That makes sense... though it seems that a fair system would charge only once a certain amount of the song has been played, say 30-50%. The recording industry should be understanding that when people are skipping, they're more likely to be in buying mode as well. It's the people not paying attention who won't buy.
As an aside, freebies can be very helpful in some situations. I was thinking about this last night when I bought two copies of Dragostei Din Tai (AKA the Numa Numa Dance song) by O-Zone off iTunes (regular edit and a mix). It should be fairly darn obvious that the chance that I'd buy a "Moldovan Romanian Pop song" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numa_numa) would be vanishingly small unless I had heard it by seeing the vidcam of a kid lip syncing -- would that be considered piracy by the RIAA if he'd been lip syncing to one of it's bands? That piracy earned O-zone a few pennies from me... probably from quite a few people.
I decided to give it a bit of try -- maybe I mixed in too many elements, but my Leonard Cohen/Joanna Newsom/Tori Amos list isn't great -- I don't hate the songs, but then again, only a few I really like. So I was happily skipping along till I got this:
"Unfortunately, our music licenses force us to limit the number of songs you may skip each hour. Sit back and enjoy the music for now, and click "Guide Us" to let us know what you think of the music we're playing."
I don't understand that. Why would the record companies want me to get bored, go do something else, and then fail to click on any buy now links for great songs? At least if I'm there actively skipping, I might be actively buying. If I've tuned it down to background music, no sales will be happening.
Well nuts, I just lent out my boxed set. But in that episode, I think Mal says something like (and this is paraphrased, not an exact quote) "the way I figure, if you see that much evil, the only way to cope is to become that evil." Something like that. That would suggest that the hapless settler beset by reavers did in fact become one. Of course, that would only be Mal's opinion. He did get all forky in the face, and that much is fact.
Honestly, I did give OSX a 100% chance. I have no problem with different DEs -- for me, it's fun to try out different desktops and I've tried a lot of them. On my 4 linux machines, I run two versions of KDE and one of Gnome (2 kde machines, 2 gnome machines). I've fooled around with Enlightment a little and I've tried about every DE out there. It doesn't bug me to switch between Gnome or KDE or even fvwm. I can use any of them fine, though I'll have preferences of course.
When I got my Mac, I knew it would be different and I didn't have a problem with that at all. Truth is, I was excited about looking at the differences. My issue is that (at least for me) it is different and and not equal or better. I didn't try recreating my Linux user experience on the Mac -- howver, I did try to replicate my ability to work as efficiently, even if differently. What I found was that OSX is prettier, but for me, less efficient because of a few missing abilities. In OSX, I can ultimately do everything I can do in Linux, but just not with the ease and grace Linux provides.
I'm not one of those people afraid to learn new ways of doing things, but I am reticent to replace a better way with lesser way. There are some things Linux could take from OSX to be sure, but OSX could stand to borrow from the *nix world a lot more than it has.
Because OSX isn't for everyone. I use it everyday at work, but when I get home I much prefer using kde on my linux box.
I understand this. I got a powerbook last January or February. At first I was amazed at the eye-candy.... but then I started turning things off, like the icons that enlarge when you mouse over (cool at first, then annoying). I found myself missing things that I discovered I had really come to depend on (like multiple desktops -- in OSX you can get 3d party apps which work OK but not perfectly). Then highlight to select -- no dice (at least universally). No sloppy focus -- keep foreground up and scroll a different application in the background (e.g., terminal in foreground, firefox with Howto in back) -- linux does it but I haven't found a way in OS X 10.3.
Anyway, as the year has worn on, I'm liking OSX less and less. I've played with Tiger on other people's computers, but I don't see any improvement - just gimicks. These annoyances really start to add up -- I suppose it's time to check and see if the trackpad issues have been resolved yet. That's the only thing that's held me back.
Defintely a jackass. I bought a Mac in January. I just checked my "purchased music" -- 305 songs. Now granted, about 25 of those are freebie downloads, and some albums have more than 10 songs, but I'd bet I've spent easily $225-$250 in the last 9 months.
