Actually by DistroWatch the big three in order are: Ubuntu, Mandriva and Fedora Core. I personally run FC3 on my laptop, but think I will switch to Mandriva once this goes public. I've been looking for some excuse to change and it has been a while since I ran Mandrake/Mandriva.
Another AC with an e-mail address (really people, think a little). Oooh and another inflammatory story from zdnet blogs. Yo slashdot, just save us the trouble, stop accepting blogs as news. All you do is drive up ad revenue for these sites that often are filled with jibberish and anything that resembles news worthy material...
Seriously guys, no one has said anything about this becoming a software release of any sort. This is nothing more then hype and rumor getting reported as real journalism, again. I am actually getting tired of the lack of factual checking several online "news" sites are doing these days (The Inquirer, Slashdot...I am looking at you). Heck analysts feel that the only reason this happened is because Google's CEO spent 14 years working at Sun under Sun's CEO. So really, this is probably not much more then Google helping out Sun.
You see Sun has minimal to no real market name. Most people have no clue what they have done and what they do. However, most everyone has heard of Google, and at least half the people in the country have heard about this Google-Microsoft feud (or Sun's feud with M$). So to the outsider not in the know this comes off as two M$ rivals coming together to take down the giant. The problem is, right now at least, it appears to be nothing more then a publicity stunt. We'll see if that changes in the future, but I will not hold my breath.
Now I welcome you to the real world. The Free Market is an ideal concept. It doesn't exist and is quite unlikely that it ever will. The concept is that products will go to a market and that in the end a market will decide which is better and what product to purchase. This is accomplished with out business or government coercion.
Problem 1: Business/Individual Coercion. Large corporations create an item similar to a smaller corporation. Because of the large money the larger corporation has they have the opportunity to use said money to influence the market. This can include going as far as flooding market space with their items by getting stores to exclusively carry their products. Small corporation cannot compete because it lacks money, and in the end the bigger corporations money wins.
Problem 2: Government coercion. In steps the government right? In a free market the government would technically just sit back in watch; however, in the US we have anti-monopoly laws to try and force things back towards a "free market." The problem is these companies that get broken up eventually wind up competing in a manner that results in one winning and situation beginning again. The examples are the "Baby Bells" and the oil companies.
I mean heck, look at SBC. The circle is literally almost complete if they get to purchase AT&T. The government might have actually destroyed one company to create another. It should be noted that Cingular is SBC and Bellsouth together, so they are already working together to some extent.
I am not saying that socialism and communism have any better systems. I am just pointing out that to call the US economy a free market economy is at best optimistic. In the end, money talks and big money talks a little louder. It is quite possible that the US is the closest to a true capitalist/free-market economy....but it isn't quite so.
BTW, your example is flawed. Gas is pretty much a necessity for an automobile, Office is not. This is why the market sort of accepts the way things are. I mean outside of work, I do not believe I even have to use Office anymore post school.
Re:"Intellectual property" is a confusing term
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RIAA Sues a Child
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· Score: 1
Those rights are more different than alike, and for this reason, many critics discourage use of the umbrella term "intellectual property" to conflate them.
Your one expert is Stallman, a man who is a founder of FSF. Not exactly an unbiased person to be using, and the only person he quotes in a Stanford Law Professor. You know the says, "Those who cannot do, teach." From my discussions with law professors and attorneys there does seem to be a divide between the professors and the actual practicing lawyers as to who really knows. I think this is why some law schools try to get practicing lawyers with time to spare to teach course matter whenever possible. I also think it is why more law students are encouraged to spend time working for firms and doing practical work experience outside of school.
The term "intellectual property" is not used in the United States Code, and for a good reason: the different exclusive rights that make it up have different purposes and raise entirely different sets of public policy issues.
So maybe it isn't in the USC, but don't act like no one uses it. The DOJ is using the term. The head of the USPTO is the Undersecretary for Intellectual Propert and Director of the USPTO. One of the longest government titles I would imagine.
You forgot live shows. Do you claim that live shows should be just as unlawful as element 4 because like element 4, they don't result in a lot of revenue going back to the label?
So I forgot one thing. But do a bit of checking and you will learn that artists make the majority of their money off of live shows. Typically live shows are contracted and handled by artists and their agents, not by the record labels.
No, they are hurting the ratings for Music_Radio_And_Music_TV_In_General. Those services that are full of illicit file-sharing have their own ratings
Explain to me how what you are saying is different then what I am saying that radio stations and tv stations involved in music suffer by piracy of music. Same can be said for other television stations with the proliferation of movie and tv piracy.
s it still prohibited even if such noncommercial sharing has been authorized by the author using a license such as CC by-nd-nc? Or do you claim that independent authors of musical works do not have the authority to grant such a license because they can't prove that their work is original?
I am not trying to say that they cannot do this. I would ever encourage in it many situations. It is matters like this that show us the legitimate uses for BitTorrent. My problem isn't so much with sharing files, it is this attitude that people seem to have taken where they believe what they are doing is not illegal for once reason or another. I do condemn the RIAA for actions like this, but you have to understand where they are coming from. They have several problems that are costing them money, but the thing is only a few of them are actually quantifiable, and tracking downloads of the new hit song is one of those few trackable methods. It is quite possibly true that the music is just getting shittier, but it is sort of hard to quanitify that without record sales, and they cannot seem to accurately quantify record sales anymore (in their opinion) because of P2P sharing of music. If that truly is the case they have a Catch-22 and really cannot do much about it. We will see if things change with time, but I really think the RIAA will just continue to screw up until one of the Big 4 (or several of the smaller groups) decide to actually take a chance and show the others it is time for a change.
