I mean, what are they doing with this info, I've heard from higher ups at the local store that the info is purged every month and all the info is used for is marketing on large demographics (still doesn't explain why they need a name, most stores just ask for a zip code)
Ayways, data mining isn't cheap, does Radio Shack have the time, resources, agenda, motives, and money to invest in an ellaborate conspiracy?
If they're trying to track what people are buying for illegal uses, those people are probably smart enough to lie. Even if I'm buying batteries I always gave them fake BS, and I'm usually just buying watch batteries there.
This isn't "good" news it's just news, and hardly. I still have to ask "So What?"
Never you mind the stiffling laws of the FCC and the millions of dollars it takes these days to set up a commercial broadcast station....yes it DOES take at LEAST a million bux, which isn't much in a business world, but a lot in a "college student" world.
Getting a lawyer, and a group of investors is step one. Most people with money wont want to talk to you, mainly because you don't have money (unless you do, but then you wouldn't be asking, you'd already know to hire a professional consultant and a legal team)
So how do you get these people to talk to you? You could try to kidnap one of them, but you'd most likely go to jail for a very long time. A better solution is to socially engineer your ass into an elite private party and make your pitch on the covert op level.
Of course, the _RIGHT_ way to go about it is to get a degree in broadcasting, and perhaps elctrical engineering, get a job at a radio station for 10-20 years, build up a network of contacts and then pitch your idea to them, and offer to put the money up yourself.
Either way you decide to go, you're still going to have to suck ClearChannels cock for minimum wage and be forced to sell your station to them or risk lawsuits on behalf of the RIAA, who I suspect works for CC.
Anyways, it's a valiant idea, but it's not likely to happen. Being a student takes too much time. You'dprobably be best off calling the local radio stations and start up a popular movement to get the music you wanna hear played. The radio stations DO NOT care about music, they care about advertising revenue. If they think there is an audiance, they'll play 24 hour polka classics on 50 stations.
BTW, do you look to see if your school has a radio station? if they do you could probably volunteer to DJ a show once a week and play WHATEVER YA WANT! EVEN POLKA!
Anyways, that's it for my playing devils advocate, I swear I'm not jaded, the world really is going to hell!
Jack Scalfani is a music industry leader and genious by what he's said. Even with CARP (CRAP) being struck down, the future of downloaded/streamed music is still not certain. I recently bought a CD player for my car and home that are both Sirius enabled and I'm bumpin' that commercial free sound all day long.
I haven't bought a CD for more than $12 in over 3 years, most I buy (small indy lables) are around 8-10 bux, and I love the quality.
When clear Channel came in an ownt New Mexico radio stations, I stoped tuning in.
When the RIAA sued napster et. al. I dedicated 100mb of bandwidth to the fasttrack network.
Why? Because, I'm a consumer with a vote (in my wallet) and I was not happy with the level of service provided by the big music industry. I haven't paid any attention to comings and goings of MTV bands, I've boycotted any and all Vevindi/Universal artists from my catalog, giving away nearly half my CD's in a 2 month period. I have no interest in these acts that are "grown" by the industry to make money and videos, and nothing else.
So where does that leave me to get music? The Internet, Fightcloud, local DJs, college Radio (KUNM rules), Local record stores (not hastings, best buys, Boarders etc, but the little one outlet mom-and-pops).... the list goes on and on.
The RIAA's days are numbered! I wish Jack Scalfani the ultimate success and nothing put good luck and karma, this is really a good fight.
Hi, I am working with a DJ right now setting up a basement recording studio. We're finally at the stage now where we can begin recording 24 tracks with a PC. Here's exactlly what we use: (keep this in mind, you'll be tested later)
The PC:
Athlon Tbird 1.1GHz 1.2G DDR ram, asus MB
120 Gigs HD space ATA-100 (need more...)
Dual head Geforce2 MX card with 32megs per head.
M-Force Delta 1010 ASIO card
SB Live Plat. 5.1
CD-R and DVD-Rom
The Software:
E-Magic Logic
Fruityloops
Soundforge
Reaktor
CD Architect
Nero 5
The Interface:
Delta 1010 box (8/8 analog 2/2 SPDIF)
Midisport 8x8/s USB for midi input and synch
The Mixers:
Mackie/E-Magic Logic Controller
Mackie 24 track mixer
Pioneer DJM-6000, 4 tracks DJ mixer
1 - CDJ-1000
2/3 - Technic 1200 MK2 x2
4 - Soundblaster Live
The Mics:
Rode nt2 x1
Shure SM57 x3
misc cheap mics x infinity
Along with this we have a full PA with studio monitors, instruments, guitar booth, and a vocal booth. Total space is around 280 sq ft.
Now, getting to cost, this has been a work in prgress for almost 3 years, and we're just now getting to the point where we can start to produce for ourselves and for others. I have not been with the group since day 1, but in the last year or so I know we've probably put in around $10,000 and that's doing a lot of things ghetto style, and scroungeing for good deals. There are many places we cut corner in the past (mics, mixers, ASIO) that really resulted in a poor quality recording. Other places we have, and in some cases still cut corners I find to make little difference. Soundforge and Cubase are almost as good as Logic, Fruityloops can make music that will blow away a party and sound profesisonal, given time to learn how to use it, cheap $200 turntables work better with a professional head ($200) than a $800 turn table with stock heads. $400 $800 right? but a professional turntable with pro heads sounds the best, period. DO NOT cut corners on mics and pick ups, shell out a few extra bucks for performance cables, they're heavier and last longer.
There's a million things I could tell you about what I've learned in the last couple years, and it's a very exciting project. We're by far not a pro studio, but we are using some professional tools, and it makes a huge difference. You can set up to record a guitar for $500 or less, but it's not gonna sound like anything you can sell, or at least that's been my take on the issues I've run into. Good luck, and feel free to contact me by email if you have a specific question.
I can't help but strongly agree with this post. As a proponent of reason and "not being stupid" this make the most sense of any post here. I've used Ebay for years, I will testify that I have never been burned. I've always used escrow, paypal, or before that COD or Check only.