In the previous five years before I got the mac, I could count on one hand the number of CDs I bought -- four to be exact, 3 of which were European imports and one of which I bought directly from an independant artist. So yeah - this guy's an idiot -- w/o itunes they would have made a grand total of diddly squat off me. Greedy bastards. Need to toss that out too.
Actually, what you describe is "positive punishment" (apply negative stimulus in the presence of a certain bahavior -- like a spanking for swearing). "Positive" is not used in the "good/bad" sense, put in the "plus/minus" sense.
Negative reinforcement is a reward that occurs by subtracting an adverse stimulus from the environment. For example, Fridays are a form of negative reinforcement -- the withdrawal of a negative stimulus (work) is rewarding, makes people feel good/relieved, and thus, people come to really like Friday afternoons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement#Positiv e_vs._negative
Ok -- $95 to buy it and if you can download it, the link to the DL is very not-obvious. Add to that glowing references such as this from the 2nd page: "Besides driver support, the largest obstacle to using BeOS is lack of applications." How long can it last if it has little hardware support, outdated and few applications, and costs nearly $100 to boot?
For any argument, you need to refer to a good, solid, and authoritative source. In this case, they should have been pointing to trademark law and court decisions in the jurisdiction. That is a good, solid and authoritative source to back up your claim.
I double-doubt that they used google or wikipedia as a legal reference. I'm sure it was to demonstrate a factual basis relating to the usage of the word "linux". Citing solid cases is good for legal arguments, but citing a solid case about "Foster's" or some other name, will do nothing to prove the facts about the genesis and usage of the word "linux". For that you need to reference linux history.
You know, if there was more physical activity in video games such as you see demonstrated by the "Star Wars Kid" -- who looks like he does a bit too much sitting in fact -- maybe we all wouldn't be so chubby.
I was at Worst Buy the other day and I saw a demo of the "Eye Toy" for the PS2. Now, I can't play video games anymore -- 30 minutes on a game pad means my wrist hurts for two days -- it all relates back to busting up a big rock (2'x1.5'x3') with a spike and a sledge a couple years ago and likely years of abuse on a game pad.... grrrr.
Anyway, the Eye Toy is a little USB camera and it came with a game called "Anti Grav" -- a not so unusual "antigravity skateboard" race game. Except you set up the camera and control your guy by moving your body. Suddenly, I'm able to play video games again -- I'm ducking, bobbing, reaching, jumping and crouching -- never touching a gamepad at all -- it's great fun (although you have to pay attention to room lighting and clothing colors). Plus, after an hour, I've worked up a real sweat. I also actually feel sore calves and thighs like after exercising. If I added wrist weights, it would amount to an actual workout without the mindless monotony that prevents me from ever keeping to an exercise regimine. I could really see how with some improvements to the technology, it could be incredible. And what it really needs is a fighting game - punch to punch, duck to duck, kick to kick. Video games could actually be truly athletic.
It's more than marketroids, although they do seem to excede the scientists in cost. If you look at the last reported quarter, Intel grossed $9.2 billion of which $2b was profit. Of note $1.17b went into R&D (1.34b into "selling and adminstrative"). That's still a decent profit -- about 22%, but it isn't like they profit $540 on every $40 of expenses (1350%). Intel Balance Sheet
Compare that to AMD's rather ugly results. Only $11 million in profit (and two of the last four quarters were losses). Still, the last Intel chip I "bought" (it was part of a laptop) was a 486sx20. I love AMD's stuff and their prices... but those lower prices definitely show on the bottom line.
I can't remember any "yo momma" jokes, but it did bring to mind the "mommy mommy" jokes of many years ago (e.g., mommy mommy, I don't like this spagetti. Shuddup or I'll rip the veins out of your other arm.)
So... mommy mommy I don't how this dell keyboard feels. Shuddup or I'll shove the mouse up your ass too.
