I downloaded microsoft anti-spyware from Kazaa, and now my bonzibuddy and weatherbug disappeared.
People think I'm dull and boring because my email has lost it's color and graphics.
My computer browses much slower since it appears my internet isn't optimized anymore.
And now I have no idea if my computer may or may not be infected with spyware because those courteous pop up alerts have stopped.
I defragged my computer and asked the paperclip for help in getting these back and that was no use. Microsoft stinks! I can't wait until my absolutely free dual G5 gets here.
Labels don't give people a million dollars and say "come back when you're finished" anymore. They give you 2 months and $30k.
Faced with this, the goal becomes good quality quickly. Sure, people argue about the warmth and crispness of analog. But what most analog purists miss is the outright efficiency of digital recording.
If you've ever recorded a song, you know that no matter how good you are there is almost always a better take (with a very few exceptions). When that $30k is all you have, it is imperitive that the take be the best one.
With tape, it's take...stop...evaluate...rewind...record. And pray fervently you don't accidently overwrite something.
With digital, you can literally get 10 times the work done. takestopevaluatetakestopevaluate. There is no waiting, and if you screw up you hit 'undo'.
Even most of the folks that do have a million bucks and want to record onto analog promptly dump to digital for mixing. And the 'warmth' and 'crispness' of analog is largely a myth as of about 5 years ago (when ADATs started to die their long deserved death). Play a 2 inch recorded track vs a protools recorded track and 99.9% of the people out there will never know. A good producer/engineer can work wonders with good preamps and outboard gear.
So yes, it's a sad day...but not nearly as monumental as purists would have you believe. People who depend on this stuff for a living dumped this along time ago.
See, this is why Firefox will never get more market share than IE...
If there's something wrong with it and you point it out, you are silenced.
Yeah, IE got it's marketshare from "listening to users". It encouraged people to bring up every little thing they didn't like and immediately integrated it into the product. Nobody is ever "silenced" in the world of IE. That's why they have their market share.
It appears that you haven't been "silenced" since you've posted at least twice on this subject. If people can't criticize your evaluations then you are guilty of the very thing you accuse others of.
My message is not flamebait, they are legitimate complaints that I would like to see addressed. I only complain about it because I would like it to get to the point where it is good.
Every end user I have converted to Firefox loves it. With all due respect your complaints do not reach the level of 'improving the product'. They're kind of piddly and inconsequential.
Firefox seems to be very extensible via the extensions, so why don't you fix these problems yourself? If it's a legitimate improvement people should flock to it.
Not if people don't know you exist. You see, the only source of streaming music for most people in moving motor vehicles is either FM or XM radio, and Clear Channel owns a big stake in both. Unless you can afford to purchase several 3-minute advertisements on Clear Channel radio, how are you going to create demand for your discs?
First, live performance is still king. If you have a good live show...you will be booked. People will know who you are. It takes time but people do it all the time.
Initiating popularity with radio is largely a non-issue. There's only so much popularity to be gained in that pie, and the cost of entry is way too high to be profitable for the little guy. People know who you are by live shows. Period.
Second, this innerweb thingy is just really starting to get it's legs for bands. Bands are having good results with places like music.download.com, purevolume, myspace, garageband, etc. But it has to be tied to a good live show effort. Remember, live is king.
Third, with regard to radio, IMHO FM and XM will not stand in the long run. As the 'net goes wireless and adopts a good roaming scheme...internet radio stations will clean their clock. There are some really good internet stations out there...good enough to have major listener bases if folks could listen in their car.
In summary, the whole clearchannel thing only exists because of the on-to-many characteristics of radio. If and when 'radio' becomes a many-to-many thing (primarily inside the automobile) that scarcity becomes a non-issue.
Even then...live shows are king and cannot be trumped.
Why? Because it makes the phrase "This disc has NO copy protection measures...please support the artist by purchasing music" a real selling point.
Independent musicians (the kind that make a living off their music) are slowly but surely rejecting the myth that you need a record deal to be successful. (In fact, if you're good you can almost always be more successful without a record deal these days). These groups see the listener as a potential supporter, not a potential pirate.
