This has been an exciting and successful new experiment in democracy. People get the impression that their opinions matter, and politicians divert attention away from things of importance!
So how long now until the House of Lords is turned into a bus to take democracy literally To The People?
Back in my day, we had vt100 and 9600 baud, and we ran long serial cables or keyboard extension cables if you needed to be able to compute while wandering around your dorm room or a lab.
Not to mention you had to walk five miles up hill, both ways, to the computer shop to buy your terminals and carry them home, and you liked it?
In the case of instant messaging, interoperability is an important goal that can only be achieved through two means:
a) standardisation of protocols. This would be ideal as multiple companies and projects can provide their services and compete, and the users are happy. The technology is there (XMPP, the protocol behind Jabber and GTalk) and in an ideal world, the big companies would cooperate and adopt the standard. But they don't.
b) monopoly of instant messaging. Imagine if there were three different telephone systems, or three different postal systems. Monopoly in this case is a good thing, with the main shortfall being that the monopoly has to be regulated as there is no longer any competition.
Jabber is a good choice to hold the instant messaging monopoly. Alternative clients can be created using the open protocol, and no commercial interests will be fucking around changing the protocol. In this case, the monopoly would work for the users.
As opposed to Xbox Live or MMORPG subscriptions, people will be able to play Nintendo games online for free. There is no ongoing fee. And unlike PC games which are free to play online (if you connect to an ISP- or player-hosted server), Nintendo is providing all the server and match-up infrastructure.
Iwata remarked recently that the reason Nintendo didn't run an online service for the GameCube (instead giving developers free reign to do whatever they wanted to with the broadband adapter by giving away network dev kits) was that there was no business model that made it work for the average consumer. Not everybody wants to pay an ongoing fee to play the odd online game, as can be evidenced by the small adoption of Xbox Live amongst Xbox owners.
With the Gamespy partnership, Nintendo can finally make free online console gaming, anywhere, a reality. I think that's bloody marvellous.
In fact right now I'm listening to some FLAC-encoded music on my Rio Karma through my stereo.
The Karma is a technical masterpiece. Any audiophile or Linux geek who doesn't own or yearn for a Karma is quite crazy.
Reviewers and market analysts unvariably bestow the title of "iPod Killer" on a new DAP based on one or two big features. Maybe it's size, or maybe it's Ogg Vorbis playback that makes a player an iPod killer. In my opinion iPod Killer isn't a feature but an overall package. The iPod is exceptional in no particular area (except perhaps design). It is so successful because it is a solid overall package that performs everything at an acceptable level.
The Rio Karma was the one player that, from a technical standpoint, I believed could be the iPod killer. (Of course, the marketing strength of Apple prevailed, which says a lot about the market). But technically the Karma defeated the iPod on all fronts. Ogg Vorbis and FLAC playback were the big ones, but it's the little things that really make you appreciate it as a player.
Gapless: My Karma is getting long in the tooth, but there's nothing out there, even today, that comes close to the Karma technically. I couldn't ever go back to a player that doesn't have gapless playback (i.e. automatic elimination of the gap between subsequent MP3 files (inherrent to the MP3 format), and playing gapless Vorbis and FLAC files back gaplessly). None of the HDD players do this (if you know of one that does, please let me know! I want one!)
97dB S:N RCA Line Out: The RCA ports on the dock provided an amazing sound on high-end equipment via the true line out. Using a 3.5mm->RCA adapter in the headphone port just isn't the same.
100Mbps Ethernet port: Not having USB2.0 at the time I, and many others bought the Rio Karma, the ethernet port on the dock was a great way for not only uploading files quickly, but uploading them from a distance, e.g. with your Karma sitting in it's dock on the stereo or hooked up to your car stereo in the garage (using a laptop with wifi to bridge the connection).
Java app: The Java app made uploading and managing music on Linux and MacOSX as well as Windows easy. A lot easier to download a Java app from the built-in web server than to pull out the install CD, run the install, reboot for every computer you want to upload files from (assuming it runs Windows).
