No joke, I'm sick of buying CDs which turn out to be 1 good song and 9 remixes of some retarded 70's crap (nothing to do with Moby, btw). I decided a while ago never to buy a game without playing the demo first, now I'm doing the same thing with music.
There is a legitimate way of doing this - ask to listen to the CD at the music store before you buy it, and if they don't let you go somewhere else.
Of course, there's nothing like listening to it while relaxing in your own home, and if I want to rip a sample from the Mortal Combat theme without buying an album full of bad techno there's only one way to do it.
Yeah, let's use the words "Gestapo" and "Nazi" to appeal to people's emotions and hopefully they won't actually think about the argument.
How about border guards check your licence because some people try to illegally immigrate? Gun stores check your ID to make sure you're not a wanted criminal? Beat police looking at you to check you're not carrying an automatic rifle? People checking your post for logic because some posts don't contain any?
In short, I agree with your result, but not your reasoning.
I wouldn't hold Napster responsible for such laws, but not because "it not their fault". It's the government's responsibility to create fair laws. Laws are always made on the basis if a couple of cases, and more often than not these are negative. The government banning something because they have only seen a bad use for it is reprehensible and an abuse of power.
One of the projects I'm "going to start one of these days":
A library which takes texts from any source and answers questions based on them. Indexes back to positions inthe text/s should also be given.
This sounds complex, but what I'm envisioning to start is just one step up from a normal search - instead of just regurgitating the links, take relevant sections of text and trying to dissect the particular facts given. Then rewrite these facts into a paragraph.
Going further that this is probably just a pipe dream (for me at least).
This would be great for web sites, I also want to use it on all the documentation on my system.
That's not the point - when I recieve an attachment, I want to be able to look at it knowing that any code in it is not going to be run. For example I have Lotus Notes here at work, at I can open an attachment in Lotus's (admittedly pretty awful) viewer before "launching" it.
So, while I may not be able to understand what a VB script does or what macros are in a word document, I can at least look at any suspicious ones and get them checked out.
Of course, you would have the small problem of hardware compatibility. Especially for new hardware - when an Opengl or Directx driver is brought out for new hardware, existing games can run on it. An OS on the game CD won't know what the hell is going on without perfect backward compatibility.
Only if the entire game (rendering and all) is done on the server can the client be trusted not to give away the position of the player right behind the wall in front of you.
Why would the server send that information to the client at all? As far as I can see, it could be made fairly cheatproof by simply only sending sending information the client should know, and only receiving the user's actions. Of course, this may put a greater on the communications and the server than otherwise.
The only problem is things like automatic aiming, but as this is a strategy game rather than a FPS it might not be a problem.
I can understand being sensetive to a disease you suffer from, but...
seizure (szhr) n.
1. The act or an instance of seizing or the condition of being seized. 2. A sudden attack, spasm, or convulsion, as in epilepsy or another disorder. 3. A sudden onset or sensation of feeling or emotion.
(from www.dictionary.com)
I'm sure you'll agree that the word clearly fits sense number 3 and need not imply said antique lovers have epilepsy.
I only mention this because I think that the world would be a better place without the pointless anguish of unintended insults and offence-taking. And because the term is quite common where I live and I don't want you to visit my country and immediately hate everybody.
The big bang theory is the most well known theory of the formation of the universe. Thus most lay-people (non-scientists) refer to it when discussing the origin of the universe. Non-scientists are not interested in how much evidence there is for a given theory, so they treat most things science says as fact.
The big bang theory is not a law because is has never been directly observed, it just explains observed phenomena well. It is treated as a theory by scientists, although I don't know of any serious alternatives suggested due to things it doesn't explain.
Creation OTOH is only a theory in the loosest sense, I would call it a story or an article of faith. It has no evidence which can be verified and has not provided any insights into how the physical universe works.
I am, however, interested in why you think they are incompatible - a lot of christian scientists (not "Christian Scientists") believe that God caused the big bang, or something similar. In the extremely unlikely event that the big bang is "proven", do you really think it will shake many people's belief in God?
