CDex is a cdripper for windows that's GPLed. It comes with Vorbis support in its 1.30 beta2 version. Very nice program I use it when I'm in windows and don't want to reboot to use cdparanoia. It also includes LAME 3.84 as it's default encoder. Currently it's the only program that i've found that makes encoding Vorbis.ogg files easy.
It's pathetic when the U.S. Government can take a hard line on terrorism in traditional forms, but is cowed by a multinational corporation that has been demonstrated to be involved in monopolistic forms of terrorism. The DOJ is basically giving up because they're tired of trying to fight Microsoft. What sort of precedent does this set for the Standard Oils of the new millenium?
This government has bowed to corporate interests at every turn. I'd be happy to see a list of cases where individual freedom was held in higher esteem than corporate interests. This is yet another side effect of the US's desire to remain an economic superpower. It has changed from a Representative Democracy to a colossal beauracratic corporation. Perhaps we should call it The United States of America Inc.?
Remember folks, a government that tramples the rights of the citizen is a tyrannical government. There is no leeway for arguement in that.
I'm amazed at the resistance I get... I think it's time to start the 'campaign to disable javascript everywhere'. Javascript is EVIL. It's like a C++ compiler on your local machine, accessible to anyone who's sites you visit. The only thing they've done is remove those functions that outright allow damage to be done. But every day, another insecure javascript feature is found, just recently Internet Explorer and Opera were found vulnerable to the same javscript bug.
What does it take to convince people? If you disable javascript, you will not longer have popup ads, no more cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, no more security exploits (we've been lucky that nobody really attempts tp exploit them, we talk about windows boxes having exploits, but all machines are vulnerable to javascript), and more.
So please, disable javascript. You can still use almost all sites without it. It will make you more secure, and have a much happier browsing experience.
Yes, there is. Friggin' tard. I was trying to help people out, not serve to some faggot ass who wrote in to/. to try to figure out how to download emulators.
Personally, I'd rather have RC helicopters. Yes, I know their batteries wouldn't last long... but in an office environment, tiny cars aren't going to get very far, given the amount of clutter which would obstruct them. Helicopters, on the other hand, could fly over cubicle walls to attack people...
Consider that before people were sneaking into movies, they were sneaking into sporting events and plays. I'll be they had gate crashers even in ancient Rome.
The higher-ups need to take a look at the expense and hassle of an encryption technology, and what losses they reasonably expect if your product were presented in plain ASCII text. Reasonable losses is a concept lost on many MBAs. You base your estimates upon past losses, not upon imagined future losses. For example, one of the software publishing groups takes the number of PCs sold, the number of software titles sold, and since the number of PCs is greater, assumes that their software was installed on all those PCs (and were thus pirated). It never enters their minds that not every PC gets commercial software installed on it, or that PCs break, or that not every software title gets installed on every new PC.
Fifty years ago, how did publishers deal with pirated works? Why won't those same techniques work now? (Don't give me that line about the new economy. People still buy things, and it's still illegal to pirate copyrighted works.) Why put yourself in the position of being the police force, including the added expense and hassle. If you're still making money, then you're OK. Turn the evidence over to the Feds, and let them handle it (and the expense).
An easy way to prevent piracy? Make it cheap to be a member who can access eBooks, and provide the eBooks in a variety of formats (including ASCII). Provide a two year free membership for people who turn in other people that are distributing pirated works. Use tiered pricing, where the average person (who is a light reader), can get a title per month for their $20/year fee. For heavier readers, step the price up gently. For libraries and schools, offer a flat, unlimited download fee (like $500/year) but restrict them to one account and password assigned to someone on staff. Talk to the big porn web sites, and find out how they track and identify logins that are fake, or have been shared amongst several users. I'll bet there's a company out there right now that makes software that does access log profiling -- and it wouldn't be that different than the pattern monitoring that many credit card companies offer for tracking purchases.
I think you can make money at $20/year. There's no printing costs, no distributing, no spoilage, no transportation, and no wasted copies. You can still charge vanity press or estimated low sales authors a fee for "sharing in the risk of publication."
