Another point is: I am not interested in supporting the people who bring me the music. I am interested in supporting the people who MADE the music.
Obviously, the people who MAKE the music are the ones who start the process to bring it to you. Along with the team that wrote the song, the producer, etc. They're a huge part of the equation, and they're the ones I was referring to.
I don't give a flying fuck about the record labels.
Where's the value that Napster will provide to subscription-paying users, beyond what they will be able to get through other, illicit channels like Gnutella, IRC, and other free media?
Um, how about legitimacy?
This new service might not become the be-all end-all of pay-for-music online service, but it will open the door to better ways of doing it.
The people that use Napster for legitimate reasons (all 10 of them), will NOT mind a $5 subscription charge to get the music they like *LEGALLY*. You don't want to pay $15 for a CD? Fine. Pay your subscription, and download your music from BMG/Napster's extensive collection. You get your music through legal distribution channels, you're getting it in mp3, AND YOU'RE SUPPORTING THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING YOU YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC.
Or, you could be one of the billions of thieves out there that steals music through "illicit channels", and was responsible for mp3's bad reputation to begin with.
I'm not a current Napster user, nor have I ever touched it. However, if this subscription service works well, I'll gladly participate.
Almost all of the excuse-robots on Napster are justifying their theft by claiming that "CDs are too expensive!" Well folks, this is a solution to that problem. If you still need to complain, and $5 is too much for you to spend...stick with your FM radio.
A proud daddy registered a domain for his 2 year old daughter, Veronica. It was a website where he had some pics of his little girl online. Pretty simple.
Then Archie Comics deciced it was rightfully theirs, because one of their characters is named "Veronica".
"We had Veronica.com registered, and these people didn't want to give up the [Veronica.org] name for some reason," said Michael Silberkleit, publisher of Archie Comics.
Well Gee! Maybe he wants to keep the domain "for some reason", perhaps for his DAUGHTER?!
Interestingly enough, Veronica.Org doesn't exist, however the whois entry still shows the father owns it. Good.
If you're interested in the details regarding this specific incident, head here:
Then there is the feature that allows you to scan a barcode on a website and go to a link. Can someone explain to me why I would take my hand off the mouse, then pick up the cat, then swipe the monitor. I could more easily have left my hand on the mouse and clicked on a link.
Um....swipe the monitor? Are you sure that's not a crackpipe you're waving around?
There's no "feature" to scan a barcode on a WEBSITE. The barcodes appear in print, or on products - not on webpages. You scan the product's UPC, or the print advertisement's barcode (Called a "cue"), and the software takes you to a relevant website. You don't scan your monitor.
When people look at my mapped keys for First person shooters, they're like "What the hell?!", but I've designed it for maximum efficiency.
Move Forward: Left Shift
Move Backward: Z
Strafe Left: Left CTRL
Strafe Right: Left ALT
Crouch: A
Run On/Off: X
Jump: Space
Fire/Attack: Left Mouse Button
Zoom: Right Mouse Button
In addition, I use the mouse to steer my character.
All of these keys are in one area of the keyboard, and are all easily accessable to the left hand while I steer/aim with the mouse using my right hand.
I started using this combination when I was playing Half Life, after many years of simply using the arrow keys with no mouse. That worked for wolfenstein and Doom, but not the real 3D games. My new style took a lot of getting used to, but it works well - especially for snipers. It's very efficient, and I kick ass in a game of Quake III.:)
I remember back in my Duke Nukem level building days, I had recreated the layout of the third floor of my College basing my levels off of the blueprints for the building. I remember the president of the school was impressed, and wanted me to make a VR project out of it. That never happened though.
I tinkered with the Half Life level editor, and it was a lot more in depth than previous editors that I had worked with, however I never really got into it. Shame. I could have been doing architectual work!
God knows how complicated the Q3 level editors are. I haven't even seen one, let alone try it. My next project is to recreate my office space for me and my co-workers, probably for a Rogue Spear map. I'll have to check and see how good the Rogue Spear level editors are.
Currently: $8 Billion (Reserve not yet met)
Quantity: 1
The Palo Alto Research Center (or PARC) has innovated much of modern computing technology - from the Mouse, to Ethernet, to the Graphical User Interface. PARC was part of Xerox for over 25 years, but now it can be YOURS!
Think of it! You could own the research center that brought us Laser Printing!
Low Reserve, serious bidders only please! Acceptable payment forms include Cash, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and shares of stock.