I know that Sun antagonizes the linux world to some extent but even so, I respect the company. It has given me OpenOffice -- a suite I use almost daily (I don't work on weekends). Several years ago I bought a copy of StarOffice to show my appreciation -- but I've been using OpenOffice and all the upgrades since for a sum total of the 60-70 bucks I voluntarily spent on Star Office (can't recall the exact price anymore). In all honesty, I owe Sun a good amount of appreciation, and I hope they do kick some Dell butt.
Plus, they have some really nice looking hardware. I'm seriously considering replacing my home built, "sides taken off because it gets too hot and crashes during gzipping of backups" monstrosity I have sitting here.
Whether default permit execution belongs in the list or not, I think it would be nice to have a program that runs in the background which mediates whether a program can run or not. Like a cookie list, you know, "always accept, accept, deny, always deny", except it would be for applications (always run, run, don't run, always don't run). Whenever a program not in an "always" list tries to run, you get a dialogue box asking you whether you indeed want to run it. Allows for some convenience (even if "always run" would be a limited "default permit) and yet still provides the user with power over the system.
"I'm sorry but windows is *not* an "easy-to-install", "easy-to-use" desktop OS."
Compared to Linux it is.
Oh for cryin' out loud -- I seriously don't know how much easier it can get to install linux anymore. Pick a major distro, any distro, pop in cd or dvd, answer a couple questions (i.e., keyboard layout, time zone, use entire disk (or freespace), username, password (type it twice), wait awhile, done). No endless install driver, reboot, install driver, reboot, install driver, reboot, install software, reboot. When linux is done, it's done for 90% of what people want -- surf net, read email, write papers. And adding the extra things just isn't that darn hard (e.g., in ubuntu, fire up synaptic and click little checkboxes and then press "install", similar process with Suse YaST, and I'm sure RH/Fedora is just as easy).
It is a bald faced lie to say linux is hard to install. The fact is, it's becoming SO darn easy that I fear linux is going to loose it's geek coolness factor -- anyone who can put a CD in a computer has all the skills necessary to install linux right now.
Redundant? Hardly. Seems all I see here anymore is comments about how linux sucks and windows rocks. Including here, in the context of a story where it is obvious that MS is trying to milk it's monopoly. Keep it up fanboys -- pretty soon you'll have to call MS everytime you switch USB thumbdrives, won't be able to use the OS without being connected to the net, and will have to pay through the nose for the privilege. Anyway, to recap my non-redundant post:
Welcome to Slashdot WF Edition, in which Windows fanbois ("WF") rule, not a negative word can be said about MS without the WFs coming out of the woodwork, and linux sucks. WTF!
Welcome to Slashdot WF Edition, in which Windows fanbois ("WF") rule, not a negative word can be said about MS without the WFs coming out of the woodwork, and linux sucks. WTF!
I want a new moderation option: "-1 Windows Shill". Serriously, it seems like every other fricken post recently has been about why Windows is the shit.
I refill my cartridges -- get about 3 refills for each one before the drum starts degrading. I can't recall the name of the company off the top of my head, but I bought their "kit" which consists of a cheap soldering iron with a metal tube attached to the hot end, some pliers, an egg timer, and some other things. I think it was $15. Then I just buy a bottle of toner -- they ship it with nice big yellow cloth, plugs for the hole in the cartridge, and some M&Ms. Big bottles of toner are something like $30 for my massive Lexmark (3 drawers and a duplexer). The cartridges for that beast are about $200-250 (17.5k page). It takes about 5 minutes to refill, 10 if I have to punch the hole. I refill about 4x/year so my savings are substantial.
I have owned 3 printers for my home systems over the course of my life. A 9pin DMP for my TRS-80 CoCo bought in the early 80s. It never broke, was simply replaced. An HP Deskjet 500 from 1992-1995 (worked great, sold it to a friend). An HP Laserjet 4L 1995-present -- I WISH that thing would die -- 4 ppm is so freakin' slow... but it just keeps plugging away and because I don't actually print that much at home, I'd rather spend the money on some other gadget.
