Thanks for mentioning alternatives, the more the better.
Sure, they claim to pay the Russian equivelant of BMI/ASCAP but that is not enough!
It is in Russia. And there's nothing illegal for me as a Canadian to buy from them (can't say what the law is where you are). From where I stand it's totally legit and has a huge selection I can order as high quality oggs for a decent price. While I will check in on magnatune now and again to see what's new and maybe pick something up, I've yet to find anything that has the scope and value of allofmp3.com . As far as I'm concerned it's a model the US Music business should seek to emulate, not kill. My only quibble with them is that they should offer to zip the contents of one's cart so that it can be downloaded as a single file.
allofmp3.com would like to thank you for your business. It knows you have no choice in DRMless online retailers who offer high quality files without DRM at a good price (well, with the exception of magnatune, but they have a limited catalog), and appreciate your choosing them for your online music needs.
Is the world becoming so serious -- or so frightened -- that fantasy is no longer allowed?
It's allowed, but human irrationality has to be taken into account. Playing on that is what makes this Ikea ad so effective. Putting babies in danger even in fun was perhaps ballsier than the ad creators realized.
The lack of product activation is a feature worth not paying for.
Or worth paying for if it wasn't excessive. If there was a full featured version of XP that didn't require product activation and it only cost $10 more, that's the version I'd get to run in a VM (Linux is my OS of choice). But I won't have anything to do with any product that requires activation or requires bullshit 'Genuine Advantage' call home spyware. Those are absolute deal breakers. I don't know why people put up with it.
Apple just makes me nervous. Microsoft is a moustache twirling villain, nice and clear. Apple seems like the nice guy in the ads, but you just know you're gonna turn around and find he's giving your little sister crack in exchange for sex.
Someone has to be head of state. Personally, I think it's best if that figure has little real political power, since they will attract a lot of misplaced emotional projection. There are Americans who think, for example, that it's unpatriotic to criticize the president. Citizens should be critical of those who wield power. Let them feel that it's unpatriotic to criticize the king, and feel free to throw tomatoes or garlands at their elected officials as deserved.
The founding fathers of the US should have made Benjamin Franklin king. Again, let the king have no real political power, but as a figurehead head of state for the US, King Ben the first would have been great.
While it would be nice to simply say that Microsoft is 'up SCO creek without a paddle', your point regarding the difference between patents and copyright are well made. In the Land of Idiot Patents it is almost inevitable that there are 'violations' on the part of Linux. Of course, it's also inevitable that Microsoft is in violation of some, perhaps those of IBM and others who are pro-Linux. The only safe targets to go after with idiot patents are targets who have few if any idiot patents of their own. Linux is not a safe target, so until Microsoft formally litigates it's either hot air, or back room bully boy tactics taking on one Novell at a time -- given the flack Novell caught I don't know how successful that will prove in the long run. Will Red Hat enter into such a deal? Others? Will Microsoft eventually pull a SCO and try and charge individual Linux users $600 or whatever for a license?
Genuine question, what functionality would I gain by going to vista and quadrupling my ram? I don't think there's any Linux distribution that can match Vista when it comes to DRM (digital restriction management). I'm a Linux user as well. Fedora Core 4. Should probably upgrade, but it just works for the most part, so there's not a lot of incentive. Not sure what the advantages are of this DRM stuff, everything I've read about it actually sounds kind of like something I wouldn't want. But if you're into it, it sounds like Vista would be a much better choice than any distribution of Linux. Though Novel has a relationship with Microsoft -- perhaps they'll come out with a DRM rich Linux distro for all the Linux users who want DRM. Personally I'm going to wait and see what the advantages of DRM are before switching.
We need a central site, lots of sources of music people want to listen to (not what they SHOULD want to listen to, mind you, but what they DO want to listen to - no running people down for their (lack of) taste), and quality control that people can trust. When THAT emerges, DRM will become too much of a liability.
It has emerged. It's called allofmp3.com. Rather than trying to shut it down, they should be looking at it closely and emulating it. And if Russians can get stupid US patents, then they should grab 'how to do a good job of selling music online' if they haven't already.