When labels keep up this DRM crap, it just makes these indie musicians look more and more listener oriented. People aren't stupid, they pick up on this.
So keep it up DRM content producers! It's just one more selling point for your slowly growing competition. By the time you realize how bad you screwed up it will be too late.
...but I really think anyone involved in IT security should have at least 3-5 years in the trenches first. If you *really* want to know your stuff this is simply a requirement. Finance or Medical is a good proving ground, but infrastructure (power companies, etc) is starting to be a good one too.
My advice would be to get a sysadmin or operational job first, and spend every second of free time addressing the security aspects in that environment. Then when you move into a security specific job you have some meat to talk about: "well at company X we implemented Plan Y to address this issue", and "I found that we consistently had problem Y". I personally would be very skeptical of a security pro right out of school.
I saw this link a few days ago. Unfortunately he removed much of his more hilarious tin-foil hat content. The guy would actually do screen prints of sorta-related newspaper stories, then black out the names to make it look scandalous.
His demonstration program is underwhelming. You could make the same kind of thing to show any program could be trojaned.
Don't get me wrong, the e-voting situation is crazy and needs substantial reform, examination, and a general fixin'. But this guy is just another conspiracy guy trying to sell a book.
Stuff like this does NOT help address the real problems in e-voting.
The cliche holds that it's who you know. Networking is king in today's job market. There are so many bootcamp certified techies out there that someone has to personally vouch for you.
Your skillset better be broad. From what I've seen, many companies are in kind of a second phase of standards. They made a choice a couple years ago (j2ee,.net, Sun, MS, linux, etc) and they want someone with that experience. However, despite what they say, they still have tons of random stuff sitting around that needs support. Usually it will go something like "I see you're Certified in XYZ...oh but by the way...have you ever worked on an AS/400?"
Bottom line(s), meet everyone you can, go to trade group meetings, tinker with as much crap as you can get ahold of, talk intelligently on websites/blogs/mailing lists...and you should be fine.
"It should be trivial to do the same with electronic voting--have it print out a paper "vote record", the voter inspects it, and puts it into the ballot box. Problem solved."
The problem is *not* solved, because someone up to no good can generate a whole slew of printed vote records alot easier than a manually generated ballot.
You cannot always trust the election judges, or the poll workers, or the people guarding the ballots, and the ease of replication of printed vote records greatly increases the potential damage by a rogue poll worker (or group of poll workers).
And to be clear, I'm not arguing against paper trails. It's just that the requirement of anonymity makes it very easy to forge paper trails (even more so if they are not hand generated). This is why crypto techniques are vital in the elections of the future. You have to be able to ensure that the paper trail is the same one generated by the voters.
A paper trail is not a sure thing....particularly a *machine-printed* paper trail. In certain districts that heavily favor a candidate by a large margin, printing a duplicate paper trail might be trivial. This is particularly true in situations where there might be a long period of time before a by-hand recount.
I think there should be some sort of hashing and/or signing throughout the day, with the hashes periodically given to poll workers and watchers (and perhaps the voters themselves) that could authenticate the paper trail later.
Of course we're so far off from clueful use of cryptography in voting that this point is not relevant yet. But it seems to me that these are the kind of problems cryptography was designed to handle, and it would be smart to start thinking that way.
A quick peek under the covers of modern "rational", "reasoning", and "free thinking" science will reveal that most science today has just as much religion and dogma as most religions and dogmas.
If the study in the article had found anything contradictory to evolution, and if they'd had the courage to publish such things, they'd have quickly been derided as quacks. They'd have lost any grant money or other funding, and would have lost all respect anywhere, even if their data and reasoning were solid.
This study is all cool and everything. But modern science has made up it's mind, so don't fool yourself into thinking you'll hear all sides of evolution/darwinism from religion or science.
Not all problems are solvable
on
Security Alert
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
The systems of today are designed to be usable by the average Joe and Jane, but they aren't designed to be securable by that constituency.
From a security perspective, "computers these days" are like a nuclear reactor, or a rocket, or the tax code. They're just not manageable by the average person, and the bolt on shells of security that are offered only work to a point. Without a consumer-securable security model integrated from the ground up, you're going to have melt downs, misfires, and botched returns.