BUYER IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR SHIPPING.
Opening Bid: $8 Billion Your maximum bid: [ ] (Minimum bid: $8 Billion)
Your bid is a contract - Place a bid only if you're serious about buying the item. If you are the winning bidder, you will enter into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller. Plus, it looks like Xerox could use the cash.
Maybe it's because I grew up on unstable filesystems, but....
The Tux2 filesystem project has the following goals:
[SNIP]
Eliminate the need to perform fsck after an interruption
[SNIP]
If I was saving a file, and my computer decided to take a shit and die on me, I'd want to run an integrety check on the file system whether it's stable or not. If not for anything, but my own sanity. I mean, you were in the middle of saving a file. If that was a large file, and the computer died.....well, logically, the saved data should be recoverable. However, experience says that the file would most likely be corrupted.
Stable filesystem or not, I'd still be running a filesystem check. (When Windows 95 died on me, I ran scandisk as soon as it was finished booting - even before OSR2. Just to be SURE everything was cool.)
Grrr......Gates this and Gates that. Get with the times!
He's not calling the shots anymore. Microsoft is Ballmer's puppy now. Sure, Bill probably has a hell of a say in what happens, but he's not the ringleader any longer.
"Gates" is chief software architect. Ballmer is the one running the show.
Did you read the rest of my comment before you hit the "Reply to This" link?
I E-mailed them asking for a port to Linux (it's based on Quake III and all), but I never got a reply. However, several FAQs state that ports to Linux and MacOS are dependant on how the retail Windows version does in sales. A Linux port looks promising.
I already read what you posted, but thanks anyway.
I'm an avid Trekkie, so I've sampled most of the Trek games.
Final Unity was okay, but 'Star Trek: Borg' was an absolutely *incredible* game. The entire game was Fullscreen, Full motion video, and played out EXACTLY like an episode of the Next Generation. Except you got to choose the plot twists.
And while it's not a Game, the 'Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual' was another great release. Walking around different decks of the ship, now that was just cool. (By todays standards, and looking at the 3D recreation of Voyager's bridge in Elite Force, the Technical Manual would be terrible. However, when it came out, it was incredible.) I bought the actual Technical Manual in print, and seeing those pages come to life on that CDROM was very cool.
'Star Trek: Bridge Commander' looks promising, too. It looks to be a full 3D recreation of a Galaxy Class ship (ala The Enterprise D), including the bridge, and full operation. You get to command a starship! Whee! I'm looking forward to that.
Back before the retail version was released, I went to Raven Software's website, and I downloaded the Demo.
I was quite impressed.
I E-mailed them asking for a port to Linux (it's based on Quake III and all), but I never got a reply. However, several FAQs state that ports to Linux and MacOS are dependant on how the retail Windows version does in sales. A Linux port looks promising. I also told them that I was so impressed with the game, as soon as I saw it on the shelf, I would buy it - no second thoughts. And that's exactly what I did, and I don't regret it at all.
[ SPOILERS AHEAD ]
The game plays out like an episode of Voyager. Basically, the ship responds to a distress call that turns out to be bogus, and Voyager is transported to a sort of "Starship Graveyard." There is a group of enemies that scavenge off of other ships for supplies.
One of the more impressive levels was a recreation of a Kirk-era ship, from the Original Series episode "Mirror Mirror." It comes complete with the Imperial logo, maniacal crew and all. (No bearded Spock, tho.) This is part of a level where many different types of ships are cobbled together to form a sort of base. Original series sound effects are present (ala the Door Swoosh), and that brings me to my next point. This game is true to Trek in lots of aspects, and the sound is no exception.
Weapons are cool, one of my favorites being the standard issue hand phaser. (COOL STUFF) Some of the more impressive weapons include a Personal Photon Torpedo Launcher, an Arc Welder, etc. Cool stuff to play with. Plus, you get to run around on the Holodeck trying out these toys in settings like 'Camelot' or 'Wild West'.
I am not disappointed in this game at all, and that's just the Single player. Multiplayer is fun, too.
Actually, I used to administer a network that was 1/3 Macintosh. These consisted of 8500s, the First G3s (In the beige case), and the newer G3s (in the translucent blue cases.)
I find MacOS (8.0 and 8.5, the systems on our network) to be clunky, uninformative (Windows does a SLIGHTLY better job on this end, but not much.), irritating, and in some cases, condescending. "Oops! A system error occured!" (Cute little bomb icon and all.)
