I was in the Apple Store yesterday, in the 2 hours I was in there I saw no less than 100 new macs leave the store (and an obscene amount of iPods and iPhones
But consider the number of stores:
As of September 2007, Apple has opened 194 stores, including 172 in 36 US states, ten in the United Kingdom, seven in Japan, and four in Canada. Recently, Apple opened its first store in continental Europe, in Rome.Apple Store (Retail)
There are two [and only two] Apple Stores within four hundred miles of here, both located in the priciest of upscale suburban "Galleria" malls. I'm not surprised when Apple's boutique market sales look good. But that doesn't translate into a mass migration away from Windows.
And now ask yourself, who of us had chosen Windows?? Right, nobody. It's the thing which came preinstalled.
The OEM system install has been the gold standard in the consumer market for damn near thirty years.
The choice is the system bundle--- a choice that is reinforced by the migration to the laptop, the desktop replacement, the media center, the high-end gamer's PC.
Internal upgrade options are limited, expensive, and beyond the comfort level of most users.
It appears that the win32-loader allows you to begin the install process of Debian from a Windows operating system.
Well, thanks, for the info....
But what does it say about the Geeks of "Goodbye-Microsoft.com" that no one bothers to explain something as basic as this?
"Use of Debian logo does not imply endorsement by the Debian project."
Well, that is reassuring.
Who are these guys and why should I trust them?
In launching the installer are you committing yourself to a total erasure of your Windows OS, partitions, etc?
His bottle will shortly be available for sale from Lifesaver Systems [CC] at an expected cost of £190 (approx. $385)."
Simple, portable, anti-viral filters are not new. The First Need Deluxe Water Filter/Purifier is $93 at Amazon. First Need is one filter that claims to meet EPA virus-removal standards by filtration alone -- a nice change from the yucky taste (and for some, the health risks) of iodine. Most antiviral filters involve an iodine element; when its job is done, a carbon element rids your water of any face-scrunching aftertaste.How To Buy a Water Filter
Perhaps the industry should open up a bit more to AO rated games. Maybe they'll be surprised as to the results. Last I saw, the porn industry was still thriving.
The market might be more open to AO content if "Adult Content" meant something more to the game developer than pornographic sex and violence.
Rockstar's Manhunt 2 was nothing more than a late attempt to cash in on the success of torture porn flicks like Saw and Hostel - box office poison this past summer.
If you've got money to burn, buy MS Office. If you are a tightwad, download Open Office. If you are somewhere in between, download Open Office, use it, and if you decide you aren't happy with it, buy MS Office
The truth is, free-as-in-beer isn't a very compelling reason to chose an office suite - something you'll likely have to live with between nine and five every work day.
MS Office Home 2007, retail boxed, three seat license, is $120 at Amazon.com.
#1 in software sales at Amazon.com. OpenOffice.org on disk is #14 in Windows Office Suite sales at 85 cents plus shipping and handling.
If your employer has a volume licensing deal with Microsoft, MS Office can also be yours for the price of the media, shipping and handling. Home Use Program
You missed the detail that at least part if not all of the titles the RIAA are suing over are not with Member labels.
If the only issue is in dispute is who owns own the copyrights what makes the story worth posting? In a thousand cases P2P how many times will that line of attack be worth pursuing?
The RIAA has filed a motion for summary {judgement.] If the judge rules in their favor...it may turn into a...situation where the only thing left to be decided are the damages.
Well, yeah. In a motion for summary judgment, you are asking the judge to rule that the defendant hasn't got a case worth taking to trial - no matter how generously how you read the arguments in his favor.
Thomas argues that since she lacks the financial means to..track the ownership of [the] songs she is accused of infringing, her only opportunity to determine their true ownership is via discovery or cross-examination at trial.'
Her lawyers want a trial to determine whether the RIAA should sue her as the representative of Label X or as the representative Label Y? There is no real doubt that the recordings are still under copyright?
