This is all because no-one will build a school or
a library or anything else that can't profit.
We get the "government" to do it because nobody
else will, not because that's the first choice.
It's public apathy in the extreme that leads to
government being the party responsible for public
institutions. Local governments and/or small groups of citizens could have done it, but they didn't. Instead, the burden was rested on the
shoulder of the government. It's an excuse for
more taxes so they don't offer to give the obligation back to the regional levels of government (because they'd have to give up the tax money).
Taxes marked for education go to support bureaucracy first, then education. And it gets
applied toward education only grudgingly. This
example is just one of many. They're constantly
looking for excuses to withhold money.
At first glance, Nethack appears to be quite primitive. But, it's superbly "Gamed." Addictive in the extreme, it has amazing replay value, and has much depth of immersion. One of
the few games that will make you think the AI
of your computer is mocking you. What nethack
lacks in UI (arguable, since the UI is elegant if
not pretty), it makes up for in gameplay.
For instance, XFree86 servers, or Mozilla...
Lots of people wouldn't be able to, or want to,
deal with source-only distributions of these.
It's a HUGE job to build these things, and require
some outrageous massaging to do it.
Things that will compile in 30 seconds and depend
only on libc, that's very different.
Do you think the 35mm prints required for an
international distribution grow on trees? Or do
you think they're "cheap" to make an distribute?
Or do you not believe the law of supply and demand
applies to film distribution? Do you believe that, when a 70mm film is only shown in 8 cities, it's some weird conspiracy, or could you understand that there are staggering costs associated with this?
Did you think movie execs sit in board rooms deciding things like "let's deprive the Italians
from the privilege of seeing our film for 9 months?" and get a sinister laugh out of it?
There's no malice behind it, it's simply economy.
If the demand for the aforementioned film were
remarkably high in Italy, economic principles could lead to its being released there sooner.
Unfortunately, reality is the driving force here.
If you still want to call that "artificial scarcity" then go ahead. But I would recommend
that you research the costs involved in film
distribution before you totally dismiss the need
for a distribution company to perform to a budget
and acheieve a positive profit to loss ratio, as
"artificial." Because there really are finite resources involved here.
When cinema is all digital, we can revisit this discussion, because when the industry tries to maintain the status quo *without* the limits of resources, you'll be correct in your comments.
" Bonehead and proud of it. I have this wacky belief that agreements made between consenting adults
should be honored, even if one person decides several years later that he's changed his mind."
The wire doesn't look like anything special.
Where is the steel conduit? Is it fireproof?
Maybe they can run over it with a truck, but
can a pocketknife cut the cable? Can the DB9
connector crack off a piece of epoxy? How does
it act with a 7.62 round fired into it?
>Don't know about the rest of the world, but
> that's >what everyone in the Midwest calls a
> 18-wheeler.
> A semi-truck.
> A Freightliner, Peterbuilt, Kenworth, >GM/Volvo...A big-rig.
The point of the question about a "floppy based"
system (firewall/router, et.al.) is not to use
the floppy, but, to make it simpler to configure
than "BOOTP/Diskless".
In a floppy-based system like that (firewall), the
floppy would be used to boot the host, that is all. The goal is to have *NO* disks, or any other
moving parts.
Re:more games, different games
on
Gifts For Geeks
·
· Score: 2
>nobody mentioned companies like cheapass games
Yes!!
Starbase Jeff would make an excellent online game,
or at least I've always thought so.
>What happened to concept of innocent until proven
>guilty?
That's criminal doctrine, and this is a civil matter. To win a civil case, one only needs
superior evidence. You can be innocent as Snow
White but if you get to court without your paperwork you can lose a civil suit.
> and I really wish someone would put the
> copyright office person who agreed to this, in
> front of a "60 Minutes" camera so they can
> explain to everyone why
> this isn't graft and/or corporate welfare.
So, did you write to Mike Wallace, or did you write to slashdot?
