It seems that every piece of video shot by or broadcast by MTV has the clothing logos (actually all logos) blurred out.
(This is an observation from 1-2 years ago, I don't watch MTV much anymore)
Maybe I was over-sensitive but I noticed something else. Instead of bluring out all logos and ofensive behavior (eg. making a pot-smoking gesture) I noticed that MTV does this explicitly in rap videos. While Primus had a cartoon charachter puffing away on a monster joint, Nas got blurred for putting his hands to his lips. While brit pop acts were all decked out in Adidas, Puma and Nike hiphopers became a blur as all their clothes were blocked.
As I recall, one of the ways to get arround being 'censored' was to show your logos backwards. One of the hits od 97 or 98, 'If I Ruled The World' was shot almost entirely right-to-left so nothing was blurred, even while the camera rolled through times square.
I think we need to remember that is a list of the 50 least influental movies, not of the 50 worst.
Forrest Gump: How many Academy Awards do you need to get before you're considered influential? FG scored *five* with another *five* nominations. Although this may mean little to you, we are talking about the effect a film has on its audience.
Face/Off: Utter crap, I agree.
Driving Miss Daisy: Another Academy Award winner. This time four Oscars and another five nominations.
Lion King: The kids you know must be on something. You don't get huge ticket sales ($700+ worldwide) like LK did without having repeat viewers. Besides, LK was one of the movies that is credited for reviving animation on the big screen. Those 2 Oscars didn't hurt either.
Barney, Teletubies: Didn't see either.
I realize I just probably got caught hook line and sinker. Oh well.
While I too used to belive that web site design is 'easy' and should be 'inexpensive' let me break it down for you:
When you hire a company to design a website you're paying for the salaries of the graphics designer, the coder(s), the project manager + company overhead (usually at least 50%). This is the same as in any other industry, be it a law firm, a doctor's office, etc...
In addition to this, you're providing a service to a company which will be used to increase the company's income. What's $40,000 for a site if the company will get an extra $300,000 in income because of orders comming in through it? -- polish ccs mirror
Besides that, let's be honest: no one is universaly liked. And it's like with Microsoft. If any other company where Microsoft they'd act the same way and if any other country was as powerful as the USA they'd act the same way. Actually, the only other countries of America's size and strength in the past 3 years (China, India and the USSR) have been quite agressive externally and/or opressive to their own people.
What kind of world do you live in? All countries invaded by US in its history except Japan were weaker than US -- and only Japan happened to actually start a war with US.
There is NO honor in war. You don't start wars to engage in a far battle, you start wars to achive political or military interests. You don't go picking on the big bully on the block because if you lose it'll cost you a couple thousand lives, at the least.
You want war to be fair? War will never be fair. To paraphrase one of the generals during Desert Storm: 'This isn't about a fair fight. It's about overpowering the enemy to the point that they have no chance to react. It's about bringing as many soilders back home as possible.'
More likely treating US as "ridiculously overpowered character" in world politics.
So what, the US should reliniquish some power? Buahah... that's a good one.
I am unable to tune [my Dodge '96]. BUT I STILL KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!
Great. You're not stupid. If you were one of the 'stupid users' we're talking about you wouldn't know how to drive. In fact, you'd be shouting at some poor sap at the Dodge Helpdesk, complaining that: a) you couldn't outrun the BMW M5. b) reverse would only let you go backwards and c) 'What do you mean I need to pour gasoline, I already bought the car!'.
The people that are being talked about here are not stupid because they don't know. They're stupid because they refuse to learn, refuse to understand, refuse to follow directions. I used to work as a teacher, teaching english to professionals here in Poland. I didn't mind the students who had problems, I didn't mind the students who had a hard time. But I had a serious problem teaching people who didn't do their homework and didn't pay attention or participate during lessons. Those were the 'stupid students' and I think you'd be surprised how many of them there are.