Anybody who has used much virtualization knows it's not as good as running the OS on hardware.
I run XP in a vm with no problems. Of course, the only games I play on it are freecell and hearts. For things that don't lean on the hardware it's fine. And as hardware gets beefier and beefier it will get finer and finer. Gotta do something with all those cores that are going to be on our processors.
Apple may have some legit concerns with regard to their current model, but perhaps they should consider changing it. Their hardware doesn't feature pokey Motorola processors anymore. It's possible that it could compete simply as very fine hardware regardless of OS run on it. And likewise OS/X could be sold as a very good operating system, regardless of hardware it runs on.
Now that Hubble service mission has been given green light, may be NASA could do yet another service mission to fix this!
Sounds good to me, any excuse for a manned mission. And it does point up a reason for manned missions. Humans are good at fixing things on site. Fixed a dicky server just this morning. Not on Mars though. That would be an amazing on site support contract. Serious overtime.
That brings up a good point. The Judaism of today is not the Judaism of the Old Testament, likewise Islam. You won't find reference to the major factions that formed after Mohammed died, for example. So reading the Koran is an essential starting point, but then there's all that history that followed. Anyone know of good sources for that?
I'm reading a translation of the Koran at the moment (Arthur J. Arberry's) and the sort of thing in the vid is common throughout, esp. the 'If you aren't obedient to Allah you're toast' type quotes. These aren't very interesting, given that it's clearly Allah who will be doing the toasting, and in His own time. The Koran's answer to the question 'Why do good things happen to bad people?' is that they will get stomped in the hereafter.
If the video had restricted itself to quotes of the 'You can kill the infidel without provocation' variety, it would have been much, much shorter.
As with the Bible, if you cherry pick quotes you can present the Koran with whatever bias you like. The impression I'm developing of it is that it is concerned very much with the concept of justice as conceived of in the 7th century in that part of the world. So far I haven't come across any equivalent of the Sermon on the Mount, or 'love thy enemy, turn the other cheek' type stuff. It seems to me to be something of a return to the Old Testament version of God, and an eye for an eye. If someone strikes you, give 'em hell, but don't start fights if you can help it (yes, you can find quotes to contradict that, but I'm talking about an overall impression).
You won't find the truth of the matter by reading anyone's culling of quotes. There are those who would like to discredit Islam, and others who want to sell it as all sweetness and light. It's a bit of a chore, but if you really want to know, you have to read it yourself. There doesn't seem to be any getting around that.
Maybe the original poster can only refer to penultimate qualities because he belongs to a religion where ultimate qualities are reserved for its god. Then saying that something other than the god was the 'ultimate source of cool' would be sacrilegious. That would still be annoying, though. Perhaps the use of 'penultimate' should be discouraged in cases where it's unclear what's ultimate. That, or at least toss us a footnote as to what's ultimate.
Virtualized machines running a base os integrated with an online os / data storage.
Not sure about the online part, but thanks to virtual machine software, operating systems are becoming more like applications. I run Linux normally, but if I want to run a Windows app, I just fire up XP in vmplayer. A Mac using friend has vm software that allows him to flip between OS/X (host), Linux, and Windows. Perhaps one day it will sound stupid if someone says 'I'm a Linux user' or 'I'm a Windows user' since it's becoming less and less necessary to make that sort of absolute choice. Expression of preference will remain -- I prefer Linux. But if I want to run a Windows app that's not a problem. I'll just flip over to Windows to run it.
but I also happen to be far too lazy to do any of that shit.
At least one person modded you insightful. To do true evil you have to be really driven. It might even involve extra hours. I'm feeling tired just thinking about it.
Yup. When I was a lad back in elementary school many years ago, they gave us all copies of the New Testament. A friend of mine carved through the pages of his to create a secret compartment.
You can lead a kid to the gospel, be it Christianity or OSS, but you can't make him use it. At least not as you might intend.
How do you advocate Linux to people who are more comfortable using Windows?
Short answer, you don't. If they're more "comfortable using Windows", let them use Windows.
