people get their shit done during the day but my email server isn't overloaded with a lot of shit we'll fire your ass
Perhaps with all the money you save on bandwidth costs, your boss can afford to send you on an "interpersonal skills" course - or maybe just send you to English grammar evening classes...
No, I don't find foul language offensive - I just have little time for people that consider the overuse of it as being cool or clever.
There's several ways to enjoy original Doom on XP.
1. Use DOSBox (just Google for it) and that gives you a DOS-like environment that lets you play lots of original games as they were, or,
2. Just Google for some Doom ports that use the original data files within rewritten executables. Can't remember them all but try JDoom & NewDoom (again in Google).
One Point Worth Noting
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Abandoned Games
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Although I'd happily pay a few dollars/pounds/Euros for "official" releases of Abandonware games, those individuals or companies that still own the copyrights to old games should remember that for a lot of us (myself included), it's about replaying some of those games we enjoyed and legally purchased in our younger years - for example, in my case, since I never owned a console, it's ZX Spectrum and Amiga titles.
Consequently, I've already paid for the rights to play a lot of games already where the floppy disks or tapes they were supplied on have long since deteriorated and have been binned.
So those who are anti-Abandonware should bear this point in mind...
The reason why Linspire are having to explain this about Windows programs is because Michael Robertson has consisitently used LIES & marketing to sell more of this product - and Joe Public, as in the liar Gates, have taken the liar Robertson at his word.
Robertson should immediately be distanced from everyone else in the Open Source community - Open Source, whether it's Linux apps on Linux kernels or Windows apps on Windows is about OPEN & HONEST communications with the rest of the world - Robertson is NOT honest.
Personally, I'd even go a stage further & get the GPL modified to exclude that lying, good-for-nothing, scumbag marketeer from ever even touching Open Source.
1. Virus is written in assembly - okay, that immediately discounts 99.9% of the world's software programmers who code in a higher level language like C.
2. You have to have a kernel that supports ELF binaries - okay, accepted, and more than likely this support is on by default in most distros. However, change the setting and recompile the kernel unless you really need ELF support and the virus can't run anyway.
3. Infects every file in current directory - okay, so there's some assumptions being made here. Firstly, it's safe to assume that the virus won't infect text-based files so scripts and "READMEs" won't be touched - therefore it's looking to infect binaries only. Now, it's probably safe to assume that the virus only infects other ELF binaries but let's take a pessimistic approach and say that when you run the virus, all other binaries in the current directory will be infected. Putting root aside for a moment, that means that as a normal Linux user, you can only place and run that file in your home directory or a sub directory off of it. So therefore, the scenario you are looking at is a normal user running the virus in a directory of binaries off of his home directory to make any threat to the system. Otherwise, as root, you'd need to plant the virus in/bin or/usr/bin (or in the $PATH somewhere) for users to unwittingly use it - erm, if you're a root user who puts unchecked binaries on his/her system, you DESERVE all you get and DON'T deserve to have root access!
I won't try to defend the Windows side of things in the same way because I'm not that deeply into Windows architecture but even with what I know, this virus on Windows seems MUCH LESS of a threat than many others on Windows.
Of course, it just so happens Kaspersky Labs make a virus engine that they license/sell to lots of other companies - call me a cynic but...
Re:Why this is significant: Risk Reduction
on
Going To Boot Camp
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· Score: 1
No, I don't like XP, and I dislike it for object reasons. I dislike it because it lacks a proper shell.
Yes, agreed. Exactly one of the reasons I prefer Linux to XP. But I thought the whole idea of OS X was completely hiding the shell from the user. I thought one of the reasons to USE OS X was because you got a slick GUI-ed OS on slick hardware. Kind of a contradiction...
And I don't play games (like most "adults")
Ah. This was beginning to become an interesting conversation and then you make a totally wild statement that totally killed any argument you add - presumably you said that to take a swipe at me (missed completely since I love games playing at the grand old age of 44 and hope to continue doing so long into my old age) & to, once again, put yourself into another elitist minority ("I'm an adult because I don't play games") because you fear being "mainstream" so much.
It seems to me that the person who has an agenda here is/you/
If you mean I have an agenda to voice my opinion intelligently then, yes, I have an agenda. I'm more than willing to listen to reasoned argument but it seems I am just speaking to someone who's prime agenda is to not be part of the mainstream but cannot explain, when questioned, why that is the case.
I thought I'd better say something here just to give you a small mote of excitement as you actually see a reply to your (very pertinent) question.
