I'm waiting to see a case against M$ for copying the ideas for Nibbles. =) And Space Cadet Pinball contained some simulated elastics, a ball, springs...oh a tilt feature...oh and wonder who came up with the idea for simulated gravity...hmm.
Sure...lets jam all the GPS satellites in our ever-continuing quest to make ourselves more lost in the universe than we already are. Seems like a bit of a backwards step to me. I'd think they'd be working on ways to keep better track of where people are.
Of course, GPS has always had enormous "Big Brother" potential. Add some unwanted GPS implants into the mix and we might just need a jamming device of some sort to retain our freedom.
Well, in theory it can be. I find using the computer at times to be all of the above with the possible exception of 'arrogant' (of course that can exist in most #windows and #linux channels). I at least demand the option of getting up and going to the library or reading a book online. I want to be able to say to myself, "hey...I need some sunlight and maybe some not-so-stale air. I think I'll go to the library and see if I can meet some intelligent REAL LIFE women." I mean, hey where better to meet intelligent women who might have a life outside of computers?
Anyway, I think it's arrogant not to adapt to new technology. I also think it's arrogant to think one can completely replace old technologies with new ones. There can always be a happy medium.
Not if you aren't concerned about maintaining quality. Encoding a CD track and maintaining a cd-ish quality takes alot of cpu, but encoding something small really shouldn't be much harder on the cpu than realmedia and the like. I don't have experience with anything other than shoutcast, but I know it was able to decode a high quality mp3 and simultaneously encode it into a low quality mp3 stream on my old Cyrix 120+ with only minor skippage.
Hehe...I remember being kicked out of the library twice at my old high school for playing poker. =) Many more times than that for playing Magic. They didn't seem to care if we played on the grungy lunchroom tables, however.
I agree. To state that DeCSS was created only to promote piracy would be like stating that the baseball bat was only created to physically assault people. Arguably, it _could_ be used maliciously and in all likelyhood will be to some degree. However, if the judicial system had ruled at some point that the baseball bat was illegal on the grounds that it could seriously injure people, the sport of baseball would never have gotten off the ground. Or hey, what if the government had decided at the arrival of the microcomputer that computers themselves were a vehicle for ceopyright infringement so should be banned? We certainly wouldn't be chatting it up on Slashdot. I can think of lots of examples. What if big chunks of hard stone were made illegal because they can be used to destroy peoples' windows thereby gaining access to their homes? I know I'm getting off the deepend here, but come on. Does the malicious potential outweigh the benefit?
If the artists were not bound by nasty contractual agreements with their distributors, I'd suggest writing up a nice little letter expressing your support, plopping it and whatever amount of cash you think the music is worth in an envelope, and forwarding it directly to the artist. Then, go download yerself whatever tracks you want. Sure, it's an idealist concept, but as an artist, I'd much rather have a million people sending me anywhere from $2 to $20 bucks for whatever music they want than have the pittance percentage given by the distributor. Yeah, it's on the honour system but I'll pay for a good thing so long as I'm paying the originators for their work as opposed to some pompous middle-men.
Interesting thought. Of course I realize not everyone has capital to start off with. That's why digital music is so important. If an artist could use digital music to become known, receive endorsement from adoring fans for said music, then begin to market in other formats and/or tour, it could all work out. I might have too much faith in people, but I think people will support products that they think are worth it.
I just thought I'd throw in some discussion not related to music distributors and publicists. What about the artists who we all so enjoy listening to? What happens if they cease to be payed for their efforts and no longer produce the music? While I realize and agree with the opposition to forking over hard-earned to big conglomerate corporations, it is those companies who provide artists with a label and a means by which to earn profit through notoriety.
I don't think music should have to be stolen to prevent our money from getting to the conglomerates. However, the artists must still be payed to continue their great work. Devotion to the art is fine, but it doesn't pay the bills.
With the inexpense of advertising on the internet, as well as the tremendous and diverse audience out there, doesn't it make sense that artists should begin to promote themselves and sell their own music? If artists could somehow distribute their own music via the internet at rates considerably lower than those of major labels, I would not be adverse to purchasing music. Just a thought.
Hmm...I tend to agree. Why compare apples to oranges when some people naturally prefer apples to oranges and vice versa? Either way, someone is going to disagree with the results and either way the majority will just keep on using the processor that they like.
As I stated to the few people online in the wee hours of January 1st, I'm still not sure how to feel about the whole Y2K thing. I really was hoping for some carnage. I dunno whether to feel happy or sad that nothing evil-bad occurred.
