Besides...you really gonna fill that 60Gigs with music? I don't think so.
Just because you can't fill 60 Gigs with music doesn't mean there is nobody who can fill 60 Gigs. If an average CD is about 50 MB of MP3 files, that is 1200 CDs for 60 Gigs. I'm sure I'm not the only person here with more than 1200 CDs. On other boards I've been on, some have more than 3000 CDs.
Do you need to have access to all of your CDs everywhere you? Of course not. But there will come a day when you install 1199 CDs on your portable because you don't want to install that 1200th CD, and then you realize that the CD you really want to listen to is the one you didn't put on your MP3 player.
I was out of town and read an article in the newspaper on Friday about iTunes. It was either USA Today or the Washington Post (I can't find the article on-line). The author stated that even $0.99 is too much for music and did some calculations and came up with the ideal price for music, which, I believe was around $0.18.
I agree with your first two selections (Splinter Cell is also highly recommended, but I haven't played it.) But I don't think FFX is really a good D&D style game. I quit halfway through because all it seemed to be was an interactive movie. You go here, watch the cut-scene and have a few battles. The game seemed as linear as Final Fantasy 7, and I didn't have time to play a 40 hour interactive movie (a 40 hour *game* would be a lot more fun).
For the original question: the poster may wish to look at Game Rankings has a way to find out what the concensus ratings on games are, plus you can restrict the genre pretty well.
Kind of dangerous, isn't it? One of the benefits about Kazaa is its supposed anonymity in sharing files. If you set up an FTP server, wouldn't it be a lot easier for RIAA to find out who owns the server and shut it down?
And for every conceivable USB 2.0 peripheral that requires the bandwidth of USB 2.0 there's a non-CPU-dependant FirewWire alternative?
IT may have already changed, and will almost certainly change in the future, but I was looking for a Compact Flash card reader about a month ago and Firewire card readers were a lot more expensive than USB 2.0 card readers.
This seems like a bargain too good to pass up. But I wonder about the quality of the monitor. If I were to get a Mac, it would be for photo and video editing. Is the integrated monitor on the eMac of good quality?
they're just as useful as 'best song ever' lists..
They much less useful than Best Song Ever lists. The reason is simple. E.g., Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind is considered a classic by some. Even if you think it is a little dated or it is not your style, that album was one important thing going for it: It is still available. Can you even find a game from 1991? Of course, the situation with pre-80s material is even worse, as games from those era are obsolete, as little hardware exists that still runs it (emulators can be used, though), but music from before the 80s is readily accessible.
Finding out what albums or songs from the 60s are considered "must haves" can be good. Finding out about how "groundbreaking" a DOS game was is useless, because you can't find it and, even if you could, you might not be able to run it.
In reality, DVDs are not very well protected at all, and they are only a great consumer experience because the protection is so weak. [snip] I know for a fact that I didn't buy any DVDs until I totally convinced myself that the copy prevention could be cracked.
That is far from the majority opinion. Most of my non-tech friends were just waiting for the prices of DVD players to go down and be able to find movies to buy and watch. Now that you can buy a DVD player for under $100-$150, and Blockbuster and Best Buy now have more DVDs than VHS tapes (my local Best Buy has two ailes of movies, only one 4 foot section has VHS, everything else is DVD), they are moving to DVD.
The general public really doesn't care if movies are protected and if copy protection can be cracked.
Having a backup can be nice, but I think the general attitude is that if a DVD breaks because of your kids: well, that's what kids do, buy a new copy. VHS doesn't last forever, and most don't expect DVD to last forever either.
The XBox hack is stupid. If you hate MS so much that you want to use Linux, why install it on an MS machine.
He fights the bogus Winodws trademark.
Another publicity grab. Whatever you think of the Windows trademark, the fact is that by naming his product Lindows solely to poke at Windows. When people say Windows, they mean MS Windows, it is that simple. A trademark is something (a name or symbol) that identifies the source of a product. The name "Windows" identifies MS as surely as three stripes identifies Adidas and the swoosh identifies Nike and "This Bud's for You" identifies Budweiser.
