Screw the RIAA entirely. Go get decent music, GOOD music, from artists who haven't sold their souls to the corporate beast and actually give a damn about their audience and listeners. Check out the Podsafe Music Network.
Imagine how much more free content would be available if CreativeCommons.org published an API (with infrastructure to back it up) that allowed mobloggers to immediately release their materials quickly and painlessly into the Creative Commons.
Well, that's nice for listeners, but if aacPlus is as good as touted, then the real benefit will be to very small indie operators who want to serve up a few streams of their own over a DSL line - more listeners.
Speaking of which, does Shoutcast or any of the other popular streaming media software packages support aacPlus?
We're an aggressive small business based south of Boston, one of the quietly prospering dotcoms that didn't get razed by the bubble bursting. About a year ago, I was brought on to help manage the many technology challenges facing our company, and one of them was taming the chaos of the Internet from an end-user perspective. Mozilla FireSomething was exactly what the doctor ordered to reduce chaos and help bring safer browsing to the company. Combined with Thunderbird's built in spam reduction, our use of Mozilla products and the switch away from Microsoft-based products has kept us safe from a majority of exploits available today. We've even begun developing to take advantage of Mozilla's unique features, like tabbed browsing, which expedites the processing of student loans. No more browsing with hundreds of IE instances open, just one clean, easy to manage browser interface with tabs. If you ever call in to StudentLoanConsolidator.com to have your federal student loans consolidated, the clicking sound you hear in the background is our in house loan consolidation application and several tabs in Firefox being opened just for you.
Kudos to the Mozilla team for making our work more productive than ever!
UL testing, among other things. I used to work at Sony Electronics, and about half of the Japan imports failed UL testing - the first run of VAIO laptops actually caught fire - as in flames like a Christmas hearth - when they were first brought to SEL Park Ridge back in 1997.
UL stress testing replicates a lot of the unimaginably stupid things users do to their devices.
This clearly, totally demonstrates why we no longer need the Hubble! With our advanced Earthbound technology, we can resolve Sedna and its moons without the assistance of an orbital observation platform and....
As a student loan company, we get an enormous number of these calls every week. Every time we have a new hire, we have to take at least half a day of training to educate them on the various ways that overseas scammers will attempt to take advantage of phone reps. The TTY server, and AT&T's Internet Relay service, are badly abused. It's to the point now where we are considering a voice message to direct the rare legitimate TTY-necessary customer to either email or fax options - at least with those options, we can blacklist originating exchanges (outside the US) or on spam lists.
It's really sad, but there will always be those whose work ethic embodies the tragedy of the commons to the fullest.
Find out who the case manufacturer is - most cases are made by Taiwanese manufacturers, even brand names. One of the biggest is HyperData Direct - check their web site to see if they carry a generic case part for your laptop.
Accuracy-wise, it'll be interesting to see if the device produces any meaningful results - if it does, it might actually change the nature of the legal system. Lawyers and their ilk could afford to quickly and easily introduce "DNA test results" without regard to where the source material came from, and the public - which has little to no knowledge of DNA testings (witness the OJ trial) - may very well go for it, not knowing that a $100 Christmas toy did the testing.
I used to work for a government contractor a couple of years ago. Security - even when we got security guidelines, my fellow coders picked and chose which of them they actually felt like coding.
Now, should they have been canned? Absolutely. Were they? No. Is that the government's fault? Only partially, in the sense that the government didn't have any way of verifying whether the work we were doing met the standards they specified. Management at the government and at the contractor simply agreed that things looked good, and that was that.
As long as the US Government continues to rely on contractors and subcontractors who have no interest or profit motive to secure USG networks, the government will continue to be insecure. Compound that with the fact that the government remains married to Redmond for the majority of its end user systems, and it's no surprise that they received a "D".
Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the USG turns around and tries to pass additional "information security protection" legislation in response to this study, just like software vendors now do for reviewers. You can't say anything about USG systems under the rubric of anti-terrorism.
