ok. yeah I was wrong. hope you didn't hold your breath too long.:)
you are correct, it was always possible to get a free browswer from netscape.
what I mean to say and what I typed is two different things, but what I was getting it was that you couldn't get a full featured browser for free until IE came along, because you had to pay for the "Gold" edition (if I remember correctly).
There were commercial servers, and free ones. The free one now currently dominates, and there is one winner amongst the commercial servers.
So does this mean that open source is evil because it killed every commercial server ? (or unix distribution for that matter).
The bottom line is that MPEG-LA should be giving away what they are charging for. They are doing the exact same thing that everyone bashes Microsoft for - having proprietary file formats.
Let me see if I get this straight.
Theres a consortium of companies called MPEG-LA that is currently charging waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much for a video codec. Microsoft releases a cheaper alternative which may destory MPEG-LA's business model. This is a bad thing ?
Does anyone remember that browsers didn't use to be free until Internet Explorer came along ?
Yes its true, the evil MS destroyed the good Netscape, but in the end we the consumers ended up with free web browsers. How many of you would have preferred that Netscape survived, but you had to _pay_ for a browser?
Its just competition. Theres only a few ways this can pan out.
MPEG-LA can lower their prices, which will means savings to us.
MPEG-LA can make their stuff free, which will mean savings to us
Everyone can switch to the MS format, which will mean savings to us. If the MS format turns out to be crap or have spyware or DRM etc. built in - then an alternative _will_ come up.
Counted Iterations I'd like to be able to say "go through this loop 13056 times and then stop".
Its pretty easy to work around indexed loops, but if you have something like
while( ! done ) {
// code
}
then it gets a lot harder.
Break on value Some debuggers have this, but not any I get to use:(. I'd like to be able to say "break when foo..."
Better messages I'd like better status available to me while debugging, for example what namespace I am in, how much CPU the last instruction took, etc.
Thread debuggers Debugger spawned when threads spawned. I guess this is a pipe dream...
Getting busted for treason could be far worse - even if the charges end up being untrue - like that one nuclear chinese dude - him, his family, his private life all got dragged through the mud. Ultimately for nothing.
Bottom line - he signed a NDA and then violated it.
He deserves whatever he gets. "Information wants to be free" is crap - there is such a thing as personal responsibility.
If this guy was RMS's soul brother, and truly believed that "Information wants to be free" crap then he shouldn't have signed the contract in the first place.
Principles are only valid if you stick by them all the time, not just when they are convenient.
I don't think that Disney is "out to get us", nor did I intend to imply it.
All I was trying to say was
a) Disney is in the business of making profitable movies and associated merchandising. b) Disney prefers to spend as little as possible when making movies - increases profit c) Disney movies mostly tend to suck c) This (non-Disney) movie is so good, that it has raised the bar for animated feature films - it has gotten absolutely stellar reviews d) Disney will probably have to spend more money on movies to avoid looking bad in comparison e) This will cut into Disney's profit per movie
Thats all. No conspiracy plot, no bashing, just an opinion
If the movie wins a bunch of awards then it seems like it will be more difficult for Disney to kill it so that it won't make it onto any screens.
If it gets much more press, then people might actually see it, which as far as Disney is concerned can only be a Bad Thing.
As far as Disney is concerned there's nothing worse than to have an animated masterpiece come out - now people might actually realize just how bad the mindless movies that they shit out every year (don't forget the stuffed toys, and fast food tie-ins) truly are.
I hope this movie comes out big. I really do. Whether it happens or not, we'll just have to see.
You say "well, the money had to come from somewhere, tuition must be going up, hmm.....".
You are of course assuming that the school previously provided NO computers to the students at all. I don't know a single school that doesn't provide access to computers in libraries, etc.
By doing this they can probably:
a) stop ugrading a bunch of machines in labs b) free up the lab space for something else c) save what they used to pay someone to sit in the lab and take care of the comps d) more than likely they save on IT spending, as we all know unix is easier to maintain e) buy EXACTLY as many laptops as they need, as opposed to having a lab which has to be able to handle busy/non busy cycles
Additionally, they don't have to worry about vandalism - if a computer in a shared lab breaks, you have NFI who broke it. If a laptop checked out to a student breaks, you know who to send the bill to.
really, really, hate to be the poor sap who is lead of IE software development. I mean talk about bad publicity - IE has really taken a beating of late, and I am willing to bet that probably none of it was stuff he was responsible for.
He was probably told "go make activeX on the browser tie in seamlessly with our applications", did what they asked, and boom, all these vulnerabilities.
As far as I know, Microsoft doesn't have a policy of hiring bad programmers - in fact there are many web pages out there discussing Microsoft interview questions and how tough they are.
For some reason these stories seem extremely popular on slashdot, becuase it seems that everyone here hates microsoft.