So, a book of anecdotes about "real people" and contemporary information security is almost going to be inherently uninformative. How could you possibly cover all the seams that todays severely limited security models leave open?
The parent post has been flagged for violation of the "Anti Buzzword Use Act". Specific violation: use of the phrase "attack vector".
You're right, I should have said "Airpwn could leverage the synergies of this vulnerability and streamline the deployment...with or without interactive buy-in by stakeholders"
Seriously, if you're going to be cute about buzzwords, at least wait until someone uses a real buzzword..."attack vector" is a real term and hasn't reached convergence in the buzzword mindshare yet.
Man...talk about attack vectors. This would make a killer (as in bad) worm.
IM
Email
Browsers (probably several)
Anything....heck just copy exploit code to every accessible jpg file
on a machine and/or network.
As usual, the writers of the "mitigating factors" section don't seem
to have much imagination.
Remember the airpwn project? You could trojan/crack every unpatched
machine on a wireless network who pulls up a web browser. And what
about those folks who whacked interlands proxies to inject code? Just
inject jpgs.
Does anyone know if this can be 'stealth' injected into a JPG (like
some of those mp3 issues), or is it standalone exploit code?
Sun intends to include a software addition called Janus with Solaris 10, which will enable Linux applications to run on Solaris unchanged. If Janus isn't ready for the Solaris 10 deadline, Sun will release the addition shortly after, Weinberg said.
The point is completely relevant, you just missed it. In this case the diamond cartels are trying to use the law to try and preserve their business advantage.
They're doing this by saying that diamond miners are suffering, when in reality it is the cartels that hurt the miners the most. If the miners could form their own diamond company, it'd probaby be a better life for them AND diamond buyers.
And somehow you get Robin Hood out of that? You're buying the hype and painting "justice" on the legislative will of an entrenched business monopoly.
Kazaa, etc. are used by Robin Hood, but they represent a huge opportunity for innovation and new ways of doing business for musicians. You think iTunes, etc. would have happened with an INDUCE act around?
In a sane society, innovators and creators are not locked up like any mugger/thief.
I'll take kneejerk reactions without reading for 500 million, Alex.
Please read my post and my link, before calling me "full of shit"...(colossally even!) I never said anything about the RIAA and/or MPAA.
The article is from BMI. Anyone can join BMI, from the individual artist (like me) to the largest publisher. The fact that BMI is collecting record revenue and royalty payments means that the money is flowing regardless of what's happening with Kazaa/Morpheus/etc.
The fact that you don't see much of this money will NOT change with the INDUCE act...in fact it will probably get worse if the INDUCE act is passed because it will stifle the very innovation that is changing the system waaay for the better for musicians like you and I.
In short, this guy that's "full of shit" is full of the same opinion you are. The real exploitation is happening with the old status quo, not the new world of "illegal" downloading.
"The performing rights organization generated royalties of more than $573 million for its songwriters, composers and music publishers. Royalties increased by $40 million or 7.5% from the previous year.
BMI President and CEO Frances W. Preston said both the revenues and royalty distributions were the largest in the company's history."
Sooner or later this 800 pound gorilla is going to trample their manufactured crisis.
While we clang our cymbals....
on
China Goes Nuclear
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
While other countries download wide ranges of media over 10 mbit 'net pipes, the US bickers and fights over "Intellectual Property" and "interstate communications".
While other countries install the latest and greatest nuclear reactors, the US blathers on about "deregulation" and "no nukes".
Sooner or later things will be different enough overseas that we'll look up and realize that the US has no vision except what we consume and how much government cash we can use to do the consumin'.
I think the message is pretty clear here. "Shut them down" with a list of all that personal information.....
Indymedia might have a good agenda in there somewhere, but it will be overshadowed by their efforts to silence those who disagree with them.
Hmmm...I'll file this under "unclear on the concept"...no wait....how about "1950's industrial age parenting".
