Something I genuinely heard on the UK BBC evening news a few weeks back (I don't remember exactly, but this is the idea):
"iTunes, which allows people to legally purchase music online and put it onto CDs or the iPod, has been welcomed by many artists. Some, however, are reluctant to make single tracks available since they fear it will hurt album sales"
WTF???!?!?!?11
It would appear that whoever these artists are they just admitted that their albums aren't good enough to buy as a whole and they are just carried by one or two songs. They don't want people to buy these single songs because then they wouldn't pay for the filler. That's their best argument against legal downloads?
Disclaimer: I do realise there are legitimate reasons not to put music in the ITMS, but I'd think that whoever issued that as a statement probably doesn't really get the idea of letting the consumer decide...
K8 is just the overall name so they don't need to say "Athlon64 and Opteron". Just like you can say K7 rather than "Athlon and Duron and Athlon XP and Athlon MP":-P
Spam zombie/pwned newbie machines will be running dog slow. The owners of said machines will either pay a techie to "fix AOL for them" at which point the techie removes viruses and spyware and installs the latest Windows updates (i.e. SP2) or the machines will simply be considered 'broken' by the owners (you'd be suprised how many people think they need to upgrade their hardware because they broke the software by installing crap) at which point Dell/PC World/Emachines will ship them a shiny new box complete with a patched up version of SP2. It might take a year or two, but assuming SP2 is as secure as MS is making out its proliferation will be very good for the internet at large.
Quite right - the blurb of this article was bordering on being a troll, it's the kind of thing that makes us as the OSS community look bad and as usual is caused by the vocal minority.
I am a multi-OS user, I spend time on open source projects and I strongly support the EFF. I hate MS as a company for their evil business practices and destruction of competitors, they create FUD and use weasel tactics in their advertising. I do not, however, go around screaming about them to anybody who will listen - I will point out open source solutions when possible but I do not moronically bash MS simply for being who they are.
I hold a certain amount of mistrust simply because of their past record, but that does not mean I can't see a positive thing when it comes along, and enhanced Windows security is most definitely a positive thing. I don't like them, but this time they're in the right.
Hatch generally brings up proposals notable by their insanity and is tenacious in his attempts at destroying freedoms, but his actual success rate is not so great. The strength of his ideas has gained him notability but he actually seems to hold less sway than it might appear.
I moved from the short lived Sega Dreamcast to the Xbox and I absolutely love the Xbox controller - it doesn't force me to squish up my hands like the tiny PS2 pad and it has nice high-travel triggers so you can actually make use of the analog sensitivity (I don't care if the R and L buttons on the PS2 have 4 billion levels of pressure if there's only enough travel to have about 3 different levels). The control sticks are well placed for where the thumbs naturally extend to rather than forcing them to be permenantly and uncomfortably bent downwards. Finally, your fingers sit nicely in the grooves in the back rather than wrapping right around and putting stress on your knuckles.
Apart from that fact, if you look at their green dotted line it's faulty anyway - the actual line shows a short arrow branching from the main trunk to Sinix and then shortly after a branch from the same trunk (not from the Sinix branch) to Minix. On the SCO version the size of the dots obscures this, the top of the Minix branch is cut off and the green dotted line follows from the Sinix branch down to Minix when infact they both come from the trunk, the Minix branch just happens to cross the Sinix branch in this representation and therefore the SCO version has chosen to use this meaningless crossover to obscure where the Minix arrow is really coming from.
No, just about all individuals use it. Games and similar things usually use vorbis now purely because it can keep down the file sizes and doesn't expose them to patent issues.
Surely if they demonstrated that they made an OS vulnerable to the virus of the day, why should they be trusted to make the software that protects against/fixes said virus?