I live in Warsaw, Poland. The average sallary here is aprox. $550-600US/month. Rent (many people own) for a 2 bedroom apt. on the outskirts of the city is about $300/month. A bit closer to the city center you get prices ~$450-550. This is for a 2 room, 50sq m. apt. I managed to find a 'cheap' apt. for $400 (I make about 3x the national avg) in the city center but I ran out of there 4 months later after I decided I couldn't handle the *rats* anymore.
I recall reading Animal Farm in the 7th grade while I was attending a public middle school in Oregon. At the same time my teachers encouraged me (and gave extra credit) for reading and refering Orwell's '1984'. I think it all depends on where you are -- there is no one, single, unified 'American School System'. -- polish ccs mirror
When I tried registering a domain via Joker.com, I was never able to make it work because apparently you have to register your name servers using some horribly confusing process that apparently required that I use servers that were never, ever used for a NSI domain, which I couldn't do.
That's just plain wrong. The only trick with joker.com is that you have to register name servers (takes about 8-12h) and get them CORE handles (if they don't have them already) - then you can re-use the handles, so if you're registering more domains it's a breeze.
I love joker.com! I've already registered 3 domains with them and have had *NO* problems. Damn cheap too...
IANAL, but if I were a judge in this case, I would find him guilty of SOMETHING for so doing things which so clearly violate the spirit of the laws Japan has made.
In most western democracies (especially in America) there's a notion known as the 'Rule of Law'. This doesn't mean that Law Rul3z! but that Laws are in fact Rules. You break the rule then you break the law. What it means in this case is: While you may undermine the spirit of the law, unless you break it you cannot be found guilty. And that's how it should be.
I find that what I see very often in Poland is that you have 'goverment intervention' or 'exceptions' in the process of law and I find that to be appaling. Laws are rules that everyone should play by equaly. A lack of rule of is probably one of the main causes of corruption.
Scientists have been using lasers to slow atoms down to near absolute zero for quite a while. I remember my science teacher telling me about it TEN YEARS ago. I know that lasers are cool, yada yada but this isn't anything new.
I think that jennicam is what the web is all about. It's just a single person who's made a site about her life. Nothing more, nothing less. Think about it, 4 years ago (40 internet years) jenni pushed the limits.
Some of you who've been online as long or longer than I have (11 years) will probably remember the way the web looked back in 93-94. Lots and lots of.edu sites, lots of papers about computers, biology, chemistry and the like. Every now and then you'd get a home page along the lines of 'This is me, this is my cat, I like to watch the Simpsons.'
Jenni [and the hordes (just look at Blogger) that have followed her] did it differenetly - and I am one of those who followed. We represent a much more human side of the internet. Sites like these show that people are more than the sum of our experience and interests and that's what makes us human. That's what makes us special.
While I don't deny the power of the internet as a tool for the distribution of facts and knowledge a lot of geeks need to remember that it can be used to distribute emotions. That's what jennicam's been doing for the past 4 years and that's what hundereds of sites who've followed her lead (and not only) are doing (and will keep doing) as well.
change from something people did furtively on IRC, to an absolute right of the people to have whatever they want, whenever they want? I guess when programs like Napster make it possible for any clueless newbie on cable or University ethernet to serve up mp3s to the masses, it becomes acceptable?
I think that the biggest problem with piracy a tthe moment is that it's stopped being this thing that only a few select people do to a massive social occurance. Piracy groups have been around for at least two decades (probably longer) but never before have more than a handful of people even known of their existence. C'mon, did anyone here, before they used a computer, know that there were organized international groups who's main activity was the release distribution of software as soon as it comes out?
The internet has definately increased tenfold (if not more) the ammount of piracy in America and Western Europe. Before, people were restricted to copying a cassette or video from a friend, or a friend of a friend - it was usually no more than 2 degrees of separation. Now, with our incredibly far reaching distributed network bootleggers from Tiwan are finding clients in the USA. Professionally produced pirated CDs and movies are finding their way into smalltown America, not just the big cities (where they've been for years).
