If you want to CHAT with the Creators of this amazing new Maestro software and toolkit experience, please follow the instructions below CLOSELY and enjoy.
1) Make sure SUN Java is working in your browzer 2) Go to http://www.rlscnetwork.com/sharedresources/chat.ht ml (do a left-mouse CLICK on the underlined text) 3) Select YES 4) Type MAESTRO in the channel box 5) Type IRC.FREENODE.NET in the server box 6) CLICK connect and you're in
Chat and have fun. It's great to learn (I have a lab for my students in fact) and converse with the ORIGINAL software creators.
Space CAN be fun, and so can science. This works great if you're at a lab computer. Thank you and enjoy friends.
(First off, remember that us MATHEMATICANS DO IT SMOOTHLY AND CONTINUOUSLY.) Hehehe, wow, too many New Year's drinks. Anyway, on to the story.
Last year I assisted with some research involving Poincare along with four other professors. We studied weak wide-angle temperature correlations in the cosmic MICROWAVE background.
There exists a simple geometric model of a NON-INFINITE and NON-NEGATIVE curved space, which we call the POINCARE space.
This may sound foreign to you, and I'd probably be worried if it didn't, but this POINCARE space can account for these observations with no fine-tuning.
From our "Nature" (425 2003 593) article: "If confirmed, the model will answer the ancient question of whether space is finite or infinite, while retaining the standard Friedmann-Lemaitre foundation for local physics."
So, yes, Poincare is VERY important, and this postulate as well as the query as to whether it's been appropriately solved has a HUGE impact on all kinds of other research (math, physics, computer science, etc.) such as this very research that I participated in.
Star Trek was originally supposed to be a show about a bunch of rabbis in a synagogue. He said to the producers, 'instead of a synagogue, how about if the show is in outer space?' They said, 'okay.' And that's pretty much how it happened.
"When we did TJ Hooker I used to tell my co-star Adrian Zmed that he should change his name, like I did - from William Zmed."
"I tell people I have a 34 inch waist, but it's really 35."
"How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It's simple. I drink the blood of young runaways."
[Compiled from Conan O'Brien]
1975 - The year I consulted for Magnusson-Moss
on
OnStar Considered Harmful
·
· Score: -1, Interesting
Back in graduate school, I was fortunate enough to have had a LOT of sway when it came to departmental activities. As an undergraduate, I held a 3.98 GPA and graduated first in my class. So naturally, when I kept these same kind of grades in graduate school, I earned a lot of respect and got into some interesting positions.
In 1975, a very important question came up in court - should MODIFICATIONS of factory-bought automobiles void the warranty? That is, if you install an aftermarket part or tinker with some subsystem of the vehicle, are you voiding the warranty?
I was called in to work with a team of mechanical engineers and electrical engineers to determine how TINKERING with specific parts could alter a vehicle's performance and safety. We decided to set some ground rules based on some research examples in the lab on alterations to new cars bought from dealers.
The result was the Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act of 1975. This essentially states that "aftermarket equipment which IMPROVES performance does not void a vehicle manufacturer's orgininal warranty UNLESS the warranty clearly states the addition of aftermarket equipment automatically voids your vehicle's warrany OR if it can be proven that the aftermarket device is the direct cause of the failure."
Thankfully, today dealers must prove that aftermarket equipment caused the need for repairs. If they cannot prove as such or offer a CLEAR explanation, then you can legally demand compliance with the warranty.
This is what OnStar customers must do. OnStar is considered HARMFUL by many, but some smart individuals with a passion for tinkering may wish to alter their vehicles or completely disable the system altogether.
Call 202-326-3128 for questions/concerns about the Magnusson-Moss Act and compliance that you feel GM, etc. may not be appropriately granting. Also feel free to shoot me an email with questions or seeking more information. I have an entirely row in one of my filing cabinets with information/specifications/statistics/photographs related to this case.
It was an AMAZING experience and a landmark ruling for consumers and car gadgets like OnStar.
These are my experiences as a consultant for the Israeli Ministry of Commerce.
Last year I received an open letter from a particular branch of the Israeli government concerning their quest for a CHEAPER and more ROBUST set of client software. I had done some work with Marco Federstein, and due to his status with the IMC, he recommended that they utilize my efforts on a part-time basis to help with their situation.
