end, what you find simple and easy to use may be anothers agrivating and annoying. It's all what you want out of it, and PC's have so many more options for those who know how to configure them (or know what they want and know someone who can configure it for them).
[quote]First impressions last a very long time, and you want the first impression to be a good one. You want people to believe that they can achieve something interesting.[/quote]
What do you think would make a better impression, them making a program via a few buttons in some fancy IDE, or them making the same programs out of some keystrokes, a text file and a compiler?
[qutoe]Coding everything by hand does not mean you understand the basics.[/quote]
No, it doesn't. However, many people figure out what code to put in there by reading tutorials and books which generally give a piece by piece explanation of the code. That will help the programmer/student a better chance of understanding the basics than they would have with just pressing buttons and the like.
I can tell you of my own experience with VB and C. In highschool the computer class I taught had us doing some basic crap (and it was crap) in VB4/5 (we upgraded mid-semester). I learned nothing (partially because our "computer" teacher was an English teacher with little programming experience).
Now, fast forward a couple years of disinterest in programming. I find a discounted C book at the library during one of their unused book sale, rummage through the first little bit and create a few small programs on my own with nothing more than VIm and gcc.
When it came to VB, I felt no connection to actuall programming. I felt like I was creating a word document. With C, I felt like I was actually doing something.
Of course, I'm still inept at it, but that's mainly due to a lack of time to be able to devote to it.
[quote]Or it will cause extreme boredom and frusteration. Not necessarily, but quite possibly.[/quote]
Shouldn't someone who's really interested in becoming a programmer be able to make it interesting for themselves (or find someone who knows what they're doing to help them)? Do you really want people to think programming is simple, or would you rather have people experience the real grit of programming to see if they like it or not?
How many here complain about those who create webpages through point-and-click programs like Frontpage? How many say that they should learn to handtype the code in a simple text editor before they go onto more professional tools? It's the same with programming, or with ANYTHING. You must learn the basics before you can get fancy. As you said, you must learn to crawl before you can walk.
The flipside to the statement, "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about," is if you're not doing anything wrong, why are they so interested? Just because you do something out-of-the-ordinary doesn't mean you're importing a nuke. So they wanted to do a large payment on their bill. Maybe they came off better than normal on a trip to the casinos. Or maybe they won a nice prize on a scratch ticket, or sold off some stock.
It's all really a matter of how much "freedom" DHS should be given with regards to "protecting" the freedoms and liberties of the United States. If they have too much power, it is likely lead to a reduction or elimination of the same freedoms, liberties and rights they were created to protect.
[quote]Reread my reply. I said charge (as in surcharge) by byte (kilo, mega, giga, take your pick) for UPSTREAM usage. Like cell phone charges, your first N "minutes" would be free.[/quote]
I did reread your reply, and I still didn't get this out of what you wrote. If you're saying that it would be like cell phones, then SAY IT. People can't read minds. Also, a lot of broadband ISPs have policies like that in effect already. Mine, I technically get 15 gigs of data both ways (split 10 down 5 up) and they charge per gig for additional data transferred. Now, I don't know what they charge per gig as they've never actually charged me (even though I generally go 20+ gigs per month), but they have the "policy" in place and part of the User Agreement.
[quote]As to some of your other complaints, most of the big ISPs don't (for good or bad) let home accounts run websites anyway. And I suspect the profile difference between a worker or student who needs to upload a "large" file and a torrent server is rather significant. Yes, there are "legitimate" uses, but you know, I suspect every computer on the planet ought to be running Linux by now... given the number of "legitimate" distros being downloaded off bittorrent.[/quote]
Most ISP's I know of may say that they don't allow home users to run servers on their systems, but they also don't stop you if you do (as long as you dont go nuts with it). I've run FTP servers, web servers, chat servers, game servers, and a bunch of other crap, and I've never had a problem.
And what you suspect is flawed. A download does not equal installation. I myself have downloaded 15+ distros in the past year. I only have two computers, one dual boots between Debian and Win2k (for games, though it is an old hunk of crap) and the other is my test bed system for trying out different distros and OS. What happens to the other 13? Sitting on a spindle collecting dust.
Of course, that could be balanced out by those who download once, copy it several times and give them to friends/family.
