I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that this is a bogus lawsuit as far as Dell is concerned. They are nuts about the fine print. Anytime they show specs they always have little stars or those weird cross things next to them. Particularly two stand out in my mind: CD Speed and HD size. See for yourself:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/line_desk to ps.htm
Scroll down to the bottom...oh hello, what's this?
2For hard drives, GB means 1 billion bytes; total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment
I don't know about Apple and the rest of them but I'm pretty sure this case doesn't hold water as far as Dell is concerned. And I don't blame them for following the industry and calling it a "20GB" hard drive when it's really only 18GB just because they know every shopper is going to compare the rough numbers, not the fine print.
Purchase date doesn't matter...almost all products come with one-year warantee. That's part of the purchase. If a company fails to honor their warantee, you are not getting what you paid for. It's completely up to the credit card company. I explained my position: I paid for a 600-A with feature X, they gave me a 600-A without feature X. I asked them to give me feature X, they refused, I want my money back so I could purchase a 600-A with feature X.
MasterCard and VISA give their customers the dispute option but they also give the merchant a chance to defend themselves. At the end of the day, APEX got their unit back and I got my money back so there was no loss other than my time and some packing tape.
Sorry for the reply to my own post but I wanted to point out an example of what I mean:
Many years ago I purchased one of those APEX 600-A DVD players with the loophole menu. About a month after I got it, it wouldn't power on. I took it back to get repairs under warantee. When I got it back, I found that the firmware had been upgraded to a newer one that removed the loophole menu. I complained to Circuit City but they told me there was nothing I could do.
Ultimately, I disputed the charge on my credit card arguing they had not given me the product I paid for. The credit card company agreed with me and gave me a refund that I used to buy a second APEX player.
So, on that line...what if you are one of the unluckies that has his XBox self-patch? If you paid with a credit card, why not dispute it?
Totally serious question...does the XBox come with any kind of EULA? Like a seal over the power button saying you agree or an included pamphlet?
If not...then wouldn't this be unauthorized access to a computing device, which was made a federal crime I thought in the last round of Justice Department power grabbing?
We all know about the quasi-legal nature of software granting itself the right to phone home or take action against your system, but that relies on the arguement the user accepted the EULA to use the software. What about hardware?
The last console I owned was a Super Nintendo so I just don't know, do modern consoles have EULAs?
This is precisely my point. Who jumps at the opportunity to pay someone $2000 for nothing? Wouldn't your natural response be to investigate your options? The time between the story breaking and the settlement was less than a day! Either there was some backdoor deal going on here (RIAA allowing payments of $1/yr for the next 2000 years) or this mom is completely daft? What possible investigation could she have done in that short period of time? She got scared, she caved, and I hope she and her family suffer for it. Not because they necessarily did something wrong by using Kazaa, but because they are to foolish to stand up to these bullies. All they do is give RIAA precedent to go after more and more people.
If you want to stop a snowball you do it when it's a few inches in diameter at the top of the hill...not when it's a few few in diameter at the bottom.
Seriously...there would have been countless groups, ACLU, EFF, etc who would have rushed to defend this case. Why on earth would they be so stupid as to settle? The publicity alone guaranteed them special treatment...and how do they spend it? "Only" paying $2000.
I hope to God that no one starts up some stupid fund to raise $2000 for little Brianna. Let her Mom work double shifts for the next year.
Seriously...it's idiots like this that make life difficult for the rest of us. This was a golden opportunity to present the harsh reality of the copyright police and somehow RIAA diffuses it.
Think about it. If there existed a tool that could remove copy protection from an AAC file, what would be the result?
1) Some would argue that it is a useful tool that facilitates the legal owner of a digital work in their right to re-sell the work. Much like DeCSS was a tool that facilitates a legal owner of a digital work in their right to access it.
2) Others would argue it's an illegal violation of the DMCA that enables piracy by allowing someone who may be the legal owner of a digital work to then distribute copies of that work. Much like DeCSS was a tool that allowed a legal owner of a digital work to distribute copies of it.
The big question: Will the result be different when we are talking about music instead of movies? Would people see the logic in being able to have full access to their digital library?
When iTunes Music Store was announced, it would have been a complete flop except for one thing: Apple had successfully negotiated what seemed like very generous DRM terms for their customers. Compared to the other options, most people were happy to plunk down their dollars and reward Apple. But no one bothered to ask what happens when someone wants out and looks to offload their collection.
If Apple were to continue its example, it would provide users with a mechanism to transfer songs. If Apple does not or cannot provide this...then really it's terms are not as generous as they advertise. There might be a compelling class-action lawsuit in this. Apple never said they prohibit the transfer, but they are the only ones capable of performing a transfer without encouraging their customers to use DeCSS-type tools that violate the law.
What would happen if everyone who purchased music on iTMS told their credit card companies to dispute the charge because they didn't actually get the legal copy they expected? Maybe someone should try it as a test case like this resale.