People's greed coupled with the internet is causing artist to lose control of their work. Just look at how a bootleg copy of Nas' album in '99 was stolen and distributed online. The artist was forced to re-record an entire album (which was worse than the bootleg) causing paying fans to lose out because of the delay.
The truth is this. Most people still get their music by buying CDs or MCs just as most people watch movies by renting DVDs or video tapes. Internet piracy is hurting those people and the artist they support by causing the people who buy legaly to pay more and the artist to get less. I'm all for changing the system, using the internet for distribution, bla bla bla but right now hard working artist are losing out because of piracy and that's the bottom line.
The United States of America may tout it's capitalist infranstructure as the Glorious Saviour of Mankind, but they are closer to communists and fascists than many of their citizens are willing to admint to themselves.
I'm not an American but I grew up there. The truth is that the American political system, no matter how much everyone bitches and whines, is one of the most liberal and open systems in the world! You vote for INDIVIDUALS. You cast your vote and get a person that is 'responsible/accountable' to you because you voted for HIM/HER, not the party. You don't get this anywhere in Europe where you vote for these huge religous-ideological blocks. Bleh.
The US also has very good separation of church and state. Do laws that support a certain church's preaching get passed? Of course they do, but only because the people who voted wanted it this way. Each election has propositions, or laws directly voted on by the people. In any European country you'd need a referendum to get an issue passed, and even then the exact wording of the bill would be left up to the politicans.
The truth is this. Every election, Americans make choices concerning their freedoms and restrictions. They have the power to directly influence both, including allowing themselves to exchange some freedom for a feeling of safety. You don't get this in a lot of European and Asian nations. And you certainly don't get it in Africa.
I'm not saying that the US political system is perfect in any way, I'm just saying that you need to remember that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Get your head out of the sewer! Rap is not about 'Gangstas'.
> We never need to show our "machoness"
That's bunk. The open source community is all about pose. It's all about fame and making something that your fellow geeks will enjoy.
Rap USED to be like open source because:
a) Good rap (like good software) was very often non-mainstream. b) They're both politicaly charged. c) Very often there's no funding. (You've heard of Master P? He started his record label by selling tapes out of the back of his car.) d) There's still a die-hard cult following.
I don't think Corporate America was scared of rap, I think they just didn't care. Rap wasn't moving the units (or so they claimed) and they didn't need to support it. Now...
Re:not quite right to compare software to music...
on
Linux And Hip Hop
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· Score: 1
I don't think that this is quite right. Rap music, like all music, is just a fad... something that will go away eventually and only be looked back on with fondness by a select group of people.
Let me hit you over the head with my reality stick. Not all music is a fad. Remember when rock & roll was that crazy new music that was never going to last? Now a very large part of the music industry is rock & roll, and they're calling other forms of music 'fads'. Remember that rap/hip-hop has been around for over 20 years and has been extrememly popular for the last 8 or so.
Let's remember that people are very impervious to change.
Come to think of it, if you stick a 64Bit processor in a 32 bit cluster, will it even work ?
I don't know why it shouldn't. If I'm not mistaken Beowulf clusters exist are made up of independent computers conected via network connections. As long as your code can run the software you should be able to run a Beowulf.
On the other haand, I could be just running my mouth, pretending I know something when in reality I have no idea what I'm doing.
Yes, communism ultimatly failed, but, in a perfect world without corruption and greed, it would make for a perfect system.
This is a common aruguement about communisim. Too bad it's so flawed. For comparison:
I have a method of generating unlimited supplies of energy using 2 cans of soda and three pounds of sugar. Great idea, right? But until I actually go and prove my experiment all my argumenting that this really is a great idea is pointless, because everyone knows that my idea sucks.
Communism has been implemented over the past 70 years by a mirad of countries and EVERY SINGLE TIME it has failed miserably, taking thousands of innocent lies along with it. The power of democracy is not that it is 'the one true system' but a SELF CORRECTING system that encompasses ideas from virtualy every other political system.
