Alexa is notorious for spyware. Use Ad-Aware to remove Alexa if you have Alexa installed. Programmers: I will boycott all Alexa-sponsored products and label them as spyware in turn if you use this "API."
I own an Archos Video Jukebox with a beautiful high-resolution screen. Why can't I watch my "legally-purchased" downloaded television shows on it instead of on the MCGA-sized iPod screen? Why can't I watch them on my Linux workstation without having to buy a commercial version of Wine with which to run iTunes? I'd like to use VLC or mplayer.
Don't worry. Apple will smooth out these problems in the next version which will be a free upgrade to all Aperture users. Rome wasn't built in a day, right?
The cable company is required to provide you a CableCARD by law if you want one. For once, the FCC has mandated something useful and consumer-friendly.
The cable company doesn't promote CableCARD because they can't use it to charge me $5 per Pay-Per-View movie* or provide pathetic closed-source DVR "solutions" to which my MythTV box is superior.
* Most of which goes to movie studios, which I boycott anyway
They're releasing boxen that run MythTV? Sweet! I'm sick of Apple releasing "easy" software that doesn't do even one fiftieth of what I want a box to do.
The gaming industry is doomed. In the time that it took $ony and Microso$t to release a new generation of "game consoles," a million Linux games were coded and released under the GPL.
Frankly, I haven't found any PS3 game or Xbox 360 game that isn't a rehash of an open source game. Just Linux already.
I'm not buying any CDs from any manufacturer any more, ever. Instead I'm going to use passive, nonviolent protest by using KaZaA to download the music I want.
I'm also going to liberate a PlayStation 3, mod it, and steal the games that Sony wants me to buy.
It only took me about 3 hours of work to skim through the HOWTO, order the parts from NewEgg.com, put all the parts together, and pop in a KnoppMyth disc I burned myself. Of course, I actually read all the HOWTOs before just getting in my SUV and driving myself down to CompUSA to drool all over the unsupported TV-in and TV-out devices. You're* mileage may vary.
* Since you cannot read a HOWTO, I'm assuming that you think this is the same word as "Your," which is the correct word to use here.
TiVo: caters to advertisers moreso than it does TV watchers by supporting so-called "content protection."
Sony: Oh, you mean that company that sells rootkits disguised as music CDs?
Apple: They claim that they need to use "trusted computing" to protect their proprietary, closed-source operating system. They are scared of me actually using Mac OS X on computers I built myself. How hostile.
When I say Myth, you say TV. Myth! Myth! Myth!
MPEG output. Open source. Built on any operating system you want. MythTV is simply everything TiVo, Sony, and Apple are not.
I could run both Photoshop and InDesign with WINE, of course -- not that I would want to support such ideologically-flawed software in the first place.
I will continue to use my Linux boxen, both desktop and laptop, with the knowledge that I only buy hardware which I am permitted to hack with at my own discretion.
So where is Alan Cox going to live now? He boycotts the U.S. (as do I) for being anti-freedom, but now he lives in a country where he is constantly being photographed so as not to "muddle the carriageway with rubbish vehicles."
Perhaps Dr. Cox will outsource himself to India, where it's cheaper to buy off the police than in the so-called "United" countries.
What kind of ignorant assmaster buys CDs any more? Don't you know you can get your music legally for pennies on the dollar from Allofmp3.com? Allofmp3.com sold me more than 1000 MB of music for just $20, and it's all legit. Why, I can find more music on Allofmp3.com than I can on iTunes, eMusic, and KaZaA combined -- and it's all legit. Just go to Allofmp3.com in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or even Safari! Remember, Allofmp3.com is completely legitimate and legal and contains no DRM.
You use XPMCE? Hello!! MythTV is 500 times better than Windows XP Media Centre Edition. It's free, extensible with all sorts of skins and plugins that are also free, and it imposes no content restrictions. I can't believe you paid $2,000 for a device that requires that you accept a restrictive EULA.
However, I approve of your choice of search engine. Thank you for using Google, the most popular and therefore best search engine there is. Please continue not to use Yahoo!.
Please go to www.lik-sang.com. I strongly recommend that you buy your gaming equipment from www.lik-sang.com. They have the shit that Wal-Mart doesn't want you to buy. If someone in Fort Wayne can put his Milwaukee's Best Light down long enough to play a video game, he can visit www.lik-sang.com to buy it there.
You don't have to buy all your stuff from Wal-Mart. You can even get portable DVD players at www.lik-sang.com, though I don't know why you would ever want one when you could have a DivX video player for your brand-new GP2X with an industry-standard SD card slot.
"By the end of the 1980s the courts found Nintendo guilty of anti-trust activities because it had abused its relationship with third party developers and created a monopoly in the gaming industry by not allowing developers to make games for any other platforms." -- Wikipedia
All the fanboys seem to ignore that Nintendo broke the law repeatedly. When Microsoft does it, you guys pee your fake-lawyer trousers. When Nintendo does it, you pee your fanboy pants.
Frankly, Nintendo did more to destroy proper homebrew gaming than a thousand Ataris helped to establish it. I look forward to their doom thanks to the GamePark open handheld gaming platform.
