I'm aware of Cubase and Lightwave that use dongles. Cubase and related software can be quite tricky about it... Hypersonic, for example is a virtual instrument, and if it detects that the dongle driver has been cracked, it doesn't give out an error, it simply adds bugs and makes some of the presets sound crap. The Lightwave dongle actually contains some of the program's code, so that some operations are performed on the dongle. If you try to do these operations with the cracked version, you get weird and cryptic errors.
TaskSwitch XP might be of interest to you. It's a Windows alt-tab replacement that lets you click on object windows as opposed to bashing tab repeatedly (you can still bash tab if you like) and it shows screenshots of the windows you hover over. Open source project.
Don't be alarmed, folks, the pinging sound you hear is that of silicon, slowly cooling from its melting point 1410 degrees C. Presumably this is where the term from which "ping" sprang.
*shrugs*. It was a social commentary. I doubt anything I say or do here has any measurable effect whatsoever upon the issue at hand. Also, I don't really have an opinion on the issue, other than the fact that a good portion of the people reading the article (or, indeed, not reading it) will mindlessly dismiss any positive contribution Microsoft are making to the spam problem simply because it's them doing it.
First we wanted them to do something about spam, now we're pissed off that they're not doing it our way. If they did it under the GPL, we'd probably get pissed if they used SourceSafe instead of SourceForge. Maybe we'd be mad that they're writing in C# instead of C. I just wanted to point out that it doesn't matter what the issue is - if it's Microsoft doing it, they're Wrong.
Bah, original sin is just too difficult to bother with nowadays. Everything's been done already. The other day, I threw eggs at a nun's car while riding a unicycle and smoking a joint, and my priest said even that had been done before. QED.
Their software and business practises aside, I'm quite fond of Microsoft Natural keyboards. They're pretty expensive though, so you can imagine my disappointment when I did the same thing with Bacardi... lots of pretty burn marks in the circuit board.
Actually, we've already got DMCA provisions. You're not allowed to break copy-protection on computer software. There are a few exceptions to this rule, however, as explained in this guide to the Copyright Amendment (Computer Programs) Act (1999). The link is a guide to the amendment, but I was unable to find a copy of the amendment itself. Quoth the page:
What do the new laws allow me to do?
The new Division allows you to reproduce (including by decompilation) a computer program:
as part of the normal running of the program;
in order to study how it functions;
to make a back-up copy of the program;
to make an interoperable product;
to correct errors in the program; or
to test its security.
Another provision of note is that mod chips are legal here, as decided in the 'Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment v Stevens [2002] FCA 906' decision, where Sony lost (Muhahahahaha!).
Is anyone else offended by the political agenda set forth in C&C Generals? The evil GLA which will stop at nothing to liberate... uh... we dunno, really. They're called the Global Liberation Army but the game thoroughly avoids letting the player know who's being liberated or why.
The behaviour required from a general of the GLA is, of course, deplorable. Killing your own townspeople is fine, apparantly, as long as you don't stop to think that the slaughter and/or oppression of your townspeople is one of the things you're pissed off about in the first place...
Makes you wonder, though, if this isn't a bit of satire at the way the pro-western news stations represent the information. Osama bin Ladin, for example, is portrayed as an evil terrorist who kills randomly but how many people even know why? Most people seem to think he kills because he likes it and few seem to have any trouble believing that. [insert obligatory comment to distance self from pro-terrorists].
I must say that I don't have enough power in my room. There's only one outlet here and I run a PC, (musical) keyboard, guitar effects kit, DSL modem, clock, etc etc. I have a power strip plugged into another power strip. An interesting side effect is that when I turn on my fan, my USB hub reboots.
From some hunting around, they're charging $5000 US + tax. The thing has two sequencers and a hard disk sampler (which supports Gigasampler and AKAI formats).
It's supposedly being designed as a player's keyboard as well as a studio tool, but actual details are a bit sketchy. Expect video demos after NAMM (in January).
It seems pretty 'complete' but that's a lot more subjective than it seems. I don't use half the features of Cubase SX, so even Sonar seems pretty complete to me.
There is also some talk of supporting VST instruments with this thing, which would be absolutely awesome.
Well, I pay $80 AUD per month (about $50 USD) and i get 256/64 ADSL with unlimited downloads. This is one of maybe three or four companies that actually offer unlimited downloads - nearly *everyone* in Australia has download limits and I've been kicked off of two ISPs before citing over-downloading.
Broadband started out here with no download limits, when three companies were offering it (Telstra, Optus and OneNet). A while ago, OneNet collapsed and lo and behold, Telstra and Optus had capped downloads.
I'm amazed at what people from the USA are whinging about in regards to high-speed connections - I'd gladly pay $40 US per month for 512/128 any day. In Australia that'll cost you (equiv of) $60 USD and you'll have 5 gb of downloads at your disposal.
