I recently bought a 2GB Kingston card for my Canon, which gets an average 3.3 MB per picture at full resolution. Let's say for arguments sake that I can only get 500 pictures on the card. If I can fully rewrite the card 10000 times, then that's 5000000 (five million) photos. If you do some more math, you find that if I want the card to last five years, I can take up to 2700 photos each day, every day.
What does this mean? Well, I was not aware before I bought the card what type of memory it used, and perhaps I will take this into consideration before purchasing another. The real performance of the card may be slightly deteriorated from expected, but I don't take hundreds of pictures most days either, much less thousands. Cost-wise, I got 2GB for $120 when I could have gotten a SanDisk 1GB for $100. I would consider it very cost effective for the average consumer.
Performance-wise, I tried it in my Digital Rebel XT and started taking continuous shots. Even though the Kingston card is not rated very highly compared to the others, I took 48 shots at 3fps before the camera even started slowing down. Considering the buffer only holds around 14 photos, the card demonstrated more than adequate write speed. After that test, I'm pretty happy with the speed of the card, especially since I will probably never take photos that fast again.
The user reviews suggest the 400 GB drive has problems, either in design or manufacturing. However, in general I've seen a lot of good things about Seagate products. I personally have two 200 GB drives which I am very happy with, and I don't plan on switching brands any time soon.
BestBuy.com has a nice selection of cheap consumer turnables, as does CircuitCity.com. If your taste/disposable income is a bit higher, there are tons of hifi turnables on the market (www.clearaudio.de).
Just because you can't walk into Walmart and pick one of the shelf doesn't mean it is off the market. If your definition of 'easy buying' excludes online purchases, you should probably catch up to the 21st century.
I'm not even going to comment on the merits of subscription-based software pricing. What I will say, however, is that the average guy/grandma/Joe Sixpack will not go for it. How do you convince them that they need to write a check to Microsoft every month to keep using Windows? Or that the anti-virus software they have is just important enough to keep paying month after month to use it?
In the past, they got it for "free" with their computer, and now they have to continuously pay for it? Ridiculous. Even worse still is the thought that they will have to manage all of their countless subscriptions to pay every month. Some people have trouble getting their utilities paid on time...
If most people got the optional RFID passport and were whisked away in the magical EZ-pass lane, everyone else would still have a shorter wait time. It's a win-win situation for everyone.
Wrong. You agree to the terms of service when you sign up for an AIM/AOL account. It is pretty clear about how you may not use third-party clients. Unfortunately for AOL, blocking such clients would 1) reduce their users by an enormous amount, and 2) be practically impossible.
Realistically, AOL needs/wants its AIM users a lot more than its users need/want it. If AIM wasn't free, or you couldn't use it the way you want, there are plenty of alternatives. I have a jabber account which I'm always signed on with, but nobody uses it to communicate with me. So I also use AIM, but I would have no problem dropping AIM if they started charging or blocking my client.
And as far as AOL attempting to block third-party clients, I don't really believe it. I think instead, they are merely taking care of issues in their client/servers or adding functionality. That sometimes happens to break other clients--oh well, that's not their concern. If they really wanted to, I'm sure they could do a much better job as well as manage to do it more than twice a year or so.
Get the Noia eXtreme theme for Firebird and install it for both Firebird and Thunderbird, and you have a unified theme. I'm running it right now, and it looks a hell of a lot better than the default crap.
Note, installing the Firebird theme into Thunderbird *does* work, and showed better results (complete gradients, coloring) than the Thunderbird theme.
AIAA - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics BIAA - Brain Injury Association Of Alberta CIAA - Center Intercollegiate Athletic Association DIAA - Dairy Industry Association of Australia EIAA - European Interactive Advertising Association FIAA - Fire Investigation Association of Alberta GIAA - Guild of Italian American Actors HIAA - Halifax International Airport Authority
Therefore: It is legal to own and possess your ridiculously massive stash of illegal drugs, but you may not legally consume them. Wrong!
Get a clue. There is ABSOLUTELY no use for the device outside the tampering of traffic signals. Ok, I take that back: if you have private traffic lights in your 3 story garage that holds your collection of restored vintage vettes, then you might be in need of this device. Or it could be a good doorstop or paperweight.