The end result, after several weeks of research, was the SUSPENSION of all governmental contracts with the Microsoft Corporation, based out of Washington, USA, and indicated that the ban will last through the entirety of 2004. When Microsoft representatives were trying to PUNISH the Israelis into Office 2003 upgrades through brute-force tactics, I was busy working with OpenOffice.org to develop a custom solution and FINAL SOLUTION for Israel.
Along with others, I was able to convince Israeli Antitrust Authority director general Dror Strum that Microsoft is, indeed and in fact, a MONOPOLY, and that further cont(r)acts should not be made. Microsoft does not care about its customers, they care about the bottom line. This is one of the MANY reasons that I use/recommend/develop Open-Source software.
We (Israel) will also not be using Apple software very much, as although Apple has provided support at the operating system KERNEL level for Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu, they have neglected to provide support in their end-user CLIENT applications. How is a Jew supposed to use an application if only the command line supports their tongue?
If Microsoft can focus on LOWER licensing costs and improved Jewish language support, things may change and the GATES of communication will once again.
What we need is not mining per se, but just a set of best-practices for improving REPORTING and OBSERVING of weather conditions and communicating these findings ACCURATELY to the public
I worked on a grant for the NWS (National Weather Service) and as such have logged thousands of hours doing computer science-based research into weather prediction formulas and the general practices for consumer/weather relations.
The weather IS getting warmer, and this is based on fact. December to February is much warmer, and overnight temperatures are much hotter as well, but that may simply be due to the flock from suburbs into city communities. I read online somewhere that "by 2025, 65% of the world's population will be living in urban centers."
But there is no FINAL SOLUTION to whether this is global warming or just standard run-of-the-mill temperature variations.
You know what the weather is going to be? Look for some extreme shit, like flooding and more earthquakes, huge temperature swings and drought, coastline erosion, and crazy shit like that. Watch out for thunderstorms and hurricanes in future decades. Things are getting VERY interesting.
My time with the NWS was well-spent and I got paid well and did some interesting research that you can see on your local news/weather station (AccuWeather technologies, etc.). I can plot weather in real-time 3D using 24-bit color, and do it smoothly.
Weather is VERY important, and I support this new research as much as anything else out there. And I KNOW what I'm talking about, though I do mostly database research these days and not math-based geometric modeling of weather patterns.
I will propose that this product line consists largely of unreliable junk.
In general, one can plot a direct correlation between the language used in product literature and the manuals and PR releases, etc. versus the functionality and build quality of the said product line.
The articles on iRiver's site as well as their product specifications are full of mistakes and rideculous grammer/spelling mistakes. If a company can't spend a couple hundred bucks on a copy editor (or an educated native speaker) to communicate the product clearly and professionally then most likely they won't didn't spend jack shit on product quality or detail, either.
One day I had some grad students dig through boxes of "failed" peripherals in the back of the lab. Over half of them contained poorly written literature.
'Nough said. BTW, I have a Ph.D, so basic logic/deduction is not exactly foreign to me.
The underdog is always trying to undercut the big guy on top.
Look at music downloads. The only bands offering them for free are independent artists.
Now look at movie downloads. The only studios offering them for free is this so-called "Bollywood" arena filled with very average, very Indian-themed movies that no American or European would ever want to watch.
The underdog always acts drastically, and until Hollywood becomes the underdog, we will not see any American films on iTunes of Kazza or DC++ for free.
Please use the following form to report your usage and experiences with this new NVIDIA driver.
I have filled in the blank spaces with my own personal results.
Reply to this comment with the following information:
KERNEL: LINUX 2.4.21 PROCESSOR: PENTIUM IV DISTRIBUTION: MANDRAKE VIDEO CARD: GeFORCE3 EXPERIENCE: DOWNLOADED THE NEW DRIVER. INSTALL WAS QUICK AND EASY. WORKS FINE WITH COUNTER-STRIKE AND QUAKE III, BUT FAILS WITH NEVERWINTER NIGHTS AND CUSTOM DUKE NUKEM.
I read a Stephen King interview where he said that people just aren't into books anymore. And it's basically true.
DVDs and CDs and TVs and LCDs have replaced the printed word. Many househoulds don't even have ONE BOOK on display. Kids are going to start growing up without ever having read a book at home or had their parents read to them.
It's truly a sad state of affairs here in America.