Now, as for the vigelante justice dished out by the poor saps who got screwed. If you put that time into working at your most likely professional jobs, you'd make the money back quickly, but I understand the logic behind this. So for that, I'd say hell yes, get the guy. They screwed up by paying him, but I think they acted properly to right their mistakes. This is a wrong vs wrong debate, but the people who got screwed should at least be allowed to have a little fun. Loved the calling his mommy, that must have REALLY freaked him out! (I used to call efnet kiddie's parents to stop channel take overs, it really works)
ok.. ob story.
me: Hi, my name is , are you currently aware of what your son is doing on tyhe Internet right now?
mom: Uh, no, he's upstairs playing games I think.
me: Well, you may be a bit shocked to know that he's actually trying to be a "hacker". I feel he is just misguided, but he's causing a great deal of stress for me and my collegues.
mom: (off the phone) "!! JAMES YOU GET DOWN HERE.. NOW!!!!!" (you know those Demonic voices in movies...like that)
Pre.S. Ok, before you all slam me for being a hypocrite, READ the whole paper....I'm not the best writer, but bear with me.
I just read most of the Doom history article. I have made the following observation: It's well intended, perhaps, but...bad..very bad.
I'm not an English teacher, rather I am a 22 year old college student, majoring in Fine Arts. I have had to write my share of papers, and in the realm of academia, and among my peers, this is a poorly written paper.
This brings me to question Slashdot, and their decision to post this. The paper appears at first to be a hastily written article summarizing the history of id Software, and their Doom game. It then turns into a 3 page plug for the Doom movie (most of which I did not read, after getting tired of the typos and poor grammar). Was any editorial process used in reviewing the nature of the article before deciding it was worth posting? Rather, did an editor go "oooo, Doom...too long, no time to read, must be good, post it". What this comes out looking like, however, is a disguised plug for the Doom movie...
And did anyone actually see any pictures? I didn't on either version.
Recently I got Spam from a company called Traffic Magnet, they provided me with a screensho of my webpage, and I sent them the following, feel free to copy, or comment on the points of my letter. thanks
Christine,
One thing I notice is that you are using my copyright images to sell a product and/or service.
Please email the physical address of your legal department, or the location to which I should have an attorney contact you about this issue.
If you prefer to contact me via mail please use my business address:
--Address--
As an artist I take my copyright, and privacy very seriously. While no laws yet exist in New Mexico regarding Unsolicited Commercial Email (SPAM) There are laws that protect Copyright holders. As a copyright holder it is my responsibility to protect my property. I do hope that you take this matter seriously and we can resolve this quickly. The normal process is I would have my attorney send a cease and desist letter, to which you would have a lawyer reply that the actions demanded (by me or my agent) have been followed out in accordance with applicable laws.
In reguards to your friend at UPS, he lied.
I used to work for ups, they have cameras and managers and other icky things all over the place, the boxes rarely come off the runners. If they do, and they do fall, they're put back on, and it's usually only a 2-3 foot fall (these runners (big roller tables) are at the right height for a 5'9" human being to pick something up without hurting themselves.) If your friend kicks around boxes at work, they're probably empty and just for fun. I'm sorry, but having been in so many UPS facilities I'm almost certain that he just made all that up.
What is more likely is that since he used ground shipping a container was involved in a wreck, or impropperly packed and the shipment fell over. I can assure you, that happens a LOT more than UPS wants you to know, and WOULD cause that damage.
I feel my comment is best left to my writeup on Everything2: People like that are the reason I left Efnet (idea)
But, if you don't feel like reading it, I'll sum it up here. and add a bit, now that I think about it.
-------
I used to be a script kiddie, then I hit puberty.
You either understand that last statement or you dont. Kids are kids, and having worked with emotionally hadicapped (not retarded) in a highschool setting, I know what they do with computers. I'm the one who had to fix them. (macs, no less)....
There's 3 reasons I've found that kids like to break things
1. They don't own it, so they cannot comprehend that it has value to someone. This is perfectlly normal for kids between the ages of 2-6, it varies in it's severity, but it usually goes away before kids are injected into the social realm of dealing with other people in school, so it's not a big problem.
2. Kids between the ages of 6-18 more commonly express their destructive skills on something because they do not understand it, and feel that by breaking it they have power over someone who does know how to use it. Ownership isn't a factor in this, I've seen kids break their own things because they cant make it work (you see this very commonly with "broken" toys in younger children.
Again, most kids will stop, or mellow down by the time they've hit puberty.
The third case is most common in mentally or emotionally challenged children:
3. "If I can't have fun with it, no one can." This is more common among older kids and extends beyond material items. This is the only case where I've found that ownership REALLY matters, but not in all cases. most people, however, grow out of this phase as well.
So what is someone who hasn't outgrown this state well past the time they should have? The police and doctors call them Sadists and Sociopaths. In this case however i would feel reluctant to use either of those terms. I think in this case it's more a case of a pre-pubescent pissing match between himself and another channel.
Back in my own script kiddie days on IRC I witness MAJOR network wars included the disabling of about 50% of the @home network in san diego, cutting down telephone poles, cutting off power to NOC's, angry kids beating the SHIT out of the kid who nuked him at school, calling in bomb threats to places, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they can do to disable an ISP even if only for a second.
just long enough
All that shit I saw, was _ALL_ related in one way or another to "channel takeovers" some of them over things as petty as who's allowed to flirt with the only girl in a channel, platform debates, music debates... rarely over anything more mature than a 6th or 7th grade level.
Which brings up this point: most of the people who do this are still kids (under 18) so unless they nuke a military server or something, all their gonna get in most cases is a warning, maybe a fine.
So, what's to be done? I say it's time that the more mature half of the internet joins together to fight this in a way that younger kids have no controll over. I've had AMAZING success tracking down script kiddies and calling their parents. People who are clueless, or who have something to lose by being related to a kiddie, are VERY helpful.
Here's some ideasI've used and had VERY good success with.
