I have this image of Carly Fiorina at the controls of the HP jumbojet, with a maniacal look in her eye, pointing the nose of the plane straight down and screaming "Wintel is great! Death to Hewlett Packard!"
I have developed a simple cheap solution that when poured onto trash -- yes, any kind of trash -- will turn it into delicious horse food! This will eliminate the need for cars.
P.S. the formula is top secret.
Re:I liked this game better...
on
Pirates!
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, I loved the original too. I instantly followed the link with great anticipation of a modern remake, but it was not to be... which leads me to the question: has there been a game since then that was like a remake, or at least was as a good simulation along the same vein of the original Pirates! game? I still have fun once in a while playing the oldie in PC64.
If you are a regular reader of EE Times one thing you will quickly notice how useless this guy's articles are. His stories are almost always about some vaporware or bogus technology, and he doesn't even attempt to overcome his own ignorance with basic fact checking. Just take this claim from the article:
In one benchmark I have read about, a 200-byte message was reduced to 20 bytes with normal compression methods, but ASN.1 encoded it into just 2 bytes and a few bits," said Scott.
Anyone with any basic knowledge of data compression or information theory would see right through this. And he couldn't find one such person to run his story by first?
Anyway I think the music industry's problems have nothing to do with piracy but everything to do with the utter crap that they
keep producing and sponsoring. I can't name a SINGLE modern band that would make me download their music let alone buy a
CD. RIAA napster isn't your problem. Shit music is.
I don't think that's the problem. I'm sure your listening tastes are far from the majority, where the big money is.
The fundamental problem is that technology has restored market forces. Music prices have been held artificially high for a long time. What has been the music industry's real strategy since the cat jumped out of the bag? Buying laws to restrict your rights. Not lowering prices, not adopting better distribution methods.
The only way to maintain the margins is to control the government.
If it's released without any copyright, thus into the public domain, then can't anyone just appropriate it, alter
it trivially, and claim copyright on the whole work? And thus GPL their trivially different strain?
This would be a derivative work and the copyright would only apply to the changes.
This is all redundant, I'm sure, but... According to that second article, they go from 1.75 million users to
about 7,000?
I'm amazed. Basically, the free nature of the service accounts for about 1,743,000 extra users. There
isn't a single person in marketing who can't figure out a way to turn that demographic into a source of
revenue?
Sure they could, but it's too hard.
In the wild, male lions are known to try and kill lion cubs to eliminate competition for food.
All these Napster deals are just the lion killing the cubs. If you're big enough, racketeering is always easier and more profitable than legitimizing your business, especially when you also write the laws.
Until we find away to make information "free", without removing all incentives to make the content in the first place, these technologies will continue to be surpressed in the legal system.
Actually, it probably doesn't have to be "free", just "very very cheap". Technology advances have made information very inexpensive. The true market price for hearing a song once is probably tiny fractions of a cent, seeing a movie by one pair of eyeballs less than a dollar.
All of the insanity going on right now is just the result of a huge industry trying to fight the market. Nations will either lose their markets by siding with megacorps or enter a new renaissance.
This is exactly why we need to bring the concept of Open Source to hardware. When people can download Verilog source, compile to an FPGA that sits on their Open Hardware board with standard analog and digital interfaces, sold at near cost by brave souls, and have home grown consumer electronics... that my friends is piece #2 of the freedom pie.
(piece #1 being Open Source and piece #3 being Open Communication)
And that he created us in his own image (thats what the bible says). Well, I have a sense of humor so I think that God probably does to.
Start with the above quote, then look back through history until the beginnings of religion as we know it. It's much more likely that God was created in man's image than the other way around.
I would be happy just to have the same ability to freeze my linux box that a laptop has, i.e. to deterministicly power down everything except the dram refresh, then quickly bring it back up later. I don't care if it doesn't recover from a crash because my linux box never crashes, seriously.
The box has a buncha huge drives serving up mp3s to my house, but is used less than 10% of the day. I don't want to leave it on sucking up power and making a god-awful racket all day and night. I just want to turn it off an on as quickly as my amp, and as Effugas eloquently pointed out, this is not that hard, even with DRAM. We don't need MRAM for that.
And I doubt that it's just me that would love something like this...
I do wish they'd quit trying to obfuscate things this way; it's so silly.... I understand that the "content providers" want to keep some control on where their content goes, but half the point of putting it on the web in a digital format is that people can save it, to view at their pleasure, or to show off to friends....wouldn't you think that they'd want it to be seen by as many people as possible?
They probably don't care about random distribution, but they would like to keep the content "read-only" as much as possible. But you're right, it is futile nowadays...