Re:This sort of thing...
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RIAA Sues a Child
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Just a few quick definitions before my response:
Intellectual Propert - A product of the intellect that has commercial value, including copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works, and ideational property, such as patents, appellations of origin, business methods, and industrial processes.
Theft - The act or an instance of stealing; larceny.
Stealing - To take (the property of another) without right or permission.
Add them up, you have your theft of intellectual property. While the lawyers of the world probably use infringement more often then anything else, theft is something the lowly masses actually understand and don't always need to have explained to them. BTW, all these definitions brought to you by. dictionary.com.
"Intellectual property" is a term invented by the people you're shilling for.
Actually not really. Intellectual property is a term used by a great many people to cover well, all of intellectual property. This include patents. It should be noted the legal system does treat patents, which fall under the IP category, at the same weight as physical property. So since, Copyrights are also intellectual property are they not allowed to carry the same weight? Am I not allowed to own the rights and ideas behind what I invent and/or write.
It's not a real thing that can be removed from someone's posession, thus is not a valid target for "theft."
Once again another one of those great fallacies. It can be removed from someone's possession. It can be sold outright from one person to another. It can be inherited through an estate and it can be stolen everytime the patent or copyright is infringed upon. You said that the RIAA propaganda has said that person X who illegally downloads would have paid for content Y. You argue that person X just may never hear content Y. Let's look at the ways to possible hear content:
1. CD's and cassettes (if they still exist) that you purchase at the store.
2. Legally Downloaded music from a store like iTunes.
3. Television and Radio with the host of radio stations and the few television radio stations.
4. Illegally downloaded music.
Now if our fictional person X (and more importantly the multitudes of persons X) is downloading music and not listening to the radio or watching MTV (or VH1 or whomever), they are collectively hurting ratings for stations and networks. This costs these individuals ad revenue. Now without having ad revenue they can then effectively go under and cut a source of the income from the RIAA.
We can follow back an almost equally twisted chain back with any of the other money making elements above. However, it items 1-3 money gets back to the RIAA, in element 4 it does not. This means that the RIAA is being deprived of income. Your argument that the RIAA uses propaganda to state that person X would have paid for content Y starts to lose footing. The argument used by many P2P individuals has been contested many times and the "studies" to back it up are typically anything BUT scientific. You know the one. The one that states that downloaders are more likely to purchase a CD.
To be honest, I HATE THE RIAA. I cannot possibly scream that any louder. What I hate equally as much is the people who try to treat this idea of intellectual property theft as fallacy. The reason the RIAA doesn't file criminal charges against these people is because then you wind up sending your user base to prison where they are worthless. You also would be EVEN MORE villified for doing so. If the theft of intellectual property was not considered a crime, the counterfeiters and large piracy individuals (I am talking about the people that get content A, B, C and more to us.) would not be charged with crimes where the penalties are tantamount to actual theft.
So to re-hash, the courts and legal system seem to be against you when it comes to this idea of the actual quality of property t
Do you know how time consuming that is when you have over 30 gigs of music?
Yep, I have a full 30 GB iPod. So I guess I would have some idea.
everytime you add or delete a character
When I use JUMP each time I add a character the list changes. So its not like I have to start all over if I make a typo or the list doesn't update and sorten as I change. While it make operate differently, it is functionally the same.
You realize that the appeal of iTunes is NOT in its groundbreaking library management, but in the ease of use of the way it all fits together?
Actually, I am going to have to call you on this one. I think the real "appeal" of iTunes, is the fact that as one of the largest (actually I think it is the largest) MP3 players on the market, the iPod is well distributed. Add to this that most users have no knowledge at all of 3rd party programs like ephpod or Anapod and you get your general consumer using iTunes for their music.
iTunes is for those among us who really ARE control freaks
If you mean the control freaks who do not like to be able to copy music back off their iPod then yes. Trust me iTunes is not the grand wonder you make it out to be. The libraries in Winamp and Media Player are at the same level. The point is, I use none of these. Of the nearly 30 people I know with iPods, 0 use iTunes. To the best of my knowledge none of them use any Library Program. And you wouldn't have to drag three times into Winamp for a 3 or great, 4 or great or 5 list. Make the 5. Add it to the 4 and make the 4. Repeat for the 3 if you so desire.
The AMD system actually uses their "estimated" speed system. And is at least a fair comparison to intels clock speeds. It was designed to make processors with half the clock speed look competetive, because they were. The Intel System is just stupid and assigns a number that actually says nothing about the processor itself. Though I guess with ignorant consumers you will have what you will.
Yeah, but doesn't M$ make deals with schools to get them their OSes on the cheap. At OSU it was $99 for the 'Buckeye Bundle' which had Office, XP, and 2000. Heck I was able to get FREE copies of Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003 and a few other programs while I was there.
M$ also gave some of the Engineering Honors students Win 2000 and VS 6.0, retail boxed versions of both, back in the day. So a Windows upgrade might not be so out of reach for them. But yeah I would move away from Win98, it really is not what I would want running on a Network, especially if it needs to stay up.
Are you really an AC when you have your email address there?
