The poster is entirely right. What we have now is a rigged system that favours corporations and not people. I find many USians are unable to comprehend an economic system that enpowers both corporations and labour, invested as they are in their own ossified Union of States. The US stopped meaningful expansion a long time ago and has ceased to be a beacon of progress in the Americas. But you need look no further than the European Union to see an economic block that is still expanding and improving Europe. To join the EU you must bring your national laws in accord with certain labour, human rights, capital, and environmental regulations. But when you do, not only will your companies eventually enjoy free access to all the other EU countries, but so will your people. It's not perfect, but it works well and is one reason why most of Eastern Europe is clamouring to join. I put it to USians - imagine an Americas where NAFTA meant migratory freedom for all people, and not just companies, and where all countries in the Americas could join. That's what the EU is about, and why it's difficult to create and often subject to roadblocks and stalls. But it's worth it in the end. There's more about this here.
In what way did the gaming industry adapt to p2p filesharing
There are a few reasons for the enormous success of MMOGs and online gaming in East Asia. Partly it is to do with population density and government-led broadband initiatives.
The primary reason why the games companies decided a few years ago to concentrate on online was the extent of piracy.
In most Asian countries you simply cannot expect to profitably develop and sell packaged, retail one-shot software. So the smart companies made a decision a few years ago to move to a service revenue model, adding value through their network subscriptions. The not-so-smart ones, the ones that focussed on US-style packaged software? Well, they are no longer here, or are tiny and struggling.
For one person that said "max out the imac on RAM" - this thing is *old*. Original, no firewire, expansion slots, seriously slow. Viewing complex web pages often causes it to pause- even with lots of free RAM.
Then again, I cut my teeth on a Mac Plus so I have a whole different definition of slow-but-usable than the rest of the world.
Does Finland have an army capable of defending it from any country in the world?
In 1939 the German Reich had the strongest army in the world. It was easily capable of defending Germany from attack, and in fact was so strong that it defeated most of Europe, brought the British Empire to its knees, almost beat the Soviet Empire, and provoked the US to create a military-industrial complex from which it has suffered ever since.
Here's a question. My SO has been using an original vintage iMac with OS9 for many years. She's totally non-technical. She's heard bad things from her old Mac friends about OSX (complexity, unfamiliarity, and so on) and so now when she's thinking of getting a new machine she's inclining towards XP.
My question is this, given that a non-technical person's experienced with both OS9 and XP, which is easier? To transition completely to XP, or to attempt to learn the new and different OSX? I don't think she's ever willingly opened a command prompt in her life.
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
on
Singularity Sky
·
· Score: 1
Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette; unsupported--hanging high above us in the computer chamber; and it did not shiver in the chill, oily breeze that blew eternally through the main cavern. The body hung head down, attached to the underside of the palette by the sole of its right foot. It had been drained of blood through a precise incision made from ear to ear under the lantern jaw. There was no blood on the reflective surface of the metal floor.
When Gorrister joined our group and looked up at himself, it was already too late for us to realize that, once again, AM had duped us, had had its fun; it had been a diversion on the part of the machine. Three of us had vomited, turning away from one another in a reflex as ancient as the nausea that had produced it.
Gorrister went white. It was almost as though he had seen a voodoo icon, and was afraid of the future. "Oh God," he mumbled, and walked away. The three of us followed him after a time, and found him sitting with his back to one of the smaller chittering banks, his head in his hands. Ellen knelt down beside him and stroked his hair. He didn't move, but his voice came out of his covered face quite clearly. "Why doesn't it just do us in and get it over with? Christ, I don't know how much longer I can go on like this."
It was our one hundred and ninth year in the computer.
It's easily Googled as an freetext, but I don't think I'll post it or Ellison will hunt me down and eat my eyeballs.
Singularity - Rapture For Nerds
on
Singularity Sky
·
· Score: 1
It's an old truism, but one that always bears repeating.
The Singularity for skiffy fans works like the Rapture for Xtians - you don't have to work hard worrying away at real ideas of what it means to be human and social during times of change, because all that is going to pass away anyway and you will be absolved of responsibility and cares in a new land of opportunity and adventure...
That's true, but when you say "rich", you should qualify it to say that British society was characterised by a well-developed, rigid social stratification based on the enslavement and dispossession of the Irish and Scots and their conversion into captive rentiers.
The tactics that worked so well on the Irish and Scots (Plantation, Genocide, Ecological Terraforming) were later expanded by the London capital companies into larger-scale developments in North America and, later, Australia and New Zealand, to create the "neo Europes".
