The reason I come off as a jagoff is because a lot of people here deserve it. Someone puts up a site that really serves a useful purpose, and then half of Slashdot thinks its funny when the site goes dark because either the server crashed or the bandwidth limit was exceeded. I've bitched, literally for years, that if Slashdot is going to post a news item about a site that is hosted on a freebie or otherwise bandwidth-limited site, the least they could do is mirror it themselves. We already hosed this lady's site a few months ago. Do we really need to do it again?
Since the powers that be at Slashdot have once again shown what inconsiderate boobs they are, as have some of the readers of Slashdot (I can't believe you bastards that reload the poor girl's page just to see how fast the hit counter goes up), I have set up a mirror at:
My bandwidth may not be free, but I have a hell of a lot more of it than she does.
I have mirrored the whole site, as far as I can tell, except for the hit counter. The children among you have shown why its not good to have a public hit counter.
You whould think that a group of people who like to preach "information should be free" would try to have a little more respect. Information may be free, but unlimited bandwidth and server space is not.
Even knowing the risks, I'd gladly go myself on a mission to service Hubble. And even if I were told up front that it was a one-way mission, I'd still go. I can think of many worse ways to give up one's life.
HP isn't the only company guilty of saying their drives would be upgradeable to support DVD+R discs and not following through.
I bought a Philips DVD+RW drive when they first came out. Philips very prominently, on both the box and their website, proclaimed there would be an update to support DVD+R media as soon as the format was finalized. Several months later, not only was there no update, all mention of such was removed from the Philips website. And now, not only has there been no update, but DVD+RW discs themselves are getting harder and harder to find at my local stores.
While my Philips drive has performed flawlessly and has served me well, it is useless to me if I can't buy media for it. Even Philips themselves, who's media I prefer, seem to have cut back massively on the production of DVD+RW discs.
I can see from "the writing on the wall" that within the next few months I will probably need to consider a new drive because of the media situation. I have already decided two things. One, it will be a multi-format drive. And two, it probably won't be a Philips drive...they may screw me once, but it won't happen twice.
This is probably redundant, but at the same time it cannot be emphasized too much. The best advice you can take is four simple words...
Put It In Writing.
Spell out exactly what job duties are, what pay is, when consideration for raises takes place, etc. Make sure to include perks and benefits as well as actual money. Also, make it clear whether these people are partners or employees. And make damned sure, if you're in the US, that you take care of their income tax witholding, Social Security, and so on.
Finally, have a lawyer look over all the paperwork before it is signed. Trust me, you'd rather pay the lawyer now than what you may have to pay out if there is a problem down the road.
Oh, depending on your situation it may also be to your advantage to incorperate the company, at the very least as an LLC. Another thing to discuss with the above mentioned lawyer.
I've used a *lot* of software for DVD authoring, and my favorite and current applications for doing so are the products from Ulead. They aren't free, and they are Windows only, but they do the job, and there are 30 day demos on their web site. I've even used them for commercial work, and am very happy with them.
I also regularly use and like Adobe Premier Pro. But this is a high-dollar solution ($700), so its probably not one you're interested in.
Most of the time, I still will select Ulead Visual Studio over Premier anyway.
Again speaking as someone who has done DVD authoring commercially, I regret to say that I find the Linux applications for this to be woefully lacking. DVD authoring is the *one* thing that keeps me on a dual-boot machine as opposed to a Linux only box. I'd love to dump Windows entirely, especially after hearing that Bill Gates and Darl McBride are secret homosexual lovers, but I like being able to get my video work done in a timely and professional fashion.
Now that I've tried to answer the posted question, I'm going to chime in agreement with something a few others have posted. I've looked all over the original posting, and nowhere in it can I see the term "Mac" or any variation of it. When someone asks a PC question, "get a Mac" is not an appropriate answer. I'm sure the Mac users would get just as riled if someone posted a Mac question and only got PC answers. I would also go so far as to say that anything you can do in regards to DVD authoring with a Mac, I can do it just as well on a PC. The Mac used to be the hands-down winner in any type of multimedia application. Sorry kids, but those days are over.
Microsoft bundles a bunch of crap, makes you take everything, and charges out the ass, and everyone gets all up in arms about it.
Viacom does the same damned thing, and you start bitching about changing to DirecTV...a company that already caved in to Viacom's unreasonable demands.
And I hate to break it to everyone, but while $1 doesn't sound like a whole lot, that probably is about right for what carrying Viacom adds to the package price for each customer.
And I guess it never occured to anyone to examine the wallet as well as the money. This story was a perfect example of the phrase "dumb as owl shit".