1. Fight back online - Pro: it's fast and can be effective. Con: lowers you to their level.
2. Call their parents/employer/school*** - Pro: Can be VERY effecting in the long term. I've had people fired, grounded, suspended, and reprimanded with one phone call. Con: Can take a while, or you get someone who just doesn't care.
3. Call the ISP from which the attacks orginate.* - Pro: Admin's will always know what you're talking about, and they're usually helpful as DDOS through their systems reflects badly upon them, costing them dollars. Con: most dialup/residential ISP's dont really care or log things, so it's hit or miss.
4. Shut it all down, and walk away for awhile. - Pro: Best idea if you can afford this option. Most kiddies get bored after a few days, or when school starts. Con: depending on who you are, shutting down your system and doing something else may not be possible.
So, there you go... those are my loosely compiled thoughts and ramblings on the subject of Script Kiddies.... ciao
-Doug
I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, digital cess pit of the technology revolution. You would THINK that with Intel, Motorola, MCI, Earthlink, AOL, Sandia Labs, Los Alamos (a bit north of here), and the BOOMING biotech industry this city has got that we would be ground 0 for new internet technology... sadly this is not the case. USWest (QWEST) holds a regulated monopoly status in this state and because of a string of lawsuits filed against them on behalf of the state they basiclly will say their hands are tied when it comes to trying to mess with their system (too many watch dogs) so after years of 14.4 and 28.8 modems, I was about to tyhe point of justifying $1500+loop a month for a T1 into my home. The day I finally looked into it I found out that they "prefer" not to "waste" T1's on residential customers (huh???) So I waited, and a year later a local provider (pronto.net) started to offer 2.4 GHz wireless connections.
I pay $200 a month for what equates to slightly over a T1 in speed ( it's a weird multi channel thing that has apprently 27 channels and each one maxes out at 100 K/s or total to around 2mps but not in a single chanel) They use Breezecom Pro.11 D wireless which is what the Airport wireless net stuff uses. I am aprox 2.5 KM from the omni tower (base station that has a pile of T1s plugged into it) and on the WAN I max out at 3mps (my internet connection is throttled to 1.5 mbps)The startup cost was $1600 (pretty high) but most wireless providers will have a lease option.... for me, I figure that's an extra $100/mo for a year and 4 months, still a far cry from a T1, and with SDSL the only decent DSL connection in town running >$500 a month for the same speed, plus you have to buy the hardware, I'm still better off. Abq seems to have ADSL now, but no one I know has it (several have had it on order for a year or more) So yeah, what this guy says, check into wireless connections in your town, if you live in a fairly flat area without lots of huge trees everywhere (Albuquerque is a desert) wireless works great, and the breezecom hardware kicks ass, there's pictures of it somewhere on my website that's up at the top, in the pics stuff, one of the dated fieleds, and pictures of what happened when the wind knocked over the tower... but I'm too lazy to find the URLS.. so have fun
'night
-Doug
King and the other media/recording goons are not sueing schools for allowing students to run napster because they are scared. They know damn good and well that were they to go after a school, large or small, that they would not only be attacking a single school, but the entire system of which liberal education is based on. This of course would bring schools such as harvard and yale, emory and CSU into the whole thing, of which all controll more political and legal power than (in my oppinion based on personal experiance at least) any other faction in the world. The heads of the companies like TW, Sony, RIAA, MPAA, atc all come from these schools and they will, in the end, remain loyal to their respective schools.
Were such a case to ever REALLY come up in courts, the combined power of the legal schools against the recording industry would just obliterate any claim made by such, and would most likely result in a complete 180 and make napster's case 100x stronger.
ACtually, they use 2 tricks, one is look at the UPC, the product _MIGHT_ come with one on it already, it's not uncommon for this UPC to already be in use, with a possible combiantion of only a few million unique UPCs on some products ( a soda UPC symbol from pepsi has 6 charachters, all numeric, always) and the hundreds of billions of products out there, UPCs are virtually worthless. Furthermore, Walmart's UPC system may not always be compatible with the manufacturers UPC (compare the UPC on a can of soda with that of the UPC on a book which should belive (not looking) have 12 space for "store use" tho many times manu. UPCs are for inhouse inventory. many companies reprint UPCs, or use a diffrent form of barcoding all together (Best Buys, Hastings, and others I cant see from here) So it's very VERY possible that walmart could manipulate prices from store to store, dept. to dept. even register to register (tho the legal implications of that would probably keep it from happening) I dont see how anyone on/. could ever really be so nieve as to think that computers are unable to be used to screw custyomers over. Afterall, it's just numbers, depends on how you use the computer to interpret them.
-Doug
This is nothing new. Perhaps on the online world this is just starting to get noticed, but in that world outside (yes, the place past the window with blackout curtains over it) large warehouse and depeartment stores have done this for years. Go into any Home Repot or Walmart and look at the POS items, they're the ones up at the register. not sure how they determine which will be priced high and low (sales figures? astrological data? speaking gerbil??) but almost always you can find those items in the store cheaper or more exspensive. Same holds true for items that may fit diffrent departments, IE clear coat spray paint might be in the arts and crafts area, homewares, and paint areas (at walmart this is true) and they vary in price by as much as a dollar...
my 2:)
-Doug
The point is not that WE know what they're talking about, that's a given, with tech sites like/. anyone who has beenaround should have a clue. What's REALLY scary is do _THEY_ know they're talking about? While I deff. feel Napster SHOULD be shut down, it has nothing at all to do with MP#, the technology, the format, or the protocols...lets face is, Napster as a piece of software is NOT as well written as it should be, nor is it ported to my favorite OSes of choice. The broader rangeing effects of this, were it to pass, would make web browsers, DCC chat, ICQ, NFS, Samba, FTP, bascilly anything used to transfer data between 2 computers, illegal right? but of course, going 1 mile over the speed limit is ALSO illegal... what they will do is turn a blind eye but use this law to punish people when they neeeed it... it's a scary world already... lets hope this doesnt pass.
