It's old news, but Sony's attempt to put a stopper on "illegal burning" of CDs was to add an extra feature to it, that made it crash a computer every time it was played. The way this can be prevented is to look on the written side of the cd, and see where the data containing the music had been recorded. A little more to the outside, a line of data featuring the Anti-copy information exists. If you take any old marker and draw over this "feature", the disk will "theoretically" work on computers as well. Utterly pointless.... What next? As was said: Cds that crash and burn when put through more than 1X speed? CDs that crash cd players? CD-players that wear out cds, so you'll have to buy a new one every week? Scary..
True.. with Microsoft running a near-monopoly in the trade, there's little chance for "smaller" companies to get too far. In this world, no matter how "good" you are, you wont get anywhere without a name. For someone with little knowledge of the trade, like myself, it's hard to build up trust for new, or less-known companies. You may own a PC, but most often, it will use Windows as its operating system; just because the name is recommended. If you see the name "Microsoft" somewhere, you know exactly what you're going to get (fancy looking programs that disconnect you from anything you're trying to do on a computer...then make you buy more fancy products to update the way you're disconnected), you see Linux, and you may have heard the name occasionally. You struggle to find more, and you find that, you're being promised numerous supposedly good things. Your trust may build up gradually, but with a company that isn't big enough, the slightest provocation indicating failure may direct your attention away. If the same thing happened to Microsoft, people would only joke about it for a while, or for a lifetime, but it wouldn't affect their sales. There are only a few companies in the software business anyway. Most companies start out in, say, a garage, and work their way somewhere, but rarely even get a chance to advance anywhere.
Having a name that people recognize is all too important. Someone in a company may be a really good consultant. Perhaps even one of the best. But it's really risky to start up your own company, even if you have the knowledge and talent to. Your name means everything, they wont see "James & Jones Consulting" and go there knowing that they are the ones for the job. Most people with a name can make more money than talented people by bluffing! I know a guy in a Higher Level math class, which is meant for math geniuses. He, however merely acts as if he knows what to do...but most surprisingly of all: it works!
I really hope Transmeta pull through.. We may need a less expensive way to fuck-up our computers in the near future.
Now there's an uncomfortable reality-turned thought. I'll try not to imagine having windows run absolutely anything in my car. Can any of you honestly picture yourselves saying something in the lines of: "Oh, damn, hang on, I need to reboot my car", followed by the keystroke: "ctrl+alt+delete"... Just picture how much more money Microsoft will make! I mean, they're already making millions off extra elements in computers that people need, basically because there's no other way to make the damned thing work. Soon, cars will develop similar "necessities"...
With all the rebooting and overheating that occurs on highways, people will go bankrupt just because they have to call a TechSupport number every ten minutes. How about the use of the internet? We'll gain an all new form of "single-handed surfing" which may even turn out to be the leading cause of death.. desperate and lonely middle-aged male drivers will not be able to keep their eyes off the nude women featured in their car's computer screen. By the time some psycho takes on the challenge to create another nice virus, permitting an even more elaborate death than aids, there'll be nothing left to kill but tree huggers. All of this thanks to the car "crashes" and middle-aged men attempting to drive without using their hands... If we survive the forthcoming human genocide masked as "technological advancement", we'll most probably evolve a second set of arms just to masturbate... now, wouldn't THAT be something!
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It's old news, but Sony's attempt to put a stopper on "illegal burning" of CDs was to add an extra feature to it, that made it crash a computer every time it was played. The way this can be prevented is to look on the written side of the cd, and see where the data containing the music had been recorded. A little more to the outside, a line of data featuring the Anti-copy information exists. If you take any old marker and draw over this "feature", the disk will "theoretically" work on computers as well. Utterly pointless.... What next? As was said: Cds that crash and burn when put through more than 1X speed? CDs that crash cd players? CD-players that wear out cds, so you'll have to buy a new one every week? Scary..
True.. with Microsoft running a near-monopoly in the trade, there's little chance for "smaller" companies to get too far. In this world, no matter how "good" you are, you wont get anywhere without a name. For someone with little knowledge of the trade, like myself, it's hard to build up trust for new, or less-known companies. You may own a PC, but most often, it will use Windows as its operating system; just because the name is recommended. If you see the name "Microsoft" somewhere, you know exactly what you're going to get (fancy looking programs that disconnect you from anything you're trying to do on a computer...then make you buy more fancy products to update the way you're disconnected), you see Linux, and you may have heard the name occasionally. You struggle to find more, and you find that, you're being promised numerous supposedly good things. Your trust may build up gradually, but with a company that isn't big enough, the slightest provocation indicating failure may direct your attention away. If the same thing happened to Microsoft, people would only joke about it for a while, or for a lifetime, but it wouldn't affect their sales. There are only a few companies in the software business anyway. Most companies start out in, say, a garage, and work their way somewhere, but rarely even get a chance to advance anywhere. Having a name that people recognize is all too important. Someone in a company may be a really good consultant. Perhaps even one of the best. But it's really risky to start up your own company, even if you have the knowledge and talent to. Your name means everything, they wont see "James & Jones Consulting" and go there knowing that they are the ones for the job. Most people with a name can make more money than talented people by bluffing! I know a guy in a Higher Level math class, which is meant for math geniuses. He, however merely acts as if he knows what to do...but most surprisingly of all: it works! I really hope Transmeta pull through.. We may need a less expensive way to fuck-up our computers in the near future.
Now there's an uncomfortable reality-turned thought. I'll try not to imagine having windows run absolutely anything in my car. Can any of you honestly picture yourselves saying something in the lines of: "Oh, damn, hang on, I need to reboot my car", followed by the keystroke: "ctrl+alt+delete"... Just picture how much more money Microsoft will make! I mean, they're already making millions off extra elements in computers that people need, basically because there's no other way to make the damned thing work. Soon, cars will develop similar "necessities"... With all the rebooting and overheating that occurs on highways, people will go bankrupt just because they have to call a TechSupport number every ten minutes. How about the use of the internet? We'll gain an all new form of "single-handed surfing" which may even turn out to be the leading cause of death.. desperate and lonely middle-aged male drivers will not be able to keep their eyes off the nude women featured in their car's computer screen. By the time some psycho takes on the challenge to create another nice virus, permitting an even more elaborate death than aids, there'll be nothing left to kill but tree huggers. All of this thanks to the car "crashes" and middle-aged men attempting to drive without using their hands... If we survive the forthcoming human genocide masked as "technological advancement", we'll most probably evolve a second set of arms just to masturbate... now, wouldn't THAT be something!