Here's an idea - why not incorporate yourself? Filing fees aren't that terrible - at least not if you file in the state of Delaware - and then you can enjoy all the rights and privileges of fellow corporations like Enron, Worldcom, and SCO! File abhorrently incorrect taxes! "Restate" your earnings to the IRS!
In all seriousness... if you're not a corporation or affiliated with one, you might be in a bit of trouble as the current pro-business administration continues its legislative agendae.
As one of the blockees of the latest Google Dance and such, it's not hard to find conspiracies and shadows hiding around each dance. The truth is, Google is reorganizing, and that's that. We as marketers and web site designers need to ultimately get away from SEO (search engine optimization) and put more focus on [a] delivering quality content and [b] decreasing our reliance on a single source of traffic. Google is great for finding stuff, even if it isn't my stuff, and I can't fault them for doing what they like. Ultimately, the market will decide - if their results over time become less relevant, than another search engine - even MSN - will take the lead.
Oh, and if anyone wants to consolidate some student loans, you won't find me under "Student Loan Consolidation" any more. We got the axe for that search phrase...:(
Slashdot Mirror
... knowing where you are. Cash position, cash flow, etc. Once you know that, you can make better decisions.
Oh, and listen to my podcast.
Christopher S. Penn
Daily financial aid internet radio on demand, no iPod required
http://www.financialaidpodcast.com/
Got iTunes? http://www.financialaidpodcast.com/subscribe/
Screw the RIAA entirely. Go get decent music, GOOD music, from artists who haven't sold their souls to the corporate beast and actually give a damn about their audience and listeners. Check out the Podsafe Music Network.
http://music.podshow.com/
--
Christopher S. Penn
Be sure to tune in to my daily podcast!
http://www.financialaidpodcast.com/
Imagine how much more free content would be available if CreativeCommons.org published an API (with infrastructure to back it up) that allowed mobloggers to immediately release their materials quickly and painlessly into the Creative Commons.
Well, that's nice for listeners, but if aacPlus is as good as touted, then the real benefit will be to very small indie operators who want to serve up a few streams of their own over a DSL line - more listeners.
Speaking of which, does Shoutcast or any of the other popular streaming media software packages support aacPlus?
http://www.google.com/googleblog/2004/09/china-goo gle-news-and-source-inclusion.html
can't be far away... if they got it into a 2" enclosure OK...
.... the Blue Skies of Death?
We're an aggressive small business based south of Boston, one of the quietly prospering dotcoms that didn't get razed by the bubble bursting. About a year ago, I was brought on to help manage the many technology challenges facing our company, and one of them was taming the chaos of the Internet from an end-user perspective. Mozilla FireSomething was exactly what the doctor ordered to reduce chaos and help bring safer browsing to the company. Combined with Thunderbird's built in spam reduction, our use of Mozilla products and the switch away from Microsoft-based products has kept us safe from a majority of exploits available today. We've even begun developing to take advantage of Mozilla's unique features, like tabbed browsing, which expedites the processing of student loans. No more browsing with hundreds of IE instances open, just one clean, easy to manage browser interface with tabs. If you ever call in to StudentLoanConsolidator.com to have your federal student loans consolidated, the clicking sound you hear in the background is our in house loan consolidation application and several tabs in Firefox being opened just for you.
Kudos to the Mozilla team for making our work more productive than ever!
UL testing, among other things. I used to work at Sony Electronics, and about half of the Japan imports failed UL testing - the first run of VAIO laptops actually caught fire - as in flames like a Christmas hearth - when they were first brought to SEL Park Ridge back in 1997.
UL stress testing replicates a lot of the unimaginably stupid things users do to their devices.
This clearly, totally demonstrates why we no longer need the Hubble! With our advanced Earthbound technology, we can resolve Sedna and its moons without the assistance of an orbital observation platform and....
oh wait.
Never mind.
