I managed to find the link after some googling but thanks for the tip anyway.
Yeah, the software works remarkably well. I can't seem to get content to open in a browser though, only through the player. I'm not sure if I'm missing a plug-in or whether this is even possible.
Wise move on the winbox. Luckily a Mac version of Warcraft keeps me away from wintel.
Yeah, I've been regularly cursing bbc.co.uk for dumping QuickTime and switching to Real.
The icing on the cake is that if you follow the helpful link from bbc.co.uk to the Real download site, you can find a Windows player but no Mac version.
Not really. In the UK, there was an area (probably quite a few) where the fire brigade would get pelted with stones when they'd visit to put out a fire.
Now they will only answer a call once they've arranged a police escort.
Even if this area has a particular racial mix, this can't be considered racism. They have to protect their people who are just doing their job. If they want to stop this, the community have to work with the police to stop this.
It's the same with these blacklists, if they want it fixed, the customers have to complain to their ISPs.
Sounds like you know more than I do about the technical aspects of the disk copy protection software. I just remember the terrible noises that used to come from the drive when certain disks were in there.
I remember there being a debate as to whether some types of copy protection actually shortened the life of drives. Any idea if this is true? (I'm thinking about copy protected disks from the Amiga).
Ah, SimCity... Those were the days... I had it on the Amiga and don't remember a copy protection scheme but then I think my disk died so I used a cracked copy.
I look forward to the day when all software ships with a lawyer to ensure compliance. I assume they can work something in to the software licence whereby you agree to feed it.
Copy protection's greatest moment was an old Forth compiler that I picked up, I think it was for the commodore 64.
The tapes could be copied but the manual, was printed with small black type on red paper. Yes, very difficult to photocopy. Of course you had the added bonus that you could't read it in anything less than perfect light conditions and even then, you'd feel like someone was sticking daggers in your forehead.
Being ignorant isn't a defence. being uninformed isn't a defence either unless you can prove that the people presenting the contract didn't meet their legal obligations to inform you of the consequences. For example, investments may decrease and you may get back less than you invested.
The term you're looking for is 'capacity to contract'. I could sign a contract and be released from it if it's proven that I didn't have 'capacity to contract'. This defence might be used if I were mentally ill or under age.
Shrinkwrap licences are legally flimsy for other reasons. I'm not a lawyer but I do get a lot of adverts for credit cards.
Agreed. At least with QuickTime Player you can do something. You can play back a pretty decent range of formats. Install DiVX and you're laughing. Pay 15 quid and you can convert the stuff and do what you want with it.
With Real Player, hell once you finally find the free player you can play some.ram files. Great.
I only know Windows Media Player on the Mac, I've not used the Windows version but it seems to be about playback, nothing else.
Seriously though, what could Apple gain from a tie-in with Real Networks. They are damaged goods.
They've been bleeding money for some time now. Their website is known to be something akin to an 'Indiana Jones hunt for the free player'. The BBC use them but they have to post a direct link to the free player because there's no way you could expect someone to comfortably find the download.
Why take the risk of tainting a succesfull product.
However, sound files do not have any of these complications associated with them, so I will continue to download them. If musicians want to get paid, then they should perform music for a fee. Until the 20th century, this was the customary way of getting paid for it. I have even heard there are some musicians who still perform in "concerts" arranged at various geographical locations in what I call a "tour". Just a thought.
Yeah, that's practical. Why isn't Bruce Willis busy touring the opera houses of the world with his smash hit show "Die Hard II"?
The law is the law. You either pay the price or steal it but don't try to justify what you do by saying that Metallica should become travelling minstrels.
Civlisation III suffered a bit in the UI. If I remember correctly, the buttons onscreen had little Xs, Os and squares. Sure, it makes sense if you're using a PS 2, not so much sense though if you're using a mouse on keyboard on a laptop.