And by the way, while I'm here, a note to the editors at Slashdot...you're a month early...this is only March...they call it "April Fools Day" because it is the first of APRIL...not March.
EV1Servers leases Linux boxes out the ass, and Linux boxes easily outnumber Windows boxes. I know, because I happen to be one of their customers (although I have to admit the news that they bought a SCO license *seriously* disappoints me).
Prison time is the perfect punishment for this guy. In prison, inmates who preyed on children are at the bottom of the "food chain". As soon as word gets out about what he's in for...well...let's just say he won't be lonely.
You all need to keep one simple fact of business in mind.
Very few new businesses (and this is a new business, because about all that was kept from the original Napster was the name) make a profit in their first two to three *years*. A great many of them take 5 years to show a profit.
So why is everyone acting so surprised that Napster isn't making a profit after mere months? Oh yeah...that's right...this is Slashdot...we don't let little things like "reality" get in the way of a hyping up a story where none really exisits...
There is no issue here. He who owns the server and pays its bills makes the rules. As a user, you are subject to the servers TOS and AUP. Don't like it? You don't have to participate.
In most any other situation I'd have to agree with you. But I feel Slashdot is different. I know of no other site or news service that can produce the onslaught of visitors that Slashdot will. You'll notice that while we have the term "Slashdot effect", I've never once heard anyone refer to the "CNN effect", "Google effect", or "MSN effect".
There is a difference between "lots of visitors" and "your server dies":-)
And it will probably fall on deaf ears like it has every other time I've posted a comment like this.
This story, the resulting Slashdotting of their site, followed closely by the need to take the site down, is yet another indication that the powers that be at Slashdot need to learn the simple courtesy of *ASKING* the people behind websites like that if they want a story about them on Slashdot. Or at least allow them time to prepare for the devestation their servers are about to undergo.
When stories about spammers and such ilk are posted, we show our feelings by Slashdotting their site, thereby either costing them tons in bandwidth charges or crashing their server.
When stories about things we like are posted on Slashdot, we show our approval by doing the same damned thing.
Quite frankly, I'm surprised that in this day and age of litigation-while-you-wait no one has sued Slashdot for getting their server hammered.
I'll stop now so that the moderators among you can show your ignorance by moderating this post as "off topic" or "flame bait".
I'm glad that he is pleading guilty and owning up to his crime. And I hope the judge agrees with the deal (and judges usually do, simply because if they don't then there is no reason for making deals).
But beyond that, I don't have a heck of a lot of sympathy.
Any politician that spams me will most definitely *not* get my vote. I'll vote for Fidel Castro for President before I'll vote for a scumbag spammer.
Re:Your tax dollars at work, folks.
on
Bill Nye's Marsdial
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
Let's see...I have a choice here...
I can support my tax dollars being used to send something thats mostly fluff on board a science mission to Mars. It serves no useful purpose other than maybe getting kids interested.
Or I can watch as a blathering idiot in the Whitehouse uses my tax dollars to bomb the hell out of a foreign nation so he can clean up the mess his equally stupid daddy left behind, all the while using faulty data and outright lies to try and justify his actions...
Wait...I just had a flash of inspiration and knowledge...the Beagle 2 got blown up by a hidden cache of those weapons of mass destruction...Sadam had them hidden on Mars right under our noses all along!!
Many of my friends think its funny that every year my mother always gives me a case of motor oil, two oil filters, two air filters, and two sets of spark plugs.
Sorry, but this is an urban legend and could get you in to trouble with the IRS.
The value of your old 386, when you donate it, is NOT the $3000 you originally paid for it. The value of your old 386, for tax donation purposes, is what a reasonable person would pay for it on the open market...in otherwords, maybe $20.
This applies to anything you donate that is used, not just computers. If that old junk heap of a vehicle in your front yard would only get $300 if sold, then that is its value for tax donation purposes. Giving it to the Goodwill does not allow you to write off the $17,000 purchase price when it was new. And the fact that organizations give you a blank receipt and allow you to write in your own value does not change tax law.
Will you get caught and busted for overstating the value? Probably not, unless you do it all the time. But still you should be aware of what you are doing when you put it on that tax form.
Usually here I would put the usual IANAL, but this case is different. Besides being a computer programmer, this time of year I also am a paid tax preparer with bookoo training on the subject, and my mommy works for the IRS.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason I come off as a jagoff is because a lot of people here deserve it. Someone puts up a site that really serves a useful purpose, and then half of Slashdot thinks its funny when the site goes dark because either the server crashed or the bandwidth limit was exceeded. I've bitched, literally for years, that if Slashdot is going to post a news item about a site that is hosted on a freebie or otherwise bandwidth-limited site, the least they could do is mirror it themselves. We already hosed this lady's site a few months ago. Do we really need to do it again?