Soon, no room will be safe from cyberspace. Matsushita, the Japanese parent company of Panasonic, recently demonstrated a toilet that analyzes your health status based on weight, body fat, and other personal characteristics we don't care to mention. From there, the toilet may... instantly send a note to your doctor
6:54 am
"Boy that felt good!" FLUSH...
7:13 am
(answering phone) "Hello"
"Hi Otis, this is Doctor Hibbert. I wanted to call and check on you on account of that herculean, bloody dump you just took a few minutes ago..."
Maybe the 'Single Instance Store' is innovative (then again, maybe not). But what are the first two paragraphs of the article?
Three years ago, Bill Bolosky and two Microsoft colleagues were brainstorming technology advances when an idea occurred to them -- why not save operating system disk space by storing duplicate files as links that point to a single file housed in a central location?
Not only would this save storage space, they reasoned; it would also result in substantial performance improvements. Moreover, it would make it faster for information technology (IT) managers to install computers for new employees since they'd no longer be required to copy massive amounts of data each time they set up a new desktop.
Does anyone think recent news like this sounds a little fishy? Porting apps to Linux... a Microsoft Linux distro... why would M$ do such a thing?
Answer: to try and take over Linux. It's their most basic strategy and they've used it time and time again. Look at what they tried to do with Java: creep in, make proprietary, control. The problem with Java is that they were going up against another large company that was maintaining strong control of the specs. Linux is way more fragmented.
Fragmentation is Linux's strength, you say? Too fragmented for Microsoft to control or harm? Maybe. Users like us will always have a 'free' Linux, but Microsoft's marketing machine is powerful enough to divert mainstream use into its jaws. And that is what is going on in M$ high-level meetings.
The MPAA and RIAA, in an attempt to squeeze the last nickel out of the contemptible consumer, are unwittingly committing suicide. Fighting back is great, but even if we lose, we win. The inevitable result of this will be to make artistic expression and valuable content more Free. Sure, we may have to pay every time we want to see 'James Bond: The Money is Never Enough' or listen to Kid Rock, but hey, we can all live without that. The real worthwhile content is only going to get more free, because even industry fuckheads cannot stop technology.
Parting shot: the whole discussion here has proved that Kaplan is either incompetent or on the take. There are no other explanations.
But not as annoying as seeing The Anal-Retentive Chef split hairs.
Anyway, I'm waiting for the follow-up suit against keyboard makers alleging that they were fraudulently ill-equipped to endure the extreme pounding force that followed when users realized that AOHell just bit-slapped them...
I've written a couple of good size apps that originally used Motif for the UI. But I've since ported them to GTK for the following reasons:
1. Open source
2. Low (zero) cost (because of #1)
3. GTK is much easier to write for than Motif
4. It's also much easier to maintain on multiple platforms. GTK's design is pretty good (maybe not fantastic, but definitely easier than Motif)
And GTK isn't the only alternative nowadays. Motif has no advantages anymore for new development and because of maintenance I think it's even advantageous to port to another kit in most cases.
Even without caller-ID, you can filter out most phone spam. Most of the time the caller uses an automatic dialer which introduces a noticable delay into the conversation. Answer the phone, say hello... if there's no answer within 1-2 seconds, hang up. High accuracy, and if it was a real call and they really want to talk to you, they'll call back and pay attention this time!
I was planning on buying a DVD player soon but my enthusiasm has slowly turned into disgust. A boycott is a great first step; how many of us can really say that the pathetic tripe passing for entertainment nowadays is more valuable than the basic principles involved here? I for one am not going to buy a player or any DVDs, and lately I've been going to very few movies.
A great second step would be for someone to gather relevant contact information about the perpetrators of this fiasco, post it all here, and get it moderated all the way up so everyone who is so disgusted with this situation can voice the reasons why the industry is not going to make one more cent from us or anyone we can convince.
Slashdot Mirror
I have this image of Carly Fiorina at the controls of the HP jumbojet, with a maniacal look in her eye, pointing the nose of the plane straight down and screaming "Wintel is great! Death to Hewlett Packard!"
And the founder's sons are trying to fight their way through the new reinforced cockpit doors.
Gotta stop watching CNN...
P.S. the formula is top secret.
Yeah, I loved the original too. I instantly followed the link with great anticipation of a modern remake, but it was not to be... which leads me to the question: has there been a game since then that was like a remake, or at least was as a good simulation along the same vein of the original Pirates! game? I still have fun once in a while playing the oldie in PC64.
