They do support ogg. It just didn't register with the submitter of the story (or the editor who approved it) that.ogg was a music format popular in geek crowds.
Works fine for me on Linux (with GTK). Yeah, it can be slow at times, but when I'm on Windows 2k (on the same computer) its just as slow (if not slower).
There are mistakes for my school (Virginia Tech) as well. The school does certainly provide webpages. I thought we provided a wireless (I don't have a laptop (other than a 8 year old thing I got off ebay), so it doesn't really concern me), I have known profs who stream audio copies of their lectures (though I don't know of anyone who ever listened to one), and I'm pretty sure there are discounted computers available from the bookstore.
"Who do you think would buckle first if the record companies said "fuck it then, we won't pay", the record companies, or the radio stations?"
The record label. Well they wouldn't go bankrupt or anything if they are owned by a larger company like Sony, but their business would fall. The radio station on the other hand could just move over to the next label. Believe it or not, there are quite a few labels out there, despite what you may read on/..
Sorry to introduce facts that challenge your close minded perception of how the music industry runs.
"If they really didn't like the system, they could have and would have phased it out years ago."
And lose the radio airplay that is essential for their artists? No way.
"They essentially have a monopoly over FM playlists"
Not even close. Hundreds of labels, with most (though not all) of the big ones owned by 6 or so larger record companies. Thats far from a monopoly. At best its an oligopoly, but that fails to take in account the fact that should the indies get nearly exclusive control over the radio playlists (which is pretty much what would happen if the majors could all agree to stop paying) they would dominate the market.
"which means they can push out whatever teeny bopper crap they come up with and know, just KNOW, that it will sell well."
I know everyone here loves to bash the record companies, but they are not the bad guys in this case. Here it is the radio stations for using the "independent promoters" to get past the payola laws.
Think about it, who benefits from payola, the bribers or the bribees (don't know if that is a real word, but lets pretend it is)? The record labels are forced to pay just to get their music on the air, while radio stations get to cash in on the label's desperation. Pretty much any competent record company exec would prefer to get that promotion for free, and in fact that have written complaints over the practice in the past (just the people who would normally be on their side in such a case are convinced in their close minded world that everything a record company does must be evil).
You are constantly being forced to decide between privacy vs functionality. I can give out my email address to other people and thus increase the functionality of my email, but at the time I am sacrificing some degree of privacy.
In this case you are sacrificing 'privacy' (if you want to call having information hidden away in some part of the file system that most users don't know about privacy) for the ability to quickly find things. If you think that is a worth sacrifice, by all means install the program. Otherwise, keep it off your computer.
As far as public computers go, well you shouldn't be accessing sensitive data on a public computer in the first place! Its easy to tell if google's desktop search thing is running, its not so easy to tell if someone installed a virus that is recording your every keystroke.
I never said all mistakes are unavoidable. What I was actually referring to are the times when people complain about doctors who did something they cannot be rationally blamed for. Another poster mentioned a certain senator from North Carolina. He made his millions suing OB-GYNs for delivering babies with genetic birth defects. That may be an extreme example, but the fact is people don't care if a doctor's treatment is more likely to help them than hurt them. In the rare cases something goes wrong, they feel the doctor should be put out of business. Thus, should a robotic doctor make a mistake, it is unlikely they will think "Oh, well a human doctor would be even more likely to make that mistake so I won't complain". Instead the lawyers would have a field day accusing the hospital of trusting peoples lives to pieces of machinery.
But even in cases like the one you mentioned, the mistakes are almost never intentional. The guy made a rare mistake, yes. But is there anyone who doesn't make mistakes? What if a programmer was sued for millions each time a bug is found in his code? That probably happens way more often than a doctor performing the wrong surgery.
You are forgetting the way people think. It doesn't matter if the technology is safer than the old fashioned way, people will still cry foul whenever something goes wrong. Your post even demonstrates this. Having surgery in our modern world is very safe. Much safer than how it was a hundred years ago, and much safer than leaving the problem untreated. Yet in the few instances when something goes wrong, lynch mobs are after the doctors even if what happened was unavoidable.
Do you really think that would be any different if it were robots doing the surgery instead of humans?
I find it hard to take a site which claims to be scientifically literate seriously when they post an article which not once, but four times (including in the title) confuse the term 'gene' with 'genome'. Even my grandmother could probably tell the two apart. Come on guys, ever heard of the Human "Genome" Project? They were not mapping just one gene.
How long before someone blames this on Bill Gates or George Bush?
All that gives you is a list of sites which contain that exact string in the cached version. Thats far from a complete list. Or were you under the odd impression that I have my karma built up to "Excellent" after only nine posts? Or that all of my 674 posts are contained in a mere 45 articles?
Nice try genius. But you will have to do better than that.
(On naming) #
Bedazzling Names
: Choose variable names with irrelevant emotional connotation. e.g.:
marypoppins = ( superman + starship ) / god;
This confuses the reader because they have difficulty disassociating the emotional connotations of the words from the logic they're trying to think about.
"Fixing the Hubble just needs to be cheaper than building a ground-based 'scope of similar quality, and I don't think there's any argument about that."
Estimates I have heard (and IANAA) have put the cost for further service missions at around have a billion dollars, which would be around 4 times the cost of building this telescope. And remember that mission will only keep the Hubble out for a limited time. Afterwards more missions will be required to keep it up longer. And money isn't the only problem. Currently our space program is relying on rather ancient shuttles to get to space. Recently the saftey of those shuttles has been called into question. Thus not only are we risking hundreds of millions of dollars for this science fair project, but also the lives of American astronauts.
