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User: Ater

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Comments · 98

  1. So? on Ogg The Conqueror? RC2 Is Out · · Score: 1, Troll

    That's all well and good, but I've already ripped/encoded/downloaded/burned around 90 gigs of 160/192 mp3's, and many friends of mine have mp3 collections ranging from 5-100 gigs. Why would we want to let all that time and effort go to waste just to take advantage of differences that will mainly appeal to audiophiles, and not casual listeners looking for free music? But I suppose I should just stop downloading MP3's and toss my 135 odd MP3 cds in the trash because OGG would let me choose how stereo coupling is done!

    I also know a lot of people who own portable MP3 players and built car MP3 players. I guess they would be ready and willing to return their $200 MP3 players and take apart those silly car rigs they spent so much money and effort on, because, after all, OGG lets you strip away parts of the files to make lower bitrate streams - without re-coding!

    And I'm sure as a serious music connoisseur you would know about all the big mp3 groups that operate on IRC. I guess you should go tell EGO and KSI that they can have more than 2 audio channels with OGG (GASP!) and they will see the error of their ways and delete all their old MP3 release archives, disband, and reform as OGG distributors!

    And let's not forget how much of a phenomena MP3 has become. Napster became an international celebrity, every major entertainment company has hopped on the MP3 bandwagon, and the general public has embraced MP3. But they obviously would be willing to abandon their MP3 obsession if they knew OGG was open sourced! (Oh wait, the average person doesn't know or care at all that MP3 is officially a proprietary format).

    Maybe OGG has some minor quality differences that might make it sound a little better than MP3 in general. Maybe I would tell if I were actually able to find a reasonable selection of OGG or if I actually cared enough to make some myself, which I don't. After all , I already have my 90 gigs of MP3's, and I can find good quality MP3's of any song I want readily. Why would anyone want to start from scratch when they can already get everything they want without any trouble? MP3 is here to stay. Nobody knows the name "OGG," and if they did, they'd probably just ask, "What the hell kind of dumbass name is that?"

    Like most Slashdot arguments, OGG makes sense from a technical standpoint, but fails to have any practicality whatsoever.

  2. Too much coffee man on Comic Books And The Internet, Continued · · Score: 2, Informative

    Too Much Coffee Man is good, well known small press comic which can be read online through scanned comic book pages. The site also has quite a few good cartoons as well.

  3. Earth to windbag on Earth to Media: This kid is still in jail · · Score: 1

    General media only reports things they think the general public would care about. General public (not you, not the tech dorks who think everything that applies to them is more important than anything else) could care less about this kid. Therefore general media reports things that people actually give a damn about.

  4. uh... on AOL/Time-Warner Won't Advertise Competition · · Score: 1

    Corporations are made up of citizens; and it is this collective group of citizens which does have rights.

  5. And... on AOL/Time-Warner Won't Advertise Competition · · Score: 1

    They should be REQUIRED to display ads of their COMPETITION because...

    So I assume you also believe that Red Hat should also be forced to display Windows logos all over its retail packages?

  6. Re:must be on I Suspect M$ That Has Broken The GPL · · Score: 1

    ...breaking from their usual tradition of one inane story after another with limited links of minimal information and value that soon become Slashdotted and unaccessable after 5 minutes anyway :)

  7. Its "hanged," not "hung" on Are Kids Turning Your Kids Into Killers? · · Score: 2

    This isn't that hard to remember: objects are HUNG, people are HANGED. Basic English construction.

    I guess you could say a person was "hung" in slang contexts, but you would never call a 12 year old girl "hung," and if she were, that would mean she probably may not be a girl after all.

  8. Re:Please no. on Leisure Suit Unix · · Score: 2

    Yeah, i agree it's pretty lame that such a big deal is being made about porting some ancient games, but hell i'd rather take sierra adventure games over any of the generic FPS and real time strategy games that flood the gaming market. I wish they still made more quality graphic adventures today. Maybe I'll go out and buy a sierra game collection or try to get me some nice old warez (damn copy protection is really annoying though :).

