In the mid 90's there really wan't much to look at online, AOL help people (beginners at least) get online and "get their feet wet". Now granted anyone with the slightest bit of computer literacy quickly outgrew it, but there were PLENTY of clueless people that needed the training wheels.
Does anyone here remember the "Internet Suites" sold by Delrina and others?
These would include more or less integrated clients for Archie, Veronica and Gopher for search. IRC, Usenet for chat and messaging. Telnet for BBS services. FTP for file transfers, a picture viewer and editor , a first generation web browser etc., etc.
I still have the five thick paperback manuals that shipped with the Delrina suite, the purpose of which was to translate geek-speak into Engllish. The AOL client stripped away all that complexity and replaced it with a colorful GUI, e-mail, IM, flat rate monthly billing, toll free dialup access, automatic updates ----
and Neverwinter Nights.
If you needed more than the AOL client, you could painlessly install things like Internet Explorer, mIRC chat, and add-free pure text based search engines like Web Ferret It surprised me to discover that after all these years the Ferret is still very much alive.
AOL is still around, and there are still people paying for dialup service with them... AOL's brand is so strong among the technically illiterate that some people actually thing that AOL is the "Internet," is "Email," is "instant messenger," etc.
The geek ought to have learned by now that not everyone shares his love of complexity --- or his need for or access to broadband services.
Around 74 percent of the nation's adults had Internet access in their homes by 2010, but 6 percent were still relying solely on dial-up Internet connections to go online, according to a Federal Communications Commission report that looked at broadband access.
Just last year, AOL, whose more than 3.5 million dial-up users account for the bulk of the business, added 200,000 new dial-up customers to its roster.
And while Verizon Communications provides high-speed Internet services through fiber optic FIOS service or digital subscriber lines (DSL) to the majority of its 8.7 million subscribers, the company still provides dial-up Internet to more than 31,000 U.S. customers.
Why are so many are still using the old-fashioned Internet highway?
Their reasons can range from the expense of faster services to little need to hurry up and download all those movies.
why isn't there a google alternative that is worth a damn, that isn't in the US, isn't hosted in the US and doesn't use a US-controlled TLD, and thus, not subject to this DMCA bullshit?
Only the EU as a whole produces wealth on anything like this scale.
The geek may fret and fume and claim otherwise.
But, realistically, your people and operations based in the states will be quite safe from mob violence, religious persecution, political and economic upheavels of every sort.
The search provider is, of course, only a half step away from becoming a content provider, with its own IP and revenue streams to protect.
Skipping over the editorializing in the summary, I would like to point out that the Military using Hollywood for promotion is not a recent occurence.
It dates back to the very beginning of motion ptctures:
[in 1899] the limitations of film equipment prevented the filming of actual battles, so Edison offered reenactments of the fighting made for the most part in New Jersey using National Guard troops. Film reenactments such as "Shooting Captured Insurgents " showed Spanish soldiers killing Cuban prisoners, while "U.S. Infantry Supported by Rough Riders at El Caney" and "Skirmish of Rough Riders" offered patriotic glimpses of the popular Rough Riders fighting.
TOR, TOR, TOR! The more people who use The Onion Router the better. There will need to be some brave souls out there to run Exit Nodes as they will be the ones targeted if, or when, accusations begin flying.
You first.
There are many reasons why Freenet, Tor, etc., do not reach critical mass.
Too complex. Too slow. Too obscure.
But I've come to suspect that the ultimate reason may be is that the geek expects someone else to take the big risks for him.
The traffic routed through your systems and networks. The data resident on your hard drives.
You can only argue that the facts in the case are on your side.
This is about the time --- far too late in the game, really --- that the geek on the sidelines will be seen screaming for "Jury Nullification!"
The problem is that a jury is ultimately drawn from the class of citizens who are constitutionally unable to weasel out of jury duty because it is inconvenient or expensive.
Firm belivers as they are in the proposition that there is no free lunch.
How did he even get access to pancreatic cancer urine samples?
Jack Andraka is a high school research intern at The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. The lab of Anirban Maitra, Associate Professor of Pathology and Oncology. Four students honored at INBT research symposium [NanoBioTechnology]
A MathMovesU Middle School Scholarship winner, Jack Andraka of Crownsville, Md., rode his way to a $1,000 campership courtesy of Raytheon to camp Awesome Math, where he can hone his problem-solving skills with students from around the world. Jack wrote about his love of mountain biking for Raytheon's MathMovesU Middle School Scholarship and Grant Program, which honors students and teachers who are passionate about science, technology, engineering and math.