The simple truth is that you can't make your product popular and easy to use if there are any requirements for its use. The simple fact that it must be decoded so that it can be read means that every watermarking, steganographic, or encryption method will fail (and the DVD/HDTV folks are spending a lot of money trying to ignore this). Until you can inject your works directly into the brain of the consumer, I doubt that you can avoid piracy. (And even then, some pirate will likely figure out how to use the consumer's brain as the master copy for duplication.)
Be a farmer. Accept that some of the crop is lost every year, and that you've got to make money on the good part of the crop.
Heck, try my model for a year. If you don't make money, you will at least have a bug-free distribution system.
Let's see:
black shirt, blue jeans
black shirt, blue jeans
black shirt, blue jeans
black shirt, tan jeans
grey shirt, blue jeans
grey shirt, black shirt, white shirt
(that guy in the back has a red shirt--must be gay)
Doesn't it seem like Fosset has *way* too much time and money on his hands? First the ballon, which is understandable, but now this? I can use some of your money Mr. Fosset.:-)
(unfortunately I can't take credit for this one. It was written by a fellow slashdotter a while back, and I've lost the attribution. If the author is still out there, let me know and I'll send you a beer;-) )
For those interested in a brief history of HDTV, here it is:
Here's how it went:
Broadcast Industry asks for bandwidth for HDTV FCC says "OK, we'll set aside bandwidth for HDTV" FCC says "What standards?" Industry says 'No Standards Please' and come up with EIGHTEEN recommended formats for HDTV. I am not shitting you. FCC says "Isn't 18 different standards a bit much?" Industry says "Shut the fuck up FCC, we know what we are doing. The 'market' will handle this!" Consumer Electronics dudes whine "18 formats make every thing cost more, you are fucking us!" FCC says "OK, it's your call on standards, 18 formats is fine, infact there are NO STANDARDS AT ALL, 'cause we are letting the 'market decide', but you start broadcasting HDTV now or we take back the FREE bandwidth." Industry says "What? We really just want the free bandwidth. You really want us to do HDTV?? Congress says "Fuck you Industry. Broadcast HDTV or we'll legislate your asses back to Sun-day!" Industry says "We're fucked. 18 formats? Why the hell did we do that? Let's change it." Consumer Electronics dudes say "You ain't changing shit. We are already building the boxes you said you wanted built." FCC says "Yah, ya boneheads we told you 18 was too many, now you gotta live with it." Industry says "Well FCC, will you at least make the cable companies carry the HDTV at no charge?" Cable companies say "Fuck you! You gotta pay! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!" FCC says "Yep, no federal mandated on HDTV must carry, we are letting 'the market' handle that" Industry says "We are so fucked. We are spending 5-10 million per TV station in hardware alone and have 1000 HDTV viewers per city, even in LA!" Consumer at home says "Where is my HDTV? Why does it cost so much? Fuck it, I'm sticking with cable/DirecTV."
Consumer electronics dudes, broadcast industry, FCC, and congress all cry. Cable companies laugh and make even bigger profits.
Wouldn't this be similar to M$ deciding to sue virus writers for exposing security flaws in Windows? It's awful that companies have decided to start prosecuting anything, even when people are just trying to help. It is ending the hobbyist mentality that helped produce such quick innovation over the last thirty-some years.
I hate to be considered a troll, especially since I'm a new user and I'm already posting at zero due to the fact that just *one* of my comments was modded down (off-topic, sorry), but the constant spats between Linux developers and Linux developer with other people are causing bad perception of Linux itself. The general public (actually, I just surveyed my immeadiate aunts, uncles, mom, and dad) thinks of Linux being a community they cannot get involved in due to the teenage 1337 hack0rz,the "long-haired computer geek" that all those with computer interests are portrayed as, and the constant public spats involving Linux developers. I am not critizing Mr. Stallman, because he has certaintly handled this in a good way. In fact, he could be an example for many other developers. I also feel that maybe a coordianted marketing campaign by IBM (who has a pretty good advertising agency) could erase the image of pimply-faced teenage hackers and smelly soda-guzzling developers. I only hope some day it will happen.