There are also definite shades of Dilbert here, where the employees who write the software are paid for every bug they remove from the software. It sounds outlandish but MS have demonstrated some pretty evil business practices; might it be possible for them to put a vulnerability into Windows that allowed viruses which could only be combatted by MS Virus Scan - it could be done in a way that means Norton or McAfee could be slapped with the DMCA if they knew the encryption to access the bit of Windows affected by the virus, but it would be a triviality for the virus writer to break said encryption since they're not worried about the law. </tinfoil hat>
Audio is often used in a portable sense and the market was saturated by MP3 files way before Vorbis came along - it didn't just have to be good, it had to be so much better that it could kill the competitor and motivate hardware purchases of compatible players, and to be fair it is good but not _that_ good. It is comforting to know that there is a high quality, open and unencumbered format there - trusting a market where there is no incentive to keep your patented codecs free (as in beer) is dangerous but a free (as in speech) codec deters patent issues since people can make the switch if using MP3 is made too inconvenient. In that capacity the existance of vorbis comforts me, but I won't use it until it runs on my iPod. Having said that, most games seem to use vorbis audio for their in-game sounds so it's got more marketshare than many people think.
In terms of video there is not a real portable market (meaning no hardware replacement needed) nor is there a codec to which there is 'no competition' in terms of uptake like MP3 for audio. This gives theora a much better chance of taking off - all it needs is a little download, no selling on your iPod for an ogg compatible hardware player. The video market is a much more level playing field giving theora a chance to stand up on its merits rather than desparately clawing at the heels of an established standard, and even if it does not gain dominance what I said about providing an incentive to stay free and a possibility to switch is comforting - if DRM becomes too bad or divx goes paid there will always be something I can switch to.
I use Firefox and probably always will. My family use Firefox because I installed it on the home computers and they find it just as easy as IE but without the spyware and popups. You probably use Firefox and put your friends and family on it because, like me, you're a Slashdot reading geek who knows it exists and knows it's superior.
The rest of the world uses IE. They will not leave IE either because (and this is the case 90% of the time) it is the internet to them - they know nothing else or because they don't think it's worth the effort. If the IE using public get a better version of IE pressed onto them by MS and we get to keep our Firefox I'd say everyone wins. It's not the perfect scenario but it's better than it could be.
Yes. RC aka Release Candidate - it's not the release, it's a build that may possibly become the 0.9 release and the fact that they've made such a fuss about this RC means people are mixing it up with 0.9 which it is not.
It's not flash, it's a microdrive with a USB interface rather than the usual CF.
I'd say it's useful rather than innovative, and apparently it's "Safely encased in its sleek round shell, its robust design and high shock tolerance enables mobility and makes it as convenient as a USB thumb drive". I must say I'm impressed with the robustness of my iPod mini and assuming that these things use similar drives I would assume they'll be considerably cheaper since they don't need any touchwheels, MP3 playback or top class design - I actually pick up and use an MP3 player so I want it to be well made, I just pull a flash drive out of my bag and plug it in, as long as it's tough I don't care what it looks like.
Offer them 'advanced services at a 50% discount' on top of their normal fees and they'll jump to give you cash, even if they don't ever need to use the features. Try a price raise by half of what they are willing to pay for these features and the customer will have a fit.
Maybe, but firstly I'd say it's only fair to take it after conviction not arrest - if you haven't done anything they have absolutely no business even knowing your name, let alone your DNA. Secondly, you'd want some solid legislation in place to prevent the use of as-yet impossible sequencing techniques to scan the database for people of a violent disposition (for example) since while possibly helpful many people can control themselves and do not deserve to be bumped up the suspect list.
It can work, but as with all things the potential for abuse should be eliminated before its introduction.
I'm sure this has been covered repeatedly, but what's wrong with the UK system of 'put an X in the box by the candidate you want'. If counting time is a problem (IMO a hand count which anyone who feels like it is free to watch is a damn good thing, but anyway) then use those things they have for automatically marking exams, where you fill in the circle by the name you want and a machine scans them all - I know that's practically what this does but why put the mechanical element in there when it doesn't have to be. Seems like just another point for failure.
About 5500 when I looked (can't remember exactly and not waiting for it to load again). Isn't the average Slashdotting something in the region of 45000, or did I just make that up?