Re:Where's the role playing?
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Review: Dragonshard
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Ummm...wow did you give up on the RPG early or what? I would have to say that BG is decently open. Of course there are never going to be a HUGE variety of end game scenarios. If you want a VERY open RPG, look to Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (and two expansions), the hopefully soon arrive ES4. ES3 has tons of different quest lines to go down besides just the main quest line, there are also plenty of things you can do that effect how different characters will react to you.
Anyone who has played a thief in ES3 can tell you that there are tons of opportunities to earn free items, and plenty of times to kill NPCs. The map is HUGE and the game had a cool story. Honestly, BG was ages ago and I cannot remember it too well, but you do have a decent range of mobility in your actions there, but with all single player games there is of course that main quest to shoot for.
I personally liked KotoR as well, but you might still find it a bit restrictive. You will get a chance for multiple game endings and opportunities to selectively add party members based on your reactions and what not. KotoR2 is suppose to even start you out differently based on how you ended KotoR1. Like Dark Forces 2: JK, there really are only like two endings, but like I said there is only so much end game you can stuff into a PC game (more true with consoles).
I would look into some of these games, because seriously if you abandonned the RPG before Baldur's Gate, you have missed out on a lot of great gameplay.
Remember this is the nobel prize we are talking about. These are not necessarily new methods, which is something people have repeatedly forgotten over the last few days of science award posts. Many of these discoveries have been done over time, and in fact started work in the '70s or earlier and may have been finalized in the late 80s or early 90s. Nobel Prizes do not have to be given to you the year you create some new and wonderful thing, and most often this is not the case. Think of the Nobel Prize more as a lifetime achievement award (I mean most the recipients are typically of advanced age) in your scientific field.
Well cell phone providers can't get people interested because the cell phone screens are not high res, there is not mass storage on a cell phone, and Verizon charges $15 a month for V-Cast which is a bit nuts.
Those portable DVD players you talk about, are HUGE in areas with commuter trains. I see them every day on my ride into DC and I am sure trains from Conn to NY and into Chicago also see them. Trust me commuters and freq. travelers love this things.
Are you saying that there isn't a market for videos? There are tons of P2P videos transferred, and not always the latest pirated movie either. TV Shows that are on cable or on the smaller broadcast networks become frequents. So do shows like Family Guy and other popular network shows. Check out a torrent site if you find one. Some of the best seeded items are for videos and not for MP3s. Would I rip my whole movie collection for one of these? Probably not, but I would consider legitimate downloads of some programming, especially if no DVD available content (God I want Whose Line on DVD) exist.
Seriously, a device like this could have potential and begin to change the way video content is presented, and might help the MPAA solve their slumping money issues a bit.
Yeah this isn't exactly a first. Some of the higher end FX cards (well at least one) had a dual slot config for their massive cooling. As I recall ASUS was one of the first OEMs then to release a single slot cooled card, and eventually others do too.
Okay the GeForce Scheme makes sense. They just stopped calling them Geforce 1, 2, 3...The first number is obviously your generation number. The second number is the one you want to look at to guess-timate relative performance. This new one is a bit odd by ATI but it makes sense, X1***. The *** is what to worry about. This is Generation X1, or they could've said XI to possibly confuse you a bit less.
As for the GP's comment, what makes you think OS 11 won't have some weird name like OS X1 or the slightly less weird XI? Look at ESPN games, they are sticking to that 2K* number system, though I guess that makes sense. You want a pointless and totally meaningless system, use the Pentium 4 system. I at least liked knowing by looking what the clock speed was, even if it did mean nothing.
Can your folder structure automatically and on-the-fly give the list of all songs you played in the last month that you've rated higher than 4 stars that AREN'T in the classical genre?
Why the heck would I care? I know what songs I listen to and what songs I do not like at all. It is called a playlist and songs I do not like get removed from it. There is really no reason to rate songs, except for the purposes of a "weighted" random scheme, which media players support.
Does your folder + player system track the number of playcounts on the computer AND the portable?
I wouldn't be too surprised if a plug-in existed for this in winamp. As for the portable, well I usually use the same set of playlists or whole directories over and over again, so doesn't really matter too much.
Can you find tracks while having the pointer follow just by typing a few words of either the name, artist, album name, format, random metadata you've assigned etc. and at the same time narrowing down as you continue to type?
You ever used the Jump function in winamp. Sounds to me you are describing the same thing.
iTunes is a db frontend. With that, you get all the niceities of a database with a friendly GUI wrapper. It's so beyond a structured file directory that it's like comparing a database driven application to one that stores data in discrete text files.
Since I primarily use Windows let us discuss in that light for the moment. I can set the music directories to Details view. Set the information in the Details view to show all the information I could possibly want from the tags. You realize that the meta-data and bulk of the information you keep touting is so great, is stored in ID3 tags. This information is readily readable by most any program that has put forth the effort to do it, which Windows does.
Personally, I'll continue to take my own natural anal retention over someone elses programmed anal retention anyday.
Like the siblings have pointed out there are ways to retag items en masse. I have used some of these to fix some of the oddities in a few of my tags where things were all caps or the like. Also one of the programs I use, Anapod, let me fix some of the problems as well on the iPod end and then I just transfer them back to the PC end having them renamed how I like them as they are copied back in the nice structure I prefer.