Gah.. can you imagine, you get arrested for stealing goldfish food from walmart and just so they can throw the book at you thwey also bring you up on charges of Digital transfers.. yikes! (in other words: it'll never hold up in court) </rant> -Doug
Well it seems apparent that Metallica does not know who/. is, nor do they have any intention of answering our questions. Mettalica agreed to this interview through their promotion agency, in other words one of the die hard metallica fans that staffs their office (re: marketing students who prob listen to classical, but the money is good so they work for them) agreed to the interview. _IF_ we ever hear a reply to these questions, without a face to face interview there's no way to tell (and it's most likely this will happen) that metallica staffers didnt "analyze previous statements from the band and extrapolate appropriate answers" (most famous people do this) and then just have someone from the band, or more commonly, grab a rubber stamp with signatures on it, and stamp a signature on there... *sigh* metallica == those kids who picked on "us" in high school but say they're outcasts cuz they know the geeks have money, so they play up to us... untill now...
I have always felt that 'net stocks are unstable and volitile...that's what makes them fun, but so many people have their lives staked on this, when it does fall... it's not a happy day, last summer that guy in Atlanta went crazy, he was a technology day trader wasn't he? we've already seen how hard a slip in MS stocks can affect wallstreet, this has been happening in a smaller scale for years now. While I dont predict a one day all out bottoming out of tech stocks, it does have a dominoe efect, which just proves the herd mentality. But for now, I know that I gots money in the bank, and the money in stocks cant really hurt that (for me)....tradeing is a risk, it's high stakes gambling on an international level, make sure you're out before the dealer pulls out his gun and shoots everyone:) -Doug
WOOHOO hey cool I did get the first post, damn now you all have to go see my satanic hamster dance site that might not be around much longer... As for pollution I have lived my life in comparativly pristine places (hawaii and new mexico), while it's been known for some time that these toxins are a cause of cancers and other ailments, I dont think that this single study proves conclusivly that lead, and PCBs are actually _THE_ single cause of the lack of intelligence. I say this because in my own experiance I have met many people who lack even the ability to read and write beyond an elementry level (and yes, I'm aware my spelling is atrocious). I think that the intelligence thing is also hugely affected by other aspects of environment, and genetics... but, of course, this does raise some legitimate issues about the very long term effects of pollution.. bye:) -Doug btw, hamsters are at http://www.greymatter.org follow the "Misc" link to the "EVIL Hamsters link..there ya go, have fun ciao -Doug
Ok, before i start I have two URLs for anyone intrested, first is Philip Greenspun's photo.net guide to digitals, albeit a bit outdated, has sound advise. Second is the Altamira software. I have played with this, and it has a 20 use free demo. What it lets you do is use a fractal algorithm thingy to upsample lower resolution images to a high enough res to print, this is GREAT, it works well, and the results, while not as sharp as if you had started with hi-res, are decent enough for snapshots to show friends. And no, I dont work for them, but I wish I did:) Now, on to my 2 Well, being a photographer I have to throw in my 2 (yes, a real photographer, I make money selling pictures)... The world of digital is, intresting, to say the least. It's my feelings that digital has a _LONG_ way to go before it takes over film. In the pro photo market 35mm is only one type of film. Digital cameras today can take on 35mm for under $5000 and with a decent printer, and some software, yes, you too can be a digital photographer. However my personal aditude towards it is that digiutal cameras are _GREAT_ for only one thing, websites. I currently own a Kodak DC215 and an Olympus D630 and both of them shoot high enough res to be used to print a fairly sharp 5x7 but nothing more. With the bigger cameras, the kodak modeks based on the Canon EOS system, and the nikon D1 you can get a decent 8x10 and those are in the $5000 range. Most consumers will never have need for a snapshot biugger than 8x10, so I feel that these cameras "do the job" but I think they're best for just putting images on the web, and doing a photo archive of your life. For the print/advertising world however, who often times deals with putting images on billboards, buses, and even buildings, a cheap digital camera doesn't cut it. Megavision and Lightwave Inc. both make high quality backs for medium and large format camneras that start around $20k and go up to a bit over $100k and these are getting to the point where they can be used for billboards and such, but most firms still prefer film. So...from this photographer, I say film is the way to go for at least another 10 years, and as an artform, I dont think film will go away in my life time. That's my 2 anjoy:)
by bitmap I mean any raw bitmapped images... microsoft didnt invent bitmapping, nor is.bmp the only implemntation of bitmapping:) LZW comprtession can really apply to almost any form of data, it's just the it's what makes.gif work, so obviously.gif format is the main intrest of unisys, but they're really going after anyone who makes any amount of money off the use of any form of LZW compresion technology. As for porn... I rember DLing a _GIANT_ like 200K "hi-res" gif off a BBS back in like... god... 90-91 over a 2400 baud modem, man that RULED, of course I was like 12 then, so the 20 minute DL was worth it. -Doug
Having worked with graphics for the past 8 years, I've noticed a general sentiment of moving away from GIF reguardless of what Unisys does to kill it off before then. There's been talks and rumors of this weird lisencing thing in the past, and of course, it still doesnt affect the end user from what I have seen. Of course, also from the way I understand it, this isn't a GIF issue, rather a LZW comression issue. gif is the most common use of LZW but tiff and bmp and several other formats, graphicsal or not, can and do use LZW....and this would affect those other formats as well *shrug* it's late, I shouldnt be posting:) -GuS
Slashdot Mirror
I mean, what are they doing with this info, I've heard from higher ups at the local store that the info is purged every month and all the info is used for is marketing on large demographics (still doesn't explain why they need a name, most stores just ask for a zip code)
Ayways, data mining isn't cheap, does Radio Shack have the time, resources, agenda, motives, and money to invest in an ellaborate conspiracy?
If they're trying to track what people are buying for illegal uses, those people are probably smart enough to lie. Even if I'm buying batteries I always gave them fake BS, and I'm usually just buying watch batteries there.
This isn't "good" news it's just news, and hardly. I still have to ask "So What?"
-Doug
Never you mind the stiffling laws of the FCC and the millions of dollars it takes these days to set up a commercial broadcast station....yes it DOES take at LEAST a million bux, which isn't much in a business world, but a lot in a "college student" world.