  9. it works on the other side too, you know on Florida Election Votes Certified · · Score: 1

    You ever heard of Al Gore, Sr.? If you want to preach on with your fear of the wealthy and successful, let's not forget how much nepotism shaped Gore's life and political career. Unless you're a Nader voter, in which case I would like to ask what illegal drugs you are smoking? Probably sharing 3 dollar crack with the moderators.

  10. to preserve space on Election Wrapping Up (Part 2) · · Score: 1

    The article's supposed to be a semi-real-time coverage of the election, so I think it makes sense to have periodical updates. Moreover, as a Slashdot regular, you probably know already that once articles fill up at around 200 posts, pretty much nothing gets read or moderated up. I think this was done to encourage more reading and posting of opinions, as well as to capture the spur of the moment feel. Or maybe that's just me.

  11. heh you guys dont know shit about the constitution on At Long Last, Election Day · · Score: 1

    The 26th amendment gives 18 year olds (and sadly, so many immature, ill-informed pseudoradical college liberals and nader zealots) the right to vote.

    It's sad that none of you slashbots who replied could even realize that "she" actually means the 22nd amendment. Yeah, you guys know everything about American government and can't even be bothered to know your own fucking Constitution. Idiots.

    Good job, Ann... or should I say Sig... or should I say...

  12. Do you know anything about U.S. government? on Messages From Democracy's Ghosts · · Score: 5

    It's obviously apparent that you and most of the zealous pseudo-radical slashdot readers who so richly denounce our traditions have no clue about it. The fact is, the U.S. government was designed to be ineffecient, and despite the anti-factionalism of George Washington, the two party system has been a mainstay.

    Why, you ask? Simple: stability. Aside from the Civil War crisis, the U.S. has always has a pretty stable and functional government. That's not due to heavy bureaucracy, but our well known system of checks and balances. The whole idea is to prevent the damaging effects of foolish blind radicalism by keeping a system which does not deviate from the status quo.

    And as for the interest groups and two party system, perhaps you should read James Madison's Federalist 10. In it, he gives a good explaination about factions, but ultimately decrees that people inherently tend to band together in groups and that varying groups nearly balance each other's influence. We're trying to prevent tyranny of the majority, here folks, (or in the psuedo radical Slashdot zealot's mind, tyranny of a tiny minority). And besides, even if the Britney Spears of presidential candidates, Ralph Nader, were to be elected... what could he accomplish? You think a radical Green president could get any of his idealistic proposals through a Congress made up almost exclusively of Republicans and Democrats? Dubious at best. Sorry to break it to you folks, but the U.S. system of government is not broken at all: it was intended to keep radicals like you and Nader far far away from office.

  13. How the fuck is this flamebait? on Ask the Presidential Candidates · · Score: 1

    Typical Slashdot herd mentality: All the questions moderated at 4-5 above have a heavy heavy liberal bias, with most of them being nothing other than the same old tired rhetoric and uninformed bullshit that you accuse so many of our presidential candidates and politicians of. Yet one person comes up with a fairly reasonable conservative question that I would have asked had there not been 800 posts when I first found this article and some dipshit moderators feel obligated to call this flamebait since they disagree?

    Informed discussion and stuff that matters, my ass. If you morons care more about your petty little encryption than our nation's tax dollars and the national debt, no wonder nobody takes you disillusioned sheep seriously.

  14. If im not mistaken on Checking Out Library Censorship · · Score: 2

    There is a law here in Texas that a public library can't install censorship software on more than 50% of its computers without being subject to a challenge from the court. One library in a neighboring county did decide to install filtering software on all of its computers due to pressure from morality groups, so its just a matter of time before someone takes them to court on it.