See more Sedna
As a student loan company, we get an enormous number of these calls every week. Every time we have a new hire, we have to take at least half a day of training to educate them on the various ways that overseas scammers will attempt to take advantage of phone reps. The TTY server, and AT&T's Internet Relay service, are badly abused. It's to the point now where we are considering a voice message to direct the rare legitimate TTY-necessary customer to either email or fax options - at least with those options, we can blacklist originating exchanges (outside the US) or on spam lists.
It's really sad, but there will always be those whose work ethic embodies the tragedy of the commons to the fullest.
You don't procmail in front of delivery to filter out executables?
Friendster was hard to get into because of all those JSP errors. Orkut is by invitation only. Slight difference.
Find out who the case manufacturer is - most cases are made by Taiwanese manufacturers, even brand names. One of the biggest is HyperData Direct - check their web site to see if they carry a generic case part for your laptop.
That sounds good until you realize you'll be playing Daikatana for those twelve hour days... then you may be tempted to claw your eyeballs out.
Home paternity test only $100!
You've got to love the free market.
Accuracy-wise, it'll be interesting to see if the device produces any meaningful results - if it does, it might actually change the nature of the legal system. Lawyers and their ilk could afford to quickly and easily introduce "DNA test results" without regard to where the source material came from, and the public - which has little to no knowledge of DNA testings (witness the OJ trial) - may very well go for it, not knowing that a $100 Christmas toy did the testing.
Okay, we need a +6 Injured Myself Laughing So Damn Hard...
Oh, I made mention of it.
Guess what?
I got canned for mentioning it.
I used to work for a government contractor a couple of years ago. Security - even when we got security guidelines, my fellow coders picked and chose which of them they actually felt like coding.
Now, should they have been canned? Absolutely. Were they? No. Is that the government's fault? Only partially, in the sense that the government didn't have any way of verifying whether the work we were doing met the standards they specified. Management at the government and at the contractor simply agreed that things looked good, and that was that.
Hence my comment.
As long as the US Government continues to rely on contractors and subcontractors who have no interest or profit motive to secure USG networks, the government will continue to be insecure. Compound that with the fact that the government remains married to Redmond for the majority of its end user systems, and it's no surprise that they received a "D".
Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the USG turns around and tries to pass additional "information security protection" legislation in response to this study, just like software vendors now do for reviewers. You can't say anything about USG systems under the rubric of anti-terrorism.
Sigh.
Oh, sorry. I meant getting money for the actual product they're supposed to be dispensing.
And I wonder just how much of the settlements they get versus how much their lawyers get...
Funny how the music industry changes its tune as soon as the money starts rolling in.
...while the RIAA locks and loads the lawsuit cannon for yet another salvo.
"Oh yeah, the Internet, it's the latest thing!"
I wonder if customers will be as easily confused?
Of course there's a handling fee. You get to pay for someone to "handle" themselves with glee as they tack on an extra $25. :)
Here's an idea - why not incorporate yourself? Filing fees aren't that terrible - at least not if you file in the state of Delaware - and then you can enjoy all the rights and privileges of fellow corporations like Enron, Worldcom, and SCO! File abhorrently incorrect taxes! "Restate" your earnings to the IRS!
In all seriousness... if you're not a corporation or affiliated with one, you might be in a bit of trouble as the current pro-business administration continues its legislative agendae.
Chris Inc.
As one of the blockees of the latest Google Dance and such, it's not hard to find conspiracies and shadows hiding around each dance. The truth is, Google is reorganizing, and that's that. We as marketers and web site designers need to ultimately get away from SEO (search engine optimization) and put more focus on [a] delivering quality content and [b] decreasing our reliance on a single source of traffic. Google is great for finding stuff, even if it isn't my stuff, and I can't fault them for doing what they like. Ultimately, the market will decide - if their results over time become less relevant, than another search engine - even MSN - will take the lead.
:(
Oh, and if anyone wants to consolidate some student loans, you won't find me under "Student Loan Consolidation" any more. We got the axe for that search phrase...
Chris
http://www.slconsolidation.com