Sure, your point is nevertheless valid; Apply it to things such as guns, knives, etc, and it makes perfect sense, because such devices have legal and good uses. Your crack stash has no use outside consuming or selling to someone else to consume. Neither does your traffic-signal altering device, realistically.
So while you can complain about the trivialities of the legalities of subtle differences, the difference is negligable and fundamental MERELY in an idealistic view.
Re:Nice, but...Wacom Graphite USB
on
GIMP goes SVG
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· Score: 1
Clearly so, but since the original post was criticizing the user interface, and this issue deals with hardware interfacing and the lack of Linux drivers, it remains hopelessly irrelevent.
Re:Nice, but...Wacom Graphite USB
on
GIMP goes SVG
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· Score: 1
If people use The GIMP, it must, by definition, have a usable UI.
Use rectangular selection for n-pixels wide and l-pixels long, then fill with a solid color.
Use a 1x1 brush and click on a pixel to color it any color you want.
Select the transform tool, which is set to rotation by default, then drag your image. This pops up another window with the rotation properties, and that allows you to either check your dragging or manually set the rotation.
No secret key combinations required. Sure you need to know what tools you have available, but this is the same for any image program. Don't pretend that PSP allows the user to do things without learning the method for doing it. The GIMP isn't ridiculously complicated or obscure, and once you know where everything is, you'll find it's pretty usable.
What, are you implying that it should be illegal to buy cheap razor blade heads for your name brand razors? That if I buy Joe's Cheap Razor Blades that, amazingly enough, are interchangeable with my Gillette, I should be prosecuted?
Anyways... The producer has the right to produce and offer a product for whatever terms it feels satisfactory, but remember that it's for sale. If I buy an XBox, the very presumption by Microsoft that they have any miniscule right to control what I do with it is ludicrous. This is not concerning copyright infringement or anything similar. I legally own the XBox and should theoretically possess the right to use it as I see fit. (Yeah, yeah, assuming not illegal, dangerous, terroristic activity, etc..)
Does this mean Microsoft should not have the right to attempt to secure it? Of course not. If Microsoft wants to obfuscate the XBox to hell so that nobody would want to program for it, I don't care. They obviously have the right. This is irrelevent to the fact that I can do whatever I want with my property, and if somebody wants to put 200 hours into writing a pong emulator for, more power to them.
Finally, your argument seems flawed in the simple fact that the economy isn't run around what is good for Microsoft. We have a capitalistic economy last I checked, and if Microsoft's business plan is sinking faster than the Edmund Fitzgerald, why is it a good thing to have repressive laws that allow Microsoft to perpetuate this? The consumer buys what the consumer wants. If Microsoft can't pull a profit because the consumer wants Sony games, Microsoft needs to get with the program.
-dave
You can legally say any of those phrases in just about any context you want. Since this is slashdot, I should cover my ass and mention that I do NOT mean anything regarding fire or crowded theaters. With that said, think about it: free speech. I can say "I download full albums of copyrighted material on the internet," and it's not illegal. Why not? Because I have free speech. Now, if I do in fact do such things, that may or may not be illegal, depending on my locale. But the fact remains that if I don't do it, and say I do, the worst that can happen is get subpoenaed and my computer checked by the FBI or RIAA (since they probably have the power to raid dorm rooms now). As long as they can't prove I've done anything, I'm ok.
Speech about illegal things is still protected, last I checked.
I meant it is ridiculous to think of everything as information under such a pretense. Yes, if some technology becomes available, I wouldn't feel it necessary to restrict it, but consider that in reality it would shatter the existing market economy.
The difference is that you create a computer program. Consider that, in 20 years, society develops a machine that can (somehow) duplicate exactly any physical object, using merely a small amount of air, water, and dirt. Does that mean that all physical objects are information, and thus freely available to everyone? Perhaps they should be, but at the moment, that sounds ridiculous.