For the "sake of curiousity" I decided that I wanted to check this site out. Particularly the claim of providing first-run movies (I'm not interested in wasting my money on The Hulk...hey I got the text page telling me it sucks, remember?). I don't know if it's the bandwidth constraints of refugee camps or the serious slashdotting but the movie stop for two minutes of buffering just about every 20 seconds.
Frustrated, I whipped out my trusty copy of ASFRecorder. Imagine my surprise when it failed to connect! First time that has ever happened to me. So I whipped out my trusty backup copy of ASFRecorder that was recompiled with a Windows Media Player User-Agent string. That didn't work either! This was bizarre. I'm watching the video play right now (albeit poorly) in WMP but ASFRecorder with the exact same user agent is getting connection closed. I try HiDownload, again, failed, even with the same agent string! What is going on here?
The entire thing is SWF based so I download an evaluation copy of SWF Scanner and decide to see what URL I'm actually going to. Low and behold, what is this?
on (unLoad) {Get URL("mms://stream.es5.com:1755/es5/movies/The%20Hu lk-384.wmv" , Target = "")
What the hell is with that blank "target" paramenter? Can anyone explain that? I have a feeling that is the problem. ASFRecorder only takes a URL, there is no place to specify a target. Ditto for HiDownloader and Windows Media Player. I confirmed that if I type the stream location into Media Player, it fails to connect. But, if I make an ASX file that links to the stream and includes the blank "target" parameter, it works!
Okay, now it's gone beyond trying to see if The Hulk is really as crappy as everyone says. This is a mystery, and I'm hoping someone here can figure it out.
In short, streaming file plays in Windows Media Player but it seems impossible to capture this stream using any of the tools available. Is there a solution? And why would these boneheads at war with the RIAA/MPAA bother to sabatoge downloads to begin with?
I'm so sick of car makers picking the most idiodic interior/exterior color combinations. Beige leather, ick! Why is that so often matched with the blue exterior I want? Why can you only get black leather when you get a boring black exterior?
Also burlwood. I f'ing hate burlwood. Yet almost every top of the line vehicle (Acura, Lexus, etc) slathers it over every surface. Why do the cheapeast Honda Civic have metal or carbon-fiber interior options yet no options on the high end?
When I bought my car, I actually told my dealer I wouldn't mind waiting a month if I could get a specific combination right from the factory. I was even willing to pay transportation. I was told it was impossible. It's no more work for the factory to put one color in place of another, so I'm glad someone finally realized this and is offering the option.
I like the idea of on-the-fly hardware encryption, I really do. I've looked into buying those trays they sell online that do the same thing. IDE signal in, scramble with a key, save to hard drive, rinse repeat.
The problem is that they key systems and basically a little USB device similar I'm sure to those USB flash drives that store the key. That means two problems:
1) Lose the key? You are screwed. None of the solutions I've seen provide a mechanism for backing up your key or getting a new one made. So you have two keys, right, but what if one gets shocked and you don't know it and you lose the other key? Bad news. They way they should implement these systems is to give you the hardware key as a text file and let you upload it onto any number of USB flash drives. You can put the key in your safe deposit box, or hide it using stenography, or bury it in the backyard. If you ever lose your physical key, you can create a new one.
2) Have the key? You are screwed. How hard is it going to be for law enforcement, thieves, RIAA to access your hard drive when the key is right in the system? That is stupid. They should either implement this as a one-time key or as an auto-destructing key. For example, if we continue the example above where you can load the keyfile on any USB drive, then the system should be configured so when you insert the USB key to unlock the drive, the system erases the keyfile and writes random data patterns all over the drive. System loses power? Okay, reload your keyfile and repeat. If someone takes your system, then they'll have to interrupt power and when it reboots the key is blank. Or, have it real easy to destroy the key. Like a panic button. So you wear it around your neck, use it to unlock your system, boom someone kicks down the door you just press the button and your key is useless. For bonus points make it transmit a wireless signal so the same button powers off/unmounts your encrypted drives.
If a system were available that met the above description, I would buy it in a heartbeat and so would any of my clients who have a bug up their butt about some thief walking away with a hard drive full of trade secrets/credit card numbers. Especially now that in California, companies have to publically announce any security breaches.
So, nice try Abit...but no cigar. Only a fool would think that this system offers any sort of legal or security protection.
- JoeShmoe .
This would be PERFECT...if...
on
Lindows Webstation
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Lindows gave you the CD to create the LindowsCD OS for the computer. Think about how incredibly useful that would be!
You run a program on the CD to customize an installation of LindowsCD. You pick the home page, maybe the network share where files are saved, bookmarks, etc. It already knows the hardware so no config necessary.
You click a button and out of your burner pops a LindowsCD perfectly configured for your environment. You stick it in the machine, and deploy.
I can think of a thousand uses for this. You could rig a kiosk in the lobby that would only let people view the company webpage. You could rig some workstations that would allow visitors to view files you have made available in a public share but they can't save anything there or locally. You could rig that perfect PC so grandma could check her e-mail and thats all it does.
