Excellent idea! Such a voluntary solution is the most ethically responsible option. However, it may be relying a bit too much on the public to not act stupid.
As a former Boy Scout/casual pyromaniac, I can attest to the fact that many passersby will do everything they can to mess with the system. Dancing on it to register a couple thousand people passing through. Sending the database operators messages in morse code. And, in some cases, blatant vandalism. I know that a part of me would certainly want to take it apart to see how it worked.
This kind of makes me sad, but it's a fact of human nature. We like to fuck with stuff, especially when no authority figures are in view. Hiking through the forest, miles from civilization, is fertile ground for mischief.
Have you used Virtual DJ before? If so, what do you think of it? Worth the $200?
I'm thinking of buying it for my brother's (an aspiring DJ) birthday. There is a downloadable demo, but I'm no DJ, and my 5 year old computer is not quite up to snuff. So I'm looking for some second opinions.
First of all? Best. Ask. Slashdot. Ever. Through these responses, I've found dozens of free programs that are damn useful. Even better, many of these programs are open-source, too. Sourceforge.net is absolutely hopping today! In fact, I think their UNC mirror got slashdotted at one point. Also, a number of non-sourceforged program download sites are also hammered... guess I'll have to download from them later. Damn.:-)
Second, my list. Almost all of my favorite programs are already mentioned in the +5 posts, so I won't list them all (there are a lot). Here's what's left of my top 25 or so programs I definitely install on a fresh Windows reinstall, in no particular order. Everything is free, unless otherwise noted. I don't think any of these are open-sourced, though.
ObjectDock - OS X's sexy toolbar that expands when you mouseover is now available for windows, too. Tons of useful plugins available, such as a weather tracker and system monitor.
Yz's dock - no link for this one because Apple killed it with a C&D letter. Same basic concept as ObjectDock; marginally better IMHO. If you really want it, google for yz_dck0083.zip.
StyleXP - I can't believe no one's mentioned this one yet. Windows skinning, anyone?
Crimson Editor - yet another lightweight (i.e., fast) file editor with extended functionality such as automatically coloring source code files.
MetaPad - extremely lightweight file editor, a replacement for notepad.exe.
Sothink SWF Decompiler - good for when I want to grab an image or sound out of a flash file.
Google Toolbar - yes, it's created by Google, the next Big Brother, but I like the pop-up blocker, and the privacy issues are moot if you take the time to uncheck one box.
Middle Man - for people like me who still use AOL's bread-and-butter AIM client, this is a great unofficial plug-in. Removes ads and adds a ton of new functionality.
Peer Guardian - another biggie that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned before. Blocks the RIAA and its ilk from connecting to your machine.
Total Recorder - (shareware/demo) captures all audio output and logs it to a wav or mp3 file. Good for stream ripping.
NetLimiter - (shareware/demo) limit your maximum upload/download speeds, optionally on a program by program basis. Some firewalls already have this functionality, though... but not all.
Apparently whoever researched the article didn't do too thorough a job. The "driverless cabs" idea has been around for decades, and a full-scale implementation has been in use since 1972 (!) at West Virginia University. Check out the WVU Personal Rapid Transit (PRT).
Re:Bandwidth Usage here we come!
on
Thebroken Videos
·
· Score: 1
This recursive one-up-manship has almost reached its base case, so I'll just fill in the last few iterations to save time and mod points:
...
Iteration 6: "Sticks? Beads? What is this crap? Why, in my day, we had fingers for calculating, and those were good enough!"
Iteration 7: "Fingers? You had fucking FINGERS? We did it all in our heads! Our brains worked just fine back in my day!"
Iteration 8: "Heads? Brains? Conscious thought is for suckers! Back in my day, we hadn't evolved yet, and we didn't exist, ergo there were no calculations to be performed in the bloody first place!"
Base case. QED. (QED = Latin expression for KTHXBYE.)
Very interesting observa. Some people *do* get really annoyed when stuff is left incomple. I wonder if it's related at all to Obsessive Compulsive Disor?