Since the powers that be at Slashdot have once again shown what inconsiderate boobs they are, as have some of the readers of Slashdot (I can't believe you bastards that reload the poor girl's page just to see how fast the hit counter goes up), I have set up a mirror at:
http://www.myownlittleserver.us/chernobyl
My bandwidth may not be free, but I have a hell of a lot more of it than she does.
I have mirrored the whole site, as far as I can tell, except for the hit counter. The children among you have shown why its not good to have a public hit counter.
You whould think that a group of people who like to preach "information should be free" would try to have a little more respect. Information may be free, but unlimited bandwidth and server space is not.
And I hope that season two doesn't suck to the epic proportions that season one did.
Even knowing the risks, I'd gladly go myself on a mission to service Hubble. And even if I were told up front that it was a one-way mission, I'd still go. I can think of many worse ways to give up one's life.
HP isn't the only company guilty of saying their drives would be upgradeable to support DVD+R discs and not following through.
I bought a Philips DVD+RW drive when they first came out. Philips very prominently, on both the box and their website, proclaimed there would be an update to support DVD+R media as soon as the format was finalized. Several months later, not only was there no update, all mention of such was removed from the Philips website. And now, not only has there been no update, but DVD+RW discs themselves are getting harder and harder to find at my local stores.
While my Philips drive has performed flawlessly and has served me well, it is useless to me if I can't buy media for it. Even Philips themselves, who's media I prefer, seem to have cut back massively on the production of DVD+RW discs.
I can see from "the writing on the wall" that within the next few months I will probably need to consider a new drive because of the media situation. I have already decided two things. One, it will be a multi-format drive. And two, it probably won't be a Philips drive...they may screw me once, but it won't happen twice.
This is probably redundant, but at the same time it cannot be emphasized too much. The best advice you can take is four simple words...
Put It In Writing.
Spell out exactly what job duties are, what pay is, when consideration for raises takes place, etc. Make sure to include perks and benefits as well as actual money. Also, make it clear whether these people are partners or employees. And make damned sure, if you're in the US, that you take care of their income tax witholding, Social Security, and so on.
Finally, have a lawyer look over all the paperwork before it is signed. Trust me, you'd rather pay the lawyer now than what you may have to pay out if there is a problem down the road.
Oh, depending on your situation it may also be to your advantage to incorperate the company, at the very least as an LLC. Another thing to discuss with the above mentioned lawyer.
I've used a *lot* of software for DVD authoring, and my favorite and current applications for doing so are the products from Ulead. They aren't free, and they are Windows only, but they do the job, and there are 30 day demos on their web site. I've even used them for commercial work, and am very happy with them.
I also regularly use and like Adobe Premier Pro. But this is a high-dollar solution ($700), so its probably not one you're interested in.
Most of the time, I still will select Ulead Visual Studio over Premier anyway.
Again speaking as someone who has done DVD authoring commercially, I regret to say that I find the Linux applications for this to be woefully lacking. DVD authoring is the *one* thing that keeps me on a dual-boot machine as opposed to a Linux only box. I'd love to dump Windows entirely, especially after hearing that Bill Gates and Darl McBride are secret homosexual lovers, but I like being able to get my video work done in a timely and professional fashion.
Now that I've tried to answer the posted question, I'm going to chime in agreement with something a few others have posted. I've looked all over the original posting, and nowhere in it can I see the term "Mac" or any variation of it. When someone asks a PC question, "get a Mac" is not an appropriate answer. I'm sure the Mac users would get just as riled if someone posted a Mac question and only got PC answers. I would also go so far as to say that anything you can do in regards to DVD authoring with a Mac, I can do it just as well on a PC. The Mac used to be the hands-down winner in any type of multimedia application. Sorry kids, but those days are over.
DirecTV sounds like a great choice
Something isn't right here.
Microsoft bundles a bunch of crap, makes you take everything, and charges out the ass, and everyone gets all up in arms about it.
Viacom does the same damned thing, and you start bitching about changing to DirecTV...a company that already caved in to Viacom's unreasonable demands.
And I hate to break it to everyone, but while $1 doesn't sound like a whole lot, that probably is about right for what carrying Viacom adds to the package price for each customer.
Good thing this guy lives in another country. If he were in America, he'd probably get hauled in to court for violating the DMCA.
And I guess it never occured to anyone to examine the wallet as well as the money. This story was a perfect example of the phrase "dumb as owl shit".
And by the way, while I'm here, a note to the editors at Slashdot...you're a month early...this is only March...they call it "April Fools Day" because it is the first of APRIL...not March.
Bullshit.
