Haha, I completely agree, just 10 mintues ago I read the comments here, while listening music with winamp. Niw I've just downloaded QCD and installed the "T0t4l pwn4g3" skin (one of the tiniest ones). I was looking for a media player that I could leave ONLY as a tray Icon, I read that for the Foobar one there was only a small patch but I didnt really liked that.
QCD is quite fine, the only downside again is that it has 23,648MB of private memory...
1. Linux works very well for me in every way. I haven't run into ANY application that *I* NEED (other than the occasional game) that makes me think Linux isn't ready for the desktop 2. Windows is too limiting and costly for me
Name ONE thing you can do on Linux that you can do on Windows
I use Linux, I like Linux. I know about R, SAS and SPSS. If you read my post again you may notice the part where I said that the deadline for my paper is near so I *do not* have time to learn a new staistics oriented language. Because of that I didnt proceeded with R (FYI I downloaded it and tested, I even followed the begginers tutorial from the documentation).
Now, about the Microsoft garbage thing, wow, great way to display your fanboysim. If, as you imply Microsoft Office is garbage then, I do not want to know what is the status of OpenOffice as it has always been an attempt to rip-off Microsoft Word/Excel applications with some more-than-that wanna be presentation and drawing applications (granted, I like the *idea* of OO Draw but, i even used them to make some nice graphics on EPS to use in latex, but I saved in version 1.99 and THE FILE WAS NOT LOADED CORRECTLY ON 2.00 WTF ).
One thing Paypal does not do well is micropayments, or payments under $1, but it's something Google does very well. Consider the millions of virtual pennies they daily count for AdSense. (or is it AdCents?!)
The virtual wallet metaphor has been tried many times with no success, but Google has the clout and expertise to do it.
Oooooh!, so that is why the actual music shops charge $1 for each song now uh? I hope Google hurry up with its micropayment thing, I am *sure* Music companies will be really glad to cut their prices to a fair price!/me runs and hides
They just don't realize it and don't really have (as you said) the time to put into it. Which is still a failing of society.
Oh come on!, a lot of people do not *have* the time just because they DO NOT CARE!. They prefer playing with their Playstation, getting drunk or fixing their car than to get into the computer.
You fail to see that, at the same way you (and I) enjoy hacking the computer, normally people enjoy hacking their cars, stereo system or any other hobby they have. And it does not mean that the society is failing.
We all have our priorities, and although for you, the computer could be a very important tool, there is people who only use it as a comunication tool. Think as the telephone, you do not care how your telephone work... you may not care how is it programmed, you just want to pick up the phone, press the buttons and speak.
We all have our priorities, and the fact that the priorities of other people are not the same as yours does not mean their are doing any wrong.
Although I arrived late to the article, let me state something. This last week, I have been working in some simulations. I made a simulation on the computer wich gave me as results something like 400,00 MB in numbers.
Now, I needed to do statistical analysis on those things, unfortunately, the deadline of the paper is for this wednesday, and I have never used any of those Statistical analysis tools. I didnt need anything too fancy, only std. deviation and averages.
Guess what I used, Excel, it has an OK statistical analysis package. Now, I wont "rant" about the absence of that on OpenOffice, I did everything I needed in MS Office, but to do that I had to import my text files (delimited by a space) to Excel. I did some simple C programs to process my code and then just imported with the File/Open function of excel, it detected it was text file and a wizzard guided me through the import stages.
Now, what does all of this have to do with the "linux still not ready"?, well, after finishing, I thought "how could I do it with OpenOffice" because you know, everybody says OpenOffice is as good as Ms Office (something I do not believe). Well, I tried to open one of those files with the File/Open IN OpenCalc and it just opened a OpenWrite window with the numbers HA!
I looked for an "Import" button, I tried with the "Document Import wizzard" without luck. So I could not even *start* to compare it.
Now there are a number of several details that I *doubt* OpenCalc has, that Excel does besides importing a file or being able to make cross references between worksheets and books but, you must see that the devil of the commercial vs open software is (as in everything else) in the DETAILS. Those small details that people take from granted when using Photoshop, Excel, Word, etc. And the fact that in some of those products you can go from 0 to a complete work in a few minutes (God, this is the first time I do a *real* statistics analysis).
one of the big problems is that the big content providers want to write the laws, create the technology, and if it makes it impossible for the consumer to get a fair shake, so what?
One of my biggest gripes is that they want to change the business model to a rental/leasing model, without dropping the price to consumers. ease.
They can not write the law per se, they can (and are doing very well) use the law to their benefit. The creators of the "intelectual property" can license it in whatever way they want. It is up to the CONSUMER to agree to acquire the product they are offering.
I think the reantal/leasing model has been *always* here, in fact it is different, it is called licensing, I do not know the exact terminology but they are three diferent things (to buy, rent and license).
When the records where sold on tapes, the companies did not cared about the cassual copy, distribution. They only cared for the FOR PROFIT illegal distrution. But now that it is very easy to make mass distribution, and that people are doing it for free, it has become a problem. There is where DRM comes into play but the great problem is to define the line of where does the rights of the licenser [spell?] ends and where the ones of the licensee.
Honestly, I believe we are just at the beggining of this rights management issue. After some time (years), all the distribution companies provide their content online. And they will compete against each other in the quality they use (for example, the quality of the iTunes music is quite low for me, against the allofmp3 store).