Ars also notes that the RIAA's biggest fear is of losing a case. 'A loss at trial would be catastrophic for the RIAA. It would give other defense attorneys a winning template while exposing the weaknesses of the RIAA's arguments. It would also prove costly from a financial standpoint, as the RIAA would have to foot the legal expenses for both itself and the defendant. Most of all, it would set an unwelcomed precedent: over 20,000 lawsuits filed and the RIAA loses the first one to go to a jury.'"
Cases are lost at trial all the time.
You don't get that far unless the parties are pretty evenly matched. But establishing meaningful precedent is extraordinarily rare.
The problem here is that you are really looking only at the admissibility of evidence used to prove infringement and the weight to be given that evidence. The burden of proof in a civil case is light and relevant evidence is rarely excluded.
Absolutely. And he'll definitely have a valid point this time. How dare Take Two release this onto the public after they were slapped down by the ESRB. Wait.. What? Oh, it's a warez release? Hrm...
The warez release of a program that never saw commercial distribution --- a release that couldn't possibly be traced back to Rockstar itself? This is precisely the sort of run-around that made "Hot Coffee" so toxic.
Consider this scenario:
The news site fill with stories about a new game with deeply disturbing AO content that distributors like WalMart can't touch. Under extreme pressure from all sides the AO content disappears from the retail product --- but reappears on the Internet as an anonymously sourced mod. Giving the developers "plausible deniabilty."
But that would be only be the beginning of the story, not the end. The Geek is his own worst enemy.
The bare suspicion that a developer was pushing hard-core AO violence or sexual content under the table would be devastating. There would be no more talk of voluntary compliance with a ratings system.
There would be no more independent - unofficial - modding communities - all mods would have to be vetted and distributed through a "trusted" system like Steam or Windows Live!
You might begin by asking whether a western developer would have used the interior of the Al-Al-Asqua Mosque or Kyotto's Yasaka Shrine as the setting for a first-person shooter.
I understand you believe the GP's suggestion to be unethical, but there's no need to misuse the word "theft" for this. What the GP is talking about may be freeloading, or copyright violation, or breach of contract, but to call this "theft" belittles the victims of actual theft.
Intangible property is still property. Theft of services is still theft.
The service disappears. The provider goes out of business. There is a victim.
why is it they can find these plane crashes while searching for Fosset, but couldn't find any of those before?
It is a difficult and dangerous environment to search:
The registry has 129 entries for Nevada. But over the last 50 years, aviation officials estimate, more than 150 small planes have disappeared in Nevada, a state with more than 300 mountain ranges carved with steep ravines, covered with sagebrush and pinon pine trees and with peaks rising to 11,000 feet.
If amateurs can find new meteor craters with google earth, why not airplanes? How trained do you really have to be to spot an oddly shaped bright feature in otherwise mundane terrain?
never spent much time in the southwest, have you?
the terrain ia not that simple. light and shadow give objects odd, illusionary, shapes and colors.
it is a much tougher problem then spotting a road, a riverbed, a townside. something that may have shaped or re-shaped terrain, ecologies, for hundreds or thousands of years.
can't computers do this sort of thing more efficiently? you think a computer could pick out potential "hits" for further review by trained professionals, perhaps by searching for what looks like man-made objects in remote areas or comparing old imagery with the current, updated samples.
But what exactly are you looking for?
Remember the "Face on Mars?" It is very easy to find significance in patterns that are pure chance. The computer can be no more rational and objective than its programmer.
In World War Two, instead of constructing elaborate wooden mock-ups, you could create a convincing illusion of a fighter base simply by painting abstract shadows of aircraft on the ground.
Today's generation is the one PAYING their self-given Social Security.
Who do you think paid for the care of the elderly before social security? Meaningful pensions were almost non-existent. What makes you think you could live on Social Security in 1940?
The mean life expectancy of an adult male retiring in 1940 was 12 years, seven months. The first generation of retirees under Social Security have been dead for over fifty years. Male Life Expectancy
In a service-based economy - in which physical strength and endurance becomes increasingly irrelevant - who employs - and promotes - a younger generation of workers - particularly at entry level?
On January 31, 1940, the first monthly retirement check was issued to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, in the amount of $22.54. Miss Fuller, a Legal Secretary, retired in November 1939. She started collecting benefits in January 1940 at age 65 and lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975.History
What about the interment camps?