With no data kept locally, and no possibility of OS corruption, your only support requirements are to tell people to reboot. Or have the machine reboot once a day, etc. If you ever need to change anyting, reburn a disc with new settings. If the CD ever goes belly up, put in the backup. If it still won't work, you can be sure it's a hardware issue.
Lindows, SO CLOSE. Please (or Knoppix) someone take the OS-on-CD to the next level. Yes having Knoppix and LindowsCD is great, but no one wants to have to setup their mail settings each and every time the system reboots. Give us the tools to create our own custom task-oriented OS CD.
As an alternative...flashram? A CF reader and a 32MB card cost what, $25 on the street? More than enough to keep mail settings, bookmarks, etc.
First in Santa Clara, I tried to sign up for ADSL from an alternate provider. When the appointment hit the first stage (visit by PacBell to check the line) I was told there were "no more ports available". I asked my alternate provider what that meant and they said that PacBell had no more room in their racks so I would have to wait for them to increase capacity or for a port to open up, please check back with them regularly.
On a hunch, I called up PacBell and ordered the same ADSL. Three weeks later, it was up and running. I called the alternate ISP to inform them of this, but their attitude is "What can we do? We know stuff like this goes on but we have to work through PacBell."
Then I moved to Davis. I tried again to order ADSL through an alternate provider. Davis was only recently "activated" for DSL service so I figured there wouldn't be any port nonsense. Over the next few months my service was utter crap. Every other week I would lose service completely, requiring a trouble visit by PacBell to check the line. My service would mysteriously cut out at about 9PM and suddenly reactivate around 6AM (problem for me being a night owl).
Finally I had enough. Again I called PacBell. They came out and switched me over and from that moment on the problems ceased. Again I called the alternate provider to inform them of this. Again their attitude was "what can we do?"
Off the record, I've heard many many stories from Covad technicians about their customer's pairs being yanked, shorted, or even cut every time PacBell visited the box. Behavior like this may have even been part of Covad's lawsuit against PacBell.
We all know how the story turned out...PacBell is now SBC and because they "suffered" through giving other providers access to their lines, they were rewarded with the designation as a long distance carrier (which they have wanted for over a decade and been denied since they would own the network from customer to customer). Thank you government oversight.
At the end of time when everything in the world is run by five corporations, it'll be Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Exxon-Mobile, Umbrella...and SBC.
What if he commits a crime while in lockup? Let's say he kills a guard. He would have to be charged with a crime at some point. The family of the guard would demand justice. It would be alot harder to explain why they weren't charging someone with a crime when they had dead on proof he did it. If he was charged, then all the necessary rights and regulations would apply. His defense would be he had to do it to get his constitutional rights, etc. If not him, members of his family, etc.
I'm not saying it's the right thing, but at this point, being a polite and cooperative citizen has gotten him nowhere, he has nothing to lose by being the criminal they already are punishing him for being.
Would make an interesting Law & Order episode, in any case...
"Windows XP Professional is built upon the rock-solid reliability of Windows NT technology, the architechture that is so fundamentally limited that it does not support the changes required to remove significant vulnerabilities."
...if it's not "Pink" then I will be very disappointed!
You have diamond theme, and your screensaver could feature the bulmbing antics of Inspector "Meecroseeeft" as he tries to do the same tasks the Pink Panther so suavely and easily performs.
Oh, amen. It's not that there's a message that bothers me, it's that Enterprise has to be so insulting as to spoon feed it to us.
See, in the original series, after the episode where the half-black/half-white people were fighting with the half-white/half-black people, they didn't end the episode with a "ATTENTION! THIS EPISODE WAS ABOUT RACISM! IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING RACISM CONTACT THE NAACP"
I mean, WTF...To put AIDS on part with Vulcans dabbling with emotions both trivializes AIDS and insults everything the Vulcans plot line has produced. If emotions are all so grand and wonderful, are we supposed to cheer the Vulcans who develop them or be depressed that every other series in Trek shows utterly emotionless Vulcans.
Feh. I blame Brandon Braga. He is responsible for every single Trek debaucle in recent history. He created Borg kids and that horrible Voyager series finale, for starters.
...you clear the memory of your cable box? You block the upstream, it unscrambles the show, the box gets bulletted disabled, you clear the memory and then call to report a problem. They reset the box and everything works fine? Sure it might be a tad inconvenient but if you really really wanted to watch that boxing event...
Or, if you can't clear the memory, box um "dies" and takes the bill with it. Return box to cable company and get replacement.
I'm not saying of course these are legal or ethical but I'm just saying that if someone's stealing PPV what would prevent them from doing either of these? Rule number one when you are stealing a service is you don't call tech support. If your box quits working, then, make sure the box *quits working*.
I sort of already covered this in a previous reply but I thought I should elaborate...
