Free programs (i.e. costs zero dollars) that rip to MP3 are plentiful, on every platform. Who cares if those who distribute these programs throw a few dimes Fraunhofer's way?
As for hardware support, all MP3 players play MP3s. Somehow, they have already afforded that, even while paying licensing fees! By contrast, they haven't included OGG support, even though it would cost them no license fees! This proves that license fees are not a problem, and not what's blocking OGG adoption.
This is not to say that MP3 is the best format. I, for one, no longer encode to MP3. I use MPEG-4 AAC instead. It has similar quality benefits to OGG, but unlike OGG (and MP3Pro) actually has the only hardware support that matters. And just like MP3 and OGG, the encoder didn't cost me a dime.
I'm not picking on OGG as a technology, and I don't support the patenting of such silly things as the letter "S," the circle, and the phrase "Your mom." I just don't feel the MPEG patent is terribly cumbersome. It is not as if it requires you to pay royalties every time you encode or play a file for personal use. Fraunhofer invented it. So let them ask a little money of the large corporations that make encoders and players and record labels if they (har har) tried to sell MP3 files, and let those of us who wish to, use a "non-Free" codec. This doesn't hurt the consumer. Now Vorbis is welcome to exist in my universe. It does (at least attempt to do) some cool things that I will freely admit, such as bitrate peeling. I'm just asking you to look past your ideology and see which format has the most benefits to you.
I have to disagree with this particular statement. I attempted to install Photoshop by dragging the Photoshop.app just the other day and it complained copiously about missing/wrong-version stuff, and quit before it finished starting.
As for your general point, yes, at least 90% of the apps on my machine are one.app. If I decide I hate something, I can just trash it and be done (Useful for MSIE). I save a lot of time not going to Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs 3x a day.
It seems only the truly huge apps like PS, Dreamweaver, MS Office, need installers. A lot of apps, the official AIM client (I know, I know--suck) being one example, can be installed by dragging the executable, even though they're distributed with an installer. I know this because I keep that client stored in a DMG whenever I'm not using it due to its buggy, slow nature).
I already admitted that I have seen several machines without stability problems.
> That's true of any OS.
I'd say yes, the variability itself (the range) is pretty wide on any OS. But I'd wager a guess that Windows' stability with respect to each computer has an approximately uniform distribution (any level of stability ranging from unstable to stable is equally likely)* over {computer1, computern}, while other platforms have different distributions.
This is speculation, but I'd suspect that Mac OS X has a distribution looking more or less like a normal curve, with its left tail at about 60% stable and its peak at 95% stable, plus a little spike at "0% stable" to account for those Macs with really sick OS installs, and the occasional freak issue (e.g. nuked FW drives). I'd peg Unix in general as probably about the same.
*I say this because the various (at least 50) Windows XP installations that I've used have been approximately all over the map in terms of stability. Many very good, many very bad, many at varying degrees in between.
> BSOD == Old news, funny back in 1998. Uncommmon occurance in Win2k/XP.
You'd think that, however, even after a fresh install of XP Pro, all service packs and updates, only a few small, "Signed" drivers installed, my ex's Compaq laptop BSOD's at least every other day or so. When it chooses to BSOD. Sometimes the screen just goes black without explanation.
This is the second XP machine I've encountered just recently that has incredibly frustrating issues. To be fair, I've also encountered a some that work without major stability problems.
The bottom line is, Windows XP, just like any previous or future Windows release, has wildly varying stability, hinging upon your hardware and your popularity with the gods. Is the average uptime over all the NT-based Windows boxes greater than the average over all the Windows 9x (DOS)-based boxes? Of course! Would I touch 9x given that NT exists? Of course not! But don't get all high and mighty and try to claim that all XP installs are bulletproof. That's simply not true.
> Office X. I haven't heard bad things about that, yet.
Bad Thing: Crashes most every day that I use it. It's on my short list of software I plan on replacing.
Another Bad Thing: Office X will be obsolete as soon as the DRM'd Office '03 files start making the rounds. And since Office X was the last version of Office for Mac, there won't be any (legal?) way to read those new files without running a copy of Windows (either using MS Virtual PC, remotely logging into a Wintel box, or physically using a Wintel box). Next, expect Microsoft to change the Terminal Services/RDC protocol and obsolete their Mac client for that as well, to make sure you have to use the clunky, slow solution (VPC), or actually switch to Windows.