You're making the right choice. ASUS isn't really known for high-quality video capture while the Matrox Marvell line is renowned for bringing an on-board hardware MJPEG codec for such a low price. Even on relatively weak machine the Matrox should be able to rip full screen NTSC or PAL without dropping frames.
I'd like to add that Real Player (in general) has to be the most unstable piece of software I've ever used and RP7 doesn't ease up. I can watch one clip under Win2K (reading off a disk) before I have to close and reopen it. Why? If I play more than two clips in a row RP7 resets my computer!
Or how about that annoying desynch if you watch realvideo for more than 2-3 minutes?
You wanna know how Microsoft's going to win the streaming media war? By creating a non-obtrusive player that sits quiet until media is presented. A player that won't spam the user with ads, make the system unstable or preload on startup.
Looks like real.com is just making it easier for them.
Why does support in the industry mean that the program isn't good?
I'm not saying that it's a factor in the quality of the software as much as it's one of the reasons people are not using it. The PSD file format is pretty much as portable (except for TIF and PS) as you get in the graphics world. Gimp supports it with a plugin but it's not native.
Actually, the biggest problem is the lack of a stable Win32 port. And that's a fact.
Our present level of technology hardly makes us any less vulnerable to extinction-level events such as major climatic change.
Uhm... actually, it does.
Let's remind ourselves that people saved themselves from starvation (or at least major food shortages) by improving agricultural techniques. Irrigation, crop rotation, fertalizer all allow us to sustain more people from a single portion of land then animals that require the same caloric intake.
We can wear sunscreen to protect ourselves from increased UV rays. We can build shelter to keep us warm when it's cold. We build computers so that our time could be used more effectively.
It's an unpopular view, but we really do rule the earth.
I dunno. I'm not too hot on Gimp for a few reasons.
a) Gimp has almost no support in the industry. I don't know more than 2-3 people who make a living doing graphics who actually use Gimp day-to-day. And they only use it for web graphics. b) CMYK support is weak. From what I last remember CMYK support in Gimp is pretty much restriced to converting RGB => CMYK. If you're working in print you need to see your work in the restricted pallette that CMYK offers. c) Large files. I've heard many potential users complain about Gimp's handling of large files. When you start getting into 120-160MB files (posters and such) it can barely chug along while Photoshop steams on by. d) Color calibration. Does Gimp even have this?
Now, I'm not saying Gimp will not own in the future, I'm just saying that it's got a way to go before being a viable alternative to the Photoshop. Especially to DTPers.
This trully is an interesting 'fact', too bad that it's not true. Bribery is illegal in many other countries (including Poland) and it is considered unethical all over the EU. Too bad that ethics seem to have no place in modern business anymore.
I remember talking 3 years back to my friend's uncle who works in the TV business (Mostly editing work for Poland's largest TV station) about buying a TV + VCR. When I asked him about Sony equipment he just laughed then said 'Think about all the Sony equipment your or someone you know has owned and think about how often you take it to get repaired.'
After talking with my friend we realized that every single piece of equipment we have from Sony has either broken down (walkmans) or has had to be repaired! EVERY SINGLE THING.
He recommended Thompson for the TV, Panasonic for the VCR.
Anyway, right now I have a 28" SABA TV (the insides made by Thompson - SABA is a company that wins awards every year for industrial design but they're fully owned by Thompson) that I've had for 3 years with no problems, my Technics stereos have been trouble free for over 4 years. Hell, I even have a 14 year old Panasonic boom box that runs on 110V.
I also have 3 trashed Sony walkmans (less than 1 year each) and memories of a simple 2 tape sony radio that just stopped working after 3 years.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems that every piece of video shot by or broadcast by MTV has the clothing logos (actually all logos) blurred out.