I was very excited and downloaded this and figured I could use it for CSI375 (Advanced Databases), which is a graduate student course I'm teaching in Spring 2004.
HOWEVER, I found the following problems with this code. Please do NOT INSTALL on any mission-critical servers at your work/home/etc.
PROBLEMS:
1) I couldn't get the JVM to notice any class updates. 2) Um, concurrency? Yeah, thought so, it doesn't work well at all. 3) Only works with SUN's JDK version 1.4.2_02. What's the deal with this? I don't have root on some servers I work on, so I can't upgrade 1.3 to 1.4 without a huge issue with the IT department. 4) Don't even THINK of sending multiple commands at once. More than one request may spur various threads and seriously SCREW UP the JVM, all but forcing a reboot and restart of your application.
Krow, any thoughts on this? Did you even TEST this out, or are these figured out already?
Very Important -- Please Note.. (Time/Screenshots)
on
Fedora Core 2 Schedule Up
·
· Score: -1, Informative
Sorry, I need to have Brian update the page, but for all days/times mentioned, please NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
- Location: Unless specified otherwise, Cambridge, MA USA - Time Zone: Again, unless specified, -05:00 EST
This is crucial. Like I said, I'll email the list and Brian will take care of this, but for now, MOD THIS UP and we'll take care of the rest.
Thanks for your interest in Fedora. Check out advanced Fedora 2 Test Screenshots for some great eye candy!
These friends made Skoors Light, Bacardi Skilver, Skitrona, Old Skilwaukee, and finished off with Skittlebrau!
Their conclusion? "Skittlebrauology is a new science. But it certainly shows an intriguing new path in mixology. Malt beverages do not seem to mix well with the fruity candy, but bitter, quality beers seem to mesh well. Obviosuly, more research needs to be done, but it certainly is nothing to laugh at."
I realize I'm a professor and very well educated, but so are you guys (after all, anyone using Linux is probably in the top 3 percentile for raw intelligence).
That being said, I DON'T WATCH TV. There are so many other great things I could be doing, like playing with my kids or doing research or spending quality time with my wife or watching LOtR on DVD.
I want my science news from respectable sources (Nature, Wired, etc.), not from some silly television show based on CORPORATE INTERESTS like profits, profit sharing, etc.
This is NOT what we want. We're smart, we love science, but we prefer the Internet, a place where WE MAKE THE NEWS and are independently allowed to form our own opinions.
I don't care if some ghost database somewhere on some server on a mountainside in Colorado knows that I'm wearing Doc Martens or that I buy Jay-Z CDs or which toll booths I go through or how old I am. Who really cares about this, and why?
Those who fear monitoring the most are usually those that need to be monitored (i.e. child molesters who use anonymous proxies, sex offenders who don't want to register, etc.).
If I'm interviewing or teaching you and you have a huge thing with privacy issues, I will naturally distrust you and pass you over for the job/internship/research opportunity.
I DON'T CARE -- I BUY MUSIC LATELY
on
Kazaa-lite Shut Down
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
I've found that the time it takes to get good (192kbps+) versions of songs off of a complete album is much longer and expensive than simply shelling out 10 bucks for the CD at a music store.
So, I don't even use P2P anymore. I have no interest in movies or games or whatever, just music.
Unless your time is worth nothing, you should just buy the factory CDs anyway. Plus, you can show the artists you like (White Stripes, Strokes, Outkast) that you enjoy what they do.
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, the headline should've read:
200 Geek All-Stars Buy Camping Equipment From Their Old Co-Workers
Hahahahahah! I think GOOGLE and SLASHDOT are the only remaining tech companies in America THAT STILL EMPLOY AMERICANS.
Hehehehe!
If you want to CHAT with the Creators of this amazing new Maestro software and toolkit experience, please follow the instructions below CLOSELY and enjoy.
t ml (do a left-mouse CLICK on the underlined text)
1) Make sure SUN Java is working in your browzer
2) Go to http://www.rlscnetwork.com/sharedresources/chat.h
3) Select YES
4) Type MAESTRO in the channel box
5) Type IRC.FREENODE.NET in the server box
6) CLICK connect and you're in
Chat and have fun. It's great to learn (I have a lab for my students in fact) and converse with the ORIGINAL software creators.
Space CAN be fun, and so can science. This works great if you're at a lab computer. Thank you and enjoy friends.