One common characteristic of many browsers is that the links to information are presented solely within documents. The links may take the user to other documents or to locations within the same document, but typically, the elements that provide the link control are within the documents.
Having the control to the information links within the documents themselves is adequate where the documents are short and where the purpose is to obtain information in brief, concise statements. But where a document is long, it becomes difficult to browse the document since the only potential access to other destinations are in whatever part of the document is currently being displayed.
Moreover, organizations often work with standardized documents. These documents typically have a carefully defined purpose and are usually characterized by a standard structure. These documents may be long and the main purpose for viewing the documents is often to access information found in a specific section of the well-known structure of the document.
Those paragraphs describe the problem being solved: existing browsers are not adequate for long documents. The solution:
In view of the above, a structured document browser is provided with a user interface that remains uniform and familiar as the user browses documents according to their structure instead of their contents. The browser uses codes embedded in the document to identify sections of the structure of the document. In one preferred embodiment, the browser includes a first plurality of display regions configured to correspond to respective parts of the predefined document structure regardless of what part of the document is displayed. In another preferred embodiment, the browser further includes a second plurality of display regions configured to correspond to respective parts of the predefined document structure in response to the part of the document that is displayed.
And here is a more detailed description of the invention:
A presently preferred embodiment of this invention includes an application program called browser.exe that has been developed using the `c` programming language in the Windows environment. The browser.exe executable file is programmed to make function calls to three dynamic link libraries named sit.dll, cgrmzv.dll and ct13d.dll. These libraries are components of Dynatext Version 2.0, a user interface development system from Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. These Dynatext libraries provide functions that implement the SGML related functions and the graphic input/output functions. Further information regarding the Dynatext program may be obtained by contacting Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. at One Richmond Square, Providence, R.I. 02906.
[snip]
The browser 80 operates with documents that have been prepared as described below. Because the browser 80 is designed to navigate documents according to their structure, the utility of the browser 80 is maximized when an organization establishes a standard structure for its key documents. A software engineering group, for example, may find it desirable to maintain a uniform structure for the software requirement specifications that the group develops. A different structure is desirable for the group's design specifications, and yet a different structure works for the group's test documentation. The group's goal for such documentation is to maintain uniformity.
[snip]
Once a document has been marked and converted into a format that is appropriate for the browser 80, the browser 80 may be started on a computer. Referring back to FIG. 1, the user invokes the browser 80 by using the pointing device 100 and the selecting device 102 to select the browser 80 in a manner dictated by the GUI of the operating system 104. In the preferred embodiment, the operating system 104 is the Windows Operating System (Version 3.1 and later for purposes of this example), the po
But if the web designer didn't create the actual tool, are they infringing?
Let's say the patent covers a browser that implements frames. You are a web site designer that uses frames. Why should you be held liable? Analogy: If Sears stole a wrench invention and I used bought the infringing wrench and used it to change the spark plugs in my car, why should I be held liable?
Of course, an inventor of the wrench would not go after me, they would go after Sears, the deep pocket. It seems that SBC wants to go after medium depth pockets: i.e., not some guy who created a Sarah Michelle Gellar fan site, but a business that makes money. SBC doesn't want to go after the super deep pockets of Microsoft (the maker of the largest browser by market share) because, in a war of deep pockets, Microsoft would win.
Here are links to the the actual patents in question: 5,933,841 and 6,442,574.
Claim 1 of the first patent claims, "a browser for viewing documents having embedded codes . .." The other claims also seem to be specific to browsers, not documents (a web site designer creates documents, not browsers).
At first glance, it does appear that SBC should be going after Netscape and Internet Explorer. Of course, Netscape is owned by AOL/Time Warner and IE is owned by Microsoft.
The only thing I was not too happy about was that I cant get these in mp3 format so I cant send them to my freinds with plain jane mp3 players. (you cant convert acc that you purchesed to mp3 in itunes--it will let you convert acc songs that you ripped yourself). I could burn a cd and re-rip them but by then the quality will be down.
