Same here. I just want my music to play where I want it to play. I predict that this will probably increase the prevalence of AAC formatted music relative to MP3.
Of course by doing that you've just degraded the quality that you just paid an extra 30 cents for! This is because you're transcoding from one lossy format to another.
While it is clearly written at an introductory level, and says so itself, I still find it useful to revisit stuff like this from time to time. It's good to be reminded of what we're already supposed to know and see it from another person's perspective. I may print this out for my son to look at since he's just starting out.
Sadly, like a terrorist, Thompson has tainted whatever legitimacy his complaints may have had through gross excesses. Of course all parents are concerned about what kind of games their kids are playing. But most of us prefer to handle those matters in our own way without interference from the government or crusaders like Mr. Thompson. Now it just looks like he's in it for the publicity, it's become his profession. Very sad indeed.
It just ridiculous that what this guy was doing would be a felony at all. If he were accessing the wi-fi in order to commit crimes, it would make sense, but for anything else it's the digital equivalent of loitering. Last time I checked, loitering wasn't a felony, oh wait...
This is nearly unbelievable! So essentially the voting machines were running Access. Even Microsoft says that the Jet DB engine should not be used in situations when a lot of concurrent users are expected. So I guess this is one case where Microsoft cannot be the bad guy, shocker!
Why would they do this? If cost was the issue, Jet vs SQL server say, then why not go with PostgreSQL, MySQL, or other free alternatives? Even if you're a Microsoft shop, it isn't that hard to make MS stuff interface with OSS DB backends.
I think Adobe cares about Silverlight in part because Flash development is still perceived to have a high barrier to entry because of the cost of Flash MX. I myself only became aware of the possibility of using the free Flex SDK to develop Flash apps recently. So in light of Microsoft's announcement, I think Adobe doesn't want those who might be swayed to forget about Flex. Open sourcing Flex is definitely a good move. It should result in some good free tools for Flash development which should help fend off the threat presented by Silverlight. I'm still planning to take a look at Silverlight, but I'll definitely be giving Flex a look too. And I'm sure that Adobe remembers that Netscape thought they had an insurmountable lead back in the day too, and look where they are now... Never underestimate the power of the dark side!
I'll bet the view is a lot better from the growing number of police camera's that have been deployed in Chicago over the last few years. It used to be that a blue light meant special bargains, now it just means you live in a high crime neighborhood. Oh, and these cameras are supposed to be able to withstand gunfire.
The reason the politicians continue to get away with stupid laws that obviously won't be upheld is because the taxpayers are suckers who rarely, if ever, hold them accountable. And the politicians know this very well. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars is nothing to a politician who knows that stupid legislation will keep them in office.
I suppose the usual gun control debates will ensue, along with the bashing of video games. But none of that really matters. The real question is why did this guy shoot all of these people? What made him so angry/hopeless that he felt the need to commit this mass murder? And the more chilling question in my mind is, why doesn't this sort of thing happen more often? There's a lot of pain and ugliness in the world, more than enough to produce thousands, if not millions of shooters. And perhaps therein lies the hope. As bad as things can be, they haven't reached the point where these mass shootings happen every day. Will we be wise enough to do the things we really need to do to prevent this from happening again?
Shutting down zombies would definitely slow this stuff down. I know that in the past at least, some universities would cut off network access for computers that were apparently compromised. I don't know if this is the case at the majority of schools though. Sadly, it probably will take legislation to force ISPs to cut off zombies from their networks. I don't know why they don't do this already. Do these zombies help their bottom line, or is it less costly to keep them on the network to avoid fielding customer service calls?
It's a bit muggery out there today folks, with a thirteen percent chance of homicide over on 5th. So remember to don those kevlars. Back to you, Tom.
Actually, it was a little like this. It would show the probabilities of various types of crimes in an area based on past data. So it was easy to see developing trends.
Absolutely! There is no such thing as anonymous on the net. So the real solution is not going to be getting Yahoo, AOL, or whoever to stop collecting data. They never will because it makes them too much money. The real "solution" is spreading the word to users that they are not anonymous and behave accordingly.
BTW, the Chicago Police already use an Oracle based data mining system to produce crime forecasts for the city that they use to decide how to deploy forces from day to day. I first learned about this system years ago, so it may be safe to assume that there have been improvements since that time. The future is now.