Gimme a break. How about an informative system error message, or an error dialog that will let me save my work, and close my applications BEFORE hitting that [RESTART] button. (You know the dialog box I'm talking about. The one with the red-laced title bar that won't let you click anything else onscreen.) And what's up with those sounds? A car crash? Come on. This isn't a kid's computer, but it acts like it. The whole 'Drag to the trash to unmount' idea needs to go too.
I can go on, but I don't think I need to.
The only interface I consider to be superior to Windows would be The Console(tm). You have all the power, right there. No cute decorations, no fancy interface, just raw power. The command line is superior, because in a Graphical environment, you have to click your way to your command. Multiple steps.
On the prompt, you mentally choose your command, and do it on the first step.
It's not as pretty as a GUI, but it's FAR more powerful.
We all know what Napster is REALLY for, and I'm not going to waste time repeating it.
One of the primary arguments behind the thiev^H^H^H^H^Hpeople who download Copyrighted works from Napster is "CDs cost too much!"
But yet, we get people who bitch about the possible $5 subscription price. HELLO! This is less than HALF what your expensive CD costs!
This only provides proof to what I've been arguing. 98% of the Napster community isn't there because "CDs cost too much." They're there because they can get something for free that they would normally have to pay for.
And the minute they have to pay for it, they don't want anything to do with it. Even if it's an insignificant amount.
For Christ's sake, you LIKE THE MUSIC, RIGHT? Show a LITTLE appriciation for the work that went into creating it!
Berners-Lee created the Web while at CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) in Switzerland in 1990, as a method of keeping documentation current and available to the multitudes of researchers there.
And I'll bet that he later refuted that statement by claiming he was tired when he said it.
/HUMOR
Anyway, I definitely agree with Bill Gates' position on that list. Like the article said, whether you love him or hate him, there's no doubt he helped shape the computer industry into what it is today. (For those of you who doubt this is a good thing, we're HERE, aren't we?) Windows isn't the best OS on the planet for a lot of things, but it's inspired competition - and rigorous competition helps everyone. (I'm anxious to see an interface that can rival the Windows interface. It may not be the best OS there is, but there isn't an interface that comes close to the ease that Windows provides. That's the problem with X.)
If we had an interface that was as good as the Windows UI (and provided the same continuity! Important!), with the power and stability of Linux - the sky's the limit.
I was disappointed I didn't see MY name on the list, but....
Slashdot Mirror
Let's give Steve Jobs a reason to say that Apple has saved Mankind? Isn't his head big enough as it is?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Obviously, the people who MAKE the music are the ones who start the process to bring it to you. Along with the team that wrote the song, the producer, etc. They're a huge part of the equation, and they're the ones I was referring to.
I don't give a flying fuck about the record labels.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Um, how about legitimacy?
This new service might not become the be-all end-all of pay-for-music online service, but it will open the door to better ways of doing it.
The people that use Napster for legitimate reasons (all 10 of them), will NOT mind a $5 subscription charge to get the music they like *LEGALLY*. You don't want to pay $15 for a CD? Fine. Pay your subscription, and download your music from BMG/Napster's extensive collection. You get your music through legal distribution channels, you're getting it in mp3, AND YOU'RE SUPPORTING THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING YOU YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC.
Or, you could be one of the billions of thieves out there that steals music through "illicit channels", and was responsible for mp3's bad reputation to begin with.
I'm not a current Napster user, nor have I ever touched it. However, if this subscription service works well, I'll gladly participate.
Almost all of the excuse-robots on Napster are justifying their theft by claiming that "CDs are too expensive!" Well folks, this is a solution to that problem. If you still need to complain, and $5 is too much for you to spend...stick with your FM radio.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
A proud daddy registered a domain for his 2 year old daughter, Veronica. It was a website where he had some pics of his little girl online. Pretty simple.
Then Archie Comics deciced it was rightfully theirs, because one of their characters is named "Veronica".
"We had Veronica.com registered, and these people didn't want to give up the [Veronica.org] name for some reason," said Michael Silberkleit, publisher of Archie Comics.
Well Gee! Maybe he wants to keep the domain "for some reason", perhaps for his DAUGHTER?!
Interestingly enough, Veronica.Org doesn't exist, however the whois entry still shows the father owns it. Good.
If you're interested in the details regarding this specific incident, head here:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-100 5-2 00-337433.html
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Space Fungus!
"Ah! 30 CCs of Tolnaftate."
