...and the fact that there is a near monopoly in the satellite industry, I would still say that satellite offers a significantly better alternative to cable. Where I live I can only choose from Cox digital cable, and I have to say... they should spell their name differently.
Cox charges $59 a month for digital cable (no internet bundled in, if you want that it's $89 a month). Although they claim an unreal number of channels (500 I think), when it comes to most people the reality is that there are only 48 channels. PPV channels should never be counted as actual channels since most people never watch them unless they are either rich or stupid. (These days, those two seem to be mutually inclusive)
I chose DirecTV and have been about 98% satisfied with it. Yes. When there is a good rain storm, the signal dissappears. I will say that this happens maybe four times to me. Based on my average of 2-4 hours of TV watching per week, it may happen more frequently for a real couch potato. It can be pretty frustrating if you've scheduled a show to record and instead you get the "signal not available" message for the first 10-15 minutes. But it's a nuisance I can live with considering that I get a great signal when it does work and I pay a lot less than digital cable. (More on the cost in a moment) Again, DirecTV claims som ungodly number of channels (by skipping large ranges). For example the music channels are in the 900s. But again, the reality is much lower. About a year ago I counted 67 actual channels I might have an interest in watching. The number of channels applied with the cost per month ($42 per month if just a basic subscriber vs. the next level up. I wound up going up a level). After taxes, the monthly cost is still $52 a month for my expanded package. So.. it's obvious to see the better value in DirecTV. That's why I can live with the occasional signal loss.
...profit motive damages another useful cross-platform format. It happens time and time again. You get some company with the idea of becoming the next Microsoft in their arena, and they have to resort to trickery just to try and get more marketshare. Why not just make a damn good product with features (features that "Joe Average" actually wants) that clean the competitor's clock? If the "free market" works as it's supposed to, then this product will rise to the top. Sure you might need to play some dirty tricks behind the scenes, but that has less to do with tricking your customers than damaging the competitor, right? One thing these moronic companies always seem to forget about is the customer. They put profit first. Then second comes profit. And finally in third place the put profit. Anything else is left over for the shareholders. When it's all said and done, R & D gets some meager pickings and then the customer eventually gets some crumbs. Can you see what's wrong with this picture? It's pretty elementary. I can applaud Real's efforts with the Helix project. But, are they serious or just using that community in the same way they use their customers?
If you want to stand behind something that should eventually become the standard, get behind Vorbis and Theora. Besides being technically superior, they actualy "get it" in regards to how open source/free software is supposed to work.
Mod me down if you must, but remember that I am speaking truth and you can't change that.
While I tend to favor the GPL because I agree with it's basic principals, I really still fail to see the reasoning behind many licenses.
My personal feeling is that if I write a program and it's potentially useful to someone else (a person, not a business), then I should have the right to give it to that person and let them do whatever they want with it short of making any profit directly from selling it. It comes down to the fact that since the other person didn't write it, they don't deserve to make money by doing nothing more than giving it to someone else. Work ethic. I have no problem if they find a way to use my software to provide a service and make money from the service. Or if they find a way to make a product (other than just a binary distribution of my code) with my software embedded in it. The only thing I ask in return is that any changes they make be given freely to anyone else. That's why I like the GPL.
It's my option to make money on my software or give it away for free. If I give it away freely, I only intend to share knowledge, but I do not give up ownership of my own code. If someone else changes it, then they accept that I still own the code. *MY* copyright is protected. This is why Stallman encourages copyright. Copyright was intended to protect the creator of a work, not the distributor or owner (considering that these days, the "owner" tends to be someone who bought a work and didn't actually make it).
Re:It's another case against OS monoculture
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Couldn't be more true. Where I work nearly everyone uses Windows on the desktop. When Blaster hit last year, a number of systems in my deprtment were hit. But being the oddman here who runs Redhat as my desktop, well... I didn't feel a thing. Even better, I was able to use my box to connect to our reouters and begin throwing down access lists and blocking the spread. I was also able to use open source tools to track down more infected systems outside of our deparment. Did anyone learn anything here? No. Windows is too easy for them, but that's going to change as we are becoming more and more Unix oriented on the servers. (Previously Windows and OpenVMS)
Dude... that's nice and all about the laptop, but what the hell did your girlfriend do all that for? Does she need anger management training?;P Seriously...
