Ah, but what are the terms of the licenses the RIAA issues?
It doesn't matter. If it is licensed, the licensee must have a right to obtain a copy from any source -- that's what "having a license" means. If, on the other hand, the particular copy is bought then the owner has a right to use his property however he wishes, within the bounds of the law. That's what "owning the damn thing" means. Either the work can be licensed or a copy can be bought, but not both. The law simply Does Not Work That Way!
So, if I were an RIAA record label, I would probably say this: You the consumer buy only the media; you only license the music; but your license is valid only if you still possess the media.
And you could say that you were abducted by Elvis, who told you that the Second Coming of the Flying Spaghetti Monster will occur next Thursday, when he flies out of George W. Bush's ass, and it would have just as much legal weight to it -- that is to say, none whatsoever. We have a word for it around these parts; we call it "utter bullshit."
What, are you kidding? Between UPCs, surveillance cameras, metal detectors, and soon probably RFIDs, stealing music is harder now than it's ever been! Not to mention, the new mail-delivery (like Amazon.com) and digital download (like the iTunes Store) retailers are literally impossible to steal from.
This is a warning to the RIAA, keep this shit up and you'll make it way to easy for everyone to justify stealing from you because you are just too fucking evil. And I'll tell my son stealing from you is ok too because an group of soulless, vile, repugnant, people like you don't deserve any of our money or our respect.
Are you sure you used the right verb tense? It's already long past the point where the RIAA deserves any respect for their so-called "intellectual property[sic]!"
What, proof that people bought music legally in Russia and then imported it?
This is ridiculous -- people are so caught up with the RIAA, apparently, that they've forgotten that none of it makes sense: not only is AllOfMP3 operating within Russian law, the RIAA isn't even suing in a jurisdiction that has any power whatsoever to enforce a judgement! The RIAA is on a witch hunt, and that's the nicest thing that can be said about it!
Also, because the OLPC DE runs under Python, the DE can be precompiled Python bytecodes, which presumably take up less memory space than native compiled code. (Note that this whole paragraph is a guess; I welcome comments from someone who actually knows whether I got it right.)
The size of the code wasn't the reason for using interpreted code; the important thing is that the kids can look at it and see how it works.
The most recent game I bought was Railroad Tycoon 3, which didn't get much play time because it required the CD in the drive to work, which is not good for me, because my laptop and the CD are frequently not in the same place.
One of the things I like about OS X is that it works so well with disk images -- try creating one from your Railroad Tycoon CD, mounting it, and seeing if the game lets you play then. It works for me with Ghost Recon and Age of Empires 2 anyway...
Oh, well if reducing bureaucracy is your goal, then the solution is just to eliminate the public health care entirely and let people do whatever they want.
If an innocent is sent to prison for life there's still a change s/he can be cleared and set free but they can't be brought back to life once executed.
I mostly agree, but with one exception: if it's blatantly obvious the person is guilty (e.g. the person in question is Saddam Hussein, or there's video and 100 eye-witnesses that saw the guy pull the trigger, or whatever, I think the death penalty, swiftly carried out, is useful for the simple fact that it saves the taxpayers the cost of imprisonment. Either that, or the prisoners should be made to work to earn their keep, anyway...
WMV is far from ideal, but it's better than switching to a format which almost nobody can play without installing additional software.
No, it's not. Using a codec that everyone can play after installing the additional software is better than using one that some people can't play at all.
Besides, it's not as if the Windows users would have to fend for themselves -- all the EU has to do is pick a player for Windows and link to it from their site (maybe write something like "can't see the video? click here"). It's Not That Hard!
...if people want to spread anti-DRM FUD, I say we let them! : )
But seriously, you're absolutely correct that Vista won't screw with non-DRM'd media. The flip side of that, though, is that Vista's DRM "support" won't do him any good either. Even though Microsoft has been claiming that the DRM will help producers of content like him, I think it's obvious that it'd be just too damn inconvenient.
What's the big difference between party shuffle and playlist shuffle?
Well, for one thing, I prefer the party shuffle because you can add, subtract, and re-arrange things in it. I suppose it doesn't make so much difference for a car, because I hopefully wouldn't be messing with it as much as I do on my iMac, but it's definitely better than a normal playlist.
The problem is that letting off the throttle suddenly causes engine braking which can actually cause the car to swap ends if it's slippery.
The same thing can happen with RWD. Besides, it's perception that sells cars anyway, not reality.
Flat floor pans? I haven't seen a truly flat-floor FWD *car* recently.