  15. Reminds me of a story I read... on Linux PDA w/Voice Recognition · · Score: 3

    I dont know if this is a true story, a joke, or just a cute little urban legend, but it also regards voice recognition software. This company had just developed a new, really powerful voice recognition program (this was in the old days when DOS when the most commonly used OS), and they were showing off the software at a press conference. The developers encouraged the reporters to yell out commands and watch the software in action. And immedietally, from the back, some wise guy shouted out "FORMAT C:\, RETURN!" The software worked...

    Wonder if there could be an analogous action for this new Palm software.

  16. Re:pay-to-play? on LucasArts Announces First Massive Multiplayer Game · · Score: 1

    I guess I should have stated that I understood the bandwidth costs already and not made myself look like an idiot, but that was my fault.

    Anyway, my main objections still are

    a)the regularity of the fees... yes servers cost money, but $10/mo or $100 year is still highly excessive. and with free adsupported 56k isp's and the like readily around, I hardly doubt that a huge gaming company could continue to provide services off either nothing with minimal ads or a maybe a lump sum of $20-30 per year.

    b)the store price of the game... yeah about 10 other people posted this, but the company could also charge only $10-20 for the game, or even make it free and maybe the monthly prices wouldnt be so abusurd as they are now.

  17. Re:pay-to-play? on LucasArts Announces First Massive Multiplayer Game · · Score: 2

    I know you think I'm some whiny tightwad, but I honestly do feel that my point is valid. Yes, I can afford the expense, but I'm not on a disposable income as the EQ designers would like to think. I do buy games occasionally, though to be honest I only do so when I have heard from about 10 sources that it is an exceptional game, and then I do wait for the game to cool off a little and buy it at about $20-40. I have no doubt that bandwidth and admins cost money, but still the kind of money they're charging (and making) is a bit excessive IMHO. I could actually go for a pay-to-play thing if they were reasonable enough to reduce the game price to about $10-20 (or maybe even free, but thats wishful thinking) and expand the subscription time (maybe $20-30/year or so).

  18. Re:pay-to-play? on LucasArts Announces First Massive Multiplayer Game · · Score: 1

    yeah i guess the obvious bandwidth issue slipped my mind for a second, but i still think the monthly charges should be eliminated or accounted for in the purchase. I realize the nature of the game would make it require significantly more bandwidth than online card games, but I doubt the price is significant enough to require about 10 bucks a month. Even then, a monthly base of 120,000 adds up to over a million bucks per month to pay a fraction of the costs (I am counting the profit factor here too). I could stand a one-time signup fee of $10-20 or so, or as I said earlier, some level of ads. Even being fully aware of the costs though, I still think the companies are trying to squeeze every last cent out of the customer with monthly charges, and I bet it is holding back even more potential buyers and players.

  19. pay-to-play? on LucasArts Announces First Massive Multiplayer Game · · Score: 4

    Refreshing to see that the gaming industry hasnt totally abandoned the industry (although it seems close), and the Star Wars series has always been a prime setting for rpgs with its huge universe (I'm still holding out for hopes of a multiplayer Fallout though). But it also reminds me of another complaint that I have with the gaming industry today

    What does annoy me is that like Everquest and UO, is that this game will most likely be another "Pay-to-play" game with ridiculous monthly charges. Yes I can afford $10-20/mo, but the money adds up, and it is ridiculous to expect a consumer to pay regular fees for a game, or so to speak. One thing I would like to know is why all online RPG's charge for playtime. I never see it occuring in the action, wargame, or real-time strategy field. If I buy Starcraft, Quake III, or even Diablo, I wouldnt have to pay anything extra for online play. Granted, I'm not knowledge about the workings, but I doubt RPG's require such additional online maintainence that it merits a continuous charge. I do realize that the characters and settings are stored, unlike the average strat/shooter game, but again, I hardly see how that would account for any additional expenses.

    Maybe it's just me, but once a game is purchased, you should be able to play it out of the box and enjoy it as intended without having to fork over more money. Even the occasional ad would be sometimes acceptable as an alternative, IMHO. I think that if online RPG providers would stop absurdly charging fees, even more customers would sign up, and idle ones who already bought the game would play more often. I see the high numbers of people that dont seem to mind the charge, yet I also have many more friends who would be dying to join the online RPG world but are sickened by the notion of an extra charge.