I'll not defend the internment of the Japanese-Americans. But it did not happen in the true war zone of Hawaii. It did not preclude service in the American military - and there could be vindication for the interned after the war was over. A Village Disappeared
It's made by Northrup Grummen, which means it's much like the Microsoft one, but continues even more more proprietary, but antiquated parts and software, and costs about 100 times more.
A tabletop display will take a lot of physical abuse. Spills, cigarette burns.
MS Surface uses rear projection and IR cameras to track position and movement. Simple, reliable, and cheap.
It will be interesting to see if which came first - the FAA touch table or Microsoft's desktop computer. God I hope it was the FAA touch table. It would be too funny to see MS get blown out of the water after their big splash with that thing.
Microsoft's Surface uses cameras to track input. The actual tabletop is nothing more than an ordinary acrylic panel used as a rear projection screen.
It should be easy to clean and difficult to break, scratch or stain.
The technology allows non-digital objects to be used as input devices. In one example, a normal paint brush was used to create a digital painting in the software. [In] using cameras for input, the system does not rely on [the] properties required of conventional touchscreen or touchpad devices such as the capacitance, electrical resistance, or temperature of the tool [being] used.Microsoft Surface
Authors should give away their books, and instead earn their money giving seminars and lectures
Limiting creative, productive, activity to the young and fit.
How many voices are silenced because they don't have the academic sinecures, the foundation grants, that will allow them to contimue to work into old age without having to perform before an audience like a trained seal?
What is it about the Geek?
That he is the eternal adolescent who thinks himself immortal?
What gives him the right to say that the punishing pace of the concert tour is the only legitimate source of income for an artist. What makes hin think that you can build a house, raise a family, on the sales of a coffee mug?
This is standing up to a MUCH bigger bulley who is trying to take what is not theirs.
You are not entitled to anything that is not explicitly defined in your contract of service. You can take your marbles and play elsewhere. What you cannot do is transform the unthrottled download into a civil or moral right.
This statement leads me to believe you don't even know how bit torrent works. You are aware, it downloads from peers that have also downloaded from their peers from an original source right? And that aside from a small few bits at the beginning, ALL of the downloads come from (what is going to be essentially from the ISP's point of view) random locations right?
Right.
Which is why I said it wouldn't be Bit Torrent as you know it.
But that just takes you back to Point A.
I never said that all torrents were illegal. What I was that unless the illegal P2P traffic can be segregated out, the legal downloader [using BT or any other mechanism] is going to have to learn to live with significant throttling, bandwidth caps, and none-too-gentle reminders that is time to migrate to a higher grade of service.
As someone who has downloaded lots of music illegally, I have NEVER had to resort to bittorrent to get it. [You] can put certain phrases in Google and get the default "directory listing allowed" for common web server software and find TONS of music shared on web servers.
Since it came out, I have probably downloaded 150 gigs of various game patchs, game mods, Linux versions, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
But consider the number of stores:
As of September 2007, Apple has opened 194 stores, including 172 in 36 US states, ten in the United Kingdom, seven in Japan, and four in Canada. Recently, Apple opened its first store in continental Europe, in Rome. Apple Store (Retail)
There are two [and only two] Apple Stores within four hundred miles of here, both located in the priciest of upscale suburban "Galleria" malls. I'm not surprised when Apple's boutique market sales look good. But that doesn't translate into a mass migration away from Windows.
The OEM system install has been the gold standard in the consumer market for damn near thirty years.
The choice is the system bundle--- a choice that is reinforced by the migration to the laptop, the desktop replacement, the media center, the high-end gamer's PC.
Internal upgrade options are limited, expensive, and beyond the comfort level of most users.
maintaining two operating systems, software libraries, and skill sets is not my idea of fun.
You aren't paying for the single.
You are paying for your unlicensed and unlimited redistribution of the single through the P2P nets.
So, having read the fine article, you can tell how me how this thing works and why it costs $385
--- and only if the installer does what you tell it to do.
I see a zealot's website with two sparse pages of text, some crappy screen shots, and links that lead nowhere in particular.