EV1Servers leases Linux boxes out the ass, and Linux boxes easily outnumber Windows boxes. I know, because I happen to be one of their customers (although I have to admit the news that they bought a SCO license *seriously* disappoints me).
Prison time is the perfect punishment for this guy. In prison, inmates who preyed on children are at the bottom of the "food chain". As soon as word gets out about what he's in for...well...let's just say he won't be lonely.
I want to burn in the Sun
When I die, I want to be cremated, then have my ashes mixed in with some good marijuana, and then my friends pass me around and smoke me.
You all need to keep one simple fact of business in mind.
Very few new businesses (and this is a new business, because about all that was kept from the original Napster was the name) make a profit in their first two to three *years*. A great many of them take 5 years to show a profit.
So why is everyone acting so surprised that Napster isn't making a profit after mere months? Oh yeah...that's right...this is Slashdot...we don't let little things like "reality" get in the way of a hyping up a story where none really exisits...
There is no issue here. He who owns the server and pays its bills makes the rules. As a user, you are subject to the servers TOS and AUP. Don't like it? You don't have to participate.
And here I thought SCO would be the only contender for "Stupidest Lawsuit of All Time". Good thing I didn't bet any money on that.
Since SCO is now making their license available worldwide, I will now announce that my license to SCO to kiss my ass will now be available worldwide.
While SCO is challenging Linux companies to protect their customers, I've got a challenge for SCO.
If you're so damned sure Linux contains proprietary SCO code, why don't you show us real proof instead of hiding behind scare tactics, fud, and NDAs.
In most any other situation I'd have to agree with you. But I feel Slashdot is different. I know of no other site or news service that can produce the onslaught of visitors that Slashdot will. You'll notice that while we have the term "Slashdot effect", I've never once heard anyone refer to the "CNN effect", "Google effect", or "MSN effect".
:-)
There is a difference between "lots of visitors" and "your server dies"
And it will probably fall on deaf ears like it has every other time I've posted a comment like this.
This story, the resulting Slashdotting of their site, followed closely by the need to take the site down, is yet another indication that the powers that be at Slashdot need to learn the simple courtesy of *ASKING* the people behind websites like that if they want a story about them on Slashdot. Or at least allow them time to prepare for the devestation their servers are about to undergo.
When stories about spammers and such ilk are posted, we show our feelings by Slashdotting their site, thereby either costing them tons in bandwidth charges or crashing their server.
When stories about things we like are posted on Slashdot, we show our approval by doing the same damned thing.
Quite frankly, I'm surprised that in this day and age of litigation-while-you-wait no one has sued Slashdot for getting their server hammered.
I'll stop now so that the moderators among you can show your ignorance by moderating this post as "off topic" or "flame bait".
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
I'm glad that he is pleading guilty and owning up to his crime. And I hope the judge agrees with the deal (and judges usually do, simply because if they don't then there is no reason for making deals).
But beyond that, I don't have a heck of a lot of sympathy.
Any politician that spams me will most definitely *not* get my vote. I'll vote for Fidel Castro for President before I'll vote for a scumbag spammer.
Let's see...I have a choice here...
I can support my tax dollars being used to send something thats mostly fluff on board a science mission to Mars. It serves no useful purpose other than maybe getting kids interested.
Or I can watch as a blathering idiot in the Whitehouse uses my tax dollars to bomb the hell out of a foreign nation so he can clean up the mess his equally stupid daddy left behind, all the while using faulty data and outright lies to try and justify his actions...
Wait...I just had a flash of inspiration and knowledge...the Beagle 2 got blown up by a hidden cache of those weapons of mass destruction...Sadam had them hidden on Mars right under our noses all along!!
Many of my friends think its funny that every year my mother always gives me a case of motor oil, two oil filters, two air filters, and two sets of spark plugs.
Sorry, but this is an urban legend and could get you in to trouble with the IRS.
The value of your old 386, when you donate it, is NOT the $3000 you originally paid for it. The value of your old 386, for tax donation purposes, is what a reasonable person would pay for it on the open market...in otherwords, maybe $20.
This applies to anything you donate that is used, not just computers. If that old junk heap of a vehicle in your front yard would only get $300 if sold, then that is its value for tax donation purposes. Giving it to the Goodwill does not allow you to write off the $17,000 purchase price when it was new. And the fact that organizations give you a blank receipt and allow you to write in your own value does not change tax law.
Will you get caught and busted for overstating the value? Probably not, unless you do it all the time. But still you should be aware of what you are doing when you put it on that tax form.
Usually here I would put the usual IANAL, but this case is different. Besides being a computer programmer, this time of year I also am a paid tax preparer with bookoo training on the subject, and my mommy works for the IRS.