"Unfortunately, playing video streams is only a very small aspect of what Real Player does; Real Player, most prominently, is a small bastard with inferiority complex and delusions of grandeur, not too different from Napoleon. Although Real Player's task is simple and limited to a certain timeframe, Real Player defaults to running at all times, whether its limited functionality is needed or not, and claims a seat for itself in the throne commonly called the systray.
When you install Real Player, you can either choose an express install, or custom install. If you pick express install, Real Player simply installs itself with every option and feature turned on. If you choose the custom install, the process is a blend between an installer and a Pokemon-like game of gotta-uncheck-all-checkboxes."
"Under the music and games agreements, Microsoft is scheduled to pay Real $301 million in cash and provide services over 18 months in support of Real's product development, distribution, and promotional activities."
Oh great, now when we start up an XBOX, a notification of a RealPlayer update will appear in the corner, all the media and game files will be hijacked to only work in their player, and the configuration settings are buried in 3 subsets of obscurely-titled menus.
I wonder what it must feel like to be in charge of quality control and implementation of this new Win-Real venture?
The amount of power that is needed to create a realistic outdoor scene with multiple actors is simply astounding. King Kong will most likely be candy for the eyes when it is done. Halo, the next Peter Jackson movie, will probably just as amazing.
The internet addicts go on a two-week course involving medical treatment, psychological therapy, and daily workouts.
The latter are a key part of the programme. Many of the men have spent every waking moment in front of a computer screen and have never experienced regular exercise.
Dr Tao Ran, head of the clinic, said the scale of the problem in China was enormous:
"Every day in China, more than 20 million youngsters go online to play games and hit the chat rooms, and that means that internet addiction among young people is becoming a major issue here.
The freedom one finds in the internet in China must be much greater than when moving about in the outside world. As a primary means of escape, the internet has become the alternate reality of millions of lonely, bored and information-hungry people. The same can be applied to the US and Europe, but as to an addiction, it is no more addictive than television and junk food.
Police seized computers, cash, a sports car, and bank accounts at the three men's residences, and additional arrests are expected. The three were to be taken before a magistrate in Breda, a city approximately 25 miles south of Rotterdam, on Friday.
What kind of computers? How much cash? What kind of car? What were the residences like?
Come on, we need better details for the upcoming movie & tv special.
These guys had to know they were going to get busted, someone probably was bragging about how many PCs they zombified.
I am willing to bet that if this goes into place, people will start buying DVDs that they would not normally want to own and will probably bypass going to see movies in the theater altogether. For instance, how many people would probably PPV & buy M. Knight Shyamalan's 'The Village' rather than just rent it or see it once in the theater? After seeing that so-so movie, I don't think I would want to own it on DVD, but if given that option when I first saw it, I might.
People may just buy the DVD and own it through PPV, rather than go to the movie theater/store and deal with the hassle. Even if the movie is not that great, people will still purchase the DVD anyway as a convenient alternative to going to the local movie rental store or theater. The DVD then would sell at a greater profit, since it may not otherwise sell at full price or would just sit in inventory.
Article reminded me of a robot I made...
on
Fast Robot Prototyping
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
When I was around 13 years old, a friend and I built a robot out of a yellow plastic garbage can for the body, a paint can for the head, and red and green lights for the eyes and nose. It was assembled using some basic switches and alligator clips we got at Radio Shack. It basically did nothing more than light up as 'yes' and 'no' responses, make some noises and provided hours of enjoyment for some bored kids.
I block ads because they are annoying, simple as that.
Repeating flashing colors and moving objects in an advertisement makes it extremely distracting when reading text.
One solution is use google popup blocker and for the annoying flash ads, zoom in to the point of obscurity.
Right during a close encounter I had in the Canadian mountains last weekend, my Sony failed miserably.
My digital camera conked out right at the point that the UFO crossed over the horizon, I was soooo mad!
CNN: Do you miss being on the run? (stupid question CNN!)
MITNICK: No, no, I don't miss it all. I like my life now. I made some really stupid mistakes in the past as a younger man that I regret. I'm lucky that I've been given a second chance and that I could use these skills to help the community.
But now that I've turned over a new leaf and people are interested in my skill-set, now the notoriety of my name helps me in my business.