(This is an observation from 1-2 years ago, I don't watch MTV much anymore)
Maybe I was over-sensitive but I noticed something else. Instead of bluring out all logos and ofensive behavior (eg. making a pot-smoking gesture) I noticed that MTV does this explicitly in rap videos. While Primus had a cartoon charachter puffing away on a monster joint, Nas got blurred for putting his hands to his lips. While brit pop acts were all decked out in Adidas, Puma and Nike hiphopers became a blur as all their clothes were blocked.
As I recall, one of the ways to get arround being 'censored' was to show your logos backwards. One of the hits od 97 or 98, 'If I Ruled The World' was shot almost entirely right-to-left so nothing was blurred, even while the camera rolled through times square.
Jedrek
-- polish ccs mirror
I think we need to remember that is a list of the 50 least influental movies, not of the 50 worst.
Forrest Gump: How many Academy Awards do you need to get before you're considered influential? FG scored *five* with another *five* nominations. Although this may mean little to you, we are talking about the effect a film has on its audience.
Face/Off: Utter crap, I agree.
Driving Miss Daisy: Another Academy Award winner. This time four Oscars and another five nominations.
Lion King: The kids you know must be on something. You don't get huge ticket sales ($700+ worldwide) like LK did without having repeat viewers. Besides, LK was one of the movies that is credited for reviving animation on the big screen. Those 2 Oscars didn't hurt either.
Barney, Teletubies: Didn't see either.
I realize I just probably got caught hook line and sinker. Oh well.
jedrek
-- polish ccs mirror
While I too used to belive that web site design is 'easy' and should be 'inexpensive' let me break it down for you:
When you hire a company to design a website you're paying for the salaries of the graphics designer, the coder(s), the project manager + company overhead (usually at least 50%). This is the same as in any other industry, be it a law firm, a doctor's office, etc...
In addition to this, you're providing a service to a company which will be used to increase the company's income. What's $40,000 for a site if the company will get an extra $300,000 in income because of orders comming in through it?
-- polish ccs mirror
My experience shows otherwise.
Obviously our experience differs.
Besides that, let's be honest: no one is universaly liked. And it's like with Microsoft. If any other company where Microsoft they'd act the same way and if any other country was as powerful as the USA they'd act the same way. Actually, the only other countries of America's size and strength in the past 3 years (China, India and the USSR) have been quite agressive externally and/or opressive to their own people.
What kind of world do you live in? All countries invaded by US in its history except Japan were weaker than US -- and only Japan happened to actually start a war with US.
There is NO honor in war. You don't start wars to engage in a far battle, you start wars to achive political or military interests. You don't go picking on the big bully on the block because if you lose it'll cost you a couple thousand lives, at the least.
You want war to be fair? War will never be fair. To paraphrase one of the generals during Desert Storm: 'This isn't about a fair fight. It's about overpowering the enemy to the point that they have no chance to react. It's about bringing as many soilders back home as possible.'
More likely treating US as "ridiculously overpowered character" in world politics.
So what, the US should reliniquish some power? Buahah... that's a good one.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
I am unable to tune [my Dodge '96]. BUT I STILL KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!
Great. You're not stupid. If you were one of the 'stupid users' we're talking about you wouldn't know how to drive. In fact, you'd be shouting at some poor sap at the Dodge Helpdesk, complaining that: a) you couldn't outrun the BMW M5. b) reverse would only let you go backwards and c) 'What do you mean I need to pour gasoline, I already bought the car!'.
The people that are being talked about here are not stupid because they don't know. They're stupid because they refuse to learn, refuse to understand, refuse to follow directions. I used to work as a teacher, teaching english to professionals here in Poland. I didn't mind the students who had problems, I didn't mind the students who had a hard time. But I had a serious problem teaching people who didn't do their homework and didn't pay attention or participate during lessons. Those were the 'stupid students' and I think you'd be surprised how many of them there are.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
Jesus christ, that's just DIRT-CHEAP.