As you say, this stuff realy isn't that hard. Which is why I don't mind doing it for free every chance I get. I can't tell you how much pleasure I get spending 1 minute to maybe an hour getting a problem fixed for someone and not charging a dime. I take great pleasure in knowing that they would have payed unreal fees had they taken it to their local computer store and still not gotten it REALLY fixed. Most of the techs that work at those places aren't very good at what they do because they get paid peanuts while the store STILL overcharges them. It's my way of screwing with the system. It doesn't take me much time to fix the problem and their money is right where it belongs... in their pocket.
Even better is that some of my friends and family are asking me about Linux at best and OpenOffice.org at a minimum. My folks are recent Linux converts and they love it. And remember folks, it's important to walk the walk!
The expectations you list are indeed oddball. They are things that require a certain amount of expertise beyond the average user. As it is, yes Windows IS better at that stuff than any distribution of Linux. But think about the number of people that have massive trouble doing this even on Windows. This is a case of the cart before the horse. While people might want to use this stuff right now, it's not yet ready for prime time. The people who can actually use this stuff today with *NO* problem are usually more technically proficient than the average user. When those devices and the OSes reach a point where anyone can truly use them, no one will be paying much attention to OSes anymore. Does anyone actually pay attention to what engine is in their car these days other than a car geek?
I set my folks up with Linux for X-mas. It was actually at my mom's request. So far they love it. What they especially love is the fact that they didn't need to shell out big bucks for some simple day to day operations. The only reason your family hated it was probably because you didn't have the knowledge or the sense to actually customize the installation to their needs. There is no inherent difference between Windows and Linux at this point unless your family is an oddball set of users with oddball expectations (Digital Cameras that just work when you plug them in, Portable MP3 players or PDAs that automatically sync, etc...) If your family is like most families, then they just do web browsing, e-mail, word processing and that's about it.
Customize the installation to their needs and their hardware, and they won't know the difference. The only other things they might notice are that their boxes perform better than they did before and they have a ton more software than they had with their vanilla Windows install.
Wouldn't the genital region be more appropriate (albeit somewhat less convenient) for this sort of thing? It's designed to keep the "stuff of life" at a healthy 98F. Just have the heatpipe fitted into one's pants with one end nestled against the vital organs and the other woven into pants pockets. Imagine that... a whole new life for the phrase "pocket pool".
You know... I saw a statement by a network executive once about how using a PVR to filter out commercials was a violation of the "contract" that we, as consumers, agreed to. Since I've never seen that contract or the requirements within, I can't say I agree with him. That's why I don't have any problem with grabbing TV shows off of IRC. Of course, if the show is available on DVD or VHS, I'll buy it first since it is likely to be a better quality copy. For example, as soon as the episodes of Voyager came out on DVD that I wanted, I deleted the files that were capped from TV and bought the discs. IF Sliders ever comes out, I'll buy that too.
Now on the other hand... you could have just been kidding about the piracy thing...;P
...do you suppose that one side effect of this could be a fork?
One of the claims that SCO makes is that the 2.4 kernel and above are the ones with "SCO's IP". So... is there any possibility that a small band of hackers would go back to the 2.2 trees and develop them further or base something new off of those? It could be detrimental, but interesting. This is, of course, assuming that SCO wins which seems highly unlikely at the moment.
I also read Darl's letter to the congress. It's totally insane. He seems to be operating under the delusion that the United States was built on the idea that profit motive is a good thing. While it *can* be useful, it's far from the only motivation. After all, if one has the ability to make something from nothing, why not do it and profit motive be damned? The guy who can mill his own wood and make his own furniture at home shouldn't be chased after by furniture makers because he didn't make them any money. That's just plain stupid, but it's exactly what Darl is trying to do. I think he has a mental illness that revolves around profit motive. In fact, I would say profit motive to the nth power IS the #1 mental illness in the United States. Get over it Darl. Money is not the reason we are here. Neither is personal gain or wealth. We are here to help each other and better our society through the sharing and exchange of knowledge. If you can't get with the program, then do us all a favor and drop out. Permanently.