The view you express that what sinful to one person but not another is sort of the problem. There are very few people, I have found, that can tolerate something they view as wrong/sinful in a group setting. Alcohol may not be a problem for you...but you have to keep it to yourself. Otherwise, you drinking alcohol could influence another person.
That's my point...who are these fair and impartial observers with no vested interest that you can choose to review your personal browsing habits? Your wife? I don't think any husband would want his wife to know how much he thinks about sex, she might feel she's inferior or not meeting his needs. Your pastor? What if HE thinks you are obsessed with violence but you believe it's not a big deal because it's fake?
If you are open and honest then you are basically confronting someone with your viewing habits and guaranteeing they will eventually disagree/confront you about them, or possibly gossip behind your back. While "don't ask, don't tell" hardly seems and ideal approach, if I don't know you are a racist, I could probably be your co-worker or casual aquaintance. The moment I become aware of that aspect of your personality, the veil of ignorance is gone and I either have to confront it, or you will assume I condone it.
I think the very reason the Army went with the don't ask, don't tell policy is because they knew if they made it public it would end up dividing the armed forces into gay/straight divisions. I don't think any religious group wants to see themselves split...there's already been some 6000 different splits in what was once a single monotheistic religion...how many more can it take!
My understanding, and I may be wrong, is that a two struggling addicts are never paired together. In fact, if people are drinking/whatever, they are kicked OUT of the program to prevent that from influencing another member. There is a significant amount of peer-peer support because addicts can understand and predict patterns of behavior...but the overall structure is a group...not just that peer-peer relationship.
The equivalent would be if once a week everyone got together and compared porn logs and anyone who frequented porn sites was kicked out of the group.
"But if they choose someone from their peer group that they trust and know shares similar values as they do"
I should have elaborated on this point as being one of the reasons why it won't work. In fact,I think the Bible has some verse about this, "blind leading the blind". Basically I get to pick my judge! Where would the conflict come in? If I was secretly addicted to porn, all I would need to do is pick some young unmarried man to be my peer reviewer. Odds are if he's staying celibate he's got to be dipping in the porn fountain, especially if he's good with computers.
Meanwhile Mrs. Chastity Witheredpuss will have one of the ladies from her sewing circle monitor her Internet habits...but since it's pretty much all just aol.com there's nothing scandalous to report.
Now, if your browsing habits were broadcast to a number of people, or people that you didn't choose, that would be something intimidating enough to perhaps prevent you from viewing porn. But as I said, nobody in their right mind would open this can of worms.
The only people I could see this helping are people who confess they are addicted to porn and are asking for peer review because they want help in avoiding temptation. But all it would probably do in this case is return them back to movies, magazines, and other non-trackable porn.
This guy clearly has his head in the sand. There is no way this idea could ever succeed, you know why? Because there is no hard and fast rulebook for defining pornography. So no matter how "religious" you are, there is someone who is going to have a more restrictive viewpoint than you. When you discuss movies with friends who are "religious" you can see exactly what I'm talking about.
A lot of people who consider themselves good and faithful members of a religious group may go to see, say, The Matrix. Do you really think they want to rub that choice in other people's face? You know there's going to be any number of people that would object to the language/violence/tight leather in that movie. So why would a person put themselves in a position where they have to justify their actions constantly? No one would ever willingly put themselves through that, and I can't see how the chaos and bad feelings that would result from this could possibly be worth any perceived good.
Not in the article but this guy's next idea is to have the peer print out a big scarlet "P" and pin it on the back of someone they catch browsing any website with nudity ("That www.louvre.fr site is nothing but smut!")
But haven't you noticed that there is also a conflicting conspiracy to lower the average length of a movie to less than an hour and a half?
Looking at a list of recent releases I see very few that are in the triple digits of minutes (One weekend I was shocked that no movie was more than 99 minutes long).
Yet what's the price for that movie? Oh yeah, it's still the same $8/$9/$10 you pay for a three hour moviethon like Lord of the Rings.
Check it out yourself if you don't believe me. I think studios are realizing any footage beyond an hour and a half would be best used as filler to boost sales of their DVDs. I don't doubt that within a couple years it will be the very rare exception for a movie to be longer than an hour and a half, and some will be barely over an hour.
I guarantee you won't have any of the problems this guy mentions. There are plenty of monsters, you'll never worry about artificial scarcity. There are fantastic items, and they never get taken away from you. There are no level caps or future expansion packs required. And now that they have added guilds, you can have everything you had in EverQuest, albeit without the fancy 3D rendered graphics.
But this guy said the only factor is spending time, right? Well, then Progress Quest is the best choice...there is no other factor but time!
Slashdot Mirror
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that this is a bogus lawsuit as far as Dell is concerned. They are nuts about the fine print. Anytime they show specs they always have little stars or those weird cross things next to them. Particularly two stand out in my mind: CD Speed and HD size. See for yourself:
k to ps.htm
http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/line_des
Scroll down to the bottom...oh hello, what's this?