(First off, remember that us MATHEMATICANS DO IT SMOOTHLY AND CONTINUOUSLY.) Hehehe, wow, too many New Year's drinks. Anyway, on to the story.
Last year I assisted with some research involving Poincare along with four other professors. We studied weak wide-angle temperature correlations in the cosmic MICROWAVE background.
There exists a simple geometric model of a NON-INFINITE and NON-NEGATIVE curved space, which we call the POINCARE space.
This may sound foreign to you, and I'd probably be worried if it didn't, but this POINCARE space can account for these observations with no fine-tuning.
From our "Nature" (425 2003 593) article: "If confirmed, the model will answer the ancient question of whether space is finite or infinite, while retaining the standard Friedmann-Lemaitre foundation for local physics."
So, yes, Poincare is VERY important, and this postulate as well as the query as to whether it's been appropriately solved has a HUGE impact on all kinds of other research (math, physics, computer science, etc.) such as this very research that I participated in.
How many people did YOUR GOVERNMENT kill today, huh?
Think about it.
Star Trek was originally supposed to be a show about a bunch of rabbis in a synagogue. He said to the producers, 'instead of a synagogue, how about if the show is in outer space?' They said, 'okay.' And that's pretty much how it happened.
"When we did TJ Hooker I used to tell my co-star Adrian Zmed that he should change his name, like I did - from William Zmed."
"I tell people I have a 34 inch waist, but it's really 35."
"How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It's simple. I drink the blood of young runaways."
[Compiled from Conan O'Brien]
Back in graduate school, I was fortunate enough to have had a LOT of sway when it came to departmental activities. As an undergraduate, I held a 3.98 GPA and graduated first in my class. So naturally, when I kept these same kind of grades in graduate school, I earned a lot of respect and got into some interesting positions.
In 1975, a very important question came up in court - should MODIFICATIONS of factory-bought automobiles void the warranty? That is, if you install an aftermarket part or tinker with some subsystem of the vehicle, are you voiding the warranty?
I was called in to work with a team of mechanical engineers and electrical engineers to determine how TINKERING with specific parts could alter a vehicle's performance and safety. We decided to set some ground rules based on some research examples in the lab on alterations to new cars bought from dealers.
The result was the Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act of 1975. This essentially states that "aftermarket equipment which IMPROVES performance does not void a vehicle manufacturer's orgininal warranty UNLESS the warranty clearly states the addition of aftermarket equipment automatically voids your vehicle's warrany OR if it can be proven that the aftermarket device is the direct cause of the failure."
Thankfully, today dealers must prove that aftermarket equipment caused the need for repairs. If they cannot prove as such or offer a CLEAR explanation, then you can legally demand compliance with the warranty.
This is what OnStar customers must do. OnStar is considered HARMFUL by many, but some smart individuals with a passion for tinkering may wish to alter their vehicles or completely disable the system altogether.
Call 202-326-3128 for questions/concerns about the Magnusson-Moss Act and compliance that you feel GM, etc. may not be appropriately granting. Also feel free to shoot me an email with questions or seeking more information. I have an entirely row in one of my filing cabinets with information/specifications/statistics/photographs related to this case.
It was an AMAZING experience and a landmark ruling for consumers and car gadgets like OnStar.
These are my experiences as a consultant for the Israeli Ministry of Commerce.
Last year I received an open letter from a particular branch of the Israeli government concerning their quest for a CHEAPER and more ROBUST set of client software. I had done some work with Marco Federstein, and due to his status with the IMC, he recommended that they utilize my efforts on a part-time basis to help with their situation.
The end result, after several weeks of research, was the SUSPENSION of all governmental contracts with the Microsoft Corporation, based out of Washington, USA, and indicated that the ban will last through the entirety of 2004. When Microsoft representatives were trying to PUNISH the Israelis into Office 2003 upgrades through brute-force tactics, I was busy working with OpenOffice.org to develop a custom solution and FINAL SOLUTION for Israel.
Along with others, I was able to convince Israeli Antitrust Authority director general Dror Strum that Microsoft is, indeed and in fact, a MONOPOLY, and that further cont(r)acts should not be made. Microsoft does not care about its customers, they care about the bottom line. This is one of the MANY reasons that I use/recommend/develop Open-Source software.
We (Israel) will also not be using Apple software very much, as although Apple has provided support at the operating system KERNEL level for Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu, they have neglected to provide support in their end-user CLIENT applications. How is a Jew supposed to use an application if only the command line supports their tongue?