This is a bit of a stretch from the point, but tit makes sense. Sure, I'll grant that a program is composed of data, and data is information, but that hardly was my initial point. The point is that it's not random data, it's a creation. Moreover, it's a creation designed to do something, such as balance checkbooks, provide entertainment, browse the web.
The obvious difference between the randomly selected list and a computer program is that claiming ownership or creation of the list of "information" is ludicrous, because they were not created by someone. Programs, on the other hand, are created "data" that someone actually can lay claim to.
Just to throw out another point, by your logic, everything is data, because it is perceived by our senses as such. If you "see" something, you're actually processing data in your brain which was received by your eyes. So, in a sense, by this logic, everything is free to be "stolen" because it's just information.
And, please don't respond to that with accusations of how ridiculous that is, because in reality, it's the same as assuming that just because a program is stored as data, it's free information.
Information "theft" is not really theft or stealing.
Thousands of my users probably "steal" my software, but guess what! I DON'T CARE! It is information, which I CANNOT OWN!
This is ridiculous. Allow me to make random analogies to support myself, because this is Slashdot, after all.
Consider a carpenter. If he builds a chair, it is a physical entity which one person (himself) owns. It cannot be reproduced effortlessly. Therefore, he can sell it and make money to compensate himself for his labor.
Consider, again if you will, a programmer. If he writes a program, it is a theoretically non-physical (yeah, it exists on disk/memory somewhere, but that's irrelevent) creation which he owns. However, it can be copied, meaning someone can reproduce it freely and infinitely with no cost to said person and no compensation for the programmer.
Where do you get the idea that a program is information from? That's like saying the chair you're sitting on to read slashdot from is information. And obviously there's the kneejerk reaction to this claim of "that's absurd! I didn't say that," but look again. You did.
People do not create information. Information exists. Therefore, if one creates anything, be it a chair, a program, or a cowboyneal voodoo doll, it cannot be information.
You make the false assumption that because it is not a physical thing, your programs are information. This only barely makes a semblence of sense because in essence, they are information for how the computer should run. But that's because they don't physically exist. Just because they cannot be canned and shoved on a store shelf doesn't mean they are information.
Finally, to reiterate and conclude the beating of the dead horse, allow me to give examples of information:
George W. Bush is President of the United States.
The sky is generally blue
Moscow is the capital of Russia
The current year is 2003
Wine is made from grapes
The difference between those and a computer program is obvious.
Traffic laws and fines were designed not to eliminate speeding, but rather to keep it to a reasonable level. Obviously it is possible to speed, even speed recklessly, and not get caught. However, if one doesn't want to take the chance at at $100+ ticket, they won't speed, or speed as much. If the police wanted to eliminate speeding, they could do a much better (and more expensive job) by either paying a heck of a lot more cops to watch traffic or by autonomously clocking cars and remotely recording their license plate. Give it a few years, and cars will be required to broadcast a unique signal indicating information about it, such as license, driver, driver information, car history, etc, which makes it even easier.
Yeah, it's extreme, it's expensive, and it's not really needed either. The point is that this is what the RIAA both wants and needs to do. Now, I'm not supporting the RIAA, but if you make the analogy to speeding, a $110 ticket every time they catch you downloading something copyrighted is ridiculous. They don't catch everybody, and for some it would actually be cheaper than buying all the CDs individually!
Besides which, the latest copyright laws weren't written to save human lives, but rather because the RIAA bitched enough and tossed around enough money....
It is this issue that might make a difference. If the provision of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act for issuing subpoenas without judicial action is ruled unconstitutional, and the ruling is upheld, then the efforts of the RIAA will be stopped in their tracks until the law is rewritten.
The problem is that laws aren't ruled unconstitutional on a weekly basis. By the time the Supreme Court might hand down a decision, how many college students will have been forced to declare bankruptcy and possibly drop out of college due to the RIAA?
Re:The research has already been done...
on
Inkblot Passwords
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· Score: 1
Sure, common sense says that random inkblots would work better.
Common sense also says that research on symmetrical inkblots would apply to asymmetrical inkblots.
