I'd like to see a web service based system compete with my Athlon XP 1800 when it comes to recording and playing back digital audio tracks (44.1 Khz) and MIDI. My oh my would it have to have HUGE bandwidth and near 0 latency cabling.
What a small minded, short sighted, "consumer oriented" twit.
If you don't like what consenting adults are doing with each other in their own homes it's simple... Don't get involved. Don't watch. Don't join in. You can pass all the laws you want but spiders will spin their webs "just the way they like 'em"...
Your own personal viewpoint and your morals are yours and yours alone. I'm happy for you that you think yours are the best. You're obviously young and know no better.
Sorry, the universe (and all that is in it) doesn't give a fuck what you (or I) thinks. That's just the way it is.
But the spirit of King Canute is strong with some retards^H^H^H^H^H^H^H people.
Well, as usual, I haven't read the article but my first thought was "I wonder what crappy propietary file system this will use" ?
I have an "el cheapo" portable MP3 player and the best thing about it is it uses a "bog standard" FAT32 file system. No fancy, unnecessarily complicated databases type structures (hello iPod) and, even better, no retarded over complicated interface software (hello iTunes) which attempt to "manage" your collection and then ends up losing or deleting stuff (hello iTunes which deleted loads of MP3s off my friends hard drive when he borrowed an early iPod from a mate)
To put data on my player you simply plug it into a USB Port (I use it from both Linux and Windows) and shortly thereafter it shows up as a removable drive. You then just copy & paste files across (optionally using as many, or as few, folders as you wish). If the files you put on the device are MP3 or WMA (sadly not Ogg) then they show up in the players menus and it will play them back. If they're not they simply take up room until you move them off to another machine or delete them etc. etc. So not only will it play music I can transport data with it.
In my humble opinion all these other "fancy schmancy" iPod style players (which I am assuming this Dell will emulate) are complete crap. Absolute over engineered bollocks. Why do you need special drivers to talk to a flash based device ? Why do you need crappy management software to talk to a flash device ?
So sorry for the rant (which was probably somewhat off topic:) but I despair at the ridiculous overengineering of most MP3 players. It's almost worse than under engineering.
Well I've just downloaded Opera 8.3 and so far my impression is that it's a splendid thing as following 10 minutes of using it there's one thing I'd like to mention...
Currently I'm posting from a works machine where you have to go through a proxy server to get to the internet. We also access a number of local intranet seites plus our own local "development" intranet (which consists of a single crappy old box)
Now out of IE, Firefox and Opera, Opera is the only browser which will allow me to browse the internet, the intranet and our local intranet.
All three browsers have identical proxy settings but both Firefox and IE won't browse to "http://ourserver" - despite there being an entry for "ourserver" in my hosts file and despite their proxy server settings specifying "ourserver" on the "no proxy for these addresses" list.
So top marks to Opera.
P.S. The only reason I didn't post this from Opera is because I've forgotten my password (which Firefox has kindly cached for me:)
if they were talking about a laptop/table PC power source then this might be interesting. But an MP3 player ?
What on earth is the point of a portable MP3 player, camera, or other such device, that can;t take standard batteries (usually AA or AAA) ?
By using standard batteries it means that you can use rechargeables when you can and failing that (or for when you're in a remote area with no charging facilities) you can bung in some standard batteries.
All these iPod/Zen type MP3 players with their propeitary rechargeable batteries/fuel cells are just silly gimmicks. Very , very silly.
I don't care how featureful they are if you're in the middle of nowhere and the power runs out they're useless. When a device takes standard batteries you can always carry sufficient spares.
Proprietary power sources are about as good as propietary operating systems.
Agreed. And of which $0.49 should go directly to the artist(s). Now if they had a FLAC/WAV version of the song then that "might" be worth $0.90 (assuming a 12 track CD)
After all there's no packaging, the distribution costs are near zero, so why does the record comapnay deserve anything ?
Even better the Artist(s) could host their online store themselves and get rid of the record company altogether. Oh dear the RIAA won't like that idea one bit...
Good grief are people STILL allowing autorun on Windows boxes ? Have they learnt nothing from the last ten years ?
Every single time that anything is allowed to automatically run on Windows (opening email attachments, Word document macros) it's been a source of viruses and other crap. It's a fatally flawed idea.
So just turn the bloody thing off (Google to find how for your version of Windows) If the CD contains drivers, etc. etc. then the worst you'll have to do is open the disc in Explorer and double click on something yourself. No big deal.