Make up your mind, are you helping the community or are you helping your own business?:)
some interesting & revealing quotes:
"I sure wouldn't take that job," "It only has a downside."
"It's been a mess for over four years, and hopefully the new folks will fix this,"
"In the previous incarnation, DHS and the Homeland Security Council didn't really know what to do with cyber--it's been a deer-in-the-headlights experience for them,"
"Cybersecurity clearly fell off the radar screen when they set up the department, and the department is trying to find its way,"
"the nation is applying Band-Aids, rather than developing the inherently more secure information technology that our nation requires."
Sounds like a good place for hackers/security experts to get a job, they should be giving large bonuses/salaries & get creative in order to recruit people ASAP and get them out of this mess. Try a new path...what do we have to lose?
Does this mean Wallace & Gromit are hard pottery statues now?
seriously, that sucks bad....at least they are making millions at the box office to help cover the losses. It leads to an interesting question....If you had to burn everything you owned in a swap for millions, would you accept it as fair trade?
The next big thing is going to be listening to a podcast of a guy telling you how you should simplify your life into a state of analog nirvana. The podcast will tell you the joys of reconnecting to your friends and family by ditching the mp3 player and getting off of the computer.
If Big Blue finds out you are genetically defective and a possible future health liability, it triggers its Harass 2.0 application to run. Harass 2.0 will then make your work a living hell by randomly erasing your computer's data, adding files with inappropriate material, and spam you incessantly into finally making you quit your job. Benefits are then terminated, problem solved.
If you have a universal plug adapter you can really do the same thing. The difference is simply laying the device down and spending $150.00 for that slight convenience.
How many of you read this first thought you could recharge remotely, say within 100 feet of this device? Now THAT would be convenient.
'I don't look out the window. I use my BlackBerry and answer my email.'"
'utility-industry veteran keeps his BlackBerry by his bed. Before going to sleep, he says, "you don't say your prayers. You check your email."'
When he has trouble sleeping on a business trip, he adds, "I get up at 5 in the morning. I do the BlackBerry."
The question then becomes what happens when you have no Blackberry due to service interruption or copyright infringement suits?
Rather than nurse, I prefer to down my vodka in a fast, hurried frenzy of repeating chugs.
Stanley would be the perfect vehicle for agressive driver rehabilitation. Replace the agressive driver's vehicle with Stanley and they can do nothing but scream obscenities as it plots its course to their workplace at a blazing 19.1 miles per hour. Three weeks of this and the agressor becomes as docile as a lamb.
About 23% of the universe is thought to be composed of dark matter, and 73% is thought to consist of dark energy [1], an even stranger component distributed diffusely in space that likely cannot be thought of as ordinary particles.
In cosmology, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy which permeates all of space and has strong negative pressure. According to the theory of relativity, the effect of such a negative pressure is qualitatively similar to a force acting in opposition to gravity at large scales. Invoking such an effect is currently the most popular method for explaining the observations of an accelerating universe as well as accounting for a significant portion of the missing mass in the universe. (From wikipedia)
Maybe the opposite of gravity is dark matter? Dark matter is synonymous to 'the Force'...it surrounds us, it penentrates us, it binds the galaxy together.
The problem with dark matter is that we can't see it.
"There are countless applications for RFID, and viewed in isolation, some are downright appealing. It would be nice for the medicine cabinet to send you an e-mail -- ''Time to buy more Viagra." But what if it's also sending that data to consumer marketing companies, eager to bombard you with unwanted advertising? Worse yet, what if they're sending the data to government investigators, or to hackers who've figured out how to break into the system?"
If you need an RFID chip to tell you that you need more Viagra, I mean...why even bother?
What we need is a device to disable all personal privacy intrusions:
RID-RFID - RFID Intelligent Destruction for RFID - An RFID tag disruptor that scans and destroys the electronic configurations to RFID devices. Not recommended for minors and those who need to be reminded to take their Viagra.
Slashdot Mirror
I liked LOTR trilogy, I am not sure about his other movies though, you are right.
I am a big fan of the massive scale, sci-fi adventure.
http://jogin.com/weblog/archives/2004/02/29/real_o bnoxious
"Unfortunately, playing video streams is only a very small aspect of what Real Player does; Real Player, most prominently, is a small bastard with inferiority complex and delusions of grandeur, not too different from Napoleon. Although Real Player's task is simple and limited to a certain timeframe, Real Player defaults to running at all times, whether its limited functionality is needed or not, and claims a seat for itself in the throne commonly called the systray.