I never have understood some peoples obsession with the Library concept. A well maintained and organized folder structure performs the same task and makes it just as easy to find songs. Personally, I do not like iTunes. I am by no means anti-Mac or Apple, I have an iPod and want a Mac Mini, just don't like it. I use ephpod or Anapod, depending on the computer, and I am happy.
For my ripping needs, I will continue to use CDex, which I still believe is one of the best, if not the best, CD Ripper around.
But the real trick up Harmony's sleeve is its digital rights management (DRM) technology, which allows it to support virtually every kind of mp3 player - including the iPod
Of course I still believe in the ripping CDs myself method. If I want music I still want my little piece of plastic, especially since entire albums still cost about the same.
No, the truly greatest sign your place of work is expanding faster then space is available, is when they start talking about giving you computer and phone equipment and letting you work from home.
You also have to remember that in many places they only picked up UPN or WB. When last I was in Columbus, OH we did not have WB only UPN. And I think if you had cable you got two, Columbus and Cleveland. This is part of the reason though why UPN and WB swap shows a lot, otherwise lots of programs would never get viewed.
You know I am reminded of a time when sci-fi shows were created and survived in syndication because they made money and were actually good. My case in point is Star Trek: TNG and DS9. Both of these aired back in the days when the shows were syndicated. So instead of having to make all their money on ad revenue and ratings that Networks want, they were able to make their money by selling the shows to different networks and local affiliates who would show it when they wanted to show it.
The problem is syndication is largely a cable business anymore and does not make as much money. Back in the day there use to be more and better time slots available for syndication. Heck, my local stations growing up (FOX I believe) showed Star Trek: TNG during the days on weekends and in normal time slots during the week (I think even prime time). Of course that was back when FOX was still the tiny 4th network and not taken too seriously by the big three. So I guess with the death of syndication as we know it came syndication of crappiness that resulted in some of the very horrible programs you see on your network stations at midnight and onward.
I do have to agree that the US is slowly turning into an theocracy. We are slowly being pushed further towards this conservative, religious views while forgetting the actual concepts behind the Constitution of the United States. Our government has openly said that porn and video games are the great evils to be stopped, and they are going to fight them to the ends of censorship if they must. It is truly interesting and quite hypocritical for the Republicans to claim a small government ideology, when they have actually embraced the exact opposite.
While the Democrats typically push for social programs meant to "aid" the disadvantaged, the Republicans have taken to pushing social programs meant to "push" an ideological view onto the citizens of the US. Government wants to regulate everything, but in the manner of regulation they seek, they actually create a BIGGER government instead of the smaller one they seek. This inevitably leads to increased taxes and great social divisions.
In the perfect example of a large government failure, we have the FEMA response to the last two hurricanes. While not simply a failure on their own part for not responding quickly or appropriately, they also did plenty to prevent proper aid and help from being received. They were not the only ones turning down this help, but the governments as a whole failed. Examples of this failure include turning back Wal-Mart trucks carrying water and supplies; a coast guard vessel also carrying water was turned away; Amtrak's offer to evacuate citizens was ignored; volunteer Doctor's have been prevented from going into these areas for various reasons; amature hovercraft operators were also turned away. The list goes on and on, and the problem is the government involved where it doesn't belong.
People have often attacked the Libertarian ideology because it requires businesses and corporations, along with the common citizen, to make decisions that will affect the good of people. The disaster in the Gulf Coast is an example where this complaint fails. Millions of people have volunteered time and money to aid those in the area. Churches and non-profit groups have sent aid and people to help. Large corporations have donated money and supplies to the area in an effort to help and inevitably more groups will do the same in an effort to help rebuild the area.
When you create a large government you begin to create larger beauracracies that simply get in the way of things getting accomplished. This is what happened in the Gulf Coast and this is what happens with a large part of the problems we see in other heavily regulated industries. The government has enacted laws they believed would make certain programs more accessible to the individuals, but in the end they actually raise the cost of many of these services outside the bounds of many other individuals.
I believe it was the original intention of the founding fathers to setup a government where there was a core of beliefs that would be held true throughout the nation as a hole. These core beliefs are what make up the original Bill of Rights. It was meant to ensure everyone's right to free speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, etc. However, I think they also intended for the majority of other lawmaking and governmental control to be maintained, not at a national level, but at a state and local level. This is quite obvious, in my opinon, from the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights that says, The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
As for decisions on where else to go, I would not be able to recommend many places to people. I am a Libertarian and like the idea of small government. Hence, I would not be a big fan of Canada. I am actually tempted to see how the privatization of Japan's mail service goes (assuming it ever goes), and to see if they would actually continue on a path that leads to small government.
so how the heck did they. I mean look at the grammar correction in word and see how horrible it is. The English language is so complex and convuluted at times, I seriously wonder how anyone can figure it out, save the English teachers (but I question some of their knowledge).
I still support the fact the the forms of be are one of the hardest parts of English language. Listen to a child or even an English as a Second Language individual and one of the most common mistakes they make it leaving out be-words or using the wrong form of be. Heck, I wouldn't be too surprised if I have used it wrong at least a few times today.