If I recall my astrophysics correctly, heavy metals have to be formed by nuclear fusion in the heart of a large star. Which means that our solar system contains remnants of a supernova or something similar.
So did these chunks solidify when the atoms were captured by the solar system or when they were expelled by the supernova? If the latter, it would explain their formation ("rapid, fast-moving gas...")
Some of the statements made are interesting as well:
He said he is primarily interested in the first 10 million years of solar system formation.
It seems to me that that's extremely short on the scale of 4.56 billion years - this implies that there was a seminal event starting the process, and things happened extremely rapidly after that (supernova again?).
It is believed that some isotopes in meteorites existed only in that period
This also sounds like a disruptive event - the fusion reactions in a star suddenly stopping is the only way this could occur.
I would also be very interested in the dating process, I don't know of any way of determining when a material solidified.
I have a personal gripe with all consoles - when are there going to get some decent friggin controllers for them? I've never used one which didn't utterly suck for analogue control and leave your hands feeling like you've been playing handies with a gorilla.
I mean, is an actual reasonably sized joystick too much to ask? (even if it has to be bought seperately). How about having some actual standard ports on the damn thing so I can use my PC flight sim joystick?
However, this also shows a weakness of open-source projects - if the major person of the project abandons it for any reason, the project will be stalled at the very least.
How do you tell a company that the guy maintaining the program they're using just isn't interested in it any more? I guess the solution is more people who are paid and actually have responsibility for the projects (obviously projects under the FSF won't have this kind of problem).
I was under the impression that RPM could be used by anyone - other distros (eg. Mandrake) are certainly having no problems with it. How can a file structure be "proprietary" for fuck's sake? Redhat can't prevent any other distros from being more or less compatible without relying on non-free software, I'm sure that would be noticed in an instant and cause a huge stink.
Plus, we should be all to familiar with "embrace and extend" by now. Red Hat just keeps moving. They can even make a tool to rebuild the RPMs over night. I guess that sounds paranoid but it was just an example of the possibility.
And break compatibility with all third party programs, piss off all their customers and make their programmers's work even harder - yeah I can really see them doing that.
So don't hard code paths, you say? One article here has already pointed out that Oracle works only with Red Hat because of the hard-coded paths and libraries. If I were REALLY paranoid, I might wonder if they have a deal. (-:
So blame Oracle - has anyone even bothered pointing this out to them anyway? They are hardly a clueless company and I doubt they want to release a version of their product hampered by such stupidity.
I'm not naive enough to think that Redhat is doing everything for the good of Linux, but I don't see how they can possibly control Linux. They can try to dominate the market, but the second they pull anything nasty all of their customers can pull out and go somewhere else.
Having read that, I understand Microsoft a lot more. It is hard for a company to consistently spout the same lies and ignore reality as consistently as they have--unless they don't think they're lying.
Microsoft doesn't see themselves as megalomaniacs trying to take over the world. They are here to help us.
I used to think that until I read this article, but this:
"The benefits of developing operating systems and applications software under the same roof will increase as new intelligent devices emerge over the next few years," he said.
Is not just a lie - he's actually saying "you shouldn't break us up because we'll make less profit". The whole point of breaking up the company so that they can't reap these benefits in the traditional microsoft way - by reaming everyone else.
I'm sick of people saying that Mr. Gates is naive and think's he's doing the right thing - he's an evil megalomaniac, and the sooner the world is rid of him the better.
Reminds me - a schoolteacher I knew went on exchange to Canada. At a roll call a student was missing, his friends said he was late. The teacher replied: "Oh, is he out the front having a fag?".
How about some decent documentation for autoconf/make/libtool etc. Everything I've found has either been reference, assumes you already know how the tools work, or is only for setting up a specific type of program.
When I've been able to get these tools to work, they're excellent, but trying to work out how to fix the couple of problems that turn up in each case is extremely frustrating.
Re:Energy from Giant Spliffs
on
Quickies Rock!
·
· Score: 1
I dunno about the utility monopolies (I work for one, and I'm sure we'd love to have some freedom from coal-fired powerstations), but a big problem with cannabis it that it's really hard on the soil it grows in - extracts all the nutrients and leaves nothing for the other kids.