I tell everyone to use a far better decrapifier. Those who have listened always thank me profusely every time the subject comes up.
The probability that a geek will post a oh-so-cleverly disguised link to a Linux distribution as the all-purpose solution to any problem with Windows approaches 100% on any online forum ---
but the trend line for Linux adoption remains as flat as the Kansas prairies.
So, if on those two files, he had a ratio of 100 (which would be exceptionally high), he should be billed $0.45 per upload or a total of $90? Uh, okay, I guess I could live with that.
His shared files go into the shared file folders of those who downloaded from him.
There is nothing to surprise anyone in this: when Kazaa was in its prime you could see dozens if not hundreds of sources for the same file.
When an mp3 file sells at retail for 99 cents, and the record company is out about 5 cents from an unauthorized download, it's beyond the pale to allow me to be penalized more than a few dollars for it, especially since I was not making any money on it, I was just listening to the music.
You were also re-distributing the files wholesale to the P2P nets.
Would you rather be charged 5 cents --- or, more plausibly, 45 cents each --- for every pirated mp3 file that could be traced back to your computer? Through a watermark or other means?
Think about it.
uTorrent has been downloaded 17 million times through Download.com alone.
We keep trying to live longer, but I can't see a life past 90 being very comfortable or enjoyable. The older you get, the crazier you become in most peoples eyes.
I look back on neighbors and family who lived well into their nineties --- at home, mentally alert and physically active until very near the end. It has me thinking that it is the contempt the young have for the old that is vain and mad.
You need at least a year to plan for an event like this. You might have something worthwhile ready for launch in three to six months. But it can't be done overnight,
Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world. There has been a growing presence of Indian English in dialogue and songs as well. It is common to see films that feature dialogue with English words (also known as Hinglish), phrases, or even whole sentences.
Pirates are welcomed in the outlands --- not in the centers of production --- not where there is real money to be made --- and lost --- in both domestic and foreign markets.
- US income mostly consists of copyrights and patents instead of actual goods
Nonsense.
The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be over $15 trillion in 2011. The U.S. is the largest trading nation in the world. Its three largest trading partners as of 2010 are Canada, China and Mexico. The economy of the United States is a mixed economy and has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a moderate unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment. It has been the world's largest national economy (not including colonial empires) since at least the 1890s. Most of the economy is classified as services. As of 2012, the country remains the world's largest manufacturer, representing a fifth of the global manufacturing output.
- US constantly bullies the whole world so that their largest revenue would stay secure.
If you want entry into the lucrative American market, pirating American products is perhaps not the best way to begin.
- India would, long term, make their country much better and knowledgeable by letting their people pirate whatever they want, like tools for coding, operating systems, photoshop, whatever. Currently they have little money.
Photoshop is a photo editing tool for the professional.
It implies a huge investment in camera bodies, lenses, other photographic gear, high-end PC hardware and so on, endlessly.
Tools are useless if you don't know how to use them --- if you don't have the other tools needed to make them useful --- and if you don't have a market for your work.
Eat your own dog food.
If Windows Server isn't secure enough or powerful enough to do the job, maybe Microsoft should revisit their design choices.
Windows Server has been quite successful in markets where the FOSS developer still struggles to gain a foothold. "Eating your own dog food" makes sense only when you are in the pet food business.
Every time there is anything posted about GIMP the entire comments consist of nothing but people complaining that it is not photoshop. What does it contribute to the discussion? We have all heard it before, many times. If you irrationally hate some piece of software, don't use it.
It is not unreasonable remind the geek that other users do not value a FOSS app for its ideological purity or political correctness. It has to deliver the goods.
One of the "big" ones a while ago had signed up a famous voice artist before the project had even been funded - sorry, but that's the LAST thing to worry about and probably the LAST thing I'd ever want added to a game I was funding (no matter how small) - the bloody janitor probably has a good enough voice that you'd never notice the difference.
But you will notice the difference.
In feature animation the voices are always recorded before character animation begins --- along with video of the actors to be used as references by the animators.
The devil is the details. The right word. The right voice.
As I said to someone else, back when the Lite-Brite Mooninites panicked the Boston Police, the first rule of making a bomb, is to not make it look like a bomb.
You just know when the geek is about to press the big red button.
They present evidence to a jury exposing a pattern of threats, harassment and verbal abuse --- and let them see the malice and purpose in your actions.
I expect Flash to be phased out in favor of non-proprietary alternatives in the near future(3-4 Years).
The HEVC/H.265 video codec is pretty far along now.