And then, as you said, they will offer less and less prices and strange schemes. I have always tought that those programs like napster or yahoo music that allow you to download and listen while you are subscribed have more value because at the end you will *break the law* personally, after you unsuscribe and continue listening. But there is where DRM comes, they *need* to provide a way do not let you break the law BUT to allow you your Fair Use. This is the balance that will make companies compete.
Anyway... I am tired and have to finish a "£!$"!@ paper for a close deadline... I hope my comment makes some sense
Rights management law and technology needs to take into account the right of consumers to have permanent unencumbered (not unrestricted) use of digital content they have purchased.
And here, we have [as consumers] a big problem. You see, you have NEVER purchased digital content, you have only been *licensed* to do certain things with it, the problem is that, the companies are getting greedy and are trying to reduce the actions you can do with their *license*.
An example of this subtle difference would be, when you *buy* a program, when you really buy it, the programmer will provide you the program and sometimes the source code.
When I was in the University I made some applications for buisnesses, one of those was a restaurant managements system. I SOLD the system to the person, beware, I DID NOT sold the source code, but the PROGRAM. I provided a copy on a CD with installer and all other things. Of course the system was made speciffically for that restaurant.
If, my client wanted the source code it would have been a different price. And, I COULD have licensed the application to him to run JUST on the restaurant he wanted when he asked. But, because I sold it, he IS able to install it wherever he wants, anytime he wants and he can do anything he wants with the system.
You have to realize that the application (software) is separated from the hardware. In most commercial applications nowadays what you pay for is a LICENSE.
The same thing happens with music, although you may be buying a CD, what you are really doing is buying a license that allows you to do certain things with the intelectual property. Read what your booklet say, something like "the license does not give permission for rental or public broadcasting".
So, with the digital media you do not need hardware, they will just give you the "information" but again they are not SELLING it to you, they are just giving you a license to do certain things with it.
That way, when you subscribe to Napster you get a license to listen to the music WHILE you are subscribed, when you go to iTunes you get the license to listen it whenever you want but you can copy it certain amount of times.
One interesting thing that I noted in those two reviews is that both of them use AMD processors... it looks like AMD has replaced Intel as the highend gaming CPU. A more complete benchmark will include a test with two similar systems with different processors (equivalent).
In order for the market to work and content to move into the digital age and away from physical media, there has to be DRM.
I agree with you completely. I do not understand people that are totally anti-Rights-management. The problem is the way companies are using the DRM tool as a lot of them see it as a way to squeeze more profit from their customers.
But you have to see DRM with a broader view, it is about the management of rights in information, as the world continues to depend more on digital information there is an inherent *need* in controlling who can an who can not access that information. It is not only about music and movies. It is about documents and all other kind of digitally representable data.
The people that rant about the right management technology usually has no idea how to control information, I am totally against the way CORPOPRATIONS are using DRM technology (I was the first to compile a list of Sony Rootkit CD's when it started) but seriously, the technology is not bad, it is corporations abusing it to get more power.
I used to run QEMU also but now that Vmware player is free I run that instead. As I am just an "end user" who do not really need to modify the code, I only use it to run Linux on my Windows computer.
On a slightly offtopic comment on gaming I do not know why games have not used holophonic sound available. Granted it is useful only with headphones but it could be nice for protable games (DS, PSP, etc) and an alternative to the 5.1 sound in homes.
Is it very difficult to do this kind of sound in games?, it will surely need real time processing of sound (sound sources being calculated etc) but that could be a good use for this next generation consoles multiple processors.
This is something that has annoyed me a lot. I think here should be a company that rented this robots (I kind of got the idea for the Asimov books U.S. Robotics).
Imagine if you could rent one of these robots to try it for some time (said two months) and program them. Of course you should be able to save your programs outside (in a memory or something). Also a simulation program for the computer could be nice, that way you could make your programs on the simulator and then test them on the robot.
I have always wanted to play with one of these toys but, they are quite expensive for me. But I think it would be cool if I could rent one and play with it for some time.
No amount of OS security can protect against the deliberate execution of malicious code.
I disagree with you. GP post was right in that the operating system is inherently flawed and makes it easy for virus/malware software to be executed on it.
I have said it a lot of times but will say it again, there are several flaws on Microsoft Windows operating system that the Antivirus Companies are exploiting to commercialize their software.
1. Inadecuate user privileges policies: Microsoft Windows operating systems do not apply correct user privileges policies, in fact they have the worst policies possible giving ALL the process the user runs the possilibity to run with ADMINISTRATOR privileges, for example, letting an Internet Navigator (IE, Fx, etc) run with Administrator privileges is a potential flaw BY DESIGN.
2. Having a big dependency between the Operating System and an Internet navigator: Extending from point one, Microsoft OS have made the Internet Explorer web browser inherently tied to the Operating System use. This, combined with the problems that arise from the first point create a great security hole.
3. Lack of proper file permissions and permission management: Microsoft Windows Operating systems didnt have any kind of file permission management until the most recent versions, and even on these (the Windows XP versions) they still use the "less secure" approach by default making it trivial for any process to delete an important OS file.