The Chinese government is playing a dangerous game imposing more and more restrictions on a recreational past time enjoyed by an apparently large segment of the population. Bread and circuses are essential for an authoritarian regime to maintain power. And while it is probably easy for Chinese citizens to shrug off the lack of political freedom, it isn't so easy to ignore government interference in how one makes money (bread), or how one has fun (circuses). Given the large population of "spoiled", mostly male, young people due to the one child policy and bias towards male children realized through selective abortions, government restrictions on the recreational activities of this group carry a great risk. It would be better to have these young men wasting time in internet cafes playing WoW during their teen years, than making trouble for the regime in the real world, a world short of girls for them!
While I don't believe that kids under 18 should be playing WoW or similar games for more than 3 hours a day, if I'm trying to keep people from growing up with a desire to overthrow the government, it'd be better to just let them have their fun. WoW hasn't caused the collapse of civilization in any other countries as yet... right?
I consider myself a space enthusiast, but I find it amazing that in a time when initiatives to raise taxes to better fund schools routinely fail, that this one passes. I can only surmise that the economic situation in the area is truly desperate. Sadly, I suspect that Virgin Galactic is getting the better end of the deal. Any increase in jobs is likely to be temporary and primarily associated with construction of the facility. And increased tourism is just a huge guess. I wish them luck, but this is a huge gamble.
I think that this is just more evidence that Apple's success with iTunes with respect to market share really put the record companies over a barrel. They've wanted to raise the price of tracks from 99 cents for a long time now, but apparently didn't have the leverage over Apple to make them do it. Without higher per track prices on iTunes, there was no way they could get it at any competitors, who were already at a huge disadvantage anyway.
So when Jobs started talking about removing DRM, probably not just a coincidence, it set the stage for EMI to offer DRM free tracks, but at a higher price per track. It looks as if stripping DRM was the price of raising the price per track. Perhaps the record companies are realizing that removing DRM is the only way in the near term of loosening Apple's grip on the digital music market. Of course it is interesting to note that the DRM-less tracks from iTunes will be in AAC format which, while other players can support it, will tend to keep most people in the iPod fold since converting to other formats like MP3 is a hassle most consumers would prefer not to be bothered with. So I would look for growth in the number of AAC supporting players.
In itself having online classes in a 3D virtual setting like Second Life is a good idea. It is surprising just how much more of a connection seeing and interacting with others in such a manner brings compared to text only. Integrated voice should serve to deepen the immersion and effectiveness of using SL as an online education platform. The real problem though, is that Second Life is not quite up to the task yet and the kind of hardware that students would need to run it well is not that widespread yet.
The hardware issue makes me think that while Second Life is not, strictly speaking, a game, it would be a good idea to create an optimized client for game consoles like the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. These two consoles have the raw computational power and graphics capabilities that should make for a smoother in world experience. Plus, game consoles are standardized platforms that are widespread and easier to support than PCs at lower cost to the user. Sony's virtual world project Home (beta soon), may point the way for Second Life on a console.
In a lot of ways, Second Life is glorified chat. But don't forget, in the early days, AOL made a lot of money off of mere chat. And now chat and online forums, etc. are being used effectively for online instruction. So it's just a matter of time and technology before many of us will be taking our seats in a 3D virtual classroom, hopefully free of flying male anatomy!
I don't know if it is part of some grand plan or not. But the death of the game player does give a handy excuse to slow things down while their censorship/surveillance apparatus catches up. Internet cafe's must be an authoritarian government's nightmare in terms of controlling information and access to outside sources. So any excuse to put on the brakes is handy. They won't do it for too long though, because for better or worse, the internet cafes are part of the state's opium that keeps the masses from noticing other things that might really piss them off and send them into the streets. Afterall, if those young Chinese men playing WoW stop for too long, they might just notice that the one child policy, cultural biases for male children, and selective abortion have resulted in not enough women to go around. If I were them, that alone would really piss me off!
Any notions of an ethical code for the treatment of robots is really about appearances and protecting humans rather than robots. One thread here jokes about the inappropriate touching of a robot under the age of 17. There's no joke to that if the robot appears to be an underaged human to most observers. There have already been a number of attempts in the US to outlaw sexually explicit cartoons and even jail people for erotic fiction involving the underaged. Will reactions to lewd or cruel behavior directed towards human looking robotic dolls be any different? And so far, this doesn't even involve the question of the possible sentience of any highly advanced robots that may be created in the future.