However, I wouldn't expect any more replies - always goes very quiet on Slashdot when the subject gets on to legal copies of Microsoft anything...
Re:Why this is significant: Risk Reduction
on
Going To Boot Camp
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· Score: 1
Now you've turned this into a simple anti-XP rant. Why can't you just be honest and adult about it?
I prefer Linux to XP, by far - I enjoy using Linux, I love tinkering with kernels & compilers & 80% of my computing time is spent using it. But, I also enjoy games & I'm used to Word, Excel & Powerpoint so when I need to knock out a spreadsheet or presentation at work, those are what I use to do it in. Perhaps when I find the time to fully explore what OpenOffice can do in comparison, then I may move to that fully - but that's for the future.
But as far as I'm concerned, a computer is there to let me do a job as quickly as possible and I'm lucky enough to be pretty knowledgeable in both UNIX/Linux & Windows to have a wide choice of tools to choose from when I need to do something with a computer.
So if you Apple users want to use XP then fine, no different to what I do... but then get off the "Mac OS X" is superior "high horse" and just get on and do it...
Re:Why this is significant: Risk Reduction
on
Going To Boot Camp
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Rubbish.
Sorry to be so blunt but your argument fails on several counts:
1. Since most "home users" have got Windows XP on their PCs as an OEM license, possibly with a Dell/HP/etc recovery disk for their PC, there is no way they can migrate run XP on an Apple unless they go buy a proper copy of XP on a CD at their local computer store. So, in their "unsureness" about commiting fully to Apple, not only do they have to pay for completely new hardware but also another copy of XP (in most cases). I don't see many "home user" types bothering with that at all.
2. Let's lump all the Linux and OS X "home users" into the same group for one moment. The chances are that group of people have moved to their non-Microsoft OS of choice because they are pretty savvy with computers, have had a lot of experience with Windows in the past and have made an informed decision to use an alternative. But it is not Joe Average-types that do this, it's people with some knowledge about computers that do it.
In reality, you're trying to hide what is, in fact, a big climb-down and U-turn by a lot of Apple users. Before, you couldn't run XP so you spent a lot of time on here detailing the superiority of OS X to XP - but now you can run it, it's a different matter...
...and if you'd bothered to read my comment properly, you'd have read that I also spoke favourably about customising a Windows XP installation disk to the point where you wouldn't need any external drivers disks either.
The point I was actually making (which I shall reiterate now exclusively for your benefit) is that given a small subset of hardware, just about any OS you can think of can be installed simply by virtue of a customised installation disk.
So perhaps next time, read the WHOLE POST rather than hitting the "Reply" button the moment anyone mentions Linux.
It's kinda cool that Apple can essentially release ONE drivers disk and be done with it.
Erm, I hate to say this but install Solaris on a piece of Sun hardware and you need NO drivers disk...
Why do you believe this is anything special? It just so happens that an Apple box contains a limited range of hardware which makes it relatively easy to create a single installation CD. Just about every big IT department that uses a limited range of Dell or IBM or HP laptops creates a Windows XP installation CD with all the drivers in place from the moment of install.
With Linux, it's even easier (as long as you know what hardware you're trying to get working) - just create a custom kernel with all the modules you need and install the packages you need on top of it. Else how does Knoppix detect & set up a lot of hardware from a single boot CD.
Sometimes you Apple people need to look beyond the "cool" factor of their products and see what else is going on in the world...
Please don't include me in your definition of "people". I take my music very seriously & I'm on the constant lookout for good, new music that's usually non-mainstream stuff. The problem I have is I won't part with my money unless I've had a fairly good preview of what I might buy - and because I don't buy mainstream music, it's difficult getting to hear it on the radio.
What you really should be saying is "some people aren't enthusiastic enough about music to venture beyond the 40 or so CDs on the shelf of their local supermarket" - that's fine, I'm not enthusiastic enough about water-skiing to want to step on two bits of wood behind a fast boat although I'll happily sit on the boat dock with a sandwich and watch someone else water ski. In the same way, there's people who buy music because they are true music enthusiasts and people who buy music to have as background noise in the car, while doing the housework, etc. Just don't lump us all together...
anything mainstream is garbage
Certainly just about all the stuff that gets forcefed to me over the airwaves is garbage in my opinion. I wouldn't go so far as to say ALL mainstream music is garbage but given what I have sampled, it doesn't look that good for the rest of it.
inevitably it always turns into a few people who have an agenda against popular music talking about all of the ways to get "real" music without the DRM.