4. Lack of good network security: Until recently (Service pack 2 of Windows XP) windows didn't have decent network security.
As you can see, it is the union of these problems that make the Operating System quite inscure and companies like Symantec, McAfee, SSSI and other exploit to profit.
A lot of this problems exist not because the operating system is not capable of coping with them by itself but because its DEFAULT operation mode is insecure (i.e. giving all default users administrator privileges or having the firewall turned off by default [before XP SP2]).
Of course the company that makes the software is not to blame (at it is not all their fault) as there are some technologies that where not considered native for the Operating Systems (like networking) and the OS developers can only enhance the software adding the new security (of course the response time may or may NOT be good).
No OS's security has a means of stopping the things most viruses do. The Operating System function should be preventing the execution of malicious code (being it automatic or manual attacks) at least. Security on computers is like security in the real life, the OS should make it difficult enough for the attacker to dissuade them for trying it.
I love these: Sears hairdryer: Do not use while sleeping.
Nytol sleep aid: Warning: may cause drowsiness.
Disposable razor: Do not use this product during an earthquake.
Hand-held Massaging Device Do not use while sleeping or unconscious. [O MY F GOD]
Microwave Oven: Do not use for drying pets.
Anyway, better take a look at them, really funny... but makes you think... in a country where anyone can sue anybody for anything... what can you expect.
I applaud them for attempting to release even three keys The only there keys keyboard you will ever need is this one. Of course with this technology you could remap them to CTRL+ALT+^H for Unix/Linux freaks:)
Establish a list of officially supported hardware, so that getting sound working isn't a crap shoot?
I think what Google should do, if they want to *really* compete in the Operating Systems market is to provide a complete PC solution like Apple. They should create a set of PC systems (like apple different Macs) and sell them with their GooUbuntu. That way the problem of linux unsupported hardware will be thrown out.
Just imagine if they make the GooPC available at Wal*Mart and other retailers for a pretty low cost (I think they have the capability of buying PC components *without* the Windows tax, like Apple).
I agree, I remember even since the times of Nintendo & Sony parternship that people talked about Nintendo being bought but part of the Nintendo fanatism strives in how they have been standing since the old days and how they swallowed their most "adverse" competitor, Sega. I even remember a talk show where Sega trolls said that the SuperNintendo was not a 16bit unit but a 12 bit "turbocharged" unit. I thought "hell, if Nintendo can make look Mortal Kombat II that good with 12 bits compard to Sega's 16bit... I prefer the big N".
Nintendo is a Japanese company, and if you ask me, it is more of a HANDHELD company now. Cisco just can not aim to buy them, I think it would be a better bet to buy Infineon labs, at least they did had a console with a "innovative" distribution system based on internet.
When I was at College I spend some of my time cracking software and learning about hacking. For me, the *real* sense of doing that was because of the challenge to reverse-engineer the code. The same was applied for smard cards protocols R.E. (which may be consider hacking =o)).
Now, if we talk about open source applications, I won't say it is "hacking", I would name it more as "code auditing", because, if you find a bug on any given OSS application by seeing at the listings, it is trivial to use it as oposed to the closed source techinques.
I remember creating my frist keygen (a Winzip keygen woohoo!); doing it was cool because of the challenge of running the debugger (w32dasm in that case) and "understanding" the assembler routines (you got to love assembler for that). In contrast, if you have an open source program with the routine, of course you can hack it, but, there is no excitement on doing that... as it is very easy.
I dont know, but for me there is one game I can keep plyaing after 15 years. This is Ninja Gaiden 2 for the NES. It is one of the best game ever in my opinion. Once in a while I run Nesticle and play it.
I bought it when it got out and I remember finish it 3 times in a day during vacations. It is a hell of a game!
I also play Mario Kart (SNES) with my girlfriend sometimes, these kind of games, simple and yet entertaining is what I love. I really do not like *most of* current games in which you need 30 mintues of tutorial before playing.
I sometimes also play Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy (NES).
Hopefuly Nintendo will make me return to the Consoles Playing with the Revlolution... The only games I have played "recently" are Hitman 2 (that is a great one) and Commandos. Unfortunately I do not have time now...
What I did recently was buy a SuperCard for the Gameboy and I love playing the NES games (Tetris, SMB1/2/3 and Dr. Mario on it.
New games tend to be boring (for me of course) and not entertaining.
I think you can avoid making all that mess, and also getting angry if you simply do not consider rebates.
Rebates are scams, at least that is how I see it, I do no live in USA, but from everything I have seen. I remember also buying a iRiver CD/mp3 player about 5 years ago, I bought in in BestBuy or other similar shop, they offered me an extended warranty and the product had a mail in rebate.
I bought it there because it was the cheapest price (before rebate) I could find, as I was only on vacation (as I said, I do not live there) but, it seemed for me that it could be nothing but a scam.
Better compare prices from different shops and go for the cheaper (without rebate), of course, then you _may_ have to cope with companies like PriceRitePhoto which want to sell you other things (or, the extended warranty... my ass).