For years Microsoft has ignored consumers/bug reports, customer service, etc. because they were invulnerable. Unfortunately, what goes around comes around.
Lets not go overboard on this stuff, lest the same thing happen to us - remember - open source does NOT mean bug free.
Does this mean that people might have to *gasp* read books ?
Or god forbid, go out and take a walk in a park, play some sort of sport, play a musical instrument, create some art, write a story, or do something to pass the time OTHER than sit on their fat asses and stare at a screen while shovelling popcorn, diet coke and gummi bears down their throats ?
So you won't be able to go watch the latest blockbuster. Big fat hairy deal. You won't be missing anything.
Lots of high quality entertainment (for now anyway) at your local library, park, gym, art store, musical instrument store.
> and there's a regulation where they must provide > you with the option of keeping the same cell > number.
You have just hit the nail right on the head.
The inability to retain the same phone # if you switch providers is the single biggest gripe I have with the united states cellphone industry.
By law you can keep your home number if you switch local service access proviers, you can rounte your business line to your house, etc., but this is not possible with cellphone numbers.
There have been several attempts at legislation to force providers to allow you to take your number with you if you jump ship, but so far these have all been swatted down by the big cellphone providers. (surprise surprise).
I'm currently stuck with sprint for this very reason - I'd like to change providers, but I can't or else I will lose my phone number.
Hopefully this will change soon, but I am not holding my breath.
soz. I'm agravvated by a recent trend, and I guess I took it out on you. Dude.
Last week someone posted an incorrect formula for Bayesian filtering and got modded up to 5, and before that someone posted a completely bogus discussion of processor pipelining which also got modded up to 5.
Seems like all you have to do is provide the illusion of information to get modded up.
Number of Slashdotters who realise that SPAMMERs are not stupid and randomly try combinations of words and numbers (bob1@hotmail.com, bob2, bob3...)...Priceless
Actually, thats not true. I have an email that looks like this b4567@domain.com and I occasionally get spam that has in the CC: fields, b4566@domain.com, etc.
MtViewGuy says : While this new system works great for the visible spectrum of the Sun's output, you still want a space-based observatory to monitor the Sun's output in the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum You will note that he ignores the critical first 3 words in that Nasa sentence.
teridon says "no, on the contrary, thats not true", and provides this quote from nasa.gov to support his refutation. "At optical wavelengths, these images are sharper than even current space-based solar observatories can produce."
and gets modded up to 5 ?
Hello.... READ. teridon basically confirmed what the other dude said - it works great, but only for for VISIBLE spectrum.
> Because I can't do direct digital copies > of the discs without expensive gear.
True. If you want to make digital copies you need a computer inbetween.
> The disc is proprietary, I can't stick it > in my computer.
Why would you want to ? it has a USB connector.
You bring up a good point tho - I always wondered why the hell Sony didn't try to make the MiniDisc the "zip disk" about ten years ago. Smaller, more capacity, waaaaaaaay cheaper. They were stupid to not do it.
Also, why is the "proprietary-ness" of the disc a bad thing ? Memory sticks are proprietary too. Sony controls the spec, but media, players and recorders are available from many manufacturers, which is the only thing that counts.
> They were out for a long time and were really > expensive.
Its a mature technology with a proven track record, market acceptance everywhere on earth except the usa, it has drastically dropped in price, and thats a bad thing ?
Some could argue that CD based MP3 players are a more versatile, but they are too big to fit in my pocket, especially when doing sports type stuff, so they don't cut it.
They're not that bad. I'm not saying they are the solution to world peace, but they are definitely better than any MP3 players out there.
MD is huge in Europe and in Japan, as well as in the professional audio industry over here. Latest algorithms bring it up to DAT quality at a fraction of the price, and the ability to plug a mic in and record anywhere is awesome (and non-existent in any mp3 player).
Take an unbiased look, and check your pro/con list vs. any mp3 player out there, and you'll see where I'm coming from.
Slashdot Mirror
ok. yeah I was wrong. hope you didn't hold your breath too long. :)
you are correct, it was always possible to get a free browswer from netscape.
what I mean to say and what I typed is two different things, but what I was getting it was that you couldn't get a full featured browser for free until IE came along, because you had to pay for the "Gold" edition (if I remember correctly).
and of course business use.
If you use it for work you have to pay for it, which means me (and probably a whole lot of other slashdotters who are also consultants.)
They also had different versions, where the pay version had features that the free one didn't.
You bring up a good point w.r.t webservers.
There were commercial servers, and free ones. The free one now currently dominates, and there is one winner amongst the commercial servers.
So does this mean that open source is evil because it killed every commercial server ? (or unix distribution for that matter).
The bottom line is that MPEG-LA should be giving away what they are charging for. They are doing the exact same thing that everyone bashes Microsoft for - having proprietary file formats.