Well, at least it's flater than it would be with a driveshaft in it. For example, my car (a Hyundai Accent) has a "hump" (if you can call it that) only an inch or two high. In contrast, the one in the last RWD car I've been in (a Mercury Grand Marquis) was probably closer to 8 or 10 inches. Maybe it's not flat, but it's still a huge difference.
Actually, what I'd like to see is a fairly light sedan with a powertrain mounted over the rear axle. With modern engine technology, it would be possible to make the powertrain light and compact enough not to make the car too rear-heavy. And then you avoid the problem of having the exhaust run under the car from front to rear. You could have a totally flat underside which is good for aerodynamics as well. Body bracing would be provided by taller side sills, and the doors would be gullwings so as to allow one to step "in and over" to get into the car.
Yep, that would be pretty cool -- but I doubt "normal" peopel would agree. Maybe you ought to just get yourself a Toyota MR2 or something and be happy, even if it's not a sedan.
I have an iPod. The trouble is that iPods don't have party shuffle, and that there's no reasonably-priced way to interface it with the car stereo -- those FM transmitters don't work (I have one that I'm going to return), and my car doesn't have a casette deck.
Audi offers the A3 in the U.S., but not in it's lighter, nimbler Euro 3-door trim, and without the interesting engines (FSI Diesel) that Europeans get.
A correction to your correction: Actually it does offer a 3-door A3 (or rather, it has in the past and will in the future). It's just called a VW Golf or Rabbit (depending on model year) instead. And yes, they were and will be available with the diesel.
Rather than amend the Clean Air Act to give Diesels a fighting chance, we defer to gas hogs and sophisticated catalysts. The Europeans have it right; we're off course.
Diesels will be back in the next model year, now that we've got decent low-sulfur fuel.
And don't get me started on CAFE regs.
With this, you have a point. It's absurd that they finally fix the milage estimates they put on new cars' window stickers, but still use the old figures for CAFE!
Part of the issue with FWD vs. RWD is safety concerns by "normal" (i.e., uneducated on how to drive a RWD car) drivers. A FWD car typically understeers, and to correct it you simply reduce the throttle. This is intuitive. In contrast, a RWD car typically oversteers, and to correct it you have to countersteer intead. This is not intuitive. This difference is why "normal" people tend to prefer FWD cars.
Also, FWD cars are cheaper to make and have flat floor pans, which is probably the main reasons why they're more popular.
So what does that leave for speech? Maybe you can say, "launch microsoft word" and then, once it's launched, you start typing. Or you could say, "next song" and iTunes would switch to the next song instead of having to click on a button.
Mac OS X has been able to do -- literally -- exactly that for a couple of years now, at least.
And what happens when you're sitting at your computer, and you say something to your friend about "the next song in my playlist..." How does it know you don't want to go to the next song?
You can choose either to have it only recognize when a button is held down, or say a keyword -- mine is set to "computer" right now, like on Star Trek -- at the beginning of each phrase to be recognized.
I imagine Windows would implement it in a similar way, when (or if -- ha ha!) it ever catches up. : )
That depends on the implentation. Personally, I'd love to have a computer running iTunes in my car -- all I'd have to do is set it to "party shuffle" and hit "next track" every once in a while.
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It doesn't matter. If it is licensed, the licensee must have a right to obtain a copy from any source -- that's what "having a license" means. If, on the other hand, the particular copy is bought then the owner has a right to use his property however he wishes, within the bounds of the law. That's what "owning the damn thing" means. Either the work can be licensed or a copy can be bought, but not both. The law simply Does Not Work That Way!
And you could say that you were abducted by Elvis, who told you that the Second Coming of the Flying Spaghetti Monster will occur next Thursday, when he flies out of George W. Bush's ass, and it would have just as much legal weight to it -- that is to say, none whatsoever. We have a word for it around these parts; we call it "utter bullshit."
What, are you kidding? Between UPCs, surveillance cameras, metal detectors, and soon probably RFIDs, stealing music is harder now than it's ever been! Not to mention, the new mail-delivery (like Amazon.com) and digital download (like the iTunes Store) retailers are literally impossible to steal from.
Are you sure you used the right verb tense? It's already long past the point where the RIAA deserves any respect for their so-called "intellectual property[sic]!"
Well of course you'd say that -- you're one of them!
What, proof that people bought music legally in Russia and then imported it?
This is ridiculous -- people are so caught up with the RIAA, apparently, that they've forgotten that none of it makes sense: not only is AllOfMP3 operating within Russian law, the RIAA isn't even suing in a jurisdiction that has any power whatsoever to enforce a judgement! The RIAA is on a witch hunt, and that's the nicest thing that can be said about it!