The goal is not to "show her who's boss". Trust me, she figured that out long ago. The goal is to raise her with KSA's that will suit her well in the increasingly changing future. I do pretty well in my career because my parents were flexible when it came to my natural creativity when I was young.
However, feel free to teach your kids to learn to adjust their brains to arbitrary circumstance just because "it's the way things are" and "whims are bad" and "the status quo is acceptable". The food services and custodial industries will need minds like that in the future (I'm only half kidding).
I haven't RTFA'd yet, but I'm wondering if this has wireless?
That has been the most important aspect of my daughter's (5 yo) acceptance of the machine. No matter where you 'think' they want the PC, they always want to drag it somewhere else. With 802.11b, I was able to build it into a self contained unit where it could be moved anywhere she wanted. (Well anywhere there was a power cord). Now she has one of my old laptops, and can even go sans power cord.
(what does a 5 y.o. need with 'net access? Well besides the normal kids flash sites, it's amazing what you can do on a homepage. She left her ever-present stuffed lamb toy at a hotel once, and some photoshopped googling showed that lamby was 'on vacation' with all sorts of pictures from the road)
I also find this makes the machine become more than just a glorified PC with a mouse. When you put it in the kid's little world it becomes a tool for 'normal' play activities instead of another ADD training excercise. She plays Barbie.com with friends (real and stuffed) and integrates the happenings of Disney games on screen with the physical toy world around her.
When the machine is locked down at a desk, it's amazing how it becomes the sit-straight-mouse-in-hand-1000-yard-stare effect.
Of course this is anecdotal, but I bet there's some universal truth to it. So I'm interested to see if this machine is intended to be an enhancement of the kids normal playworld, or just another implementation of what's been done before.
Slashdot Mirror
I downloaded microsoft anti-spyware from Kazaa, and now my bonzibuddy and weatherbug disappeared.
People think I'm dull and boring because my email has lost it's color and graphics.
My computer browses much slower since it appears my internet isn't optimized anymore.
And now I have no idea if my computer may or may not be infected with spyware because those courteous pop up alerts have stopped.
I defragged my computer and asked the paperclip for help in getting these back and that was no use. Microsoft stinks! I can't wait until my absolutely free dual G5 gets here.
...primarily cost efficiency.
Labels don't give people a million dollars and say "come back when you're finished" anymore. They give you 2 months and $30k.
Faced with this, the goal becomes good quality quickly. Sure, people argue about the warmth and crispness of analog. But what most analog purists miss is the outright efficiency of digital recording.
If you've ever recorded a song, you know that no matter how good you are there is almost always a better take (with a very few exceptions). When that $30k is all you have, it is imperitive that the take be the best one.
With tape, it's take...stop...evaluate...rewind...record. And pray fervently you don't accidently overwrite something.
With digital, you can literally get 10 times the work done. takestopevaluatetakestopevaluate. There is no waiting, and if you screw up you hit 'undo'.
Even most of the folks that do have a million bucks and want to record onto analog promptly dump to digital for mixing. And the 'warmth' and 'crispness' of analog is largely a myth as of about 5 years ago (when ADATs started to die their long deserved death). Play a 2 inch recorded track vs a protools recorded track and 99.9% of the people out there will never know. A good producer/engineer can work wonders with good preamps and outboard gear.
So yes, it's a sad day...but not nearly as monumental as purists would have you believe. People who depend on this stuff for a living dumped this along time ago.
See, this is why Firefox will never get more market share than IE...
If there's something wrong with it and you point it out, you are silenced.
Yeah, IE got it's marketshare from "listening to users". It encouraged people to bring up every little thing they didn't like and immediately integrated it into the product. Nobody is ever "silenced" in the world of IE. That's why they have their market share.
It appears that you haven't been "silenced" since you've posted at least twice on this subject. If people can't criticize your evaluations then you are guilty of the very thing you accuse others of.
My message is not flamebait, they are legitimate complaints that I would like to see addressed. I only complain about it because I would like it to get to the point where it is good.
Every end user I have converted to Firefox loves it. With all due respect your complaints do not reach the level of 'improving the product'. They're kind of piddly and inconsequential.