Embedded Web Server: OK this one isn't really crucial to the player (it's really cool to show off) but it sure is convenient for downloading the Java app to control the unit. The web server had a lot of unrealised potential (e.g. adding a web interface to control the player) but the Rio developers never added that, and now they never will.
The Dock: The little marvel of a dock, included with all Karma's sold, was cool in its own right. Aesthetically it fits in with most stereo equipment better than the iPod and its dock. Not only does it have a 100Mb ethernet port, stereo RCA outputs, USB2.0 and power port, but it glows blue and flashes in time to the music!
So to say the Karma was ahead of its time is not entirely accurate. The Karma's time never arrived.
E17 has had a menu editor, called Entangle, for a few weeks now. All you have to do is checkout E17 and the E17 apps from CVS. You can add, remove, and edit icons in the menus or on the icon bar by right-clicking them like you'd expect to in a modern desktop environment.
"emerge e" is all that's required on Gentoo, other distros will be doing it manually. There is some good documentation at Get-E.org.
There's a really good Windows remote desktop client for Linux called rdesktop. It connects to XP's Desktop Sharing and 2003 Server. In my experience it's been rock-solid.
As far as the IE-only intranet pages are concerned, it is possible to coerce IE into running in Wine, but the easier and far more sensible solution would be to redesign the intranet pages, focussing on cross-compatibility.
It's something I've been thinking about for a while but hadn't gotten around to doing. The SNES mouse would certainly be more practical (useable) in Quake or Firefox.
The GNAA put out a torrent of a VHS rip for those curious how bad a movie can be.
It might have rock-bottom production values and a below-b-grade script, but thinking about it I don't it's any less enjoyable a movie to watch than Spiderman 2 or *other random hollywood movie*.
It's worth watching just to know what everyone's on about.
Think of a trip to Akihabara as less of a vacation
on
Tokyo's Geek Ghetto
·
· Score: 1
When Seven introduced program watermarking it was annoying to the extent that I stopped watching that station all together. But now every single channel, bar one (SBS, which is partially government-funded and has a lot of foreign movies, news, etc) place a big logo on the screen. Even the ABC, the Australian equivalent of the BBC in terms of programming and funding, has started watermarking. This looked even more ridiculous on high and standard definition wide screen where the logo appeared on the screen TWICE! once off centre and once in the far right corner, although admittedly they've fixed that so it's just the one watermark.
If the commercial networks don't want me watching then that's no major loss for me, but I own a part of ABC, as does every taxpayer in the country. I like their content and the way they are pushing new technology in terms of broadband video on demand, digital radio, and digital television multicasting. Not only is it a bloody shame they're neglecting their viewership, but it's our responsibility to let them know that we don't like it before it becomes the norm (the excuse they used was that "the other stations are doing it").
I urge everyone who is as offended as I am to contact the ABC and let them know how you feel. With a large response to the watermarking they _will_ look into it. You can contact the ABC here.
Here's what I sent:
ABC program:
Date of program:
Contact type: Complaint
Location: NSW
Subject: Logo Watermarking
Comments: The introduction of the watermark on ABC TV is offensive and detracts from the program. This is particularly apparent on widescreen digital when the watermark is out in the middle of the screen.
ABC Television's greatest draw is the quality of its programming. ABC shouldn't have to use in-your-face self-advertising techniques to attract viewers. It is that very inundation that drives people away from other networks.
What follows is a story of portable gaming of olde.
When I first saw the PSP I felt like i had seen it somewhere before. Indeed, after a bit of googleimagery I thought I was seeing double.
Compare this to this. And this to this. Similar, no? The console pictured is the infamous Atari Lynx.
Back in the day, the Atari Lynx launched and had better graphics (they were colour!) and had a 16-bit processor, as opposed to the Nintendo Gameboy's 8-bit Z80. The Lynx was undeniably better in the hardware department. It was meant to trigger a worldwide revolution or something. There would be rioting in electronics stores and wars fought in playgrounds.