> They have little incentive to be good to their customers,
Never forget that you as a listener or viewer, are not the media outlet's customer! Their advertisers are their customers and the media outlets are very good to them! This is evidenced by the way the media consistently bring in eyeballs and ears for the ads.
Realizing that you are not the customer for the media, but rather their raw materials with which they manufacture ad impressions, can help you understand why, when considered altogether as a single unit, they don't care what you like. There are always going to be people watching TV. All that changes is which ones.
I understand your frustration with what I agree is a raw deal for you. However, Americans are impeded from getting these jobs in India, according to this article in CIO Magazine, "No Americans Need Apply."
This is unfortunate because I would definitely consider moving to India to follow the IT jobs. Instead I will have to stay here and face unemployment.
Yeah, that's true. I had DSL for two years, and there were occasional irritations and the connection would just go out for hours at a time. The braindead support reps would just keep feeding me this script for re-installing Enternet 300. That damn $#%@& Enternet 300. It was flaky, but it wasn't ever the real problem. They're just using that to waste my time while they try to find who accidentally kicked a router's plug out of the wall somewhere between here and Texas.
Switched to Adelphia Power Link after the 2-year contract with SBC ran out, and, now that connection easily get 400KB/s downloads, and it goes down about 1/4 as much. I am very pleased with Adelphia and their support, and would recommend them to anyone.
Based on that experience, I chose Comcast's cable Internet service when I moved in at San Francisco (for college). Not as good. Dropped out for ten minutes last night for no known reason. That, and SBC's being the last ISP to flip off the RIAA's unconstitutional subpoenas makes me want to give them a try again.
How was Spam not a problem in 1999? It wasn't as big a problem, I guess, but I remember that just having a guessable Hotmail account was enough to get bombarded with 5-10 porn ads every day in 1998!
Interesting reading. I would definitely use an open-source virus scanner. Especially if you could customize the definitions or download "packs" for it. You could have a "Spyware Pack" that would have defs for Spyware programs like Gator, etc.
And you know that somebody would make a "Micro$oft Pack" with defs that will actually detect a virus if you install, say, MSN Messenger or WMP. That would be good for a laugh.
"The tiny robot has an impressive capacity of just under 20 pounds of cargo, and will be used to dump Epson's worthless C-42UX printers on unsuspecting people's front steps and back yards, in hopes that they will eventually break down and buy replacement cartridges for them."
> carpool with someone from your office and get to know them
How is having a conversation with someone in the car any safer than talking on a headset?? Especially since the person in the car also adds the temptation to look over at them occasionally to see the expression on their face.
This is the argument I always pull out when people suggest cellphone-while-driving bans.
Cellphones aren't the problem. Distraction is. And you can't outlaw everything that might distract you.
(Now besides that part, I agree with what you're saying: Don't drive distractedly!)
I'm not saying I especially want this behavior. I'm just saying (a) sometimes (not always) I find that search field in Finder windows really useful, and (b) Microsoft, in their silliness, might be thinking about something like that as being the "next big thing" and therefore looking for non-sucky search technology with which to make it happen.
When I read the title I thought, YAY! A filter to kill Gator and related scum before they're installed.
But when I RTFA, I see that it's only good for worms and viruses. I'll take worms and viruses any day over Gator. You know, because GATOR IS SPYWARE. bwahaha.
Which brings me to the question: Can you write your own virus def's? I'd like to see an app that edited your favorite virus scanner's defs and added signatures for Gator, WhenU, etc. That would be so cool. ---------------------- VIRUS DETECTED!!
Religion has lots of influence on US schools. That's why the Pledge of Allegiance contains an unconstitutional nod to monotheism.
And whether they represent your views accurately or not, the fundamentalists are the ones setting the national Christian agenda on your behalf.
If you don't think all gays are going to hell, porn is the devil, masturbation is a sin, teenagers can reasonably be expected to be abstinent, etc etc, then you and the other sane Christians should get out there and be vocal to prove to the rest of us (in the US there are about 24 non-Christians) that you're not all Pat Robertson wackos.
> The ability to assign keywords and other metadata to files, or have it detected automatically, would be the main source of data.
Maybe this is why Microsoft wants to buy Google. Click "My Documents" and a search field appears on the folder into which you type "Budget spreadsheet June" and three or four candidates pop up. Most likely your doc is there otherwise you could click to display the other, less likely, candidates.
Sounds like a neat system to me. Although to be fair I'm pretty sure I can do approximately that with the search field in the toolbar of every Finder window (which Windows XP lacks).
