Mapping the Internet weekly will allow us to see major disasters in different parts of the world. The Internet is a huge disaster censor
Wait, I thought that "the Internet regards censorship as damage and routes around it"?
On the other hand, with most Americans turning away from traditional media and on to thevariousportals, it would be entirely possible for certain disasters to be "censored" by the big players. But there's always someone who won'tcooperate.
But Wikipedia came to the rescue. The poster is clearly talking about the Internet taking on the role of a Roman Censor, who was responsible for (among other things) enumerating the Roman people in a Census and setting tax rates. The Internet is a Disaster Censor, in that it goes out and finds problems and helps us figure out how important they are.
Sometimes, the best links on an article are the ones that go to yet another story.
SFGate.com also has this interesting article from almost a year ago on the return of Ricochet: Ricochet is also targeting residents who can't get high-speed access otherwise. Its signals are sent from radios on poles and rooftops, allowing users with laptops and other mobile devices to stay connected while they roam around.
It sounds like Ricochet is going to use the unregulated 900 MHz band to do the same thing that the FCC is going to do with regulated spectrum (that's already in use by the military).
Of course, another kicker is this paragraph: Aerie Networks Inc. has resurrected Ricochet, spending $8.25 million for technology and equipment that Metricom spent $1.3 billion developing.
Of all the times to have spent $8,250,000 on lottery tickets!
[...] their attorneys successfully argued that trojan programs found on their computers were to blame. In all three cases, no one has suggested that the verdicts were anything other than correct.
I think it's going to be pretty easy to tell, within the law, whether the computer owner knew that a hack attack or illegal download was occurring on his/her computer. Most of the time, the court's answer will be "no".
If a remote-control Trojan is on the PC, then the prosecution would have to prove that:
* The computer's owner is 133t enough to hack into a remote system, but clueless enough to allow a Trojan free rein on his own.
* Or, the computer's owner in fact installed the Trojan program on his PC for the explicit purpose of throwing off investigators.
While the defense attorney needs only argue that his client is just an average Joe(anne), and wouldn't know what a Trojan was if he/she bought one at the drugstore. The defense attorney should be facing a receptive audience. Remember, in the US at least, he'll be facing a jury of 12 average citizens who know as little about how computers work as I do about brain surgery.
Or perhaps less. At least I know which box my brain is in.
Poor guy... I should have found a more reliably-hosted site with pictures of 8-track tapes as a preferable form factor. How 'bout an eBay auction? That would have worked out a lot better.
And the camera takes an ungodly ammount of power - something like 0.3A (=0.9W) when idle... and that's without the flash, which I'm sure is much more!
One thing I noticed is that the camera's on-off switch is actually a momentary switch. This implies that there's some circuit watching that switch for a status change. I'm not up on analog circuitry -- anything beyond 1's and 0's seems like black magic to me sometimes -- but doesn't that mean that there's a non-zero current draw on the batteries, even while the camera sits unopened on the shelf?
Myself, I've got all the parts and I'm looking forward to building my interface this weekend. I bought my Dakota at Ritz the day of the original Slashdot article, in anticipation of its successful hacking.
I've got a CueCat (sorry,:CueCat) curled up somewhere at home, too.
Yes, we all know this article is a dupe, but Ananova slanted the data to look at CDs in particular.
The problem with replacing CDs with this technology is the form factor:
Scientists say each paper-thin device could store more than a gigabyte of information - equivalent to 1,000 high quality images - in one cubic centimetre of space.
I have enough trouble finding my CDs in the car without having to worry about them blowing away in a stiff breeze. If size were the issue, CD Singles would be released on half-size discs... in fact, many pop albums don't seem to have more than 30 minutes of music anyway.
The best way to incorporate this technology in a consumer-oriented music distribution would be to enclose it in a larger plastic enclosure with an interface to the player. Something like this, perhaps?