Microsoft has a monopoly through it's market share. It's not wrong that Microsoft has this market share but their behaviour has to change because of this. Microsoft has a track record of using contracts to prevent competitors getting an equal chance to compete with Microsoft's applications. For example, if MS tell Dell that they can only OEM Windows if they don't preinstall Netscape, most end users will just stick with Explorer because it's already there.
Fair enough if you have both preinstalled, then users may experiment and decide which they prefer. This is true buyers choice.
What if a political party happens to own all the TV stations. Is it fair that they only show adverts for their party. Since this is all the voters see. Surely they won't even know that there is opposition?
Microsoft has deliberately tried to prevent vendors from installing third party rivals on PCs through very nasty OEM licencing agreements. Their tendency to using closed protocols and formats prevents (or makes it very difficult for) others from making third party alternatives.
Many users will just use whatever was on the computer. If you at least install a few different players, then the user will see the alternatives and then we'll see who wins in a fair fight,
You can't have ultimate freedom. Freedom has to be defined by law, otherwise you're relying on our own individual views on freedom which may differ. I believe individuals in society do not have the right to attack each other. A more violent person may feel he is perfectly entitled to.
We surrender certain rights in order to ensure others. I give up the right to kill my enemies knowing that there is a legal process in place to deal with this.
IANAL also but if you search google for microsoft illegal contract, you'll find quite a few articles from reputable sources. I'm not sure if the contracts themselves are illegal or the it's results they had.
Telling someone that they can't sell competing products if they want to use yours is not against the law, that's the buyer's choice.
Fair enough, if I don't have a monopoly then you can quite rightly tell me to sod off and sell an alternative. If however I have a monopoly, you can't afford to say no.
If the flea powder can only used in conjunction with my cat washing machine. Either you sell MY cat washing machine and MY brand flea powder or you sell nothing.
Consider the two scenarios below. Do they both sound acceptable morally or legally to you?
1. Moebius develops new cat washing machine. Markets it well, ensures he continues to maintain a quality product. Moebius is a success.
2. Moebius develops a new cat washing machine. Markets it well, signs illegal contracts to block others from selling competing products. Moebius now has the monopoly in cat washing and releases a range of flee powder that can be added to the machine. He does not let anyone else know how to make their flea powder work with his machine, he gets a monopoly in flea-powder. A rival company launches a brand of cat brushes designed to work with the cat washing machine. Moebius prevents dealers from bundling these cat brushes with the machine in favour or the new range he has launched. Moebius now has a monopoly in cat brushes.. and so on and so on..
Do you see a difference here? In much the same way, you would expect a convicted fraudster to be banned from running an investment fund, you should expect a convicted monopolist to be treated differently.
If you buy a computer and return it, the shop can't sell it as new. Anyway, the box would have been opened and the seals broken so the next buyer would be able to tell.
What if you return a CD? Can the shop legally sell it as 'new' or do they have to sell it at a reduced price or at least warn you that it was owned by someone else?
The price here really is the issue. Not only the fact that it's GBP15+ per album, it's the fact that within 6-12 months it's often dipped to just below the GPB10 mark.
I dream of this. In Ireland, CDs just seem to keep their high price for so much longer. Sure you have exceptions where HMV realise that they four million left-over Liberty X Cds to shift but on the whole, the prices stay high. By the way, I'm not talking about timeless albums here, just run of the mill stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
I managed to find the link after some googling but thanks for the tip anyway.
Yeah, the software works remarkably well. I can't seem to get content to open in a browser though, only through the player. I'm not sure if I'm missing a plug-in or whether this is even possible.
Wise move on the winbox. Luckily a Mac version of Warcraft keeps me away from wintel.
Maybe the electric sofa can be invented so an entire board can be executed in the comfort they've come to expect.
..and to stop the big guy next door coming in to my house, kicking my geek arse and stealing my telly.
Yeah, I've been regularly cursing bbc.co.uk for dumping QuickTime and switching to Real.
The icing on the cake is that if you follow the helpful link from bbc.co.uk to the Real download site, you can find a Windows player but no Mac version.