Then again you could just hold down the shift key when you insert a CD.
On Windows the Gimp interface truly is a pain indeed ! Worst of all is the way that its Windows get jumbled up in a pile covering each other up... and if you're running other apps as well then there are so windows in the task bar that you can't even see the associated text to find which window is which.
Even when you do activate a Window the others may be buried beneath the windows for other apps etc. etc. It really is a total pain.
I've been trying to get into the Gimp for ages (that way I have a tool I can use on Linux & Windows... my workplace is Windows only) but I'm sorry, the current multiple forms model makes it mostly unusable for me (I can use it but it's a struggle and I always end up in a bad temper:)
Whilst I agree with your comment I also had the opposite thought.
What if this makes the GUI layer completely separate from the application such that you could implement your own GUI to replace the one shipped with any app ?
That way all the l33t eejits and marketroids can come up with their horrible, unusable shitty GUIs but I (or more likely a skilled 3rd party:) can produce widget sets that skin every sinlge app in a manner of your choosing.
THat way everyone gets the style of GUI They want (and probably deserve:)
Re:How can you vouche for the security of this?
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
·
· Score: 1
And as soon as they put all the hardware level DRM "goodness" onto the motherboard, CPU etc. then there's a good chance that a lot of todays hardware is going to stay around until it literally drops to pieces.
Unless of course there's a Rusiian, Chinese etc. non "Disney Rights Management crippled" alternative.
I simply cannot understand the mentality of people who pay Sky good money to be advertised at. If they're taking a fee they should show the program without adverts. If they're taking advertising revenue then I'm not coughing up a single penny to watch the content. The price of me putting up with all those retarded advertisments is that the surrounding content is free. People who pay to be advertised at are complete morons. Absolute brain dead morons.
But the real shame about Sky is that the idiots at the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) have sold them exclusive rights for cricket starting next year. So just when the great unwashed have started to take an interest in the "greatest game in the world" (tm) it's going to be on poxy advert riddled Sky only. Meh...
But kudos to the BBC for doing another good thing (now if only they'd open up their Peel Sessions archive...)
Then there's the perennial question as to why are all the widgets/fonts etc. so damned big in relation to the desktop resolution ?
Most of my installs have been to machines using 1024x768 resolution displays and the GNOME desktop always comes out of the box with evertything looking HUGE ! Open a file in Gedit and the icons on the toolbar seem to take up half the screen real estate with the first two lines of text taking the other half (yes this is a slight exagerration:)
So I then spend ages tinkering after which I inevitably end up with a truly dissapointing looking desktop (with utterly mangled fonts) which I have to "make the most of".
By contrast when I install Windows all the fonts and widgets are a good size and look great, there's a simple way oif altering things (in control panel) but I'm left with a truly dissapointing O/S which makes me want to hit my computer with a bloody hammer.
Oh well maybe one day...
P.S. I think your post should have been modded "+5 informative" as well as "+5 funny" !
> Regardless, the person who forwarded these emails to external parties should be fired because company emails shouldn't be forwarded to unintended recipients without original author's consent.
Rubbish. By sending an email you've published your thoughts. If you're not going to stand by what you say, don't say it in the first place.
If you want something to be private then communicate it via speech only and specify your wishes that it be kept private. If the other person subsequently passes on details of your conversation deny it (on this note beware of recording devices) Not forgetting of course that EMail is by definition an insecure means of communication.
Quite frankly the two twits in this story deserved to be sacked for being so bloody childish. If they wanted to "sort out their differnces" (as we say in Blighty) they should have met up in the bike sheds after work for a good old fashioned punch up whilst their mates kept watch for teachers (sorry "bosses").
Well I use GNOME every day on my Ubuntu desktop and as this is a GNOME thread I'd like to have a small usability rant about Nautilus...
So, in the great Slashdot traditon, I've not read TFA, nor have I looked at the changelogs:) so who knows ? My gripes may have been fixed in this release ? But the things I would really like to see in Nautilus are:
1 The ability to switch off that utterly, utterly wretched spatial mode (which looks like a bad throwback to GUIs from the 1980s) from the apps preferences. It is totally unacceptable that you have to use a seperate preferences editor to do this. It's a setting of the app and should be adjustable from within the app itself. No excuses.
2 If I've used Ctr&C or Ctrl&V on a selection of files/directories in another Nautilus window pressing Ctrl&V or Ctrl&Ins on a second Nautilus window should paste the objects into the directory.