Deutsche Telekom [which has the 4 divisions T-Online (Internet), T-Mobile (cell phone service), T-Com (fixed line service, basically the German fixed line network), and T-Systems (something like extended IT services)]...
We just signed up for a T-Mobile phone for our daughter -- would you believe they've taken all the pay phones out of the school gym? She's going to be going to Europe on a school trip, and T-Mobile's phones are the only ones compatible with the European standard. Why waste money on phone cards she probably won't use?
Packed with the phone were scads of flyers and brochures touting AOL IM service on her T-Mobile phone. Fortunately, she's smart enough to know how useless such a "service" would be, especially at 5c per text message.
There was such gratuitous use of AOL insignia, I was wondering what was going on. Now it makes more sense...
Thanks a lot for being such a childish jerk. What's wrong, Mr. Anonymous Coward, afraid to call me lame and stupid and actually admit to who you are?
AC attacks are pretty lame, aren't they. But here's the strange part:
And then you have the gall to suggest that I actually subscribe to slashdot?
An AC says you should subscribe? That's a laugh.
Why should I if idiots like you are going to bash me for submitting interesting articles?
Dude, if your article was boring, the AC wouldn't have bothered to bait you. 1) Troll 2) Bite 3) ??? 4) Profit!
The only reason I can guess is that you'd be getting that money (at least some of it), which really makes you all the more pathetic. First you have to bash people then you beg them for their money.
Are you suggesting that CmdrTaco's krew is posting AC just to harass you into subscribing? I think you've gone over the edge on this one. If they had time to putz around like that, Slashdot would be little more than "CmdrTaco's Blog."
Next time try being a man and don't post anonymously.
Don't be a fool! There's enough men (and overgrown boys) on Slashdot already. Next time, I want the AC to try being a chick!
There's too little data in the DB at the moment to bother trying to make an educated guess based on IP bitmasks
Have you checked out BrowserSpy? I remembered that it used to have a "where are you" function, but I don't see it anymore (probably because nationwide ISPs like AOL made it unreliable). But it does have several interesting tools that might help.
Also, it seems like a Traceroute would give you some important clues, especially if you find an IP close to the endpoint in your database.
I remember reading a story, or seeing in a movie, where an old farmer would start each day by spraying some aerosol can contents out the door in hopes of causing Global Warming, so that winters wouldn't be so bad in his northern US homestead. What was that movie or book?
I though it might be a Simpsons reference (isn't everything?), but the closest I could come was when Global Warming brought good weather to the Costington's Christmas Parade.
Even if the government did not out right say "I'll support you if you don't show anti-government films or if you place this propeganda in you movies," the companies are still going to be hesitant to bite the hand that feeds them, so to speak.
Ohhhh... I see. It's because UNESCO isn't giving them the money to help that this is happening.
Wrong, though since the npr.org link is to audio and not a transcript, I can't fault you for not RTFA.
The issue isn't UNESCO funding, it's about countries' subsidies of their homegrown arts programs. Amelie, for example, wouldn't have been possible without the French government's funding the project.
UNESCO wants to codify into international law (whatever the heck that means) a protection to allow countries to subsidize their national film industries. The US, which only just now re-joined UNESCO, wants film to be just like any other industry, subject to WTO trade regulations. WTO could then say that film industry subsidies pose an unfair competitive advantage.
Of course, the US is talking out both sides of its mouth (again), since the WTO is in the process of saying our own steel industry subsidies are illegal.
The issues are hideously complex, and I recommend listening to the NPR report. [asbestos_suit status=on] As far as the WTO, I'm with Dennis Kucinich -- withdraw from WTO, repeal NAFTA, and don't even *think* about FTAA. [/asbestos_suit]
However, the US and the European Commission are staunchly defending the Icann model, which is based on minimal regulation and commercial principles. Icann members are predominantly drawn from industrialised countries and the established internet community.