Getting a lawyer, and a group of investors is step one. Most people with money wont want to talk to you, mainly because you don't have money (unless you do, but then you wouldn't be asking, you'd already know to hire a professional consultant and a legal team)
So how do you get these people to talk to you? You could try to kidnap one of them, but you'd most likely go to jail for a very long time. A better solution is to socially engineer your ass into an elite private party and make your pitch on the covert op level.
Of course, the _RIGHT_ way to go about it is to get a degree in broadcasting, and perhaps elctrical engineering, get a job at a radio station for 10-20 years, build up a network of contacts and then pitch your idea to them, and offer to put the money up yourself.
Either way you decide to go, you're still going to have to suck ClearChannels cock for minimum wage and be forced to sell your station to them or risk lawsuits on behalf of the RIAA, who I suspect works for CC.
Anyways, it's a valiant idea, but it's not likely to happen. Being a student takes too much time. You'dprobably be best off calling the local radio stations and start up a popular movement to get the music you wanna hear played. The radio stations DO NOT care about music, they care about advertising revenue. If they think there is an audiance, they'll play 24 hour polka classics on 50 stations.
BTW, do you look to see if your school has a radio station? if they do you could probably volunteer to DJ a show once a week and play WHATEVER YA WANT! EVEN POLKA!
Anyways, that's it for my playing devils advocate, I swear I'm not jaded, the world really is going to hell!
CLEAR CHANNEL WILL OWN US ALL
-GuS
YES YES and MORE YES!
Jack Scalfani is a music industry leader and genious by what he's said. Even with CARP (CRAP) being struck down, the future of downloaded/streamed music is still not certain. I recently bought a CD player for my car and home that are both Sirius enabled and I'm bumpin' that commercial free sound all day long.
I haven't bought a CD for more than $12 in over 3 years, most I buy (small indy lables) are around 8-10 bux, and I love the quality.
When clear Channel came in an ownt New Mexico radio stations, I stoped tuning in.
When the RIAA sued napster et. al. I dedicated 100mb of bandwidth to the fasttrack network.
Why? Because, I'm a consumer with a vote (in my wallet) and I was not happy with the level of service provided by the big music industry. I haven't paid any attention to comings and goings of MTV bands, I've boycotted any and all Vevindi/Universal artists from my catalog, giving away nearly half my CD's in a 2 month period. I have no interest in these acts that are "grown" by the industry to make money and videos, and nothing else.
So where does that leave me to get music? The Internet, Fightcloud, local DJs, college Radio (KUNM rules), Local record stores (not hastings, best buys, Boarders etc, but the little one outlet mom-and-pops).... the list goes on and on.
The RIAA's days are numbered! I wish Jack Scalfani the ultimate success and nothing put good luck and karma, this is really a good fight.
Great job Thomas =)
-Doug
The Fasttrack network is P2P, should Kazaa wish to pull their plug, that doens't make it impossible to connect to the Fasttrack network.
Personally I'm glad to see Kazaa go, they were a fucked up corporation who sold out their user base to Brilliant Tech.
The problem is, I _REALLY_ like the Kazaa interface (wish I could ctrl+click to select multiple files in the traffic window)
Solution: www.kazaalite.com
Keep the P2P network up untill the RIAA comes after the private citizens, then we will show them who owns what!
-Doug
Hi, I am working with a DJ right now setting up a basement recording studio. We're finally at the stage now where we can begin recording 24 tracks with a PC. Here's exactlly what we use: (keep this in mind, you'll be tested later)
The PC:
Athlon Tbird 1.1GHz 1.2G DDR ram, asus MB
120 Gigs HD space ATA-100 (need more...)
Dual head Geforce2 MX card with 32megs per head.
M-Force Delta 1010 ASIO card
SB Live Plat. 5.1
CD-R and DVD-Rom
The Software:
E-Magic Logic
Fruityloops
Soundforge
Reaktor
CD Architect
Nero 5
The Interface:
Delta 1010 box (8/8 analog 2/2 SPDIF)
Midisport 8x8/s USB for midi input and synch
The Mixers:
Mackie/E-Magic Logic Controller
Mackie 24 track mixer
Pioneer DJM-6000, 4 tracks DJ mixer
1 - CDJ-1000
2/3 - Technic 1200 MK2 x2
4 - Soundblaster Live
The Mics:
Rode nt2 x1
Shure SM57 x3
misc cheap mics x infinity
Along with this we have a full PA with studio monitors, instruments, guitar booth, and a vocal booth. Total space is around 280 sq ft.
Now, getting to cost, this has been a work in prgress for almost 3 years, and we're just now getting to the point where we can start to produce for ourselves and for others. I have not been with the group since day 1, but in the last year or so I know we've probably put in around $10,000 and that's doing a lot of things ghetto style, and scroungeing for good deals. There are many places we cut corner in the past (mics, mixers, ASIO) that really resulted in a poor quality recording. Other places we have, and in some cases still cut corners I find to make little difference. Soundforge and Cubase are almost as good as Logic, Fruityloops can make music that will blow away a party and sound profesisonal, given time to learn how to use it, cheap $200 turntables work better with a professional head ($200) than a $800 turn table with stock heads. $400 $800 right? but a professional turntable with pro heads sounds the best, period. DO NOT cut corners on mics and pick ups, shell out a few extra bucks for performance cables, they're heavier and last longer.
There's a million things I could tell you about what I've learned in the last couple years, and it's a very exciting project. We're by far not a pro studio, but we are using some professional tools, and it makes a huge difference. You can set up to record a guitar for $500 or less, but it's not gonna sound like anything you can sell, or at least that's been my take on the issues I've run into. Good luck, and feel free to contact me by email if you have a specific question.
Doug
This is where it all starts... robots that can make more robots... add a pinch of AI and next thing you know we're all being used for energy farms....
oh well, I doubt these robots will stand up against a shotgun blast, so if I see any little cubic robots near my house... BOOM!