This has been said by many people, but I don't understand why it would be any different from converting it directly from.AAC to.MP3. When you burn an.AAC to CD, presumably, it will be the highest quality you can possibly get from the.AAC. You then rip to.MP3, it should be the same as decoding from.AAC and encoding to.MP3 (indeed, that is exactly what you are doing, except the intermediate step of converting to CD, which shouldn't degrade the sound at all.)
I actually prefer GameTab [gametab.com] for a compiled list of game reviews. They have an excellent design which isn't as harsh on the eyes as gamerankings and/.games
I don't find the GameRankings site to be harsh on the eyes at all. I just spent a couple of minutes at GameTab and it can't do one thing that Gamerankings does, rank games by genre. I can look at only Baseball games, or only strategy games, etc. I don't see an easy way to do that with GameTab. Plus GameTab doesn't seem to have as many games ranked, including "historical" games, only new releases. For example, according to GameTab, the highest rated PC game is Championship Manager. According to GameRankings, that game is only #2, because the 4-5 year old game Half-Life is the top ranked game. You can filter results so that only recent games are listed also.
So, what about MP3's that are made from vinyl analog recordings (which is the case for a lot of older vintage music)? Are they analog or digital? Could it be argued that MP3's themselves are by nature "analog" since they are degraded copies of the original, even if made from a CD?
That is a very good argument and one I don't believe has ever been suggested by the mass media. The entire reason for the AHRA was a tradeoff, unlimited "analog" recordings in exchange for SCMS. The reasoning was that they didn't want bit for bit copies of CDs floating around. Since an MP3 (or.OGG or.AAC) is not a bit for bit copy, should it be exempt?
I've had the exact opposite experience. My old HP 712C would constantly feed multiple pages in. When I wanted to print out labels, I had to print them out one sheet at a time. WIth my new Canon 850, I just put 25 sheets in and print them. Much faster and easier. The print quality is much better also and it is quieter.
The Audio Home Recording act likely refers to making a copy from an origianl for personal use.You don't need to own the original, but you do need to make a copy from it.
The AHRA does not say it has to be from an original at all.
The reason P2P violates the law (as it is written now) is that you aren't making a copy from an original. The other, much bigger violation, is that someone is distributing.
Because the RIAA is sending the messages to those uploading files, it looks like they are going after those who distribute the files, not those who are copying them.
You are missing are a large portion of the AHRA: the definitions. From section 1001:
A ''digital audio recording device'' is any machine or device of a type commonly distributed to individuals for use by individuals, whether or not included with or as part of some other machine or device, the digital recording function of which is designed or marketed for the primary purpose of, and that is capable of, making a digital audio copied recording for private use
Section 1008 (the exemption section) only applies to analog recordings and the defined digital audio recording devices. In essence, it means only standalone consumer DAT and CD-R machines and does not include computer CD-R drives. That leads to the incongruity that, if I borrow a CD from a friend or a library, I am allowed to make an analog recording of it, I am allowed to use a standalone CD recorder, but I am not allowed to use a computer CD recorder.
That is why there are separate music CD-Rs and data CD-Rs. The music CD-Rs have the built-in tax, the Data CD-Rs do not.
The original basis of the AHRA was because the record companies were so scared of DAT (how prescient of them). The compromise was the Serial Copy Management System which is built into consumer digital recorders. You can make any number of copies of an original CD. But you can't make a digital copy of another copy. Because SCMS is not built into computer CD-recorders, it is not included in that definition.
It isn't a news site, but GameRankings.com is a great way to find out what the highly rated games are. They compile a list of reviews of games for both consoles and PC and rank the games. They also provide links to the actual reviews. You can filter the rankings by game platform, game genre, and release date. Ever wanted to know what the best baseball game for the PS2 is? Now it's easy to find out which game has the best reviews, so you get a good start.
Yeah, you kill bad guys. Which sounds bad, right? Sure. It also shows why being involved in a gang is such an awful thing.
Bad from who's perspective. In the phone missions, you kill people because someone is willing to pay you to kill those people. Doesn't that make you bad also? In other missions, you steal tanks from the army, you intimidate jurors by threatening physical harm, and a lot of other things.