As far as I'm concerned, the two are pretty much totally intertwined. I could argue that if most of the population felt mainstream music was worth the money being asked for it, then they would be less inclined to copy it and more inclined to buy it. Therefore DRM wouldn't be needed quite as much as the record companies think it is...
From my perspective, the chances are that I have to do a lot of research finding music that appeals to me so when I do find it and then spend money on the CD, I feel I'm getting good value for money - therefore I don't copy the stuff.
Sorry, but the reason why record companies have had to artificially manufacture "70s" and "80s" revivals in recent years are twofold:
1. The current mainstream music scene is far too weak to stand on its own merits - therefore sales need to be bolstered by re-releasing old music, and,
2. If those artists from the 70s and 80s were themselves any good, then there would be no need to revive them again because they would still be selling in huge volumes. (When has there ever been a need to "revive" The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, U2, etc, etc? Note that those named artists do NOT necessarily reflect my personal tastes, by the way - I use them as examples only).
I don't need to be smug about anything because I'm perfectly fat, dumb and happy with a large music collection that stems the 50s to modern-day music - more than enough to last me a lifetime.
But as someone who is GENUINELY a music enthusiast, I have to say far too much modern-music is manufactured plastic trash designed to fill record company coffers as quickly as possible.
Look, I personally see no appeal in on-line gaming, I'm more than happy pootling along on a LAN with the occasional game of Unreal Tournament or digging out a classic retro game I've collected over the years to fill my playtime hours.
But look at this from the perspective of the games companies. What you're now being provided with are long-term games that don't cost £35-£40 a time for about 24-hours worth of gameplay time - now you're looking at MMORPGs that you could feasibly be playing for years. So whereas before, you were buying a game a month from the games companies, now you're not doing that any more - THEY NEED TO MAKE THEIR MONEY SOMEHOW, PEOPLE!!!
Personally, about the only downloadable "thing" I've ever paid money for are a couple of applications that I thought were worth the money - other than that, paying for someone to move the heads on my hard disk so they write a paricular combination of "1"s and "0"s on my disk platter is not a concept I am comfortable with... Call me old fashioned but I need something shiny and plastic in my hands before the money disappears from my wallet - I don't buy downloadable music and I don't pay for downloadable game mods. But that's just me being a middle-aged old fart who happily stepped off the "fashion bus" some ten years ago with a cheery little wave as it disappeared into the sunset...
As far as I'm concerned, the major games companies are scum-sucking bottom feeders who should be first against the wall when the revolution comes - but then they've ALWAYS been scum-sucking bottom feeders, whether they churned out short-life games on CD or long-term MMORPGs on the Internet.
I don't claim to UNDERSTAND this concept of parting with money for binary bits but the same capitalist society that provided me with hours of fun in the form of a nice shiny Duke Nukem 3D CD also provides a new generation of gamers with their online entertainment.
So even though I find going to the pub & talking to real people infinitely more preferable than socialising with virtual ones, I say "If they want it, then let them get on with it."
So let's stop trying to rationlise this whole thing - we've one band of people that like online gaming and another band that don't; neither understands each others' point of view and neither ever will.
If you don't like it, you don't have to pay for it - it's that simple. Let them that do get on with it & come down the pub with me for a beer or two...
Magnatunes (as I understand it) are just a distributor of pre-recorded music so it's pretty safe to assume that by the time Magnatunes has an artist on its web site, that artist has (somehow) paid for studio time & a master recording to give to Magnatunes to sell on their behalf. Going on from that, whatever genre the Magnatunes artists happen to be in, it's pretty safe to assume that they've not got budgets for huge production & mixing so the chances are these people are "real" talented musicians producing quality music. I guess, therefore, the success of Magnatunes depends on whether or not they can maintain a catalogue of musicians who are not "in it for the money" because these musicians probably don't make much when starting out like this.
On the other hand, "that Spears woman" can empty the contents of her stomach into a tin bucket & the huge amount of big record company production budget can make it sound nice (at least to the immature teenager ear anyway).
Potentially, therefore, we might have a possible future where all the "good" music is distributed for download from Magnatunes-type distributors while all the "manufactured" stuff goes through the big record companies - possibly to the point where it is just teenage money filling big record company coffers while the adults of this world flock to Magnatunes and their ilk.
I have to admit that having been staunchly anti-downloadable music (I prefer to rip my own CDs myself), Magnatunes definitely has one or two bands on there that I do like the idea of checking out - especially because I can listen to some of the music first.