So, you'd better consider that before planting it in your garden. (for home heating, of course:-)
You are absolutely right that GPLed software is IP, and belongs to it's authors. RMS did not have the subversion of all copyright concepts in mind when he wrote the GPL - if you want to do that, you can release stuff in the public domain.
When I write software under the GPL, it is because I want it to be given away, used for free, and for people to be able to modify it and use it as they like. But I do not want someone else to be able to make money from it - if they want to do that, they can pay me to write software.
I would be interested to see whether the FSF and other authors would be interested in licencing parts of their GPLed software under a sperate licence for commercial companies. This would have enabled nVidia to avoid this mess, and could actually earn some money for the people that deserve it. But of course they would have had to pay the author - how unlike a large company, eh? To be fair, maybe they never even considered this possibility.
The only other obligatory comment is of course that MS may now be not so desperate not to reveal their source code. It is quite likely that they have used bits (at least) from other sources, now they can just promise it will be changed in time for windows 2000 service pack X.
I notice your guns haven't stopped your government from inflicting the most ridiculous IP and business laws upon you. Nor has it reduced one of the highest crime rates in the western world.
Your point about the few places in the USA where guns aren't the norm is interesting, as it's obvious that any fool can make a few bucks by the easy task of transporting a couple of easily available firearms across a state line. I happen to have the experience of living in Japan - a country where a single firearm killing will make national headlines, and even police don't carry pistols. I bet you never walk alone through your neighbourhood at 3am feeling safe and at peace with the world.
I guess this is a pointless argument - we live in seperate worlds. I know that if the revolution comes tomorrow or my government decides to imprison people at random, I will have no defence. But I also know that the chances of me being killed or injured by another person anywhere in my city is close to zero - it seems the concept of "More guns, less crime" (or at least its reverse) thankfully didn't make it out of your country.
Slashdot Mirror
No joke, I'm sick of buying CDs which turn out to be 1 good song and 9 remixes of some retarded 70's crap (nothing to do with Moby, btw). I decided a while ago never to buy a game without playing the demo first, now I'm doing the same thing with music.
There is a legitimate way of doing this - ask to listen to the CD at the music store before you buy it, and if they don't let you go somewhere else.
Of course, there's nothing like listening to it while relaxing in your own home, and if I want to rip a sample from the Mortal Combat theme without buying an album full of bad techno there's only one way to do it.
Dammit, I've started rambling again...
Well, male judges can (is that a gun in your pocket or is my web site illegal?).
Applying this to Napster is a bit difficult, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of corporate sponsored propaganda to advise them.
Yeah, let's use the words "Gestapo" and "Nazi" to appeal to people's emotions and hopefully they won't actually think about the argument.
How about border guards check your licence because some people try to illegally immigrate? Gun stores check your ID to make sure you're not a wanted criminal? Beat police looking at you to check you're not carrying an automatic rifle? People checking your post for logic because some posts don't contain any?
In short, I agree with your result, but not your reasoning.
I wouldn't hold Napster responsible for such laws, but not because "it not their fault". It's the government's responsibility to create fair laws. Laws are always made on the basis if a couple of cases, and more often than not these are negative. The government banning something because they have only seen a bad use for it is reprehensible and an abuse of power.
I can't remember the exact quote, but it's from Plato's "Republic"(??). This is probably the original.
Something like "The only man fit to rule is one that doesn't wish to".
One of the projects I'm "going to start one of these days":
A library which takes texts from any source and answers questions based on them. Indexes back to positions inthe text/s should also be given.
This sounds complex, but what I'm envisioning to start is just one step up from a normal search - instead of just regurgitating the links, take relevant sections of text and trying to dissect the particular facts given. Then rewrite these facts into a paragraph.
Going further that this is probably just a pipe dream (for me at least).
This would be great for web sites, I also want to use it on all the documentation on my system.
Start's reply
===> when was the sphinx built?