The question seems too simplistic. If you want to ask the question -- who has done more for humanity: Gates or Jobs? Then you can look at acts of charity or whatever. If you want to ask who is the "most capitalist", then look at net worth. If you want to know whose actions illustrate the values one wants to live up to, look at their respective actions. If you want to ask who is the most selfless humanitarian, the answer is probably neither, as the parent indicates:
I do not know about you. I hate Windows, I hate Microsoft, the Giant Monopolistic company... well actually I do not really "HATE" it, it is just that pisses me off that it is the EXAMPLE of the BIG CORPORATION that I think is what is REALLY bad in today's world (you can see what BIG CORPORATIONS do in any kind of market, McDonalds [se SupersizeMe] Microsoft [we all know] WalMart [same thing] Sony-RIAA [DRM-anti-consumer-stuff]).
Anyway, although I do not like the current state of Microsoft, I admire Bill Gates. Granted, you can say whatever you want about him, that he is not a programmer, that he is whatever you want. But, for me, he is the man that made computers the "trivial" thing they are now, we take it for granted, but I was back there in the days where you wrote your essays with a typewriter.
I do not care if it was through shitty software, MS-DOS, Windows, he had the vision (I know, he was not the only one, steve jobs also had it), and the best thing HE DID SOMETHING. How many of us slashdotters keep ranting about any thing we see that anyone is doing, the man that said had a 6 Ghz processor with I-dont-remember-how-much-memory, we just say it is stupid, it is impossible and make fun of it, same as the Infineon or any idea that appears on the internet. But almost all of do not do anything else than stay seated here at our desk or table, without any innovation, or if we have one, we just dream up 10 minutes about it and forget it.
On the other side, we have the billionary gates, you know, it is his money, whatever the way he as managed to get it. He did earn it with his buisness. He could do whatever he wanted with it and he has chosen to give it to charities, you may say that it is just for his image, but I would like to see a calulation of all the money he has donated. Some people say that he donates big amounts but that they are nothing compared to what he has, for the love of what you most love, he is giving away!!! he may not give away his buisness, but how many of us can say we give away something? and how many rich men give away that much (on their average)?
I hate the coroporation Microsoft has come, but for the man, Bill gates, I have no doubt he is one of the most influential men alive (FOR THE GOOD).
One thing we (computer geeks) tend to miss, is that there are quite a hell lot of things going on outside our grey box. Granted, internet showed us a lot of things, but there are lot of other things going on there. I had the advange of being born in a undeveloped country (Mexico, I am proud of it) and I can see there are many problems, computers are just a gadget used by the rich, there is people that needs food and other things first.
To finish, I want to quote something I read from another slashdotter and that I think was very very insightful, he said something like this "it is funny how computer people try to fix everything using computers when there are a lot of things that just can not be solved using them". I think it is really true, I had read comments from people over here saying that giving computers to people over Africa would solve their problems, and I can not help but laugh very loud... and then cry.
Anyway, as for Steve Jobs, he is not that special, granted, his company makes nice products, but it is just that, same as Samsung or LG, a company doing what it does, and as for his personal life, I do not know of any donations or charity things he had done...
They are all AMD boards (I don't use Intel, no flame, just a personal choice), so maybe the mother board chip sets have something to do with them putting BIOS jumpers on board.
I will take this chance to ask you about AMD motherboards, could you recommend me a decent Momo manufacturer/model for AMD?, I am looking towards building an AMD64 machine but I really do not know which Mobo to buy. I have always thought ASUS is good, although I have only used it for Intel, I would like to know about 2 kinds of motherboards, first one without anything integrated (or with the less integreated components possible) just usb, firewire (if possible) and RAID (0+1), sata and 4 GB of memory.
On the other hand an AMD motherboard with a decent video chip (nothing fancy, just for displaying X) and a sound chip (that can play OK.6 Ogg) would be fine.
It would be okey if both of them had plenty (5?) PCI-E (this is the standard now no?) slots as from what I have seen almost all mobos come with only 2 or 3 nowadays.
p.s. sorry for the offtopic post, it is just not easy to find people that know about PC's out of slashdot (and I do not have time to browse on other forums). anyway, got the karma
I agree with you, for what I have seen in the booth-babes pictures (I haven't been to any game related con:-( ) I am sure they are from some kind of agency that the game houses rent... they may not even know anything about the games, or sometimes they may have heard about it.
I think it would be cooler to see those girls playing that Doom 4 or NFS 10 on the booths, and if they are good at it (imagine a booth with all girls Unreal Tournament net battle, playing well) will certainly attract a lot of more people.
Fortunately, my girlfriend likes gaming, I just bought her a GBA for christmas, we use to play SNES Mario Kart on the PC and other games. Nevertheless I am quite sad to see how difficult it is to find a lady that likes to play games nowadays. Of course today's games are really craptastic... I am not *really* on console gaming since the N64, and I had an x-box for 6 months or something before selling it as games got too expensive for me and with inverse quality.
I stated that because, if that is the current trend of gaming, how would it appear to women which have never been considered on the market. At least, I believe a lot of the games from previous generations (NES, SNES, and even N64) where more women friendly than those today.
Personally I am waiting for the Nintendo revolution, I am pretty sure I will like it, and that I will once again enjoy playing it, with my girlfriend.
Slashdot Mirror
Haha, I completely agree, just 10 mintues ago I read the comments here, while listening music with winamp. Niw I've just downloaded QCD and installed the "T0t4l pwn4g3" skin (one of the tiniest ones). I was looking for a media player that I could leave ONLY as a tray Icon, I read that for the Foobar one there was only a small patch but I didnt really liked that.
