"Soy-tainly, just as people who like cigarettes are expected to change their tastes once they develop a high risk of lung cancer."
I don't see how your argument appiles. Listening to music from major record labels doesn't damage me in any way.
Major record labels DO also sign decent musicians, and they also own most of the best music on the planet. I listen to my fair share of underground stuff, but I dare you to find a guitarist anywhere close to Jimi Hendrix or a band as revolutionary as Led Zeppelin in the underground. Major record labels own the recordings of Miles Davis, Run DMC, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, & Pink Floyd. Are you telling me that I should give up listening to some of the most talented musicians on the planet because they're on major record labels? You're a fucking moron.
Honestly. People like who who believe that all of the music on major record labels sign shitty artists have their heads so far up their asses it's unbelievable.
" Comone guys this is stupid. Along with the cached picture would be the cached HTML it was displayed with.
Such an html page with the image set to 1x1 would be OBVIOUS PROOF that said image was *PLANTED* and downloaded *WITHOUT CONSENT*. There woul be no problem dismissing such a case."
That could be true, but more often than not, authorities are more interested in convicting people than providing actual justice.
"The problem, and you need to seriously examine this, is why you would choose to buy something that limits "loading the songs onto my portable player."
Stop buying it, and it will go away."
I agree, but this leads to some shady areas. A good quantity of music I enjoy are on labels owned by Sony and other members of the RIAA. Am I supposed to change my music tastes because of copy protection? Granted, it's bad, but if you're goign that far, *you* have forgotten what music is about.
Personally, I don't risk buying anything made by a major record label in the last 3 years, because I don't want to pay $15 for a CD and then find out that I can't rip it to my computer and subsequently play it on my portable music player. In essence, Sony and other members of the RIAA have *forced* me to start pirating their music.
"Sorry, but you can't very well look at the pics without downloading them...the file is just in your cache instead of a location you specify. As for not printing a hard copy, I fail to see how that is at all relevant."
The issue is that he's being charged with *posession*. Technically he's in violation, but if that argument can hold water in court, then anyone who views copyrighted images online using a cached browser can be charged with unauthorized copying of copyrighted images.
This reminds me of when Microsoft wanted to crush MP3, and came out with a highly proprietary format that nobody wanted to use for many reasons, one of which being the ability for the software to curb the usage of copyrighted media. I'm not advocating piracy, but if you're already using a tool that does what you want, and is free, and is... (did I mention it was free?) why switch?
Get your facts straight. Contrary to popular belief, WMA was not developed to compete with MP3. In 1998, MP3 was a blip on the map. Was developed to compete with RealAudio. It excelled at low bitrates and sounded like crap at high.
And it suceeded. It beat RealAudio. MS has only truly set their sights on MP3 in the past 3 years, and in all actuality, MS is not competing with MP3. Rather, it's competing with DRM standards.
It's competing with Real's Helix and Apple's Fairplay, and in my opinion, as a DRM standard, it's winning. The idea of paying for individual DRMed songs at 'decent' bitrates seems like a horrible idea to me, but being able to rent hundreds of thousands of 'decent' bitrated songs for $15-$5 is much more appealing. MS has realized that there's no way that MP3 is going to die, and that they'll simply have to make their DRMed standard superior to other DRMs.
Indeed. It's not Windows that needs to be broken up, it's MicroSoft that needs to be broken up.
I always laugh when people complain about MicroSoft being so huge and evil. MS is nothing compared to the likes of truly huge and evil companies like GE, Coca-Cola, Sony & ConocoPhillips. Nobody's begging for those companies to be broken up, and yet they've commited sins far worse than that of MS.. Many of which *gasp* actually hurt people.
Maybe the fact that Steve Jobs was attending a private school had something to do with the fact that his family couldn't afford it?
Dropping out of school makes sense if you have some sort of vision, but it better be a damn good vision. The fact remains that 99% of successful people went to college. Look at the Google founders. Both graduated college and are now rich as f**k.
Granted, neither of thim finished their Ph.D's =P
And no matter how motivated you are, dropping out won't provide you with the knowledge you need for many scientific- try being a lawyer, biomedical engineer, doctor, geneticist, or organic chemist without a college degree.
"you can stop any time you like, you won't go hungry."
If you're a grad student? You make shit for cash, often times less than minimum wage. Unless you're a hot-shot with an NSF fellowship, you're living in a shitty apartment eating ramen and free food from department meetings.
Quit grad school? You'll lose your stipend. Now you're jobless, and more than likely with a degree that makes shit without a graduate degree in a poor job market. I'd have to say you'd defintely go hungry under those conditions.
"It could rival in pure numbers, but I'd bet that MOST AOL users don't really understand or care what open source is. Most people who do stay clear of AOL to begin with."
AIM has an obscenely diverse user base. It's available on all platforms, and virtually everyone (except for Jabber guys who refuse to friend anyone not on Jabber) uses it.
Granted, there will be some people who don't care about open source, but there's definitely quite a few people who would be willing to switch to something less RAM hungry and ad-free for their IMing needs.