Nothing that inspires trust in a program that can do unlimited damage to my system and files.
Well, thanks, for the info....
But what does it say about the Geeks of "Goodbye-Microsoft.com" that no one bothers to explain something as basic as this? "Use of Debian logo does not imply endorsement by the Debian project."
Well, that is reassuring.
Who are these guys and why should I trust them?
In launching the installer are you committing yourself to a total erasure of your Windows OS, partitions, etc?
Simple, portable, anti-viral filters are not new. The First Need Deluxe Water Filter/Purifier is $93 at Amazon. First Need is one filter that claims to meet EPA virus-removal standards by filtration alone -- a nice change from the yucky taste (and for some, the health risks) of iodine. Most antiviral filters involve an iodine element; when its job is done, a carbon element rids your water of any face-scrunching aftertaste. How To Buy a Water Filter
The market might be more open to AO content if "Adult Content" meant something more to the game developer than pornographic sex and violence.
Rockstar's Manhunt 2 was nothing more than a late attempt to cash in on the success of torture porn flicks like Saw and Hostel - box office poison this past summer.
The truth is, free-as-in-beer isn't a very compelling reason to chose an office suite - something you'll likely have to live with between nine and five every work day.
MS Office Home 2007, retail boxed, three seat license, is $120 at Amazon.com.
#1 in software sales at Amazon.com. OpenOffice.org on disk is #14 in Windows Office Suite sales at 85 cents plus shipping and handling.
If your employer has a volume licensing deal with Microsoft, MS Office can also be yours for the price of the media, shipping and handling. Home Use Program
If the only issue is in dispute is who owns own the copyrights what makes the story worth posting? In a thousand cases P2P how many times will that line of attack be worth pursuing?
The RIAA has filed a motion for summary {judgement.] If the judge rules in their favor...it may turn into a...situation where the only thing left to be decided are the damages.
Well, yeah. In a motion for summary judgment, you are asking the judge to rule that the defendant hasn't got a case worth taking to trial - no matter how generously how you read the arguments in his favor.
Thomas argues that since she lacks the financial means to..track the ownership of [the] songs she is accused of infringing, her only opportunity to determine their true ownership is via discovery or cross-examination at trial.'
Her lawyers want a trial to determine whether the RIAA should sue her as the representative of Label X or as the representative Label Y? There is no real doubt that the recordings are still under copyright?
Ars also notes that the RIAA's biggest fear is of losing a case. 'A loss at trial would be catastrophic for the RIAA. It would give other defense attorneys a winning template while exposing the weaknesses of the RIAA's arguments. It would also prove costly from a financial standpoint, as the RIAA would have to foot the legal expenses for both itself and the defendant. Most of all, it would set an unwelcomed precedent: over 20,000 lawsuits filed and the RIAA loses the first one to go to a jury.'"
Cases are lost at trial all the time.
You don't get that far unless the parties are pretty evenly matched. But establishing meaningful precedent is extraordinarily rare.
The problem here is that you are really looking only at the admissibility of evidence used to prove infringement and the weight to be given that evidence. The burden of proof in a civil case is light and relevant evidence is rarely excluded.
The warez release of a program that never saw commercial distribution --- a release that couldn't possibly be traced back to Rockstar itself? This is precisely the sort of run-around that made "Hot Coffee" so toxic.
Consider this scenario:
The news site fill with stories about a new game with deeply disturbing AO content that distributors like WalMart can't touch. Under extreme pressure from all sides the AO content disappears from the retail product --- but reappears on the Internet as an anonymously sourced mod. Giving the developers "plausible deniabilty."
But that would be only be the beginning of the story, not the end. The Geek is his own worst enemy.
The bare suspicion that a developer was pushing hard-core AO violence or sexual content under the table would be devastating. There would be no more talk of voluntary compliance with a ratings system.
There would be no more independent - unofficial - modding communities - all mods would have to be vetted and distributed through a "trusted" system like Steam or Windows Live!
Intangible property is still property. Theft of services is still theft.
The service disappears. The provider goes out of business. There is a victim.