Seriously, I wonder how well they work, especially compared to a trained Korean English language teacher and to a trained Natural English Language teacher. If it lands somewhere in between the two that is fine by me, but if it fails to even meet the standard teacher (I would assume they have tested this much) then it really doesn't seem like a great plan. If it does better then an English teacher, well maybe M$ should contact them about how they solved the grammar checking, so they can implement it into word.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually by DistroWatch the big three in order are: Ubuntu, Mandriva and Fedora Core. I personally run FC3 on my laptop, but think I will switch to Mandriva once this goes public. I've been looking for some excuse to change and it has been a while since I ran Mandrake/Mandriva.
Another AC with an e-mail address (really people, think a little). Oooh and another inflammatory story from zdnet blogs. Yo slashdot, just save us the trouble, stop accepting blogs as news. All you do is drive up ad revenue for these sites that often are filled with jibberish and anything that resembles news worthy material...
Seriously guys, no one has said anything about this becoming a software release of any sort. This is nothing more then hype and rumor getting reported as real journalism, again. I am actually getting tired of the lack of factual checking several online "news" sites are doing these days (The Inquirer, Slashdot...I am looking at you). Heck analysts feel that the only reason this happened is because Google's CEO spent 14 years working at Sun under Sun's CEO. So really, this is probably not much more then Google helping out Sun.
You see Sun has minimal to no real market name. Most people have no clue what they have done and what they do. However, most everyone has heard of Google, and at least half the people in the country have heard about this Google-Microsoft feud (or Sun's feud with M$). So to the outsider not in the know this comes off as two M$ rivals coming together to take down the giant. The problem is, right now at least, it appears to be nothing more then a publicity stunt. We'll see if that changes in the future, but I will not hold my breath.
Go Buckeyes. Making the finalists. Glad to see the engineers at my alma mater doing well...
Now I welcome you to the real world. The Free Market is an ideal concept. It doesn't exist and is quite unlikely that it ever will. The concept is that products will go to a market and that in the end a market will decide which is better and what product to purchase. This is accomplished with out business or government coercion.
Problem 1: Business/Individual Coercion. Large corporations create an item similar to a smaller corporation. Because of the large money the larger corporation has they have the opportunity to use said money to influence the market. This can include going as far as flooding market space with their items by getting stores to exclusively carry their products. Small corporation cannot compete because it lacks money, and in the end the bigger corporations money wins.
Problem 2: Government coercion. In steps the government right? In a free market the government would technically just sit back in watch; however, in the US we have anti-monopoly laws to try and force things back towards a "free market." The problem is these companies that get broken up eventually wind up competing in a manner that results in one winning and situation beginning again. The examples are the "Baby Bells" and the oil companies.
I mean heck, look at SBC. The circle is literally almost complete if they get to purchase AT&T. The government might have actually destroyed one company to create another. It should be noted that Cingular is SBC and Bellsouth together, so they are already working together to some extent.
I am not saying that socialism and communism have any better systems. I am just pointing out that to call the US economy a free market economy is at best optimistic. In the end, money talks and big money talks a little louder. It is quite possible that the US is the closest to a true capitalist/free-market economy....but it isn't quite so.
BTW, your example is flawed. Gas is pretty much a necessity for an automobile, Office is not. This is why the market sort of accepts the way things are. I mean outside of work, I do not believe I even have to use Office anymore post school.
Those rights are more different than alike, and for this reason, many critics discourage use of the umbrella term "intellectual property" to conflate them.
Your one expert is Stallman, a man who is a founder of FSF. Not exactly an unbiased person to be using, and the only person he quotes in a Stanford Law Professor. You know the says, "Those who cannot do, teach." From my discussions with law professors and attorneys there does seem to be a divide between the professors and the actual practicing lawyers as to who really knows. I think this is why some law schools try to get practicing lawyers with time to spare to teach course matter whenever possible. I also think it is why more law students are encouraged to spend time working for firms and doing practical work experience outside of school.
The term "intellectual property" is not used in the United States Code, and for a good reason: the different exclusive rights that make it up have different purposes and raise entirely different sets of public policy issues. So maybe it isn't in the USC, but don't act like no one uses it. The DOJ is using the term. The head of the USPTO is the Undersecretary for Intellectual Propert and Director of the USPTO. One of the longest government titles I would imagine. You forgot live shows. Do you claim that live shows should be just as unlawful as element 4 because like element 4, they don't result in a lot of revenue going back to the label?
So I forgot one thing. But do a bit of checking and you will learn that artists make the majority of their money off of live shows. Typically live shows are contracted and handled by artists and their agents, not by the record labels.
No, they are hurting the ratings for Music_Radio_And_Music_TV_In_General. Those services that are full of illicit file-sharing have their own ratings
Explain to me how what you are saying is different then what I am saying that radio stations and tv stations involved in music suffer by piracy of music. Same can be said for other television stations with the proliferation of movie and tv piracy.
s it still prohibited even if such noncommercial sharing has been authorized by the author using a license such as CC by-nd-nc? Or do you claim that independent authors of musical works do not have the authority to grant such a license because they can't prove that their work is original?
I am not trying to say that they cannot do this. I would ever encourage in it many situations. It is matters like this that show us the legitimate uses for BitTorrent. My problem isn't so much with sharing files, it is this attitude that people seem to have taken where they believe what they are doing is not illegal for once reason or another. I do condemn the RIAA for actions like this, but you have to understand where they are coming from. They have several problems that are costing them money, but the thing is only a few of them are actually quantifiable, and tracking downloads of the new hit song is one of those few trackable methods. It is quite possibly true that the music is just getting shittier, but it is sort of hard to quanitify that without record sales, and they cannot seem to accurately quantify record sales anymore (in their opinion) because of P2P sharing of music. If that truly is the case they have a Catch-22 and really cannot do much about it. We will see if things change with time, but I really think the RIAA will just continue to screw up until one of the Big 4 (or several of the smaller groups) decide to actually take a chance and show the others it is time for a change.