Astronomers aren't very good at keeping things quiet. Even an amateur astronomer might see this asteroid, and say that it was there to a news agency, and all the reporter does is a little digging to find out when/where.
Here's some links: Space Dailyarticle about asteroid potentially hitting earth Pittsburh Post-Gazette article about long odds on asteroid hitting earth BBC article on how the asteroid won't hit earh Isn't it funny how things change so quickly? You would think the guy who originally observed this would keep his mouth shut while he finished compiling data. Any amateur astronomers out there who can explain why such a big deal was made out of something that isn't going to happen?
Crackers will still exploit holes that aren't covered by this standard. Cracking is a risk inherent to the internet, and we should stop trying to make the perfect standard that will end this problem. The higher security we create must be implemented by computers, therefore it is destructible by computers. We are just dogs chasing our tails if we continue this cycle.
Jesus christ, since when does Slashdot post help wanted ads? Is this their new advertising method, posting stories for money? Even though he's selling out, I have to give props to Taco for having the balls to post a story about Xbox, with all of it's evil Microsoft connections. I guess taco-snotting may just be a rumor. BTW, read my journal. If you don't like censorship, you'll like my journal.
I doubt $12,000 is enough, but if we all chipped in a dollar, LWN would theoratically have $600,000. That should be enough. However, some of us don't like Linux. So, the chances of this are nil.
Slashdot Mirror
CDex is a cdripper for windows that's GPLed. It comes with Vorbis support in its 1.30 beta2 version. Very nice program I use it when I'm in windows and don't want to reboot to use cdparanoia. It also includes LAME 3.84 as it's default encoder. Currently it's the only program that i've found that makes encoding Vorbis .ogg files easy.
It's pathetic when the U.S. Government can take a hard line on terrorism in traditional forms, but is cowed by a multinational corporation that has been demonstrated to be involved in monopolistic forms of terrorism. The DOJ is basically giving up because they're tired of trying to fight Microsoft. What sort of precedent does this set for the Standard Oils of the new millenium?
This government has bowed to corporate interests at every turn. I'd be happy to see a list of cases where individual freedom was held in higher esteem than corporate interests. This is yet another side effect of the US's desire to remain an economic superpower. It has changed from a Representative Democracy to a colossal beauracratic corporation. Perhaps we should call it The United States of America Inc.?
Remember folks, a government that tramples the rights of the citizen is a tyrannical government. There is no leeway for arguement in that.
I'm amazed at the resistance I get... I think it's time to start the 'campaign to disable javascript everywhere'. Javascript is EVIL. It's like a C++ compiler on your local machine, accessible to anyone who's sites you visit. The only thing they've done is remove those functions that outright allow damage to be done. But every day, another insecure javascript feature is found, just recently Internet Explorer and Opera were found vulnerable to the same javscript bug. What does it take to convince people? If you disable javascript, you will not longer have popup ads, no more cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, no more security exploits (we've been lucky that nobody really attempts tp exploit them, we talk about windows boxes having exploits, but all machines are vulnerable to javascript), and more. So please, disable javascript. You can still use almost all sites without it. It will make you more secure, and have a much happier browsing experience.
Yes, there is. Friggin' tard. I was trying to help people out, not serve to some faggot ass who wrote in to /. to try to figure out how to download emulators.
Personally, I'd rather have RC helicopters. Yes, I know their batteries wouldn't last long... but in an office environment, tiny cars aren't going to get very far, given the amount of clutter which would obstruct them. Helicopters, on the other hand, could fly over cubicle walls to attack people...
Gamespy site with classic ROMs and emulators.
Some old DOS games.
More recent games at Kev's Classing Gaming.
An article about the methods IBM used to cluster eight dual processor Linux workstations to provide the necessary graphics power.
Movies of Deep View in action.