I can't help but strongly agree with this post. As a proponent of reason and "not being stupid" this make the most sense of any post here. I've used Ebay for years, I will testify that I have never been burned. I've always used escrow, paypal, or before that COD or Check only.
Now, as for the vigelante justice dished out by the poor saps who got screwed. If you put that time into working at your most likely professional jobs, you'd make the money back quickly, but I understand the logic behind this. So for that, I'd say hell yes, get the guy. They screwed up by paying him, but I think they acted properly to right their mistakes. This is a wrong vs wrong debate, but the people who got screwed should at least be allowed to have a little fun. Loved the calling his mommy, that must have REALLY freaked him out! (I used to call efnet kiddie's parents to stop channel take overs, it really works)
ok.. ob story.
me: Hi, my name is , are you currently aware of what your son is doing on tyhe Internet right now?
mom: Uh, no, he's upstairs playing games I think.
me: Well, you may be a bit shocked to know that he's actually trying to be a "hacker". I feel he is just misguided, but he's causing a great deal of stress for me and my collegues.
mom: (off the phone) "!! JAMES YOU GET DOWN HERE.. NOW!!!!!" (you know those Demonic voices in movies...like that)
Kid: Hello?
me: ownt
2 minutes later we have our channel back.
ok, anyways that's my 2.9
Pre.S. Ok, before you all slam me for being a hypocrite, READ the whole paper....I'm not the best writer, but bear with me.
I just read most of the Doom history article. I have made the following observation: It's well intended, perhaps, but...bad..very bad.
I'm not an English teacher, rather I am a 22 year old college student, majoring in Fine Arts. I have had to write my share of papers, and in the realm of academia, and among my peers, this is a poorly written paper.
This brings me to question Slashdot, and their decision to post this. The paper appears at first to be a hastily written article summarizing the history of id Software, and their Doom game. It then turns into a 3 page plug for the Doom movie (most of which I did not read, after getting tired of the typos and poor grammar). Was any editorial process used in reviewing the nature of the article before deciding it was worth posting? Rather, did an editor go "oooo, Doom...too long, no time to read, must be good, post it". What this comes out looking like, however, is a disguised plug for the Doom movie...
And did anyone actually see any pictures? I didn't on either version.
Anyways, </rant>
-Doug
Recently I got Spam from a company called Traffic Magnet, they provided me with a screensho of my webpage, and I sent them the following, feel free to copy, or comment on the points of my letter. thanks
Christine,
One thing I notice is that you are using my copyright images to sell a product and/or service.
Please email the physical address of your legal department, or the location to which I should have an attorney contact you about this issue.
If you prefer to contact me via mail please use my business address:
--Address--
As an artist I take my copyright, and privacy very seriously. While no laws yet exist in New Mexico regarding Unsolicited Commercial Email (SPAM) There are laws that protect Copyright holders. As a copyright holder it is my responsibility to protect my property. I do hope that you take this matter seriously and we can resolve this quickly. The normal process is I would have my attorney send a cease and desist letter, to which you would have a lawyer reply that the actions demanded (by me or my agent) have been followed out in accordance with applicable laws.
Thank you for your time
Signed.
In reguards to your friend at UPS, he lied.
I used to work for ups, they have cameras and managers and other icky things all over the place, the boxes rarely come off the runners. If they do, and they do fall, they're put back on, and it's usually only a 2-3 foot fall (these runners (big roller tables) are at the right height for a 5'9" human being to pick something up without hurting themselves.) If your friend kicks around boxes at work, they're probably empty and just for fun. I'm sorry, but having been in so many UPS facilities I'm almost certain that he just made all that up.
What is more likely is that since he used ground shipping a container was involved in a wreck, or impropperly packed and the shipment fell over. I can assure you, that happens a LOT more than UPS wants you to know, and WOULD cause that damage.
Anyways my 2.6
-Doug
Naw, it was all about MUD's and usenet on the 9600 baud dialup university shell YEET! -Doug
But, if you don't feel like reading it, I'll sum it up here. and add a bit, now that I think about it.
-------
I used to be a script kiddie, then I hit puberty.
You either understand that last statement or you dont. Kids are kids, and having worked with emotionally hadicapped (not retarded) in a highschool setting, I know what they do with computers. I'm the one who had to fix them. (macs, no less)....
There's 3 reasons I've found that kids like to break things
1. They don't own it, so they cannot comprehend that it has value to someone. This is perfectlly normal for kids between the ages of 2-6, it varies in it's severity, but it usually goes away before kids are injected into the social realm of dealing with other people in school, so it's not a big problem.
2. Kids between the ages of 6-18 more commonly express their destructive skills on something because they do not understand it, and feel that by breaking it they have power over someone who does know how to use it. Ownership isn't a factor in this, I've seen kids break their own things because they cant make it work (you see this very commonly with "broken" toys in younger children.
Again, most kids will stop, or mellow down by the time they've hit puberty.
The third case is most common in mentally or emotionally challenged children:
3. "If I can't have fun with it, no one can." This is more common among older kids and extends beyond material items. This is the only case where I've found that ownership REALLY matters, but not in all cases. most people, however, grow out of this phase as well.
So what is someone who hasn't outgrown this state well past the time they should have? The police and doctors call them Sadists and Sociopaths. In this case however i would feel reluctant to use either of those terms. I think in this case it's more a case of a pre-pubescent pissing match between himself and another channel.
Back in my own script kiddie days on IRC I witness MAJOR network wars included the disabling of about 50% of the @home network in san diego, cutting down telephone poles, cutting off power to NOC's, angry kids beating the SHIT out of the kid who nuked him at school, calling in bomb threats to places, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they can do to disable an ISP even if only for a second.
just long enough
All that shit I saw, was _ALL_ related in one way or another to "channel takeovers" some of them over things as petty as who's allowed to flirt with the only girl in a channel, platform debates, music debates... rarely over anything more mature than a 6th or 7th grade level.
Which brings up this point: most of the people who do this are still kids (under 18) so unless they nuke a military server or something, all their gonna get in most cases is a warning, maybe a fine.