In one benchmark I have read about, a 200-byte message was reduced to 20 bytes with normal compression methods, but ASN.1 encoded it into just 2 bytes and a few bits," said Scott.
Anyone with any basic knowledge of data compression or information theory would see right through this. And he couldn't find one such person to run his story by first?
I don't think that's the problem. I'm sure your listening tastes are far from the majority, where the big money is.
The fundamental problem is that technology has restored market forces. Music prices have been held artificially high for a long time. What has been the music industry's real strategy since the cat jumped out of the bag? Buying laws to restrict your rights. Not lowering prices, not adopting better distribution methods.
The only way to maintain the margins is to control the government.
This would be a derivative work and the copyright would only apply to the changes.
Sure they could, but it's too hard.
In the wild, male lions are known to try and kill lion cubs to eliminate competition for food.
All these Napster deals are just the lion killing the cubs. If you're big enough, racketeering is always easier and more profitable than legitimizing your business, especially when you also write the laws.
Actually, it probably doesn't have to be "free", just "very very cheap". Technology advances have made information very inexpensive. The true market price for hearing a song once is probably tiny fractions of a cent, seeing a movie by one pair of eyeballs less than a dollar.
All of the insanity going on right now is just the result of a huge industry trying to fight the market. Nations will either lose their markets by siding with megacorps or enter a new renaissance.
(piece #1 being Open Source and piece #3 being Open Communication)
Start with the above quote, then look back through history until the beginnings of religion as we know it. It's much more likely that God was created in man's image than the other way around.
FLAC
Or a DR-770 ... who would notice anymore? I'm sure one of those guys could figger out how to program it.
Lars was a business guy all along, it just didn't show until they really got popular.
The box has a buncha huge drives serving up mp3s to my house, but is used less than 10% of the day. I don't want to leave it on sucking up power and making a god-awful racket all day and night. I just want to turn it off an on as quickly as my amp, and as Effugas eloquently pointed out, this is not that hard, even with DRAM. We don't need MRAM for that.
And I doubt that it's just me that would love something like this...
They probably don't care about random distribution, but they would like to keep the content "read-only" as much as possible. But you're right, it is futile nowadays...
6:54 am
"Boy that felt good!" FLUSH...
7:13 am
(answering phone) "Hello"
"Hi Otis, this is Doctor Hibbert. I wanted to call and check on you on account of that herculean, bloody dump you just took a few minutes ago..."
Three years ago, Bill Bolosky and two Microsoft colleagues were brainstorming technology advances when an idea occurred to them -- why not save operating system disk space by storing duplicate files as links that point to a single file housed in a central location?
Not only would this save storage space, they reasoned; it would also result in substantial performance improvements. Moreover, it would make it faster for information technology (IT) managers to install computers for new employees since they'd no longer be required to copy massive amounts of data each time they set up a new desktop.
What does that sound like to you?
Answer: to try and take over Linux. It's their most basic strategy and they've used it time and time again. Look at what they tried to do with Java: creep in, make proprietary, control. The problem with Java is that they were going up against another large company that was maintaining strong control of the specs. Linux is way more fragmented.
Fragmentation is Linux's strength, you say? Too fragmented for Microsoft to control or harm? Maybe. Users like us will always have a 'free' Linux, but Microsoft's marketing machine is powerful enough to divert mainstream use into its jaws. And that is what is going on in M$ high-level meetings.
Parting shot: the whole discussion here has proved that Kaplan is either incompetent or on the take. There are no other explanations.
Anyway, I'm waiting for the follow-up suit against keyboard makers alleging that they were fraudulently ill-equipped to endure the extreme pounding force that followed when users realized that AOHell just bit-slapped them...
1. Open source
2. Low (zero) cost (because of #1)
3. GTK is much easier to write for than Motif
4. It's also much easier to maintain on multiple platforms. GTK's design is pretty good (maybe not fantastic, but definitely easier than Motif)
And GTK isn't the only alternative nowadays. Motif has no advantages anymore for new development and because of maintenance I think it's even advantageous to port to another kit in most cases.
Our widget says 'submit story' whereas his widget must say 'post story'. Big difference there.
Even without caller-ID, you can filter out most phone spam. Most of the time the caller uses an automatic dialer which introduces a noticable delay into the conversation. Answer the phone, say hello... if there's no answer within 1-2 seconds, hang up. High accuracy, and if it was a real call and they really want to talk to you, they'll call back and pay attention this time!
A great second step would be for someone to gather relevant contact information about the perpetrators of this fiasco, post it all here, and get it moderated all the way up so everyone who is so disgusted with this situation can voice the reasons why the industry is not going to make one more cent from us or anyone we can convince.