As for currently existing open source projects, there's Gaim & Miranda. Gaim is deent, but it's a ram hog and uses GTK, which is the bane of anyone running 1024x768 or less. Miranda IM is the exact opposite, but it's missing key features like *working file transfers*.
" I don't see how it will bring non-gamers in though. It seems like the other "multi-media" consoles would do that more since non-gamers would be more interested in things other than gaming."
Because a lot of people quit playing videogames because they've become more complicated.
Mario? All you needed was one button. Sonic? Same thing. Pacman? Simple as hell. Eat all the little dots, and millions played.
But when you get all the camera angles, managing inventory, 10 different buttons that do 10 different things and analog sticks that click, it's no longer a pickup and play game. You have to sit down and *learn* how to play, and many potential gamers either don't have the time or just don't want to do it.
"..has swallowed large amounts of R&D money since batteries were first invented/discovered. Yes, improvements are most often incremental, and differing technologies offer different qualities"
Your statement is nothing but FUD. You've been spoiled by microchips. The vast majority of technology doesn't evolve as rapidly as CPU speeds. We aren't seeing horsepower, safety ratings, or gas mileage 'doubling' every 18 months, but automotive technology is definitely advancing.
" The difference is that these two people aren't going to go to China, Iran, or North Korea to build nuclear weapons."
Yeah, they're just staying in the US and actually killing people.
True, but he's comparing *cross-platform* browsers. Of that list, only Mozilla & Firefox are available on Windows, Linux, & OS X.
Also, a more accurate comparison would be Opera with Mozilla. Both come with way more features out of the box than Firefox. Granted, you can make Firefox full-featured by adding extensions. (As an aside, has anyone noticed that using a theme with six or seven extensions leads to huge memory leaks? I caught Firefox using 290 MB of RAM two days ago.)
Firefox does not have an integrated mail client. Granted, Thunderbird is pretty close, but only Mozilla could match the tight integration that Opera has.
Slashdot Mirror
"Soy-tainly, just as people who like cigarettes are expected to change their tastes once they develop a high risk of lung cancer."
I don't see how your argument appiles. Listening to music from major record labels doesn't damage me in any way.
Major record labels DO also sign decent musicians, and they also own most of the best music on the planet. I listen to my fair share of underground stuff, but I dare you to find a guitarist anywhere close to Jimi Hendrix or a band as revolutionary as Led Zeppelin in the underground. Major record labels own the recordings of Miles Davis, Run DMC, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, & Pink Floyd. Are you telling me that I should give up listening to some of the most talented musicians on the planet because they're on major record labels? You're a fucking moron.
Honestly. People like who who believe that all of the music on major record labels sign shitty artists have their heads so far up their asses it's unbelievable.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is actually baker's yeast. It makes really shitty beer.
Sorry. I work in a yeast lab. =P
Holy crap. I wrote 20 hours. I meant to write 20 years. Mod this up, please.
" Comone guys this is stupid. Along with the cached picture would be the cached HTML it was displayed with.
Such an html page with the image set to 1x1 would be OBVIOUS PROOF that said image was *PLANTED* and downloaded *WITHOUT CONSENT*. There woul be no problem dismissing such a case."
That could be true, but more often than not, authorities are more interested in convicting people than providing actual justice.
"The problem, and you need to seriously examine this, is why you would choose to buy something that limits "loading the songs onto my portable player." Stop buying it, and it will go away." I agree, but this leads to some shady areas. A good quantity of music I enjoy are on labels owned by Sony and other members of the RIAA. Am I supposed to change my music tastes because of copy protection? Granted, it's bad, but if you're goign that far, *you* have forgotten what music is about. Personally, I don't risk buying anything made by a major record label in the last 3 years, because I don't want to pay $15 for a CD and then find out that I can't rip it to my computer and subsequently play it on my portable music player. In essence, Sony and other members of the RIAA have *forced* me to start pirating their music.
"Most murders killed their victims within 2 minutes." The average murderer also serves less than 20 years in prison.
"Sorry, but you can't very well look at the pics without downloading them...the file is just in your cache instead of a location you specify. As for not printing a hard copy, I fail to see how that is at all relevant."
The issue is that he's being charged with *posession*. Technically he's in violation, but if that argument can hold water in court, then anyone who views copyrighted images online using a cached browser can be charged with unauthorized copying of copyrighted images.
"He said most of the pictures were viewed between midnight on Dec. 2 and 4 a.m. on Dec. 3 in 2003."
I think it's absurd that someone could face 20 hours in prison for viewing illegal pictures for 4 hours. But that's just me.
This reminds me of when Microsoft wanted to crush MP3, and came out with a highly proprietary format that nobody wanted to use for many reasons, one of which being the ability for the software to curb the usage of copyrighted media. I'm not advocating piracy, but if you're already using a tool that does what you want, and is free, and is... (did I mention it was free?) why switch?
Get your facts straight. Contrary to popular belief, WMA was not developed to compete with MP3. In 1998, MP3 was a blip on the map. Was developed to compete with RealAudio. It excelled at low bitrates and sounded like crap at high.
