Agreed on the mentality issue. In fact, agreed all around. It's a BETA for a reason... I got in on the Windows Server 2003 beta way back in the day and never did get it installed. Installed the final version on the SAME MACHINE and it worked like a charm.
Ah, believe it or not, I have it in my home hooked to my stereo directly using the home kit. I will grant you that it seems to sound better in systems with built-in tuners (my father's car has one built in, and the poor quality is much less noticable). I'm referring, however, not to the lack of dynamics in the sound (which it has) but rather the much more annoying mp3-ish wobble you hear every once in a while. That drives me nuts! Still, the programming is great and I love all the commercial-free options. Also, XM Comedy 150 is awesome, and since it's voice only, I don't really care about bitrate issues.
The quality used to be very good. Then Sirius came around and the "we have more channels!" war began, and each of the services tried to cram as many channels on their bandwidth as possible. As a result, the bitrate of each channel slowly fell and fell some more. Now it sounds like a 128kbps mp3, sometimes lower.
Coming from an XM Subscriber, I wouldn't WANT to record the content from the service, as it is far from CD Quality. In fact, FM sounds better in a lot of scenerios... and I've been able to tape from FM for as long as I can remember.
Despite its quality issues, I like the XM service and am sorry to hear about this. XM is in enough financial trouble, so I've read in recent articles, and I don't think they need this. I doubt the RIAA will make them go under, but this certainly can't be good for the service.
As far as the RIAA, I'm wondering what's next. I'm thinking they're going to sue Amazon for those 30-second 32kbps sample clips they have from CDs. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if some smart-ass exec at RIAA is reading this right now, and just yelped "BRILLIANT!" at the top of his lungs.
Hmm, when I click on it, I get Page cannot be displayed. I guess it couldn't handle getting/.ed. I'm not incredibly surprised, nor do I find this unusual, however I find I give a lot of respect to sites that actually still run when I click on the link posted in the/. article. I don't mean that sarcastically, the word slashdotted was coined for a reason.
I'll try again tomorrow when it's done being p0wned by bored folks like myself.
C# has pointers (unsafe blocks anyone?), and generally the OS protects against stupid pointer use in C by throwing the famous Segmentation Fault if you try to mess with something outside your memory boundaries. It gets dangerous when you start making system calls. Try allocating 100kb of Kernel memory in a while(1) loop. That'll fuck up the system real fast.
You're right, Gates does do good things for the world. But this is Slashdot... if this were an actual in-person conversation, we would be torn into 5 pieces by now.
Hell, some of these people may not even be real. I could write a script that just parsed the main page for "Bill Gates" and auto-responded with "ZOMG BILL GATES SUCKS ASS WHAT A DOUCHE!" That's usually what happens here anyway... not to say that sometimes it isn't true...
Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like today if Bill Gates never existed. Better, or worse? Would PCs be what they are now, or similar, or still $10,000 business tools? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have a job writing in the language I am, and I'm pretty sure I like the way it is, even if we are sometimes at the mercy of the richest man in the world.
Upon hearing the news from Sony, Steve Ballmer declared victory, looking back to his pre-XBOX days when he made the following comment:
I've done it before and I'll do it again! I'm going to Fucking Kill(TM) Sony! -Steve Ballmer, 2002
Ballmer then spoke with his staff, who informed them that Playstation 2 has been out since 2001, thus making the PS1 essentially obsolete since before the XBOX was released. He then vowed to Fucking Kill(TM) his staff as he continued down the list of things to Fucking Kill(TM), booking a plane to Europe to hopefully "deal" with the EU.
It's funny, in my Operating Systems class they praise UNIX's multiple IPC methods, and we were assigned a project where we had to do a whole bunch (sockets, command line args, shared memory, and pipes). We don't learn anything about Windows coding, but they always presented it to us as though Windows IPC methods were inferior. It's interesting to hear it from someone who appears to have done both.
I think it's pretty clear that Gates is just covering for Ballmer's earlier comments:
"...I've done it before and I'll do it again. I'm going to Fucking Kill(TM) $100 laptops for children!"
If this had gotten more press it may have been a nightmare for Microsoft (not to be confused with Microsoft Nightmare, the codename for Microsoft's next OS after Vista) so Bill had to step in.
I agree. The first thing I do when I buy a new CD is make a copy for my car and MP3 it so it can enter the regular rotation, while the actual CD sits on a shelf and collects dust, but dammit, it's still nice to have. A lot of artists still put a lot of work into the art and content of the cases, and my car (which was made in 1999 and has a Bose stereo system, mind you) has a hard time with CD-Rs (yes, even when I use expensive discs burnt at 4x) so it's nice to have originals for that. I just don't get it when people buy full albums online at nearly the same price of the CD. They're missing out on the tangible CD from the purchase, all the artwork, and the full-quality audio.
Upon hearing the news, Steve Ballmer was happy to hear that his long-thought-out plan to Fucking Kill(TM) UNIX was well underway. When he asked what was next, his advisers told him he'd have to wait, as the database of things to Fucking Kill(TM) had grown too large for Windows to handle so it had to be converted to a UNIX box.
Steve Ballmer is now in the process of Fucking Kill(TM)ing his entire staff.
I like messing with the Phishers, by leaving usernames like "ScrewYouBastards" with passwords like "IHopeYouDie". On a related note, ever seen 419Eater.com? They mess with the Nigerian 419 spammers with the theory that, by wasting their time, thats one less person they can scam.
You've never coded in asm, have you? 64 bit has a lot more advantages than just an increase in allowable memory. Also, last time I checked, I don't believe many of the AMD 64 chips allow more than 4 GB for some reason, although you would believe it to be a primary reason for having 64-bit in the first place.