After reading through the comments, I'm surprised at the number of people who can't see the obvious: this patent is a huge boon for the anti-spamming community. The author of the article is one of those people too, unfortunately. RTFA, but think it through, too.
With the patent, AT&T can sue the makers of spamming software for patent infringement, unless SpamCo (or whatever company) makes sure that their mass e-mailer doesn't use any of AT&T's patented methods for avoiding filters. Of course, this will result in a crippled program: AntiSpamCo (or whatever company) knows exactly what SpamCo is not allowed to do, so their anti-spam filters will actually work.
So why is AT&T doing this? One, it could be good PR for them once AntiSpamCo et al. realize the implications. Two, (this is for all you conspiracy freaks out there) the government may have asked them do to it. Governmental agencies cannot hold patents. Only individuals and corporations hold patents.
I'm not trying to claim that AT&T is some benevolent corporation, though. It's entirely possible that, in addition to suing SpamCo, AT&T could also try to sue AntiSpamCo. They might not have as strong a case, but AntiSpamCo would still be using pieces of AT&T patent in their filtering software.
Despite that troublesome possibility, it'll be good to see SpamCo get what's coming to it. A lot (perhaps most) of SpamCos are rather or the sleazy, shoddy side; I'm sure there will be patent infringement. It will be interesting too see how soon and how vigorously AT&T will defend their patent in court.
Given NASA's skill at converting between measurement systems (think meters, feet, and rockets blowing up), I'm surprised that Orbital Development didn't try using euros on the bill instead of dollars. They could've struck it rich: just stand outside of NASA's accounting department and pick up the ejecta ($!) from the ensuing meltdown.
Anyone notice how the driver's seat is in the middle? Maybe they had to make it that way to make it a legal boat, or something.
But I'd like to see that feature in a regular car, too. Nicer view for me when I'm driving, no side seat drivers allowed, and plenty room for passengers in the back to stretch their feet.
Before light bulbs, tallow candles were the way to go. As you can imagine, the spontaneous materialization of tallow candles above people's heads when they chanced upon a bright idea constituted a major fire hazard. And tallow candles smell pretty bad, too; they're made out of animal fat.
Of course, this explains the Dark Ages. Good ideas caused more than their fair share of firey deaths back in the day.
Modern times: Color Kinetics has 100 patents in the works for LED lighting. So, if you have a good idea a decade or two from now, you'll have to pay massive licensing fees to the good folks at Color Kinetics. (Personally, I'd prefer the firey death.)
I agree that DoubleClick's advertising practices are misleading, unethical, and just plain stupid.
On the other hand... Does anyone remember those Orkin commercials where it looks like a cockroach is crawling across your screen? Clever advertising, even if it is misleading. There was a lawsuit a while back by some idiot woman who threw her shoe at the TV when she saw the ad. If I remember correctly, she lost the lawsuit, as she should have.
True, it's a slightly different scenario for this DoubleClick lawsuit. The key difference is that in the cockroach commercial, it's/obviously/ a commercial. Not so for those damn DoubleClick ads, to the moderately-literate computer user.
IMHO, the best eventual outcome of this DoubleClick lawsuit would be some laws requiring Internet advertisers (operating in the U.S. of course, sigh) mark their ads as such, with a big red "ADVERTISEMENT" in the upper left corner. Sort of like newspaper ads.
Slashdot Mirror
Arnold + Railguns = A sub-par movie (Eraser).
As a former Boy Scout/casual pyromaniac, I can attest to the fact that many passersby will do everything they can to mess with the system. Dancing on it to register a couple thousand people passing through. Sending the database operators messages in morse code. And, in some cases, blatant vandalism. I know that a part of me would certainly want to take it apart to see how it worked.
This kind of makes me sad, but it's a fact of human nature. We like to fuck with stuff, especially when no authority figures are in view. Hiking through the forest, miles from civilization, is fertile ground for mischief.
I'm thinking of buying it for my brother's (an aspiring DJ) birthday. There is a downloadable demo, but I'm no DJ, and my 5 year old computer is not quite up to snuff. So I'm looking for some second opinions.
