Sounds a lot like those noise cancelling headphones that Bose originated (http://www.bose.com/). Sounds like going to an extreme for a very slight problem...but i certainly give him some Geek points for the project. Then again, I've got very fast drives and they don't make all that much noise...a decent case instead of one of those plastic crappy ones by Dell and Gateway usually helps, too.
TV sucks lives...Millions and counting...
on
Retro Vision
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
We live in a world where some people are literally obsessed with TV (Probably a fair deal of \.ers. People actually go home on Friday nights to make sure they catch the new episode of whatever. It's really sad when a website dedicated to saving the TV show Angel (http://www.renewangel.com/) is considered a charity! Maybe it is a great show (try not to laugh...) but honestly...that money could be used to...I don't know...fight cancer?
Google, the friendly giant...
on
In Google We Trust
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I think Google really is an example of a large company that everyone can like. Other posts have already alluded to the attitude many have taken--not even thinking of other search engines when looking for information. With an index of over 6 Billion Pages it's almost impossible for anyone else to compete. But these facts are just the tip of the economic and creative iceberg. Through a proactive strategy, Google has become a symposium of services. Google News, Froogle, and partnerships with Dictionary.com and Blogger.com. When google created a tool bar (http://toolbar.google.com/), Yahoo and Microsoft followed. (Google's toolbar, FYI, has been the most successful--much to Microsoft's chagrin.) It's actually rather amazing that such an aggressive and successful company has remained free of so much of the controversy typical of similar corporations. Google really is a friendly giant.
Sure...this is a great idea, but how much will it cost? Anybody else remember the days where a good cpu fan cost significantly more than the $20 it does today? Not to mention the cost of refilling the coolant. Yes, you will have to do that. Those of us who have a car know that the radiator fluid must be changed...oh every five to eight years or so. Keeping in mind the a computer's life span is much shorter, but also taking into account that a computer is often left on and running for days on end, it would probably have to be replaced at least once or twice. I also doubt this is something most users could do--and even some techies might have problems. (Is the coolant toxic?) How much would it cost to have somebody 'service' your computer's cooling device? If such problems aren't answered I doubt the product will be viable in the home-use market.
But since we can assume these kids are rather intellectual, perhaps that intelligence bridges the gap into no math/sci categories. Any kid with a slight interest in the humanities could be appealed to on the level of social justice. Sure kids made fun of of us when we were younger, but as persons, we still have a debt to humanity (IMHO). And, to be honest, I see a lot of geek-types who deserve it. Let's face it...we're damn smart, but we can throw that in people's faces a lot...and that's just as uncool as what others did/do to us. So why learn social skills? Because we owe it to others to do so. Plus everyone is right about getting some...that definately payed off.:-)
but it seems fairly obvious to me that any consumer could record their Napster-streamed songs with a decent sound card and a program like Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). That might stop some people from using Apple's service, which would certainly cost more per song. Of course, the sound quality might not be as great as buying actual CDs, but I assume from the other posts that it wouldn't be any worse than the quality offered by Apple's service. Therefore, it would really be a better buy with Napster. You could, in fact, "own" all your music--at least in the sense that you could take it anywhere.
My question is this: Are you infringing on a copyright holder's rights if the material you are reproducing is not purchasable or very easily accessible? Such would likely be the case with "Como Te Extrano Vol. IV -- Musica de los 70's y 80's" which the suspect (or victim, in my opinion) was reported to be selling. I doubt very much I could go to my local Best Buy and purchase such a title. Would you be harming the company producing such records, since they would never have produced enough of the CDs to meet the demand which you are meeting, or been able to market them where you are selling them? I think copyright infringement needs to be more clearly defined. Once information has entered the public domain, the public does have a right to it. If the company which made that information available cannot keep doing so, this task falls to citizens. Such would also apply to old NES ROMS, Atari games, and the like.
I don't know how disatisfied Israel will be with M$, but if M$ lowers the price, I'd bet that they'll simply buy it. Israel doesn't have the same Americapitalist-hating attitude that many of the Arab countries in the area have.
I feel it neccessary to introduce myself a bit at this point. I'm an 18 year old male. As such, this issue has been very near my heart for the last 5 or so years.