I live in Warsaw, Poland. The average sallary here is aprox. $550-600US/month. Rent (many people own) for a 2 bedroom apt. on the outskirts of the city is about $300/month. A bit closer to the city center you get prices ~$450-550. This is for a 2 room, 50sq m. apt. I managed to find a 'cheap' apt. for $400 (I make about 3x the national avg) in the city center but I ran out of there 4 months later after I decided I couldn't handle the *rats* anymore.
And you're going to be renting a HOUSE for $400?
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
I recall reading Animal Farm in the 7th grade while I was attending a public middle school in Oregon. At the same time my teachers encouraged me (and gave extra credit) for reading and refering Orwell's '1984'. I think it all depends on where you are -- there is no one, single, unified 'American School System'.
-- polish ccs mirror
When I tried registering a domain via Joker.com, I was never able to make it work because apparently you have to register your name servers using some horribly confusing process that apparently required that I use servers that were never, ever used for a NSI domain, which I couldn't do.
That's just plain wrong. The only trick with joker.com is that you have to register name servers (takes about 8-12h) and get them CORE handles (if they don't have them already) - then you can re-use the handles, so if you're registering more domains it's a breeze.
I love joker.com! I've already registered 3 domains with them and have had *NO* problems. Damn cheap too...
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
IANAL, but if I were a judge in this case, I would find him guilty of SOMETHING for so doing things which so clearly violate the spirit of the laws Japan has made.
In most western democracies (especially in America) there's a notion known as the 'Rule of Law'. This doesn't mean that Law Rul3z! but that Laws are in fact Rules. You break the rule then you break the law. What it means in this case is: While you may undermine the spirit of the law, unless you break it you cannot be found guilty. And that's how it should be.
I find that what I see very often in Poland is that you have 'goverment intervention' or 'exceptions' in the process of law and I find that to be appaling. Laws are rules that everyone should play by equaly. A lack of rule of is probably one of the main causes of corruption.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
Scientists have been using lasers to slow atoms down to near absolute zero for quite a while. I remember my science teacher telling me about it TEN YEARS ago. I know that lasers are cool, yada yada but this isn't anything new.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
I think that jennicam is what the web is all about. It's just a single person who's made a site about her life. Nothing more, nothing less. Think about it, 4 years ago (40 internet years) jenni pushed the limits.
.edu sites, lots of papers about computers, biology, chemistry and the like. Every now and then you'd get a home page along the lines of 'This is me, this is my cat, I like to watch the Simpsons.'
Some of you who've been online as long or longer than I have (11 years) will probably remember the way the web looked back in 93-94. Lots and lots of
Jenni [and the hordes (just look at Blogger) that have followed her] did it differenetly - and I am one of those who followed. We represent a much more human side of the internet. Sites like these show that people are more than the sum of our experience and interests and that's what makes us human. That's what makes us special.
While I don't deny the power of the internet as a tool for the distribution of facts and knowledge a lot of geeks need to remember that it can be used to distribute emotions. That's what jennicam's been doing for the past 4 years and that's what hundereds of sites who've followed her lead (and not only) are doing (and will keep doing) as well.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
change from something people did furtively on IRC, to an absolute right of the people to have whatever they want, whenever they want? I guess when programs like Napster make it possible for any clueless newbie on cable or University ethernet to serve up mp3s to the masses, it becomes acceptable?
I think that the biggest problem with piracy a tthe moment is that it's stopped being this thing that only a few select people do to a massive social occurance. Piracy groups have been around for at least two decades (probably longer) but never before have more than a handful of people even known of their existence. C'mon, did anyone here, before they used a computer, know that there were organized international groups who's main activity was the release distribution of software as soon as it comes out?
The internet has definately increased tenfold (if not more) the ammount of piracy in America and Western Europe. Before, people were restricted to copying a cassette or video from a friend, or a friend of a friend - it was usually no more than 2 degrees of separation. Now, with our incredibly far reaching distributed network bootleggers from Tiwan are finding clients in the USA. Professionally produced pirated CDs and movies are finding their way into smalltown America, not just the big cities (where they've been for years).