I think Linux has gotten to the point where it would be the best choice for a wolf-boy recently returned to civilization and learning to use a computer for the first time. He has no preconceived notions of how things should be. But someone "comfortable using Windows" is going to be uncomfortable using Linux. It's a different operating system, and even a different philosophy and mind set.
I suppose you could carry those complete bootable Linux systems like Knoppix around and hand them out, but don't expect a lot of converts. It isn't just a question of getting past the problem of installation. There is a learning curve that has to be taken on, regardless. Wolf-boy has to face that learning curve. The user "comfortable using Windows" doesn't.
That said, it may be possible to help those Windows users who are pissed off, had it up to here, looking for an alternative, and definitely not comfortable using Windows. That's how I came to Linux some years ago. To Windows users currently in the same boat I'll just say you won't have as easy a time as wolf-boy learning Linux, but it is worth the effort. Persevere. You'll be rewarded for your effort.
Blackboard insists that this new pledge affords universities a number of legal privileges, and is designed to make educators 'sleep easy at night.' Somehow, very few people seem reassured.
The google bomb has been diffused, but if you do the actual search, your reaction would depend on whether you like G. W. Bush or not. Link description after link description refer to him, with no equal time, as there used to be, for Michael Moore.
For biz sites and such it's a pain, but just for fun sites can do something like this (try it in IE, otherwise a warning: full frontal male nudity). In a non-IE browser it's all css layout. It was 'for fun' and getting the css to work in IE would not have been fun.
I feel a bit sad about this, since there was something wickedly fun about google bombs. But given that they subvert the intention of the search engine, it's completely understandable that they would take action against it. In fact, the surprise is that they took this long to do anything about it.
If you do the search, you'll find this page already comes up on the first page. While it's not as clever as the original google bomb, linking 'miserable failure' to it would still express the intention of the link and could be an alternative to simply removing it.... Tough call, but something should be done with all those links, since now they are essentially 'broken' and constitute just a load more cruft in an increasingly crufty web.
It only lasted as long as it did because not enough people are using Blu-ray or HD-DVD to care.
Then it's good news for these formats, since it suggests there is more interest. And if I can ignore the DRM aspects of the formats, then I can use them, the same way I can play DVD's on Linux no problem. The formats are much less evil with their DRM fangs removed. The format owners should really pay those who crack their security for the improvement it represents, for making their formats much more accessible for everyone. That's a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for mentioning alternatives, the more the better.
Sure, they claim to pay the Russian equivelant of BMI/ASCAP but that is not enough!It is in Russia. And there's nothing illegal for me as a Canadian to buy from them (can't say what the law is where you are). From where I stand it's totally legit and has a huge selection I can order as high quality oggs for a decent price. While I will check in on magnatune now and again to see what's new and maybe pick something up, I've yet to find anything that has the scope and value of allofmp3.com . As far as I'm concerned it's a model the US Music business should seek to emulate, not kill. My only quibble with them is that they should offer to zip the contents of one's cart so that it can be downloaded as a single file.
allofmp3.com would like to thank you for your business. It knows you have no choice in DRMless online retailers who offer high quality files without DRM at a good price (well, with the exception of magnatune, but they have a limited catalog), and appreciate your choosing them for your online music needs.
It's allowed, but human irrationality has to be taken into account. Playing on that is what makes this Ikea ad so effective. Putting babies in danger even in fun was perhaps ballsier than the ad creators realized.
The lack of product activation is a feature worth not paying for.
Or worth paying for if it wasn't excessive. If there was a full featured version of XP that didn't require product activation and it only cost $10 more, that's the version I'd get to run in a VM (Linux is my OS of choice). But I won't have anything to do with any product that requires activation or requires bullshit 'Genuine Advantage' call home spyware. Those are absolute deal breakers. I don't know why people put up with it.
Apple just makes me nervous. Microsoft is a moustache twirling villain, nice and clear. Apple seems like the nice guy in the ads, but you just know you're gonna turn around and find he's giving your little sister crack in exchange for sex.