This is about the most truthful statement I've heard yet. Politicans and people who are into politics are all insane. Kind of like the telephone sanitizers in the Hitchhiker's Guide. Maybe we should send all of them up to Mars for that one way mission...;P
Not trolling. Actually, I was well aware of IRC as I used to use it in college in the 80s. But... it got really boring until about 2000 when people were actually shipping things with DCC that I was interested in (above mentioned TV shows).
As far as the banning of file transfers, it's pretty much policy everywhere now. Before they just used to have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Personally, I abide by policy, laws, rules, etc... That's why I don't pirate software, music or movies. I buy everything I'm interested in or use a free alternative. (I'm a Linux guy here) I was a big fan of DALNet until they suspended all of the TV related channels. I used to hang out in #qlc and #sliderseps a lot. Particularly frustrating is that I had almost the entire series of Sliders and did an fdisk on the wrong drive. Bye bye Sliders. Oh well. Maybe they will eventually come out with that DBD they've been promising. For the time being I'm trying to record them from SciFi channel. But you can never trust them to play a complete series if they only produced a few seasons. Bastards.
As far as my being a troll... Not really. I always have to clear this up because very few people get the humor in my name.
...I found IRC. Of course now that many of the IRC operators have banned file xfers, it's a lot harder to find the things I liked (mostly recorded TV shows that I missed like Sliders, Enterprise, Voyager, etc...).
Now this?
"Third-party applications bundled with this download may record your surfing habits, deliver advertising, collect private information, or modify your system settings."
When the average person ELECTS to use something even after reading this warning, you can be assured that the Internet has really and truly become McNet. (McDonald's reference for those of you unfamiliar with it) Hmmm... now that I think about it, it sounds like the Microsoft EULA, and plenty of people accept that every day.;P
I get about 4-6 hours of sleep a night just because I have so many projects (both home and work) that I am interested in, there just isn't enough time in a day.
I do often wonder how some people are able to get so much accomplished within the same amount of hours I have (and possibly even sleep more)! One example is that I've got a friend who keeps a pretty decent blog going, takes more pictures per day than I do (between 200 and 500), writes and records his own music, is a webmaster for a hospital (his day job), is simultaneously learning C, Tcl/Tk and Java, and has plenty of time for multiple women. How the !%#^ does he do it? I've asked him, and he's told me that he just focuses on the important stuff. ???
So what say you folks. I think a lot of us geeks like to burn the candle on both ends by nature. And I know that I do a lot more than my semi/non-geek friends. But, what about people like my friend? Do they have some mystical ability that some of us are lacking? Uber-time management? It's a puzzle to me. And now... sleeping is supposed to be GOOD for us?
Just more business crap. I think what it really means is that yet another industry is about to fall vitim to one of the things possible, the "monthly bill" business model.
This is akin to the RIAA realizing that everyone else has moved to subscription services except them. That pay once, play forever model wasn't sitting well with them hence DRM and all it's associated ills were born.
The thing that will keep this kind of computing a pipe dream for now is bandwidth. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a company or a regular "Joe User" willing to usurp the power that they have in a machines that they own outright just so they cn pay a monthly bill. It's the same reason why so many idiots are happy with a big powerful PC on their desktops even if all they ever do is browse the web and do some word processing. Once the bandwidth is such that you have super fast connections to centralized processing, then this kind of thing might take off.
I'm doing it at home in a fashion with a terminal server and some wireless X terms. Instead of having to have fully outfitted PCs in every room, I just have one big honkin' nasty box that does everything I need it to. It's a file server, web server, mail server, DNS, application server, print server, streaming music server, IM server, etc... I put all the money and resources into this box and then everything else is just a glorified GUI dumb terminal. So far, no problems between my wife and I when we simultaneously run normal processes (or even some of my heavier ones). But I've got the bandwidth here at home. 100Mb wired to every machine except the wireless terminals. Until we get at least that kind of speed dedicated to every node on the net, this stuff isn't really going to happen.