2For hard drives, GB means 1 billion bytes; total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment
I don't know about Apple and the rest of them but I'm pretty sure this case doesn't hold water as far as Dell is concerned. And I don't blame them for following the industry and calling it a "20GB" hard drive when it's really only 18GB just because they know every shopper is going to compare the rough numbers, not the fine print.
-JoeShmoe
.
Purchase date doesn't matter...almost all products come with one-year warantee. That's part of the purchase. If a company fails to honor their warantee, you are not getting what you paid for. It's completely up to the credit card company. I explained my position: I paid for a 600-A with feature X, they gave me a 600-A without feature X. I asked them to give me feature X, they refused, I want my money back so I could purchase a 600-A with feature X.
MasterCard and VISA give their customers the dispute option but they also give the merchant a chance to defend themselves. At the end of the day, APEX got their unit back and I got my money back so there was no loss other than my time and some packing tape.
- JoeShmoe
.
Sorry for the reply to my own post but I wanted to point out an example of what I mean:
Many years ago I purchased one of those APEX 600-A DVD players with the loophole menu. About a month after I got it, it wouldn't power on. I took it back to get repairs under warantee. When I got it back, I found that the firmware had been upgraded to a newer one that removed the loophole menu. I complained to Circuit City but they told me there was nothing I could do.
Ultimately, I disputed the charge on my credit card arguing they had not given me the product I paid for. The credit card company agreed with me and gave me a refund that I used to buy a second APEX player.
So, on that line...what if you are one of the unluckies that has his XBox self-patch? If you paid with a credit card, why not dispute it?
- JoeShmoe
.
Totally serious question...does the XBox come with any kind of EULA? Like a seal over the power button saying you agree or an included pamphlet?
If not...then wouldn't this be unauthorized access to a computing device, which was made a federal crime I thought in the last round of Justice Department power grabbing?
We all know about the quasi-legal nature of software granting itself the right to phone home or take action against your system, but that relies on the arguement the user accepted the EULA to use the software. What about hardware?
The last console I owned was a Super Nintendo so I just don't know, do modern consoles have EULAs?
- JoeShmoe
.
Which includes lessons on how Windows(R) with its WindowsUpdate(TM)(C)(R) is more easy to secure than Linux and even UNIX!
And you thought the evolution in schools issue was a flamefest...
- JoeShmoe
.
This is precisely my point. Who jumps at the opportunity to pay someone $2000 for nothing? Wouldn't your natural response be to investigate your options? The time between the story breaking and the settlement was less than a day! Either there was some backdoor deal going on here (RIAA allowing payments of $1/yr for the next 2000 years) or this mom is completely daft? What possible investigation could she have done in that short period of time? She got scared, she caved, and I hope she and her family suffer for it. Not because they necessarily did something wrong by using Kazaa, but because they are to foolish to stand up to these bullies. All they do is give RIAA precedent to go after more and more people.
If you want to stop a snowball you do it when it's a few inches in diameter at the top of the hill...not when it's a few few in diameter at the bottom.
-JoeShmoe
.
Seriously...there would have been countless groups, ACLU, EFF, etc who would have rushed to defend this case. Why on earth would they be so stupid as to settle? The publicity alone guaranteed them special treatment...and how do they spend it? "Only" paying $2000.
I hope to God that no one starts up some stupid fund to raise $2000 for little Brianna. Let her Mom work double shifts for the next year.
Seriously...it's idiots like this that make life difficult for the rest of us. This was a golden opportunity to present the harsh reality of the copyright police and somehow RIAA diffuses it.
- JoeShmoe
.
Think about it. If there existed a tool that could remove copy protection from an AAC file, what would be the result?
1) Some would argue that it is a useful tool that facilitates the legal owner of a digital work in their right to re-sell the work. Much like DeCSS was a tool that facilitates a legal owner of a digital work in their right to access it.
2) Others would argue it's an illegal violation of the DMCA that enables piracy by allowing someone who may be the legal owner of a digital work to then distribute copies of that work. Much like DeCSS was a tool that allowed a legal owner of a digital work to distribute copies of it.
The big question: Will the result be different when we are talking about music instead of movies? Would people see the logic in being able to have full access to their digital library?
When iTunes Music Store was announced, it would have been a complete flop except for one thing: Apple had successfully negotiated what seemed like very generous DRM terms for their customers. Compared to the other options, most people were happy to plunk down their dollars and reward Apple. But no one bothered to ask what happens when someone wants out and looks to offload their collection.
If Apple were to continue its example, it would provide users with a mechanism to transfer songs. If Apple does not or cannot provide this...then really it's terms are not as generous as they advertise. There might be a compelling class-action lawsuit in this. Apple never said they prohibit the transfer, but they are the only ones capable of performing a transfer without encouraging their customers to use DeCSS-type tools that violate the law.
What would happen if everyone who purchased music on iTMS told their credit card companies to dispute the charge because they didn't actually get the legal copy they expected? Maybe someone should try it as a test case like this resale.
- JoeShmoe
.
I'll take that bet!
You lose...it's not me...pay up!