Yeah, I agree with you, AC. After my dad took a more sane approach toward parental control (reasonableness and acknowledging my need to decide things for myself) we stopped having the huge fights that plagued us during the years when he took an iron-fisted approach.
Due to my having such freedom as a teen, transitioning to responsible adult was a walk in the park. Now I'm dependent on no one and I take care of everything on my own. (I'm now almost 20.)
The Internet was never really a problem for me in my house because I controlled the Internet connection and had my own computer, so the only way I could be snooped on was by low-tech means and no one cared to be that sneaky. So if I really wanted to look at pr0n, I just had to wait until no one was home and lock my door. But my dad definitely looked at a lot more Internet pr0n than I ever did.
He's not ignorant. The fundamentalist Christian sects in general are constantly pushing for "sex ed" programs which teach nothing about safe sex (e.g. contraceptive use) and everything about abstinence.
The point was, that if their sex ed class said "Don't have sex, you could get all kinds of STD's or get pregnant. Any questions? No? Good." And then the kids screwed up putting the condom on because they'd never been taught how it's done, then those who got that ridiculous "sex ed" program implemented in place of a sane one are partially to blame.
As for me, I never had sex ed, but I knew how to put a condom on anyway. Hell, they even put little tiny instruction booklets inside the Trojan box. With a little drawing. But that's not always enough for some people. Sex ed is the way to go.
What a great idea! I've been using the old printers as wastebasket stuffers!
Although... I can imagine my disappointment when I open a good-sized box and find, "Oh, how...great! An Epson C-42UX!" Ooh, and with no ink cartridges!
> a scrambler so that no one in the condo can use the spectrum?
Apparently you can. It's called the D-Link Wireless-B Access Point.
I use cables for lots of things, but it really takes the utility out of my AirPort card that I can't ever use it in the living room. I used to use it in there all the time; now I'm stuck at my desk.
Slashdot Mirror
OGG?
Free programs (i.e. costs zero dollars) that rip to MP3 are plentiful, on every platform. Who cares if those who distribute these programs throw a few dimes Fraunhofer's way?
As for hardware support, all MP3 players play MP3s. Somehow, they have already afforded that, even while paying licensing fees! By contrast, they haven't included OGG support, even though it would cost them no license fees! This proves that license fees are not a problem, and not what's blocking OGG adoption.
This is not to say that MP3 is the best format. I, for one, no longer encode to MP3. I use MPEG-4 AAC instead. It has similar quality benefits to OGG, but unlike OGG (and MP3Pro) actually has the only hardware support that matters. And just like MP3 and OGG, the encoder didn't cost me a dime.
I'm not picking on OGG as a technology, and I don't support the patenting of such silly things as the letter "S," the circle, and the phrase "Your mom." I just don't feel the MPEG patent is terribly cumbersome. It is not as if it requires you to pay royalties every time you encode or play a file for personal use. Fraunhofer invented it. So let them ask a little money of the large corporations that make encoders and players and record labels if they (har har) tried to sell MP3 files, and let those of us who wish to, use a "non-Free" codec. This doesn't hurt the consumer. Now Vorbis is welcome to exist in my universe. It does (at least attempt to do) some cool things that I will freely admit, such as bitrate peeling. I'm just asking you to look past your ideology and see which format has the most benefits to you.
I have to disagree with this particular statement. I attempted to install Photoshop by dragging the Photoshop.app just the other day and it complained copiously about missing/wrong-version stuff, and quit before it finished starting.
.app. If I decide I hate something, I can just trash it and be done (Useful for MSIE). I save a lot of time not going to Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs 3x a day.
As for your general point, yes, at least 90% of the apps on my machine are one
It seems only the truly huge apps like PS, Dreamweaver, MS Office, need installers. A lot of apps, the official AIM client (I know, I know--suck) being one example, can be installed by dragging the executable, even though they're distributed with an installer. I know this because I keep that client stored in a DMG whenever I'm not using it due to its buggy, slow nature).
> XP laptop that has never bluescreened
I already admitted that I have seen several machines without stability problems.
> That's true of any OS.
I'd say yes, the variability itself (the range) is pretty wide on any OS. But I'd wager a guess that Windows' stability with respect to each computer has an approximately uniform distribution (any level of stability ranging from unstable to stable is equally likely)* over {computer1, computern}, while other platforms have different distributions.
This is speculation, but I'd suspect that Mac OS X has a distribution looking more or less like a normal curve, with its left tail at about 60% stable and its peak at 95% stable, plus a little spike at "0% stable" to account for those Macs with really sick OS installs, and the occasional freak issue (e.g. nuked FW drives).