I remember the come on for this crap that we got where I work when it was Compaq preaching this stuff. My boss and I looked at it and laughed. Sounds like another NT... Not Today.
Man am I glad to hear you say that about the surgery. I had mild reflux problems starting in the mid to late 90s, but in 2001 they got REALLY bad. I woke up one night thinking I must have swallowed some kind of poisonous insect because the burning in my throat was so bad. So I went to the doctor and had a few tests. (Barium X-Ray stuff to make sure there was no physical cause) The diagnosis was Gastroesophageal Reflux Disorder (GERD). ! I'm only 31! This is upposed to happen to 50 year olds who take good care of themselves. I don't drink, I don't smoke, up to that point I'd eaten a pretty good vegetarian diet and excercised regularly. Why me? My mom also exhibited symptoms, but she started getting them in her 50s. So he prescribed Nexium.
I went to the pharmacy and my insurance wouldn't cover it, so I had to get the doctor to switch me to the less effective, more side-effect laden generic Omeprozole (sp?). I didn't take it though. I read the indications and thought... this really doesn't sound good. Especially when I consider that if I start now, I'll never be able to stop. Sure there were stories of people who used it for 6-9 months and then stopped but they couldn't eat spicy foods or acidic foods anymore. That was not for me.
I did a little research into alternative medicines and found that some people claimed to get some relief by taking Acidophilus or eating yogurt. I was a bit leary, but I tried the acidophilus. My symptoms started getting a little milder. After about a half a year, I was OK, but I had to watch what I ate. Spicy foods were still a no no.
Then I made a few correlations (unscientific yes, but still pretty noteworthy). My stomach distress and reflux problems always seemed to get worse after my increasingly horrible sinus infections (about twice a year). That also combined with severe depression at times (for no good reason). Then... my wife started showing some of the same symptoms. I got a little more curious and did more research and I am convinced I found the source of the problem: systemic yeast infection.
My wife and I made some changes in our diet, did an anti-candida (yeast) diet for a while and we are back to normal. We've also lost weight too!:) (The anti-candida diet tends to be low-carb naturally, but eventually allows for complex carbs vs. simple) I can now eat any spicy foods I want, including acidic stuff (vinegar, oranges, tomatoes). We eat out a whole lot less. My sinus infections have become so mild (only one last year instead of the usual two) that I didn't even have to go to the doctor.
According to many of the anti-yeast diet books, antibiotics are largely responsible for destroying your stomach's naturally good bacteria that keep yeast in check. What I found was that my body seemed to be at it's worst after a sinus infection because I needed to be on antibiotics for 10-14 days. And usually powerful broad spectrum antibiotics. I figured, that if I was going to have to change my life forever by taking some drug until I die, I may as well give a more natural approach a try first. Nothing to lose...
I can safely say that my GERD symptoms are 99% gone. The connection with yeast? A few web sites out there have mentioned loose connections between systemic yeast infections and "leaky gut" syndrome. I am certain that changing my diet (avoid sugar, white flour, white rice and yeast), taking acidophilus and an anti-candida supplement as well as not eating out as much as I used to is what made the difference. When my wife and I started on this diet, we thought "this is going to suck". But we're hooked now. The diet cleared up so many medical problems it's unbelievable. I used to take 3-4 Tums a day for stomach distress on top of the GERD problems. To date, I haven't taken ANY stomach medication since May 2003.
So I would definitely research alternatives before making such a lifechanging decision.
Prowl through my old JEs for a little more info on the diet that I went on. The entery should be somewhere in May or June 2003.
That would be the age of my childhood. (ie. personal experience) There were other issues, but as much as things have improved, other things have gotten worse, so we're still treading water. Today's world is no more enlightened than the world of 1980, 1970, 1960, etc... It's just that the "disorders" have shifted.
For one thing, I have a bunch of stuff from Warp, but I'm always looking for more. And now the fact that they DON'T support DRM, that is just too righteous! I'm going over to buy some stuff now...:) Thank you Warp!
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...and the fact that there is a near monopoly in the satellite industry, I would still say that satellite offers a significantly better alternative to cable. Where I live I can only choose from Cox digital cable, and I have to say... they should spell their name differently.