- JoeShmoe
.
For the "sake of curiousity" I decided that I wanted to check this site out. Particularly the claim of providing first-run movies (I'm not interested in wasting my money on The Hulk...hey I got the text page telling me it sucks, remember?). I don't know if it's the bandwidth constraints of refugee camps or the serious slashdotting but the movie stop for two minutes of buffering just about every 20 seconds.
u lk-384.wmv" , Target = "")
Frustrated, I whipped out my trusty copy of ASFRecorder. Imagine my surprise when it failed to connect! First time that has ever happened to me. So I whipped out my trusty backup copy of ASFRecorder that was recompiled with a Windows Media Player User-Agent string. That didn't work either! This was bizarre. I'm watching the video play right now (albeit poorly) in WMP but ASFRecorder with the exact same user agent is getting connection closed. I try HiDownload, again, failed, even with the same agent string! What is going on here?
The entire thing is SWF based so I download an evaluation copy of SWF Scanner and decide to see what URL I'm actually going to. Low and behold, what is this?
on (unLoad) {Get URL("mms://stream.es5.com:1755/es5/movies/The%20H
What the hell is with that blank "target" paramenter? Can anyone explain that? I have a feeling that is the problem. ASFRecorder only takes a URL, there is no place to specify a target. Ditto for HiDownloader and Windows Media Player. I confirmed that if I type the stream location into Media Player, it fails to connect. But, if I make an ASX file that links to the stream and includes the blank "target" parameter, it works!
Okay, now it's gone beyond trying to see if The Hulk is really as crappy as everyone says. This is a mystery, and I'm hoping someone here can figure it out.
In short, streaming file plays in Windows Media Player but it seems impossible to capture this stream using any of the tools available. Is there a solution? And why would these boneheads at war with the RIAA/MPAA bother to sabatoge downloads to begin with?
- JoeShmoe
.
I'm so sick of car makers picking the most idiodic interior/exterior color combinations. Beige leather, ick! Why is that so often matched with the blue exterior I want? Why can you only get black leather when you get a boring black exterior?
Also burlwood. I f'ing hate burlwood. Yet almost every top of the line vehicle (Acura, Lexus, etc) slathers it over every surface. Why do the cheapeast Honda Civic have metal or carbon-fiber interior options yet no options on the high end?
When I bought my car, I actually told my dealer I wouldn't mind waiting a month if I could get a specific combination right from the factory. I was even willing to pay transportation. I was told it was impossible. It's no more work for the factory to put one color in place of another, so I'm glad someone finally realized this and is offering the option.
- JoeShmoe
.
I like the idea of on-the-fly hardware encryption, I really do. I've looked into buying those trays they sell online that do the same thing. IDE signal in, scramble with a key, save to hard drive, rinse repeat.
The problem is that they key systems and basically a little USB device similar I'm sure to those USB flash drives that store the key. That means two problems:
1) Lose the key? You are screwed. None of the solutions I've seen provide a mechanism for backing up your key or getting a new one made. So you have two keys, right, but what if one gets shocked and you don't know it and you lose the other key? Bad news. They way they should implement these systems is to give you the hardware key as a text file and let you upload it onto any number of USB flash drives. You can put the key in your safe deposit box, or hide it using stenography, or bury it in the backyard. If you ever lose your physical key, you can create a new one.
2) Have the key? You are screwed. How hard is it going to be for law enforcement, thieves, RIAA to access your hard drive when the key is right in the system? That is stupid. They should either implement this as a one-time key or as an auto-destructing key. For example, if we continue the example above where you can load the keyfile on any USB drive, then the system should be configured so when you insert the USB key to unlock the drive, the system erases the keyfile and writes random data patterns all over the drive. System loses power? Okay, reload your keyfile and repeat. If someone takes your system, then they'll have to interrupt power and when it reboots the key is blank. Or, have it real easy to destroy the key. Like a panic button. So you wear it around your neck, use it to unlock your system, boom someone kicks down the door you just press the button and your key is useless. For bonus points make it transmit a wireless signal so the same button powers off/unmounts your encrypted drives.
If a system were available that met the above description, I would buy it in a heartbeat and so would any of my clients who have a bug up their butt about some thief walking away with a hard drive full of trade secrets/credit card numbers. Especially now that in California, companies have to publically announce any security breaches.
So, nice try Abit...but no cigar. Only a fool would think that this system offers any sort of legal or security protection.
- JoeShmoe
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Lindows gave you the CD to create the LindowsCD OS for the computer. Think about how incredibly useful that would be!
You run a program on the CD to customize an installation of LindowsCD. You pick the home page, maybe the network share where files are saved, bookmarks, etc. It already knows the hardware so no config necessary.
You click a button and out of your burner pops a LindowsCD perfectly configured for your environment. You stick it in the machine, and deploy.
I can think of a thousand uses for this. You could rig a kiosk in the lobby that would only let people view the company webpage. You could rig some workstations that would allow visitors to view files you have made available in a public share but they can't save anything there or locally. You could rig that perfect PC so grandma could check her e-mail and thats all it does.