Speaking as an audio-recording guy and an audiophile (one of those really annoying ones that bitches about cinemas having subwoofers turned up too high) I can't say as I have much use for an on-board sound solution. They are extremely useful, however, in some situations. It doesn't make much difference to Joe Gamer with his Logitech satellite 2.1 jobbie whether his MP3s are 128 or 320 kbit, whether his audio's Dolby or DTS or whether his sound card's SNR is 70 or 100 dB - with one link in the chain (in this case, his speakers) which is weak, the rest don't matter a damn. If he's happy, though, who cares?
Joe Studio, on the other hand, is probably not going to be satisfied plugging his monitors (geeks: that's the flashy word for accurate speakers) into anything that doesn't have an Aardvark Audio logo on it. That's not because he's a snob, it's because your average consumer sound card has a hopeless (if any) ASIO implementation (yes, Creative, I'm talking to you) and lacks features such as 24 bit/192khz support, external clock sync, ADAT support or halfway decent A/Ds.
At the end of the day, it's different strokes for different folks - most people couldn't care less whether or not their sound solution sounds good or great, as most of them sound pretty good these days and with your average speaker solution (generally the chain's weak link) it doesn't make any difference anyway. The machine I use at work has an old Yamaha sound card and it's noisier than AM radio, whilst the on-board sound on my motherboard (which I use when I'm in Linux as there's no driver for my main sound card) is great. On-board sound definitely has its place, even if it's not for everyone.
The thing I'd like to know, however, is why Cubase SX on PC was pitted against Logic Audio Platinum on the Mac... both programs are available for both operating systems. Sure, Logic is more popular for the Mac and vice versa for PC, but it would have been a much fairer comparison if the two products were not pitted against one another.
Personally, I hope not. Linux has a lot to learn from OS X and the junky spiel you get from everyone about Linux being "hard to use" has some truth in its madness. You can't ask a typical idiot to go to a shell and./configure, make and make install - it's all too overwhelming. And what about uninstall? Most of my friends haven't figured that out yet... what you can ask them to do is drag stuff into the trash can, because that makes sense.
On a side note, speaking as a music producer, I can't see much of the mucho expensive music software taking off on a free operating system... I mean, the price of Cubase SX, in comparison to the cost of Windows, is pretty outrageous to begin with, but when you consider that the whole rest of your applications, including your office suite, were free, you'll be even more apprehensive.
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I'm aware of Cubase and Lightwave that use dongles. Cubase and related software can be quite tricky about it... Hypersonic, for example is a virtual instrument, and if it detects that the dongle driver has been cracked, it doesn't give out an error, it simply adds bugs and makes some of the presets sound crap. The Lightwave dongle actually contains some of the program's code, so that some operations are performed on the dongle. If you try to do these operations with the cracked version, you get weird and cryptic errors.
Wow. I wonder how they find the time to manage all those resources.
Yes, it's a marketable brand of laundry detergent. http://slashdot.org/articles/99/12/16/1248216.shtm l/
I don't see why not. No country has freedom either, so that's half of the big two knackered for a start.
TaskSwitch XP might be of interest to you. It's a Windows alt-tab replacement that lets you click on object windows as opposed to bashing tab repeatedly (you can still bash tab if you like) and it shows screenshots of the windows you hover over. Open source project.
Nyet.
Don't be alarmed, folks, the pinging sound you hear is that of silicon, slowly cooling from its melting point 1410 degrees C. Presumably this is where the term from which "ping" sprang.
*shrugs*. It was a social commentary. I doubt anything I say or do here has any measurable effect whatsoever upon the issue at hand. Also, I don't really have an opinion on the issue, other than the fact that a good portion of the people reading the article (or, indeed, not reading it) will mindlessly dismiss any positive contribution Microsoft are making to the spam problem simply because it's them doing it.
First we wanted them to do something about spam, now we're pissed off that they're not doing it our way. If they did it under the GPL, we'd probably get pissed if they used SourceSafe instead of SourceForge. Maybe we'd be mad that they're writing in C# instead of C. I just wanted to point out that it doesn't matter what the issue is - if it's Microsoft doing it, they're Wrong.
Newsflash: OSS community dissatisfied with Microsoft's actions. The shock caused by this devastatingly original sentiment is almost immeasurable.
Bah, original sin is just too difficult to bother with nowadays. Everything's been done already. The other day, I threw eggs at a nun's car while riding a unicycle and smoking a joint, and my priest said even that had been done before. QED.
Their software and business practises aside, I'm quite fond of Microsoft Natural keyboards. They're pretty expensive though, so you can imagine my disappointment when I did the same thing with Bacardi... lots of pretty burn marks in the circuit board.
That's why you download it with NetTransport. Does anyone know of a similar Linux app? Or at least a GPL windows one?