Consider that before people were sneaking into movies, they were sneaking into sporting events and plays. I'll be they had gate crashers even in ancient Rome.
The higher-ups need to take a look at the expense and hassle of an encryption technology, and what losses they reasonably expect if your product were presented in plain ASCII text. Reasonable losses is a concept lost on many MBAs. You base your estimates upon past losses, not upon imagined future losses. For example, one of the software publishing groups takes the number of PCs sold, the number of software titles sold, and since the number of PCs is greater, assumes that their software was installed on all those PCs (and were thus pirated). It never enters their minds that not every PC gets commercial software installed on it, or that PCs break, or that not every software title gets installed on every new PC.
Fifty years ago, how did publishers deal with pirated works? Why won't those same techniques work now? (Don't give me that line about the new economy. People still buy things, and it's still illegal to pirate copyrighted works.) Why put yourself in the position of being the police force, including the added expense and hassle. If you're still making money, then you're OK. Turn the evidence over to the Feds, and let them handle it (and the expense).
An easy way to prevent piracy? Make it cheap to be a member who can access eBooks, and provide the eBooks in a variety of formats (including ASCII). Provide a two year free membership for people who turn in other people that are distributing pirated works. Use tiered pricing, where the average person (who is a light reader), can get a title per month for their $20/year fee. For heavier readers, step the price up gently. For libraries and schools, offer a flat, unlimited download fee (like $500/year) but restrict them to one account and password assigned to someone on staff. Talk to the big porn web sites, and find out how they track and identify logins that are fake, or have been shared amongst several users. I'll bet there's a company out there right now that makes software that does access log profiling -- and it wouldn't be that different than the pattern monitoring that many credit card companies offer for tracking purchases.
I think you can make money at $20/year. There's no printing costs, no distributing, no spoilage, no transportation, and no wasted copies. You can still charge vanity press or estimated low sales authors a fee for "sharing in the risk of publication."
The simple truth is that you can't make your product popular and easy to use if there are any requirements for its use. The simple fact that it must be decoded so that it can be read means that every watermarking, steganographic, or encryption method will fail (and the DVD/HDTV folks are spending a lot of money trying to ignore this). Until you can inject your works directly into the brain of the consumer, I doubt that you can avoid piracy. (And even then, some pirate will likely figure out how to use the consumer's brain as the master copy for duplication.)
Be a farmer. Accept that some of the crop is lost every year, and that you've got to make money on the good part of the crop.
Heck, try my model for a year. If you don't make money, you will at least have a bug-free distribution system.
Sure, direct links to .mpg files on slashdot. What the heck were they thinking?
Finally, something to use those old school NASA programs on!
forget it.
Let's see: black shirt, blue jeans black shirt, blue jeans black shirt, blue jeans black shirt, tan jeans grey shirt, blue jeans grey shirt, black shirt, white shirt (that guy in the back has a red shirt--must be gay)
READ THE WHOLE FUCKING COMMENT! i mean, seriously guys, shouldn't you know this by now. what do teach in school nowadays?
Doesn't it seem like Fosset has *way* too much time and money on his hands? First the ballon, which is understandable, but now this? I can use some of your money Mr. Fosset. :-)
LOL, as I said at the beginning of the comment: I DIDN'T WRITE THIS!
(unfortunately I can't take credit for this one. It was written by a fellow slashdotter a while back, and I've lost the attribution. If the author is still out there, let me know and I'll send you a beer ;-) )
For those interested in a brief history of HDTV, here it is:
Here's how it went:
Broadcast Industry asks for bandwidth for HDTV
FCC says "OK, we'll set aside bandwidth for HDTV"
FCC says "What standards?"
Industry says 'No Standards Please' and come up with EIGHTEEN recommended formats for HDTV. I am not shitting you.
FCC says "Isn't 18 different standards a bit much?"
Industry says "Shut the fuck up FCC, we know what we are doing. The 'market' will handle this!"
Consumer Electronics dudes whine "18 formats make every thing cost more, you are fucking us!"