So now, we're rooting for the much-maligned ICANN institution... I guess that's not such a cognitive dissonance now that they've actually faced up to Verisign -- though the end of that story is yet to be written.
Interesting that this should come up on the same day that NPR's Morning Edition (just audio, sorry) reported that the US is blocking an attempt by UNESCO to allow countries to subsidize their national film industries to preserve cultural identity.
In one corner, we have the US: protector of political free speech and homogenous corporate culture.
In the other, we have the rest of the world: protector of political speech restriction and diverse cultural heritage.
Damn, it's hard to know what side to root for these days.
The AC says: I'd like to know what you consider as an intuitive wedesign
Well, I'd send you to my own site, but I'm afraid that what it lacks in flashy, useless graphics is more than made up for by its difficult navigation, dead links, and outdated information...
The site does seem to be behaving slowly, but perhaps that's because some "expert" told the company that "surfers love clicky color-changy grafx!"
The focal point is a picture of a keyboard, with these "helpful" navaids:
Click on the upper left part of the Mediastation to view the features.
Click on the upper right part of the Mediastation to view the specifications.
Click on bottom left part of the Mediastation to view the demos.
Click on the bottom right part of the Mediastation to view the screenshots.
Wow, that's clear. I always think "Demo" when I look at the bottom left corner of a keyboard at Best Buy.
It's a computerized keyboard, which implies a computer-human interface. Let's hope that the design team responsible for the web site wasn't allowed anywhere near the actual prodcuct. "Click on the penguin's right toe for MIDI Configuration!"
Of course it would be better to find some friendly admin at a non-http-redirected site who would give you access to his proxy server, but then not everybody has this kind of friends.
There's always the Anonymizer service. I've had great luck using them when my IP address got banned from Slashdot. (It was my own dumb fault, so I wasn't complaining.) Their site has Yahooified -- it used to be easy to find stuff, but now it appears to have been portalized. But if I'm translating correctly, they're now offering anonymous surfing in the "Privacy Manager" package for us$30/year (payable by PayPal, credit card, or other methods).
Or, for another type of proxying, you could always just read Slashdot in Pig Latin...
You really think your daughter and her friend didn't know they were less than the real deal? Kids aren't stupid.
You're right, but I think the part they hadn't been told (in a way they'd care about) was why it wasn't a Good Thing. Just because Wal-Mart won't notice a missing pack of gum, doesn't make it right to take the five-finger discount.
On the other hand, just because Disney owns the distribution rights to Miyazaki's Whisper of the Heart, doesn't make us criminals for owning a fansub of the still-unavailable film.
Justice isn't just knowing the difference between right and wrong -- it's knowing when they overlap. Just like freedom isn't just being able to do what's allowed -- it's being able to go someplace you maybe shouldn't, sometimes.
Note to Hollywood: The audiences sitting in the theateres to watch your drivel are your meal ticket not the enemy.
My gut instinct is to agree with you wholeheartedly. On the other hand...
My (just now) teenage daughter had a friend over a couple of months ago, and the friend brought some of her DVD collection. This collection included Freaky Friday, Jason vs. Freddy, and other movies that were still at the box office! They were in cheap plastic cases with Photoshopped covers, and had no "extras" -- you put it in the player, and the movie starts. Such as it was... it was obvious from the sound and picture that someone made the DVD from a camera on a tripod in a theater, or something.
So we know that:
* On one hand, someone was able to set up a tripod and tape the film without getting chased out by some theater owner. That's the pirate that the film industry should be going after, and they already *know* they're on the wrong side.
* On the other hand, there's education that needs to be done on the consumer side. I had to explain to my daughter and her friend why the movie we were watching was of such poor quality, that it was illegal (for good reason), and that we would *not* be buying our own copies of these flicks.
By the way, the girl (or more accurately, her mom) got these gems at a flea market in the no-mans-land between Dallas and Grand Prairie. You can go there if you like (here's a map), but I strongly recommend you brush up on your Espanol first. And you might want to get some moves from Jackie Chan, too... it's a tough audience.