Wow, $400* for a portable game console? Normally I would recommend buying a Nintendo DS and a portable DVD player, but for that price you could buy a Sony Freaking PSP and a portable DVD player.
Note that a portable DVD player is still strongly recommended if you want to watch movies on the go.
* Or $230 if you're willing to accept ads three times a day. I am not, though it's tempting to buy a $230 Gizmondo and hack it to remove the ads.
Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb
on
IMDb Turns 15
·
· Score: 0, Funny
The number "15" is symbolic. In this case, it symbolizes the number of years which IMDb is old. Each of my bullet points is symbolic of approximately 2.14285714 (or pi - 1) normal-sized reasons.
15 Reasons to boycott IMDb
on
IMDb Turns 15
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
IMDb is owned by Amazon.com, a company which makes horrifying use of software patents.
Since the acquisition by Ama$on, IMDb has started using Flash-laden banner ads throughout their site. Some of these ads even include sound; these ads are not acceptable.
Agent information and other data has been moved off of the free IMDb site and onto IMDbPRO, which I refuse to use.
To insert data into this database, such as photographs of my favourite actors, costs money. This was supposed to be a free site.
Flagrant product placement. Virtually every "article" on IMDb's front page is a paid advertisement. Most "articles" are just used to link to Ama$on items.
IMDb does not use proper HTML.
IMDb has given nothing back to the community; rather it takes from the community (the poor) and gives to a large e-tailer (the rich).
Get a job, then you can buy shit. Nobody likes to read a poor man's critiques of products he wouldn't buy.
I am proud to have owned my favourite movies on LaserDiscs (no DRM!), DVDs (plays on my laptop!), and UMDs (plays on my handheld game consoles!). Go watch your XviD movies on your 6-year-old ThinkPad you bought off eBay for $200 and save the righteousness for priests.
Call me a fanboy, but I am completely confident that Google will fix every single problem that you noted above. You just need to wait until they're ready to release the update.
Slashdot Mirror
I use Firefox with CookieJar to block Google's cookies, so I can't be tracked.
Alexa relies on an Internet Explorer plugin which makes it spyware as it is always running, even when you're not on the Internet!
Alexa is notorious for spyware. Use Ad-Aware to remove Alexa if you have Alexa installed. Programmers: I will boycott all Alexa-sponsored products and label them as spyware in turn if you use this "API."
Google's APIs are better.
I own an Archos Video Jukebox with a beautiful high-resolution screen. Why can't I watch my "legally-purchased" downloaded television shows on it instead of on the MCGA-sized iPod screen? Why can't I watch them on my Linux workstation without having to buy a commercial version of Wine with which to run iTunes? I'd like to use VLC or mplayer.
Let's get out my handy-dandy little red pen here.
h.264 format? I guess that's okay.
'FairPlay' DRM? Not good. I can't play it outside iTunes.
Open and accessible store? Nope. You need iTunes which is only available for Macintosh and Windows.
Compatibility with many devices? Nope. Only one: the iPod 5G.
Well at least I can create a DVD, like iTunes lets me burn a CD with my purchased songs, right? Nope. No burning. Only playback.
Well at least the new episodes of Law & Order, which are filmed in HDTV, will be shown in brilliant 1280x720 resolution, right? Nope. 320x240.
Good for you, Apple. Welcome to the 19th century. I'll be over here with my trusty BitTorrent client.
Don't worry. Apple will smooth out these problems in the next version which will be a free upgrade to all Aperture users. Rome wasn't built in a day, right?
The cable company is required to provide you a CableCARD by law if you want one. For once, the FCC has mandated something useful and consumer-friendly.
The cable company doesn't promote CableCARD because they can't use it to charge me $5 per Pay-Per-View movie* or provide pathetic closed-source DVR "solutions" to which my MythTV box is superior.
* Most of which goes to movie studios, which I boycott anyway
They're releasing boxen that run MythTV? Sweet! I'm sick of Apple releasing "easy" software that doesn't do even one fiftieth of what I want a box to do.
The gaming industry is doomed. In the time that it took $ony and Microso$t to release a new generation of "game consoles," a million Linux games were coded and released under the GPL.
Frankly, I haven't found any PS3 game or Xbox 360 game that isn't a rehash of an open source game. Just Linux already.
I'm not buying any CDs from any manufacturer any more, ever. Instead I'm going to use passive, nonviolent protest by using KaZaA to download the music I want.
I'm also going to liberate a PlayStation 3, mod it, and steal the games that Sony wants me to buy.
You're welcome, Dan.
It only took me about 3 hours of work to skim through the HOWTO, order the parts from NewEgg.com, put all the parts together, and pop in a KnoppMyth disc I burned myself. Of course, I actually read all the HOWTOs before just getting in my SUV and driving myself down to CompUSA to drool all over the unsupported TV-in and TV-out devices. You're* mileage may vary.
* Since you cannot read a HOWTO, I'm assuming that you think this is the same word as "Your," which is the correct word to use here.
You people just don't learn.
TiVo: caters to advertisers moreso than it does TV watchers by supporting so-called "content protection."
Sony: Oh, you mean that company that sells rootkits disguised as music CDs?