Just a few quick definitions before my response:
Intellectual Propert - A product of the intellect that has commercial value, including copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works, and ideational property, such as patents, appellations of origin, business methods, and industrial processes.
Theft - The act or an instance of stealing; larceny.
Stealing - To take (the property of another) without right or permission.
Add them up, you have your theft of intellectual property. While the lawyers of the world probably use infringement more often then anything else, theft is something the lowly masses actually understand and don't always need to have explained to them. BTW, all these definitions brought to you by. dictionary.com.
"Intellectual property" is a term invented by the people you're shilling for.
Actually not really. Intellectual property is a term used by a great many people to cover well, all of intellectual property. This include patents. It should be noted the legal system does treat patents, which fall under the IP category, at the same weight as physical property. So since, Copyrights are also intellectual property are they not allowed to carry the same weight? Am I not allowed to own the rights and ideas behind what I invent and/or write.
It's not a real thing that can be removed from someone's posession, thus is not a valid target for "theft."
Once again another one of those great fallacies. It can be removed from someone's possession. It can be sold outright from one person to another. It can be inherited through an estate and it can be stolen everytime the patent or copyright is infringed upon. You said that the RIAA propaganda has said that person X who illegally downloads would have paid for content Y. You argue that person X just may never hear content Y. Let's look at the ways to possible hear content:
1. CD's and cassettes (if they still exist) that you purchase at the store.
2. Legally Downloaded music from a store like iTunes.
3. Television and Radio with the host of radio stations and the few television radio stations.
4. Illegally downloaded music.
Now if our fictional person X (and more importantly the multitudes of persons X) is downloading music and not listening to the radio or watching MTV (or VH1 or whomever), they are collectively hurting ratings for stations and networks. This costs these individuals ad revenue. Now without having ad revenue they can then effectively go under and cut a source of the income from the RIAA.
We can follow back an almost equally twisted chain back with any of the other money making elements above. However, it items 1-3 money gets back to the RIAA, in element 4 it does not. This means that the RIAA is being deprived of income. Your argument that the RIAA uses propaganda to state that person X would have paid for content Y starts to lose footing. The argument used by many P2P individuals has been contested many times and the "studies" to back it up are typically anything BUT scientific. You know the one. The one that states that downloaders are more likely to purchase a CD.
To be honest, I HATE THE RIAA. I cannot possibly scream that any louder. What I hate equally as much is the people who try to treat this idea of intellectual property theft as fallacy. The reason the RIAA doesn't file criminal charges against these people is because then you wind up sending your user base to prison where they are worthless. You also would be EVEN MORE villified for doing so. If the theft of intellectual property was not considered a crime, the counterfeiters and large piracy individuals (I am talking about the people that get content A, B, C and more to us.) would not be charged with crimes where the penalties are tantamount to actual theft.
So to re-hash, the courts and legal system seem to be against you when it comes to this idea of the actual quality of property t
Do you know how time consuming that is when you have over 30 gigs of music?
Yep, I have a full 30 GB iPod. So I guess I would have some idea.
everytime you add or delete a character
When I use JUMP each time I add a character the list changes. So its not like I have to start all over if I make a typo or the list doesn't update and sorten as I change. While it make operate differently, it is functionally the same.
You realize that the appeal of iTunes is NOT in its groundbreaking library management, but in the ease of use of the way it all fits together?
Actually, I am going to have to call you on this one. I think the real "appeal" of iTunes, is the fact that as one of the largest (actually I think it is the largest) MP3 players on the market, the iPod is well distributed. Add to this that most users have no knowledge at all of 3rd party programs like ephpod or Anapod and you get your general consumer using iTunes for their music.
iTunes is for those among us who really ARE control freaks
If you mean the control freaks who do not like to be able to copy music back off their iPod then yes. Trust me iTunes is not the grand wonder you make it out to be. The libraries in Winamp and Media Player are at the same level. The point is, I use none of these. Of the nearly 30 people I know with iPods, 0 use iTunes. To the best of my knowledge none of them use any Library Program. And you wouldn't have to drag three times into Winamp for a 3 or great, 4 or great or 5 list. Make the 5. Add it to the 4 and make the 4. Repeat for the 3 if you so desire.
The AMD system actually uses their "estimated" speed system. And is at least a fair comparison to intels clock speeds. It was designed to make processors with half the clock speed look competetive, because they were. The Intel System is just stupid and assigns a number that actually says nothing about the processor itself. Though I guess with ignorant consumers you will have what you will.
Yeah, but doesn't M$ make deals with schools to get them their OSes on the cheap. At OSU it was $99 for the 'Buckeye Bundle' which had Office, XP, and 2000. Heck I was able to get FREE copies of Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003 and a few other programs while I was there.
M$ also gave some of the Engineering Honors students Win 2000 and VS 6.0, retail boxed versions of both, back in the day. So a Windows upgrade might not be so out of reach for them. But yeah I would move away from Win98, it really is not what I would want running on a Network, especially if it needs to stay up.
Are you really an AC when you have your email address there?