I'd peg Unix in general as probably about the same.
*I say this because the various (at least 50) Windows XP installations that I've used have been approximately all over the map in terms of stability. Many very good, many very bad, many at varying degrees in between.
> BSOD == Old news, funny back in 1998. Uncommmon occurance in Win2k/XP.
You'd think that, however, even after a fresh install of XP Pro, all service packs and updates, only a few small, "Signed" drivers installed, my ex's Compaq laptop BSOD's at least every other day or so. When it chooses to BSOD. Sometimes the screen just goes black without explanation.
This is the second XP machine I've encountered just recently that has incredibly frustrating issues. To be fair, I've also encountered a some that work without major stability problems.
The bottom line is, Windows XP, just like any previous or future Windows release, has wildly varying stability, hinging upon your hardware and your popularity with the gods. Is the average uptime over all the NT-based Windows boxes greater than the average over all the Windows 9x (DOS)-based boxes? Of course! Would I touch 9x given that NT exists? Of course not! But don't get all high and mighty and try to claim that all XP installs are bulletproof. That's simply not true.
You're thinking Southwest Airlines.
> Office X. I haven't heard bad things about that, yet.
Bad Thing:
Crashes most every day that I use it. It's on my short list of software I plan on replacing.
Another Bad Thing:
Office X will be obsolete as soon as the DRM'd Office '03 files start making the rounds. And since Office X was the last version of Office for Mac, there won't be any (legal?) way to read those new files without running a copy of Windows (either using MS Virtual PC, remotely logging into a Wintel box, or physically using a Wintel box). Next, expect Microsoft to change the Terminal Services/RDC protocol and obsolete their Mac client for that as well, to make sure you have to use the clunky, slow solution (VPC), or actually switch to Windows.
> They have little incentive to be good to their customers,
Never forget that you as a listener or viewer, are not the media outlet's customer! Their advertisers are their customers and the media outlets are very good to them! This is evidenced by the way the media consistently bring in eyeballs and ears for the ads.
Realizing that you are not the customer for the media, but rather their raw materials with which they manufacture ad impressions, can help you understand why, when considered altogether as a single unit, they don't care what you like. There are always going to be people watching TV. All that changes is which ones.
I understand your frustration with what I agree is a raw deal for you. However, Americans are impeded from getting these jobs in India, according to this article in CIO Magazine, "No Americans Need Apply."
This is unfortunate because I would definitely consider moving to India to follow the IT jobs. Instead I will have to stay here and face unemployment.
I noticed lots of credit card discussion in the patent.
I'm pretty sure you can sue the government. Unless you're in China.
Here's a judgment from a (totally unrelated) case where somebody did.
Actually, he's lucky on that one. IIRC Welchia/MSBlast only infect Win2k/xp. Since he's running 98, he's immune.
The ONLY WAY Win9x has any advantage, EVER over NT is not being vulnerable to those stupid worms.
Yeah, that's true. I had DSL for two years, and there were occasional irritations and the connection would just go out for hours at a time. The braindead support reps would just keep feeding me this script for re-installing Enternet 300. That damn $#%@& Enternet 300. It was flaky, but it wasn't ever the real problem. They're just using that to waste my time while they try to find who accidentally kicked a router's plug out of the wall somewhere between here and Texas.
Switched to Adelphia Power Link after the 2-year contract with SBC ran out, and, now that connection easily get 400KB/s downloads, and it goes down about 1/4 as much. I am very pleased with Adelphia and their support, and would recommend them to anyone.
Based on that experience, I chose Comcast's cable Internet service when I moved in at San Francisco (for college). Not as good. Dropped out for ten minutes last night for no known reason. That, and SBC's being the last ISP to flip off the RIAA's unconstitutional subpoenas makes me want to give them a try again.
How was Spam not a problem in 1999? It wasn't as big a problem, I guess, but I remember that just having a guessable Hotmail account was enough to get bombarded with 5-10 porn ads every day in 1998!
Interesting reading. I would definitely use an open-source virus scanner. Especially if you could customize the definitions or download "packs" for it. You could have a "Spyware Pack" that would have defs for Spyware programs like Gator, etc.
And you know that somebody would make a "Micro$oft Pack" with defs that will actually detect a virus if you install, say, MSN Messenger or WMP. That would be good for a laugh.