I admit, I didn't know that Rorschach inkblots were symmetrical (it doesn't mention it in the article!), and the fact that the research is there is no doubt important, but I can't possibly imagine that the inkblot test would fail on a more random assortment of blobs. And if Microsoft wanted to do research, they certainly have the money to spend on it....
build a better inkblot
on
Inkblot Passwords
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· Score: 5, Insightful
It's nice, but the inkblots could use some work. If you look closely, they all look basically similar in construction, with the only differences being the color and size of the shapes. They also are all symetrical along a vertical axis. A little more randomization would be nice I would think.
Technically, your math only holds true if every person, like you, only downloads one thing through bittorrent. Since this obviously is incorrect, your logic is seriously flawed.
He'd/she'd go out of business, unless he/she changed the business' format - but why is that person forced to do that because people are unwilling to pay for something they want?
Last I checked, the market structure established in this country is based on the idea that people pay for what they want, and don't pay for what they either don't want or can't afford. Regardless of the cause of the lack of buying, the business goes under in the same way: loss of sales.
Now, by assuming that people do want to buy the product and can afford to, we reach the conclusion that any loss of sales is due to theft, because the demand is there.
Sadly, this is not so. If the RIAA suffers, perhaps it's because they are unable to cater to the needs of the purchasing populace, either through the product OR the price, a fact which can only be remedied by changing either the product or the business format.
This proposed law is ridiculous, as ridiculous as the 1997 No Electronic Theft law. Copyright infringement is a tort, a civil case. My taxpayer dollars should not be squandered on this petty filesharing witchhunt, because the RIAA is feeling some pain.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually it was a reference to Microprose's early 90's computer game, Master of Orion.
So what?
I recently bought a 2GB Kingston card for my Canon, which gets an average 3.3 MB per picture at full resolution. Let's say for arguments sake that I can only get 500 pictures on the card. If I can fully rewrite the card 10000 times, then that's 5000000 (five million) photos. If you do some more math, you find that if I want the card to last five years, I can take up to 2700 photos each day, every day.
What does this mean? Well, I was not aware before I bought the card what type of memory it used, and perhaps I will take this into consideration before purchasing another. The real performance of the card may be slightly deteriorated from expected, but I don't take hundreds of pictures most days either, much less thousands. Cost-wise, I got 2GB for $120 when I could have gotten a SanDisk 1GB for $100. I would consider it very cost effective for the average consumer.
Performance-wise, I tried it in my Digital Rebel XT and started taking continuous shots. Even though the Kingston card is not rated very highly compared to the others, I took 48 shots at 3fps before the camera even started slowing down. Considering the buffer only holds around 14 photos, the card demonstrated more than adequate write speed. After that test, I'm pretty happy with the speed of the card, especially since I will probably never take photos that fast again.
The user reviews suggest the 400 GB drive has problems, either in design or manufacturing. However, in general I've seen a lot of good things about Seagate products. I personally have two 200 GB drives which I am very happy with, and I don't plan on switching brands any time soon.
BestBuy.com has a nice selection of cheap consumer turnables, as does CircuitCity.com. If your taste/disposable income is a bit higher, there are tons of hifi turnables on the market (www.clearaudio.de).
Just because you can't walk into Walmart and pick one of the shelf doesn't mean it is off the market. If your definition of 'easy buying' excludes online purchases, you should probably catch up to the 21st century.
I'm not even going to comment on the merits of subscription-based software pricing. What I will say, however, is that the average guy/grandma/Joe Sixpack will not go for it. How do you convince them that they need to write a check to Microsoft every month to keep using Windows? Or that the anti-virus software they have is just important enough to keep paying month after month to use it?
In the past, they got it for "free" with their computer, and now they have to continuously pay for it? Ridiculous. Even worse still is the thought that they will have to manage all of their countless subscriptions to pay every month. Some people have trouble getting their utilities paid on time...
If most people got the optional RFID passport and were whisked away in the magical EZ-pass lane, everyone else would still have a shorter wait time. It's a win-win situation for everyone.
Wrong. You agree to the terms of service when you sign up for an AIM/AOL account. It is pretty clear about how you may not use third-party clients. Unfortunately for AOL, blocking such clients would 1) reduce their users by an enormous amount, and 2) be practically impossible.