[quote]Who pays retail prices for movies?[/quote]
A lot more than you'd think. Hell I see people pay $40+ (Canadian) for a movie which was $20 a few weeks earlier, just because they're in the store and don't want to waste time hunting for a cheaper price (which would require time, and transportation, both of which cost money, bringing the "cheaper" price closer to the higher price).
[quote]My question to you is why, instead of ranting at me, are you not ranting at the people who think they're entitled to whatever it is they want, without charge or consequence, and who're escalating this thing just as much as the "labels" who simply want to protect their investments. Talk about "the actions of a few" who're spoiling it for everyone else...[/quote]
I'm ranting at you, here, because I disagree with what you've been saying. I rant to the freeloaders elsewhere (work, school, etc.). I'm also ranting at you, here, because from what I've read, you seem to think that the RIAA (and other nation's equivalents) should have their cake (suing 11 year old Timmy for downloading the Spongebob theme) and eat it too (forcing through legislation giving more power to the corporations and taxing/levying law abiding citizens for crimes they didn't commit).
That is wrong, that is not fair, that is not a middle ground. A middle ground would be to have the blank media levy, but make free, unencumbered downloading legal.
Another middle ground would be to not have the levy, have "illegal" downloading still illegal, but don't force those of us who actually buy the music/movies and don't distribute them locked in with unnecessary restrictions that just make our lives more difficult.
As many have said, those who ignore the laws about this will continute to do so, and will always find a way around any restriction put in place, a lot easier and faster than what it took to implement the restriction. It only hurts those who abide by such law (like gun control/registration. The bad guys will still buy them out of the back of vans, where the good guys have to jump through loops and treated like they're going out to kill babies).
Paying ber byte? That would certainly kill broadband internet. Again, you're trying to argue for punishing everyone for the actions of an increasing few (an increase that can be directly attributed to your attempt to increase your control).
There are too many legitimate uses for the internet, BitTorrent and the like to justify charging for data transferred. What about people who run websites off of their systems (legitimate websites)? What about those who need to transfer large files for work or school reasons?
What about those who create their own CDs/movies/programs and wish to distribute them online for free (even if it's just to some family or friends)?
[quote]Odd, because, I can buy a lot of DVDs on sale for $6 at WalMart, and many more for $9.95.[/quote]
Yeah, I've seen those, too. My question is why would you WANT to buy those? Most of them are C-movies at best. Any "decent" film is still $20 or more. A lot of those are probably writeoffs from the suppliers because they couldn't sell at a regular price, so they get written off, and sold for practically pennies.
Yeah, but does it run Linux?
Shut ebay down because of illegitimate auctions? What's next, shutting down the internet because it helps terrorists build weapons?
No, they can not and will not do that. There is too much of a legitimate userbase for ebay, and too many people around the world (because, as you should know, ebay is available in many countries as a subsite tailored to that specific country, featuring auctions by people in those countries) who use it daily.
Besides, if they did shut it down, another would pop up to take it's place, much like the P2P programs/networks.
Perhaps because not everyone wants to use the command line for everything?
Ok, the average cost of a broadband connection is $50, give or take. How much is dialup (it's been about 7 years since I last had it)? I've seen bargain-basement no-name ISP's go as low as $5, but most "decent" dialups were $15+ a month.
Now, you're using a phone line, so any time you're online, you block up your phone, unable to make or receive any calls (and if someone tries to call out, they get an earfull of hiss and disconnect you). Solution? Get a second phone line, at a cost (at my phone co.) of around $20 a month per line. That brings your internet costs up to around $35.
Now, that's $15 less than a broadband connection, but for dialup speeds, having to dial-up and log on (which are succeptable to busy signals and the like). Buy one less coffee a day and you'll save up enough to make the difference. As others have said, once you go broadband, you'll wonder how you'd ever survive on dialup.
Makes what faster? It sure doesn't make my system any faster (quite the opposite, my machine sometimes slows to a crawl, where I can't even listen to music at the same time, and it takes 2-3 minutes to switch applications. Yes, I have an old system).
As far as my internet usage, it's already plenty fast enough. Any increase in browsing/rendering time is minimal at best, in my experience.