Because if you do not agree with the idea that NASA should be given an unlimited budget to build whatever they want you will be modded down for trolling.
The reason it is incorrect to refer to the specific epithet as a species name is that the species name is the entire scientific name, or both the genus and the specific epithet.
There was nothing "thinly-veiled" about that personal attack. You are nothing more than a sorry ass troll.
And I would personally argue a post pointing out that you are an idiot is more than worthy of a +2 (not that it matters to most people, with most settings +2 shows up in exactly the same way as +1, which is likely why you are the only person ever on/. to whine about karma bonuses).
Its funny, I used to occasionally turn off the karma bonus modifier, but thanks to you I'm keeping it on indefinitely just to spite you.
Slashdot Mirror
They do support ogg. It just didn't register with the submitter of the story (or the editor who approved it) that .ogg was a music format popular in geek crowds.
...instead of 10 times as many injured would be patients.
Works fine for me on Linux (with GTK). Yeah, it can be slow at times, but when I'm on Windows 2k (on the same computer) its just as slow (if not slower).
N64? I'm shopping for an 8-bit NES.
There are mistakes for my school (Virginia Tech) as well. The school does certainly provide webpages. I thought we provided a wireless (I don't have a laptop (other than a 8 year old thing I got off ebay), so it doesn't really concern me), I have known profs who stream audio copies of their lectures (though I don't know of anyone who ever listened to one), and I'm pretty sure there are discounted computers available from the bookstore.
Actually, no I don't.
"Given your posting history and self-worshipful personality, I think you're lying."
I don't give a fuck what some Nazi-troll that I occasionally mock and make fun of thinks of me. I thought you had realized that by now.
The record label. Well they wouldn't go bankrupt or anything if they are owned by a larger company like Sony, but their business would fall. The radio station on the other hand could just move over to the next label. Believe it or not, there are quite a few labels out there, despite what you may read on /..
Sorry to introduce facts that challenge your close minded perception of how the music industry runs.
And lose the radio airplay that is essential for their artists? No way.
"They essentially have a monopoly over FM playlists"
Not even close. Hundreds of labels, with most (though not all) of the big ones owned by 6 or so larger record companies. Thats far from a monopoly. At best its an oligopoly, but that fails to take in account the fact that should the indies get nearly exclusive control over the radio playlists (which is pretty much what would happen if the majors could all agree to stop paying) they would dominate the market.
"which means they can push out whatever teeny bopper crap they come up with and know, just KNOW, that it will sell well."
Actually most of their artists do horrible.
Think about it, who benefits from payola, the bribers or the bribees (don't know if that is a real word, but lets pretend it is)? The record labels are forced to pay just to get their music on the air, while radio stations get to cash in on the label's desperation. Pretty much any competent record company exec would prefer to get that promotion for free, and in fact that have written complaints over the practice in the past (just the people who would normally be on their side in such a case are convinced in their close minded world that everything a record company does must be evil).
In this case you are sacrificing 'privacy' (if you want to call having information hidden away in some part of the file system that most users don't know about privacy) for the ability to quickly find things. If you think that is a worth sacrifice, by all means install the program. Otherwise, keep it off your computer.
As far as public computers go, well you shouldn't be accessing sensitive data on a public computer in the first place! Its easy to tell if google's desktop search thing is running, its not so easy to tell if someone installed a virus that is recording your every keystroke.
But even in cases like the one you mentioned, the mistakes are almost never intentional. The guy made a rare mistake, yes. But is there anyone who doesn't make mistakes? What if a programmer was sued for millions each time a bug is found in his code? That probably happens way more often than a doctor performing the wrong surgery.
Do you really think that would be any different if it were robots doing the surgery instead of humans?
Well he had to include a few paragraphs of commentary on a subject he clearly has no clue about. This is slashdot after all.
How long before someone blames this on Bill Gates or George Bush?
All that gives you is a list of sites which contain that exact string in the cached version. Thats far from a complete list. Or were you under the odd impression that I have my karma built up to "Excellent" after only nine posts? Or that all of my 674 posts are contained in a mere 45 articles?
Nice try genius. But you will have to do better than that.
Please enlighten me how to use google to search for posts on slashdot based on their moderation amounts. I would really like to know.
http://mindprod.com/unmain.html/
My favorite:
So let me get this straight, you didn't get that the article was a work of satire, yet this is the only part of it you felt needed to be challenged?
Anyone remember Richard Daley?
Ironically, his son ran Gore's campaign.
Estimates I have heard (and IANAA) have put the cost for further service missions at around have a billion dollars, which would be around 4 times the cost of building this telescope. And remember that mission will only keep the Hubble out for a limited time. Afterwards more missions will be required to keep it up longer. And money isn't the only problem. Currently our space program is relying on rather ancient shuttles to get to space. Recently the saftey of those shuttles has been called into question. Thus not only are we risking hundreds of millions of dollars for this science fair project, but also the lives of American astronauts.
Because if you do not agree with the idea that NASA should be given an unlimited budget to build whatever they want you will be modded down for trolling.
Are you for some reason under the impression that the sole purpose of the Hubble is to be a large object orbiting Earth?
The reason it is incorrect to refer to the specific epithet as a species name is that the species name is the entire scientific name, or both the genus and the specific epithet.
::Ponders correcting the misconception that the second word in the binomial is called the species name::
And I would personally argue a post pointing out that you are an idiot is more than worthy of a +2 (not that it matters to most people, with most settings +2 shows up in exactly the same way as +1, which is likely why you are the only person ever on /. to whine about karma bonuses).
Its funny, I used to occasionally turn off the karma bonus modifier, but thanks to you I'm keeping it on indefinitely just to spite you.