QCD is quite fine, the only downside again is that it has 23,648MB of private memory...
1. Linux works very well for me in every way. I haven't run into ANY application that *I* NEED (other than the occasional game) that makes me think Linux isn't ready for the desktop
2. Windows is too limiting and costly for me
Name ONE thing you can do on Linux that you can do on Windows
Hello Linux fanboy.
I use Linux, I like Linux. I know about R, SAS and SPSS. If you read my post again you may notice the part where I said that the deadline for my paper is near so I *do not* have time to learn a new staistics oriented language. Because of that I didnt proceeded with R (FYI I downloaded it and tested, I even followed the begginers tutorial from the documentation).
Now, about the Microsoft garbage thing, wow, great way to display your fanboysim. If, as you imply Microsoft Office is garbage then, I do not want to know what is the status of OpenOffice as it has always been an attempt to rip-off Microsoft Word/Excel applications with some more-than-that wanna be presentation and drawing applications (granted, I like the *idea* of OO Draw but, i even used them to make some nice graphics on EPS to use in latex, but I saved in version 1.99 and THE FILE WAS NOT LOADED CORRECTLY ON 2.00 WTF ).
One thing Paypal does not do well is micropayments, or payments under $1, but it's something Google does very well. Consider the millions of virtual pennies they daily count for AdSense. (or is it AdCents?!)
/me runs and hides
The virtual wallet metaphor has been tried many times with no success, but Google has the clout and expertise to do it.
Oooooh!, so that is why the actual music shops charge $1 for each song now uh? I hope Google hurry up with its micropayment thing, I am *sure* Music companies will be really glad to cut their prices to a fair price!
They just don't realize it and don't really have (as you said) the time to put into it. Which is still a failing of society.
Oh come on!, a lot of people do not *have* the time just because they DO NOT CARE!. They prefer playing with their Playstation, getting drunk or fixing their car than to get into the computer.
You fail to see that, at the same way you (and I) enjoy hacking the computer, normally people enjoy hacking their cars, stereo system or any other hobby they have. And it does not mean that the society is failing.
We all have our priorities, and although for you, the computer could be a very important tool, there is people who only use it as a comunication tool. Think as the telephone, you do not care how your telephone work... you may not care how is it programmed, you just want to pick up the phone, press the buttons and speak.
We all have our priorities, and the fact that the priorities of other people are not the same as yours does not mean their are doing any wrong.
Although I arrived late to the article, let me state something. This last week, I have been working in some simulations. I made a simulation on the computer wich gave me as results something like 400,00 MB in numbers.
Now, I needed to do statistical analysis on those things, unfortunately, the deadline of the paper is for this wednesday, and I have never used any of those Statistical analysis tools. I didnt need anything too fancy, only std. deviation and averages.
Guess what I used, Excel, it has an OK statistical analysis package. Now, I wont "rant" about the absence of that on OpenOffice, I did everything I needed in MS Office, but to do that I had to import my text files (delimited by a space) to Excel. I did some simple C programs to process my code and then just imported with the File/Open function of excel, it detected it was text file and a wizzard guided me through the import stages.
Now, what does all of this have to do with the "linux still not ready"?, well, after finishing, I thought "how could I do it with OpenOffice" because you know, everybody says OpenOffice is as good as Ms Office (something I do not believe). Well, I tried to open one of those files with the File/Open IN OpenCalc and it just opened a OpenWrite window with the numbers HA!
I looked for an "Import" button, I tried with the "Document Import wizzard" without luck. So I could not even *start* to compare it.
Now there are a number of several details that I *doubt* OpenCalc has, that Excel does besides importing a file or being able to make cross references between worksheets and books but, you must see that the devil of the commercial vs open software is (as in everything else) in the DETAILS. Those small details that people take from granted when using Photoshop, Excel, Word, etc. And the fact that in some of those products you can go from 0 to a complete work in a few minutes (God, this is the first time I do a *real* statistics analysis).
one of the big problems is that the big content providers want to write the laws, create the technology, and if it makes it impossible for the consumer to get a fair shake, so what?
One of my biggest gripes is that they want to change the business model to a rental/leasing model, without dropping the price to consumers. ease.
They can not write the law per se, they can (and are doing very well) use the law to their benefit. The creators of the "intelectual property" can license it in whatever way they want. It is up to the CONSUMER to agree to acquire the product they are offering.
I think the reantal/leasing model has been *always* here, in fact it is different, it is called licensing, I do not know the exact terminology but they are three diferent things (to buy, rent and license).
When the records where sold on tapes, the companies did not cared about the cassual copy, distribution. They only cared for the FOR PROFIT illegal distrution. But now that it is very easy to make mass distribution, and that people are doing it for free, it has become a problem. There is where DRM comes into play but the great problem is to define the line of where does the rights of the licenser [spell?] ends and where the ones of the licensee.
Honestly, I believe we are just at the beggining of this rights management issue. After some time (years), all the distribution companies provide their content online. And they will compete against each other in the quality they use (for example, the quality of the iTunes music is quite low for me, against the allofmp3 store).