It will have the backing of the major hardware manufactuers and distributors like Netflix.
There is really no way of stopping new prorietary technologies from gaining traction on the web or keep them from being ported to the web as they gain momentum elsewhere,
The wealthy coastal cities, whose economies and interests had largely separated from agriculture, suffered horribly; Rural farming communities, by contrast, barely noticed anything had changed
Rural states saw damn little of the post-war prosperity of the 1920s. and were in deep trouble before the Great Depression of the mid-thrties.
Farming is increasingly mechanized and commercial. Framers are raising crops for sale in distant urban and foreign markets. To remain competitive demands more land, paved roads, trucks and tractors.
All of this costs money.
Wartime subsidies are gone. New trade barriers make export difficult.
Workers are abandoning agriculture for better paying jobs, homes and apartments in the city. The ten hour day. Electric light. Gas heat. Radio, the movies, and the flivver...
Slashdot Mirror
In the mid 90's there really wan't much to look at online, AOL help people (beginners at least) get online and "get their feet wet". Now granted anyone with the slightest bit of computer literacy quickly outgrew it, but there were PLENTY of clueless people that needed the training wheels.
Does anyone here remember the "Internet Suites" sold by Delrina and others?
These would include more or less integrated clients for Archie, Veronica and Gopher for search. IRC, Usenet for chat and messaging. Telnet for BBS services. FTP for file transfers, a picture viewer and editor , a first generation web browser etc., etc.
I still have the five thick paperback manuals that shipped with the Delrina suite, the purpose of which was to translate geek-speak into Engllish. The AOL client stripped away all that complexity and replaced it with a colorful GUI, e-mail, IM, flat rate monthly billing, toll free dialup access, automatic updates ----
and Neverwinter Nights.
If you needed more than the AOL client, you could painlessly install things like Internet Explorer, mIRC chat, and add-free pure text based search engines like Web Ferret It surprised me to discover that after all these years the Ferret is still very much alive.
AOL is still around, and there are still people paying for dialup service with them ... AOL's brand is so strong among the technically illiterate that some people actually thing that AOL is the "Internet," is "Email," is "instant messenger," etc.
The geek ought to have learned by now that not everyone shares his love of complexity --- or his need for or access to broadband services.
Around 74 percent of the nation's adults had Internet access in their homes by 2010, but 6 percent were still relying solely on dial-up Internet connections to go online, according to a Federal Communications Commission report that looked at broadband access.
Just last year, AOL, whose more than 3.5 million dial-up users account for the bulk of the business, added 200,000 new dial-up customers to its roster.
And while Verizon Communications provides high-speed Internet services through fiber optic FIOS service or digital subscriber lines (DSL) to the majority of its 8.7 million subscribers, the company still provides dial-up Internet to more than 31,000 U.S. customers.
Why are so many are still using the old-fashioned Internet highway?
Their reasons can range from the expense of faster services to little need to hurry up and download all those movies.
Plenty of Internet users cling to slow dial-up connections [May 12, 2012]
why isn't there a google alternative that is worth a damn, that isn't in the US, isn't hosted in the US and doesn't use a US-controlled TLD, and thus, not subject to this DMCA bullshit?
The Gross Domestic Product of the U.S. is 15 trillion dollars and the Population of the U.S. is 312 million.
Only the EU as a whole produces wealth on anything like this scale.
The geek may fret and fume and claim otherwise.
But, realistically, your people and operations based in the states will be quite safe from mob violence, religious persecution, political and economic upheavels of every sort.
The search provider is, of course, only a half step away from becoming a content provider, with its own IP and revenue streams to protect.
There is no linux for a novice.
There is only linux for people who want to learn the nuts and bolts of linux at a slower rate than others.
I launched the WUBI installer for Ubuntu: advertised to Windows users as a safe and painless way to test-drive Linux.
"The buttons" are on the wrong side, of couse, so it is off to Google to find a solution.
I like having a small app pinned to the tray to play Internet radio as a I work. Radio Sure, Screamer, Tapin...
The Ubuntu Store has a Radio Tray app for Linux that seems just the thing.I launch the program and it displays an error dialog in microscopic print.
Back to Google for a solution...
Radio Tray needs gstreamer-ugly.for sound.
Why the Ubuntu store doesn't install the supporting software its apps require I can't begin to guess.
I install the Chromium browser. I install "Angry Birds" and "Bejeweled."
No sound.
Now I'm getting really pissed off.
Back again to Google to find out which FFmpeg installion is needed....
When planning summer events for an American audience you need to get word out long before the Memorial Day weekend.