With no data kept locally, and no possibility of OS corruption, your only support requirements are to tell people to reboot. Or have the machine reboot once a day, etc. If you ever need to change anyting, reburn a disc with new settings. If the CD ever goes belly up, put in the backup. If it still won't work, you can be sure it's a hardware issue.
Lindows, SO CLOSE. Please (or Knoppix) someone take the OS-on-CD to the next level. Yes having Knoppix and LindowsCD is great, but no one wants to have to setup their mail settings each and every time the system reboots. Give us the tools to create our own custom task-oriented OS CD.
As an alternative...flashram? A CF reader and a 32MB card cost what, $25 on the street? More than enough to keep mail settings, bookmarks, etc.
- JoeShmoe
First in Santa Clara, I tried to sign up for ADSL from an alternate provider. When the appointment hit the first stage (visit by PacBell to check the line) I was told there were "no more ports available". I asked my alternate provider what that meant and they said that PacBell had no more room in their racks so I would have to wait for them to increase capacity or for a port to open up, please check back with them regularly.
On a hunch, I called up PacBell and ordered the same ADSL. Three weeks later, it was up and running. I called the alternate ISP to inform them of this, but their attitude is "What can we do? We know stuff like this goes on but we have to work through PacBell."
Then I moved to Davis. I tried again to order ADSL through an alternate provider. Davis was only recently "activated" for DSL service so I figured there wouldn't be any port nonsense. Over the next few months my service was utter crap. Every other week I would lose service completely, requiring a trouble visit by PacBell to check the line. My service would mysteriously cut out at about 9PM and suddenly reactivate around 6AM (problem for me being a night owl).
Finally I had enough. Again I called PacBell. They came out and switched me over and from that moment on the problems ceased. Again I called the alternate provider to inform them of this. Again their attitude was "what can we do?"
Off the record, I've heard many many stories from Covad technicians about their customer's pairs being yanked, shorted, or even cut every time PacBell visited the box. Behavior like this may have even been part of Covad's lawsuit against PacBell.
We all know how the story turned out...PacBell is now SBC and because they "suffered" through giving other providers access to their lines, they were rewarded with the designation as a long distance carrier (which they have wanted for over a decade and been denied since they would own the network from customer to customer). Thank you government oversight.
At the end of time when everything in the world is run by five corporations, it'll be Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Exxon-Mobile, Umbrella...and SBC.
-JoeShmoe
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What if he commits a crime while in lockup? Let's say he kills a guard. He would have to be charged with a crime at some point. The family of the guard would demand justice. It would be alot harder to explain why they weren't charging someone with a crime when they had dead on proof he did it. If he was charged, then all the necessary rights and regulations would apply. His defense would be he had to do it to get his constitutional rights, etc. If not him, members of his family, etc.
I'm not saying it's the right thing, but at this point, being a polite and cooperative citizen has gotten him nowhere, he has nothing to lose by being the criminal they already are punishing him for being.
Would make an interesting Law & Order episode, in any case...
- JoeShmoe
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"Windows XP Professional is built upon the rock-solid reliability of Windows NT technology, the architechture that is so fundamentally limited that it does not support the changes required to remove significant vulnerabilities."
Doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
- JoeShmoe
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...if it's not "Pink" then I will be very disappointed!
You have diamond theme, and your screensaver could feature the bulmbing antics of Inspector "Meecroseeeft" as he tries to do the same tasks the Pink Panther so suavely and easily performs.
- JoeShmoe
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Oh, amen. It's not that there's a message that bothers me, it's that Enterprise has to be so insulting as to spoon feed it to us.
See, in the original series, after the episode where the half-black/half-white people were fighting with the half-white/half-black people, they didn't end the episode with a "ATTENTION! THIS EPISODE WAS ABOUT RACISM! IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING RACISM CONTACT THE NAACP"
I mean, WTF...To put AIDS on part with Vulcans dabbling with emotions both trivializes AIDS and insults everything the Vulcans plot line has produced. If emotions are all so grand and wonderful, are we supposed to cheer the Vulcans who develop them or be depressed that every other series in Trek shows utterly emotionless Vulcans.
Feh. I blame Brandon Braga. He is responsible for every single Trek debaucle in recent history. He created Borg kids and that horrible Voyager series finale, for starters.
- JoeShmoe
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...you clear the memory of your cable box? You block the upstream, it unscrambles the show, the box gets bulletted disabled, you clear the memory and then call to report a problem. They reset the box and everything works fine? Sure it might be a tad inconvenient but if you really really wanted to watch that boxing event...
Or, if you can't clear the memory, box um "dies" and takes the bill with it. Return box to cable company and get replacement.
I'm not saying of course these are legal or ethical but I'm just saying that if someone's stealing PPV what would prevent them from doing either of these? Rule number one when you are stealing a service is you don't call tech support. If your box quits working, then, make sure the box *quits working*.