And you know what happened to the Lynx? It faded into obscurity. Why? Gaming historians all agree; the Lynx had poor battery life. The system simply wasn't as portable as the Gameboy, nor did the games feature that Nintendo charm that you can't quite describe.
Nintendo has triumphed over every competitor that has launched an assault on their portable gaming stronghold over the last decade and a half. Now Nintendo faces what few would argue is their toughest competition yet. The Big N got complacent and Sony caught them off their guard with the original PlayStation, but battle-hardened Nintendo won't be giving up the portable domain so easily. This battle is going to be tough, and it's going to be decided on which console has the games that are the most fun. And that little battery life issue that lead to the downfall of the notorious Atari Lynx all those years ago.
'It feels like they're doing a volume business,' Mamatas' lawyer notes.
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but large-scale litigation seems to be the sign of a failing business model.
Towards the end, SCO's business model was pretty much:
1) Sue
2) Sue
3) ???
4) Profit!
to the point where they listed court cases among their achievements on their corporate website.
The media indstry seems to be slowly heading in this direction. Maybe the demise of the RIAA labels / MPAA studios is imminent?
Of course, the CD is going to fill up eventually, so what then? No problem, at shutdown Puppy will automatically ask you to insert a new blank CD and will place a fully working bootable Puppy on it, create a first data track, and off you go again.
up to 30 hours of playback (if you keep the phone off, otherwise about half that).
The problem with devices converging is the compromises that are made. Instead of two seperate gadgets that do the job well, in this case a mobile phone and an MP3 player, you get one device that is substandard at everything. To me it seems as if the phone is just a gimmick to sell the MP3 player instead of being a functional replacement for a standalone phone.
Does it play Ogg Vorbis? I bet it doesn't, and I can name several standalone DAPs that do support it and probably have better audio quality.
A substandard MP3 player and a phone with poor battery life if you actually want to use both the components of this device? No thanks, I'll stick to my Rio Karma and my trusty old CDMA phone.
The microwaves from satellite TV broadcasts are still coming into your house whether you subscribe to pay TV or not, as are the radio waves that terrestrial television is broadcast on. It doesn't mean you have to view the content of either.
But you need not bother with a faraday cage encompassing your entire home, or even tinfoil hats. Just press the off button on your TV remote.
Slashdot Mirror
This has been an exciting and successful new experiment in democracy. People get the impression that their opinions matter, and politicians divert attention away from things of importance!
So how long now until the House of Lords is turned into a bus to take democracy literally To The People?
Oh, you'd be surprised.
Love, The Rest Of The World.
"The Feds turned up and took away my book."
Back in my day, we had vt100 and 9600 baud, and we ran long serial cables or keyboard extension cables if you needed to be able to compute while wandering around your dorm room or a lab.
Not to mention you had to walk five miles up hill, both ways, to the computer shop to buy your terminals and carry them home, and you liked it?
171858-124217
Nick: BlastM
If you have a 6 digit UID (or none at all) you're at least in with a chance to pickup at real bars.
In the case of instant messaging, interoperability is an important goal that can only be achieved through two means:
a) standardisation of protocols. This would be ideal as multiple companies and projects can provide their services and compete, and the users are happy. The technology is there (XMPP, the protocol behind Jabber and GTalk) and in an ideal world, the big companies would cooperate and adopt the standard. But they don't.
b) monopoly of instant messaging. Imagine if there were three different telephone systems, or three different postal systems. Monopoly in this case is a good thing, with the main shortfall being that the monopoly has to be regulated as there is no longer any competition.
Jabber is a good choice to hold the instant messaging monopoly. Alternative clients can be created using the open protocol, and no commercial interests will be fucking around changing the protocol. In this case, the monopoly would work for the users.