Yeah, but Verizon would claim it was only supposed to be 0.02 cents!
Oh, good point: executing people who want to be executed seems reasonable too.
The size of the code wasn't the reason for using interpreted code; the important thing is that the kids can look at it and see how it works.
I don't know a whole lot about cookies, but wouldn't you think `wget` would provide a way to download them if you need to?
One of the things I like about OS X is that it works so well with disk images -- try creating one from your Railroad Tycoon CD, mounting it, and seeing if the game lets you play then. It works for me with Ghost Recon and Age of Empires 2 anyway...
Oh, well if reducing bureaucracy is your goal, then the solution is just to eliminate the public health care entirely and let people do whatever they want.
In that case, what they ought to do is not ban the substances, but merely make you ineligible for public health care if you use them.
Smoking in public places is reasonable to ban, however, because second-hand smoke affects people other than the smoker.
I mostly agree, but with one exception: if it's blatantly obvious the person is guilty (e.g. the person in question is Saddam Hussein, or there's video and 100 eye-witnesses that saw the guy pull the trigger, or whatever, I think the death penalty, swiftly carried out, is useful for the simple fact that it saves the taxpayers the cost of imprisonment. Either that, or the prisoners should be made to work to earn their keep, anyway...
No, it's not. Using a codec that everyone can play after installing the additional software is better than using one that some people can't play at all.
Besides, it's not as if the Windows users would have to fend for themselves -- all the EU has to do is pick a player for Windows and link to it from their site (maybe write something like "can't see the video? click here"). It's Not That Hard!
...if people want to spread anti-DRM FUD, I say we let them! : )
But seriously, you're absolutely correct that Vista won't screw with non-DRM'd media. The flip side of that, though, is that Vista's DRM "support" won't do him any good either. Even though Microsoft has been claiming that the DRM will help producers of content like him, I think it's obvious that it'd be just too damn inconvenient.
Well, for one thing, I prefer the party shuffle because you can add, subtract, and re-arrange things in it. I suppose it doesn't make so much difference for a car, because I hopefully wouldn't be messing with it as much as I do on my iMac, but it's definitely better than a normal playlist.
The same thing can happen with RWD. Besides, it's perception that sells cars anyway, not reality.
Well, at least it's flater than it would be with a driveshaft in it. For example, my car (a Hyundai Accent) has a "hump" (if you can call it that) only an inch or two high. In contrast, the one in the last RWD car I've been in (a Mercury Grand Marquis) was probably closer to 8 or 10 inches. Maybe it's not flat, but it's still a huge difference.
Yep, that would be pretty cool -- but I doubt "normal" peopel would agree. Maybe you ought to just get yourself a Toyota MR2 or something and be happy, even if it's not a sedan.
I have an iPod. The trouble is that iPods don't have party shuffle, and that there's no reasonably-priced way to interface it with the car stereo -- those FM transmitters don't work (I have one that I'm going to return), and my car doesn't have a casette deck.
You know, I'd love to do that -- in fact, I've even got a spare Epia I could use for it. However, you mentioned the problem:
Since the car isn't tecnically mine (it's my parent's), I can't do that.
A correction to your correction: Actually it does offer a 3-door A3 (or rather, it has in the past and will in the future). It's just called a VW Golf or Rabbit (depending on model year) instead. And yes, they were and will be available with the diesel.
Diesels will be back in the next model year, now that we've got decent low-sulfur fuel.
With this, you have a point. It's absurd that they finally fix the milage estimates they put on new cars' window stickers, but still use the old figures for CAFE!
Part of the issue with FWD vs. RWD is safety concerns by "normal" (i.e., uneducated on how to drive a RWD car) drivers. A FWD car typically understeers, and to correct it you simply reduce the throttle. This is intuitive. In contrast, a RWD car typically oversteers, and to correct it you have to countersteer intead. This is not intuitive. This difference is why "normal" people tend to prefer FWD cars.
Also, FWD cars are cheaper to make and have flat floor pans, which is probably the main reasons why they're more popular.
Mac OS X has been able to do -- literally -- exactly that for a couple of years now, at least.
You can choose either to have it only recognize when a button is held down, or say a keyword -- mine is set to "computer" right now, like on Star Trek -- at the beginning of each phrase to be recognized.
I imagine Windows would implement it in a similar way, when (or if -- ha ha!) it ever catches up. : )
Have you ever tried this?
That depends on the implentation. Personally, I'd love to have a computer running iTunes in my car -- all I'd have to do is set it to "party shuffle" and hit "next track" every once in a while.