Realistically, AOL needs/wants its AIM users a lot more than its users need/want it. If AIM wasn't free, or you couldn't use it the way you want, there are plenty of alternatives. I have a jabber account which I'm always signed on with, but nobody uses it to communicate with me. So I also use AIM, but I would have no problem dropping AIM if they started charging or blocking my client.
And as far as AOL attempting to block third-party clients, I don't really believe it. I think instead, they are merely taking care of issues in their client/servers or adding functionality. That sometimes happens to break other clients--oh well, that's not their concern. If they really wanted to, I'm sure they could do a much better job as well as manage to do it more than twice a year or so.
Get the Noia eXtreme theme for Firebird and install it for both Firebird and Thunderbird, and you have a unified theme. I'm running it right now, and it looks a hell of a lot better than the default crap.
Note, installing the Firebird theme into Thunderbird *does* work, and showed better results (complete gradients, coloring) than the Thunderbird theme.
AIAA - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
BIAA - Brain Injury Association Of Alberta
CIAA - Center Intercollegiate Athletic Association
DIAA - Dairy Industry Association of Australia
EIAA - European Interactive Advertising Association
FIAA - Fire Investigation Association of Alberta
GIAA - Guild of Italian American Actors
HIAA - Halifax International Airport Authority
Yes, the list goes on...
Get a clue. There is ABSOLUTELY no use for the device outside the tampering of traffic signals. Ok, I take that back: if you have private traffic lights in your 3 story garage that holds your collection of restored vintage vettes, then you might be in need of this device. Or it could be a good doorstop or paperweight.
Sure, your point is nevertheless valid; Apply it to things such as guns, knives, etc, and it makes perfect sense, because such devices have legal and good uses. Your crack stash has no use outside consuming or selling to someone else to consume. Neither does your traffic-signal altering device, realistically.
So while you can complain about the trivialities of the legalities of subtle differences, the difference is negligable and fundamental MERELY in an idealistic view.
Clearly so, but since the original post was criticizing the user interface, and this issue deals with hardware interfacing and the lack of Linux drivers, it remains hopelessly irrelevent.
And this is related how...?
Use rectangular selection for n-pixels wide and l-pixels long, then fill with a solid color.
Use a 1x1 brush and click on a pixel to color it any color you want.
Select the transform tool, which is set to rotation by default, then drag your image. This pops up another window with the rotation properties, and that allows you to either check your dragging or manually set the rotation.
No secret key combinations required. Sure you need to know what tools you have available, but this is the same for any image program. Don't pretend that PSP allows the user to do things without learning the method for doing it. The GIMP isn't ridiculously complicated or obscure, and once you know where everything is, you'll find it's pretty usable.
Dave
-dave
Anyways... The producer has the right to produce and offer a product for whatever terms it feels satisfactory, but remember that it's for sale. If I buy an XBox, the very presumption by Microsoft that they have any miniscule right to control what I do with it is ludicrous. This is not concerning copyright infringement or anything similar. I legally own the XBox and should theoretically possess the right to use it as I see fit. (Yeah, yeah, assuming not illegal, dangerous, terroristic activity, etc..)
Does this mean Microsoft should not have the right to attempt to secure it? Of course not. If Microsoft wants to obfuscate the XBox to hell so that nobody would want to program for it, I don't care. They obviously have the right. This is irrelevent to the fact that I can do whatever I want with my property, and if somebody wants to put 200 hours into writing a pong emulator for, more power to them.
Finally, your argument seems flawed in the simple fact that the economy isn't run around what is good for Microsoft. We have a capitalistic economy last I checked, and if Microsoft's business plan is sinking faster than the Edmund Fitzgerald, why is it a good thing to have repressive laws that allow Microsoft to perpetuate this? The consumer buys what the consumer wants. If Microsoft can't pull a profit because the consumer wants Sony games, Microsoft needs to get with the program. -dave
Speech about illegal things is still protected, last I checked.
-dave
-dave
This is a bit of a stretch from the point, but tit makes sense. Sure, I'll grant that a program is composed of data, and data is information, but that hardly was my initial point. The point is that it's not random data, it's a creation. Moreover, it's a creation designed to do something, such as balance checkbooks, provide entertainment, browse the web.