3 But now the thing that anooys me the most... When I press a key I expect Nautilus to move the focus to the first file or directory whose name starts with the key I've pressed (e.g. pressing "a" moves the focus to "a file"). When I press the same key again I expect the focus to move to the next file or directory whose name starts with the key I've pressed. Once I've reached the last file I expect another key press to return the focus to the first file or directory again etc. etc. To finish off this should also be case insensitive (with the option to make it case sensitive for those who wish it)
Windows Explorer has had this functionality since Windows 95 days (if I remember correctly Windows 3.1 "File Mangler" also behaved this way) Konqueror behaves this way. Every file manager under the sun EXCEPT NAUTILUS seems to behave this way.
I wish the GNOME developers would take notice of useful UI metaphors that have been in place for over 15 years. I like GNOME enough to (mostly) use it on my desktop but it doesn't half infuriate me when such basic functionality is missing...
P.S. And to those who will offer the inevitable "Go write it yourself", "If you don't like it don't use it" replies may I take this opportunity to say "Piss off" ?
Isn't it amazing that America, the country that can bomb anywhere in the world within minutes, can't get something as simple as bottled water, food and medicine to its own citizens within days ?
Is it any wonder that the poor buggers in Africa never get any help ?
Speaking also as a TB303 owner there's another thing that computer simulations of analogue gear just cannot compete with. Twiddling multiple knobs in real time.
For example I once did a track with a couple of mates where we were using a TR909, a MIDId TR808, two TB303s (one of which was also driving an SH101 via its CV outputs) plus some pad sounds from a couple of Korg Wavestations and a Juno 106.
The track actually consisted of several repeating patterns (of different lengths) all overlaid with each other and whilst this was going on we were busy moving sliders, knobs, pitch wheels (one of which was controlling a Roland R-8 module for some wicked "monged" drum effects")
Coupled with the fact that we were also playing with effects settings and the desk itself (moving faders, muting & unmuting channels) in real time and we came up with something that simply could never be created using digital parameter access.
Yes theoretically you can get close with some programmable MIDI fader boxes but this is nothing like "playing the entire studio" In real time whilst letting the ideas bounce off other musicians whilst you're "in the flow".
Viva analogue. Digital parameter access is piss poor in comparison (and quite how anyone can mix using a digital desk with only only channels controls available at any one time) is beyond me...
Never mind all the panty waist mediocretin religious techings. What are they going to say when little Johhny comes home smoking a pipe full of frop and spouting unorthodox Subgenius liturgy.
"Too much is better than not enough"... "Fuck them if they can't take a joke"...
By Wotans beard their tiny pink minds will fry, fry I say before being served up in a luke warm gravy made from their own blandness.
Well this doesn't suprise me as, by the desing of the Zen, Creative have already shown that they don't have a clue.
For fricks sake the Zen is Windows only and requires propietary drivers to talk to it (yes I know there's a Linux project that does this but Creative themselves don't supoprt anything other than Windows) Guess what Creative, THERE ARE OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS ON THE PLANET.
Come on how hard can it be to make a device that supports direct access to its filesystem in the manner of a USB pen drive coupled with the ability of the device to play any media files found within its file system ? Maybe the designers could also be really clever (tm) and hold your playlists etc. in a small database held within the filesystem ? (wowee they could even use XML text files)
So why the hell is it that these wretched portable hard disk players all seem to feature yet another propietary file system ? Sorry that's just awful, awful, shitty design. Once again manufacturers choose to reinvent the wheel poorly instead of reusing existing, proven technologies to good effect.
Sheesh. Creative Zens suck enough already but now they come with bundled viruses.
The person at your university who signed that contract should be sacked for gross incompetence.
Then you should go ahead and do what the hell you want to YOUR library and, if the architext really is a total dickhead, let the matter go to court (I belive the Netherlands still has a reasonable legal system)
If you paid for something it's yours to do with as you like and don't ever let anyone tell you different.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd like to see a web service based system compete with my Athlon XP 1800 when it comes to recording and playing back digital audio tracks (44.1 Khz) and MIDI. My oh my would it have to have HUGE bandwidth and near 0 latency cabling.
What a small minded, short sighted, "consumer oriented" twit.
If thine eye offends thee... pluck it out.
If you don't like what consenting adults are doing with each other in their own homes it's simple... Don't get involved. Don't watch. Don't join in. You can pass all the laws you want but spiders will spin their webs "just the way they like 'em"...