Someone has to be head of state. Personally, I think it's best if that figure has little real political power, since they will attract a lot of misplaced emotional projection. There are Americans who think, for example, that it's unpatriotic to criticize the president. Citizens should be critical of those who wield power. Let them feel that it's unpatriotic to criticize the king, and feel free to throw tomatoes or garlands at their elected officials as deserved.
The founding fathers of the US should have made Benjamin Franklin king. Again, let the king have no real political power, but as a figurehead head of state for the US, King Ben the first would have been great.
While it would be nice to simply say that Microsoft is 'up SCO creek without a paddle', your point regarding the difference between patents and copyright are well made. In the Land of Idiot Patents it is almost inevitable that there are 'violations' on the part of Linux. Of course, it's also inevitable that Microsoft is in violation of some, perhaps those of IBM and others who are pro-Linux. The only safe targets to go after with idiot patents are targets who have few if any idiot patents of their own. Linux is not a safe target, so until Microsoft formally litigates it's either hot air, or back room bully boy tactics taking on one Novell at a time -- given the flack Novell caught I don't know how successful that will prove in the long run. Will Red Hat enter into such a deal? Others? Will Microsoft eventually pull a SCO and try and charge individual Linux users $600 or whatever for a license?
We need a central site, lots of sources of music people want to listen to (not what they SHOULD want to listen to, mind you, but what they DO want to listen to - no running people down for their (lack of) taste), and quality control that people can trust. When THAT emerges, DRM will become too much of a liability.
It has emerged. It's called allofmp3.com. Rather than trying to shut it down, they should be looking at it closely and emulating it. And if Russians can get stupid US patents, then they should grab 'how to do a good job of selling music online' if they haven't already.
Anybody who has used much virtualization knows it's not as good as running the OS on hardware.
I run XP in a vm with no problems. Of course, the only games I play on it are freecell and hearts. For things that don't lean on the hardware it's fine. And as hardware gets beefier and beefier it will get finer and finer. Gotta do something with all those cores that are going to be on our processors.
Apple may have some legit concerns with regard to their current model, but perhaps they should consider changing it. Their hardware doesn't feature pokey Motorola processors anymore. It's possible that it could compete simply as very fine hardware regardless of OS run on it. And likewise OS/X could be sold as a very good operating system, regardless of hardware it runs on.
Now that Hubble service mission has been given green light, may be NASA could do yet another service mission to fix this!
Sounds good to me, any excuse for a manned mission. And it does point up a reason for manned missions. Humans are good at fixing things on site. Fixed a dicky server just this morning. Not on Mars though. That would be an amazing on site support contract. Serious overtime.
That brings up a good point. The Judaism of today is not the Judaism of the Old Testament, likewise Islam. You won't find reference to the major factions that formed after Mohammed died, for example. So reading the Koran is an essential starting point, but then there's all that history that followed. Anyone know of good sources for that?
I'm reading a translation of the Koran at the moment (Arthur J. Arberry's) and the sort of thing in the vid is common throughout, esp. the 'If you aren't obedient to Allah you're toast' type quotes. These aren't very interesting, given that it's clearly Allah who will be doing the toasting, and in His own time. The Koran's answer to the question 'Why do good things happen to bad people?' is that they will get stomped in the hereafter.
If the video had restricted itself to quotes of the 'You can kill the infidel without provocation' variety, it would have been much, much shorter.
As with the Bible, if you cherry pick quotes you can present the Koran with whatever bias you like. The impression I'm developing of it is that it is concerned very much with the concept of justice as conceived of in the 7th century in that part of the world. So far I haven't come across any equivalent of the Sermon on the Mount, or 'love thy enemy, turn the other cheek' type stuff. It seems to me to be something of a return to the Old Testament version of God, and an eye for an eye. If someone strikes you, give 'em hell, but don't start fights if you can help it (yes, you can find quotes to contradict that, but I'm talking about an overall impression).
You won't find the truth of the matter by reading anyone's culling of quotes. There are those who would like to discredit Islam, and others who want to sell it as all sweetness and light. It's a bit of a chore, but if you really want to know, you have to read it yourself. There doesn't seem to be any getting around that.