When you install Real Player, you can either choose an express install, or custom install. If you pick express install, Real Player simply installs itself with every option and feature turned on. If you choose the custom install, the process is a blend between an installer and a Pokemon-like game of gotta-uncheck-all-checkboxes."
couldn't have said it better
"Under the music and games agreements, Microsoft is scheduled to pay Real $301 million in cash and provide services over 18 months in support of Real's product development, distribution, and promotional activities."
Oh great, now when we start up an XBOX, a notification of a RealPlayer update will appear in the corner, all the media and game files will be hijacked to only work in their player, and the configuration settings are buried in 3 subsets of obscurely-titled menus.
I wonder what it must feel like to be in charge of quality control and implementation of this new Win-Real venture?
The amount of power that is needed to create a realistic outdoor scene with multiple actors is simply astounding. King Kong will most likely be candy for the eyes when it is done. Halo, the next Peter Jackson movie, will probably just as amazing.
a nimstudio1/
An interesting article on building a digital animation studio (IBM) is here:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wa-
The internet addicts go on a two-week course involving medical treatment, psychological therapy, and daily workouts. The latter are a key part of the programme. Many of the men have spent every waking moment in front of a computer screen and have never experienced regular exercise.
Dr Tao Ran, head of the clinic, said the scale of the problem in China was enormous:
"Every day in China, more than 20 million youngsters go online to play games and hit the chat rooms, and that means that internet addiction among young people is becoming a major issue here.
The freedom one finds in the internet in China must be much greater than when moving about in the outside world. As a primary means of escape, the internet has become the alternate reality of millions of lonely, bored and information-hungry people. The same can be applied to the US and Europe, but as to an addiction, it is no more addictive than television and junk food.
I don't like the monotonous shading, how about a black inbox with green letters?
NEWSFLASH: The broadcast flag was pushed through Congress and is now law.
It's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, then were suddenly silenced.
But now you get the movie on demand and the DVD no matter what, it is not a choice of one or the other.
Police seized computers, cash, a sports car, and bank accounts at the three men's residences, and additional arrests are expected. The three were to be taken before a magistrate in Breda, a city approximately 25 miles south of Rotterdam, on Friday.
What kind of computers? How much cash? What kind of car? What were the residences like?
Come on, we need better details for the upcoming movie & tv special.
These guys had to know they were going to get busted, someone probably was bragging about how many PCs they zombified.
I am willing to bet that if this goes into place, people will start buying DVDs that they would not normally want to own and will probably bypass going to see movies in the theater altogether. For instance, how many people would probably PPV & buy M. Knight Shyamalan's 'The Village' rather than just rent it or see it once in the theater? After seeing that so-so movie, I don't think I would want to own it on DVD, but if given that option when I first saw it, I might.
People may just buy the DVD and own it through PPV, rather than go to the movie theater/store and deal with the hassle. Even if the movie is not that great, people will still purchase the DVD anyway as a convenient alternative to going to the local movie rental store or theater. The DVD then would sell at a greater profit, since it may not otherwise sell at full price or would just sit in inventory.
When I was around 13 years old, a friend and I built a robot out of a yellow plastic garbage can for the body, a paint can for the head, and red and green lights for the eyes and nose. It was assembled using some basic switches and alligator clips we got at Radio Shack. It basically did nothing more than light up as 'yes' and 'no' responses, make some noises and provided hours of enjoyment for some bored kids.
I block ads because they are annoying, simple as that. Repeating flashing colors and moving objects in an advertisement makes it extremely distracting when reading text.
One solution is use google popup blocker and for the annoying flash ads, zoom in to the point of obscurity.
Right during a close encounter I had in the Canadian mountains last weekend, my Sony failed miserably.
My digital camera conked out right at the point that the UFO crossed over the horizon, I was soooo mad!
CNN: Do you miss being on the run? (stupid question CNN!)
:)
MITNICK: No, no, I don't miss it all. I like my life now. I made some really stupid mistakes in the past as a younger man that I regret. I'm lucky that I've been given a second chance and that I could use these skills to help the community.