People's greed coupled with the internet is causing artist to lose control of their work. Just look at how a bootleg copy of Nas' album in '99 was stolen and distributed online. The artist was forced to re-record an entire album (which was worse than the bootleg) causing paying fans to lose out because of the delay.
The truth is this. Most people still get their music by buying CDs or MCs just as most people watch movies by renting DVDs or video tapes. Internet piracy is hurting those people and the artist they support by causing the people who buy legaly to pay more and the artist to get less. I'm all for changing the system, using the internet for distribution, bla bla bla but right now hard working artist are losing out because of piracy and that's the bottom line.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
The United States of America may tout it's capitalist infranstructure as the Glorious Saviour of Mankind, but they are closer to communists and fascists than many of their citizens are willing to admint to themselves.
I'm not an American but I grew up there. The truth is that the American political system, no matter how much everyone bitches and whines, is one of the most liberal and open systems in the world! You vote for INDIVIDUALS. You cast your vote and get a person that is 'responsible/accountable' to you because you voted for HIM/HER, not the party. You don't get this anywhere in Europe where you vote for these huge religous-ideological blocks. Bleh.
The US also has very good separation of church and state. Do laws that support a certain church's preaching get passed? Of course they do, but only because the people who voted wanted it this way. Each election has propositions, or laws directly voted on by the people. In any European country you'd need a referendum to get an issue passed, and even then the exact wording of the bill would be left up to the politicans.
The truth is this. Every election, Americans make choices concerning their freedoms and restrictions. They have the power to directly influence both, including allowing themselves to exchange some freedom for a feeling of safety. You don't get this in a lot of European and Asian nations. And you certainly don't get it in Africa.
I'm not saying that the US political system is perfect in any way, I'm just saying that you need to remember that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Remember to VOTE!
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
Get your head out of the sewer! Rap is not about 'Gangstas'.
> We never need to show our "machoness"
That's bunk. The open source community is all about pose. It's all about fame and making something that your fellow geeks will enjoy.
Rap USED to be like open source because:
a) Good rap (like good software) was very often non-mainstream.
b) They're both politicaly charged.
c) Very often there's no funding. (You've heard of Master P? He started his record label by selling tapes out of the back of his car.)
d) There's still a die-hard cult following.
I don't think Corporate America was scared of rap, I think they just didn't care. Rap wasn't moving the units (or so they claimed) and they didn't need to support it. Now...
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
I don't think that this is quite right. Rap music, like all music, is just a fad... something that will go away eventually and only be looked back on with fondness by a select group of people.
Let me hit you over the head with my reality stick. Not all music is a fad. Remember when rock & roll was that crazy new music that was never going to last? Now a very large part of the music industry is rock & roll, and they're calling other forms of music 'fads'. Remember that rap/hip-hop has been around for over 20 years and has been extrememly popular for the last 8 or so.
Let's remember that people are very impervious to change.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
Come to think of it, if you stick a 64Bit processor in a 32 bit cluster, will it even work ?
I don't know why it shouldn't. If I'm not mistaken Beowulf clusters exist are made up of independent computers conected via network connections. As long as your code can run the software you should be able to run a Beowulf.
On the other haand, I could be just running my mouth, pretending I know something when in reality I have no idea what I'm doing.
Jay
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Yes, communism ultimatly failed, but, in a perfect world without corruption and greed, it would make for a perfect system.
This is a common aruguement about communisim. Too bad it's so flawed. For comparison:
I have a method of generating unlimited supplies of energy using 2 cans of soda and three pounds of sugar. Great idea, right? But until I actually go and prove my experiment all my argumenting that this really is a great idea is pointless, because everyone knows that my idea sucks.