If Microsoft can focus on LOWER licensing costs and improved Jewish language support, things may change and the GATES of communication will once again.
What we need is not mining per se, but just a set of best-practices for improving REPORTING and OBSERVING of weather conditions and communicating these findings ACCURATELY to the public
I worked on a grant for the NWS (National Weather Service) and as such have logged thousands of hours doing computer science-based research into weather prediction formulas and the general practices for consumer/weather relations.
The weather IS getting warmer, and this is based on fact. December to February is much warmer, and overnight temperatures are much hotter as well, but that may simply be due to the flock from suburbs into city communities. I read online somewhere that "by 2025, 65% of the world's population will be living in urban centers."
But there is no FINAL SOLUTION to whether this is global warming or just standard run-of-the-mill temperature variations.
You know what the weather is going to be? Look for some extreme shit, like flooding and more earthquakes, huge temperature swings and drought, coastline erosion, and crazy shit like that. Watch out for thunderstorms and hurricanes in future decades. Things are getting VERY interesting.
My time with the NWS was well-spent and I got paid well and did some interesting research that you can see on your local news/weather station (AccuWeather technologies, etc.). I can plot weather in real-time 3D using 24-bit color, and do it smoothly.
Weather is VERY important, and I support this new research as much as anything else out there. And I KNOW what I'm talking about, though I do mostly database research these days and not math-based geometric modeling of weather patterns.
Um, ok, so they said this new intermediate language will be set to debut in 2010 or so.
I doubt SUN will even be AROUND then.
I will propose that this product line consists largely of unreliable junk.
In general, one can plot a direct correlation between the language used in product literature and the manuals and PR releases, etc. versus the functionality and build quality of the said product line.
The articles on iRiver's site as well as their product specifications are full of mistakes and rideculous grammer/spelling mistakes. If a company can't spend a couple hundred bucks on a copy editor (or an educated native speaker) to communicate the product clearly and professionally then most likely they won't didn't spend jack shit on product quality or detail, either.
One day I had some grad students dig through boxes of "failed" peripherals in the back of the lab. Over half of them contained poorly written literature.
'Nough said. BTW, I have a Ph.D, so basic logic/deduction is not exactly foreign to me.
CONCLUSIONG: BUY AN iPOD INSTEAD!
I won a supposed $2.8 million grant from IBM, and they cancelled it out due to an accounting error.
I think they simply took the money and gave it to some CEO or manager or used it to line their coffers instead of promoting my fiber optic research.
Hey IBM -- Have a lousy Christmas you sad bastards.
The underdog is always trying to undercut the big guy on top.
Look at music downloads. The only bands offering them for free are independent artists.
Now look at movie downloads. The only studios offering them for free is this so-called "Bollywood" arena filled with very average, very Indian-themed movies that no American or European would ever want to watch.
The underdog always acts drastically, and until Hollywood becomes the underdog, we will not see any American films on iTunes of Kazza or DC++ for free.
Please use the following form to report your usage and experiences with this new NVIDIA driver.
I have filled in the blank spaces with my own personal results.
Reply to this comment with the following information:
KERNEL: LINUX 2.4.21
PROCESSOR: PENTIUM IV
DISTRIBUTION: MANDRAKE
VIDEO CARD: GeFORCE3
EXPERIENCE: DOWNLOADED THE NEW DRIVER. INSTALL WAS QUICK AND EASY. WORKS FINE WITH COUNTER-STRIKE AND QUAKE III, BUT FAILS WITH NEVERWINTER NIGHTS AND CUSTOM DUKE NUKEM.
I can't find anything on Google...
Look, if something's good, it's gonna sell well.
Word of mouth is more powerful than any silly trademarked name or advertising gimick.
I hate lawyer, and I hate Microsoft for taking the competition out of what should be a competitive marketplace.
(Gee, and they wonder why I turned down their job offer again? Assholes.)
I read a Stephen King interview where he said that people just aren't into books anymore. And it's basically true.
DVDs and CDs and TVs and LCDs have replaced the printed word. Many househoulds don't even have ONE BOOK on display. Kids are going to start growing up without ever having read a book at home or had their parents read to them.
It's truly a sad state of affairs here in America.
Does anyone know if GPU software will be relased for Debian?
