I don't think nudity is pornographic unless it's in a sexual context. That would mean that nudist beaches/colonies are basically just centres of hedonism - which of course they're not, the people there just prefer not to wear clothes (which some people find far more comfortable, and most people find more natural).
Sorry, the second sentence should have been "Otherwise nudist beaches/colonies would be basically just centres of hedonism"
I don't think nudity is pornographic unless it's in a sexual context. That would mean that nudist beaches/colonies are basically just centres of hedonism - which of course they're not, the people there just prefer not to wear clothes (which some people find far more comfortable, and most people find more natural).
You go to school, a crowd of football players surround you and stuff you into a locker / your head down the toilet / your bag in the trash. You head to your first class and your teacher tells you that you are an "overacheiver" and that you should "slow down and let the less advantaged people catch up" (the same ones who picked on you only a few minutes ago).
For anyone with an above-average IQ, high school is a very bad place to be.
...is have it store a list of emotions associated with the songs, eg romantic, depressing, happy and so on. You could then build a playlist for whatever mood you were in, or mood you wanted to be in. This is FAR more effective than simply categorising music by genre (in my experience anyway).
I think there is a windows program called Moodlogic that did this but it was closed source, expensive, and it used a proprietery database. It also used the accoustic properties of the song, so it could identify badly-named mp3s.
I think it only really appealed to Star Trek fans, and there simply aren't as many of those as there used to be.
Oh, and by Star Trek fans, I don't mean hardcore Trekkies, I just mean people who watch the show occasionally and know who all the main characters are.
Asterix was aimed at adults with an extremely corny sense of humour who liked the occasional bad joke (you know, the kind of jokes that are so bad that they're good).
The beano was aimed at 10 year old kids.
If copyright owners are not allowed to control what happens to their work, we could not enfoce the GPL. Free software would die.
All well and good, but I think there's a major difference in perspective here. Removing "offensive content" is more like compiling a bit of software with a different set of options, rather than ripping off someone else's copyright.
Besides, the whole point of the GPL is that you're allowed to make derivative works. The GPL is fair - whatever law it is that stops people skipping over offensive content is not.
If the keys in TCPA hardware were really "your" keys, you could copy them whenever you like and take them with you to whichever device you happened to be sitting in front of. But you couldn't do that with TCPA because you're not allowed to. TCPA means parts of your PC can get locked down absolutely and permanently.
I don't think it's that you're not allowed to, I think it's more a case of if you SPECIFY that nobody should be allowed to, then nobody can (including you). TCPA (AFAIK) is creating choice, rather than destroying it.
Personally, I'm more concerned about doing things like moving keys from one computer to another. I mean, if you use the TCPA chip to sign an email, then all it does is prove that someone using your computer sent it. On the other hand, if it's possible to move the generated key to another box, then doesn't that present a security risk?
TCPA is a good thing, if IBM is telling the truth. It's (as far as I can tell) a hardware version of Tripwire, running at a lower level, i.e. it makes sure that the operating system that is booting is one that's allowed to run. But it isn't Microsoft or the motherboard manufacturer that decides what can run and what can't, it's the consumer.
Palladium, on the other hand, seems to be what we should all be getting worried about. Quoting the IBM article -
Microsoft has stated that the Palladium hardware will have an open specification, and that Linux could be written for it. However, Microsoft has a large number of patents on the use of these hardware modifications. So far, Microsoft has not guaranteed even "reasonable and non-discriminatory" licensing of these patents, so Microsoft could easily block Linux from using these features.
Microsoft really, really wants to kill linux. They make no secret of it, and if they're not planning to use Palladium to acheive this, then they're missing a VERY good opportunity.
The really ironic thing is, microsoft actually wrote a program like that several years ago (maybe '97?). I have no idea if it ever got beyond beta or not, but I think I still have in on a CD somewhere.
It was called something like "microsoft music creator" and basically you'd tell it what style of music you wanted to create from an impressively long list of genres, set a few other parameters, and it'd spit out a midi file.
The results were (obviously) horrible, but it was good for a laugh:)
Finally, instead of fighting them, we can help out our brothers at Microsoft by boosting Xbox sales and adding value to them.
Actually, buy purchasing an Xbox and using 3rd-party software on it, you're helping Microsoft lose money. They actually make a loss on every Xbox sale.
Personally, I'm all for the idea. As I see it, the more money Microsoft loses due to the Xbox, the less money they have to pay their lawyers with. It's been said that Microsoft could just walk through the GPL if it were ever to become a serious threat to them.
...all the potential money lost by people simply not liking the endless repetitive music that's churned out by the record companies? Are they going to start imposing fees on everyone who doesn't buy their music?
...since so far C-like programming languages seem to be following the letters of the programming language "BCPL". Yes, the language that preceded C was B, but the fact that it precedes it in the alphabet is a coincidence.
Over here in britain we have virtually no rights if we want to use digital TV. We have Sky, a news corps company, which are the only provider of quality digital programming. There used to be a terrestrial alternative, called OnDigital (which changed it's name) but it ran into financial troubles then went under less than a year ago. Some say this was due to it's easily breakable conditional access system, and rumours have it Sky paid a bunch of pirates to develop a hack.