Skipping over the editorializing in the summary, I would like to point out that the Military using Hollywood for promotion is not a recent occurence.
It dates back to the very beginning of motion ptctures:
[in 1899] the limitations of film equipment prevented the filming of actual battles, so Edison offered reenactments of the fighting made for the most part in New Jersey using National Guard troops. Film reenactments such as "Shooting Captured Insurgents " showed Spanish soldiers killing Cuban prisoners, while "U.S. Infantry Supported by Rough Riders at El Caney" and "Skirmish of Rough Riders" offered patriotic glimpses of the popular Rough Riders fighting.
The War in Cuba
TOR, TOR, TOR! The more people who use The Onion Router the better. There will need to be some brave souls out there to run Exit Nodes as they will be the ones targeted if, or when, accusations begin flying.
You first.
There are many reasons why Freenet, Tor, etc., do not reach critical mass.
Too complex. Too slow. Too obscure.
But I've come to suspect that the ultimate reason may be is that the geek expects someone else to take the big risks for him.
The traffic routed through your systems and networks. The data resident on your hard drives.
The jury awarded the ridiculous damage.
You can't plead poverty to an American jury.
You can only argue that the facts in the case are on your side.
This is about the time --- far too late in the game, really --- that the geek on the sidelines will be seen screaming for "Jury Nullification!"
The problem is that a jury is ultimately drawn from the class of citizens who are constitutionally unable to weasel out of jury duty because it is inconvenient or expensive.
Firm belivers as they are in the proposition that there is no free lunch.
How did he even get access to pancreatic cancer urine samples?
Jack Andraka is a high school research intern at The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. The lab of Anirban Maitra, Associate Professor of Pathology and Oncology. Four students honored at INBT research symposium [NanoBioTechnology]
A MathMovesU Middle School Scholarship winner, Jack Andraka of Crownsville, Md., rode his way to a $1,000 campership courtesy of Raytheon to camp Awesome Math, where he can hone his problem-solving skills with students from around the world. Jack wrote about his love of mountain biking for Raytheon's MathMovesU Middle School Scholarship and Grant Program, which honors students and teachers who are passionate about science, technology, engineering and math.
Jack Andraka: Math and Mountain Biking Create Eureka Moment
I-SWEEEP 2010 Special Awards [Certificate of Achievement and Office of Naval Research Medallion]
I tell everyone to use a far better decrapifier. Those who have listened always thank me profusely every time the subject comes up.
The probability that a geek will post a oh-so-cleverly disguised link to a Linux distribution as the all-purpose solution to any problem with Windows approaches 100% on any online forum ---
but the trend line for Linux adoption remains as flat as the Kansas prairies.
Top 5 Operating Systems From Apr 2011 to Apr 2012
OS Platform Stats 2003-2012
The good folks who post to Ars Technica have grown rather weary of the business --- and quite sharp with those who continue to waste their time.
So, if on those two files, he had a ratio of 100 (which would be exceptionally high), he should be billed $0.45 per upload or a total of $90? Uh, okay, I guess I could live with that.
His shared files go into the shared file folders of those who downloaded from him.
There is nothing to surprise anyone in this: when Kazaa was in its prime you could see dozens if not hundreds of sources for the same file.
Dear Supreme Court:
When an mp3 file sells at retail for 99 cents, and the record company is out about 5 cents from an unauthorized download, it's beyond the pale to allow me to be penalized more than a few dollars for it, especially since I was not making any money on it, I was just listening to the music.
You were also re-distributing the files wholesale to the P2P nets.
Would you rather be charged 5 cents --- or, more plausibly, 45 cents each --- for every pirated mp3 file that could be traced back to your computer? Through a watermark or other means?
Think about it.
uTorrent has been downloaded 17 million times through Download.com alone.
We keep trying to live longer, but I can't see a life past 90 being very comfortable or enjoyable. The older you get, the crazier you become in most peoples eyes.
I look back on neighbors and family who lived well into their nineties --- at home, mentally alert and physically active until very near the end. It has me thinking that it is the contempt the young have for the old that is vain and mad.
You need at least a year to plan for an event like this.
You might have something worthwhile ready for launch in three to six months.
But it can't be done overnight,
I wonder how many systems shipped with Windows get wiped and Linux installed. I know I've done about twenty.
Twenty machines.
How many OEM Windows systems do you think FedEX delivers every twenty seconds?
Yes, it is a shame that Ubuntu users are locked into Unity with absolutely no way around it.
Oh, wait...