As has been said, it can be run standalone. What I'd like to see, however, is phpstack running within Apache. Infact, the article says it's got support for PHP scripting - phpstack within phpstack within Apache, perhaps?
Not quite. It's the tabloids that have this effect, and to be honest the majority (don't flame me, I didn't say all) of their readers are people too dumb to form their own opinions. The broadsheets are less sensationalist and their readers ignore much of the bias that may slip in.
A reader of the Guardian would probably not oppose this even if it was an EU policy. Plenty of Sun readers, on the other hand, would jump at the chance to oppose the 'damn foreigners and illegal immigrants and that lot'.
How do you track which business authorised the spamming then? For example, what if Ford wanted to up it's web presence in order to sell more of it's new car aimed at geeks - it pays an advertising firm who take out banners for this car on Slashdot and setup a mailing list on the Ford website. The advertising firm outsources list management for all clients to India, the Indian outsourcing center then mails every address they have with Ford Geekmobile information rather than just sending it to the people on the Ford-optin list.
Who gets the fine there? If you say Ford since they're the ones who benefit, what's to stop them spamming adverts for other car companies and getting them fined? The ad agency didn't actually spam anybody, so they don't deserve any fine. The Indians aren't bound by US law so they don't have to pay.
I may not have phrased that perfectly, I didn't mean that the PATRIOT act stops all free speech, but as shown here they do have the power to silence you if you are involved in a PATRIOT act case. It's a slippery slope.
An extract from that article: ACLU lawyers and their client are also disputing a section of the law that prohibits an entity that receives a National Security Letter request for information from telling anyone about the request. Ironically, this gag order is the same rule that prohibits the ACLU and John Doe from talking about many aspects of their case.
Your point is good, but unfortunately the broadness of most software patents means that if there is an OSS 'alternative' to a proprietary program, it will probably infringe on that patent and risk being crushed by a team of elite ninja lawyers.
Slashdot Mirror
Something I genuinely heard on the UK BBC evening news a few weeks back (I don't remember exactly, but this is the idea):
"iTunes, which allows people to legally purchase music online and put it onto CDs or the iPod, has been welcomed by many artists. Some, however, are reluctant to make single tracks available since they fear it will hurt album sales"
WTF???!?!?!?11
It would appear that whoever these artists are they just admitted that their albums aren't good enough to buy as a whole and they are just carried by one or two songs. They don't want people to buy these single songs because then they wouldn't pay for the filler. That's their best argument against legal downloads?
Disclaimer: I do realise there are legitimate reasons not to put music in the ITMS, but I'd think that whoever issued that as a statement probably doesn't really get the idea of letting the consumer decide...
K8 is just the overall name so they don't need to say "Athlon64 and Opteron". Just like you can say K7 rather than "Athlon and Duron and Athlon XP and Athlon MP" :-P
Spam zombie/pwned newbie machines will be running dog slow. The owners of said machines will either pay a techie to "fix AOL for them" at which point the techie removes viruses and spyware and installs the latest Windows updates (i.e. SP2) or the machines will simply be considered 'broken' by the owners (you'd be suprised how many people think they need to upgrade their hardware because they broke the software by installing crap) at which point Dell/PC World/Emachines will ship them a shiny new box complete with a patched up version of SP2. It might take a year or two, but assuming SP2 is as secure as MS is making out its proliferation will be very good for the internet at large.
Quite right - the blurb of this article was bordering on being a troll, it's the kind of thing that makes us as the OSS community look bad and as usual is caused by the vocal minority.
I am a multi-OS user, I spend time on open source projects and I strongly support the EFF. I hate MS as a company for their evil business practices and destruction of competitors, they create FUD and use weasel tactics in their advertising. I do not, however, go around screaming about them to anybody who will listen - I will point out open source solutions when possible but I do not moronically bash MS simply for being who they are.
I hold a certain amount of mistrust simply because of their past record, but that does not mean I can't see a positive thing when it comes along, and enhanced Windows security is most definitely a positive thing. I don't like them, but this time they're in the right.