Which movie in The Internet Movie Database do you mean:
Sphinx, The (1933)
Sphinx, The (1916)
I think this AI needs to study a bit more history.
That's not the point - when I recieve an attachment, I want to be able to look at it knowing that any code in it is not going to be run. For example I have Lotus Notes here at work, at I can open an attachment in Lotus's (admittedly pretty awful) viewer before "launching" it.
So, while I may not be able to understand what a VB script does or what macros are in a word document, I can at least look at any suspicious ones and get them checked out.
Of course, you would have the small problem of hardware compatibility. Especially for new hardware - when an Opengl or Directx driver is brought out for new hardware, existing games can run on it. An OS on the game CD won't know what the hell is going on without perfect backward compatibility.
Why would the server send that information to the client at all? As far as I can see, it could be made fairly cheatproof by simply only sending sending information the client should know, and only receiving the user's actions. Of course, this may put a greater on the communications and the server than otherwise.
The only problem is things like automatic aiming, but as this is a strategy game rather than a FPS it might not be a problem.
I can understand being sensetive to a disease you suffer from, but...
seizure (szhr)n.
1. The act or an instance of seizing or the condition of being seized.
2. A sudden attack, spasm, or convulsion, as in epilepsy or another disorder.
3. A sudden onset or sensation of feeling or emotion.
(from www.dictionary.com)
I'm sure you'll agree that the word clearly fits sense number 3 and need not imply said antique lovers have epilepsy.
I only mention this because I think that the world would be a better place without the pointless anguish of unintended insults and offence-taking. And because the term is quite common where I live and I don't want you to visit my country and immediately hate everybody.
The big bang theory is the most well known theory of the formation of the universe. Thus most lay-people (non-scientists) refer to it when discussing the origin of the universe. Non-scientists are not interested in how much evidence there is for a given theory, so they treat most things science says as fact.
The big bang theory is not a law because is has never been directly observed, it just explains observed phenomena well. It is treated as a theory by scientists, although I don't know of any serious alternatives suggested due to things it doesn't explain.
Creation OTOH is only a theory in the loosest sense, I would call it a story or an article of faith. It has no evidence which can be verified and has not provided any insights into how the physical universe works.
I am, however, interested in why you think they are incompatible - a lot of christian scientists (not "Christian Scientists") believe that God caused the big bang, or something similar. In the extremely unlikely event that the big bang is "proven", do you really think it will shake many people's belief in God?
If I recall my astrophysics correctly, heavy metals have to be formed by nuclear fusion in the heart of a large star. Which means that our solar system contains remnants of a supernova or something similar.
So did these chunks solidify when the atoms were captured by the solar system or when they were expelled by the supernova? If the latter, it would explain their formation ("rapid, fast-moving gas...")
Some of the statements made are interesting as well:
It seems to me that that's extremely short on the scale of 4.56 billion years - this implies that there was a seminal event starting the process, and things happened extremely rapidly after that (supernova again?).
This also sounds like a disruptive event - the fusion reactions in a star suddenly stopping is the only way this could occur.
I would also be very interested in the dating process, I don't know of any way of determining when a material solidified.
Anyone have more complete info?
Junkbuster changes the user agent info to this because many exploits are browser-specific.
I have a personal gripe with all consoles - when are there going to get some decent friggin controllers for them? I've never used one which didn't utterly suck for analogue control and leave your hands feeling like you've been playing handies with a gorilla.
I mean, is an actual reasonably sized joystick too much to ask? (even if it has to be bought seperately). How about having some actual standard ports on the damn thing so I can use my PC flight sim joystick?
OK, I feel much better now.
However, this also shows a weakness of open-source projects - if the major person of the project abandons it for any reason, the project will be stalled at the very least.
How do you tell a company that the guy maintaining the program they're using just isn't interested in it any more? I guess the solution is more people who are paid and actually have responsibility for the projects (obviously projects under the FSF won't have this kind of problem).
I was under the impression that RPM could be used by anyone - other distros (eg. Mandrake) are certainly having no problems with it. How can a file structure be "proprietary" for fuck's sake? Redhat can't prevent any other distros from being more or less compatible without relying on non-free software, I'm sure that would be noticed in an instant and cause a huge stink.