Ubuntu's primary appeal is to users who will never willingly stray far from the default UI --- even assuming that they are aware of the alternatives.
- India has no reason to fight against pirates
Not true.
Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world.
There has been a growing presence of Indian English in dialogue and songs as well. It is common to see films that feature dialogue with English words (also known as Hinglish), phrases, or even whole sentences.
Bollywood
Pirates are welcomed in the outlands --- not in the centers of production --- not where there is real money to be made --- and lost --- in both domestic and foreign markets.
- US income mostly consists of copyrights and patents instead of actual goods
Nonsense.
The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be over $15 trillion in 2011.
The U.S. is the largest trading nation in the world. Its three largest trading partners as of 2010 are Canada, China and Mexico.
The economy of the United States is a mixed economy and has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a moderate unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment. It has been the world's largest national economy (not including colonial empires) since at least the 1890s.
Most of the economy is classified as services. As of 2012, the country remains the world's largest manufacturer, representing a fifth of the global manufacturing output.
Economy of the United States
- US constantly bullies the whole world so that their largest revenue would stay secure.
If you want entry into the lucrative American market, pirating American products is perhaps not the best way to begin.
- India would, long term, make their country much better and knowledgeable by letting their people pirate whatever they want, like tools for coding, operating systems, photoshop, whatever. Currently they have little money.
Photoshop is a photo editing tool for the professional.
It implies a huge investment in camera bodies, lenses, other photographic gear, high-end PC hardware and so on, endlessly.
Tools are useless if you don't know how to use them --- if you don't have the other tools needed to make them useful --- and if you don't have a market for your work.
Eat your own dog food.
If Windows Server isn't secure enough or powerful enough to do the job, maybe Microsoft should revisit their design choices.
Windows Server has been quite successful in markets where the FOSS developer still struggles to gain a foothold. "Eating your own dog food" makes sense only when you are in the pet food business.
Every time there is anything posted about GIMP the entire comments consist of nothing but people complaining that it is not photoshop. What does it contribute to the discussion? We have all heard it before, many times. If you irrationally hate some piece of software, don't use it.
It is not unreasonable remind the geek that other users do not value a FOSS app for its ideological purity or political correctness. It has to deliver the goods.
One of the "big" ones a while ago had signed up a famous voice artist before the project had even been funded - sorry, but that's the LAST thing to worry about and probably the LAST thing I'd ever want added to a game I was funding (no matter how small) - the bloody janitor probably has a good enough voice that you'd never notice the difference.
But you will notice the difference.
In feature animation the voices are always recorded before character animation begins --- along with video of the actors to be used as references by the animators.
The devil is the details. The right word. The right voice.
As I said to someone else, back when the Lite-Brite Mooninites panicked the Boston Police, the first rule of making a bomb, is to not make it look like a bomb.
You just know when the geek is about to press the big red button.
How do they deduce intent?
They don't.
They present evidence to a jury exposing a pattern of threats, harassment and verbal abuse --- and let them see the malice and purpose in your actions.
I expect Flash to be phased out in favor of non-proprietary alternatives in the near future(3-4 Years).
The HEVC/H.265 video codec is pretty far along now.
It will have the backing of the major hardware manufactuers and distributors like Netflix.
There is really no way of stopping new prorietary technologies from gaining traction on the web or keep them from being ported to the web as they gain momentum elsewhere,
The wealthy coastal cities, whose economies and interests had largely separated from agriculture, suffered horribly; Rural farming communities, by contrast, barely noticed anything had changed
Rural states saw damn little of the post-war prosperity of the 1920s. and were in deep trouble before the Great Depression of the mid-thrties.
In Iowa 167 banks closed in 1920. That number rose to 505 in 1921.The Great Depression Begins ---- in the 1920s
Farming is increasingly mechanized and commercial. Framers are raising crops for sale in distant urban and foreign markets. To remain competitive demands more land, paved roads, trucks and tractors.
All of this costs money.
Wartime subsidies are gone. New trade barriers make export difficult .
Workers are abandoning agriculture for better paying jobs, homes and apartments in the city. The ten hour day. Electric light. Gas heat. Radio, the movies, and the flivver...
Maybe Google could buy MPEG-LA and end this nonsense once and for all?
MPEG LA manages patent pools.
The AVC/H.264 pool alone represents 29 licensors ---
most of them global industrial giants with no compelling reason to dance to Google's tune.
Here is a small sampling:
Cisco
Fujitsu
HP
Hitachi
NTT
Philips
Mitsubishi
Samsung
Sony
Ericsson
Toshiba