How do you break a mouse? Particularly optical mice? I have a logitech here that's probably 3 years old -- the mouse it replaced was a ball mouse I'd had for many years -- it worked when I replaced it (I just wanted to get an optical). The only thing that's gone goofy with this mouse is that the scroll stopped working. So I took it apart and discovered a little dustball obscuring a sensor -- the wheel is a multispoke dealie with an optical emiter/sensor setup. The spokes break the beam and are translated into motion. Picking out the lint cleared up the entire issue. So anyway, what kind of abuse do you heap on your electronics to break the mouse every 9 months?
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That makes sense ... though it seems that a fair system would charge only once a certain amount of the song has been played, say 30-50%. The recording industry should be understanding that when people are skipping, they're more likely to be in buying mode as well. It's the people not paying attention who won't buy.
... probably from quite a few people.
As an aside, freebies can be very helpful in some situations. I was thinking about this last night when I bought two copies of Dragostei Din Tai (AKA the Numa Numa Dance song) by O-Zone off iTunes (regular edit and a mix). It should be fairly darn obvious that the chance that I'd buy a "Moldovan Romanian Pop song" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numa_numa) would be vanishingly small unless I had heard it by seeing the vidcam of a kid lip syncing -- would that be considered piracy by the RIAA if he'd been lip syncing to one of it's bands? That piracy earned O-zone a few pennies from me
I don't understand that. Why would the record companies want me to get bored, go do something else, and then fail to click on any buy now links for great songs? At least if I'm there actively skipping, I might be actively buying. If I've tuned it down to background music, no sales will be happening.
Well nuts, I just lent out my boxed set. But in that episode, I think Mal says something like (and this is paraphrased, not an exact quote) "the way I figure, if you see that much evil, the only way to cope is to become that evil." Something like that. That would suggest that the hapless settler beset by reavers did in fact become one. Of course, that would only be Mal's opinion. He did get all forky in the face, and that much is fact.
Honestly, I did give OSX a 100% chance. I have no problem with different DEs -- for me, it's fun to try out different desktops and I've tried a lot of them. On my 4 linux machines, I run two versions of KDE and one of Gnome (2 kde machines, 2 gnome machines). I've fooled around with Enlightment a little and I've tried about every DE out there. It doesn't bug me to switch between Gnome or KDE or even fvwm. I can use any of them fine, though I'll have preferences of course.
When I got my Mac, I knew it would be different and I didn't have a problem with that at all. Truth is, I was excited about looking at the differences. My issue is that (at least for me) it is different and and not equal or better. I didn't try recreating my Linux user experience on the Mac -- howver, I did try to replicate my ability to work as efficiently, even if differently. What I found was that OSX is prettier, but for me, less efficient because of a few missing abilities. In OSX, I can ultimately do everything I can do in Linux, but just not with the ease and grace Linux provides.
I'm not one of those people afraid to learn new ways of doing things, but I am reticent to replace a better way with lesser way. There are some things Linux could take from OSX to be sure, but OSX could stand to borrow from the *nix world a lot more than it has.
I understand this. I got a powerbook last January or February. At first I was amazed at the eye-candy
Anyway, as the year has worn on, I'm liking OSX less and less. I've played with Tiger on other people's computers, but I don't see any improvement - just gimicks. These annoyances really start to add up -- I suppose it's time to check and see if the trackpad issues have been resolved yet. That's the only thing that's held me back.
Screw the ads. I'd pay $10 per episode for a nice DVD with liner.
That would be an AM shuffle. Look at the dial.
Defintely a jackass. I bought a Mac in January. I just checked my "purchased music" -- 305 songs. Now granted, about 25 of those are freebie downloads, and some albums have more than 10 songs, but I'd bet I've spent easily $225-$250 in the last 9 months.
In the previous five years before I got the mac, I could count on one hand the number of CDs I bought -- four to be exact, 3 of which were European imports and one of which I bought directly from an independant artist. So yeah - this guy's an idiot -- w/o itunes they would have made a grand total of diddly squat off me. Greedy bastards. Need to toss that out too.