"The tiny robot has an impressive capacity of just under 20 pounds of cargo, and will be used to dump Epson's worthless C-42UX printers on unsuspecting people's front steps and back yards, in hopes that they will eventually break down and buy replacement cartridges for them."
> carpool with someone from your office and get to know them
How is having a conversation with someone in the car any safer than talking on a headset?? Especially since the person in the car also adds the temptation to look over at them occasionally to see the expression on their face.
This is the argument I always pull out when people suggest cellphone-while-driving bans.
Cellphones aren't the problem. Distraction is. And you can't outlaw everything that might distract you.
(Now besides that part, I agree with what you're saying: Don't drive distractedly!)
I'm not saying I especially want this behavior. I'm just saying (a) sometimes (not always) I find that search field in Finder windows really useful, and (b) Microsoft, in their silliness, might be thinking about something like that as being the "next big thing" and therefore looking for non-sucky search technology with which to make it happen.
When I read the title I thought, YAY! A filter to kill Gator and related scum before they're installed.
But when I RTFA, I see that it's only good for worms and viruses. I'll take worms and viruses any day over Gator. You know, because GATOR IS SPYWARE. bwahaha.
Which brings me to the question:
Can you write your own virus def's? I'd like to see an app that edited your favorite virus scanner's defs and added signatures for Gator, WhenU, etc. That would be so cool.
----------------------
VIRUS DETECTED!!
Win32.Spyware.Gator.B
Clean Failed.
Delete successful.
Access denied.
----------------------
Religion has lots of influence on US schools. That's why the Pledge of Allegiance contains an unconstitutional nod to monotheism.
And whether they represent your views accurately or not, the fundamentalists are the ones setting the national Christian agenda on your behalf.
If you don't think all gays are going to hell, porn is the devil, masturbation is a sin, teenagers can reasonably be expected to be abstinent, etc etc, then you and the other sane Christians should get out there and be vocal to prove to the rest of us (in the US there are about 24 non-Christians) that you're not all Pat Robertson wackos.
> The ability to assign keywords and other metadata to files, or have it detected automatically, would be the main source of data.
Maybe this is why Microsoft wants to buy Google. Click "My Documents" and a search field appears on the folder into which you type "Budget spreadsheet June" and three or four candidates pop up. Most likely your doc is there otherwise you could click to display the other, less likely, candidates.
Sounds like a neat system to me. Although to be fair I'm pretty sure I can do approximately that with the search field in the toolbar of every Finder window (which Windows XP lacks).
I am a left-wing cook, you insensitive clod! And my "Green Party Restaurant" has won many awards. How dare you insult me!
Yeah, I agree with you, AC. After my dad took a more sane approach toward parental control (reasonableness and acknowledging my need to decide things for myself) we stopped having the huge fights that plagued us during the years when he took an iron-fisted approach.
Due to my having such freedom as a teen, transitioning to responsible adult was a walk in the park. Now I'm dependent on no one and I take care of everything on my own. (I'm now almost 20.)
The Internet was never really a problem for me in my house because I controlled the Internet connection and had my own computer, so the only way I could be snooped on was by low-tech means and no one cared to be that sneaky. So if I really wanted to look at pr0n, I just had to wait until no one was home and lock my door. But my dad definitely looked at a lot more Internet pr0n than I ever did.
He's not ignorant. The fundamentalist Christian sects in general are constantly pushing for "sex ed" programs which teach nothing about safe sex (e.g. contraceptive use) and everything about abstinence.
The point was, that if their sex ed class said "Don't have sex, you could get all kinds of STD's or get pregnant. Any questions? No? Good." And then the kids screwed up putting the condom on because they'd never been taught how it's done, then those who got that ridiculous "sex ed" program implemented in place of a sane one are partially to blame.
As for me, I never had sex ed, but I knew how to put a condom on anyway. Hell, they even put little tiny instruction booklets inside the Trojan box. With a little drawing. But that's not always enough for some people. Sex ed is the way to go.
> use the old printer as a stocking stuffer
What a great idea! I've been using the old printers as wastebasket stuffers!
Although... I can imagine my disappointment when I open a good-sized box and find, "Oh, how...great! An Epson C-42UX!" Ooh, and with no ink cartridges!
> a scrambler so that no one in the condo can use the spectrum?
Apparently you can. It's called the D-Link Wireless-B Access Point.
I use cables for lots of things, but it really takes the utility out of my AirPort card that I can't ever use it in the living room. I used to use it in there all the time; now I'm stuck at my desk.