Ummm...wow did you give up on the RPG early or what? I would have to say that BG is decently open. Of course there are never going to be a HUGE variety of end game scenarios. If you want a VERY open RPG, look to Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (and two expansions), the hopefully soon arrive ES4. ES3 has tons of different quest lines to go down besides just the main quest line, there are also plenty of things you can do that effect how different characters will react to you.
Anyone who has played a thief in ES3 can tell you that there are tons of opportunities to earn free items, and plenty of times to kill NPCs. The map is HUGE and the game had a cool story. Honestly, BG was ages ago and I cannot remember it too well, but you do have a decent range of mobility in your actions there, but with all single player games there is of course that main quest to shoot for.
I personally liked KotoR as well, but you might still find it a bit restrictive. You will get a chance for multiple game endings and opportunities to selectively add party members based on your reactions and what not. KotoR2 is suppose to even start you out differently based on how you ended KotoR1. Like Dark Forces 2: JK, there really are only like two endings, but like I said there is only so much end game you can stuff into a PC game (more true with consoles).
I would look into some of these games, because seriously if you abandonned the RPG before Baldur's Gate, you have missed out on a lot of great gameplay.
this new method
Remember this is the nobel prize we are talking about. These are not necessarily new methods, which is something people have repeatedly forgotten over the last few days of science award posts. Many of these discoveries have been done over time, and in fact started work in the '70s or earlier and may have been finalized in the late 80s or early 90s. Nobel Prizes do not have to be given to you the year you create some new and wonderful thing, and most often this is not the case. Think of the Nobel Prize more as a lifetime achievement award (I mean most the recipients are typically of advanced age) in your scientific field.
Well cell phone providers can't get people interested because the cell phone screens are not high res, there is not mass storage on a cell phone, and Verizon charges $15 a month for V-Cast which is a bit nuts.
Those portable DVD players you talk about, are HUGE in areas with commuter trains. I see them every day on my ride into DC and I am sure trains from Conn to NY and into Chicago also see them. Trust me commuters and freq. travelers love this things.
Are you saying that there isn't a market for videos? There are tons of P2P videos transferred, and not always the latest pirated movie either. TV Shows that are on cable or on the smaller broadcast networks become frequents. So do shows like Family Guy and other popular network shows. Check out a torrent site if you find one. Some of the best seeded items are for videos and not for MP3s. Would I rip my whole movie collection for one of these? Probably not, but I would consider legitimate downloads of some programming, especially if no DVD available content (God I want Whose Line on DVD) exist.
Seriously, a device like this could have potential and begin to change the way video content is presented, and might help the MPAA solve their slumping money issues a bit.
Yeah this isn't exactly a first. Some of the higher end FX cards (well at least one) had a dual slot config for their massive cooling. As I recall ASUS was one of the first OEMs then to release a single slot cooled card, and eventually others do too.
Okay the GeForce Scheme makes sense. They just stopped calling them Geforce 1, 2, 3...The first number is obviously your generation number. The second number is the one you want to look at to guess-timate relative performance. This new one is a bit odd by ATI but it makes sense, X1***. The *** is what to worry about. This is Generation X1, or they could've said XI to possibly confuse you a bit less.
As for the GP's comment, what makes you think OS 11 won't have some weird name like OS X1 or the slightly less weird XI? Look at ESPN games, they are sticking to that 2K* number system, though I guess that makes sense. You want a pointless and totally meaningless system, use the Pentium 4 system. I at least liked knowing by looking what the clock speed was, even if it did mean nothing.
Can your folder structure automatically and on-the-fly give the list of all songs you played in the last month that you've rated higher than 4 stars that AREN'T in the classical genre?
Why the heck would I care? I know what songs I listen to and what songs I do not like at all. It is called a playlist and songs I do not like get removed from it. There is really no reason to rate songs, except for the purposes of a "weighted" random scheme, which media players support.
Does your folder + player system track the number of playcounts on the computer AND the portable?
I wouldn't be too surprised if a plug-in existed for this in winamp. As for the portable, well I usually use the same set of playlists or whole directories over and over again, so doesn't really matter too much.
Can you find tracks while having the pointer follow just by typing a few words of either the name, artist, album name, format, random metadata you've assigned etc. and at the same time narrowing down as you continue to type?
You ever used the Jump function in winamp. Sounds to me you are describing the same thing.
iTunes is a db frontend. With that, you get all the niceities of a database with a friendly GUI wrapper. It's so beyond a structured file directory that it's like comparing a database driven application to one that stores data in discrete text files.
Since I primarily use Windows let us discuss in that light for the moment. I can set the music directories to Details view. Set the information in the Details view to show all the information I could possibly want from the tags. You realize that the meta-data and bulk of the information you keep touting is so great, is stored in ID3 tags. This information is readily readable by most any program that has put forth the effort to do it, which Windows does.
Personally, I'll continue to take my own natural anal retention over someone elses programmed anal retention anyday.
Like the siblings have pointed out there are ways to retag items en masse. I have used some of these to fix some of the oddities in a few of my tags where things were all caps or the like. Also one of the programs I use, Anapod, let me fix some of the problems as well on the iPod end and then I just transfer them back to the PC end having them renamed how I like them as they are copied back in the nice structure I prefer.