Apple: They claim that they need to use "trusted computing" to protect their proprietary, closed-source operating system. They are scared of me actually using Mac OS X on computers I built myself. How hostile.
When I say Myth, you say TV. Myth! Myth! Myth!
MPEG output. Open source. Built on any operating system you want. MythTV is simply everything TiVo, Sony, and Apple are not.
I could run both Photoshop and InDesign with WINE, of course -- not that I would want to support such ideologically-flawed software in the first place.
When you buy an Intel PowerBook, you're buying into the most evil technology imaginable -- technology pioneered by Microsoft, but adopted by Apple! Apple plans to incorporate so-called "Tamper-Resistant Code" into Mac OS X, and you can't spell "Tamper-Resistant Code" without TPM.
I will continue to use my Linux boxen, both desktop and laptop, with the knowledge that I only buy hardware which I am permitted to hack with at my own discretion.
So where is Alan Cox going to live now? He boycotts the U.S. (as do I) for being anti-freedom, but now he lives in a country where he is constantly being photographed so as not to "muddle the carriageway with rubbish vehicles."
Perhaps Dr. Cox will outsource himself to India, where it's cheaper to buy off the police than in the so-called "United" countries.
As the purchaser of an Xbox 360 Marketplace item, I'll retain the right of First Sale, right? Oh.
As the purchaser, I will be able to create derivative works and resell them, right? Oh.
As the purchaser, I will be able to create backup copies to ensure the safety of my investment, right? Oh.
Because this is a marketplace, you'll open it up to anyone who wishes to buy or sell, right? Oh.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have no choice but to advocate a total boycott of all Xbox 360.
What kind of ignorant assmaster buys CDs any more? Don't you know you can get your music legally for pennies on the dollar from Allofmp3.com? Allofmp3.com sold me more than 1000 MB of music for just $20, and it's all legit. Why, I can find more music on Allofmp3.com than I can on iTunes, eMusic, and KaZaA combined -- and it's all legit. Just go to Allofmp3.com in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or even Safari! Remember, Allofmp3.com is completely legitimate and legal and contains no DRM.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Proud user, Allofmp3.com
You use XPMCE? Hello!! MythTV is 500 times better than Windows XP Media Centre Edition. It's free, extensible with all sorts of skins and plugins that are also free, and it imposes no content restrictions. I can't believe you paid $2,000 for a device that requires that you accept a restrictive EULA.
However, I approve of your choice of search engine. Thank you for using Google, the most popular and therefore best search engine there is. Please continue not to use Yahoo!.
No thanks, TiVo. I've been boycotting you since you denied me the right to save my shows as long as I like and forced me to opt-out of a user profiling program into which I never opted.
I will be much happier when Google TV allows me to schedule recordings on my standards-compliant MythTV DVR that I built myself.
Dear American,
Please go to www.lik-sang.com. I strongly recommend that you buy your gaming equipment from www.lik-sang.com. They have the shit that Wal-Mart doesn't want you to buy. If someone in Fort Wayne can put his Milwaukee's Best Light down long enough to play a video game, he can visit www.lik-sang.com to buy it there.
You don't have to buy all your stuff from Wal-Mart. You can even get portable DVD players at www.lik-sang.com, though I don't know why you would ever want one when you could have a DivX video player for your brand-new GP2X with an industry-standard SD card slot.
"By the end of the 1980s the courts found Nintendo guilty of anti-trust activities because it had abused its relationship with third party developers and created a monopoly in the gaming industry by not allowing developers to make games for any other platforms." -- Wikipedia
All the fanboys seem to ignore that Nintendo broke the law repeatedly. When Microsoft does it, you guys pee your fake-lawyer trousers. When Nintendo does it, you pee your fanboy pants.
Frankly, Nintendo did more to destroy proper homebrew gaming than a thousand Ataris helped to establish it. I look forward to their doom thanks to the GamePark open handheld gaming platform.
Wow, $400* for a portable game console? Normally I would recommend buying a Nintendo DS and a portable DVD player, but for that price you could buy a Sony Freaking PSP and a portable DVD player.
Note that a portable DVD player is still strongly recommended if you want to watch movies on the go.
* Or $230 if you're willing to accept ads three times a day. I am not, though it's tempting to buy a $230 Gizmondo and hack it to remove the ads.
The number "15" is symbolic. In this case, it symbolizes the number of years which IMDb is old. Each of my bullet points is symbolic of approximately 2.14285714 (or pi - 1) normal-sized reasons.
Sorry, IMDb. I'm going to boycott you and go with a site where non-commercialism is more important.
Dear Seumas,
Get a job, then you can buy shit. Nobody likes to read a poor man's critiques of products he wouldn't buy.
I am proud to have owned my favourite movies on LaserDiscs (no DRM!), DVDs (plays on my laptop!), and UMDs (plays on my handheld game consoles!). Go watch your XviD movies on your 6-year-old ThinkPad you bought off eBay for $200 and save the righteousness for priests.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
White-Collar Worker
Call me a fanboy, but I am completely confident that Google will fix every single problem that you noted above. You just need to wait until they're ready to release the update.