It is a difficult and dangerous environment to search:
The registry has 129 entries for Nevada. But over the last 50 years, aviation officials estimate, more than 150 small planes have disappeared in Nevada, a state with more than 300 mountain ranges carved with steep ravines, covered with sagebrush and pinon pine trees and with peaks rising to 11,000 feet.
never spent much time in the southwest, have you?
the terrain ia not that simple. light and shadow give objects odd, illusionary, shapes and colors.
it is a much tougher problem then spotting a road, a riverbed, a townside. something that may have shaped or re-shaped terrain, ecologies, for hundreds or thousands of years.
I like Microsoft's hardware solution - low-tech rear projection, and dirt cheap IR cameras for tracking.
But what exactly are you looking for?
Remember the "Face on Mars?" It is very easy to find significance in patterns that are pure chance. The computer can be no more rational and objective than its programmer.
In World War Two, instead of constructing elaborate wooden mock-ups, you could create a convincing illusion of a fighter base simply by painting abstract shadows of aircraft on the ground.
Who do you think paid for the care of the elderly before social security? Meaningful pensions were almost non-existent. What makes you think you could live on Social Security in 1940?
The mean life expectancy of an adult male retiring in 1940 was 12 years, seven months. The first generation of retirees under Social Security have been dead for over fifty years. Male Life Expectancy
In a service-based economy - in which physical strength and endurance becomes increasingly irrelevant - who employs - and promotes - a younger generation of workers - particularly at entry level?
On January 31, 1940, the first monthly retirement check was issued to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, in the amount of $22.54. Miss Fuller, a Legal Secretary, retired in November 1939. She started collecting benefits in January 1940 at age 65 and lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975. History
What about the interment camps?
I'll not defend the internment of the Japanese-Americans. But it did not happen in the true war zone of Hawaii. It did not preclude service in the American military - and there could be vindication for the interned after the war was over. A Village Disappeared
A tabletop display will take a lot of physical abuse. Spills, cigarette burns. MS Surface uses rear projection and IR cameras to track position and movement. Simple, reliable, and cheap.
Reading the fine article:
Pressure sensitive surface allows multiple methods of information
Microsoft's Surface uses cameras to track input. The actual tabletop is nothing more than an ordinary acrylic panel used as a rear projection screen.
It should be easy to clean and difficult to break, scratch or stain.
The technology allows non-digital objects to be used as input devices. In one example, a normal paint brush was used to create a digital painting in the software. [In] using cameras for input, the system does not rely on [the] properties required of conventional touchscreen or touchpad devices such as the capacitance, electrical resistance, or temperature of the tool [being] used. Microsoft Surface
Surface can sense and interact with "domino" tagged objects, like a digital camera. What lurks below Micosoft's Surface
The Grumman maxes out at 1600x1200 for an 84" display. To my mind, that seems a little disappointing for a military-grade tactical display.
Surface at 1280x960 for a 30" display.
Limiting creative, productive, activity to the young and fit.
How many voices are silenced because they don't have the academic sinecures, the foundation grants, that will allow them to contimue to work into old age without having to perform before an audience like a trained seal?
What is it about the Geek?
That he is the eternal adolescent who thinks himself immortal?
What gives him the right to say that the punishing pace of the concert tour is the only legitimate source of income for an artist. What makes hin think that you can build a house, raise a family, on the sales of a coffee mug?
You are not entitled to anything that is not explicitly defined in your contract of service. You can take your marbles and play elsewhere. What you cannot do is transform the unthrottled download into a civil or moral right.
Right.
Which is why I said it wouldn't be Bit Torrent as you know it.
But that just takes you back to Point A.
I never said that all torrents were illegal. What I was that unless the illegal P2P traffic can be segregated out, the legal downloader [using BT or any other mechanism] is going to have to learn to live with significant throttling, bandwidth caps, and none-too-gentle reminders that is time to migrate to a higher grade of service.
As someone who has downloaded lots of music illegally, I have NEVER had to resort to bittorrent to get it. [You] can put certain phrases in Google and get the default "directory listing allowed" for common web server software and find TONS of music shared on web servers.
Since it came out, I have probably downloaded 150 gigs of various game patchs, game mods, Linux versions, etc.