Communism has been implemented over the past 70 years by a mirad of countries and EVERY SINGLE TIME it has failed miserably, taking thousands of innocent lies along with it. The power of democracy is not that it is 'the one true system' but a SELF CORRECTING system that encompasses ideas from virtualy every other political system.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
You're making the right choice. ASUS isn't really known for high-quality video capture while the Matrox Marvell line is renowned for bringing an on-board hardware MJPEG codec for such a low price. Even on relatively weak machine the Matrox should be able to rip full screen NTSC or PAL without dropping frames.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
Exactly.
I'd like to add that Real Player (in general) has to be the most unstable piece of software I've ever used and RP7 doesn't ease up. I can watch one clip under Win2K (reading off a disk) before I have to close and reopen it. Why? If I play more than two clips in a row RP7 resets my computer!
Or how about that annoying desynch if you watch realvideo for more than 2-3 minutes?
You wanna know how Microsoft's going to win the streaming media war? By creating a non-obtrusive player that sits quiet until media is presented. A player that won't spam the user with ads, make the system unstable or preload on startup.
Looks like real.com is just making it easier for them.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
Why does support in the industry mean that the program isn't good?
I'm not saying that it's a factor in the quality of the software as much as it's one of the reasons people are not using it. The PSD file format is pretty much as portable (except for TIF and PS) as you get in the graphics world. Gimp supports it with a plugin but it's not native.
Actually, the biggest problem is the lack of a stable Win32 port. And that's a fact.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
Our present level of technology
hardly makes us any less vulnerable to extinction-level events such as major climatic change.
Uhm... actually, it does.
Let's remind ourselves that people saved themselves from starvation (or at least major food shortages) by improving agricultural techniques. Irrigation, crop rotation, fertalizer all allow us to sustain more people from a single portion of land then animals that require the same caloric intake.
We can wear sunscreen to protect ourselves from increased UV rays. We can build shelter to keep us warm when it's cold. We build computers so that our time could be used more effectively.
It's an unpopular view, but we really do rule the earth.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
I dunno. I'm not too hot on Gimp for a few reasons.
a) Gimp has almost no support in the industry. I don't know more than 2-3 people who make a living doing graphics who actually use Gimp day-to-day. And they only use it for web graphics.
b) CMYK support is weak. From what I last remember CMYK support in Gimp is pretty much restriced to converting RGB => CMYK. If you're working in print you need to see your work in the restricted pallette that CMYK offers.
c) Large files. I've heard many potential users complain about Gimp's handling of large files. When you start getting into 120-160MB files (posters and such) it can barely chug along while Photoshop steams on by.
d) Color calibration. Does Gimp even have this?
Now, I'm not saying Gimp will not own in the future, I'm just saying that it's got a way to go before being a viable alternative to the Photoshop. Especially to DTPers.
Cheers,
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
This trully is an interesting 'fact', too bad that it's not true. Bribery is illegal in many other countries (including Poland) and it is considered unethical all over the EU. Too bad that ethics seem to have no place in modern business anymore.
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror
I remember talking 3 years back to my friend's uncle who works in the TV business (Mostly editing work for Poland's largest TV station) about buying a TV + VCR. When I asked him about Sony equipment he just laughed then said 'Think about all the Sony equipment your or someone you know has owned and think about how often you take it to get repaired.'
After talking with my friend we realized that every single piece of equipment we have from Sony has either broken down (walkmans) or has had to be repaired! EVERY SINGLE THING.
He recommended Thompson for the TV, Panasonic for the VCR.
Anyway, right now I have a 28" SABA TV (the insides made by Thompson - SABA is a company that wins awards every year for industrial design but they're fully owned by Thompson) that I've had for 3 years with no problems, my Technics stereos have been trouble free for over 4 years. Hell, I even have a 14 year old Panasonic boom box that runs on 110V.
I also have 3 trashed Sony walkmans (less than 1 year each) and memories of a simple 2 tape sony radio that just stopped working after 3 years.
In all truth, I'm quite surprised that
-- polish ccs mirror
ARGH! That should be 607.8... Not enough sleep
Jay
-- polish ccs mirror