Who will buy me a new cdrom-drive when these "oval, pill shaped CD-ROMS" destroy my current one?
Pick the blue CD-ROM. When you insert it into your PC, your system will reboot into Microsoft Windows and you won't remember ever changing your system configuration.
If you pick the red one, your chair will pull itself out from under your butt and you'll find yourself in the storm sewer. But at least you won't be running Windows.
[ObReality: If these shaped CDs haven't torn up anyone's reader, you should be safe with a simple oval.]
Just because it's an urban legend...
on
The Case for the Moon
·
· Score: 2, Informative
From a bit further down the page: Also, Lucasfilm has said in the past that there aren't a lot of behind-the-scenes materials available for the original films, so having a single bonus disc of extras (as opposed to three) would make life easier for them.
I thought I remembered quite a bit of info on various "making-of" shows that showed the original models, how they did cutting-edge special effects on a shoestring budget, and the occasional flaws that made it through (like a TIE fighter shadow where the fighter itself had been removed).
Of course, nowadays I guess we expect someone to be filming the entire filmaking process for the express purpose of creating the ultimate making-of special. When even a film like Monsters, Inc., where every frame requires painstaking design and hours of rendering time, has "outtakes", "deleted scenes", and "goofs". Soon, we'll have cameramen following the cameramen, so we can see "The Making Of 'The Making Of "Star Wars VII: Attack Of The Menacing Phantom Jedi Clone Empire"'"
You know... maybe, just maybe, Lucas & co. should spend more time telling a coherent story with believable characters, and less time worrying about how he'll look in the outtakes?
Don't forget Opera, which has configurable pop-up options built in -- accept, refuse, open in background, open requested only. I always run with "open requested only", so I have yet to see a Pop-Up I didn't like.
Except when my wife is running her virus portal, I mean IE browser.
You know, when I saw in the article that AOL was automatically turning off users' Messenger Service, I wondered if that was stepping over the line. After all, we Slashdotters *hate* it when someone messes with our configuration without our permission!
Then, I read the process, and remembered doing the same thing to turn off the oh-so-obvious "Your print job is complete" messages from the laser printer in the next cube. It would be so easy for a non-geek to either screw up or freeze like a deer in the headlights:
Beales recommends that current Windows users manually shut the service off to protect themselves from unwanted pop-ups. To disable Messenger: * Click Start, and then click Control Panel (or point to Settings, and then click Control Panel). * Double-click Administrative Tools. * Double-click Services. * Double-click Messenger. * In the Startup type list, click Disabled. Click Stop, and then click OK.
Not to stereotype AOLers, but considering what their tech support would face if newbies were given those instructions, I think they did the right thing to shut off a service that nobody uses anyway.
I'm trying to think of why the Messenger Service was a good thing in the first place. I recall way back before Win95, we used to prank each other with dire "system messages". Was that all it was ever good for?
look it up-- the first time anyone figured out "hey, ANFO blows up!" a transport SHIP full of ammonium nitrate bags had become contaminated by fuel oil.
I did look it up, and here are some of the basics:
* The initial explosion, on April 16, 1947, involved a French-owned ship full of ammonium nitrate explosive left over from the war. It was to be recycled into fertilizer. They knew it was explosive, but there were none of our modern regulations on handling it.
* The ship caught fire early in the morning, but the cargo didn't explode until 9:12am. It took with it most of Texas City's firefighters and firefighting equipment, destroying the the entire dock area as well as 1000 homes and businesses.
* Also at the dock was *another* ship full of ammonium nitrate. Inevitably, it caught fire as well. When it exploded 16 hours later, there were no firemen left to combat the blaze.
* At least 600 died, with fewer than 400 identified. Many of the dockworkers were undocumented, untraceable migrant workers.