Maybe the original poster can only refer to penultimate qualities because he belongs to a religion where ultimate qualities are reserved for its god. Then saying that something other than the god was the 'ultimate source of cool' would be sacrilegious. That would still be annoying, though. Perhaps the use of 'penultimate' should be discouraged in cases where it's unclear what's ultimate. That, or at least toss us a footnote as to what's ultimate.
Virtualized machines running a base os integrated with an online os / data storage.
Not sure about the online part, but thanks to virtual machine software, operating systems are becoming more like applications. I run Linux normally, but if I want to run a Windows app, I just fire up XP in vmplayer. A Mac using friend has vm software that allows him to flip between OS/X (host), Linux, and Windows. Perhaps one day it will sound stupid if someone says 'I'm a Linux user' or 'I'm a Windows user' since it's becoming less and less necessary to make that sort of absolute choice. Expression of preference will remain -- I prefer Linux. But if I want to run a Windows app that's not a problem. I'll just flip over to Windows to run it.
but I also happen to be far too lazy to do any of that shit.
At least one person modded you insightful. To do true evil you have to be really driven. It might even involve extra hours. I'm feeling tired just thinking about it.
Yup. When I was a lad back in elementary school many years ago, they gave us all copies of the New Testament. A friend of mine carved through the pages of his to create a secret compartment.
You can lead a kid to the gospel, be it Christianity or OSS, but you can't make him use it. At least not as you might intend.
How do you advocate Linux to people who are more comfortable using Windows?
Short answer, you don't. If they're more "comfortable using Windows", let them use Windows.
I think Linux has gotten to the point where it would be the best choice for a wolf-boy recently returned to civilization and learning to use a computer for the first time. He has no preconceived notions of how things should be. But someone "comfortable using Windows" is going to be uncomfortable using Linux. It's a different operating system, and even a different philosophy and mind set.
I suppose you could carry those complete bootable Linux systems like Knoppix around and hand them out, but don't expect a lot of converts. It isn't just a question of getting past the problem of installation. There is a learning curve that has to be taken on, regardless. Wolf-boy has to face that learning curve. The user "comfortable using Windows" doesn't.
That said, it may be possible to help those Windows users who are pissed off, had it up to here, looking for an alternative, and definitely not comfortable using Windows. That's how I came to Linux some years ago. To Windows users currently in the same boat I'll just say you won't have as easy a time as wolf-boy learning Linux, but it is worth the effort. Persevere. You'll be rewarded for your effort.
google cache
Blackboard insists that this new pledge affords universities a number of legal privileges, and is designed to make educators 'sleep easy at night.' Somehow, very few people seem reassured.
There is absolutely no cause for concern. The wings are not on fire.
But I miss "miserable failure!"
The google bomb has been diffused, but if you do the actual search, your reaction would depend on whether you like G. W. Bush or not. Link description after link description refer to him, with no equal time, as there used to be, for Michael Moore.
For biz sites and such it's a pain, but just for fun sites can do something like this (try it in IE, otherwise a warning: full frontal male nudity). In a non-IE browser it's all css layout. It was 'for fun' and getting the css to work in IE would not have been fun.
I feel a bit sad about this, since there was something wickedly fun about google bombs. But given that they subvert the intention of the search engine, it's completely understandable that they would take action against it. In fact, the surprise is that they took this long to do anything about it.
If you do the search, you'll find this page already comes up on the first page. While it's not as clever as the original google bomb, linking 'miserable failure' to it would still express the intention of the link and could be an alternative to simply removing it.... Tough call, but something should be done with all those links, since now they are essentially 'broken' and constitute just a load more cruft in an increasingly crufty web.
It only lasted as long as it did because not enough people are using Blu-ray or HD-DVD to care.
Then it's good news for these formats, since it suggests there is more interest. And if I can ignore the DRM aspects of the formats, then I can use them, the same way I can play DVD's on Linux no problem. The formats are much less evil with their DRM fangs removed. The format owners should really pay those who crack their security for the improvement it represents, for making their formats much more accessible for everyone. That's a good thing.