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Um....swipe the monitor? Are you sure that's not a crackpipe you're waving around?
There's no "feature" to scan a barcode on a WEBSITE. The barcodes appear in print, or on products - not on webpages. You scan the product's UPC, or the print advertisement's barcode (Called a "cue"), and the software takes you to a relevant website. You don't scan your monitor.
Sheesh. Where the hell did you read that?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Move Forward: Left Shift
Move Backward: Z
Strafe Left: Left CTRL
Strafe Right: Left ALT
Crouch: A
Run On/Off: X
Jump: Space
Fire/Attack: Left Mouse Button
Zoom: Right Mouse Button
:)
In addition, I use the mouse to steer my character.
All of these keys are in one area of the keyboard, and are all easily accessable to the left hand while I steer/aim with the mouse using my right hand.
I started using this combination when I was playing Half Life, after many years of simply using the arrow keys with no mouse. That worked for wolfenstein and Doom, but not the real 3D games. My new style took a lot of getting used to, but it works well - especially for snipers. It's very efficient, and I kick ass in a game of Quake III.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
I was PROMISED flying cars!
I don't SEE any FLYING CARS! Do you?
Why? Why?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
I tinkered with the Half Life level editor, and it was a lot more in depth than previous editors that I had worked with, however I never really got into it. Shame. I could have been doing architectual work!
God knows how complicated the Q3 level editors are. I haven't even seen one, let alone try it. My next project is to recreate my office space for me and my co-workers, probably for a Rogue Spear map. I'll have to check and see how good the Rogue Spear level editors are.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Quantity: 1
The Palo Alto Research Center (or PARC) has innovated much of modern computing technology - from the Mouse, to Ethernet, to the Graphical User Interface. PARC was part of Xerox for over 25 years, but now it can be YOURS!
Think of it! You could own the research center that brought us Laser Printing!
Low Reserve, serious bidders only please! Acceptable payment forms include Cash, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and shares of stock.
BUYER IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR SHIPPING.
Opening Bid: $8 Billion
Your maximum bid: [ 
(Minimum bid: $8 Billion)
Your bid is a contract - Place a bid only if you're serious about buying the item. If you are the winning bidder, you will enter into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller. Plus, it looks like Xerox could use the cash.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Real life happens in Brilliant Technicolor!(tm)
(While there was a newer version of 12 Angry Men, the screenshot depicts the original.)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
The Tux2 filesystem project has the following goals:
[SNIP]
Eliminate the need to perform fsck after an interruption
[SNIP]
If I was saving a file, and my computer decided to take a shit and die on me, I'd want to run an integrety check on the file system whether it's stable or not. If not for anything, but my own sanity. I mean, you were in the middle of saving a file. If that was a large file, and the computer died.....well, logically, the saved data should be recoverable. However, experience says that the file would most likely be corrupted.
Stable filesystem or not, I'd still be running a filesystem check. (When Windows 95 died on me, I ran scandisk as soon as it was finished booting - even before OSR2. Just to be SURE everything was cool.)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
SDMI holds a $10,000 contest to crack it's encryption.
SDMI gets cracked.
SDMI responds by.....covering it up?
Um, First Posters sure do come up with some strange conspiracies, don't they?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
MAKE THE MUSIC STOP! AAAGH!
(See, I was fine up until this story was posted. Then the Tetris music slammed back into my head at full volume. DAMN YOU. DAMN YOU TO HELL.)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
He's not calling the shots anymore. Microsoft is Ballmer's puppy now. Sure, Bill probably has a hell of a say in what happens, but he's not the ringleader any longer.
"Gates" is chief software architect. Ballmer is the one running the show.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
The story was posted at 10:19AM. You posted your comment at 10:24AM. You did NOT read the entire chat log in 5 minutes.
Stop trying so desperately to get First Post, and read the goddamn articles.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Face to Face with Seven of Nine, perhaps...
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
I E-mailed them asking for a port to Linux (it's based on Quake III and all), but I never got a reply. However, several FAQs state that ports to Linux and MacOS are dependant on how the retail Windows version does in sales. A Linux port looks promising.
I already read what you posted, but thanks anyway.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Final Unity was okay, but 'Star Trek: Borg' was an absolutely *incredible* game. The entire game was Fullscreen, Full motion video, and played out EXACTLY like an episode of the Next Generation. Except you got to choose the plot twists.