The mere appearance of bad behavior will be enough to generate legislation to "protect" the robots, probably, as usual, in the name of protecting the children.
It'll be like the movies, we won't know a killer asteroid is coming until it is right on top of us. Why? Because our political leaders can't think past the next election. There's no way they'll fund anything to find threats that may not be an issue for thousands of years, thousands of years past the end of their terms. I only hope human technology will be up to the task of defending the Earth from these threats on short notice.
Hmmm, this just looks like a commercially supported version of Eclipse. I suppose if one wants professional support, it could be something useful. But I'm pretty cheap/poor, so I'll have to pass and keep using the free Eclipse.
I can understand that many may have fond memories associated with Commodore, but is that really enough of a market to sell these new machines? There are already a number of game optimized PC brands. What does Commodore bring to the table?
You're quite right, too many parents are being lazy and shirking their responsibilities. But the government shouldn't be making it easier for them to do so. If parents are negligent, there are already laws that address that too, we need to not only enforce those laws, but create a culture of self-empowered responsibility and individual initiative. Right now, we, in the US at least, seem to be doing just the opposite. The parents who sued MySpace are just giving parents a bad name. Heck, I don't know everything my daughter is doing online, but we talk and I understand that it is my responsibility to ensure her safety and well being. I may screw up from time to time, but raising my kids is my job, not the government's.
While it may be perfectly legal for schools to censor students and sanction them on school time and with regard to school equipment, they should keep their noses out of what students say and do beyond the campus. Clearly, off campus issues are the realm of the students' parents and family. When schools start trying to assert authority outside of the school, it is just another intrusion by the state on parental authority and responsibility. And with respect to free speech, speech that makes direct threats against another person is not protected anyway. We already have laws covering that as a form of assault. There is no need for new and likely unconstitutional laws on this matter. Enforce the laws already on the books and let parents do what they are supposed to be doing.
I'm actually hoping those $14.99 CDs will drop in price to something like $9.99 or less because I still like being able to rip my own mp3s and have a physical backup without having to make it myself. Well, that last part may be a little lazy, but I do like having the physical artwork and occasional lyrics and liner notes. I guess I'm saying there is still a place for physical CDs, but only if the price drops considerably.
Slashdot Mirror
Same here. I just want my music to play where I want it to play. I predict that this will probably increase the prevalence of AAC formatted music relative to MP3.
Of course by doing that you've just degraded the quality that you just paid an extra 30 cents for! This is because you're transcoding from one lossy format to another.
While it is clearly written at an introductory level, and says so itself, I still find it useful to revisit stuff like this from time to time. It's good to be reminded of what we're already supposed to know and see it from another person's perspective. I may print this out for my son to look at since he's just starting out.
Sadly, like a terrorist, Thompson has tainted whatever legitimacy his complaints may have had through gross excesses. Of course all parents are concerned about what kind of games their kids are playing. But most of us prefer to handle those matters in our own way without interference from the government or crusaders like Mr. Thompson. Now it just looks like he's in it for the publicity, it's become his profession. Very sad indeed.
It just ridiculous that what this guy was doing would be a felony at all. If he were accessing the wi-fi in order to commit crimes, it would make sense, but for anything else it's the digital equivalent of loitering. Last time I checked, loitering wasn't a felony, oh wait...
This is nearly unbelievable! So essentially the voting machines were running Access. Even Microsoft says that the Jet DB engine should not be used in situations when a lot of concurrent users are expected. So I guess this is one case where Microsoft cannot be the bad guy, shocker!
Why would they do this? If cost was the issue, Jet vs SQL server say, then why not go with PostgreSQL, MySQL, or other free alternatives? Even if you're a Microsoft shop, it isn't that hard to make MS stuff interface with OSS DB backends.
I think Adobe cares about Silverlight in part because Flash development is still perceived to have a high barrier to entry because of the cost of Flash MX. I myself only became aware of the possibility of using the free Flex SDK to develop Flash apps recently. So in light of Microsoft's announcement, I think Adobe doesn't want those who might be swayed to forget about Flex. Open sourcing Flex is definitely a good move. It should result in some good free tools for Flash development which should help fend off the threat presented by Silverlight. I'm still planning to take a look at Silverlight, but I'll definitely be giving Flex a look too. And I'm sure that Adobe remembers that Netscape thought they had an insurmountable lead back in the day too, and look where they are now... Never underestimate the power of the dark side!