You're absolutely right that your kids will just sneak past your rules, but possibly not for the reasons you expect. My first problems with my parents over computer-related issues stemmed from the fact that they had absolutely no clue what I was doing...and that made them nervous. I'm a programmer, website editor, and server administrator. They were afraid that I would break their new computer when, in reality, I knew much more about computers than they did. Most of what I've done online has been fairly harmless, yet it's been a constant issue of strife. I think parents have a tendancy to think their offspring are "spending too much time online." Such an assumption may be justified, but it also might be quite unfounded. In my case, most of my time online is spent reading or coding. Yes, I chat with my friends, but I'm actually learning while online; what's more, I'm enjoying it. I'll assume you want your children to enjoy learning. There are a lot of productive ventures in which they can engage and nobody ever does just one thing at a time. If you see your child chatting, he or she is likely also reading, doing school research, writing an email, and editing their website at the same time. That being said, rather than making a bunch of rules, you might want to talk to them about internet safety. Depending on how old your kids are and of what sex they are, you might be worried about their safety. Sitting down and talking to them, especially if they're younger teens, about not giving out identifying information is probably a good idea. You should remember to tell them WHY. Children often feel patronized when they don't know why rules are in place or when the answer to that question is "just because." If you do that, they'll likely just break the rules.
If you've got male teens, you're probably more worried about porn than safety. That being said, I think it's fairly obvious that any determined male of any age can get porn, with or without a computer. Rather than restricting their computer use, spend some time explaining why you think porn is wrong (assuming you do). This will go much farther than any rules.
So why are your kids hiding things from you? Why do kids rush in a flourish of clicks to close every window when you walk by? Likely because they just want some privacy. A lot of what teens do on the internet is private. They talk to friends and keep journals. I'd hope you're not one of those parents who listens in a conversations or reads your daughter's diary. If you do, I can tell you it will lead to more problems than it could ever prevent. You have to remember that teens need privacy, too. What they're doing is likely not harmful at all, but really just something they'd rather not share with you. As a parent, you need to remember that your kids do have a right to privacy. You didn't tell your parents everything, but you're alright. The bottom line: treat your kids with respect. If you treat them like adults, they'll likely behave as such; if you treat them as children, only jouvenile behavior can result.
-Bl33d
I just tried those searches. MSN gave me 365 and google 97,000,000. Still an obvious discrepency though. I don't know why we're trusting inquirer for our technology news... -Bl33d
Slashdot Mirror
I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Most of us sneeze on our hands, not our asses.
Sounds a lot like those noise cancelling headphones that Bose originated (http://www.bose.com/). Sounds like going to an extreme for a very slight problem...but i certainly give him some Geek points for the project. Then again, I've got very fast drives and they don't make all that much noise...a decent case instead of one of those plastic crappy ones by Dell and Gateway usually helps, too.
We live in a world where some people are literally obsessed with TV (Probably a fair deal of \.ers. People actually go home on Friday nights to make sure they catch the new episode of whatever. It's really sad when a website dedicated to saving the TV show Angel (http://www.renewangel.com/) is considered a charity! Maybe it is a great show (try not to laugh...) but honestly...that money could be used to...I don't know...fight cancer?
I think Google really is an example of a large company that everyone can like. Other posts have already alluded to the attitude many have taken--not even thinking of other search engines when looking for information. With an index of over 6 Billion Pages it's almost impossible for anyone else to compete. But these facts are just the tip of the economic and creative iceberg. Through a proactive strategy, Google has become a symposium of services. Google News, Froogle, and partnerships with Dictionary.com and Blogger.com. When google created a tool bar (http://toolbar.google.com/), Yahoo and Microsoft followed. (Google's toolbar, FYI, has been the most successful--much to Microsoft's chagrin.) It's actually rather amazing that such an aggressive and successful company has remained free of so much of the controversy typical of similar corporations. Google really is a friendly giant.
Sure...this is a great idea, but how much will it cost? Anybody else remember the days where a good cpu fan cost significantly more than the $20 it does today? Not to mention the cost of refilling the coolant. Yes, you will have to do that. Those of us who have a car know that the radiator fluid must be changed ...oh every five to eight years or so. Keeping in mind the a computer's life span is much shorter, but also taking into account that a computer is often left on and running for days on end, it would probably have to be replaced at least once or twice. I also doubt this is something most users could do--and even some techies might have problems. (Is the coolant toxic?) How much would it cost to have somebody 'service' your computer's cooling device? If such problems aren't answered I doubt the product will be viable in the home-use market.
Rich big business Republicans sticking with rich Republican-funding M$? Why am I not surprised?