Yay!!! It's Xmas day! Happy whatever you celebrate. Happy severely belated Chanukkah to all. And on and on and on. If anyone has a new board or processor they'd like to put in my stocking, feel free.:)
I am 18 right now. I started using computers when I was 3 years old. Lucky for me, I didn't start with Microsoft:). Nothing but the best, a Texas Instruments 99/4A for me. Heh... I should have been a TI executive.:)
I tend to think that any clones have their own identities in spite of their genetic code. Of course, I could be wrong, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Such clones would only be said persons physically. It is a valid argument against cloning, however.
I'm with ya there. Cloning a species just so humans can eat them to extinction again seems hardly worth the effort. And there's far more at stake here than just the extinction of these genus. Already, the natural balance of our ecosystem has been upset. We've got ozone holes, rainforest burning, pollution at every turn. It's damn nice to see some initiative being taken to correct even a small amount of the damage we've done.
This is some intelligent thinking on cloning for once. Sure beats cloning a sheep.
That'd rock. Of course, we'd probably end up getting into some vicious disputes with the border patrol over legal drinking age on the border:). Ah well. Minor issues.
Fortunately, I left that school not long before the intrusive tentacles of the administration went on overtime and loaded up BESS. I missed most of the fireworks and gore. I did, however, hear the screams and howls from my house mere kilometres away =P. I heard many a report from my close friends, who were still in attendence, on the evils of BESS; the sites they could and could not still access, and the stupid banner-adding processes that slowed the network to more of a crawl than it was already at.
I personally question the need for site filtering in schools. If the school is truly that concerned about what students visit, all the administration need do is use some sort of logging proxy. Matching time/date/IP to the local fileserver access logs is easy work, and from there it's just a matter of grabbing the username and issuing penalties. Reckless preventative censorship is basic violation of freedom of information whereas URL logging with the intent to check access to data which directly conflicts with school policy, though annoying, would be relatively unproblematic both politically and technically speaking. Not that I'd want all my accesses logged, mind you, but it seems an acceptable alternative to me, albeit one that requires a few seconds more worktime on the part of the moderators (hmm...sounds like a basic case of "Let's get technology to do what we really don't have time/don't want to do!" A.K.A.: Technology as Babysitter/Parent).
Slashdot Mirror
I have one acronym for the masses:
GNUPG!
I'm waiting to see a case against M$ for copying the ideas for Nibbles. =) And Space Cadet Pinball contained some simulated elastics, a ball, springs...oh a tilt feature...oh and wonder who came up with the idea for simulated gravity...hmm.
Sure...lets jam all the GPS satellites in our ever-continuing quest to make ourselves more lost in the universe than we already are. Seems like a bit of a backwards step to me. I'd think they'd be working on ways to keep better track of where people are.
Of course, GPS has always had enormous "Big Brother" potential. Add some unwanted GPS implants into the mix and we might just need a jamming device of some sort to retain our freedom.
Well, in theory it can be. I find using the computer at times to be all of the above with the possible exception of 'arrogant' (of course that can exist in most #windows and #linux channels). I at least demand the option of getting up and going to the library or reading a book online. I want to be able to say to myself, "hey...I need some sunlight and maybe some not-so-stale air. I think I'll go to the library and see if I can meet some intelligent REAL LIFE women." I mean, hey where better to meet intelligent women who might have a life outside of computers?
Anyway, I think it's arrogant not to adapt to new technology. I also think it's arrogant to think one can completely replace old technologies with new ones. There can always be a happy medium.
Not if you aren't concerned about maintaining quality. Encoding a CD track and maintaining a cd-ish quality takes alot of cpu, but encoding something small really shouldn't be much harder on the cpu than realmedia and the like. I don't have experience with anything other than shoutcast, but I know it was able to decode a high quality mp3 and simultaneously encode it into a low quality mp3 stream on my old Cyrix 120+ with only minor skippage.
Hehe...I remember being kicked out of the library twice at my old high school for playing poker. =) Many more times than that for playing Magic. They didn't seem to care if we played on the grungy lunchroom tables, however.
I agree. To state that DeCSS was created only to promote piracy would be like stating that the baseball bat was only created to physically assault people. Arguably, it _could_ be used maliciously and in all likelyhood will be to some degree. However, if the judicial system had ruled at some point that the baseball bat was illegal on the grounds that it could seriously injure people, the sport of baseball would never have gotten off the ground. Or hey, what if the government had decided at the arrival of the microcomputer that computers themselves were a vehicle for ceopyright infringement so should be banned? We certainly wouldn't be chatting it up on Slashdot. I can think of lots of examples. What if big chunks of hard stone were made illegal because they can be used to destroy peoples' windows thereby gaining access to their homes? I know I'm getting off the deepend here, but come on. Does the malicious potential outweigh the benefit?