And then, as you said, they will offer less and less prices and strange schemes. I have always tought that those programs like napster or yahoo music that allow you to download and listen while you are subscribed have more value because at the end you will *break the law* personally, after you unsuscribe and continue listening. But there is where DRM comes, they *need* to provide a way do not let you break the law BUT to allow you your Fair Use. This is the balance that will make companies compete.
Anyway... I am tired and have to finish a "£!$"!@ paper for a close deadline... I hope my comment makes some sense
Rights management law and technology needs to take into account the right of consumers to have permanent unencumbered (not unrestricted) use of digital content they have purchased.
And here, we have [as consumers] a big problem. You see, you have NEVER purchased digital content, you have only been *licensed* to do certain things with it, the problem is that, the companies are getting greedy and are trying to reduce the actions you can do with their *license*.
An example of this subtle difference would be, when you *buy* a program, when you really buy it, the programmer will provide you the program and sometimes the source code.
When I was in the University I made some applications for buisnesses, one of those was a restaurant managements system. I SOLD the system to the person, beware, I DID NOT sold the source code, but the PROGRAM. I provided a copy on a CD with installer and all other things. Of course the system was made speciffically for that restaurant.
If, my client wanted the source code it would have been a different price. And, I COULD have licensed the application to him to run JUST on the restaurant he wanted when he asked. But, because I sold it, he IS able to install it wherever he wants, anytime he wants and he can do anything he wants with the system.
You have to realize that the application (software) is separated from the hardware. In most commercial applications nowadays what you pay for is a LICENSE.
The same thing happens with music, although you may be buying a CD, what you are really doing is buying a license that allows you to do certain things with the intelectual property. Read what your booklet say, something like "the license does not give permission for rental or public broadcasting".
So, with the digital media you do not need hardware, they will just give you the "information" but again they are not SELLING it to you, they are just giving you a license to do certain things with it.
That way, when you subscribe to Napster you get a license to listen to the music WHILE you are subscribed, when you go to iTunes you get the license to listen it whenever you want but you can copy it certain amount of times.
One interesting thing that I noted in those two reviews is that both of them use AMD processors... it looks like AMD has replaced Intel as the highend gaming CPU. A more complete benchmark will include a test with two similar systems with different processors (equivalent).
In order for the market to work and content to move into the digital age and away from physical media, there has to be DRM.
I agree with you completely. I do not understand people that are totally anti-Rights-management. The problem is the way companies are using the DRM tool as a lot of them see it as a way to squeeze more profit from their customers.
But you have to see DRM with a broader view, it is about the management of rights in information, as the world continues to depend more on digital information there is an inherent *need* in controlling who can an who can not access that information. It is not only about music and movies. It is about documents and all other kind of digitally representable data.
The people that rant about the right management technology usually has no idea how to control information, I am totally against the way CORPOPRATIONS are using DRM technology (I was the first to compile a list of Sony Rootkit CD's when it started) but seriously, the technology is not bad, it is corporations abusing it to get more power.
I used to run QEMU also but now that Vmware player is free I run that instead. As I am just an "end user" who do not really need to modify the code, I only use it to run Linux on my Windows computer.
On a slightly offtopic comment on gaming I do not know why games have not used holophonic sound available. Granted it is useful only with headphones but it could be nice for protable games (DS, PSP, etc) and an alternative to the 5.1 sound in homes.
Is it very difficult to do this kind of sound in games?, it will surely need real time processing of sound (sound sources being calculated etc) but that could be a good use for this next generation consoles multiple processors.
This is something that has annoyed me a lot. I think here should be a company that rented this robots (I kind of got the idea for the Asimov books U.S. Robotics).
Imagine if you could rent one of these robots to try it for some time (said two months) and program them. Of course you should be able to save your programs outside (in a memory or something). Also a simulation program for the computer could be nice, that way you could make your programs on the simulator and then test them on the robot.
I have always wanted to play with one of these toys but, they are quite expensive for me. But I think it would be cool if I could rent one and play with it for some time.
No amount of OS security can protect against the deliberate execution of malicious code.
I disagree with you. GP post was right in that the operating system is inherently flawed and makes it easy for virus/malware software to be executed on it.
I have said it a lot of times but will say it again, there are several flaws on Microsoft Windows operating system that the Antivirus Companies are exploiting to commercialize their software.
1. Inadecuate user privileges policies: Microsoft Windows operating systems do not apply correct user privileges policies, in fact they have the worst policies possible giving ALL the process the user runs the possilibity to run with ADMINISTRATOR privileges, for example, letting an Internet Navigator (IE, Fx, etc) run with Administrator privileges is a potential flaw BY DESIGN.
2. Having a big dependency between the Operating System and an Internet navigator: Extending from point one, Microsoft OS have made the Internet Explorer web browser inherently tied to the Operating System use. This, combined with the problems that arise from the first point create a great security hole.
3. Lack of proper file permissions and permission management: Microsoft Windows Operating systems didnt have any kind of file permission management until the most recent versions, and even on these (the Windows XP versions) they still use the "less secure" approach by default making it trivial for any process to delete an important OS file.
4. Lack of good network security: Until recently (Service pack 2 of Windows XP) windows didn't have decent network security.
As you can see, it is the union of these problems that make the Operating System quite inscure and companies like Symantec, McAfee, SSSI and other exploit to profit.