> No matter what, you can always record the
>lineout from your soundcard, then
> recompress into whatever you feel like (MP3,
>for example).
Right. The 16bit sample, and the noise from the
analog stream is enough of an aberration that the
record companies don't really care. The people who use this approach to copy digital music are
polluting the mp3 community with their unlistenable crap.
> so when you move into a neighborhood, do you
>twist everyones doorknob and car door and try to
>open everyones window, just to "know
> what kind of security they have in place"?
Before I loan you any equipment, I'd like to know
that you keep your doors locked, etc.
And at a professional level, I like to make sure
that you can be a responsible caretaker for musical instruments, recording gear, etc.
As a neighbor, I wouldn't loan you any tools if I
thought you'd leave them out in the driveway, or in an unlocked garage.
How is this "twisting doorknobs and trying to open windows?"
As long as the format remains in relative
obscurity from the mainstream, the Ogg format
will get you around the letter (but not the
spirit) of the "No MP3" rule. OV is better
anyway.
It is possible that the ISP is more interested in
reducing the risk of/. effect than of litigation,
though.
It only takes one really popular file to hose a whole hosting service, since they don't all have multiple OC48's.
One of my former co-workers, who left Phoenix early this year to move to San Francisco, came to visit today.
He had borrowed (not rented!) a car to drive while
visiting. He told us he had to leave his truck
(very recently bought, still making payments!) because... he can't get parking.
It's hard for me to even conceive of a residential
situation that doesn't include parking space. This certainly rules out the project car, the trailer for the motorcycle, the jetski...
I should mention that the price my former co-worker is paying for rent is about 4 times
the mortgate payment on a 3 bedroom 2 bath house
in Dallas.
I think what's even more unbelievable is that despite the reality of the situation, people are
*STILL* flocking there. The funny thing is, relatively few of them are making enough to save
while living on a disposable income; much less becoming "dotcom billionaires."
There has to be a reckoning sooner or later.
What *really* scares me though, is the sheer numbers of people recently relocated to San Fran,
since August 1989, if you get my drift.
" dot-com is main street Slicon Valley and Wall Street [ny/ny] combined. Any other
dot-ohheckimtoolateoricantaffordthedotcom has minute survival chances in a market that is hooked on
dot-com. "
So, dot net doesn't mean anything to you?
Commerce via the telephone has not died out;
and relatively few telephone-based businesses
use mnemonics for their phone numbers. Why is
name dot com so important? If it were not for
the finite resource of the IP address (forcing
many web domains to share them, now and more so
in the near future), we could happily go to numeric addressing. The high profile that DNS
gets today could shift to directory services.
It's already such a mess that you can't ever assume a company's name dot com is the address
for that company. And there are many whose coporate site does not even host the sales and
support site, so, all this hype is over something
that's not even as useful as it could be.
> Slot machines (ideally) are random. Regardless
> of how badly or losing or winning you are,
>
> the chances of you winning or losing again are
> >equal.
You make it sound like the slot machines are 50/50
win/lose. Actually, they are wheeled to pay out something like 86 cents to the dollar. Yes they
are random, but they are randomized on a weighted curve, like all casino games.
Slashdot Mirror
This is all because no-one will build a school or
a library or anything else that can't profit.
We get the "government" to do it because nobody
else will, not because that's the first choice.
It's public apathy in the extreme that leads to
government being the party responsible for public
institutions. Local governments and/or small groups of citizens could have done it, but they didn't. Instead, the burden was rested on the
shoulder of the government. It's an excuse for
more taxes so they don't offer to give the obligation back to the regional levels of government (because they'd have to give up the tax money).
Taxes marked for education go to support bureaucracy first, then education. And it gets
applied toward education only grudgingly. This
example is just one of many. They're constantly
looking for excuses to withhold money.