As opposed to Xbox Live or MMORPG subscriptions, people will be able to play Nintendo games online for free. There is no ongoing fee. And unlike PC games which are free to play online (if you connect to an ISP- or player-hosted server), Nintendo is providing all the server and match-up infrastructure. Iwata remarked recently that the reason Nintendo didn't run an online service for the GameCube (instead giving developers free reign to do whatever they wanted to with the broadband adapter by giving away network dev kits) was that there was no business model that made it work for the average consumer. Not everybody wants to pay an ongoing fee to play the odd online game, as can be evidenced by the small adoption of Xbox Live amongst Xbox owners. With the Gamespy partnership, Nintendo can finally make free online console gaming, anywhere, a reality. I think that's bloody marvellous.
and he eats for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and you give up your monopoly on fisheries.
Prepare for robot masturbation jokes in 5, 4, 3...
I want to see a 5, Troll. It'd be cool, and sort of on-topic. I know it's possible, and I can take the karma hit. Wouldn't it be cool?
In fact right now I'm listening to some FLAC-encoded music on my Rio Karma through my stereo.
The Karma is a technical masterpiece. Any audiophile or Linux geek who doesn't own or yearn for a Karma is quite crazy.
Reviewers and market analysts unvariably bestow the title of "iPod Killer" on a new DAP based on one or two big features. Maybe it's size, or maybe it's Ogg Vorbis playback that makes a player an iPod killer. In my opinion iPod Killer isn't a feature but an overall package. The iPod is exceptional in no particular area (except perhaps design). It is so successful because it is a solid overall package that performs everything at an acceptable level.
The Rio Karma was the one player that, from a technical standpoint, I believed could be the iPod killer. (Of course, the marketing strength of Apple prevailed, which says a lot about the market). But technically the Karma defeated the iPod on all fronts. Ogg Vorbis and FLAC playback were the big ones, but it's the little things that really make you appreciate it as a player.
Gapless: My Karma is getting long in the tooth, but there's nothing out there, even today, that comes close to the Karma technically. I couldn't ever go back to a player that doesn't have gapless playback (i.e. automatic elimination of the gap between subsequent MP3 files (inherrent to the MP3 format), and playing gapless Vorbis and FLAC files back gaplessly). None of the HDD players do this (if you know of one that does, please let me know! I want one!)
97dB S:N RCA Line Out: The RCA ports on the dock provided an amazing sound on high-end equipment via the true line out. Using a 3.5mm->RCA adapter in the headphone port just isn't the same.
100Mbps Ethernet port: Not having USB2.0 at the time I, and many others bought the Rio Karma, the ethernet port on the dock was a great way for not only uploading files quickly, but uploading them from a distance, e.g. with your Karma sitting in it's dock on the stereo or hooked up to your car stereo in the garage (using a laptop with wifi to bridge the connection).
Java app: The Java app made uploading and managing music on Linux and MacOSX as well as Windows easy. A lot easier to download a Java app from the built-in web server than to pull out the install CD, run the install, reboot for every computer you want to upload files from (assuming it runs Windows).
Embedded Web Server: OK this one isn't really crucial to the player (it's really cool to show off) but it sure is convenient for downloading the Java app to control the unit. The web server had a lot of unrealised potential (e.g. adding a web interface to control the player) but the Rio developers never added that, and now they never will.
The Dock: The little marvel of a dock, included with all Karma's sold, was cool in its own right. Aesthetically it fits in with most stereo equipment better than the iPod and its dock. Not only does it have a 100Mb ethernet port, stereo RCA outputs, USB2.0 and power port, but it glows blue and flashes in time to the music!
So to say the Karma was ahead of its time is not entirely accurate. The Karma's time never arrived.
E17 has had a menu editor, called Entangle, for a few weeks now. All you have to do is checkout E17 and the E17 apps from CVS. You can add, remove, and edit icons in the menus or on the icon bar by right-clicking them like you'd expect to in a modern desktop environment.
"emerge e" is all that's required on Gentoo, other distros will be doing it manually. There is some good documentation at Get-E.org.
There's a really good Windows remote desktop client for Linux called rdesktop. It connects to XP's Desktop Sharing and 2003 Server. In my experience it's been rock-solid.