So, what's to be done? I say it's time that the more mature half of the internet joins together to fight this in a way that younger kids have no controll over. I've had AMAZING success tracking down script kiddies and calling their parents. People who are clueless, or who have something to lose by being related to a kiddie, are VERY helpful.
Here's some ideasI've used and had VERY good success with.
1. Fight back online - Pro: it's fast and can be effective. Con: lowers you to their level.
2. Call their parents/employer/school*** - Pro: Can be VERY effecting in the long term. I've had people fired, grounded, suspended, and reprimanded with one phone call. Con: Can take a while, or you get someone who just doesn't care.
3. Call the ISP from which the attacks orginate.* - Pro: Admin's will always know what you're talking about, and they're usually helpful as DDOS through their systems reflects badly upon them, costing them dollars. Con: most dialup/residential ISP's dont really care or log things, so it's hit or miss.
4. Shut it all down, and walk away for awhile. - Pro: Best idea if you can afford this option. Most kiddies get bored after a few days, or when school starts. Con: depending on who you are, shutting down your system and doing something else may not be possible.
So, there you go... those are my loosely compiled thoughts and ramblings on the subject of Script Kiddies.... ciao
-Doug
I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, digital cess pit of the technology revolution. You would THINK that with Intel, Motorola, MCI, Earthlink, AOL, Sandia Labs, Los Alamos (a bit north of here), and the BOOMING biotech industry this city has got that we would be ground 0 for new internet technology... sadly this is not the case. USWest (QWEST) holds a regulated monopoly status in this state and because of a string of lawsuits filed against them on behalf of the state they basiclly will say their hands are tied when it comes to trying to mess with their system (too many watch dogs) so after years of 14.4 and 28.8 modems, I was about to tyhe point of justifying $1500+loop a month for a T1 into my home. The day I finally looked into it I found out that they "prefer" not to "waste" T1's on residential customers (huh???) So I waited, and a year later a local provider (pronto.net) started to offer 2.4 GHz wireless connections.
I pay $200 a month for what equates to slightly over a T1 in speed ( it's a weird multi channel thing that has apprently 27 channels and each one maxes out at 100 K/s or total to around 2mps but not in a single chanel) They use Breezecom Pro.11 D wireless which is what the Airport wireless net stuff uses. I am aprox 2.5 KM from the omni tower (base station that has a pile of T1s plugged into it) and on the WAN I max out at 3mps (my internet connection is throttled to 1.5 mbps)The startup cost was $1600 (pretty high) but most wireless providers will have a lease option.... for me, I figure that's an extra $100/mo for a year and 4 months, still a far cry from a T1, and with SDSL the only decent DSL connection in town running >$500 a month for the same speed, plus you have to buy the hardware, I'm still better off. Abq seems to have ADSL now, but no one I know has it (several have had it on order for a year or more) So yeah, what this guy says, check into wireless connections in your town, if you live in a fairly flat area without lots of huge trees everywhere (Albuquerque is a desert) wireless works great, and the breezecom hardware kicks ass, there's pictures of it somewhere on my website that's up at the top, in the pics stuff, one of the dated fieleds, and pictures of what happened when the wind knocked over the tower... but I'm too lazy to find the URLS.. so have fun
'night
-Doug
King and the other media/recording goons are not sueing schools for allowing students to run napster because they are scared. They know damn good and well that were they to go after a school, large or small, that they would not only be attacking a single school, but the entire system of which liberal education is based on. This of course would bring schools such as harvard and yale, emory and CSU into the whole thing, of which all controll more political and legal power than (in my oppinion based on personal experiance at least) any other faction in the world. The heads of the companies like TW, Sony, RIAA, MPAA, atc all come from these schools and they will, in the end, remain loyal to their respective schools.
Were such a case to ever REALLY come up in courts, the combined power of the legal schools against the recording industry would just obliterate any claim made by such, and would most likely result in a complete 180 and make napster's case 100x stronger.
...got a cold, going back to bed
-Doug
ACtually, they use 2 tricks, one is look at the UPC, the product _MIGHT_ come with one on it already, it's not uncommon for this UPC to already be in use, with a possible combiantion of only a few million unique UPCs on some products ( a soda UPC symbol from pepsi has 6 charachters, all numeric, always) and the hundreds of billions of products out there, UPCs are virtually worthless. Furthermore, Walmart's UPC system may not always be compatible with the manufacturers UPC (compare the UPC on a can of soda with that of the UPC on a book which should belive (not looking) have 12 space for "store use" tho many times manu. UPCs are for inhouse inventory. many companies reprint UPCs, or use a diffrent form of barcoding all together (Best Buys, Hastings, and others I cant see from here) So it's very VERY possible that walmart could manipulate prices from store to store, dept. to dept. even register to register (tho the legal implications of that would probably keep it from happening) I dont see how anyone on /. could ever really be so nieve as to think that computers are unable to be used to screw custyomers over. Afterall, it's just numbers, depends on how you use the computer to interpret them.
-Doug
This is nothing new. Perhaps on the online world this is just starting to get noticed, but in that world outside (yes, the place past the window with blackout curtains over it) large warehouse and depeartment stores have done this for years. Go into any Home Repot or Walmart and look at the POS items, they're the ones up at the register. not sure how they determine which will be priced high and low (sales figures? astrological data? speaking gerbil??) but almost always you can find those items in the store cheaper or more exspensive. Same holds true for items that may fit diffrent departments, IE clear coat spray paint might be in the arts and crafts area, homewares, and paint areas (at walmart this is true) and they vary in price by as much as a dollar... :)
my 2
-Doug
The point is not that WE know what they're talking about, that's a given, with tech sites like /. anyone who has beenaround should have a clue. What's REALLY scary is do _THEY_ know they're talking about? While I deff. feel Napster SHOULD be shut down, it has nothing at all to do with MP#, the technology, the format, or the protocols...lets face is, Napster as a piece of software is NOT as well written as it should be, nor is it ported to my favorite OSes of choice. The broader rangeing effects of this, were it to pass, would make web browsers, DCC chat, ICQ, NFS, Samba, FTP, bascilly anything used to transfer data between 2 computers, illegal right? but of course, going 1 mile over the speed limit is ALSO illegal... what they will do is turn a blind eye but use this law to punish people when they neeeed it... it's a scary world already... lets hope this doesnt pass.