At first glance, Nethack appears to be quite primitive. But, it's superbly "Gamed." Addictive in the extreme, it has amazing replay value, and has much depth of immersion. One of
the few games that will make you think the AI
of your computer is mocking you. What nethack
lacks in UI (arguable, since the UI is elegant if
not pretty), it makes up for in gameplay.
> we have a lawn that's two-foot-by-three-foot
I do believe I would cut that one with scissors.
I thought my lawn was small at 1000 square feet.
For instance, XFree86 servers, or Mozilla...
Lots of people wouldn't be able to, or want to,
deal with source-only distributions of these.
It's a HUGE job to build these things, and require
some outrageous massaging to do it.
Things that will compile in 30 seconds and depend
only on libc, that's very different.
>> it just opened in Italy.
> Alas, this is an artificial scarcity.
Do you think the 35mm prints required for an
international distribution grow on trees? Or do
you think they're "cheap" to make an distribute?
Or do you not believe the law of supply and demand
applies to film distribution? Do you believe that, when a 70mm film is only shown in 8 cities, it's some weird conspiracy, or could you understand that there are staggering costs associated with this?
Did you think movie execs sit in board rooms deciding things like "let's deprive the Italians
from the privilege of seeing our film for 9 months?" and get a sinister laugh out of it?
There's no malice behind it, it's simply economy.
If the demand for the aforementioned film were
remarkably high in Italy, economic principles could lead to its being released there sooner.
Unfortunately, reality is the driving force here.
If you still want to call that "artificial scarcity" then go ahead. But I would recommend
that you research the costs involved in film
distribution before you totally dismiss the need
for a distribution company to perform to a budget
and acheieve a positive profit to loss ratio, as
"artificial." Because there really are finite resources involved here.
When cinema is all digital, we can revisit this discussion, because when the industry tries to maintain the status quo *without* the limits of resources, you'll be correct in your comments.
" Bonehead and proud of it. I have this wacky belief that agreements made between consenting adults
should be honored, even if one person decides several years later that he's changed his mind."
You can't sign a contract to break laws.
The wire doesn't look like anything special.
Where is the steel conduit? Is it fireproof?
Maybe they can run over it with a truck, but
can a pocketknife cut the cable? Can the DB9
connector crack off a piece of epoxy? How does
it act with a 7.62 round fired into it?
I've read no less than 10 messages here stating
that "rapists and murderers" get less than 7 years.
I think you'll have a hard time finding a "murderer" whose original sentence was less,
or even a jurisdiction that allows such a sentence.
>Don't know about the rest of the world, but
> that's >what everyone in the Midwest calls a
> 18-wheeler.
> A semi-truck.
> A Freightliner, Peterbuilt, Kenworth, >GM/Volvo...A big-rig.
"An articulated lorry"
The point of the question about a "floppy based"
system (firewall/router, et.al.) is not to use
the floppy, but, to make it simpler to configure
than "BOOTP/Diskless".
In a floppy-based system like that (firewall), the
floppy would be used to boot the host, that is all. The goal is to have *NO* disks, or any other
moving parts.
>nobody mentioned companies like cheapass games
Yes!!
Starbase Jeff would make an excellent online game,
or at least I've always thought so.
>There is a story...I *really* wish i could think >of the name of it.... takes place in the >future,in this communist society like place
If you're thinking of
Walter M. Miller, Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)
It's a religious, not a communist society.
That might not be the story you're thinking of,
but it certainly fits.
>SLC is only 50% mormon.
The other 50% live in Mesa AZ.
>What happened to concept of innocent until proven
>guilty?
That's criminal doctrine, and this is a civil matter. To win a civil case, one only needs
superior evidence. You can be innocent as Snow
White but if you get to court without your paperwork you can lose a civil suit.
> and I really wish someone would put the
> copyright office person who agreed to this, in
> front of a "60 Minutes" camera so they can
> explain to everyone why
> this isn't graft and/or corporate welfare.
So, did you write to Mike Wallace, or did you write to slashdot?