Slashdot Mirror
Mapping the Internet weekly will allow us to see major disasters in different parts of the world. The Internet is a huge disaster censor
Wait, I thought that "the Internet regards censorship as damage and routes around it"?
On the other hand, with most Americans turning away from traditional media and on to the various portals, it would be entirely possible for certain disasters to be "censored" by the big players. But there's always someone who won't cooperate.
But Wikipedia came to the rescue. The poster is clearly talking about the Internet taking on the role of a Roman Censor, who was responsible for (among other things) enumerating the Roman people in a Census and setting tax rates. The Internet is a Disaster Censor, in that it goes out and finds problems and helps us figure out how important they are.
Right?
Sometimes, the best links on an article are the ones that go to yet another story.
SFGate.com also has this interesting article from almost a year ago on the return of Ricochet:
Ricochet is also targeting residents who can't get high-speed access otherwise. Its signals are sent from radios on poles and rooftops, allowing users with laptops and other mobile devices to stay connected while they roam around.
It sounds like Ricochet is going to use the unregulated 900 MHz band to do the same thing that the FCC is going to do with regulated spectrum (that's already in use by the military).
Of course, another kicker is this paragraph:
Aerie Networks Inc. has resurrected Ricochet, spending $8.25 million for technology and equipment that Metricom spent $1.3 billion developing.
Of all the times to have spent $8,250,000 on lottery tickets!
[...] their attorneys successfully argued that trojan programs found on their computers were to blame.
In all three cases, no one has suggested that the verdicts were anything other than correct.
I think it's going to be pretty easy to tell, within the law, whether the computer owner knew that a hack attack or illegal download was occurring on his/her computer. Most of the time, the court's answer will be "no".
If a remote-control Trojan is on the PC, then the prosecution would have to prove that:
* The computer's owner is 133t enough to hack into a remote system, but clueless enough to allow a Trojan free rein on his own.
* Or, the computer's owner in fact installed the Trojan program on his PC for the explicit purpose of throwing off investigators.
While the defense attorney needs only argue that his client is just an average Joe(anne), and wouldn't know what a Trojan was if he/she bought one at the drugstore. The defense attorney should be facing a receptive audience. Remember, in the US at least, he'll be facing a jury of 12 average citizens who know as little about how computers work as I do about brain surgery.
Or perhaps less. At least I know which box my brain is in.
Most of the pics are absent, but oh well.
Poor guy... I should have found a more reliably-hosted site with pictures of 8-track tapes as a preferable form factor. How 'bout an eBay auction? That would have worked out a lot better.
And the camera takes an ungodly ammount of power - something like 0.3A (=0.9W) when idle... and that's without the flash, which I'm sure is much more!
:CueCat) curled up somewhere at home, too.
One thing I noticed is that the camera's on-off switch is actually a momentary switch. This implies that there's some circuit watching that switch for a status change. I'm not up on analog circuitry -- anything beyond 1's and 0's seems like black magic to me sometimes -- but doesn't that mean that there's a non-zero current draw on the batteries, even while the camera sits unopened on the shelf?
Myself, I've got all the parts and I'm looking forward to building my interface this weekend. I bought my Dakota at Ritz the day of the original Slashdot article, in anticipation of its successful hacking.
I've got a CueCat (sorry,
Yes, we all know this article is a dupe, but Ananova slanted the data to look at CDs in particular.
The problem with replacing CDs with this technology is the form factor:
Scientists say each paper-thin device could store more than a gigabyte of information - equivalent to 1,000 high quality images - in one cubic centimetre of space.
I have enough trouble finding my CDs in the car without having to worry about them blowing away in a stiff breeze. If size were the issue, CD Singles would be released on half-size discs... in fact, many pop albums don't seem to have more than 30 minutes of music anyway.
The best way to incorporate this technology in a consumer-oriented music distribution would be to enclose it in a larger plastic enclosure with an interface to the player. Something like this, perhaps?