America != World
Hatch generally brings up proposals notable by their insanity and is tenacious in his attempts at destroying freedoms, but his actual success rate is not so great. The strength of his ideas has gained him notability but he actually seems to hold less sway than it might appear.
I moved from the short lived Sega Dreamcast to the Xbox and I absolutely love the Xbox controller - it doesn't force me to squish up my hands like the tiny PS2 pad and it has nice high-travel triggers so you can actually make use of the analog sensitivity (I don't care if the R and L buttons on the PS2 have 4 billion levels of pressure if there's only enough travel to have about 3 different levels). The control sticks are well placed for where the thumbs naturally extend to rather than forcing them to be permenantly and uncomfortably bent downwards. Finally, your fingers sit nicely in the grooves in the back rather than wrapping right around and putting stress on your knuckles.
Apart from that fact, if you look at their green dotted line it's faulty anyway - the actual line shows a short arrow branching from the main trunk to Sinix and then shortly after a branch from the same trunk (not from the Sinix branch) to Minix. On the SCO version the size of the dots obscures this, the top of the Minix branch is cut off and the green dotted line follows from the Sinix branch down to Minix when infact they both come from the trunk, the Minix branch just happens to cross the Sinix branch in this representation and therefore the SCO version has chosen to use this meaningless crossover to obscure where the Minix arrow is really coming from.
No, just about all individuals use it. Games and similar things usually use vorbis now purely because it can keep down the file sizes and doesn't expose them to patent issues.
Surely if they demonstrated that they made an OS vulnerable to the virus of the day, why should they be trusted to make the software that protects against/fixes said virus?
There are also definite shades of Dilbert here, where the employees who write the software are paid for every bug they remove from the software. It sounds outlandish but MS have demonstrated some pretty evil business practices; might it be possible for them to put a vulnerability into Windows that allowed viruses which could only be combatted by MS Virus Scan - it could be done in a way that means Norton or McAfee could be slapped with the DMCA if they knew the encryption to access the bit of Windows affected by the virus, but it would be a triviality for the virus writer to break said encryption since they're not worried about the law. </tinfoil hat>
Audio is often used in a portable sense and the market was saturated by MP3 files way before Vorbis came along - it didn't just have to be good, it had to be so much better that it could kill the competitor and motivate hardware purchases of compatible players, and to be fair it is good but not _that_ good. It is comforting to know that there is a high quality, open and unencumbered format there - trusting a market where there is no incentive to keep your patented codecs free (as in beer) is dangerous but a free (as in speech) codec deters patent issues since people can make the switch if using MP3 is made too inconvenient. In that capacity the existance of vorbis comforts me, but I won't use it until it runs on my iPod. Having said that, most games seem to use vorbis audio for their in-game sounds so it's got more marketshare than many people think.
In terms of video there is not a real portable market (meaning no hardware replacement needed) nor is there a codec to which there is 'no competition' in terms of uptake like MP3 for audio. This gives theora a much better chance of taking off - all it needs is a little download, no selling on your iPod for an ogg compatible hardware player. The video market is a much more level playing field giving theora a chance to stand up on its merits rather than desparately clawing at the heels of an established standard, and even if it does not gain dominance what I said about providing an incentive to stay free and a possibility to switch is comforting - if DRM becomes too bad or divx goes paid there will always be something I can switch to.
And this is a bad thing because?
I use Firefox and probably always will. My family use Firefox because I installed it on the home computers and they find it just as easy as IE but without the spyware and popups. You probably use Firefox and put your friends and family on it because, like me, you're a Slashdot reading geek who knows it exists and knows it's superior.
The rest of the world uses IE. They will not leave IE either because (and this is the case 90% of the time) it is the internet to them - they know nothing else or because they don't think it's worth the effort. If the IE using public get a better version of IE pressed onto them by MS and we get to keep our Firefox I'd say everyone wins. It's not the perfect scenario but it's better than it could be.