Your own personal viewpoint and your morals are yours and yours alone. I'm happy for you that you think yours are the best. You're obviously young and know no better.
Sorry, the universe (and all that is in it) doesn't give a fuck what you (or I) thinks. That's just the way it is.
But the spirit of King Canute is strong with some retards^H^H^H^H^H^H^H people.
End of story.
Well, as usual, I haven't read the article but my first thought was "I wonder what crappy propietary file system this will use" ?
:) but I despair at the ridiculous overengineering of most MP3 players. It's almost worse than under engineering.
I have an "el cheapo" portable MP3 player and the best thing about it is it uses a "bog standard" FAT32 file system. No fancy, unnecessarily complicated databases type structures (hello iPod) and, even better, no retarded over complicated interface software (hello iTunes) which attempt to "manage" your collection and then ends up losing or deleting stuff (hello iTunes which deleted loads of MP3s off my friends hard drive when he borrowed an early iPod from a mate)
To put data on my player you simply plug it into a USB Port (I use it from both Linux and Windows) and shortly thereafter it shows up as a removable drive. You then just copy & paste files across (optionally using as many, or as few, folders as you wish). If the files you put on the device are MP3 or WMA (sadly not Ogg) then they show up in the players menus and it will play them back. If they're not they simply take up room until you move them off to another machine or delete them etc. etc. So not only will it play music I can transport data with it.
In my humble opinion all these other "fancy schmancy" iPod style players (which I am assuming this Dell will emulate) are complete crap. Absolute over engineered bollocks. Why do you need special drivers to talk to a flash based device ? Why do you need crappy management software to talk to a flash device ?
So sorry for the rant (which was probably somewhat off topic
As usual, "Keep It Simple Stupid"....
Well I've just downloaded Opera 8.3 and so far my impression is that it's a splendid thing as following 10 minutes of using it there's one thing I'd like to mention...
:)
Currently I'm posting from a works machine where you have to go through a proxy server to get to the internet. We also access a number of local intranet seites plus our own local "development" intranet (which consists of a single crappy old box)
Now out of IE, Firefox and Opera, Opera is the only browser which will allow me to browse the internet, the intranet and our local intranet.
All three browsers have identical proxy settings but both Firefox and IE won't browse to "http://ourserver" - despite there being an entry for "ourserver" in my hosts file and despite their proxy server settings specifying "ourserver" on the "no proxy for these addresses" list.
So top marks to Opera.
P.S. The only reason I didn't post this from Opera is because I've forgotten my password (which Firefox has kindly cached for me
Is that a scanner in your pants or are you just pleased to see me ?
Not quite. In time honoured Chinese style they'll tell the RIAA that they are anxious to help them in this matter.
Then they'll carry on regardless.
if they were talking about a laptop/table PC power source then this might be interesting. But an MP3 player ?
:)
What on earth is the point of a portable MP3 player, camera, or other such device, that can;t take standard batteries (usually AA or AAA) ?
By using standard batteries it means that you can use rechargeables when you can and failing that (or for when you're in a remote area with no charging facilities) you can bung in some standard batteries.
All these iPod/Zen type MP3 players with their propeitary rechargeable batteries/fuel cells are just silly gimmicks. Very , very silly.
I don't care how featureful they are if you're in the middle of nowhere and the power runs out they're useless. When a device takes standard batteries you can always carry sufficient spares.
Proprietary power sources are about as good as propietary operating systems.
Meh. Roll on efficient solar power
that's worth $0.50 at the very most
Agreed. And of which $0.49 should go directly to the artist(s). Now if they had a FLAC/WAV version of the song then that "might" be worth $0.90 (assuming a 12 track CD)
After all there's no packaging, the distribution costs are near zero, so why does the record comapnay deserve anything ?
Even better the Artist(s) could host their online store themselves and get rid of the record company altogether. Oh dear the RIAA won't like that idea one bit...
Well at least that's one bit of the O/S that should work properly (unless they've "improved" it of course ;)
Good grief are people STILL allowing autorun on Windows boxes ? Have they learnt nothing from the last ten years ?
Every single time that anything is allowed to automatically run on Windows (opening email attachments, Word document macros) it's been a source of viruses and other crap. It's a fatally flawed idea.
So just turn the bloody thing off (Google to find how for your version of Windows) If the CD contains drivers, etc. etc. then the worst you'll have to do is open the disc in Explorer and double click on something yourself. No big deal.
Then again you could just hold down the shift key when you insert a CD.
Bah.