Actually, what you describe is "positive punishment" (apply negative stimulus in the presence of a certain bahavior -- like a spanking for swearing). "Positive" is not used in the "good/bad" sense, put in the "plus/minus" sense.
v e_vs._negative
Negative reinforcement is a reward that occurs by subtracting an adverse stimulus from the environment. For example, Fridays are a form of negative reinforcement -- the withdrawal of a negative stimulus (work) is rewarding, makes people feel good/relieved, and thus, people come to really like Friday afternoons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement#Positi
Ok -- $95 to buy it and if you can download it, the link to the DL is very not-obvious. Add to that glowing references such as this from the 2nd page: "Besides driver support, the largest obstacle to using BeOS is lack of applications." How long can it last if it has little hardware support, outdated and few applications, and costs nearly $100 to boot?
I double-doubt that they used google or wikipedia as a legal reference. I'm sure it was to demonstrate a factual basis relating to the usage of the word "linux". Citing solid cases is good for legal arguments, but citing a solid case about "Foster's" or some other name, will do nothing to prove the facts about the genesis and usage of the word "linux". For that you need to reference linux history.
You know, if there was more physical activity in video games such as you see demonstrated by the "Star Wars Kid" -- who looks like he does a bit too much sitting in fact -- maybe we all wouldn't be so chubby.
.... grrrr.
I was at Worst Buy the other day and I saw a demo of the "Eye Toy" for the PS2. Now, I can't play video games anymore -- 30 minutes on a game pad means my wrist hurts for two days -- it all relates back to busting up a big rock (2'x1.5'x3') with a spike and a sledge a couple years ago and likely years of abuse on a game pad
Anyway, the Eye Toy is a little USB camera and it came with a game called "Anti Grav" -- a not so unusual "antigravity skateboard" race game. Except you set up the camera and control your guy by moving your body. Suddenly, I'm able to play video games again -- I'm ducking, bobbing, reaching, jumping and crouching -- never touching a gamepad at all -- it's great fun (although you have to pay attention to room lighting and clothing colors). Plus, after an hour, I've worked up a real sweat. I also actually feel sore calves and thighs like after exercising. If I added wrist weights, it would amount to an actual workout without the mindless monotony that prevents me from ever keeping to an exercise regimine. I could really see how with some improvements to the technology, it could be incredible. And what it really needs is a fighting game - punch to punch, duck to duck, kick to kick. Video games could actually be truly athletic.
It's more than marketroids, although they do seem to excede the scientists in cost. If you look at the last reported quarter, Intel grossed $9.2 billion of which $2b was profit. Of note $1.17b went into R&D (1.34b into "selling and adminstrative"). That's still a decent profit -- about 22%, but it isn't like they profit $540 on every $40 of expenses (1350%). Intel Balance Sheet
... but those lower prices definitely show on the bottom line.
Compare that to AMD's rather ugly results. Only $11 million in profit (and two of the last four quarters were losses). Still, the last Intel chip I "bought" (it was part of a laptop) was a 486sx20. I love AMD's stuff and their prices
I can't remember any "yo momma" jokes, but it did bring to mind the "mommy mommy" jokes of many years ago (e.g., mommy mommy, I don't like this spagetti. Shuddup or I'll rip the veins out of your other arm.)
... mommy mommy I don't how this dell keyboard feels. Shuddup or I'll shove the mouse up your ass too.
So
I know that Sun antagonizes the linux world to some extent but even so, I respect the company. It has given me OpenOffice -- a suite I use almost daily (I don't work on weekends). Several years ago I bought a copy of StarOffice to show my appreciation -- but I've been using OpenOffice and all the upgrades since for a sum total of the 60-70 bucks I voluntarily spent on Star Office (can't recall the exact price anymore). In all honesty, I owe Sun a good amount of appreciation, and I hope they do kick some Dell butt.
Plus, they have some really nice looking hardware. I'm seriously considering replacing my home built, "sides taken off because it gets too hot and crashes during gzipping of backups" monstrosity I have sitting here.
You can however get Science Friday as a podcast -- a show I rarely ever got to listen to before because of its timing.