Not really. In the UK, there was an area (probably quite a few) where the fire brigade would get pelted with stones when they'd visit to put out a fire.
Now they will only answer a call once they've arranged a police escort.
Even if this area has a particular racial mix, this can't be considered racism. They have to protect their people who are just doing their job. If they want to stop this, the community have to work with the police to stop this.
It's the same with these blacklists, if they want it fixed, the customers have to complain to their ISPs.
Modding this comment as interesting goes beyond feeding the troll.
You're inviting him in to your house, cooking a three-course meal and shining his shoes and probably letting him have a tumble with your wife.
Thanks, that's interesting.
I never had the money to have a floppy drive (or the motivation to be honest) on my C64. I remember hearing stories thought about 1541 and alignment.
I suspect my Epson LX-86 was more noisy though.
Sounds like you know more than I do about the technical aspects of the disk copy protection software. I just remember the terrible noises that used to come from the drive when certain disks were in there.
I remember there being a debate as to whether some types of copy protection actually shortened the life of drives. Any idea if this is true? (I'm thinking about copy protected disks from the Amiga).
Ah, SimCity... Those were the days... I had it on the Amiga and don't remember a copy protection scheme but then I think my disk died so I used a cracked copy.
I look forward to the day when all software ships with a lawyer to ensure compliance. I assume they can work something in to the software licence whereby you agree to feed it.
I finally remembered. It was a product called 'White Lightning'. It was a kind of games writing thing based on Forth. Commodore 64 language guide
Copy protection's greatest moment was an old Forth compiler that I picked up, I think it was for the commodore 64.
The tapes could be copied but the manual, was printed with small black type on red paper. Yes, very difficult to photocopy. Of course you had the added bonus that you could't read it in anything less than perfect light conditions and even then, you'd feel like someone was sticking daggers in your forehead.
Great stuff!
Being ignorant isn't a defence. being uninformed isn't a defence either unless you can prove that the people presenting the contract didn't meet their legal obligations to inform you of the consequences. For example, investments may decrease and you may get back less than you invested.
The term you're looking for is 'capacity to contract'. I could sign a contract and be released from it if it's proven that I didn't have 'capacity to contract'. This defence might be used if I were mentally ill or under age.
Shrinkwrap licences are legally flimsy for other reasons. I'm not a lawyer but I do get a lot of adverts for credit cards.
Latest fashion clothing? Trust me, you can't me any further off the mark. My socks are 5 years old and the rest isn't that much off that.
If this is what Mac users are wearing, what are you wearing? Leather Jerkin and sheepskin boots?
Must admit I will flash the plastic once they open a store over here.
Agreed. At least with QuickTime Player you can do something. You can play back a pretty decent range of formats. Install DiVX and you're laughing. Pay 15 quid and you can convert the stuff and do what you want with it.
.ram files. Great.
With Real Player, hell once you finally find the free player you can play some
I only know Windows Media Player on the Mac, I've not used the Windows version but it seems to be about playback, nothing else.
Seriously though, what could Apple gain from a tie-in with Real Networks. They are damaged goods.
They've been bleeding money for some time now. Their website is known to be something akin to an 'Indiana Jones hunt for the free player'. The BBC use them but they have to post a direct link to the free player because there's no way you could expect someone to comfortably find the download.
Why take the risk of tainting a succesfull product.
However, sound files do not have any of these complications associated with them, so I will continue to download them. If musicians want to get paid, then they should perform music for a fee. Until the 20th century, this was the customary way of getting paid for it. I have even heard there are some musicians who still perform in "concerts" arranged at various geographical locations in what I call a "tour". Just a thought.
Yeah, that's practical. Why isn't Bruce Willis busy touring the opera houses of the world with his smash hit show "Die Hard II"?
The law is the law. You either pay the price or steal it but don't try to justify what you do by saying that Metallica should become travelling minstrels.
"It's had an effect on everything else in life, why wouldn't it have an effect on this?"
Based on this kind of reasoning, I could argue that the Internet makes pickles taste nicer and ice cream melt faster.