On Windows the Gimp interface truly is a pain indeed ! Worst of all is the way that its Windows get jumbled up in a pile covering each other up... and if you're running other apps as well then there are so windows in the task bar that you can't even see the associated text to find which window is which.
:)
Even when you do activate a Window the others may be buried beneath the windows for other apps etc. etc. It really is a total pain.
I've been trying to get into the Gimp for ages (that way I have a tool I can use on Linux & Windows... my workplace is Windows only) but I'm sorry, the current multiple forms model makes it mostly unusable for me (I can use it but it's a struggle and I always end up in a bad temper
Ho hum, c'est la vie...
Whilst I agree with your comment I also had the opposite thought.
:) can produce widget sets that skin every sinlge app in a manner of your choosing.
:)
What if this makes the GUI layer completely separate from the application such that you could implement your own GUI to replace the one shipped with any app ?
That way all the l33t eejits and marketroids can come up with their horrible, unusable shitty GUIs but I (or more likely a skilled 3rd party
THat way everyone gets the style of GUI They want (and probably deserve
And as soon as they put all the hardware level DRM "goodness" onto the motherboard, CPU etc. then there's a good chance that a lot of todays hardware is going to stay around until it literally drops to pieces.
Unless of course there's a Rusiian, Chinese etc. non "Disney Rights Management crippled" alternative.
Add a couple of parsers to convert between XML to Plain text, and vice versa, and you've got the best of both worlds.
Well said that man !
I simply cannot understand the mentality of people who pay Sky good money to be advertised at. If they're taking a fee they should show the program without adverts. If they're taking advertising revenue then I'm not coughing up a single penny to watch the content. The price of me putting up with all those retarded advertisments is that the surrounding content is free. People who pay to be advertised at are complete morons. Absolute brain dead morons.
But the real shame about Sky is that the idiots at the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) have sold them exclusive rights for cricket starting next year. So just when the great unwashed have started to take an interest in the "greatest game in the world" (tm) it's going to be on poxy advert riddled Sky only. Meh...
But kudos to the BBC for doing another good thing (now if only they'd open up their Peel Sessions archive...)
I couldn't agree more.
:)
Then there's the perennial question as to why are all the widgets/fonts etc. so damned big in relation to the desktop resolution ?
Most of my installs have been to machines using 1024x768 resolution displays and the GNOME desktop always comes out of the box with evertything looking HUGE ! Open a file in Gedit and the icons on the toolbar seem to take up half the screen real estate with the first two lines of text taking the other half (yes this is a slight exagerration
So I then spend ages tinkering after which I inevitably end up with a truly dissapointing looking desktop (with utterly mangled fonts) which I have to "make the most of".
By contrast when I install Windows all the fonts and widgets are a good size and look great, there's a simple way oif altering things (in control panel) but I'm left with a truly dissapointing O/S which makes me want to hit my computer with a bloody hammer.
Oh well maybe one day...
P.S. I think your post should have been modded "+5 informative" as well as "+5 funny" !
> Regardless, the person who forwarded these emails to external parties should be fired because company emails shouldn't be forwarded to unintended recipients without original author's consent.
Rubbish. By sending an email you've published your thoughts. If you're not going to stand by what you say, don't say it in the first place.
If you want something to be private then communicate it via speech only and specify your wishes that it be kept private. If the other person subsequently passes on details of your conversation deny it (on this note beware of recording devices) Not forgetting of course that EMail is by definition an insecure means of communication.
Quite frankly the two twits in this story deserved to be sacked for being so bloody childish. If they wanted to "sort out their differnces" (as we say in Blighty) they should have met up in the bike sheds after work for a good old fashioned punch up whilst their mates kept watch for teachers (sorry "bosses").
Well I use GNOME every day on my Ubuntu desktop and as this is a GNOME thread I'd like to have a small usability rant about Nautilus...
:) so who knows ? My gripes may have been fixed in this release ? But the things I would really like to see in Nautilus are:
So, in the great Slashdot traditon, I've not read TFA, nor have I looked at the changelogs
1 The ability to switch off that utterly, utterly wretched spatial mode (which looks like a bad throwback to GUIs from the 1980s) from the apps preferences. It is totally unacceptable that you have to use a seperate preferences editor to do this. It's a setting of the app and should be adjustable from within the app itself. No excuses.
2 If I've used Ctr&C or Ctrl&V on a selection of files/directories in another Nautilus window pressing Ctrl&V or Ctrl&Ins on a second Nautilus window should paste the objects into the directory.