Sky reserve the right to monitor what we watch, they overcharge, our boxes make phone calls in the middle of the night telling who knows what to them, and the T&Cs are horribly restrictive, but we don't seem to mind.
Personally, I don't really care if someone knows what I watch, because TV isn't really that big a part of my life. I think most people feel the same way.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, the second sentence should have been "Otherwise nudist beaches/colonies would be basically just centres of hedonism"
I don't think nudity is pornographic unless it's in a sexual context. That would mean that nudist beaches/colonies are basically just centres of hedonism - which of course they're not, the people there just prefer not to wear clothes (which some people find far more comfortable, and most people find more natural).
You go to school, a crowd of football players surround you and stuff you into a locker / your head down the toilet / your bag in the trash. You head to your first class and your teacher tells you that you are an "overacheiver" and that you should "slow down and let the less advantaged people catch up" (the same ones who picked on you only a few minutes ago).
For anyone with an above-average IQ, high school is a very bad place to be.
...is have it store a list of emotions associated with the songs, eg romantic, depressing, happy and so on. You could then build a playlist for whatever mood you were in, or mood you wanted to be in. This is FAR more effective than simply categorising music by genre (in my experience anyway).
I think there is a windows program called Moodlogic that did this but it was closed source, expensive, and it used a proprietery database. It also used the accoustic properties of the song, so it could identify badly-named mp3s.
"I won't sugar coat this. We f***ed up on this. Yes this is real and yes this was brought to our attention and yes we should have fixed it by now."
:)
I get the feeling that I'll be in my cold, cold grave before Microsoft starts releasing statements like this
But seriously, it's nice to see a large company admitting it has "F***ed up".
I think it only really appealed to Star Trek fans, and there simply aren't as many of those as there used to be.
Oh, and by Star Trek fans, I don't mean hardcore Trekkies, I just mean people who watch the show occasionally and know who all the main characters are.
Have you ever actually seen an anime?
....a "Best of simpsons" list with "Rosebud" somewhere near the top. Ah... my life is complete.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the article seems to be a bunch of speculation.
The other 3Gb must contain DRM AND SPYWARE!!! Sony is EVIL!!!!!
Asterix was aimed at adults with an extremely corny sense of humour who liked the occasional bad joke (you know, the kind of jokes that are so bad that they're good). The beano was aimed at 10 year old kids.
All well and good, but I think there's a major difference in perspective here. Removing "offensive content" is more like compiling a bit of software with a different set of options, rather than ripping off someone else's copyright.
Besides, the whole point of the GPL is that you're allowed to make derivative works. The GPL is fair - whatever law it is that stops people skipping over offensive content is not.
Didn't BT try this a while ago? I'm sure their patent was from the mid-80s too (applied to BBSs apparently)
Personally, I'm more concerned about doing things like moving keys from one computer to another. I mean, if you use the TCPA chip to sign an email, then all it does is prove that someone using your computer sent it. On the other hand, if it's possible to move the generated key to another box, then doesn't that present a security risk?
Then why do some CD programs offer a "verify" function, where it will rip the track twice and compare them? Or am I missing something here?
The really ironic thing is, microsoft actually wrote a program like that several years ago (maybe '97?). I have no idea if it ever got beyond beta or not, but I think I still have in on a CD somewhere.
:)
It was called something like "microsoft music creator" and basically you'd tell it what style of music you wanted to create from an impressively long list of genres, set a few other parameters, and it'd spit out a midi file.
The results were (obviously) horrible, but it was good for a laugh
Actually, buy purchasing an Xbox and using 3rd-party software on it, you're helping Microsoft lose money. They actually make a loss on every Xbox sale.
Personally, I'm all for the idea. As I see it, the more money Microsoft loses due to the Xbox, the less money they have to pay their lawyers with. It's been said that Microsoft could just walk through the GPL if it were ever to become a serious threat to them.
...all the potential money lost by people simply not liking the endless repetitive music that's churned out by the record companies? Are they going to start imposing fees on everyone who doesn't buy their music?
...since so far C-like programming languages seem to be following the letters of the programming language "BCPL". Yes, the language that preceded C was B, but the fact that it precedes it in the alphabet is a coincidence.
"fsck: /mnt/door1 was not cleanly unlocked, check forced." :)
Over here in britain we have virtually no rights if we want to use digital TV. We have Sky, a news corps company, which are the only provider of quality digital programming. There used to be a terrestrial alternative, called OnDigital (which changed it's name) but it ran into financial troubles then went under less than a year ago. Some say this was due to it's easily breakable conditional access system, and rumours have it Sky paid a bunch of pirates to develop a hack. Sky reserve the right to monitor what we watch, they overcharge, our boxes make phone calls in the middle of the night telling who knows what to them, and the T&Cs are horribly restrictive, but we don't seem to mind. Personally, I don't really care if someone knows what I watch, because TV isn't really that big a part of my life. I think most people feel the same way.