As far as the IE-only intranet pages are concerned, it is possible to coerce IE into running in Wine, but the easier and far more sensible solution would be to redesign the intranet pages, focussing on cross-compatibility.
would be modding an optical mouse into the Super Nintendo mouse.
It's something I've been thinking about for a while but hadn't gotten around to doing. The SNES mouse would certainly be more practical (useable) in Quake or Firefox.
would have to be Gay Niggers From Outer Space.
The GNAA put out a torrent of a VHS rip for those curious how bad a movie can be.
It might have rock-bottom production values and a below-b-grade script, but thinking about it I don't it's any less enjoyable a movie to watch than Spiderman 2 or *other random hollywood movie*.
It's worth watching just to know what everyone's on about.
and more of a pilgrimage.
If the commercial networks don't want me watching then that's no major loss for me, but I own a part of ABC, as does every taxpayer in the country. I like their content and the way they are pushing new technology in terms of broadband video on demand, digital radio, and digital television multicasting. Not only is it a bloody shame they're neglecting their viewership, but it's our responsibility to let them know that we don't like it before it becomes the norm (the excuse they used was that "the other stations are doing it").
I urge everyone who is as offended as I am to contact the ABC and let them know how you feel. With a large response to the watermarking they _will_ look into it. You can contact the ABC here.
Here's what I sent:
You may use that as I guide if you must.
What follows is a story of portable gaming of olde.
When I first saw the PSP I felt like i had seen it somewhere before. Indeed, after a bit of googleimagery I thought I was seeing double.
Compare this to this. And this to this. Similar, no? The console pictured is the infamous Atari Lynx.
Back in the day, the Atari Lynx launched and had better graphics (they were colour!) and had a 16-bit processor, as opposed to the Nintendo Gameboy's 8-bit Z80. The Lynx was undeniably better in the hardware department. It was meant to trigger a worldwide revolution or something. There would be rioting in electronics stores and wars fought in playgrounds.
And you know what happened to the Lynx? It faded into obscurity. Why? Gaming historians all agree; the Lynx had poor battery life. The system simply wasn't as portable as the Gameboy, nor did the games feature that Nintendo charm that you can't quite describe.
Nintendo has triumphed over every competitor that has launched an assault on their portable gaming stronghold over the last decade and a half. Now Nintendo faces what few would argue is their toughest competition yet. The Big N got complacent and Sony caught them off their guard with the original PlayStation, but battle-hardened Nintendo won't be giving up the portable domain so easily. This battle is going to be tough, and it's going to be decided on which console has the games that are the most fun. And that little battery life issue that lead to the downfall of the notorious Atari Lynx all those years ago.
Towards the end, SCO's business model was pretty much:
1) Sue
2) Sue
3) ???
4) Profit!
to the point where they listed court cases among their achievements on their corporate website.
The media indstry seems to be slowly heading in this direction. Maybe the demise of the RIAA labels / MPAA studios is imminent?
So yes, it burns a new one, once you need it.
The problem with devices converging is the compromises that are made. Instead of two seperate gadgets that do the job well, in this case a mobile phone and an MP3 player, you get one device that is substandard at everything. To me it seems as if the phone is just a gimmick to sell the MP3 player instead of being a functional replacement for a standalone phone.
Does it play Ogg Vorbis? I bet it doesn't, and I can name several standalone DAPs that do support it and probably have better audio quality.
A substandard MP3 player and a phone with poor battery life if you actually want to use both the components of this device? No thanks, I'll stick to my Rio Karma and my trusty old CDMA phone.
Turn off your TV.
Seriously.
The microwaves from satellite TV broadcasts are still coming into your house whether you subscribe to pay TV or not, as are the radio waves that terrestrial television is broadcast on. It doesn't mean you have to view the content of either.
But you need not bother with a faraday cage encompassing your entire home, or even tinfoil hats. Just press the off button on your TV remote.
TV waves are the real mind-control waves.
has featutred window iconification for a few weeks now.
New feature development is progressing rapidly. If you fetch and compile from CVS ever few days you'll notice new features or bug fixes or tweaks.
That's what I love about open source!