- JoeShmoe
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I sort of already covered this in a previous reply but I thought I should elaborate...
The view you express that what sinful to one person but not another is sort of the problem. There are very few people, I have found, that can tolerate something they view as wrong/sinful in a group setting. Alcohol may not be a problem for you...but you have to keep it to yourself. Otherwise, you drinking alcohol could influence another person.
That's my point...who are these fair and impartial observers with no vested interest that you can choose to review your personal browsing habits? Your wife? I don't think any husband would want his wife to know how much he thinks about sex, she might feel she's inferior or not meeting his needs. Your pastor? What if HE thinks you are obsessed with violence but you believe it's not a big deal because it's fake?
If you are open and honest then you are basically confronting someone with your viewing habits and guaranteeing they will eventually disagree/confront you about them, or possibly gossip behind your back. While "don't ask, don't tell" hardly seems and ideal approach, if I don't know you are a racist, I could probably be your co-worker or casual aquaintance. The moment I become aware of that aspect of your personality, the veil of ignorance is gone and I either have to confront it, or you will assume I condone it.
I think the very reason the Army went with the don't ask, don't tell policy is because they knew if they made it public it would end up dividing the armed forces into gay/straight divisions. I don't think any religious group wants to see themselves split...there's already been some 6000 different splits in what was once a single monotheistic religion...how many more can it take!
- JoeShmoe
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My understanding, and I may be wrong, is that a two struggling addicts are never paired together. In fact, if people are drinking/whatever, they are kicked OUT of the program to prevent that from influencing another member. There is a significant amount of peer-peer support because addicts can understand and predict patterns of behavior...but the overall structure is a group...not just that peer-peer relationship.
The equivalent would be if once a week everyone got together and compared porn logs and anyone who frequented porn sites was kicked out of the group.
- JoeShmoe
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"But if they choose someone from their peer group that they trust and know shares similar values as they do"
I should have elaborated on this point as being one of the reasons why it won't work. In fact,I think the Bible has some verse about this, "blind leading the blind". Basically I get to pick my judge! Where would the conflict come in? If I was secretly addicted to porn, all I would need to do is pick some young unmarried man to be my peer reviewer. Odds are if he's staying celibate he's got to be dipping in the porn fountain, especially if he's good with computers.
Meanwhile Mrs. Chastity Witheredpuss will have one of the ladies from her sewing circle monitor her Internet habits...but since it's pretty much all just aol.com there's nothing scandalous to report.
Now, if your browsing habits were broadcast to a number of people, or people that you didn't choose, that would be something intimidating enough to perhaps prevent you from viewing porn. But as I said, nobody in their right mind would open this can of worms.
The only people I could see this helping are people who confess they are addicted to porn and are asking for peer review because they want help in avoiding temptation. But all it would probably do in this case is return them back to movies, magazines, and other non-trackable porn.
All in all, still a worthless idea.
- JoeShmoe
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This guy clearly has his head in the sand. There is no way this idea could ever succeed, you know why? Because there is no hard and fast rulebook for defining pornography. So no matter how "religious" you are, there is someone who is going to have a more restrictive viewpoint than you. When you discuss movies with friends who are "religious" you can see exactly what I'm talking about.
A lot of people who consider themselves good and faithful members of a religious group may go to see, say, The Matrix. Do you really think they want to rub that choice in other people's face? You know there's going to be any number of people that would object to the language/violence/tight leather in that movie. So why would a person put themselves in a position where they have to justify their actions constantly? No one would ever willingly put themselves through that, and I can't see how the chaos and bad feelings that would result from this could possibly be worth any perceived good.
Not in the article but this guy's next idea is to have the peer print out a big scarlet "P" and pin it on the back of someone they catch browsing any website with nudity ("That www.louvre.fr site is nothing but smut!")
- JoeShmoe
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But haven't you noticed that there is also a conflicting conspiracy to lower the average length of a movie to less than an hour and a half?
Looking at a list of recent releases I see very few that are in the triple digits of minutes (One weekend I was shocked that no movie was more than 99 minutes long).
Yet what's the price for that movie? Oh yeah, it's still the same $8/$9/$10 you pay for a three hour moviethon like Lord of the Rings.
Check it out yourself if you don't believe me. I think studios are realizing any footage beyond an hour and a half would be best used as filler to boost sales of their DVDs. I don't doubt that within a couple years it will be the very rare exception for a movie to be longer than an hour and a half, and some will be barely over an hour.
- JoeShmoe
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http://www.progressquest.com
I guarantee you won't have any of the problems this guy mentions. There are plenty of monsters, you'll never worry about artificial scarcity. There are fantastic items, and they never get taken away from you. There are no level caps or future expansion packs required. And now that they have added guilds, you can have everything you had in EverQuest, albeit without the fancy 3D rendered graphics.
But this guy said the only factor is spending time, right? Well, then Progress Quest is the best choice...there is no other factor but time!
- JoeShmoe
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