Microsoft REALLY should have worked on making guest accounts more manageable.
The whole account/priveliges issue on Windows is so convoluted as to be totally incomprehensible to the UNIX mind - I can't understand how the damn thing works!
"Me", "All My Mates", "Everyone Else In The World" and "If you're really good I'll let you run this as 'root'" is all I've ever needed to cover all the account bases...
I fail to see the similarity. Where I live public transportation is not an option, so people get drivers licenses because they NEED them. Computer skills are only USEFUL
You can bank online, you get cheaper prices with shopping online, you can message people anywhere on the globe immediately... I'd say that computer skills are pretty much a necessity - except for maybe the elderly.
In addition, you're happy to levy taxes on others, because you have years of experience.
No, I'm happy to levy taxes on people when they refuse to take responsibility for their own lives as an incentive to make them do it. Too many people are far too damn lazy, they want everything handed to them on a plate. When my Internet connection slows down because they can't be bothered to update a virus checker, their lack of knowledge affects me despite the fact I've invested a lot of time and effort in becoming knowledgeable about computers.
Sorry, but if you store your bank details on an Internet-connected PC and they get stolen, its your own fault for not taking the time to research and understand the ramifications of security and instrusion risks. By all means sue Microsoft if it makes you feel better but if you're stupid enough to believe all the marketing lies in the first place, that's your problem.
Thank you, I'll pay my own training costs if and when it matters, don't bother 'helping' me like this.
Thanks for that statement also. You're taking control of your own destiny - you're making a responsible decision. Thus proving my point.
Me, I've been a skilled operator, but I'm only a user now that I'm not in a tech field anymore.
Yes, but you continue to those skills as you get older. I've done tech support in telecoms and IT for 20 years now. I've developed a logical approach to fault finding meaning that I'll have a go at fixing a wahing machine if it goes wrong or getting a soldering iron out if a piece of electronics stops working - not always successfully, mind, but I apply my existing logical approach to solving a problem.
Switch to Gentoo Linux. Seriously. If you do updates regularly, you've no need to do a full upgrade - just a few components here & there.
It can get more complex upgrading a kernel, especially if you have to "emerge" (Gentoo's update process) drivers again but as long as you keep your previous working kernel as a standby, it's usually just a little fiddling and some time to get the new kernel up and working as you want it - after a while, it becomes fairly automatic.
I'm not saying it's all "hunky dory" with Gentoo but when there's a problem with it, the Gentoo Forums are a good place to go look for a fix - invariably someone else has encountered the same problem and has a fix for it.
I've not used Red Hat since about v8 (never used Fedora) so I don't know how they've improved since then - but I sure don't miss the RPM dependency problems I used to get with it.
Your 20 years buys you some cred, but your sneers just pissed it away.
Sorry, but ignorance is no excuse.
When you're learning to drive a car (in the UK) you have "L" plates on your vehicle and can't go on the motorways until you pass a test to prove you're competent to drive on the road. Most people invest a lot of time and money doing this - mainly because they want to own a car and the law forces them to take a driving test.
A logical extension is to apply this to computer users.
And no, I don't mean "just" Windows users because everyone gets put through the same test, no matter what PC or OS you have - have the government levy a tax on uncertified users, put that money into funding better IT skills and equipment in schools & let you off the tax when you pass the test.
I have seen what some peoples machines look like, completely crippled and unusable with Malware... What the hell are these people doing?
My missus and I both have an XP desktop each (amongst a few Linux boxes of mine). She's pretty regular with virus-scanning and spyware checkers, I'm totally paranoid and do regular checks on everything (Linux and Windows). Suffice it to say, going through this process one or twice a week, I never really find any problems - occasional suspect registry keys, odd dodgy cookie but probably put those down to over-zealous spyware programs.
Cue the visit from my sister one weekend, along with 13-year old niece and 11-year old nephew. Naturally, they navigate themselves to the XP desktops after asking for (and getting) permission from the missus to do so.
They're messing about on the PCs most of the day (cold Winter's day in England) and I occasionally look in on them - chatting with friends on MSN, playing the odd Flash game, looking at music sites (niece) and soccer and WWF wrestling sites (nephew). They seem to spend a lot of time in a chat site called something like "The Doll Palace" where they pick avatar characters and drag them to different rooms of the palace to chat - keeping an eye on them, just a lot of kids going "Cool", "Wow" and nattering about music, nothing suspect.