I'll bet the view is a lot better from the growing number of police camera's that have been deployed in Chicago over the last few years. It used to be that a blue light meant special bargains, now it just means you live in a high crime neighborhood. Oh, and these cameras are supposed to be able to withstand gunfire.
c e+camera&btnG=Google+Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=chicago+poli
The reason the politicians continue to get away with stupid laws that obviously won't be upheld is because the taxpayers are suckers who rarely, if ever, hold them accountable. And the politicians know this very well. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars is nothing to a politician who knows that stupid legislation will keep them in office.
I suppose the usual gun control debates will ensue, along with the bashing of video games. But none of that really matters. The real question is why did this guy shoot all of these people? What made him so angry/hopeless that he felt the need to commit this mass murder? And the more chilling question in my mind is, why doesn't this sort of thing happen more often? There's a lot of pain and ugliness in the world, more than enough to produce thousands, if not millions of shooters. And perhaps therein lies the hope. As bad as things can be, they haven't reached the point where these mass shootings happen every day. Will we be wise enough to do the things we really need to do to prevent this from happening again?
Shutting down zombies would definitely slow this stuff down. I know that in the past at least, some universities would cut off network access for computers that were apparently compromised. I don't know if this is the case at the majority of schools though. Sadly, it probably will take legislation to force ISPs to cut off zombies from their networks. I don't know why they don't do this already. Do these zombies help their bottom line, or is it less costly to keep them on the network to avoid fielding customer service calls?
It's a bit muggery out there today folks, with a thirteen percent chance of homicide over on 5th. So remember to don those kevlars. Back to you, Tom.
Actually, it was a little like this. It would show the probabilities of various types of crimes in an area based on past data. So it was easy to see developing trends.
Absolutely! There is no such thing as anonymous on the net. So the real solution is not going to be getting Yahoo, AOL, or whoever to stop collecting data. They never will because it makes them too much money. The real "solution" is spreading the word to users that they are not anonymous and behave accordingly.
BTW, the Chicago Police already use an Oracle based data mining system to produce crime forecasts for the city that they use to decide how to deploy forces from day to day. I first learned about this system years ago, so it may be safe to assume that there have been improvements since that time. The future is now.
The Chinese government is playing a dangerous game imposing more and more restrictions on a recreational past time enjoyed by an apparently large segment of the population. Bread and circuses are essential for an authoritarian regime to maintain power. And while it is probably easy for Chinese citizens to shrug off the lack of political freedom, it isn't so easy to ignore government interference in how one makes money (bread), or how one has fun (circuses). Given the large population of "spoiled", mostly male, young people due to the one child policy and bias towards male children realized through selective abortions, government restrictions on the recreational activities of this group carry a great risk. It would be better to have these young men wasting time in internet cafes playing WoW during their teen years, than making trouble for the regime in the real world, a world short of girls for them!
While I don't believe that kids under 18 should be playing WoW or similar games for more than 3 hours a day, if I'm trying to keep people from growing up with a desire to overthrow the government, it'd be better to just let them have their fun. WoW hasn't caused the collapse of civilization in any other countries as yet... right?
I consider myself a space enthusiast, but I find it amazing that in a time when initiatives to raise taxes to better fund schools routinely fail, that this one passes. I can only surmise that the economic situation in the area is truly desperate. Sadly, I suspect that Virgin Galactic is getting the better end of the deal. Any increase in jobs is likely to be temporary and primarily associated with construction of the facility. And increased tourism is just a huge guess. I wish them luck, but this is a huge gamble.
I think that this is just more evidence that Apple's success with iTunes with respect to market share really put the record companies over a barrel. They've wanted to raise the price of tracks from 99 cents for a long time now, but apparently didn't have the leverage over Apple to make them do it. Without higher per track prices on iTunes, there was no way they could get it at any competitors, who were already at a huge disadvantage anyway.
So when Jobs started talking about removing DRM, probably not just a coincidence, it set the stage for EMI to offer DRM free tracks, but at a higher price per track. It looks as if stripping DRM was the price of raising the price per track. Perhaps the record companies are realizing that removing DRM is the only way in the near term of loosening Apple's grip on the digital music market. Of course it is interesting to note that the DRM-less tracks from iTunes will be in AAC format which, while other players can support it, will tend to keep most people in the iPod fold since converting to other formats like MP3 is a hassle most consumers would prefer not to be bothered with. So I would look for growth in the number of AAC supporting players.