And it suceeded. It beat RealAudio. MS has only truly set their sights on MP3 in the past 3 years, and in all actuality, MS is not competing with MP3. Rather, it's competing with DRM standards.
It's competing with Real's Helix and Apple's Fairplay, and in my opinion, as a DRM standard, it's winning. The idea of paying for individual DRMed songs at 'decent' bitrates seems like a horrible idea to me, but being able to rent hundreds of thousands of 'decent' bitrated songs for $15-$5 is much more appealing. MS has realized that there's no way that MP3 is going to die, and that they'll simply have to make their DRMed standard superior to other DRMs.
If you note the fact that I quoted the previous post, I was trying to be snarky. But I obviously failed in that regard.
Indeed. It's not Windows that needs to be broken up, it's MicroSoft that needs to be broken up.
I always laugh when people complain about MicroSoft being so huge and evil. MS is nothing compared to the likes of truly huge and evil companies like GE, Coca-Cola, Sony & ConocoPhillips. Nobody's begging for those companies to be broken up, and yet they've commited sins far worse than that of MS.. Many of which *gasp* actually hurt people.
Maybe the fact that Steve Jobs was attending a private school had something to do with the fact that his family couldn't afford it?
Dropping out of school makes sense if you have some sort of vision, but it better be a damn good vision. The fact remains that 99% of successful people went to college. Look at the Google founders. Both graduated college and are now rich as f**k.
Granted, neither of thim finished their Ph.D's =P
And no matter how motivated you are, dropping out won't provide you with the knowledge you need for many scientific- try being a lawyer, biomedical engineer, doctor, geneticist, or organic chemist without a college degree.
"Microsoft's first two versions of any product always sucks. Why should this be any different."
The first two versions of ANY product always suck, if you consider an alpha build a full-fledged product.
"you can stop any time you like, you won't go hungry."
If you're a grad student? You make shit for cash, often times less than minimum wage. Unless you're a hot-shot with an NSF fellowship, you're living in a shitty apartment eating ramen and free food from department meetings.
Quit grad school? You'll lose your stipend. Now you're jobless, and more than likely with a degree that makes shit without a graduate degree in a poor job market. I'd have to say you'd defintely go hungry under those conditions.
True, but if you read the article it suggests that AOL may open-source it in a similar fashion, and ads can be removed.
"It could rival in pure numbers, but I'd bet that MOST AOL users don't really understand or care what open source is. Most people who do stay clear of AOL to begin with."
AIM has an obscenely diverse user base. It's available on all platforms, and virtually everyone (except for Jabber guys who refuse to friend anyone not on Jabber) uses it.
Granted, there will be some people who don't care about open source, but there's definitely quite a few people who would be willing to switch to something less RAM hungry and ad-free for their IMing needs.
As for currently existing open source projects, there's Gaim & Miranda. Gaim is deent, but it's a ram hog and uses GTK, which is the bane of anyone running 1024x768 or less. Miranda IM is the exact opposite, but it's missing key features like *working file transfers*.
I'm no open source fanatic (I actually think most of it is crap), but I think the fact that the blog is on MSDN is funny as hell. =P
" I don't see how it will bring non-gamers in though. It seems like the other "multi-media" consoles would do that more since non-gamers would be more interested in things other than gaming."
Because a lot of people quit playing videogames because they've become more complicated.
Mario? All you needed was one button. Sonic? Same thing. Pacman? Simple as hell. Eat all the little dots, and millions played.
But when you get all the camera angles, managing inventory, 10 different buttons that do 10 different things and analog sticks that click, it's no longer a pickup and play game. You have to sit down and *learn* how to play, and many potential gamers either don't have the time or just don't want to do it.
pwnd.
Mod parent up, please.
"That's just what we needed -- a bunch of no-good self-proclaimed "genetic engineers" "creating" "new" genes by doing copy-paste hacks."
Drew Endy.
If a professor of Biological Engineering from MIT isn't a genetic engineer, I'd like to know what is.
"..has swallowed large amounts of R&D money since batteries were first invented/discovered. Yes, improvements are most often incremental, and differing technologies offer different qualities"
Your statement is nothing but FUD. You've been spoiled by microchips. The vast majority of technology doesn't evolve as rapidly as CPU speeds. We aren't seeing horsepower, safety ratings, or gas mileage 'doubling' every 18 months, but automotive technology is definitely advancing.
" The difference is that these two people aren't going to go to China, Iran, or North Korea to build nuclear weapons." Yeah, they're just staying in the US and actually killing people.
When English isn't your first language, sometimes it takes longer to get things done. =P
True, but he's comparing *cross-platform* browsers. Of that list, only Mozilla & Firefox are available on Windows, Linux, & OS X.
Also, a more accurate comparison would be Opera with Mozilla. Both come with way more features out of the box than Firefox. Granted, you can make Firefox full-featured by adding extensions. (As an aside, has anyone noticed that using a theme with six or seven extensions leads to huge memory leaks? I caught Firefox using 290 MB of RAM two days ago.)
Firefox does not have an integrated mail client. Granted, Thunderbird is pretty close, but only Mozilla could match the tight integration that Opera has.
It is? I've never read PvP. =P