After they've gone home, I check the machines just to check they've been doing nothing suspect - nope, just kids being kids. Then I virus/spyware check both machines - three viruses (2 on one machine, 1 on the other) and about two dozen suspect spyware bits and pieces - I couldn't believe it, especially as one of the viruses needed a safe reboot of the PC, deleting a registry entry and then a couple of files.
God knows where they came from but I suspect a lot of this stuff is attached to seemingly innocent sites where kids flock to - "The Doll Palace" is definitely one I'd like to know more about...
Two solutions: first, don't try recovering a PC operating system by first booting the infected operating system. Second, if you boot from a clean system, you shouldn't have to completely reinstall, just hit the ones that changed.
10 out of 10 for the sound advice but you're forgetting one important factor - the millions of "chumps" running Internet-connected Windows boxes who have enough of a problem locating the power switch, let alone a clean disk to boot from...
Unfortunately, 5% of the Windows community owns 95% of it's combined Windows knowledge - personally, I'd keep the chumps from connecting to the Internet in the first place until they passed a PC proficiency exam...
Slashdot Mirror
but my email server isn't overloaded with a lot of shit
we'll fire your ass
Perhaps with all the money you save on bandwidth costs, your boss can afford to send you on an "interpersonal skills" course - or maybe just send you to English grammar evening classes...
No, I don't find foul language offensive - I just have little time for people that consider the overuse of it as being cool or clever.
1. Use DOSBox (just Google for it) and that gives you a DOS-like environment that lets you play lots of original games as they were, or,
2. Just Google for some Doom ports that use the original data files within rewritten executables. Can't remember them all but try JDoom & NewDoom (again in Google).
Consequently, I've already paid for the rights to play a lot of games already where the floppy disks or tapes they were supplied on have long since deteriorated and have been binned.
So those who are anti-Abandonware should bear this point in mind...
Robertson should immediately be distanced from everyone else in the Open Source community - Open Source, whether it's Linux apps on Linux kernels or Windows apps on Windows is about OPEN & HONEST communications with the rest of the world - Robertson is NOT honest.
Personally, I'd even go a stage further & get the GPL modified to exclude that lying, good-for-nothing, scumbag marketeer from ever even touching Open Source.
2. You have to have a kernel that supports ELF binaries - okay, accepted, and more than likely this support is on by default in most distros. However, change the setting and recompile the kernel unless you really need ELF support and the virus can't run anyway.
3. Infects every file in current directory - okay, so there's some assumptions being made here. Firstly, it's safe to assume that the virus won't infect text-based files so scripts and "READMEs" won't be touched - therefore it's looking to infect binaries only. Now, it's probably safe to assume that the virus only infects other ELF binaries but let's take a pessimistic approach and say that when you run the virus, all other binaries in the current directory will be infected. Putting root aside for a moment, that means that as a normal Linux user, you can only place and run that file in your home directory or a sub directory off of it. So therefore, the scenario you are looking at is a normal user running the virus in a directory of binaries off of his home directory to make any threat to the system. Otherwise, as root, you'd need to plant the virus in /bin or /usr/bin (or in the $PATH somewhere) for users to unwittingly use it - erm, if you're a root user who puts unchecked binaries on his/her system, you DESERVE all you get and DON'T deserve to have root access!
I won't try to defend the Windows side of things in the same way because I'm not that deeply into Windows architecture but even with what I know, this virus on Windows seems MUCH LESS of a threat than many others on Windows.
Of course, it just so happens Kaspersky Labs make a virus engine that they license/sell to lots of other companies - call me a cynic but...
Yes, agreed. Exactly one of the reasons I prefer Linux to XP. But I thought the whole idea of OS X was completely hiding the shell from the user. I thought one of the reasons to USE OS X was because you got a slick GUI-ed OS on slick hardware. Kind of a contradiction...
And I don't play games (like most "adults")
Ah. This was beginning to become an interesting conversation and then you make a totally wild statement that totally killed any argument you add - presumably you said that to take a swipe at me (missed completely since I love games playing at the grand old age of 44 and hope to continue doing so long into my old age) & to, once again, put yourself into another elitist minority ("I'm an adult because I don't play games") because you fear being "mainstream" so much.
It seems to me that the person who has an agenda here is /you/
If you mean I have an agenda to voice my opinion intelligently then, yes, I have an agenda. I'm more than willing to listen to reasoned argument but it seems I am just speaking to someone who's prime agenda is to not be part of the mainstream but cannot explain, when questioned, why that is the case.
However, I wouldn't expect any more replies - always goes very quiet on Slashdot when the subject gets on to legal copies of Microsoft anything...