I wish for an optical output that
strips SCMS, so that it's possible to
record the sound onto a minidisc.
>> The Oldest Known Life Keeps Getting Older
> As opposed to all those things that don't get older everyday???
Well, right, but this time, this particular early date moved backwards by more than just one day.
Let's see you do that...
> No matter what, you can always record the
>lineout from your soundcard, then
> recompress into whatever you feel like (MP3,
>for example).
Right. The 16bit sample, and the noise from the
analog stream is enough of an aberration that the
record companies don't really care. The people who use this approach to copy digital music are
polluting the mp3 community with their unlistenable crap.
Anyone who encodes a crappy mp3 should be shot.
I want to know if the grandfather clock in the background:
i ?s an_0.jpg+lego/images/mononokehttp://www.ericharshb arger.org/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?san_0.jpg+lego/images/ mononoke
http://www.ericharshbarger.org/cgi-bin/photo.cg
Is lego?
> so when you move into a neighborhood, do you
>twist everyones doorknob and car door and try to
>open everyones window, just to "know
> what kind of security they have in place"?
Before I loan you any equipment, I'd like to know
that you keep your doors locked, etc.
And at a professional level, I like to make sure
that you can be a responsible caretaker for musical instruments, recording gear, etc.
As a neighbor, I wouldn't loan you any tools if I
thought you'd leave them out in the driveway, or in an unlocked garage.
How is this "twisting doorknobs and trying to open windows?"
As long as the format remains in relative obscurity from the mainstream, the Ogg format will get you around the letter (but not the spirit) of the "No MP3" rule. OV is better anyway. It is possible that the ISP is more interested in reducing the risk of /. effect than of litigation,
though.
It only takes one really popular file to hose a whole hosting service, since they don't all have multiple OC48's.
Email
"1) b&w will be open-sourced. "
I didn't get that from the article. Do you have a reference?
"2) a. The weather in the game is equal to the weather of where you live. "
Crap. Three Hundred Days of Sunshine a Year.
One of my former co-workers, who left Phoenix early this year to move to San Francisco, came to visit today.
He had borrowed (not rented!) a car to drive while
visiting. He told us he had to leave his truck
(very recently bought, still making payments!) because... he can't get parking.
It's hard for me to even conceive of a residential
situation that doesn't include parking space. This certainly rules out the project car, the trailer for the motorcycle, the jetski...
I should mention that the price my former co-worker is paying for rent is about 4 times
the mortgate payment on a 3 bedroom 2 bath house
in Dallas.
I think what's even more unbelievable is that despite the reality of the situation, people are
*STILL* flocking there. The funny thing is, relatively few of them are making enough to save
while living on a disposable income; much less becoming "dotcom billionaires."
There has to be a reckoning sooner or later.
What *really* scares me though, is the sheer numbers of people recently relocated to San Fran,
since August 1989, if you get my drift.
" dot-com is main street Slicon Valley and Wall Street [ny/ny] combined. Any other
dot-ohheckimtoolateoricantaffordthedotcom has minute survival chances in a market that is hooked on
dot-com. "
So, dot net doesn't mean anything to you?
Commerce via the telephone has not died out;
and relatively few telephone-based businesses
use mnemonics for their phone numbers. Why is
name dot com so important? If it were not for
the finite resource of the IP address (forcing
many web domains to share them, now and more so
in the near future), we could happily go to numeric addressing. The high profile that DNS
gets today could shift to directory services.
It's already such a mess that you can't ever assume a company's name dot com is the address
for that company. And there are many whose coporate site does not even host the sales and
support site, so, all this hype is over something
that's not even as useful as it could be.
> Slot machines (ideally) are random. Regardless
> of how badly or losing or winning you are,
>
> the chances of you winning or losing again are
> >equal.
You make it sound like the slot machines are 50/50
win/lose. Actually, they are wheeled to pay out something like 86 cents to the dollar. Yes they
are random, but they are randomized on a weighted curve, like all casino games.