Keep modding me down Windows Fanboys -- I got karma to burn.
you blew it by not using "ain't" at the end.
Whether default permit execution belongs in the list or not, I think it would be nice to have a program that runs in the background which mediates whether a program can run or not. Like a cookie list, you know, "always accept, accept, deny, always deny", except it would be for applications (always run, run, don't run, always don't run). Whenever a program not in an "always" list tries to run, you get a dialogue box asking you whether you indeed want to run it. Allows for some convenience (even if "always run" would be a limited "default permit) and yet still provides the user with power over the system.
Oh for cryin' out loud -- I seriously don't know how much easier it can get to install linux anymore. Pick a major distro, any distro, pop in cd or dvd, answer a couple questions (i.e., keyboard layout, time zone, use entire disk (or freespace), username, password (type it twice), wait awhile, done). No endless install driver, reboot, install driver, reboot, install driver, reboot, install software, reboot. When linux is done, it's done for 90% of what people want -- surf net, read email, write papers. And adding the extra things just isn't that darn hard (e.g., in ubuntu, fire up synaptic and click little checkboxes and then press "install", similar process with Suse YaST, and I'm sure RH/Fedora is just as easy).
It is a bald faced lie to say linux is hard to install. The fact is, it's becoming SO darn easy that I fear linux is going to loose it's geek coolness factor -- anyone who can put a CD in a computer has all the skills necessary to install linux right now.
Redundant? Hardly. Seems all I see here anymore is comments about how linux sucks and windows rocks. Including here, in the context of a story where it is obvious that MS is trying to milk it's monopoly. Keep it up fanboys -- pretty soon you'll have to call MS everytime you switch USB thumbdrives, won't be able to use the OS without being connected to the net, and will have to pay through the nose for the privilege. Anyway, to recap my non-redundant post:
Welcome to Slashdot WF Edition, in which Windows fanbois ("WF") rule, not a negative word can be said about MS without the WFs coming out of the woodwork, and linux sucks. WTF!
Chinese crackers
I though only southern white guys could be crackers.
Welcome to Slashdot WF Edition, in which Windows fanbois ("WF") rule, not a negative word can be said about MS without the WFs coming out of the woodwork, and linux sucks. WTF!
I want a new moderation option: "-1 Windows Shill". Serriously, it seems like every other fricken post recently has been about why Windows is the shit.
I refill my cartridges -- get about 3 refills for each one before the drum starts degrading. I can't recall the name of the company off the top of my head, but I bought their "kit" which consists of a cheap soldering iron with a metal tube attached to the hot end, some pliers, an egg timer, and some other things. I think it was $15. Then I just buy a bottle of toner -- they ship it with nice big yellow cloth, plugs for the hole in the cartridge, and some M&Ms. Big bottles of toner are something like $30 for my massive Lexmark (3 drawers and a duplexer). The cartridges for that beast are about $200-250 (17.5k page). It takes about 5 minutes to refill, 10 if I have to punch the hole. I refill about 4x/year so my savings are substantial.
... but it just keeps plugging away and because I don't actually print that much at home, I'd rather spend the money on some other gadget.
I have owned 3 printers for my home systems over the course of my life. A 9pin DMP for my TRS-80 CoCo bought in the early 80s. It never broke, was simply replaced. An HP Deskjet 500 from 1992-1995 (worked great, sold it to a friend). An HP Laserjet 4L 1995-present -- I WISH that thing would die -- 4 ppm is so freakin' slow
How do you break a mouse? Particularly optical mice? I have a logitech here that's probably 3 years old -- the mouse it replaced was a ball mouse I'd had for many years -- it worked when I replaced it (I just wanted to get an optical). The only thing that's gone goofy with this mouse is that the scroll stopped working. So I took it apart and discovered a little dustball obscuring a sensor -- the wheel is a multispoke dealie with an optical emiter/sensor setup. The spokes break the beam and are translated into motion. Picking out the lint cleared up the entire issue. So anyway, what kind of abuse do you heap on your electronics to break the mouse every 9 months?