I prefer Linux to XP, by far - I enjoy using Linux, I love tinkering with kernels & compilers & 80% of my computing time is spent using it. But, I also enjoy games & I'm used to Word, Excel & Powerpoint so when I need to knock out a spreadsheet or presentation at work, those are what I use to do it in. Perhaps when I find the time to fully explore what OpenOffice can do in comparison, then I may move to that fully - but that's for the future.
But as far as I'm concerned, a computer is there to let me do a job as quickly as possible and I'm lucky enough to be pretty knowledgeable in both UNIX/Linux & Windows to have a wide choice of tools to choose from when I need to do something with a computer.
So if you Apple users want to use XP then fine, no different to what I do... but then get off the "Mac OS X" is superior "high horse" and just get on and do it...
Sorry to be so blunt but your argument fails on several counts:
1. Since most "home users" have got Windows XP on their PCs as an OEM license, possibly with a Dell/HP/etc recovery disk for their PC, there is no way they can migrate run XP on an Apple unless they go buy a proper copy of XP on a CD at their local computer store. So, in their "unsureness" about commiting fully to Apple, not only do they have to pay for completely new hardware but also another copy of XP (in most cases). I don't see many "home user" types bothering with that at all.
2. Let's lump all the Linux and OS X "home users" into the same group for one moment. The chances are that group of people have moved to their non-Microsoft OS of choice because they are pretty savvy with computers, have had a lot of experience with Windows in the past and have made an informed decision to use an alternative. But it is not Joe Average-types that do this, it's people with some knowledge about computers that do it.
In reality, you're trying to hide what is, in fact, a big climb-down and U-turn by a lot of Apple users. Before, you couldn't run XP so you spent a lot of time on here detailing the superiority of OS X to XP - but now you can run it, it's a different matter...
The point I was actually making (which I shall reiterate now exclusively for your benefit) is that given a small subset of hardware, just about any OS you can think of can be installed simply by virtue of a customised installation disk.
So perhaps next time, read the WHOLE POST rather than hitting the "Reply" button the moment anyone mentions Linux.
Erm, I hate to say this but install Solaris on a piece of Sun hardware and you need NO drivers disk...
Why do you believe this is anything special? It just so happens that an Apple box contains a limited range of hardware which makes it relatively easy to create a single installation CD. Just about every big IT department that uses a limited range of Dell or IBM or HP laptops creates a Windows XP installation CD with all the drivers in place from the moment of install.
With Linux, it's even easier (as long as you know what hardware you're trying to get working) - just create a custom kernel with all the modules you need and install the packages you need on top of it. Else how does Knoppix detect & set up a lot of hardware from a single boot CD.
Sometimes you Apple people need to look beyond the "cool" factor of their products and see what else is going on in the world...
Give me a shout if you hear of any wanting the "early but quick" one, will ya?
What do you get if you cross Stallman with the RIAA?
DRMS.
I'll still get my coat though...
I'll get my coat...
I agree, that was a damned good live album by him - I particularly liked the encore track he did "Pulling The Goolies Off Of Trolls"...
Please don't include me in your definition of "people". I take my music very seriously & I'm on the constant lookout for good, new music that's usually non-mainstream stuff. The problem I have is I won't part with my money unless I've had a fairly good preview of what I might buy - and because I don't buy mainstream music, it's difficult getting to hear it on the radio.
What you really should be saying is "some people aren't enthusiastic enough about music to venture beyond the 40 or so CDs on the shelf of their local supermarket" - that's fine, I'm not enthusiastic enough about water-skiing to want to step on two bits of wood behind a fast boat although I'll happily sit on the boat dock with a sandwich and watch someone else water ski. In the same way, there's people who buy music because they are true music enthusiasts and people who buy music to have as background noise in the car, while doing the housework, etc. Just don't lump us all together...
anything mainstream is garbage
Certainly just about all the stuff that gets forcefed to me over the airwaves is garbage in my opinion. I wouldn't go so far as to say ALL mainstream music is garbage but given what I have sampled, it doesn't look that good for the rest of it.
inevitably it always turns into a few people who have an agenda against popular music talking about all of the ways to get "real" music without the DRM.
As far as I'm concerned, the two are pretty much totally intertwined. I could argue that if most of the population felt mainstream music was worth the money being asked for it, then they would be less inclined to copy it and more inclined to buy it. Therefore DRM wouldn't be needed quite as much as the record companies think it is...