Firefox seems to be very extensible via the extensions, so why don't you fix these problems yourself? If it's a legitimate improvement people should flock to it.
Not if people don't know you exist. You see, the only source of streaming music for most people in moving motor vehicles is either FM or XM radio, and Clear Channel owns a big stake in both. Unless you can afford to purchase several 3-minute advertisements on Clear Channel radio, how are you going to create demand for your discs?
First, live performance is still king. If you have a good live show...you will be booked. People will know who you are. It takes time but people do it all the time.
Initiating popularity with radio is largely a non-issue. There's only so much popularity to be gained in that pie, and the cost of entry is way too high to be profitable for the little guy. People know who you are by live shows. Period.
Second, this innerweb thingy is just really starting to get it's legs for bands. Bands are having good results with places like music.download.com, purevolume, myspace, garageband, etc. But it has to be tied to a good live show effort. Remember, live is king.
Third, with regard to radio, IMHO FM and XM will not stand in the long run. As the 'net goes wireless and adopts a good roaming scheme...internet radio stations will clean their clock. There are some really good internet stations out there...good enough to have major listener bases if folks could listen in their car.
In summary, the whole clearchannel thing only exists because of the on-to-many characteristics of radio. If and when 'radio' becomes a many-to-many thing (primarily inside the automobile) that scarcity becomes a non-issue.
Even then...live shows are king and cannot be trumped.
Why? Because it makes the phrase "This disc has NO copy protection measures...please support the artist by purchasing music" a real selling point.
Independent musicians (the kind that make a living off their music) are slowly but surely rejecting the myth that you need a record deal to be successful. (In fact, if you're good you can almost always be more successful without a record deal these days). These groups see the listener as a potential supporter, not a potential pirate.
When labels keep up this DRM crap, it just makes these indie musicians look more and more listener oriented. People aren't stupid, they pick up on this.
So keep it up DRM content producers! It's just one more selling point for your slowly growing competition. By the time you realize how bad you screwed up it will be too late.
1. Write buggy OS with no security model
2. Acquire company that bolts on a bandaid
3. Profit!
What next?
"Microsoft to buy Large antivirus firm."
"Microsoft announces acquisition of blue-screen-B-gone Inc."
"Microsoft acquires company that removes the freakin' paperclip"
...but I really think anyone involved in IT security should have at least 3-5 years in the trenches first. If you *really* want to know your stuff this is simply a requirement. Finance or Medical is a good proving ground, but infrastructure (power companies, etc) is starting to be a good one too.
My advice would be to get a sysadmin or operational job first, and spend every second of free time addressing the security aspects in that environment. Then when you move into a security specific job you have some meat to talk about: "well at company X we implemented Plan Y to address this issue", and "I found that we consistently had problem Y". I personally would be very skeptical of a security pro right out of school.
Do they mean this fella?
I saw this link a few days ago. Unfortunately he removed much of his more hilarious tin-foil hat content. The guy would actually do screen prints of sorta-related newspaper stories, then black out the names to make it look scandalous.
His demonstration program is underwhelming. You could make the same kind of thing to show any program could be trojaned.
Don't get me wrong, the e-voting situation is crazy and needs substantial reform, examination, and a general fixin'. But this guy is just another conspiracy guy trying to sell a book.
Stuff like this does NOT help address the real problems in e-voting.
The cliche holds that it's who you know. Networking is king in today's job market. There are so many bootcamp certified techies out there that someone has to personally vouch for you.
.net, Sun, MS, linux, etc) and they want someone with that experience. However, despite what they say, they still have tons of random stuff sitting around that needs support. Usually it will go something like "I see you're Certified in XYZ...oh but by the way...have you ever worked on an AS/400?"
Your skillset better be broad. From what I've seen, many companies are in kind of a second phase of standards. They made a choice a couple years ago (j2ee,
Bottom line(s), meet everyone you can, go to trade group meetings, tinker with as much crap as you can get ahold of, talk intelligently on websites/blogs/mailing lists...and you should be fine.
"It should be trivial to do the same with electronic voting--have it print out a paper "vote record", the voter inspects it, and puts it into the ballot box. Problem solved."