So yes, you're right, they were "rich" before Colonialism emerged as a coherent ideology in the 19th Century.
Most Empires have begun with smaller scale beta projects close to home. Before the Spanish began on their conquest of Central and South America, they spent the best part of a century conquering, then exterminating the indigineous inhabitants of the Canary Islands. Once purged of natives, the Islands were converted into vast monoculture sugar plantations. This strategy was later replicated throughout SPanish (and Portugeuse) dominions.
Responding to famines in pre-British India, its Moghul rulers embargoed food exports, regulated prices, distributed food for free, and relaxed tax collection. Similarly in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Chinese state managed effective famine relief and flood control systems. But the British state's occupation of India and its Opium and Arrow wars against China destroyed all these systems... From 1757 to 1947, India's per capita income failed to improve. In the last half of the 19th century, India's income fell by 50%; life expectancy fell by 20% between 1872 and 1921; the population hardly grew. There were 17 serious famines in the 2000 years before British rule, but 31 in the 120 years of British rule. Empire, not Asia's 'immemorial' traditions, or overpopulation, kept India poor... In times of drought, Britain actually _increased_ taxation and food exports from famine stricken India. He then proves that British imperialists were well aware of the famine, and allowed the policies to continue. Worse still, they offered
food relief only in exchange for hard labor, at a caloric ratio slightly worse than that of the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald. By British estimates roughly 20 million Indians died, while their colonial masters spouted racist mantras.
I am considering Photo Memory Bank [smartdisk.com] from SmartDisk ($549 (40GB)
Instead of spending this money, why not try the ArchosAV 40GB? 4" color LCD (handy for previwing!), built-in CF slots, TV output, on-device video and still recording. And it plays MP3s. There is an 80GB model, but it's pretty pricey - you're probably better off swapping in your own 80GB 2.5" drive if and when you run out of capacity.
Actually my ulterior motive for recommending this is that I'd like to see a Slashdot review...
would be interesting to see a version of the film that takes up 4 gigs but is mpeg-4
That is exactly the approach of M$ and others now pushing the pseudo-HD MPEG-4 "DVD" discs. Using 4 Mbps DIVX they can get super high resolutions on discs using regular DVD laser pickups.
Why not try using XVID or DIVX or one of the other MPEG-4 compression formats? Then you can get extra-high quality. Here is a list of DVD players that also play DIVX. And hey, if and when you do your super-transfer, please do send me an email;-)
Berman was one of the shills who drafted a nutty bill last session that would have allowed movie and music companies to hack into people's personal computers and networks to erase or destroy "copyrighted" material. Most notably, it indemnifies corporations against personal torts resulting from their error for damages under $250. So even if you've almost finished the greatest novel ever written but failed to find a buyer yet, if they erase it, you get nothing. If they destroy your hard drives but show the replacement value is below $250, you lose. And so on.
There is nothing Berman would not do to keep sucking at the media industry tit. Even to the degree of drafting such nonsensical law that clearly violates the "equal treament" under privilege or immunity of the 14th Amendment by immunizing corporations against felonious activities conducted by them against citizens without considering due process.
THis latest bit of nonsense is just more of the same. Obviously Smith smells some extra cash within reach and is now also busy pandering to the media conglomerates.
Do you really want to watch a video on a 4" screen, when it's what you do all day?
Of course not, but it beats lugging a 48" screen around on the train! Seriously, I think the point is that PVPs come with output jacks so you are not limited to the on-device 4" LCD. And the on-device recording is a nice touch.
What you're describing in terms of features sounds more like a notebook computer than a PVP, and I think they have already been invented, and cost seriously more than $400.
I do note IBM's nice new double-density-pixel LCDs mean a nice boost for small-screen devices.
Finally, for multimedia, streaming, transcoding, codec support and so on, the freeware iTunes really isn't going to cut it. Consider something more along the lines of Media Center. ALthough I am still looking for a good all-round solution that also supports OGM and Matroska.
I have determined that Netflix uses the number of movies you rented in your previous billing period or periods combined with your disc plan (3 out, 5 out, etc.) to determine your priority in getting movies. As your cost-per-disc to Netflix increases due to more frequent rentals, you will have less of a chance of receiving a low-availability movie compared to an individual who has a lower cost to Netflix.