But now that I've turned over a new leaf and people are interested in my skill-set, now the notoriety of my name helps me in my business.
Make up your mind, are you helping the community or are you helping your own business?
some interesting & revealing quotes:
"I sure wouldn't take that job," "It only has a downside."
"It's been a mess for over four years, and hopefully the new folks will fix this,"
"In the previous incarnation, DHS and the Homeland Security Council didn't really know what to do with cyber--it's been a deer-in-the-headlights experience for them,"
"Cybersecurity clearly fell off the radar screen when they set up the department, and the department is trying to find its way,"
"the nation is applying Band-Aids, rather than developing the inherently more secure information technology that our nation requires."
Sounds like a good place for hackers/security experts to get a job, they should be giving large bonuses/salaries & get creative in order to recruit people ASAP and get them out of this mess. Try a new path...what do we have to lose?
Does this mean Wallace & Gromit are hard pottery statues now?
seriously, that sucks bad....at least they are making millions at the box office to help cover the losses. It leads to an interesting question....If you had to burn everything you owned in a swap for millions, would you accept it as fair trade?
...5,000 attendees thought it was a place to meet and celebrate their favourite pr0n stars.
The expo also ended with quite a bang, it was told.
The next big thing is going to be listening to a podcast of a guy telling you how you should simplify your life into a state of analog nirvana. The podcast will tell you the joys of reconnecting to your friends and family by ditching the mp3 player and getting off of the computer.
If Big Blue finds out you are genetically defective and a possible future health liability, it triggers its Harass 2.0 application to run.
Harass 2.0 will then make your work a living hell by randomly erasing your computer's data, adding files with inappropriate material, and spam you incessantly into finally making you quit your job. Benefits are then terminated, problem solved.
If you have a universal plug adapter you can really do the same thing. The difference is simply laying the device down and spending $150.00 for that slight convenience.
How many of you read this first thought you could recharge remotely, say within 100 feet of this device? Now THAT would be convenient.
'I don't look out the window. I use my BlackBerry and answer my email.'"
'utility-industry veteran keeps his BlackBerry by his bed. Before going to sleep, he says, "you don't say your prayers. You check your email."'
When he has trouble sleeping on a business trip, he adds, "I get up at 5 in the morning. I do the BlackBerry."
The question then becomes what happens when you have no Blackberry due to service interruption or copyright infringement suits?
Rather than nurse, I prefer to down my vodka in a fast, hurried frenzy of repeating chugs.
Create new firmware using common wireless networking and VOIP, upload the changes, done! You will still never be able to go on vacation.
Exxxxcellent!
Stanley would be the perfect vehicle for agressive driver rehabilitation. Replace the agressive driver's vehicle with Stanley and they can do nothing but scream obscenities as it plots its course to their workplace at a blazing 19.1 miles per hour. Three weeks of this and the agressor becomes as docile as a lamb.
About 23% of the universe is thought to be composed of dark matter, and 73% is thought to consist of dark energy [1], an even stranger component distributed diffusely in space that likely cannot be thought of as ordinary particles.
In cosmology, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy which permeates all of space and has strong negative pressure. According to the theory of relativity, the effect of such a negative pressure is qualitatively similar to a force acting in opposition to gravity at large scales. Invoking such an effect is currently the most popular method for explaining the observations of an accelerating universe as well as accounting for a significant portion of the missing mass in the universe. (From wikipedia)
Maybe the opposite of gravity is dark matter? Dark matter is synonymous to 'the Force'...it surrounds us, it penentrates us, it binds the galaxy together.
The problem with dark matter is that we can't see it.
"There are countless applications for RFID, and viewed in isolation, some are downright appealing. It would be nice for the medicine cabinet to send you an e-mail -- ''Time to buy more Viagra." But what if it's also sending that data to consumer marketing companies, eager to bombard you with unwanted advertising? Worse yet, what if they're sending the data to government investigators, or to hackers who've figured out how to break into the system?"
If you need an RFID chip to tell you that you need more Viagra, I mean...why even bother?
What we need is a device to disable all personal privacy intrusions:
RID-RFID - RFID Intelligent Destruction for RFID - An RFID tag disruptor that scans and destroys the electronic configurations to RFID devices. Not recommended for minors and those who need to be reminded to take their Viagra.