Cox charges $59 a month for digital cable (no internet bundled in, if you want that it's $89 a month). Although they claim an unreal number of channels (500 I think), when it comes to most people the reality is that there are only 48 channels. PPV channels should never be counted as actual channels since most people never watch them unless they are either rich or stupid. (These days, those two seem to be mutually inclusive)
I chose DirecTV and have been about 98% satisfied with it. Yes. When there is a good rain storm, the signal dissappears. I will say that this happens maybe four times to me. Based on my average of 2-4 hours of TV watching per week, it may happen more frequently for a real couch potato. It can be pretty frustrating if you've scheduled a show to record and instead you get the "signal not available" message for the first 10-15 minutes. But it's a nuisance I can live with considering that I get a great signal when it does work and I pay a lot less than digital cable. (More on the cost in a moment) Again, DirecTV claims som ungodly number of channels (by skipping large ranges). For example the music channels are in the 900s. But again, the reality is much lower. About a year ago I counted 67 actual channels I might have an interest in watching. The number of channels applied with the cost per month ($42 per month if just a basic subscriber vs. the next level up. I wound up going up a level). After taxes, the monthly cost is still $52 a month for my expanded package. So.. it's obvious to see the better value in DirecTV. That's why I can live with the occasional signal loss.
...profit motive damages another useful cross-platform format. It happens time and time again. You get some company with the idea of becoming the next Microsoft in their arena, and they have to resort to trickery just to try and get more marketshare. Why not just make a damn good product with features (features that "Joe Average" actually wants) that clean the competitor's clock? If the "free market" works as it's supposed to, then this product will rise to the top. Sure you might need to play some dirty tricks behind the scenes, but that has less to do with tricking your customers than damaging the competitor, right? One thing these moronic companies always seem to forget about is the customer. They put profit first. Then second comes profit. And finally in third place the put profit. Anything else is left over for the shareholders. When it's all said and done, R & D gets some meager pickings and then the customer eventually gets some crumbs. Can you see what's wrong with this picture? It's pretty elementary.
I can applaud Real's efforts with the Helix project. But, are they serious or just using that community in the same way they use their customers?
If you want to stand behind something that should eventually become the standard, get behind Vorbis and Theora. Besides being technically superior, they actualy "get it" in regards to how open source/free software is supposed to work.
Mod me down if you must, but remember that I am speaking truth and you can't change that.
While I tend to favor the GPL because I agree with it's basic principals, I really still fail to see the reasoning behind many licenses.
My personal feeling is that if I write a program and it's potentially useful to someone else (a person, not a business), then I should have the right to give it to that person and let them do whatever they want with it short of making any profit directly from selling it. It comes down to the fact that since the other person didn't write it, they don't deserve to make money by doing nothing more than giving it to someone else. Work ethic. I have no problem if they find a way to use my software to provide a service and make money from the service. Or if they find a way to make a product (other than just a binary distribution of my code) with my software embedded in it. The only thing I ask in return is that any changes they make be given freely to anyone else. That's why I like the GPL.
It's my option to make money on my software or give it away for free. If I give it away freely, I only intend to share knowledge, but I do not give up ownership of my own code. If someone else changes it, then they accept that I still own the code. *MY* copyright is protected. This is why Stallman encourages copyright. Copyright was intended to protect the creator of a work, not the distributor or owner (considering that these days, the "owner" tends to be someone who bought a work and didn't actually make it).
Couldn't be more true. Where I work nearly everyone uses Windows on the desktop. When Blaster hit last year, a number of systems in my deprtment were hit. But being the oddman here who runs Redhat as my desktop, well... I didn't feel a thing. Even better, I was able to use my box to connect to our reouters and begin throwing down access lists and blocking the spread. I was also able to use open source tools to track down more infected systems outside of our deparment. Did anyone learn anything here? No. Windows is too easy for them, but that's going to change as we are becoming more and more Unix oriented on the servers. (Previously Windows and OpenVMS)
Dude... that's nice and all about the laptop, but what the hell did your girlfriend do all that for? Does she need anger management training? ;P Seriously...