3 But now the thing that anooys me the most... When I press a key I expect Nautilus to move the focus to the first file or directory whose name starts with the key I've pressed (e.g. pressing "a" moves the focus to "a file"). When I press the same key again I expect the focus to move to the next file or directory whose name starts with the key I've pressed. Once I've reached the last file I expect another key press to return the focus to the first file or directory again etc. etc. To finish off this should also be case insensitive (with the option to make it case sensitive for those who wish it)
Windows Explorer has had this functionality since Windows 95 days (if I remember correctly Windows 3.1 "File Mangler" also behaved this way) Konqueror behaves this way. Every file manager under the sun EXCEPT NAUTILUS seems to behave this way.
I wish the GNOME developers would take notice of useful UI metaphors that have been in place for over 15 years. I like GNOME enough to (mostly) use it on my desktop but it doesn't half infuriate me when such basic functionality is missing...
P.S. And to those who will offer the inevitable "Go write it yourself", "If you don't like it don't use it" replies may I take this opportunity to say "Piss off" ?
Isn't it amazing that America, the country that can bomb anywhere in the world within minutes, can't get something as simple as bottled water, food and medicine to its own citizens within days ?
Is it any wonder that the poor buggers in Africa never get any help ?
"Bob" bless 'em one 'n' all.
You've hit the nail right on the head there.
Quite why programmers still don't understand such simple things as this in 2005 is beyond me.
Speaking also as a TB303 owner there's another thing that computer simulations of analogue gear just cannot compete with. Twiddling multiple knobs in real time.
For example I once did a track with a couple of mates where we were using a TR909, a MIDId TR808, two TB303s (one of which was also driving an SH101 via its CV outputs) plus some pad sounds from a couple of Korg Wavestations and a Juno 106.
The track actually consisted of several repeating patterns (of different lengths) all overlaid with each other and whilst this was going on we were busy moving sliders, knobs, pitch wheels (one of which was controlling a Roland R-8 module for some wicked "monged" drum effects")
Coupled with the fact that we were also playing with effects settings and the desk itself (moving faders, muting & unmuting channels) in real time and we came up with something that simply could never be created using digital parameter access.
Yes theoretically you can get close with some programmable MIDI fader boxes but this is nothing like "playing the entire studio" In real time whilst letting the ideas bounce off other musicians whilst you're "in the flow".
Viva analogue. Digital parameter access is piss poor in comparison (and quite how anyone can mix using a digital desk with only only channels controls available at any one time) is beyond me...
By Ragnars beard !
Never mind all the panty waist mediocretin religious techings. What are they going to say when little Johhny comes home smoking a pipe full of frop and spouting unorthodox Subgenius liturgy.
"Too much is better than not enough"... "Fuck them if they can't take a joke"...
By Wotans beard their tiny pink minds will fry, fry I say before being served up in a luke warm gravy made from their own blandness.
Aiiieeee !!!! Praise "Bob" !!!
Well this doesn't suprise me as, by the desing of the Zen, Creative have already shown that they don't have a clue.
For fricks sake the Zen is Windows only and requires propietary drivers to talk to it (yes I know there's a Linux project that does this but Creative themselves don't supoprt anything other than Windows) Guess what Creative, THERE ARE OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS ON THE PLANET.
Come on how hard can it be to make a device that supports direct access to its filesystem in the manner of a USB pen drive coupled with the ability of the device to play any media files found within its file system ? Maybe the designers could also be really clever (tm) and hold your playlists etc. in a small database held within the filesystem ? (wowee they could even use XML text files)
So why the hell is it that these wretched portable hard disk players all seem to feature yet another propietary file system ? Sorry that's just awful, awful, shitty design. Once again manufacturers choose to reinvent the wheel poorly instead of reusing existing, proven technologies to good effect.
Sheesh. Creative Zens suck enough already but now they come with bundled viruses.
Creative are clueless. Utterly clueless.
The person at your university who signed that contract should be sacked for gross incompetence.
Then you should go ahead and do what the hell you want to YOUR library and, if the architext really is a total dickhead, let the matter go to court (I belive the Netherlands still has a reasonable legal system)
If you paid for something it's yours to do with as you like and don't ever let anyone tell you different.
It's a perfectly reasonable business practice by heroin and crack dealers too (the only difference being they don't get to claim it back against tax)
"Tell you what I'll do I'll make the first one free,
But when you want some more just come back to me..."
(this point made lyrically courtesy of New Model Armys Vengeance)