The obvious difference between the randomly selected list and a computer program is that claiming ownership or creation of the list of "information" is ludicrous, because they were not created by someone. Programs, on the other hand, are created "data" that someone actually can lay claim to.
Just to throw out another point, by your logic, everything is data, because it is perceived by our senses as such. If you "see" something, you're actually processing data in your brain which was received by your eyes. So, in a sense, by this logic, everything is free to be "stolen" because it's just information.
And, please don't respond to that with accusations of how ridiculous that is, because in reality, it's the same as assuming that just because a program is stored as data, it's free information.
-dave
This is ridiculous. Allow me to make random analogies to support myself, because this is Slashdot, after all.
Consider a carpenter. If he builds a chair, it is a physical entity which one person (himself) owns. It cannot be reproduced effortlessly. Therefore, he can sell it and make money to compensate himself for his labor.
Consider, again if you will, a programmer. If he writes a program, it is a theoretically non-physical (yeah, it exists on disk/memory somewhere, but that's irrelevent) creation which he owns. However, it can be copied, meaning someone can reproduce it freely and infinitely with no cost to said person and no compensation for the programmer.
Where do you get the idea that a program is information from? That's like saying the chair you're sitting on to read slashdot from is information. And obviously there's the kneejerk reaction to this claim of "that's absurd! I didn't say that," but look again. You did.
People do not create information. Information exists. Therefore, if one creates anything, be it a chair, a program, or a cowboyneal voodoo doll, it cannot be information.
You make the false assumption that because it is not a physical thing, your programs are information. This only barely makes a semblence of sense because in essence, they are information for how the computer should run. But that's because they don't physically exist. Just because they cannot be canned and shoved on a store shelf doesn't mean they are information.
Finally, to reiterate and conclude the beating of the dead horse, allow me to give examples of information:
The difference between those and a computer program is obvious.
-dave
Yeah, it's extreme, it's expensive, and it's not really needed either. The point is that this is what the RIAA both wants and needs to do. Now, I'm not supporting the RIAA, but if you make the analogy to speeding, a $110 ticket every time they catch you downloading something copyrighted is ridiculous. They don't catch everybody, and for some it would actually be cheaper than buying all the CDs individually!
Besides which, the latest copyright laws weren't written to save human lives, but rather because the RIAA bitched enough and tossed around enough money....
The problem is that laws aren't ruled unconstitutional on a weekly basis. By the time the Supreme Court might hand down a decision, how many college students will have been forced to declare bankruptcy and possibly drop out of college due to the RIAA?
Common sense also says that research on symmetrical inkblots would apply to asymmetrical inkblots.
I admit, I didn't know that Rorschach inkblots were symmetrical (it doesn't mention it in the article!), and the fact that the research is there is no doubt important, but I can't possibly imagine that the inkblot test would fail on a more random assortment of blobs. And if Microsoft wanted to do research, they certainly have the money to spend on it....
It's nice, but the inkblots could use some work. If you look closely, they all look basically similar in construction, with the only differences being the color and size of the shapes. They also are all symetrical along a vertical axis. A little more randomization would be nice I would think.
Technically, your math only holds true if every person, like you, only downloads one thing through bittorrent. Since this obviously is incorrect, your logic is seriously flawed.
Last I checked, the market structure established in this country is based on the idea that people pay for what they want, and don't pay for what they either don't want or can't afford. Regardless of the cause of the lack of buying, the business goes under in the same way: loss of sales.
Now, by assuming that people do want to buy the product and can afford to, we reach the conclusion that any loss of sales is due to theft, because the demand is there.
Sadly, this is not so. If the RIAA suffers, perhaps it's because they are unable to cater to the needs of the purchasing populace, either through the product OR the price, a fact which can only be remedied by changing either the product or the business format.
This proposed law is ridiculous, as ridiculous as the 1997 No Electronic Theft law. Copyright infringement is a tort, a civil case. My taxpayer dollars should not be squandered on this petty filesharing witchhunt, because the RIAA is feeling some pain.