As you say, this stuff realy isn't that hard. Which is why I don't mind doing it for free every chance I get. I can't tell you how much pleasure I get spending 1 minute to maybe an hour getting a problem fixed for someone and not charging a dime. I take great pleasure in knowing that they would have payed unreal fees had they taken it to their local computer store and still not gotten it REALLY fixed. Most of the techs that work at those places aren't very good at what they do because they get paid peanuts while the store STILL overcharges them. It's my way of screwing with the system. It doesn't take me much time to fix the problem and their money is right where it belongs... in their pocket.
Even better is that some of my friends and family are asking me about Linux at best and OpenOffice.org at a minimum. My folks are recent Linux converts and they love it. And remember folks, it's important to walk the walk!
The expectations you list are indeed oddball. They are things that require a certain amount of expertise beyond the average user. As it is, yes Windows IS better at that stuff than any distribution of Linux. But think about the number of people that have massive trouble doing this even on Windows. This is a case of the cart before the horse. While people might want to use this stuff right now, it's not yet ready for prime time. The people who can actually use this stuff today with *NO* problem are usually more technically proficient than the average user. When those devices and the OSes reach a point where anyone can truly use them, no one will be paying much attention to OSes anymore. Does anyone actually pay attention to what engine is in their car these days other than a car geek?
I set my folks up with Linux for X-mas. It was actually at my mom's request. So far they love it. What they especially love is the fact that they didn't need to shell out big bucks for some simple day to day operations. The only reason your family hated it was probably because you didn't have the knowledge or the sense to actually customize the installation to their needs. There is no inherent difference between Windows and Linux at this point unless your family is an oddball set of users with oddball expectations (Digital Cameras that just work when you plug them in, Portable MP3 players or PDAs that automatically sync, etc...) If your family is like most families, then they just do web browsing, e-mail, word processing and that's about it.
Customize the installation to their needs and their hardware, and they won't know the difference. The only other things they might notice are that their boxes perform better than they did before and they have a ton more software than they had with their vanilla Windows install.
Even though they don't have Sliders there... I have to say thank you to the AC who posted this. It's kind of what I've been looking for. :)
And I dislike ACs with no balls to put that sentiment to a user id. Begone.
Wouldn't the genital region be more appropriate (albeit somewhat less convenient) for this sort of thing? It's designed to keep the "stuff of life" at a healthy 98F. Just have the heatpipe fitted into one's pants with one end nestled against the vital organs and the other woven into pants pockets. Imagine that... a whole new life for the phrase "pocket pool".
You know... I saw a statement by a network executive once about how using a PVR to filter out commercials was a violation of the "contract" that we, as consumers, agreed to. Since I've never seen that contract or the requirements within, I can't say I agree with him. That's why I don't have any problem with grabbing TV shows off of IRC. Of course, if the show is available on DVD or VHS, I'll buy it first since it is likely to be a better quality copy. For example, as soon as the episodes of Voyager came out on DVD that I wanted, I deleted the files that were capped from TV and bought the discs. IF Sliders ever comes out, I'll buy that too.
;P
Now on the other hand... you could have just been kidding about the piracy thing...
...do you suppose that one side effect of this could be a fork?
One of the claims that SCO makes is that the 2.4 kernel and above are the ones with "SCO's IP". So... is there any possibility that a small band of hackers would go back to the 2.2 trees and develop them further or base something new off of those? It could be detrimental, but interesting. This is, of course, assuming that SCO wins which seems highly unlikely at the moment.
I also read Darl's letter to the congress. It's totally insane. He seems to be operating under the delusion that the United States was built on the idea that profit motive is a good thing. While it *can* be useful, it's far from the only motivation. After all, if one has the ability to make something from nothing, why not do it and profit motive be damned? The guy who can mill his own wood and make his own furniture at home shouldn't be chased after by furniture makers because he didn't make them any money. That's just plain stupid, but it's exactly what Darl is trying to do. I think he has a mental illness that revolves around profit motive. In fact, I would say profit motive to the nth power IS the #1 mental illness in the United States. Get over it Darl. Money is not the reason we are here. Neither is personal gain or wealth. We are here to help each other and better our society through the sharing and exchange of knowledge. If you can't get with the program, then do us all a favor and drop out. Permanently.