Actually, we've already got DMCA provisions. You're not allowed to break copy-protection on computer software. There are a few exceptions to this rule, however, as explained in this guide to the Copyright Amendment (Computer Programs) Act (1999). The link is a guide to the amendment, but I was unable to find a copy of the amendment itself. Quoth the page:
Another provision of note is that mod chips are legal here, as decided in the 'Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment v Stevens [2002] FCA 906' decision, where Sony lost (Muhahahahaha!).
Is anyone else offended by the political agenda set forth in C&C Generals? The evil GLA which will stop at nothing to liberate... uh... we dunno, really. They're called the Global Liberation Army but the game thoroughly avoids letting the player know who's being liberated or why.
The behaviour required from a general of the GLA is, of course, deplorable. Killing your own townspeople is fine, apparantly, as long as you don't stop to think that the slaughter and/or oppression of your townspeople is one of the things you're pissed off about in the first place...
Makes you wonder, though, if this isn't a bit of satire at the way the pro-western news stations represent the information. Osama bin Ladin, for example, is portrayed as an evil terrorist who kills randomly but how many people even know why? Most people seem to think he kills because he likes it and few seem to have any trouble believing that. [insert obligatory comment to distance self from pro-terrorists].
I must say that I don't have enough power in my room. There's only one outlet here and I run a PC, (musical) keyboard, guitar effects kit, DSL modem, clock, etc etc. I have a power strip plugged into another power strip. An interesting side effect is that when I turn on my fan, my USB hub reboots.
From some hunting around, they're charging $5000 US + tax. The thing has two sequencers and a hard disk sampler (which supports Gigasampler and AKAI formats).
It's supposedly being designed as a player's keyboard as well as a studio tool, but actual details are a bit sketchy. Expect video demos after NAMM (in January).
It seems pretty 'complete' but that's a lot more subjective than it seems. I don't use half the features of Cubase SX, so even Sonar seems pretty complete to me.
There is also some talk of supporting VST instruments with this thing, which would be absolutely awesome.
Well, I pay $80 AUD per month (about $50 USD) and i get 256/64 ADSL with unlimited downloads. This is one of maybe three or four companies that actually offer unlimited downloads - nearly *everyone* in Australia has download limits and I've been kicked off of two ISPs before citing over-downloading.
Broadband started out here with no download limits, when three companies were offering it (Telstra, Optus and OneNet). A while ago, OneNet collapsed and lo and behold, Telstra and Optus had capped downloads.
I'm amazed at what people from the USA are whinging about in regards to high-speed connections - I'd gladly pay $40 US per month for 512/128 any day. In Australia that'll cost you (equiv of) $60 USD and you'll have 5 gb of downloads at your disposal.
Speaking as an audio-recording guy and an audiophile (one of those really annoying ones that bitches about cinemas having subwoofers turned up too high) I can't say as I have much use for an on-board sound solution. They are extremely useful, however, in some situations. It doesn't make much difference to Joe Gamer with his Logitech satellite 2.1 jobbie whether his MP3s are 128 or 320 kbit, whether his audio's Dolby or DTS or whether his sound card's SNR is 70 or 100 dB - with one link in the chain (in this case, his speakers) which is weak, the rest don't matter a damn. If he's happy, though, who cares?
Joe Studio, on the other hand, is probably not going to be satisfied plugging his monitors (geeks: that's the flashy word for accurate speakers) into anything that doesn't have an Aardvark Audio logo on it. That's not because he's a snob, it's because your average consumer sound card has a hopeless (if any) ASIO implementation (yes, Creative, I'm talking to you) and lacks features such as 24 bit/192khz support, external clock sync, ADAT support or halfway decent A/Ds.
At the end of the day, it's different strokes for different folks - most people couldn't care less whether or not their sound solution sounds good or great, as most of them sound pretty good these days and with your average speaker solution (generally the chain's weak link) it doesn't make any difference anyway. The machine I use at work has an old Yamaha sound card and it's noisier than AM radio, whilst the on-board sound on my motherboard (which I use when I'm in Linux as there's no driver for my main sound card) is great. On-board sound definitely has its place, even if it's not for everyone.
The thing I'd like to know, however, is why Cubase SX on PC was pitted against Logic Audio Platinum on the Mac... both programs are available for both operating systems. Sure, Logic is more popular for the Mac and vice versa for PC, but it would have been a much fairer comparison if the two products were not pitted against one another.
Personally, I hope not. Linux has a lot to learn from OS X and the junky spiel you get from everyone about Linux being "hard to use" has some truth in its madness. You can't ask a typical idiot to go to a shell and ./configure, make and make install - it's all too overwhelming. And what about uninstall? Most of my friends haven't figured that out yet... what you can ask them to do is drag stuff into the trash can, because that makes sense.
On a side note, speaking as a music producer, I can't see much of the mucho expensive music software taking off on a free operating system... I mean, the price of Cubase SX, in comparison to the cost of Windows, is pretty outrageous to begin with, but when you consider that the whole rest of your applications, including your office suite, were free, you'll be even more apprehensive.