From my perspective, the chances are that I have to do a lot of research finding music that appeals to me so when I do find it and then spend money on the CD, I feel I'm getting good value for money - therefore I don't copy the stuff.
Sorry, but the reason why record companies have had to artificially manufacture "70s" and "80s" revivals in recent years are twofold:
1. The current mainstream music scene is far too weak to stand on its own merits - therefore sales need to be bolstered by re-releasing old music, and,
2. If those artists from the 70s and 80s were themselves any good, then there would be no need to revive them again because they would still be selling in huge volumes. (When has there ever been a need to "revive" The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, U2, etc, etc? Note that those named artists do NOT necessarily reflect my personal tastes, by the way - I use them as examples only).
I don't need to be smug about anything because I'm perfectly fat, dumb and happy with a large music collection that stems the 50s to modern-day music - more than enough to last me a lifetime.
But as someone who is GENUINELY a music enthusiast, I have to say far too much modern-music is manufactured plastic trash designed to fill record company coffers as quickly as possible.
...despite being three days late for April Fools Day.
But look at this from the perspective of the games companies. What you're now being provided with are long-term games that don't cost £35-£40 a time for about 24-hours worth of gameplay time - now you're looking at MMORPGs that you could feasibly be playing for years. So whereas before, you were buying a game a month from the games companies, now you're not doing that any more - THEY NEED TO MAKE THEIR MONEY SOMEHOW, PEOPLE!!!
Personally, about the only downloadable "thing" I've ever paid money for are a couple of applications that I thought were worth the money - other than that, paying for someone to move the heads on my hard disk so they write a paricular combination of "1"s and "0"s on my disk platter is not a concept I am comfortable with... Call me old fashioned but I need something shiny and plastic in my hands before the money disappears from my wallet - I don't buy downloadable music and I don't pay for downloadable game mods. But that's just me being a middle-aged old fart who happily stepped off the "fashion bus" some ten years ago with a cheery little wave as it disappeared into the sunset...
As far as I'm concerned, the major games companies are scum-sucking bottom feeders who should be first against the wall when the revolution comes - but then they've ALWAYS been scum-sucking bottom feeders, whether they churned out short-life games on CD or long-term MMORPGs on the Internet.
I don't claim to UNDERSTAND this concept of parting with money for binary bits but the same capitalist society that provided me with hours of fun in the form of a nice shiny Duke Nukem 3D CD also provides a new generation of gamers with their online entertainment.
So even though I find going to the pub & talking to real people infinitely more preferable than socialising with virtual ones, I say "If they want it, then let them get on with it."
So let's stop trying to rationlise this whole thing - we've one band of people that like online gaming and another band that don't; neither understands each others' point of view and neither ever will.
If you don't like it, you don't have to pay for it - it's that simple. Let them that do get on with it & come down the pub with me for a beer or two...
Magnatunes (as I understand it) are just a distributor of pre-recorded music so it's pretty safe to assume that by the time Magnatunes has an artist on its web site, that artist has (somehow) paid for studio time & a master recording to give to Magnatunes to sell on their behalf. Going on from that, whatever genre the Magnatunes artists happen to be in, it's pretty safe to assume that they've not got budgets for huge production & mixing so the chances are these people are "real" talented musicians producing quality music. I guess, therefore, the success of Magnatunes depends on whether or not they can maintain a catalogue of musicians who are not "in it for the money" because these musicians probably don't make much when starting out like this.
On the other hand, "that Spears woman" can empty the contents of her stomach into a tin bucket & the huge amount of big record company production budget can make it sound nice (at least to the immature teenager ear anyway).
Potentially, therefore, we might have a possible future where all the "good" music is distributed for download from Magnatunes-type distributors while all the "manufactured" stuff goes through the big record companies - possibly to the point where it is just teenage money filling big record company coffers while the adults of this world flock to Magnatunes and their ilk.
I have to admit that having been staunchly anti-downloadable music (I prefer to rip my own CDs myself), Magnatunes definitely has one or two bands on there that I do like the idea of checking out - especially because I can listen to some of the music first.
The whole account/priveliges issue on Windows is so convoluted as to be totally incomprehensible to the UNIX mind - I can't understand how the damn thing works!
"Me", "All My Mates", "Everyone Else In The World" and "If you're really good I'll let you run this as 'root'" is all I've ever needed to cover all the account bases...
You can bank online, you get cheaper prices with shopping online, you can message people anywhere on the globe immediately... I'd say that computer skills are pretty much a necessity - except for maybe the elderly.