The problem is *not* solved, because someone up to no good can generate a whole slew of printed vote records alot easier than a manually generated ballot.
You cannot always trust the election judges, or the poll workers, or the people guarding the ballots, and the ease of replication of printed vote records greatly increases the potential damage by a rogue poll worker (or group of poll workers).
And to be clear, I'm not arguing against paper trails. It's just that the requirement of anonymity makes it very easy to forge paper trails (even more so if they are not hand generated). This is why crypto techniques are vital in the elections of the future. You have to be able to ensure that the paper trail is the same one generated by the voters.
A paper trail is not a sure thing....particularly a *machine-printed* paper trail. In certain districts that heavily favor a candidate by a large margin, printing a duplicate paper trail might be trivial. This is particularly true in situations where there might be a long period of time before a by-hand recount.
I think there should be some sort of hashing and/or signing throughout the day, with the hashes periodically given to poll workers and watchers (and perhaps the voters themselves) that could authenticate the paper trail later.
Of course we're so far off from clueful use of cryptography in voting that this point is not relevant yet. But it seems to me that these are the kind of problems cryptography was designed to handle, and it would be smart to start thinking that way.
A quick peek under the covers of modern "rational", "reasoning", and "free thinking" science will reveal that most science today has just as much religion and dogma as most religions and dogmas.
If the study in the article had found anything contradictory to evolution, and if they'd had the courage to publish such things, they'd have quickly been derided as quacks. They'd have lost any grant money or other funding, and would have lost all respect anywhere, even if their data and reasoning were solid.
For a good start in this, read Kicking the Sacred Cow by noted Sci Fi author James P Hogan. He argues that the only real un-religious science is in the fields related to engineering. I'm inclined to believe him.
This study is all cool and everything. But modern science has made up it's mind, so don't fool yourself into thinking you'll hear all sides of evolution/darwinism from religion or science.
The systems of today are designed to be usable by the average Joe and Jane, but they aren't designed to be securable by that constituency.
From a security perspective, "computers these days" are like a nuclear reactor, or a rocket, or the tax code. They're just not manageable by the average person, and the bolt on shells of security that are offered only work to a point. Without a consumer-securable security model integrated from the ground up, you're going to have melt downs, misfires, and botched returns.
So, a book of anecdotes about "real people" and contemporary information security is almost going to be inherently uninformative. How could you possibly cover all the seams that todays severely limited security models leave open?
The parent post has been flagged for violation of the "Anti Buzzword Use Act". Specific violation: use of the phrase "attack vector".
You're right, I should have said "Airpwn could leverage the synergies of this vulnerability and streamline the deployment...with or without interactive buy-in by stakeholders"
Seriously, if you're going to be cute about buzzwords, at least wait until someone uses a real buzzword..."attack vector" is a real term and hasn't reached convergence in the buzzword mindshare yet.
(Glad I stuck with IE 5.01 sp3 on NT)
Man...talk about attack vectors. This would make a killer (as in bad) worm.
IM
Email
Browsers (probably several)
Anything....heck just copy exploit code to every accessible jpg file on a machine and/or network.
As usual, the writers of the "mitigating factors" section don't seem to have much imagination.
Remember the airpwn project? You could trojan/crack every unpatched machine on a wireless network who pulls up a web browser. And what about those folks who whacked interlands proxies to inject code? Just inject jpgs.
Does anyone know if this can be 'stealth' injected into a JPG (like some of those mp3 issues), or is it standalone exploit code?
Where's the coupler?
Sun intends to include a software addition called Janus with Solaris 10, which will enable Linux applications to run on Solaris unchanged. If Janus isn't ready for the Solaris 10 deadline, Sun will release the addition shortly after, Weinberg said.
Isn't Janus the name of the Microsoft DRM scheme?
Sure...not much per member.
But is this because of rampant 'piracy'? Or could it be that:
Most of the music out there is crap?
Most of the good music out there is carefully controlled by a few conglomorates?
Now, how is INDUCE going to increase this number for the average artist?
Who said it wasn't illegal?
The point is completely relevant, you just missed it. In this case the diamond cartels are trying to use the law to try and preserve their business advantage.