FCC says "OK, it's your call on standards, 18 formats is fine, infact there are NO STANDARDS AT ALL, 'cause we are letting the 'market decide', but you start broadcasting HDTV now or we take back the FREE bandwidth."
Industry says "What? We really just want the free bandwidth. You really want us to do HDTV??
Congress says "Fuck you Industry. Broadcast HDTV or we'll legislate your asses back to Sun-day!"
Industry says "We're fucked. 18 formats? Why the hell did we do that? Let's change it."
Consumer Electronics dudes say "You ain't changing shit. We are already building the boxes you said you wanted built."
FCC says "Yah, ya boneheads we told you 18 was too many, now you gotta live with it."
Industry says "Well FCC, will you at least make the cable companies carry the HDTV at no charge?"
Cable companies say "Fuck you! You gotta pay! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!"
FCC says "Yep, no federal mandated on HDTV must carry, we are letting 'the market' handle that"
Industry says "We are so fucked. We are spending 5-10 million per TV station in hardware alone and have 1000 HDTV viewers per city, even in LA!"
Consumer at home says "Where is my HDTV? Why does it cost so much? Fuck it, I'm sticking with cable/DirecTV."
Consumer electronics dudes, broadcast industry, FCC, and congress all cry. Cable companies laugh and make even bigger profits.
Wouldn't this be similar to M$ deciding to sue virus writers for exposing security flaws in Windows? It's awful that companies have decided to start prosecuting anything, even when people are just trying to help. It is ending the hobbyist mentality that helped produce such quick innovation over the last thirty-some years.
If, like me, you've never heard of UCITA and are looking to form your own opinion, a summary is available here:
summary of UCITA
Didn't Wil Wheaton play Beverly Crusher's son on star trek? He should be doing a celebrity boxing match anyway.
That cleared it up. I guess that's why you post at 2 and I post at 0. :-)
I hate to be considered a troll, especially since I'm a new user and I'm already posting at zero due to the fact that just *one* of my comments was modded down (off-topic, sorry), but the constant spats between Linux developers and Linux developer with other people are causing bad perception of Linux itself. The general public (actually, I just surveyed my immeadiate aunts, uncles, mom, and dad) thinks of Linux being a community they cannot get involved in due to the teenage 1337 hack0rz,the "long-haired computer geek" that all those with computer interests are portrayed as, and the constant public spats involving Linux developers. I am not critizing Mr. Stallman, because he has certaintly handled this in a good way. In fact, he could be an example for many other developers. I also feel that maybe a coordianted marketing campaign by IBM (who has a pretty good advertising agency) could erase the image of pimply-faced teenage hackers and smelly soda-guzzling developers. I only hope some day it will happen.
Astronomers aren't very good at keeping things quiet. Even an amateur astronomer might see this asteroid, and say that it was there to a news agency, and all the reporter does is a little digging to find out when/where.
Here's some links:
Space Dailyarticle about asteroid potentially hitting earth
Pittsburh Post-Gazette article about long odds on asteroid hitting earth
BBC article on how the asteroid won't hit earh
Isn't it funny how things change so quickly? You would think the guy who originally observed this would keep his mouth shut while he finished compiling data. Any amateur astronomers out there who can explain why such a big deal was made out of something that isn't going to happen?
Crackers will still exploit holes that aren't covered by this standard. Cracking is a risk inherent to the internet, and we should stop trying to make the perfect standard that will end this problem. The higher security we create must be implemented by computers, therefore it is destructible by computers. We are just dogs chasing our tails if we continue this cycle.
Jesus christ, since when does Slashdot post help wanted ads?
Is this their new advertising method, posting stories for money?
Even though he's selling out, I have to give props to Taco for having the balls to post a story about Xbox, with all of it's evil Microsoft connections. I guess taco-snotting may just be a rumor.
BTW, read my journal. If you don't like censorship, you'll like my journal.
I doubt $12,000 is enough, but if we all chipped in a dollar, LWN would theoratically have $600,000. That should be enough. However, some of us don't like Linux. So, the chances of this are nil.