Deutsche Telekom [which has the 4 divisions T-Online (Internet), T-Mobile (cell phone service), T-Com (fixed line service, basically the German fixed line network), and T-Systems (something like extended IT services)]...
We just signed up for a T-Mobile phone for our daughter -- would you believe they've taken all the pay phones out of the school gym? She's going to be going to Europe on a school trip, and T-Mobile's phones are the only ones compatible with the European standard. Why waste money on phone cards she probably won't use?
Packed with the phone were scads of flyers and brochures touting AOL IM service on her T-Mobile phone. Fortunately, she's smart enough to know how useless such a "service" would be, especially at 5c per text message.
There was such gratuitous use of AOL insignia, I was wondering what was going on. Now it makes more sense...
Cool, a flame war! Can I join in?
Thanks a lot for being such a childish jerk. What's wrong, Mr. Anonymous Coward, afraid to call me lame and stupid and actually admit to who you are?
AC attacks are pretty lame, aren't they. But here's the strange part:
And then you have the gall to suggest that I actually subscribe to slashdot?
An AC says you should subscribe? That's a laugh.
Why should I if idiots like you are going to bash me for submitting interesting articles?
Dude, if your article was boring, the AC wouldn't have bothered to bait you.
1) Troll
2) Bite
3) ???
4) Profit!
The only reason I can guess is that you'd be getting that money (at least some of it), which really makes you all the more pathetic. First you have to bash people then you beg them for their money.
Are you suggesting that CmdrTaco's krew is posting AC just to harass you into subscribing? I think you've gone over the edge on this one. If they had time to putz around like that, Slashdot would be little more than "CmdrTaco's Blog."
Next time try being a man and don't post anonymously.
Don't be a fool! There's enough men (and overgrown boys) on Slashdot already. Next time, I want the AC to try being a chick!
What does SCO think they are going to get out of Linus?
Perhaps they're running low on crack?
There's too little data in the DB at the moment to bother trying to make an educated guess based on IP bitmasks
Have you checked out BrowserSpy? I remembered that it used to have a "where are you" function, but I don't see it anymore (probably because nationwide ISPs like AOL made it unreliable). But it does have several interesting tools that might help.
Also, it seems like a Traceroute would give you some important clues, especially if you find an IP close to the endpoint in your database.
I remember reading a story, or seeing in a movie, where an old farmer would start each day by spraying some aerosol can contents out the door in hopes of causing Global Warming, so that winters wouldn't be so bad in his northern US homestead. What was that movie or book?
I though it might be a Simpsons reference (isn't everything?), but the closest I could come was when Global Warming brought good weather to the Costington's Christmas Parade.
Even if the government did not out right say "I'll support you if you don't show anti-government films or if you place this propeganda in you movies," the companies are still going to be hesitant to bite the hand that feeds them, so to speak.
Hey, that sounds familiar, doesn't it!
Ohhhh... I see. It's because UNESCO isn't giving them the money to help that this is happening.
Wrong, though since the npr.org link is to audio and not a transcript, I can't fault you for not RTFA.
The issue isn't UNESCO funding, it's about countries' subsidies of their homegrown arts programs. Amelie , for example, wouldn't have been possible without the French government's funding the project.
UNESCO wants to codify into international law (whatever the heck that means) a protection to allow countries to subsidize their national film industries. The US, which only just now re-joined UNESCO, wants film to be just like any other industry, subject to WTO trade regulations. WTO could then say that film industry subsidies pose an unfair competitive advantage.
Of course, the US is talking out both sides of its mouth (again), since the WTO is in the process of saying our own steel industry subsidies are illegal.
The issues are hideously complex, and I recommend listening to the NPR report. [asbestos_suit status=on] As far as the WTO, I'm with Dennis Kucinich -- withdraw from WTO, repeal NAFTA, and don't even *think* about FTAA. [/asbestos_suit]
However, the US and the European Commission are staunchly defending the Icann model, which is based on minimal regulation and commercial principles. Icann members are predominantly drawn from industrialised countries and the established internet community.