They're doing this by saying that diamond miners are suffering, when in reality it is the cartels that hurt the miners the most. If the miners could form their own diamond company, it'd probaby be a better life for them AND diamond buyers.
And somehow you get Robin Hood out of that? You're buying the hype and painting "justice" on the legislative will of an entrenched business monopoly.
Kazaa, etc. are used by Robin Hood, but they represent a huge opportunity for innovation and new ways of doing business for musicians. You think iTunes, etc. would have happened with an INDUCE act around?
In a sane society, innovators and creators are not locked up like any mugger/thief.
I'll take kneejerk reactions without reading for 500 million, Alex.
Please read my post and my link, before calling me "full of shit"...(colossally even!) I never said anything about the RIAA and/or MPAA.
The article is from BMI. Anyone can join BMI, from the individual artist (like me) to the largest publisher. The fact that BMI is collecting record revenue and royalty payments means that the money is flowing regardless of what's happening with Kazaa/Morpheus/etc.
The fact that you don't see much of this money will NOT change with the INDUCE act...in fact it will probably get worse if the INDUCE act is passed because it will stifle the very innovation that is changing the system waaay for the better for musicians like you and I.
In short, this guy that's "full of shit" is full of the same opinion you are. The real exploitation is happening with the old status quo, not the new world of "illegal" downloading.
http://bmi.com/news/200408/20040818a.asp
"The performing rights organization generated royalties of more than $573 million for its songwriters, composers and music publishers. Royalties increased by $40 million or 7.5% from the previous year.
BMI President and CEO Frances W. Preston said both the revenues and royalty distributions were the largest in the company's history."
Sooner or later this 800 pound gorilla is going to trample their manufactured crisis.
While other countries download wide ranges of media over 10 mbit 'net pipes, the US bickers and fights over "Intellectual Property" and "interstate communications".
While other countries install the latest and greatest nuclear reactors, the US blathers on about "deregulation" and "no nukes".
Sooner or later things will be different enough overseas that we'll look up and realize that the US has no vision except what we consume and how much government cash we can use to do the consumin'.
I think the message is pretty clear here. "Shut them down" with a list of all that personal information..... Indymedia might have a good agenda in there somewhere, but it will be overshadowed by their efforts to silence those who disagree with them.
Hmmm...I'll file this under "unclear on the concept" ...no wait....how about "1950's industrial age parenting".
The goal is not to "show her who's boss". Trust me, she figured that out long ago. The goal is to raise her with KSA's that will suit her well in the increasingly changing future. I do pretty well in my career because my parents were flexible when it came to my natural creativity when I was young.
However, feel free to teach your kids to learn to adjust their brains to arbitrary circumstance just because "it's the way things are" and "whims are bad" and "the status quo is acceptable". The food services and custodial industries will need minds like that in the future (I'm only half kidding).
I haven't RTFA'd yet, but I'm wondering if this has wireless?
That has been the most important aspect of my daughter's (5 yo) acceptance of the machine. No matter where you 'think' they want the PC, they always want to drag it somewhere else. With 802.11b, I was able to build it into a self contained unit where it could be moved anywhere she wanted. (Well anywhere there was a power cord). Now she has one of my old laptops, and can even go sans power cord.
(what does a 5 y.o. need with 'net access? Well besides the normal kids flash sites, it's amazing what you can do on a homepage. She left her ever-present stuffed lamb toy at a hotel once, and some photoshopped googling showed that lamby was 'on vacation' with all sorts of pictures from the road)
I also find this makes the machine become more than just a glorified PC with a mouse. When you put it in the kid's little world it becomes a tool for 'normal' play activities instead of another ADD training excercise. She plays Barbie.com with friends (real and stuffed) and integrates the happenings of Disney games on screen with the physical toy world around her.
When the machine is locked down at a desk, it's amazing how it becomes the sit-straight-mouse-in-hand-1000-yard-stare effect.
Of course this is anecdotal, but I bet there's some universal truth to it. So I'm interested to see if this machine is intended to be an enhancement of the kids normal playworld, or just another implementation of what's been done before.