Second, my list. Almost all of my favorite programs are already mentioned in the +5 posts, so I won't list them all (there are a lot). Here's what's left of my top 25 or so programs I definitely install on a fresh Windows reinstall, in no particular order. Everything is free, unless otherwise noted. I don't think any of these are open-sourced, though.
Apparently whoever researched the article didn't do too thorough a job. The "driverless cabs" idea has been around for decades, and a full-scale implementation has been in use since 1972 (!) at West Virginia University. Check out the WVU Personal Rapid Transit (PRT).
Iteration 6: "Sticks? Beads? What is this crap? Why, in my day, we had fingers for calculating, and those were good enough!"
Iteration 7: "Fingers? You had fucking FINGERS? We did it all in our heads! Our brains worked just fine back in my day!"
Iteration 8: "Heads? Brains? Conscious thought is for suckers! Back in my day, we hadn't evolved yet, and we didn't exist, ergo there were no calculations to be performed in the bloody first place!"
Base case. QED. (QED = Latin expression for KTHXBYE.)
+5 Funny please Even though this haiku sucks I'm a karma whore
Very interesting observa. Some people *do* get really annoyed when stuff is left incomple. I wonder if it's related at all to Obsessive Compulsive Disor?
With the patent, AT&T can sue the makers of spamming software for patent infringement, unless SpamCo (or whatever company) makes sure that their mass e-mailer doesn't use any of AT&T's patented methods for avoiding filters. Of course, this will result in a crippled program: AntiSpamCo (or whatever company) knows exactly what SpamCo is not allowed to do, so their anti-spam filters will actually work.
So why is AT&T doing this? One, it could be good PR for them once AntiSpamCo et al. realize the implications. Two, (this is for all you conspiracy freaks out there) the government may have asked them do to it. Governmental agencies cannot hold patents. Only individuals and corporations hold patents.
I'm not trying to claim that AT&T is some benevolent corporation, though. It's entirely possible that, in addition to suing SpamCo, AT&T could also try to sue AntiSpamCo. They might not have as strong a case, but AntiSpamCo would still be using pieces of AT&T patent in their filtering software.
Despite that troublesome possibility, it'll be good to see SpamCo get what's coming to it. A lot (perhaps most) of SpamCos are rather or the sleazy, shoddy side; I'm sure there will be patent infringement. It will be interesting too see how soon and how vigorously AT&T will defend their patent in court.
Given NASA's skill at converting between measurement systems (think meters, feet, and rockets blowing up), I'm surprised that Orbital Development didn't try using euros on the bill instead of dollars. They could've struck it rich: just stand outside of NASA's accounting department and pick up the ejecta ($!) from the ensuing meltdown.
But I'd like to see that feature in a regular car, too. Nicer view for me when I'm driving, no side seat drivers allowed, and plenty room for passengers in the back to stretch their feet.
Yeah, in basketball at least... but the football score difference will be about the same. :-)
Of course, this explains the Dark Ages. Good ideas caused more than their fair share of firey deaths back in the day.
Modern times: Color Kinetics has 100 patents in the works for LED lighting. So, if you have a good idea a decade or two from now, you'll have to pay massive licensing fees to the good folks at Color Kinetics. (Personally, I'd prefer the firey death.)
On the other hand... Does anyone remember those Orkin commercials where it looks like a cockroach is crawling across your screen? Clever advertising, even if it is misleading. There was a lawsuit a while back by some idiot woman who threw her shoe at the TV when she saw the ad. If I remember correctly, she lost the lawsuit, as she should have.
True, it's a slightly different scenario for this DoubleClick lawsuit. The key difference is that in the cockroach commercial, it's /obviously/ a commercial. Not so for those damn DoubleClick ads, to the moderately-literate computer user.
IMHO, the best eventual outcome of this DoubleClick lawsuit would be some laws requiring Internet advertisers (operating in the U.S. of course, sigh) mark their ads as such, with a big red "ADVERTISEMENT" in the upper left corner. Sort of like newspaper ads.