Let me see if I get this straight. Theres a consortium of companies called MPEG-LA that is currently charging waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much for a video codec. Microsoft releases a cheaper alternative which may destory MPEG-LA's business model. This is a bad thing ? Does anyone remember that browsers didn't use to be free until Internet Explorer came along ? Yes its true, the evil MS destroyed the good Netscape, but in the end we the consumers ended up with free web browsers. How many of you would have preferred that Netscape survived, but you had to _pay_ for a browser? Its just competition. Theres only a few ways this can pan out. MPEG-LA can lower their prices, which will means savings to us. MPEG-LA can make their stuff free, which will mean savings to us Everyone can switch to the MS format, which will mean savings to us. If the MS format turns out to be crap or have spyware or DRM etc. built in - then an alternative _will_ come up.
Counted Iterations
I'd like to be able to say "go through this loop 13056 times and then stop".
Its pretty easy to work around indexed loops, but if you have something like
while( ! done ) {
}
then it gets a lot harder.
Break on value :(. I'd like to be able to say "break when foo ..."
Some debuggers have this, but not any I get to use
Better messages
I'd like better status available to me while debugging, for example what namespace I am in, how much CPU the last instruction took, etc.
Thread debuggers
Debugger spawned when threads spawned. I guess this is a pipe dream...
Getting busted for treason could be far worse - even if the charges end up being untrue - like that one nuclear chinese dude - him, his family, his private life all got dragged through the mud. Ultimately for nothing.
Bottom line - he signed a NDA and then violated it.
He deserves whatever he gets. "Information wants to be free" is crap - there is such a thing as personal responsibility.
If this guy was RMS's soul brother, and truly believed that "Information wants to be free" crap then he shouldn't have signed the contract in the first place.
Principles are only valid if you stick by them all the time, not just when they are convenient.
I don't think that Disney is "out to get us", nor did I intend to imply it.
All I was trying to say was
a) Disney is in the business of making profitable movies and associated merchandising.
b) Disney prefers to spend as little as possible when making movies - increases profit
c) Disney movies mostly tend to suck
c) This (non-Disney) movie is so good, that it has raised the bar for animated feature films - it has gotten absolutely stellar reviews
d) Disney will probably have to spend more money on movies to avoid looking bad in comparison
e) This will cut into Disney's profit per movie
Thats all. No conspiracy plot, no bashing, just an opinion
the key is - they didn't make it.
This movie is a landmark production, which raises the bar for all childrens animated films.
If you are in the business of cranking out childrens animated films, then the LAST thing you want is the bar raised....
its not offtopic, the joke refers to a plotline in the movie
If the movie wins a bunch of awards then it seems like it will be more difficult for Disney to kill it so that it won't make it onto any screens.
If it gets much more press, then people might actually see it, which as far as Disney is concerned can only be a Bad Thing.
As far as Disney is concerned there's nothing worse than to have an animated masterpiece come out - now people might actually realize just how bad the mindless movies that they shit out every year (don't forget the stuffed toys, and fast food tie-ins) truly are.
I hope this movie comes out big. I really do. Whether it happens or not, we'll just have to see.
I just bought a bunch of those for my friends.
Not too expensive, and bright as hell.
This would be pretty scary if it could separate uranium isotopes.
Going from a ton of yellocake to a few grams of u235 is an EXPENSIVE, slow process.
Now if you could do it for 12$/hr, and without using all the export controlled machinery
I lived for a while in Sacramento, CA, and they had these little "cars" that the parking meter ladies used to drive.
They were about 1/2 the size of normal cars, no doors/windows, lime green, and probably topped out at about 20mph.
Anyway, their bumpers were labelled "Interceptor" just like Mad Max's car was.
My GF at the time couldn't figure out why I thought that was so funny.
Women - no appreciation for shitty movies....
I wonder if they will make any money.
According to the article they are going to spend about 180 mil to make MM4, and MM1,2,3 combined made less than 70 mil.
But then again, these days is seems like all you need ia a hot chick and some special effects to rake it in - plot optional.
You say "well, the money had to come from somewhere, tuition must be going up, hmm.....".
You are of course assuming that the school previously provided NO computers to the students at all. I don't know a single school that doesn't provide access to computers in libraries, etc.
By doing this they can probably:
a) stop ugrading a bunch of machines in labs
b) free up the lab space for something else
c) save what they used to pay someone to sit in the lab and take care of the comps
d) more than likely they save on IT spending, as we all know unix is easier to maintain
e) buy EXACTLY as many laptops as they need, as opposed to having a lab which has to be able to handle busy/non busy cycles
Additionally, they don't have to worry about vandalism - if a computer in a shared lab breaks, you have NFI who broke it. If a laptop checked out to a student breaks, you know who to send the bill to.