I think most people, even teens and younger can separate games from reality. But to assert that you do nothing bad in the game is just wrong. The whole thrill of the game is that you are doing bad things and getting away with it.
Plus you can usually kill one or two pedestrians before you get a wanted level. And if you only have 1 star, you drive around long enough and it will disappear. So the penalty for killing innocent people really is not there.
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Just because you can't fill 60 Gigs with music doesn't mean there is nobody who can fill 60 Gigs. If an average CD is about 50 MB of MP3 files, that is 1200 CDs for 60 Gigs. I'm sure I'm not the only person here with more than 1200 CDs. On other boards I've been on, some have more than 3000 CDs.
Do you need to have access to all of your CDs everywhere you? Of course not. But there will come a day when you install 1199 CDs on your portable because you don't want to install that 1200th CD, and then you realize that the CD you really want to listen to is the one you didn't put on your MP3 player.
I was out of town and read an article in the newspaper on Friday about iTunes. It was either USA Today or the Washington Post (I can't find the article on-line). The author stated that even $0.99 is too much for music and did some calculations and came up with the ideal price for music, which, I believe was around $0.18.
For the original question: the poster may wish to look at Game Rankings has a way to find out what the concensus ratings on games are, plus you can restrict the genre pretty well.
Kind of dangerous, isn't it? One of the benefits about Kazaa is its supposed anonymity in sharing files. If you set up an FTP server, wouldn't it be a lot easier for RIAA to find out who owns the server and shut it down?
IT may have already changed, and will almost certainly change in the future, but I was looking for a Compact Flash card reader about a month ago and Firewire card readers were a lot more expensive than USB 2.0 card readers.
No USB 2.0 ports! Why not?
This seems like a bargain too good to pass up. But I wonder about the quality of the monitor. If I were to get a Mac, it would be for photo and video editing. Is the integrated monitor on the eMac of good quality?
They much less useful than Best Song Ever lists. The reason is simple. E.g., Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind is considered a classic by some. Even if you think it is a little dated or it is not your style, that album was one important thing going for it: It is still available. Can you even find a game from 1991? Of course, the situation with pre-80s material is even worse, as games from those era are obsolete, as little hardware exists that still runs it (emulators can be used, though), but music from before the 80s is readily accessible.
Finding out what albums or songs from the 60s are considered "must haves" can be good. Finding out about how "groundbreaking" a DOS game was is useless, because you can't find it and, even if you could, you might not be able to run it.
[snip]
I know for a fact that I didn't buy any DVDs until I totally convinced myself that the copy prevention could be cracked.
That is far from the majority opinion. Most of my non-tech friends were just waiting for the prices of DVD players to go down and be able to find movies to buy and watch. Now that you can buy a DVD player for under $100-$150, and Blockbuster and Best Buy now have more DVDs than VHS tapes (my local Best Buy has two ailes of movies, only one 4 foot section has VHS, everything else is DVD), they are moving to DVD.
The general public really doesn't care if movies are protected and if copy protection can be cracked.
Having a backup can be nice, but I think the general attitude is that if a DVD breaks because of your kids: well, that's what kids do, buy a new copy. VHS doesn't last forever, and most don't expect DVD to last forever either.
The XBox hack is stupid. If you hate MS so much that you want to use Linux, why install it on an MS machine.
He fights the bogus Winodws trademark.
Another publicity grab. Whatever you think of the Windows trademark, the fact is that by naming his product Lindows solely to poke at Windows. When people say Windows, they mean MS Windows, it is that simple. A trademark is something (a name or symbol) that identifies the source of a product. The name "Windows" identifies MS as surely as three stripes identifies Adidas and the swoosh identifies Nike and "This Bud's for You" identifies Budweiser.
Grand Theft Auto is sort of an Adventure game. You complete quests, gain weapons, build your running skills, etc.
Those paragraphs describe the problem being solved: existing browsers are not adequate for long documents. The solution:
And here is a more detailed description of the invention:
Let's say the patent covers a browser that implements frames. You are a web site designer that uses frames. Why should you be held liable? Analogy: If Sears stole a wrench invention and I used bought the infringing wrench and used it to change the spark plugs in my car, why should I be held liable?