So now, we're rooting for the much-maligned ICANN institution... I guess that's not such a cognitive dissonance now that they've actually faced up to Verisign -- though the end of that story is yet to be written.
Interesting that this should come up on the same day that NPR's Morning Edition (just audio, sorry) reported that the US is blocking an attempt by UNESCO to allow countries to subsidize their national film industries to preserve cultural identity.
In one corner, we have the US: protector of political free speech and homogenous corporate culture.
In the other, we have the rest of the world: protector of political speech restriction and diverse cultural heritage.
Damn, it's hard to know what side to root for these days.
The AC says: I'd like to know what you consider as an intuitive wedesign
Well, I'd send you to my own site, but I'm afraid that what it lacks in flashy, useless graphics is more than made up for by its difficult navigation, dead links, and outdated information...
So yes, I'm PKB'ing.
The focal point is a picture of a keyboard, with these "helpful" navaids:
Wow, that's clear. I always think "Demo" when I look at the bottom left corner of a keyboard at Best Buy.
It's a computerized keyboard, which implies a computer-human interface. Let's hope that the design team responsible for the web site wasn't allowed anywhere near the actual prodcuct. "Click on the penguin's right toe for MIDI Configuration!"
Of course it would be better to find some friendly admin at a non-http-redirected site who would give you access to his proxy server, but then not everybody has this kind of friends.
There's always the Anonymizer service. I've had great luck using them when my IP address got banned from Slashdot. (It was my own dumb fault, so I wasn't complaining.) Their site has Yahooified -- it used to be easy to find stuff, but now it appears to have been portalized. But if I'm translating correctly, they're now offering anonymous surfing in the "Privacy Manager" package for us$30/year (payable by PayPal, credit card, or other methods).
Or, for another type of proxying, you could always just read Slashdot in Pig Latin...
You really think your daughter and her friend didn't know they were less than the real deal? Kids aren't stupid.
You're right, but I think the part they hadn't been told (in a way they'd care about) was why it wasn't a Good Thing. Just because Wal-Mart won't notice a missing pack of gum, doesn't make it right to take the five-finger discount.
On the other hand, just because Disney owns the distribution rights to Miyazaki's Whisper of the Heart, doesn't make us criminals for owning a fansub of the still-unavailable film.
Justice isn't just knowing the difference between right and wrong -- it's knowing when they overlap. Just like freedom isn't just being able to do what's allowed -- it's being able to go someplace you maybe shouldn't, sometimes.
Note to Hollywood: The audiences sitting in the theateres to watch your drivel are your meal ticket not the enemy.
My gut instinct is to agree with you wholeheartedly. On the other hand...
My (just now) teenage daughter had a friend over a couple of months ago, and the friend brought some of her DVD collection. This collection included Freaky Friday, Jason vs. Freddy, and other movies that were still at the box office! They were in cheap plastic cases with Photoshopped covers, and had no "extras" -- you put it in the player, and the movie starts. Such as it was... it was obvious from the sound and picture that someone made the DVD from a camera on a tripod in a theater, or something.
So we know that:
* On one hand, someone was able to set up a tripod and tape the film without getting chased out by some theater owner. That's the pirate that the film industry should be going after, and they already *know* they're on the wrong side.
* On the other hand, there's education that needs to be done on the consumer side. I had to explain to my daughter and her friend why the movie we were watching was of such poor quality, that it was illegal (for good reason), and that we would *not* be buying our own copies of these flicks.
By the way, the girl (or more accurately, her mom) got these gems at a flea market in the no-mans-land between Dallas and Grand Prairie. You can go there if you like (here's a map), but I strongly recommend you brush up on your Espanol first. And you might want to get some moves from Jackie Chan, too... it's a tough audience.