And while it's not a Game, the 'Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual' was another great release. Walking around different decks of the ship, now that was just cool. (By todays standards, and looking at the 3D recreation of Voyager's bridge in Elite Force, the Technical Manual would be terrible. However, when it came out, it was incredible.) I bought the actual Technical Manual in print, and seeing those pages come to life on that CDROM was very cool.
'Star Trek: Bridge Commander' looks promising, too. It looks to be a full 3D recreation of a Galaxy Class ship (ala The Enterprise D), including the bridge, and full operation. You get to command a starship! Whee! I'm looking forward to that.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
I was quite impressed.
I E-mailed them asking for a port to Linux (it's based on Quake III and all), but I never got a reply. However, several FAQs state that ports to Linux and MacOS are dependant on how the retail Windows version does in sales. A Linux port looks promising. I also told them that I was so impressed with the game, as soon as I saw it on the shelf, I would buy it - no second thoughts. And that's exactly what I did, and I don't regret it at all.
[ SPOILERS AHEAD ]
The game plays out like an episode of Voyager. Basically, the ship responds to a distress call that turns out to be bogus, and Voyager is transported to a sort of "Starship Graveyard." There is a group of enemies that scavenge off of other ships for supplies.
One of the more impressive levels was a recreation of a Kirk-era ship, from the Original Series episode "Mirror Mirror." It comes complete with the Imperial logo, maniacal crew and all. (No bearded Spock, tho.) This is part of a level where many different types of ships are cobbled together to form a sort of base. Original series sound effects are present (ala the Door Swoosh), and that brings me to my next point. This game is true to Trek in lots of aspects, and the sound is no exception.
Weapons are cool, one of my favorites being the standard issue hand phaser. (COOL STUFF) Some of the more impressive weapons include a Personal Photon Torpedo Launcher, an Arc Welder, etc. Cool stuff to play with. Plus, you get to run around on the Holodeck trying out these toys in settings like 'Camelot' or 'Wild West'.
I am not disappointed in this game at all, and that's just the Single player. Multiplayer is fun, too.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
I find MacOS (8.0 and 8.5, the systems on our network) to be clunky, uninformative (Windows does a SLIGHTLY better job on this end, but not much.), irritating, and in some cases, condescending. "Oops! A system error occured!" (Cute little bomb icon and all.)
Gimme a break. How about an informative system error message, or an error dialog that will let me save my work, and close my applications BEFORE hitting that [RESTART] button. (You know the dialog box I'm talking about. The one with the red-laced title bar that won't let you click anything else onscreen.) And what's up with those sounds? A car crash? Come on. This isn't a kid's computer, but it acts like it. The whole 'Drag to the trash to unmount' idea needs to go too.
I can go on, but I don't think I need to.
The only interface I consider to be superior to Windows would be The Console(tm). You have all the power, right there. No cute decorations, no fancy interface, just raw power. The command line is superior, because in a Graphical environment, you have to click your way to your command. Multiple steps.
On the prompt, you mentally choose your command, and do it on the first step.
It's not as pretty as a GUI, but it's FAR more powerful.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
One of the primary arguments behind the thiev^H^H^H^H^Hpeople who download Copyrighted works from Napster is "CDs cost too much!"
But yet, we get people who bitch about the possible $5 subscription price. HELLO! This is less than HALF what your expensive CD costs!
This only provides proof to what I've been arguing. 98% of the Napster community isn't there because "CDs cost too much." They're there because they can get something for free that they would normally have to pay for.
And the minute they have to pay for it, they don't want anything to do with it. Even if it's an insignificant amount.
For Christ's sake, you LIKE THE MUSIC, RIGHT? Show a LITTLE appriciation for the work that went into creating it!
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Um.......Girl?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
And I'll bet that he later refuted that statement by claiming he was tired when he said it.
/HUMOR
Anyway, I definitely agree with Bill Gates' position on that list. Like the article said, whether you love him or hate him, there's no doubt he helped shape the computer industry into what it is today. (For those of you who doubt this is a good thing, we're HERE, aren't we?) Windows isn't the best OS on the planet for a lot of things, but it's inspired competition - and rigorous competition helps everyone. (I'm anxious to see an interface that can rival the Windows interface. It may not be the best OS there is, but there isn't an interface that comes close to the ease that Windows provides. That's the problem with X.)
If we had an interface that was as good as the Windows UI (and provided the same continuity! Important!), with the power and stability of Linux - the sky's the limit.
I was disappointed I didn't see MY name on the list, but....
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?