This is about the most truthful statement I've heard yet. Politicans and people who are into politics are all insane. Kind of like the telephone sanitizers in the Hitchhiker's Guide. Maybe we should send all of them up to Mars for that one way mission... ;P
Not trolling. Actually, I was well aware of IRC as I used to use it in college in the 80s. But... it got really boring until about 2000 when people were actually shipping things with DCC that I was interested in (above mentioned TV shows).
As far as the banning of file transfers, it's pretty much policy everywhere now. Before they just used to have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Personally, I abide by policy, laws, rules, etc... That's why I don't pirate software, music or movies. I buy everything I'm interested in or use a free alternative. (I'm a Linux guy here) I was a big fan of DALNet until they suspended all of the TV related channels. I used to hang out in #qlc and #sliderseps a lot. Particularly frustrating is that I had almost the entire series of Sliders and did an fdisk on the wrong drive. Bye bye Sliders. Oh well. Maybe they will eventually come out with that DBD they've been promising. For the time being I'm trying to record them from SciFi channel. But you can never trust them to play a complete series if they only produced a few seasons. Bastards.
As far as my being a troll... Not really. I always have to clear this up because very few people get the humor in my name.
Now this?
"Third-party applications bundled with this download may record your surfing habits, deliver advertising, collect private information, or modify your system settings."
When the average person ELECTS to use something even after reading this warning, you can be assured that the Internet has really and truly become McNet. (McDonald's reference for those of you unfamiliar with it) Hmmm... now that I think about it, it sounds like the Microsoft EULA, and plenty of people accept that every day. ;P
A sad day indeed. A sad, sad day...
I get about 4-6 hours of sleep a night just because I have so many projects (both home and work) that I am interested in, there just isn't enough time in a day.
I do often wonder how some people are able to get so much accomplished within the same amount of hours I have (and possibly even sleep more)! One example is that I've got a friend who keeps a pretty decent blog going, takes more pictures per day than I do (between 200 and 500), writes and records his own music, is a webmaster for a hospital (his day job), is simultaneously learning C, Tcl/Tk and Java, and has plenty of time for multiple women. How the !%#^ does he do it? I've asked him, and he's told me that he just focuses on the important stuff. ???
So what say you folks. I think a lot of us geeks like to burn the candle on both ends by nature. And I know that I do a lot more than my semi/non-geek friends. But, what about people like my friend? Do they have some mystical ability that some of us are lacking? Uber-time management? It's a puzzle to me. And now... sleeping is supposed to be GOOD for us?
...couldn't you just block shit like this with a proxy? Find out which URLs are sending the worhtless crap over and block the traffic.
Agreed. However, I have to say "Ogg" sounds like something a caveman MIGHT actually have in his vocabulary. ;p
Just more business crap. I think what it really means is that yet another industry is about to fall vitim to one of the things possible, the "monthly bill" business model.
This is akin to the RIAA realizing that everyone else has moved to subscription services except them. That pay once, play forever model wasn't sitting well with them hence DRM and all it's associated ills were born.
The thing that will keep this kind of computing a pipe dream for now is bandwidth. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a company or a regular "Joe User" willing to usurp the power that they have in a machines that they own outright just so they cn pay a monthly bill. It's the same reason why so many idiots are happy with a big powerful PC on their desktops even if all they ever do is browse the web and do some word processing. Once the bandwidth is such that you have super fast connections to centralized processing, then this kind of thing might take off.
I'm doing it at home in a fashion with a terminal server and some wireless X terms. Instead of having to have fully outfitted PCs in every room, I just have one big honkin' nasty box that does everything I need it to. It's a file server, web server, mail server, DNS, application server, print server, streaming music server, IM server, etc... I put all the money and resources into this box and then everything else is just a glorified GUI dumb terminal. So far, no problems between my wife and I when we simultaneously run normal processes (or even some of my heavier ones). But I've got the bandwidth here at home. 100Mb wired to every machine except the wireless terminals. Until we get at least that kind of speed dedicated to every node on the net, this stuff isn't really going to happen.