  20. now look what'll happen on Scotch Tape Storage · · Score: 2

    When word of this gets out IBM, Maxtor, and all those other damn hard drive companies will start marketing 10 gig rolls of scotch tape for about $300, and the deluxe duct tape SCSI models will be pushing the $1000 mark. *Groan*

  21. Re:dispelling myths about Linux. on Microsoft On Linux: Forecast Or Fantasy? · · Score: 1

    Actually I wouldnt be surprised if a fair share of female professional Unix admins had thick bushy beards too... too busy sys admining to shave, ya know? :)

  22. Males Posting As Women On /. ? on Men Playing as Women · · Score: 2

    I hear lots of people here ranting on here about how some women pretend to be male just to fit in with the gender climate at /.

    However, the thought occurs to me that converse might often be true. What I notice is that everytime some gender oriented article is posted here, some "female" posters make comments like "HEY I'M FEMALE, THIS IS WHAT I THINK" and of course get moderated up fast. Not trolling here, but I noticed that an incredibly easy way to get karma points is to write a short "I'm a grrl geek" spiel and make a few obvious observations. I'm not saying that females don't post anything insightful... it's just that a lot of comments can get moderated up easily merely because the poster says (s)he is female. I'm pretty sure a lot of males have caught on to it and some of the "I'm a girl!" posts are really guys trying to whore karma.

    Yeah, so I'm pessimistic, it's not an unreasonable claim though.

  23. in the words of homer simpson... on LonelyNet (Part Two) · · Score: 3

    Kent Brockman: Mr. Simpson, how do you respond to the charges that petty vandalism such as graffiti is down eighty percent, while heavy sack-beatings are up a shocking nine hundred percent?

    Homer: "Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that."

  24. Song lyrics on 'South Park' Nominated for Oscar · · Score: 5

    Lyrics for "Blame Canada" can be found here.

    If you want lyrics to any other of the movie songs, or songs from other South Park albums, check here.

  25. secret clinton irc log discovered! on Prankster Spoofs President Clinton in CNN Online Chat · · Score: 1

    *** President_Clinton (bill@got.head.from.monica.in.the.whitehouse.gov) has joined #100%_xxx_sex_movies
    President_Clinton is (bill@got.head.from.monica.in.the.whitehouse.gov) (I did not have sexual relations with that woman)
    on channels: @#cigars @#monica @#whitewater #100%_xxx_sex_movies
    on irc via server irc.whitehouse.gov (Please don't tell Hillary)
    End of /WHOIS list.
    <President_Clinton> Hey guys, what's up
    <President_Clinton> Anyone have that complete Pam & Tommy video series? Hillary found mine and erased it :(
    <PRON_DOOD> Uh yeah, I have it, but it's like, several hundred megs!
    <President_Clinton> Well, hell it's not like I'm paying for the bandwidth
    *** President Clinton laughs at the silly tax-payers ***
    <R0N_JEREMY_69> Mr. President, I found you some more German cigar movies, want them?
    <President_Clinton> Sure, after all, it tastes good!
    <Lamer31337> LOL! I can't believe you really did that!
    <President_Clinton> It tasted kinda fishy when I smoked it though...
    <SEXFREAK> ok, too much info...
    *** Al_Gore (al@invented.the.internet.at.whitehouse.gov) has joined #100%_xxx_sex_movies
    <President_Clinton> By the way, could I get those Paula Jones playboy pics?
    <Al_Gore> uh, does anyone have some... BILL! What are you doing here?
    <Al_Gore> hrrr... I was doing... research on IRC censorship... uh for Tipper...
    <President_Clinton> Uh... define "here"... err I did not have sexual relations... err bye!
    Signoff: President_Clinton (QUIT: Define 'quit')
    <Al_Gore> Well now that he's gone... anybody got some bondage videos?