I tried apt-get brookgpu unsuccessfully.
And we're worrying about, um, supposed back-door business deals?
Hate to break it to ya, but this kind of thing happens a lot anyway. Don't waste your energy worrying about crap like this -- it'll always happen.
We should be worrying about Saddam, bin Laden, Syria's terrorist fund laundering, etc.
Spam? Who cares?! Let's roll first and get rid of terrorists.
I was very excited and downloaded this and figured I could use it for CSI375 (Advanced Databases), which is a graduate student course I'm teaching in Spring 2004.
HOWEVER, I found the following problems with this code. Please do NOT INSTALL on any mission-critical servers at your work/home/etc.
PROBLEMS:
1) I couldn't get the JVM to notice any class updates.
2) Um, concurrency? Yeah, thought so, it doesn't work well at all.
3) Only works with SUN's JDK version 1.4.2_02. What's the deal with this? I don't have root on some servers I work on, so I can't upgrade 1.3 to 1.4 without a huge issue with the IT department.
4) Don't even THINK of sending multiple commands at once. More than one request may spur various threads and seriously SCREW UP the JVM, all but forcing a reboot and restart of your application.
Krow, any thoughts on this? Did you even TEST this out, or are these figured out already?
Sorry, I need to have Brian update the page, but for all days/times mentioned, please NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
- Location: Unless specified otherwise, Cambridge, MA USA
- Time Zone: Again, unless specified, -05:00 EST
This is crucial. Like I said, I'll email the list and Brian will take care of this, but for now, MOD THIS UP and we'll take care of the rest.
Thanks for your interest in Fedora. Check out advanced Fedora 2 Test Screenshots for some great eye candy!
There's so much fun and crazy science already -- and it's on American TV and in a cartoon. Yes, you guessed it -- The Simpsons!
:
Remember this part?
Homer: "I'm feelin' low, Apu. You got any of that beer that has candy floating in it, you know, Skittlebrau?"
Apu: "Such a product does not exist, sir! You must have dreamed it."
Homer: "Oh. Well then just gimme a six-pack and a couple of bags of Skittles."
So, check out the Skittlebrau project and enjoy the entire experiment.
These friends made Skoors Light, Bacardi Skilver, Skitrona, Old Skilwaukee, and finished off with Skittlebrau!
Their conclusion? "Skittlebrauology is a new science. But it certainly shows an intriguing new path in mixology. Malt beverages do not seem to mix well with the fruity candy, but bitter, quality beers seem to mesh well. Obviosuly, more research needs to be done, but it certainly is nothing to laugh at."
Hahahahaha!
I realize I'm a professor and very well educated, but so are you guys (after all, anyone using Linux is probably in the top 3 percentile for raw intelligence).
:-p
That being said, I DON'T WATCH TV. There are so many other great things I could be doing, like playing with my kids or doing research or spending quality time with my wife or watching LOtR on DVD.
I want my science news from respectable sources (Nature, Wired, etc.), not from some silly television show based on CORPORATE INTERESTS like profits, profit sharing, etc.
This is NOT what we want. We're smart, we love science, but we prefer the Internet, a place where WE MAKE THE NEWS and are independently allowed to form our own opinions.
Plus COMMERCIALS SUCK anyway
Republicans are pro-business, and marketing is a type of business.
Therefore, this measure will not be adopted.
I have an undergraduate degree in politics, a Master's in math, and a Ph.D. in computer science. I know what I'm talking about.
I don't care if some ghost database somewhere on some server on a mountainside in Colorado knows that I'm wearing Doc Martens or that I buy Jay-Z CDs or which toll booths I go through or how old I am. Who really cares about this, and why?
Those who fear monitoring the most are usually those that need to be monitored (i.e. child molesters who use anonymous proxies, sex offenders who don't want to register, etc.).
If I'm interviewing or teaching you and you have a huge thing with privacy issues, I will naturally distrust you and pass you over for the job/internship/research opportunity.
I've found that the time it takes to get good (192kbps+) versions of songs off of a complete album is much longer and expensive than simply shelling out 10 bucks for the CD at a music store.
So, I don't even use P2P anymore. I have no interest in movies or games or whatever, just music.
Unless your time is worth nothing, you should just buy the factory CDs anyway. Plus, you can show the artists you like (White Stripes, Strokes, Outkast) that you enjoy what they do.