But since we can assume these kids are rather intellectual, perhaps that intelligence bridges the gap into no math/sci categories. Any kid with a slight interest in the humanities could be appealed to on the level of social justice. Sure kids made fun of of us when we were younger, but as persons, we still have a debt to humanity (IMHO). And, to be honest, I see a lot of geek-types who deserve it. Let's face it...we're damn smart, but we can throw that in people's faces a lot...and that's just as uncool as what others did/do to us. So why learn social skills? Because we owe it to others to do so. Plus everyone is right about getting some...that definately payed off. :-)
but it seems fairly obvious to me that any consumer could record their Napster-streamed songs with a decent sound card and a program like Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). That might stop some people from using Apple's service, which would certainly cost more per song. Of course, the sound quality might not be as great as buying actual CDs, but I assume from the other posts that it wouldn't be any worse than the quality offered by Apple's service. Therefore, it would really be a better buy with Napster. You could, in fact, "own" all your music--at least in the sense that you could take it anywhere.
My question is this: Are you infringing on a copyright holder's rights if the material you are reproducing is not purchasable or very easily accessible? Such would likely be the case with "Como Te Extrano Vol. IV -- Musica de los 70's y 80's" which the suspect (or victim, in my opinion) was reported to be selling. I doubt very much I could go to my local Best Buy and purchase such a title. Would you be harming the company producing such records, since they would never have produced enough of the CDs to meet the demand which you are meeting, or been able to market them where you are selling them? I think copyright infringement needs to be more clearly defined. Once information has entered the public domain, the public does have a right to it. If the company which made that information available cannot keep doing so, this task falls to citizens. Such would also apply to old NES ROMS, Atari games, and the like.
I don't know how disatisfied Israel will be with M$, but if M$ lowers the price, I'd bet that they'll simply buy it. Israel doesn't have the same Americapitalist-hating attitude that many of the Arab countries in the area have.
Need I say more?
I feel it neccessary to introduce myself a bit at this point. I'm an 18 year old male. As such, this issue has been very near my heart for the last 5 or so years. You're absolutely right that your kids will just sneak past your rules, but possibly not for the reasons you expect. My first problems with my parents over computer-related issues stemmed from the fact that they had absolutely no clue what I was doing...and that made them nervous. I'm a programmer, website editor, and server administrator. They were afraid that I would break their new computer when, in reality, I knew much more about computers than they did. Most of what I've done online has been fairly harmless, yet it's been a constant issue of strife. I think parents have a tendancy to think their offspring are "spending too much time online." Such an assumption may be justified, but it also might be quite unfounded. In my case, most of my time online is spent reading or coding. Yes, I chat with my friends, but I'm actually learning while online; what's more, I'm enjoying it. I'll assume you want your children to enjoy learning. There are a lot of productive ventures in which they can engage and nobody ever does just one thing at a time. If you see your child chatting, he or she is likely also reading, doing school research, writing an email, and editing their website at the same time. That being said, rather than making a bunch of rules, you might want to talk to them about internet safety. Depending on how old your kids are and of what sex they are, you might be worried about their safety. Sitting down and talking to them, especially if they're younger teens, about not giving out identifying information is probably a good idea. You should remember to tell them WHY. Children often feel patronized when they don't know why rules are in place or when the answer to that question is "just because." If you do that, they'll likely just break the rules. If you've got male teens, you're probably more worried about porn than safety. That being said, I think it's fairly obvious that any determined male of any age can get porn, with or without a computer. Rather than restricting their computer use, spend some time explaining why you think porn is wrong (assuming you do). This will go much farther than any rules. So why are your kids hiding things from you? Why do kids rush in a flourish of clicks to close every window when you walk by? Likely because they just want some privacy. A lot of what teens do on the internet is private. They talk to friends and keep journals. I'd hope you're not one of those parents who listens in a conversations or reads your daughter's diary. If you do, I can tell you it will lead to more problems than it could ever prevent. You have to remember that teens need privacy, too. What they're doing is likely not harmful at all, but really just something they'd rather not share with you. As a parent, you need to remember that your kids do have a right to privacy. You didn't tell your parents everything, but you're alright. The bottom line: treat your kids with respect. If you treat them like adults, they'll likely behave as such; if you treat them as children, only jouvenile behavior can result. -Bl33d
I just tried those searches. MSN gave me 365 and google 97,000,000. Still an obvious discrepency though. I don't know why we're trusting inquirer for our technology news...
-Bl33d