I never have understood some peoples obsession with the Library concept. A well maintained and organized folder structure performs the same task and makes it just as easy to find songs. Personally, I do not like iTunes. I am by no means anti-Mac or Apple, I have an iPod and want a Mac Mini, just don't like it. I use ephpod or Anapod, depending on the computer, and I am happy.
For my ripping needs, I will continue to use CDex, which I still believe is one of the best, if not the best, CD Ripper around.
But the real trick up Harmony's sleeve is its digital rights management (DRM) technology, which allows it to support virtually every kind of mp3 player - including the iPod
Of course I still believe in the ripping CDs myself method. If I want music I still want my little piece of plastic, especially since entire albums still cost about the same.
No, the truly greatest sign your place of work is expanding faster then space is available, is when they start talking about giving you computer and phone equipment and letting you work from home.
You also have to remember that in many places they only picked up UPN or WB. When last I was in Columbus, OH we did not have WB only UPN. And I think if you had cable you got two, Columbus and Cleveland. This is part of the reason though why UPN and WB swap shows a lot, otherwise lots of programs would never get viewed.
You know I am reminded of a time when sci-fi shows were created and survived in syndication because they made money and were actually good. My case in point is Star Trek: TNG and DS9. Both of these aired back in the days when the shows were syndicated. So instead of having to make all their money on ad revenue and ratings that Networks want, they were able to make their money by selling the shows to different networks and local affiliates who would show it when they wanted to show it.
The problem is syndication is largely a cable business anymore and does not make as much money. Back in the day there use to be more and better time slots available for syndication. Heck, my local stations growing up (FOX I believe) showed Star Trek: TNG during the days on weekends and in normal time slots during the week (I think even prime time). Of course that was back when FOX was still the tiny 4th network and not taken too seriously by the big three. So I guess with the death of syndication as we know it came syndication of crappiness that resulted in some of the very horrible programs you see on your network stations at midnight and onward.
I do have to agree that the US is slowly turning into an theocracy. We are slowly being pushed further towards this conservative, religious views while forgetting the actual concepts behind the Constitution of the United States. Our government has openly said that porn and video games are the great evils to be stopped, and they are going to fight them to the ends of censorship if they must. It is truly interesting and quite hypocritical for the Republicans to claim a small government ideology, when they have actually embraced the exact opposite.
While the Democrats typically push for social programs meant to "aid" the disadvantaged, the Republicans have taken to pushing social programs meant to "push" an ideological view onto the citizens of the US. Government wants to regulate everything, but in the manner of regulation they seek, they actually create a BIGGER government instead of the smaller one they seek. This inevitably leads to increased taxes and great social divisions.
In the perfect example of a large government failure, we have the FEMA response to the last two hurricanes. While not simply a failure on their own part for not responding quickly or appropriately, they also did plenty to prevent proper aid and help from being received. They were not the only ones turning down this help, but the governments as a whole failed. Examples of this failure include turning back Wal-Mart trucks carrying water and supplies; a coast guard vessel also carrying water was turned away; Amtrak's offer to evacuate citizens was ignored; volunteer Doctor's have been prevented from going into these areas for various reasons; amature hovercraft operators were also turned away. The list goes on and on, and the problem is the government involved where it doesn't belong.
People have often attacked the Libertarian ideology because it requires businesses and corporations, along with the common citizen, to make decisions that will affect the good of people. The disaster in the Gulf Coast is an example where this complaint fails. Millions of people have volunteered time and money to aid those in the area. Churches and non-profit groups have sent aid and people to help. Large corporations have donated money and supplies to the area in an effort to help and inevitably more groups will do the same in an effort to help rebuild the area.
When you create a large government you begin to create larger beauracracies that simply get in the way of things getting accomplished. This is what happened in the Gulf Coast and this is what happens with a large part of the problems we see in other heavily regulated industries. The government has enacted laws they believed would make certain programs more accessible to the individuals, but in the end they actually raise the cost of many of these services outside the bounds of many other individuals.
I believe it was the original intention of the founding fathers to setup a government where there was a core of beliefs that would be held true throughout the nation as a hole. These core beliefs are what make up the original Bill of Rights. It was meant to ensure everyone's right to free speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, etc. However, I think they also intended for the majority of other lawmaking and governmental control to be maintained, not at a national level, but at a state and local level. This is quite obvious, in my opinon, from the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights that says, The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
As for decisions on where else to go, I would not be able to recommend many places to people. I am a Libertarian and like the idea of small government. Hence, I would not be a big fan of Canada. I am actually tempted to see how the privatization of Japan's mail service goes (assuming it ever goes), and to see if they would actually continue on a path that leads to small government.
so how the heck did they. I mean look at the grammar correction in word and see how horrible it is. The English language is so complex and convuluted at times, I seriously wonder how anyone can figure it out, save the English teachers (but I question some of their knowledge).
I still support the fact the the forms of be are one of the hardest parts of English language. Listen to a child or even an English as a Second Language individual and one of the most common mistakes they make it leaving out be-words or using the wrong form of be. Heck, I wouldn't be too surprised if I have used it wrong at least a few times today.
Seriously, I wonder how well they work, especially compared to a trained Korean English language teacher and to a trained Natural English Language teacher. If it lands somewhere in between the two that is fine by me, but if it fails to even meet the standard teacher (I would assume they have tested this much) then it really doesn't seem like a great plan. If it does better then an English teacher, well maybe M$ should contact them about how they solved the grammar checking, so they can implement it into word.