I remember the come on for this crap that we got where I work when it was Compaq preaching this stuff. My boss and I looked at it and laughed. Sounds like another NT... Not Today.
Man am I glad to hear you say that about the surgery. I had mild reflux problems starting in the mid to late 90s, but in 2001 they got REALLY bad. I woke up one night thinking I must have swallowed some kind of poisonous insect because the burning in my throat was so bad. So I went to the doctor and had a few tests. (Barium X-Ray stuff to make sure there was no physical cause) The diagnosis was Gastroesophageal Reflux Disorder (GERD). ! I'm only 31! This is upposed to happen to 50 year olds who take good care of themselves. I don't drink, I don't smoke, up to that point I'd eaten a pretty good vegetarian diet and excercised regularly. Why me? My mom also exhibited symptoms, but she started getting them in her 50s. So he prescribed Nexium.
:) (The anti-candida diet tends to be low-carb naturally, but eventually allows for complex carbs vs. simple) I can now eat any spicy foods I want, including acidic stuff (vinegar, oranges, tomatoes). We eat out a whole lot less. My sinus infections have become so mild (only one last year instead of the usual two) that I didn't even have to go to the doctor.
I went to the pharmacy and my insurance wouldn't cover it, so I had to get the doctor to switch me to the less effective, more side-effect laden generic Omeprozole (sp?). I didn't take it though. I read the indications and thought... this really doesn't sound good. Especially when I consider that if I start now, I'll never be able to stop. Sure there were stories of people who used it for 6-9 months and then stopped but they couldn't eat spicy foods or acidic foods anymore. That was not for me.
I did a little research into alternative medicines and found that some people claimed to get some relief by taking Acidophilus or eating yogurt. I was a bit leary, but I tried the acidophilus. My symptoms started getting a little milder. After about a half a year, I was OK, but I had to watch what I ate. Spicy foods were still a no no.
Then I made a few correlations (unscientific yes, but still pretty noteworthy). My stomach distress and reflux problems always seemed to get worse after my increasingly horrible sinus infections (about twice a year). That also combined with severe depression at times (for no good reason). Then... my wife started showing some of the same symptoms. I got a little more curious and did more research and I am convinced I found the source of the problem: systemic yeast infection.
My wife and I made some changes in our diet, did an anti-candida (yeast) diet for a while and we are back to normal. We've also lost weight too!
According to many of the anti-yeast diet books, antibiotics are largely responsible for destroying your stomach's naturally good bacteria that keep yeast in check. What I found was that my body seemed to be at it's worst after a sinus infection because I needed to be on antibiotics for 10-14 days. And usually powerful broad spectrum antibiotics. I figured, that if I was going to have to change my life forever by taking some drug until I die, I may as well give a more natural approach a try first. Nothing to lose...
I can safely say that my GERD symptoms are 99% gone. The connection with yeast? A few web sites out there have mentioned loose connections between systemic yeast infections and "leaky gut" syndrome. I am certain that changing my diet (avoid sugar, white flour, white rice and yeast), taking acidophilus and an anti-candida supplement as well as not eating out as much as I used to is what made the difference. When my wife and I started on this diet, we thought "this is going to suck". But we're hooked now. The diet cleared up so many medical problems it's unbelievable. I used to take 3-4 Tums a day for stomach distress on top of the GERD problems. To date, I haven't taken ANY stomach medication since May 2003.
So I would definitely research alternatives before making such a lifechanging decision.
Prowl through my old JEs for a little more info on the diet that I went on. The entery should be somewhere in May or June 2003.
That would be the age of my childhood. (ie. personal experience) There were other issues, but as much as things have improved, other things have gotten worse, so we're still treading water. Today's world is no more enlightened than the world of 1980, 1970, 1960, etc... It's just that the "disorders" have shifted.
For one thing, I have a bunch of stuff from Warp, but I'm always looking for more. And now the fact that they DON'T support DRM, that is just too righteous! I'm going over to buy some stuff now... :) Thank you Warp!
Do you know the Stephin Merrit song "Alien Being"? It's a really good track.