It seems like a good idea to me.
really, really, hate to be the poor sap who is lead of IE software development. I mean talk about bad publicity - IE has really taken a beating of late, and I am willing to bet that probably none of it was stuff he was responsible for.
He was probably told "go make activeX on the browser tie in seamlessly with our applications", did what they asked, and boom, all these vulnerabilities.
As far as I know, Microsoft doesn't have a policy of hiring bad programmers - in fact there are many web pages out there discussing Microsoft interview questions and how tough they are.
For some reason these stories seem extremely popular on slashdot, becuase it seems that everyone here hates microsoft.
For years Microsoft has ignored consumers/bug reports, customer service, etc. because they were invulnerable. Unfortunately, what goes around comes around.
Lets not go overboard on this stuff, lest the same thing happen to us - remember - open source does NOT mean bug free.
Does this mean that people might have to *gasp* read books ?
Or god forbid, go out and take a walk in a park, play some sort of sport, play a musical instrument, create some art, write a story, or do something to pass the time OTHER than sit on their fat asses and stare at a screen while shovelling popcorn, diet coke and gummi bears down their throats ?
So you won't be able to go watch the latest blockbuster. Big fat hairy deal. You won't be missing anything.
Lots of high quality entertainment (for now anyway) at your local library, park, gym, art store, musical instrument store.
Who knows, you might improve yourself too.
> and there's a regulation where they must provide
> you with the option of keeping the same cell
> number.
You have just hit the nail right on the head.
The inability to retain the same phone # if you switch providers is the single biggest gripe I have with the united states cellphone industry.
By law you can keep your home number if you switch local service access proviers, you can rounte your business line to your house, etc., but this is not possible with cellphone numbers.
There have been several attempts at legislation to force providers to allow you to take your number with you if you jump ship, but so far these have all been swatted down by the big cellphone providers. (surprise surprise).
I'm currently stuck with sprint for this very reason - I'd like to change providers, but I can't or else I will lose my phone number.
Hopefully this will change soon, but I am not holding my breath.
soz. I'm agravvated by a recent trend, and I guess I took it out on you. Dude.
Last week someone posted an incorrect formula for Bayesian filtering and got modded up to 5, and before that someone posted a completely bogus discussion of processor pipelining which also got modded up to 5.
Seems like all you have to do is provide the illusion of information to get modded up.
RAAAAAAAAAARRRRR
Number of Slashdotters who realise that SPAMMERs are not stupid and randomly try combinations of words and numbers (bob1@hotmail.com, bob2, bob3...)...Priceless
Actually, thats not true. I have an email that looks like this b4567@domain.com and I occasionally get spam that has in the CC: fields, b4566@domain.com, etc.
Yes Virginia, they do try random adresses....
MtViewGuy says : While this new system works great for the visible spectrum of the Sun's output, you still want a space-based observatory to monitor the Sun's output in the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum You will note that he ignores the critical first 3 words in that Nasa sentence.
teridon says "no, on the contrary, thats not true", and provides this quote from nasa.gov to support his refutation. "At optical wavelengths, these images are sharper than even current space-based solar observatories can produce."
and gets modded up to 5 ?
Hello.... READ. teridon basically confirmed what the other dude said - it works great, but only for for VISIBLE spectrum.
optical != electomagnetic.
/me shakes his head and mutters...
I thought I had seen a thingy that you could hook up that will take an optical in, remove the copy protection and then shoot it out the other end.
Maybe I was wrong/wishful thinking.
I'd be interested in any information you have to share on the USB protocol.
> Because I can't do direct digital copies
> of the discs without expensive gear.
True. If you want to make digital copies you need a computer inbetween.
> The disc is proprietary, I can't stick it
> in my computer.
Why would you want to ? it has a USB connector.
You bring up a good point tho - I always wondered why the hell Sony didn't try to make the MiniDisc the "zip disk" about ten years ago. Smaller, more capacity, waaaaaaaay cheaper. They were stupid to not do it.
Also, why is the "proprietary-ness" of the disc a bad thing ? Memory sticks are proprietary too. Sony controls the spec, but media, players and recorders are available from many manufacturers, which is the only thing that counts.
> They were out for a long time and were really
> expensive.
Its a mature technology with a proven track record, market acceptance everywhere on earth except the usa, it has drastically dropped in price, and thats a bad thing ?
Some could argue that CD based MP3 players are a more versatile, but they are too big to fit in my pocket, especially when doing sports type stuff, so they don't cut it.
They're not that bad. I'm not saying they are the solution to world peace, but they are definitely better than any MP3 players out there.
MD is huge in Europe and in Japan, as well as in the professional audio industry over here. Latest algorithms bring it up to DAT quality at a fraction of the price, and the ability to plug a mic in and record anywhere is awesome (and non-existent in any mp3 player).
Take an unbiased look, and check your pro/con list vs. any mp3 player out there, and you'll see where I'm coming from.