Slashdot Mirror
The poster is entirely right. What we have now is a rigged system that favours corporations and not people. I find many USians are unable to comprehend an economic system that enpowers both corporations and labour, invested as they are in their own ossified Union of States. The US stopped meaningful expansion a long time ago and has ceased to be a beacon of progress in the Americas. But you need look no further than the European Union to see an economic block that is still expanding and improving Europe. To join the EU you must bring your national laws in accord with certain labour, human rights, capital, and environmental regulations. But when you do, not only will your companies eventually enjoy free access to all the other EU countries, but so will your people. It's not perfect, but it works well and is one reason why most of Eastern Europe is clamouring to join. I put it to USians - imagine an Americas where NAFTA meant migratory freedom for all people, and not just companies, and where all countries in the Americas could join. That's what the EU is about, and why it's difficult to create and often subject to roadblocks and stalls. But it's worth it in the end. There's more about this here.
a sewage line
HACK THE SPEW!!!!
why the hell can't i use lots of capitals? what lamer thought up these lameness filters?
In what way did the gaming industry adapt to p2p filesharing
There are a few reasons for the enormous success of MMOGs and online gaming in East Asia. Partly it is to do with population density and government-led broadband initiatives.
The primary reason why the games companies decided a few years ago to concentrate on online was the extent of piracy.
In most Asian countries you simply cannot expect to profitably develop and sell packaged, retail one-shot software. So the smart companies made a decision a few years ago to move to a service revenue model, adding value through their network subscriptions. The not-so-smart ones, the ones that focussed on US-style packaged software? Well, they are no longer here, or are tiny and struggling.
I have just knocked up a 3 minute sound file of a bell ringing. I AM NOW AN ARTIST
Well done, you've reinvented techno.
I'd love to record my lectures, but I don't have $400 for an iRiver
Neither do I, that's why I've been waiting for this little analog/digital recording gem to turn up in my Gold Box.
Regular price is $130 (after rebate). You can get a $30 coupon from Amazon for signing up for a credit card. Apparently the Gold Box Archos Offer takes another $20 off the price.
So the total cost for a 20GB analog/digital mp3 recorder/player would be around $70. It's electrical digital, not optical like the iRiver.
Now I just have to figure out why all I get in my Gold Box are lame kitchen appliances.
All of which says a good deal more about them than about you.
They laughed at Einstein...
They laughed at the Wright Brothers...
But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
These are all good responses, thanks very much.
For one person that said "max out the imac on RAM" - this thing is *old*. Original, no firewire, expansion slots, seriously slow. Viewing complex web pages often causes it to pause- even with lots of free RAM.
Then again, I cut my teeth on a Mac Plus so I have a whole different definition of slow-but-usable than the rest of the world.
Does Finland have an army capable of defending it from any country in the world?
In 1939 the German Reich had the strongest army in the world. It was easily capable of defending Germany from attack, and in fact was so strong that it defeated most of Europe, brought the British Empire to its knees, almost beat the Soviet Empire, and provoked the US to create a military-industrial complex from which it has suffered ever since.
No I ask you, was Germany free in 1939?
Here's a question. My SO has been using an original vintage iMac with OS9 for many years. She's totally non-technical. She's heard bad things from her old Mac friends about OSX (complexity, unfamiliarity, and so on) and so now when she's thinking of getting a new machine she's inclining towards XP.
My question is this, given that a non-technical person's experienced with both OS9 and XP, which is easier? To transition completely to XP, or to attempt to learn the new and different OSX? I don't think she's ever willingly opened a command prompt in her life.
It's an old truism, but one that always bears repeating.
.
Singularity Is Rapture For Nerds
The Singularity for skiffy fans works like the Rapture for Xtians - you don't have to work hard worrying away at real ideas of what it means to be human and social during times of change, because all that is going to pass away anyway and you will be absolved of responsibility and cares in a new land of opportunity and adventure...
The interested reader is directed to Theodore Roszak's The Cult of Information: A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking for an idea of how long the info cultists have been preaching their schtick.
The British were rich long before colonialism.
That's true, but when you say "rich", you should qualify it to say that British society was characterised by a well-developed, rigid social stratification based on the enslavement and dispossession of the Irish and Scots and their conversion into captive rentiers.
The tactics that worked so well on the Irish and Scots (Plantation, Genocide, Ecological Terraforming) were later expanded by the London capital companies into larger-scale developments in North America and, later, Australia and New Zealand, to create the "neo Europes".
So yes, you're right, they were "rich" before Colonialism emerged as a coherent ideology in the 19th Century.