In itself having online classes in a 3D virtual setting like Second Life is a good idea. It is surprising just how much more of a connection seeing and interacting with others in such a manner brings compared to text only. Integrated voice should serve to deepen the immersion and effectiveness of using SL as an online education platform. The real problem though, is that Second Life is not quite up to the task yet and the kind of hardware that students would need to run it well is not that widespread yet.
The hardware issue makes me think that while Second Life is not, strictly speaking, a game, it would be a good idea to create an optimized client for game consoles like the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. These two consoles have the raw computational power and graphics capabilities that should make for a smoother in world experience. Plus, game consoles are standardized platforms that are widespread and easier to support than PCs at lower cost to the user. Sony's virtual world project Home (beta soon), may point the way for Second Life on a console.
In a lot of ways, Second Life is glorified chat. But don't forget, in the early days, AOL made a lot of money off of mere chat. And now chat and online forums, etc. are being used effectively for online instruction. So it's just a matter of time and technology before many of us will be taking our seats in a 3D virtual classroom, hopefully free of flying male anatomy!
I don't know if it is part of some grand plan or not. But the death of the game player does give a handy excuse to slow things down while their censorship/surveillance apparatus catches up. Internet cafe's must be an authoritarian government's nightmare in terms of controlling information and access to outside sources. So any excuse to put on the brakes is handy. They won't do it for too long though, because for better or worse, the internet cafes are part of the state's opium that keeps the masses from noticing other things that might really piss them off and send them into the streets. Afterall, if those young Chinese men playing WoW stop for too long, they might just notice that the one child policy, cultural biases for male children, and selective abortion have resulted in not enough women to go around. If I were them, that alone would really piss me off!
Any notions of an ethical code for the treatment of robots is really about appearances and protecting humans rather than robots. One thread here jokes about the inappropriate touching of a robot under the age of 17. There's no joke to that if the robot appears to be an underaged human to most observers. There have already been a number of attempts in the US to outlaw sexually explicit cartoons and even jail people for erotic fiction involving the underaged. Will reactions to lewd or cruel behavior directed towards human looking robotic dolls be any different? And so far, this doesn't even involve the question of the possible sentience of any highly advanced robots that may be created in the future.
The mere appearance of bad behavior will be enough to generate legislation to "protect" the robots, probably, as usual, in the name of protecting the children.
It'll be like the movies, we won't know a killer asteroid is coming until it is right on top of us. Why? Because our political leaders can't think past the next election. There's no way they'll fund anything to find threats that may not be an issue for thousands of years, thousands of years past the end of their terms. I only hope human technology will be up to the task of defending the Earth from these threats on short notice.
Hmmm, this just looks like a commercially supported version of Eclipse. I suppose if one wants professional support, it could be something useful. But I'm pretty cheap/poor, so I'll have to pass and keep using the free Eclipse.
I can understand that many may have fond memories associated with Commodore, but is that really enough of a market to sell these new machines? There are already a number of game optimized PC brands. What does Commodore bring to the table?
You're quite right, too many parents are being lazy and shirking their responsibilities. But the government shouldn't be making it easier for them to do so. If parents are negligent, there are already laws that address that too, we need to not only enforce those laws, but create a culture of self-empowered responsibility and individual initiative. Right now, we, in the US at least, seem to be doing just the opposite. The parents who sued MySpace are just giving parents a bad name. Heck, I don't know everything my daughter is doing online, but we talk and I understand that it is my responsibility to ensure her safety and well being. I may screw up from time to time, but raising my kids is my job, not the government's.
While it may be perfectly legal for schools to censor students and sanction them on school time and with regard to school equipment, they should keep their noses out of what students say and do beyond the campus. Clearly, off campus issues are the realm of the students' parents and family. When schools start trying to assert authority outside of the school, it is just another intrusion by the state on parental authority and responsibility. And with respect to free speech, speech that makes direct threats against another person is not protected anyway. We already have laws covering that as a form of assault. There is no need for new and likely unconstitutional laws on this matter. Enforce the laws already on the books and let parents do what they are supposed to be doing.
I'm actually hoping those $14.99 CDs will drop in price to something like $9.99 or less because I still like being able to rip my own mp3s and have a physical backup without having to make it myself. Well, that last part may be a little lazy, but I do like having the physical artwork and occasional lyrics and liner notes. I guess I'm saying there is still a place for physical CDs, but only if the price drops considerably.