Yes. RC aka Release Candidate - it's not the release, it's a build that may possibly become the 0.9 release and the fact that they've made such a fuss about this RC means people are mixing it up with 0.9 which it is not.
It's not flash, it's a microdrive with a USB interface rather than the usual CF.
I'd say it's useful rather than innovative, and apparently it's "Safely encased in its sleek round shell, its robust design and high shock tolerance enables mobility and makes it as convenient as a USB thumb drive". I must say I'm impressed with the robustness of my iPod mini and assuming that these things use similar drives I would assume they'll be considerably cheaper since they don't need any touchwheels, MP3 playback or top class design - I actually pick up and use an MP3 player so I want it to be well made, I just pull a flash drive out of my bag and plug it in, as long as it's tough I don't care what it looks like.
Offer them 'advanced services at a 50% discount' on top of their normal fees and they'll jump to give you cash, even if they don't ever need to use the features. Try a price raise by half of what they are willing to pay for these features and the customer will have a fit.
Maybe, but firstly I'd say it's only fair to take it after conviction not arrest - if you haven't done anything they have absolutely no business even knowing your name, let alone your DNA. Secondly, you'd want some solid legislation in place to prevent the use of as-yet impossible sequencing techniques to scan the database for people of a violent disposition (for example) since while possibly helpful many people can control themselves and do not deserve to be bumped up the suspect list.
It can work, but as with all things the potential for abuse should be eliminated before its introduction.
Why not? Nobody else owns it, so if it lands in your house surely you keep it.
I'm sure this has been covered repeatedly, but what's wrong with the UK system of 'put an X in the box by the candidate you want'. If counting time is a problem (IMO a hand count which anyone who feels like it is free to watch is a damn good thing, but anyway) then use those things they have for automatically marking exams, where you fill in the circle by the name you want and a machine scans them all - I know that's practically what this does but why put the mechanical element in there when it doesn't have to be. Seems like just another point for failure.
About 5500 when I looked (can't remember exactly and not waiting for it to load again). Isn't the average Slashdotting something in the region of 45000, or did I just make that up?
As has been said, it can be run standalone. What I'd like to see, however, is phpstack running within Apache. Infact, the article says it's got support for PHP scripting - phpstack within phpstack within Apache, perhaps?
Not quite. It's the tabloids that have this effect, and to be honest the majority (don't flame me, I didn't say all) of their readers are people too dumb to form their own opinions. The broadsheets are less sensationalist and their readers ignore much of the bias that may slip in.
A reader of the Guardian would probably not oppose this even if it was an EU policy. Plenty of Sun readers, on the other hand, would jump at the chance to oppose the 'damn foreigners and illegal immigrants and that lot'.
Most people don't realise what's going on.
For those of us who do realise we argue, we protest, the government ignores us. Lather, rinse, repeat.
How do you track which business authorised the spamming then? For example, what if Ford wanted to up it's web presence in order to sell more of it's new car aimed at geeks - it pays an advertising firm who take out banners for this car on Slashdot and setup a mailing list on the Ford website. The advertising firm outsources list management for all clients to India, the Indian outsourcing center then mails every address they have with Ford Geekmobile information rather than just sending it to the people on the Ford-optin list.
Who gets the fine there? If you say Ford since they're the ones who benefit, what's to stop them spamming adverts for other car companies and getting them fined? The ad agency didn't actually spam anybody, so they don't deserve any fine. The Indians aren't bound by US law so they don't have to pay.
I may not have phrased that perfectly, I didn't mean that the PATRIOT act stops all free speech, but as shown here they do have the power to silence you if you are involved in a PATRIOT act case. It's a slippery slope.
An extract from that article: ACLU lawyers and their client are also disputing a section of the law that prohibits an entity that receives a National Security Letter request for information from telling anyone about the request. Ironically, this gag order is the same rule that prohibits the ACLU and John Doe from talking about many aspects of their case.
Your point is good, but unfortunately the broadness of most software patents means that if there is an OSS 'alternative' to a proprietary program, it will probably infringe on that patent and risk being crushed by a team of elite ninja lawyers.