I think that last paragraph is pretty damn quotable. I want to see that in fortune.
If the artists were not bound by nasty contractual agreements with their distributors, I'd suggest writing up a nice little letter expressing your support, plopping it and whatever amount of cash you think the music is worth in an envelope, and forwarding it directly to the artist. Then, go download yerself whatever tracks you want. Sure, it's an idealist concept, but as an artist, I'd much rather have a million people sending me anywhere from $2 to $20 bucks for whatever music they want than have the pittance percentage given by the distributor. Yeah, it's on the honour system but I'll pay for a good thing so long as I'm paying the originators for their work as opposed to some pompous middle-men.
Interesting thought. Of course I realize not everyone has capital to start off with. That's why digital music is so important. If an artist could use digital music to become known, receive endorsement from adoring fans for said music, then begin to market in other formats and/or tour, it could all work out. I might have too much faith in people, but I think people will support products that they think are worth it.
I just thought I'd throw in some discussion not related to music distributors and publicists. What about the artists who we all so enjoy listening to? What happens if they cease to be payed for their efforts and no longer produce the music? While I realize and agree with the opposition to forking over hard-earned to big conglomerate corporations, it is those companies who provide artists with a label and a means by which to earn profit through notoriety.
I don't think music should have to be stolen to prevent our money from getting to the conglomerates. However, the artists must still be payed to continue their great work. Devotion to the art is fine, but it doesn't pay the bills.
With the inexpense of advertising on the internet, as well as the tremendous and diverse audience out there, doesn't it make sense that artists should begin to promote themselves and sell their own music? If artists could somehow distribute their own music via the internet at rates considerably lower than those of major labels, I would not be adverse to purchasing music. Just a thought.
Hmm...I tend to agree. Why compare apples to oranges when some people naturally prefer apples to oranges and vice versa? Either way, someone is going to disagree with the results and either way the majority will just keep on using the processor that they like.
As I stated to the few people online in the wee hours of January 1st, I'm still not sure how to feel about the whole Y2K thing. I really was hoping for some carnage. I dunno whether to feel happy or sad that nothing evil-bad occurred.
Yay!!! It's Xmas day! Happy whatever you celebrate. Happy severely belated Chanukkah to all. And on and on and on. If anyone has a new board or processor they'd like to put in my stocking, feel free. :)
Psh...yer just not cool without a Troll rating.
heh.
I am 18 right now. I started using computers when I was 3 years old. Lucky for me, I didn't start with Microsoft :). Nothing but the best, a Texas Instruments 99/4A for me. Heh... I should have been a TI executive. :)
HeHeHe... ok...now THAT's a holiday I can enjoy.
I tend to think that any clones have their own identities in spite of their genetic code. Of course, I could be wrong, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Such clones would only be said persons physically. It is a valid argument against cloning, however.
I'm with ya there. Cloning a species just so humans can eat them to extinction again seems hardly worth the effort. And there's far more at stake here than just the extinction of these genus. Already, the natural balance of our ecosystem has been upset. We've got ozone holes, rainforest burning, pollution at every turn. It's damn nice to see some initiative being taken to correct even a small amount of the damage we've done.
This is some intelligent thinking on cloning for once. Sure beats cloning a sheep.
That'd rock. Of course, we'd probably end up getting into some vicious disputes with the border patrol over legal drinking age on the border :). Ah well. Minor issues.
Of course, you'd probably run into some rather nasty disputes with the border patrol about legal drinking age on the border. =)
I personally question the need for site filtering in schools. If the school is truly that concerned about what students visit, all the administration need do is use some sort of logging proxy. Matching time/date/IP to the local fileserver access logs is easy work, and from there it's just a matter of grabbing the username and issuing penalties. Reckless preventative censorship is basic violation of freedom of information whereas URL logging with the intent to check access to data which directly conflicts with school policy, though annoying, would be relatively unproblematic both politically and technically speaking. Not that I'd want all my accesses logged, mind you, but it seems an acceptable alternative to me, albeit one that requires a few seconds more worktime on the part of the moderators (hmm...sounds like a basic case of "Let's get technology to do what we really don't have time/don't want to do!" A.K.A.: Technology as Babysitter/Parent).
Cheap way to shirk responsibility? Maybe so...