Who will buy me a new cdrom-drive when these "oval, pill shaped CD-ROMS" destroy my current one?
Pick the blue CD-ROM. When you insert it into your PC, your system will reboot into Microsoft Windows and you won't remember ever changing your system configuration.
If you pick the red one, your chair will pull itself out from under your butt and you'll find yourself in the storm sewer. But at least you won't be running Windows.
[ObReality: If these shaped CDs haven't torn up anyone's reader, you should be safe with a simple oval.]
doesn't mean it's not funny (and/or telling).
From a bit further down the page:
Also, Lucasfilm has said in the past that there aren't a lot of behind-the-scenes materials available for the original films, so having a single bonus disc of extras (as opposed to three) would make life easier for them.
I thought I remembered quite a bit of info on various "making-of" shows that showed the original models, how they did cutting-edge special effects on a shoestring budget, and the occasional flaws that made it through (like a TIE fighter shadow where the fighter itself had been removed).
Of course, nowadays I guess we expect someone to be filming the entire filmaking process for the express purpose of creating the ultimate making-of special. When even a film like Monsters, Inc., where every frame requires painstaking design and hours of rendering time, has "outtakes", "deleted scenes", and "goofs". Soon, we'll have cameramen following the cameramen, so we can see "The Making Of 'The Making Of "Star Wars VII: Attack Of The Menacing Phantom Jedi Clone Empire"'"
You know... maybe, just maybe, Lucas & co. should spend more time telling a coherent story with believable characters, and less time worrying about how he'll look in the outtakes?
Don't forget Opera, which has configurable pop-up options built in -- accept, refuse, open in background, open requested only. I always run with "open requested only", so I have yet to see a Pop-Up I didn't like.
Except when my wife is running her virus portal, I mean IE browser.
You know, when I saw in the article that AOL was automatically turning off users' Messenger Service, I wondered if that was stepping over the line. After all, we Slashdotters *hate* it when someone messes with our configuration without our permission!
Then, I read the process, and remembered doing the same thing to turn off the oh-so-obvious "Your print job is complete" messages from the laser printer in the next cube. It would be so easy for a non-geek to either screw up or freeze like a deer in the headlights:
Beales recommends that current Windows users manually shut the service off to protect themselves from unwanted pop-ups.
To disable Messenger:
* Click Start, and then click Control Panel (or point to Settings, and then click Control Panel).
* Double-click Administrative Tools.
* Double-click Services.
* Double-click Messenger.
* In the Startup type list, click Disabled. Click Stop, and then click OK.
Not to stereotype AOLers, but considering what their tech support would face if newbies were given those instructions, I think they did the right thing to shut off a service that nobody uses anyway.
I'm trying to think of why the Messenger Service was a good thing in the first place. I recall way back before Win95, we used to prank each other with dire "system messages". Was that all it was ever good for?
look it up-- the first time anyone figured out "hey, ANFO blows up!" a transport SHIP full of ammonium nitrate bags had become contaminated by fuel oil.
I did look it up, and here are some of the basics:
* The initial explosion, on April 16, 1947, involved a French-owned ship full of ammonium nitrate explosive left over from the war. It was to be recycled into fertilizer. They knew it was explosive, but there were none of our modern regulations on handling it.
* The ship caught fire early in the morning, but the cargo didn't explode until 9:12am. It took with it most of Texas City's firefighters and firefighting equipment, destroying the the entire dock area as well as 1000 homes and businesses.
* Also at the dock was *another* ship full of ammonium nitrate. Inevitably, it caught fire as well. When it exploded 16 hours later, there were no firemen left to combat the blaze.
* At least 600 died, with fewer than 400 identified. Many of the dockworkers were undocumented, untraceable migrant workers.
Sources:
The Handbook of Texas Online has the facts & figures.
The Houston Chronicle's special report on the 50th anniversary, with pictures and personal stories.
MapQuest map to help you find your bearings.