In addition, you're happy to levy taxes on others, because you have years of experience.
No, I'm happy to levy taxes on people when they refuse to take responsibility for their own lives as an incentive to make them do it. Too many people are far too damn lazy, they want everything handed to them on a plate. When my Internet connection slows down because they can't be bothered to update a virus checker, their lack of knowledge affects me despite the fact I've invested a lot of time and effort in becoming knowledgeable about computers.
Sorry, but if you store your bank details on an Internet-connected PC and they get stolen, its your own fault for not taking the time to research and understand the ramifications of security and instrusion risks. By all means sue Microsoft if it makes you feel better but if you're stupid enough to believe all the marketing lies in the first place, that's your problem.
Thank you, I'll pay my own training costs if and when it matters, don't bother 'helping' me like this.
Thanks for that statement also. You're taking control of your own destiny - you're making a responsible decision. Thus proving my point.
Me, I've been a skilled operator, but I'm only a user now that I'm not in a tech field anymore.
Yes, but you continue to those skills as you get older. I've done tech support in telecoms and IT for 20 years now. I've developed a logical approach to fault finding meaning that I'll have a go at fixing a wahing machine if it goes wrong or getting a soldering iron out if a piece of electronics stops working - not always successfully, mind, but I apply my existing logical approach to solving a problem.
Switch to Gentoo Linux. Seriously. If you do updates regularly, you've no need to do a full upgrade - just a few components here & there.
It can get more complex upgrading a kernel, especially if you have to "emerge" (Gentoo's update process) drivers again but as long as you keep your previous working kernel as a standby, it's usually just a little fiddling and some time to get the new kernel up and working as you want it - after a while, it becomes fairly automatic.
I'm not saying it's all "hunky dory" with Gentoo but when there's a problem with it, the Gentoo Forums are a good place to go look for a fix - invariably someone else has encountered the same problem and has a fix for it.
I've not used Red Hat since about v8 (never used Fedora) so I don't know how they've improved since then - but I sure don't miss the RPM dependency problems I used to get with it.
Sorry, but ignorance is no excuse.
When you're learning to drive a car (in the UK) you have "L" plates on your vehicle and can't go on the motorways until you pass a test to prove you're competent to drive on the road. Most people invest a lot of time and money doing this - mainly because they want to own a car and the law forces them to take a driving test.
A logical extension is to apply this to computer users.
And no, I don't mean "just" Windows users because everyone gets put through the same test, no matter what PC or OS you have - have the government levy a tax on uncertified users, put that money into funding better IT skills and equipment in schools & let you off the tax when you pass the test.
Makes absolutely perfect sense to me...
My missus and I both have an XP desktop each (amongst a few Linux boxes of mine). She's pretty regular with virus-scanning and spyware checkers, I'm totally paranoid and do regular checks on everything (Linux and Windows). Suffice it to say, going through this process one or twice a week, I never really find any problems - occasional suspect registry keys, odd dodgy cookie but probably put those down to over-zealous spyware programs.
Cue the visit from my sister one weekend, along with 13-year old niece and 11-year old nephew. Naturally, they navigate themselves to the XP desktops after asking for (and getting) permission from the missus to do so.
They're messing about on the PCs most of the day (cold Winter's day in England) and I occasionally look in on them - chatting with friends on MSN, playing the odd Flash game, looking at music sites (niece) and soccer and WWF wrestling sites (nephew). They seem to spend a lot of time in a chat site called something like "The Doll Palace" where they pick avatar characters and drag them to different rooms of the palace to chat - keeping an eye on them, just a lot of kids going "Cool", "Wow" and nattering about music, nothing suspect.
After they've gone home, I check the machines just to check they've been doing nothing suspect - nope, just kids being kids. Then I virus/spyware check both machines - three viruses (2 on one machine, 1 on the other) and about two dozen suspect spyware bits and pieces - I couldn't believe it, especially as one of the viruses needed a safe reboot of the PC, deleting a registry entry and then a couple of files.
God knows where they came from but I suspect a lot of this stuff is attached to seemingly innocent sites where kids flock to - "The Doll Palace" is definitely one I'd like to know more about...
10 out of 10 for the sound advice but you're forgetting one important factor - the millions of "chumps" running Internet-connected Windows boxes who have enough of a problem locating the power switch, let alone a clean disk to boot from...
Unfortunately, 5% of the Windows community owns 95% of it's combined Windows knowledge - personally, I'd keep the chumps from connecting to the Internet in the first place until they passed a PC proficiency exam...