Civlisation III suffered a bit in the UI. If I remember correctly, the buttons onscreen had little Xs, Os and squares. Sure, it makes sense if you're using a PS 2, not so much sense though if you're using a mouse on keyboard on a laptop.
Yeah. I respect the point you were making. Very interesting conversation, thanks for that.
Take care,
MysteriousPreacher
Microsoft has a monopoly through it's market share. It's not wrong that Microsoft has this market share but their behaviour has to change because of this. Microsoft has a track record of using contracts to prevent competitors getting an equal chance to compete with Microsoft's applications. For example, if MS tell Dell that they can only OEM Windows if they don't preinstall Netscape, most end users will just stick with Explorer because it's already there.
Fair enough if you have both preinstalled, then users may experiment and decide which they prefer. This is true buyers choice.
What if a political party happens to own all the TV stations. Is it fair that they only show adverts for their party. Since this is all the voters see. Surely they won't even know that there is opposition?
Microsoft has deliberately tried to prevent vendors from installing third party rivals on PCs through very nasty OEM licencing agreements. Their tendency to using closed protocols and formats prevents (or makes it very difficult for) others from making third party alternatives.
Many users will just use whatever was on the computer. If you at least install a few different players, then the user will see the alternatives and then we'll see who wins in a fair fight,
You can't have ultimate freedom. Freedom has to be defined by law, otherwise you're relying on our own individual views on freedom which may differ. I believe individuals in society do not have the right to attack each other. A more violent person may feel he is perfectly entitled to.
We surrender certain rights in order to ensure others. I give up the right to kill my enemies knowing that there is a legal process in place to deal with this.
Sorry to ramble on here.. Slow day at the office.
IANAL also but if you search google for microsoft illegal contract, you'll find quite a few articles from reputable sources. I'm not sure if the contracts themselves are illegal or the it's results they had.
Telling someone that they can't sell competing products if they want to use yours is not against the law, that's the buyer's choice.
Fair enough, if I don't have a monopoly then you can quite rightly tell me to sod off and sell an alternative. If however I have a monopoly, you can't afford to say no.
If the flea powder can only used in conjunction with my cat washing machine. Either you sell MY cat washing machine and MY brand flea powder or you sell nothing.
Consider the two scenarios below. Do they both sound acceptable morally or legally to you?
1. Moebius develops new cat washing machine. Markets it well, ensures he continues to maintain a quality product. Moebius is a success.
2. Moebius develops a new cat washing machine. Markets it well, signs illegal contracts to block others from selling competing products. Moebius now has the monopoly in cat washing and releases a range of flee powder that can be added to the machine. He does not let anyone else know how to make their flea powder work with his machine, he gets a monopoly in flea-powder. A rival company launches a brand of cat brushes designed to work with the cat washing machine. Moebius prevents dealers from bundling these cat brushes with the machine in favour or the new range he has launched. Moebius now has a monopoly in cat brushes.. and so on and so on..
Do you see a difference here? In much the same way, you would expect a convicted fraudster to be banned from running an investment fund, you should expect a convicted monopolist to be treated differently.
Probably a silly question but I was wondering...
If you buy a computer and return it, the shop can't sell it as new. Anyway, the box would have been opened and the seals broken so the next buyer would be able to tell.
What if you return a CD? Can the shop legally sell it as 'new' or do they have to sell it at a reduced price or at least warn you that it was owned by someone else?
The price here really is the issue. Not only the fact that it's GBP15+ per album, it's the fact that within 6-12 months it's often dipped to just below the GPB10 mark.
I dream of this. In Ireland, CDs just seem to keep their high price for so much longer. Sure you have exceptions where HMV realise that they four million left-over Liberty X Cds to shift but on the whole, the prices stay high. By the way, I'm not talking about timeless albums here, just run of the mill stuff.
Ah, that explains it all. The Nazis burnt all those books so they could get the monopoly on eBooks.
I think Godwin's law should apply here..