And break compatibility with all third party programs, piss off all their customers and make their programmers's work even harder - yeah I can really see them doing that.
So blame Oracle - has anyone even bothered pointing this out to them anyway? They are hardly a clueless company and I doubt they want to release a version of their product hampered by such stupidity.
I'm not naive enough to think that Redhat is doing everything for the good of Linux, but I don't see how they can possibly control Linux. They can try to dominate the market, but the second they pull anything nasty all of their customers can pull out and go somewhere else.
I used to think that until I read this article, but this:
Is not just a lie - he's actually saying "you shouldn't break us up because we'll make less profit". The whole point of breaking up the company so that they can't reap these benefits in the traditional microsoft way - by reaming everyone else.
I'm sick of people saying that Mr. Gates is naive and think's he's doing the right thing - he's an evil megalomaniac, and the sooner the world is rid of him the better.
Reminds me - a schoolteacher I knew went on exchange to Canada. At a roll call a student was missing, his friends said he was late. The teacher replied: "Oh, is he out the front having a fag?".
How about some decent documentation for autoconf/make/libtool etc. Everything I've found has either been reference, assumes you already know how the tools work, or is only for setting up a specific type of program.
When I've been able to get these tools to work, they're excellent, but trying to work out how to fix the couple of problems that turn up in each case is extremely frustrating.
I dunno about the utility monopolies (I work for one, and I'm sure we'd love to have some freedom from coal-fired powerstations), but a big problem with cannabis it that it's really hard on the soil it grows in - extracts all the nutrients and leaves nothing for the other kids.
So, you'd better consider that before planting it in your garden. (for home heating, of course :-)
Newspapers don't really care very much about accuracy, either and neither will the people who will use this kind of database to protect their kids.
I predict it will only take a few cases of libel and harrassment to shut this thing down.
You are absolutely right that GPLed software is IP, and belongs to it's authors. RMS did not have the subversion of all copyright concepts in mind when he wrote the GPL - if you want to do that, you can release stuff in the public domain.
When I write software under the GPL, it is because I want it to be given away, used for free, and for people to be able to modify it and use it as they like. But I do not want someone else to be able to make money from it - if they want to do that, they can pay me to write software.
I would be interested to see whether the FSF and other authors would be interested in licencing parts of their GPLed software under a sperate licence for commercial companies. This would have enabled nVidia to avoid this mess, and could actually earn some money for the people that deserve it. But of course they would have had to pay the author - how unlike a large company, eh? To be fair, maybe they never even considered this possibility.
The only other obligatory comment is of course that MS may now be not so desperate not to reveal their source code. It is quite likely that they have used bits (at least) from other sources, now they can just promise it will be changed in time for windows 2000 service pack X.
Given what impressions I've had of the jury system, I can't say I really want to be tried by a jury of my "peers".
It's quite likely most of them will turn out to be morons who are easily swayed by a quick-talking lawyer or a false but emotional argument.
At least the computer might be a little consistent and actually consider the facts.
I think that's my devil's advocate post for the day :-) (BTW, I did get the pun)
And the documentation for this is where?
I notice your guns haven't stopped your government from inflicting the most ridiculous IP and business laws upon you. Nor has it reduced one of the highest crime rates in the western world.
Your point about the few places in the USA where guns aren't the norm is interesting, as it's obvious that any fool can make a few bucks by the easy task of transporting a couple of easily available firearms across a state line. I happen to have the experience of living in Japan - a country where a single firearm killing will make national headlines, and even police don't carry pistols. I bet you never walk alone through your neighbourhood at 3am feeling safe and at peace with the world.
I guess this is a pointless argument - we live in seperate worlds. I know that if the revolution comes tomorrow or my government decides to imprison people at random, I will have no defence. But I also know that the chances of me being killed or injured by another person anywhere in my city is close to zero - it seems the concept of "More guns, less crime" (or at least its reverse) thankfully didn't make it out of your country.
And no, I didn't learn anything from Star Trek.