Of course, an inventor of the wrench would not go after me, they would go after Sears, the deep pocket. It seems that SBC wants to go after medium depth pockets: i.e., not some guy who created a Sarah Michelle Gellar fan site, but a business that makes money. SBC doesn't want to go after the super deep pockets of Microsoft (the maker of the largest browser by market share) because, in a war of deep pockets, Microsoft would win.
Claim 1 of the first patent claims, "a browser for viewing documents having embedded codes . . ." The other claims also seem to be specific to browsers, not documents (a web site designer creates documents, not browsers).
At first glance, it does appear that SBC should be going after Netscape and Internet Explorer. Of course, Netscape is owned by AOL/Time Warner and IE is owned by Microsoft.
This has been said by many people, but I don't understand why it would be any different from converting it directly from .AAC to .MP3. When you burn an .AAC to CD, presumably, it will be the highest quality you can possibly get from the .AAC. You then rip to .MP3, it should be the same as decoding from .AAC and encoding to .MP3 (indeed, that is exactly what you are doing, except the intermediate step of converting to CD, which shouldn't degrade the sound at all.)
Thanks alot. I had no idea how big the Borg Cube was, or the second Death Star.
I don't find the GameRankings site to be harsh on the eyes at all. I just spent a couple of minutes at GameTab and it can't do one thing that Gamerankings does, rank games by genre. I can look at only Baseball games, or only strategy games, etc. I don't see an easy way to do that with GameTab. Plus GameTab doesn't seem to have as many games ranked, including "historical" games, only new releases. For example, according to GameTab, the highest rated PC game is Championship Manager. According to GameRankings, that game is only #2, because the 4-5 year old game Half-Life is the top ranked game. You can filter results so that only recent games are listed also.
Gamerankings just seems to be more flexible.
That is a very good argument and one I don't believe has ever been suggested by the mass media. The entire reason for the AHRA was a tradeoff, unlimited "analog" recordings in exchange for SCMS. The reasoning was that they didn't want bit for bit copies of CDs floating around. Since an MP3 (or .OGG or .AAC) is not a bit for bit copy, should it be exempt?
I've had the exact opposite experience. My old HP 712C would constantly feed multiple pages in. When I wanted to print out labels, I had to print them out one sheet at a time. WIth my new Canon 850, I just put 25 sheets in and print them. Much faster and easier. The print quality is much better also and it is quieter.
The AHRA does not say it has to be from an original at all.
The reason P2P violates the law (as it is written now) is that you aren't making a copy from an original. The other, much bigger violation, is that someone is distributing.
Because the RIAA is sending the messages to those uploading files, it looks like they are going after those who distribute the files, not those who are copying them.
No, it just means that they are not digital audio recording devices, as defined by the AHRA.
That is why there are separate music CD-Rs and data CD-Rs. The music CD-Rs have the built-in tax, the Data CD-Rs do not.
The original basis of the AHRA was because the record companies were so scared of DAT (how prescient of them). The compromise was the Serial Copy Management System which is built into consumer digital recorders. You can make any number of copies of an original CD. But you can't make a digital copy of another copy. Because SCMS is not built into computer CD-recorders, it is not included in that definition.
It isn't a news site, but GameRankings.com is a great way to find out what the highly rated games are. They compile a list of reviews of games for both consoles and PC and rank the games. They also provide links to the actual reviews. You can filter the rankings by game platform, game genre, and release date. Ever wanted to know what the best baseball game for the PS2 is? Now it's easy to find out which game has the best reviews, so you get a good start.
Bad from who's perspective. In the phone missions, you kill people because someone is willing to pay you to kill those people. Doesn't that make you bad also? In other missions, you steal tanks from the army, you intimidate jurors by threatening physical harm, and a lot of other things.
I think most people, even teens and younger can separate games from reality. But to assert that you do nothing bad in the game is just wrong. The whole thrill of the game is that you are doing bad things and getting away with it.
Plus you can usually kill one or two pedestrians before you get a wanted level. And if you only have 1 star, you drive around long enough and it will disappear. So the penalty for killing innocent people really is not there.