Most Empires have begun with smaller scale beta projects close to home. Before the Spanish began on their conquest of Central and South America, they spent the best part of a century conquering, then exterminating the indigineous inhabitants of the Canary Islands. Once purged of natives, the Islands were converted into vast monoculture sugar plantations. This strategy was later replicated throughout SPanish (and Portugeuse) dominions.
Oh yeah? During the later part of the 19th Century the British system of Empire created sociopolitical famines in South America, India, and China that eclipsed any of the death toll numbers of their 20th Century wannabe imitators, such as the Nazis:
I am considering Photo Memory Bank [smartdisk.com] from SmartDisk ($549 (40GB)
Instead of spending this money, why not try the ArchosAV 40GB? 4" color LCD (handy for previwing!), built-in CF slots, TV output, on-device video and still recording. And it plays MP3s. There is an 80GB model, but it's pretty pricey - you're probably better off swapping in your own 80GB 2.5" drive if and when you run out of capacity.
Actually my ulterior motive for recommending this is that I'd like to see a Slashdot review...
would be interesting to see a version of the film that takes up 4 gigs but is mpeg-4
That is exactly the approach of M$ and others now pushing the pseudo-HD MPEG-4 "DVD" discs. Using 4 Mbps DIVX they can get super high resolutions on discs using regular DVD laser pickups.
Why not try using XVID or DIVX or one of the other MPEG-4 compression formats? Then you can get extra-high quality. Here is a list of DVD players that also play DIVX. And hey, if and when you do your super-transfer, please do send me an email ;-)
2001-2002
The top industries supporting Howard L. Berman are:
1 TV/Movies/Music $222,791
2 Lawyers/Law Firms $117,450
Lamar Smith also gets mondo payola from MPAA/RIAA.
Berman was one of the shills who drafted a nutty bill last session that would have allowed movie and music companies to hack into people's personal computers and networks to erase or destroy "copyrighted" material. Most notably, it indemnifies corporations against personal torts resulting from their error for damages under $250. So even if you've almost finished the greatest novel ever written but failed to find a buyer yet, if they erase it, you get nothing. If they destroy your hard drives but show the replacement value is below $250, you lose. And so on.
There is nothing Berman would not do to keep sucking at the media industry tit. Even to the degree of drafting such nonsensical law that clearly violates the "equal treament" under privilege or immunity of the 14th Amendment by immunizing corporations against felonious activities conducted by them against citizens without considering due process.
THis latest bit of nonsense is just more of the same. Obviously Smith smells some extra cash within reach and is now also busy pandering to the media conglomerates.
I activated my ReplayTV's "Content Skip" feature, so the machine automatically skipped all the dull football content and played only the adverts.
I hope somebody tracked that.
Do you really want to watch a video on a 4" screen, when it's what you do all day?
Of course not, but it beats lugging a 48" screen around on the train! Seriously, I think the point is that PVPs come with output jacks so you are not limited to the on-device 4" LCD. And the on-device recording is a nice touch.
What you're describing in terms of features sounds more like a notebook computer than a PVP, and I think they have already been invented, and cost seriously more than $400.
I do note IBM's nice new double-density-pixel LCDs mean a nice boost for small-screen devices. Finally, for multimedia, streaming, transcoding, codec support and so on, the freeware iTunes really isn't going to cut it. Consider something more along the lines of Media Center. ALthough I am still looking for a good all-round solution that also supports OGM and Matroska.
I have a co-worker who is directing/producing film and video and uses his iPod ... as a presentation external hard drive.
You know you could get brownie points by letting your co-worker know about Personal Video Players (PVPs), systems from Archos and RCA and Creative and others that not only store video, but also play it back, either on-screen on using video outputs. The iPod seems a little limited in this respect - it's just a storage medium, with a mnonochrome display that does not, in fact, display video. Even the old Archos Recorder can now display 30fps video (mono!). PVPs were super-hot at CES... Apple better get a move on releasing that video iPod.
Microwaving turns out to be pretty non-exact science.
Some people would beg to differ. You can even do dal.
Or you could try microwave cooking for one, surely a popular choice on Slashdot.
It's well-documented. Frequent renters get throttled back when selecting rarer ("more expensive") discs. Google is your friend.
Shaved heads are cool. What is this enduring USian fascination with Big Hair?
Every single person I know with a "smart phone" has a Treo (mostly 600s, though I know a couple of early adopters with 180s and 300s).
You don't know many people in Europe with Smartphones, do you? Palm is an also-ran there.