Gah.. can you imagine, you get arrested for stealing goldfish food from walmart and just so they can throw the book at you thwey also bring you up on charges of Digital transfers.. yikes! (in other words: it'll never hold up in court)
</rant>
-Doug
Well it seems apparent that Metallica does not know who /. is, nor do they have any intention of answering our questions. Mettalica agreed to this interview through their promotion agency, in other words one of the die hard metallica fans that staffs their office (re: marketing students who prob listen to classical, but the money is good so they work for them) agreed to the interview. _IF_ we ever hear a reply to these questions, without a face to face interview there's no way to tell (and it's most likely this will happen) that metallica staffers didnt "analyze previous statements from the band and extrapolate appropriate answers" (most famous people do this) and then just have someone from the band, or more commonly, grab a rubber stamp with signatures on it, and stamp a signature on there... *sigh* metallica == those kids who picked on "us" in high school but say they're outcasts cuz they know the geeks have money, so they play up to us... untill now...
ta ta
-GreySoul
ok, the clarify now that I have post #1...
... it's not a happy day, last summer that guy in Atlanta went crazy, he was a technology day trader wasn't he? we've already seen how hard a slip in MS stocks can affect wallstreet, this has been happening in a smaller scale for years now. While I dont predict a one day all out bottoming out of tech stocks, it does have a dominoe efect, which just proves the herd mentality. But for now, I know that I gots money in the bank, and the money in stocks cant really hurt that (for me)....tradeing is a risk, it's high stakes gambling on an international level, make sure you're out before the dealer pulls out his gun and shoots everyone :)
I have always felt that 'net stocks are unstable and volitile...that's what makes them fun, but so many people have their lives staked on this, when it does fall
-Doug
Hasn't this happend a few times already?
-GreySoul
FLAMEBAIT? come on now that's not fair... offtopic maybe, troll even for the NY comment... but falmebait? puhlease
-Doug
WOOHOO hey cool I did get the first post, damn now you all have to go see my satanic hamster dance site that might not be around much longer... :) -Doug
As for pollution I have lived my life in comparativly pristine places (hawaii and new mexico), while it's been known for some time that these toxins are a cause of cancers and other ailments, I dont think that this single study proves conclusivly that lead, and PCBs are actually _THE_ single cause of the lack of intelligence. I say this because in my own experiance I have met many people who lack even the ability to read and write beyond an elementry level (and yes, I'm aware my spelling is atrocious). I think that the intelligence thing is also hugely affected by other aspects of environment, and genetics... but, of course, this does raise some legitimate issues about the very long term effects of pollution.. bye
btw, hamsters are at http://www.greymatter.org follow the "Misc" link to the "EVIL Hamsters link..there ya go, have fun ciao
-Doug
Ok, before i start I have two URLs for anyone intrested, first is Philip Greenspun's photo.net guide to digitals, albeit a bit outdated, has sound advise. :) :)
Second is the Altamira software. I have played with this, and it has a 20 use free demo. What it lets you do is use a fractal algorithm thingy to upsample lower resolution images to a high enough res to print, this is GREAT, it works well, and the results, while not as sharp as if you had started with hi-res, are decent enough for snapshots to show friends. And no, I dont work for them, but I wish I did
Now, on to my 2
Well, being a photographer I have to throw in my 2 (yes, a real photographer, I make money selling pictures)...
The world of digital is, intresting, to say the least. It's my feelings that digital has a _LONG_ way to go before it takes over film. In the pro photo market 35mm is only one type of film. Digital cameras today can take on 35mm for under $5000 and with a decent printer, and some software, yes, you too can be a digital photographer.
However my personal aditude towards it is that digiutal cameras are _GREAT_ for only one thing, websites. I currently own a Kodak DC215 and an Olympus D630 and both of them shoot high enough res to be used to print a fairly sharp 5x7 but nothing more. With the bigger cameras, the kodak modeks based on the Canon EOS system, and the nikon D1 you can get a decent 8x10 and those are in the $5000 range.
Most consumers will never have need for a snapshot biugger than 8x10, so I feel that these cameras "do the job" but I think they're best for just putting images on the web, and doing a photo archive of your life.
For the print/advertising world however, who often times deals with putting images on billboards, buses, and even buildings, a cheap digital camera doesn't cut it. Megavision and Lightwave Inc. both make high quality backs for medium and large format camneras that start around $20k and go up to a bit over $100k and these are getting to the point where they can be used for billboards and such, but most firms still prefer film. So...from this photographer, I say film is the way to go for at least another 10 years, and as an artform, I dont think film will go away in my life time. That's my 2 anjoy
by bitmap I mean any raw bitmapped images... microsoft didnt invent bitmapping, nor is .bmp the only implemntation of bitmapping :) .gif work, so obviously .gif format is the main intrest of unisys, but they're really going after anyone who makes any amount of money off the use of any form of LZW compresion technology. ... god... 90-91 over a 2400 baud modem, man that RULED, of course I was like 12 then, so the 20 minute DL was worth it.
LZW comprtession can really apply to almost any form of data, it's just the it's what makes
As for porn... I rember DLing a _GIANT_ like 200K "hi-res" gif off a BBS back in like
-Doug
Having worked with graphics for the past 8 years, I've noticed a general sentiment of moving away from GIF reguardless of what Unisys does to kill it off before then. There's been talks and rumors of this weird lisencing thing in the past, and of course, it still doesnt affect the end user from what I have seen. Of course, also from the way I understand it, this isn't a GIF issue, rather a LZW comression issue. gif is the most common use of LZW but tiff and bmp and several other formats, graphicsal or not, can and do use LZW....and this would affect those other formats as well :)
*shrug* it's late, I shouldnt be posting
-GuS