A lot of this problems exist not because the operating system is not capable of coping with them by itself but because its DEFAULT operation mode is insecure (i.e. giving all default users administrator privileges or having the firewall turned off by default [before XP SP2]).
Of course the company that makes the software is not to blame (at it is not all their fault) as there are some technologies that where not considered native for the Operating Systems (like networking) and the OS developers can only enhance the software adding the new security (of course the response time may or may NOT be good).
No OS's security has a means of stopping the things most viruses do.
The Operating System function should be preventing the execution of malicious code (being it automatic or manual attacks) at least. Security on computers is like security in the real life, the OS should make it difficult enough for the attacker to dissuade them for trying it.
Yeah but, you are in USA, where, you know, people is stupid..
I got a great example with product warnings (agree, some are from Tesco, a UK company) but lot of them are from USA companies.
I love these:
Sears hairdryer:
Do not use while sleeping.
Nytol sleep aid:
Warning: may cause drowsiness.
Disposable razor:
Do not use this product during an earthquake.
Hand-held Massaging Device
Do not use while sleeping or unconscious. [O MY F GOD]
Microwave Oven:
Do not use for drying pets.
Anyway, better take a look at them, really funny... but makes you think... in a country where anyone can sue anybody for anything... what can you expect.
Oh come on. Its Google. Don't expect it not to have bugs. All its products are BETA.
There you go, I corrected it for you. (no karma bonus checked for all those Gzealots)
I applaud them for attempting to release even three keys :)
The only there keys keyboard you will ever need is this one. Of course with this technology you could remap them to CTRL+ALT+^H for Unix/Linux freaks
Establish a list of officially supported hardware, so that getting sound working isn't a crap shoot?
I think what Google should do, if they want to *really* compete in the Operating Systems market is to provide a complete PC solution like Apple. They should create a set of PC systems (like apple different Macs) and sell them with their GooUbuntu. That way the problem of linux unsupported hardware will be thrown out.
Just imagine if they make the GooPC available at Wal*Mart and other retailers for a pretty low cost (I think they have the capability of buying PC components *without* the Windows tax, like Apple).
I agree, I remember even since the times of Nintendo & Sony parternship that people talked about Nintendo being bought but part of the Nintendo fanatism strives in how they have been standing since the old days and how they swallowed their most "adverse" competitor, Sega. I even remember a talk show where Sega trolls said that the SuperNintendo was not a 16bit unit but a 12 bit "turbocharged" unit. I thought "hell, if Nintendo can make look Mortal Kombat II that good with 12 bits compard to Sega's 16bit... I prefer the big N".
Nintendo is a Japanese company, and if you ask me, it is more of a HANDHELD company now. Cisco just can not aim to buy them, I think it would be a better bet to buy Infineon labs, at least they did had a console with a "innovative" distribution system based on internet.
Haha...
I guess I must be new here.
Posting wihtout reading the article.
When I was at College I spend some of my time cracking software and learning about hacking. For me, the *real* sense of doing that was because of the challenge to reverse-engineer the code. The same was applied for smard cards protocols R.E. (which may be consider hacking =o)).
Now, if we talk about open source applications, I won't say it is "hacking", I would name it more as "code auditing", because, if you find a bug on any given OSS application by seeing at the listings, it is trivial to use it as oposed to the closed source techinques.
I remember creating my frist keygen (a Winzip keygen woohoo!); doing it was cool because of the challenge of running the debugger (w32dasm in that case) and "understanding" the assembler routines (you got to love assembler for that). In contrast, if you have an open source program with the routine, of course you can hack it, but, there is no excitement on doing that... as it is very easy.
I dont know, but for me there is one game I can keep plyaing after 15 years. This is Ninja Gaiden 2 for the NES. It is one of the best game ever in my opinion. Once in a while I run Nesticle and play it.
I bought it when it got out and I remember finish it 3 times in a day during vacations. It is a hell of a game!
I also play Mario Kart (SNES) with my girlfriend sometimes, these kind of games, simple and yet entertaining is what I love. I really do not like *most of* current games in which you need 30 mintues of tutorial before playing.
I sometimes also play Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy (NES).
Hopefuly Nintendo will make me return to the Consoles Playing with the Revlolution... The only games I have played "recently" are Hitman 2 (that is a great one) and Commandos. Unfortunately I do not have time now...
What I did recently was buy a SuperCard for the Gameboy and I love playing the NES games (Tetris, SMB1/2/3 and Dr. Mario on it.
New games tend to be boring (for me of course) and not entertaining.
I think you can avoid making all that mess, and also getting angry if you simply do not consider rebates.
... my ass).
Rebates are scams, at least that is how I see it, I do no live in USA, but from everything I have seen. I remember also buying a iRiver CD/mp3 player about 5 years ago, I bought in in BestBuy or other similar shop, they offered me an extended warranty and the product had a mail in rebate.
I bought it there because it was the cheapest price (before rebate) I could find, as I was only on vacation (as I said, I do not live there) but, it seemed for me that it could be nothing but a scam.
Better compare prices from different shops and go for the cheaper (without rebate), of course, then you _may_ have to cope with companies like PriceRitePhoto which want to sell you other things (or, the extended warranty
The question seems too simplistic. If you want to ask the question -- who has done more for humanity: Gates or Jobs? Then you can look at acts of charity or whatever. If you want to ask who is the "most capitalist", then look at net worth. If you want to know whose actions illustrate the values one wants to live up to, look at their respective actions. If you want to ask who is the most selfless humanitarian, the answer is probably neither, as the parent indicates:
I do not know about you. I hate Windows, I hate Microsoft, the Giant Monopolistic company... well actually I do not really "HATE" it, it is just that pisses me off that it is the EXAMPLE of the BIG CORPORATION that I think is what is REALLY bad in today's world (you can see what BIG CORPORATIONS do in any kind of market, McDonalds [se SupersizeMe] Microsoft [we all know] WalMart [same thing] Sony-RIAA [DRM-anti-consumer-stuff]).
Anyway, although I do not like the current state of Microsoft, I admire Bill Gates. Granted, you can say whatever you want about him, that he is not a programmer, that he is whatever you want. But, for me, he is the man that made computers the "trivial" thing they are now, we take it for granted, but I was back there in the days where you wrote your essays with a typewriter.
I do not care if it was through shitty software, MS-DOS, Windows, he had the vision (I know, he was not the only one, steve jobs also had it), and the best thing HE DID SOMETHING. How many of us slashdotters keep ranting about any thing we see that anyone is doing, the man that said had a 6 Ghz processor with I-dont-remember-how-much-memory, we just say it is stupid, it is impossible and make fun of it, same as the Infineon or any idea that appears on the internet. But almost all of do not do anything else than stay seated here at our desk or table, without any innovation, or if we have one, we just dream up 10 minutes about it and forget it.
On the other side, we have the billionary gates, you know, it is his money, whatever the way he as managed to get it. He did earn it with his buisness. He could do whatever he wanted with it and he has chosen to give it to charities, you may say that it is just for his image, but I would like to see a calulation of all the money he has donated. Some people say that he donates big amounts but that they are nothing compared to what he has, for the love of what you most love, he is giving away!!! he may not give away his buisness, but how many of us can say we give away something? and how many rich men give away that much (on their average)?
I hate the coroporation Microsoft has come, but for the man, Bill gates, I have no doubt he is one of the most influential men alive (FOR THE GOOD).
One thing we (computer geeks) tend to miss, is that there are quite a hell lot of things going on outside our grey box. Granted, internet showed us a lot of things, but there are lot of other things going on there. I had the advange of being born in a undeveloped country (Mexico, I am proud of it) and I can see there are many problems, computers are just a gadget used by the rich, there is people that needs food and other things first.
To finish, I want to quote something I read from another slashdotter and that I think was very very insightful, he said something like this "it is funny how computer people try to fix everything using computers when there are a lot of things that just can not be solved using them". I think it is really true, I had read comments from people over here saying that giving computers to people over Africa would solve their problems, and I can not help but laugh very loud... and then cry.
Anyway, as for Steve Jobs, he is not that special, granted, his company makes nice products, but it is just that, same as Samsung or LG, a company doing what it does, and as for his personal life, I do not know of any donations or charity things he had done...
They are all AMD boards (I don't use Intel, no flame, just a personal choice), so maybe the mother board chip sets have something to do with them putting BIOS jumpers on board.
.6 Ogg) would be fine.
I will take this chance to ask you about AMD motherboards, could you recommend me a decent Momo manufacturer/model for AMD?, I am looking towards building an AMD64 machine but I really do not know which Mobo to buy. I have always thought ASUS is good, although I have only used it for Intel, I would like to know about 2 kinds of motherboards, first one without anything integrated (or with the less integreated components possible) just usb, firewire (if possible) and RAID (0+1), sata and 4 GB of memory.
On the other hand an AMD motherboard with a decent video chip (nothing fancy, just for displaying X) and a sound chip (that can play OK
It would be okey if both of them had plenty (5?) PCI-E (this is the standard now no?) slots as from what I have seen almost all mobos come with only 2 or 3 nowadays.
p.s. sorry for the offtopic post, it is just not easy to find people that know about PC's out of slashdot (and I do not have time to browse on other forums). anyway, got the karma
I agree with you, for what I have seen in the booth-babes pictures (I haven't been to any game related con :-( ) I am sure they are from some kind of agency that the game houses rent... they may not even know anything about the games, or sometimes they may have heard about it.
I think it would be cooler to see those girls playing that Doom 4 or NFS 10 on the booths, and if they are good at it (imagine a booth with all girls Unreal Tournament net battle, playing well) will certainly attract a lot of more people.
Fortunately, my girlfriend likes gaming, I just bought her a GBA for christmas, we use to play SNES Mario Kart on the PC and other games. Nevertheless I am quite sad to see how difficult it is to find a lady that likes to play games nowadays. Of course today's games are really craptastic... I am not *really* on console gaming since the N64, and I had an x-box for 6 months or something before selling it as games got too expensive for me and with inverse quality.
I stated that because, if that is the current trend of gaming, how would it appear to women which have never been considered on the market. At least, I believe a lot of the games from previous generations (NES, SNES, and even N64) where more women friendly than those today.
Personally I am waiting for the Nintendo revolution, I am pretty sure I will like it, and that I will once again enjoy playing it, with my girlfriend.