I agree with you... yes, they're right that the move to 64 bit isn't exactly "rapid", but do you really want a chip that won't be able to run the more powerful version of the next OS? Buying a 64-bit chip costs around the same and allows you to run 64-bit applications now... I think it'd be dumb for anyone to buy a 32 bit chip at this stage, even if everything is still 32 bit.
Aggrivated by false "failure to comply" notices, Gates confided in one of his best friends, Steve Ballmer, about the issue. Ballmer has since vowed to Fucking Kill(TM) the IRS, stating that he's "Done it before and he'll do it again". He then chucked a copy of Microsoft Money 2006 in the general direction of Washington DC.
Thank you. Everyone these days is so biased against Microsoft and so biased for Google... some of it certainly has a good foundation, but some of it is really no better than children on a playground making fun of other children.
Microsoft is capable of doing good. Google is capable of doing bad. Without BOTH companies, the world would be a vastly different place. So Google is censoring in China. So Google refuses to cooperate with the US government. It's not the end of the world. Got a problem with it? There's plenty of other search engines out there. So Microsoft steals other companies' good ideas and incorporates it in their software. So Microsoft has some ruthless Fucking Kill(TM) everyone business strategies. Got a problem with it? Buy a Mac or run Linux.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but just because you don't like some of what a company does does not make it entirely evil. Censoring in China doesn't make Google evil, and using drop-down boxes doesn't make Microsoft evil. They may not be good things to do, but it doesn't make them evil.
Meanwhile, Steve Ballmer has vowed to Fucking Kill(TM) any unauthorized person who comes in contact with the IE7 beta.
After speaking with the development team, he decided to save his energy to help Fucking Kill(TM) the next threat that comes along, as the buggy code is expected to (regular) Kill anyone who installs it anyway.
My guess is that Spam is at the bottom of Steve Ballmer's Things to Fucking Kill(TM) stack and he just hasn't popped it off yet. Don't worry, he'll get there eventually.
Amen to that. I know MySQL has its advantages, but when I go to the MySQL homepage and I see "October 2005 - NOW WITH TRIGGERS!!!" it makes me wonder. Now, I know triggers suck and should not be used unless absolutely necessary, but its just an example of one of may things... I expect a DBMS to have that ability, whether I use it or not... and other DBMSes have done it for years...
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed on the mentality issue. In fact, agreed all around. It's a BETA for a reason... I got in on the Windows Server 2003 beta way back in the day and never did get it installed. Installed the final version on the SAME MACHINE and it worked like a charm.
Such bitterness.... certainly warranted in response to some articles, but one about tape storage?
Ah, believe it or not, I have it in my home hooked to my stereo directly using the home kit. I will grant you that it seems to sound better in systems with built-in tuners (my father's car has one built in, and the poor quality is much less noticable). I'm referring, however, not to the lack of dynamics in the sound (which it has) but rather the much more annoying mp3-ish wobble you hear every once in a while. That drives me nuts! Still, the programming is great and I love all the commercial-free options. Also, XM Comedy 150 is awesome, and since it's voice only, I don't really care about bitrate issues.
The quality used to be very good. Then Sirius came around and the "we have more channels!" war began, and each of the services tried to cram as many channels on their bandwidth as possible. As a result, the bitrate of each channel slowly fell and fell some more. Now it sounds like a 128kbps mp3, sometimes lower.
Coming from an XM Subscriber, I wouldn't WANT to record the content from the service, as it is far from CD Quality. In fact, FM sounds better in a lot of scenerios... and I've been able to tape from FM for as long as I can remember.
Despite its quality issues, I like the XM service and am sorry to hear about this. XM is in enough financial trouble, so I've read in recent articles, and I don't think they need this. I doubt the RIAA will make them go under, but this certainly can't be good for the service.
As far as the RIAA, I'm wondering what's next. I'm thinking they're going to sue Amazon for those 30-second 32kbps sample clips they have from CDs. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if some smart-ass exec at RIAA is reading this right now, and just yelped "BRILLIANT!" at the top of his lungs.
Hmm, when I click on it, I get Page cannot be displayed. I guess it couldn't handle getting /.ed. I'm not incredibly surprised, nor do I find this unusual, however I find I give a lot of respect to sites that actually still run when I click on the link posted in the /. article. I don't mean that sarcastically, the word slashdotted was coined for a reason.
I'll try again tomorrow when it's done being p0wned by bored folks like myself.
C# has pointers (unsafe blocks anyone?), and generally the OS protects against stupid pointer use in C by throwing the famous Segmentation Fault if you try to mess with something outside your memory boundaries. It gets dangerous when you start making system calls. Try allocating 100kb of Kernel memory in a while(1) loop. That'll fuck up the system real fast.
You're right, Gates does do good things for the world. But this is Slashdot... if this were an actual in-person conversation, we would be torn into 5 pieces by now.
Hell, some of these people may not even be real. I could write a script that just parsed the main page for "Bill Gates" and auto-responded with "ZOMG BILL GATES SUCKS ASS WHAT A DOUCHE!" That's usually what happens here anyway... not to say that sometimes it isn't true...
Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like today if Bill Gates never existed. Better, or worse? Would PCs be what they are now, or similar, or still $10,000 business tools? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have a job writing in the language I am, and I'm pretty sure I like the way it is, even if we are sometimes at the mercy of the richest man in the world.
Upon hearing the news from Sony, Steve Ballmer declared victory, looking back to his pre-XBOX days when he made the following comment:
I've done it before and I'll do it again! I'm going to Fucking Kill(TM) Sony!
-Steve Ballmer, 2002
Ballmer then spoke with his staff, who informed them that Playstation 2 has been out since 2001, thus making the PS1 essentially obsolete since before the XBOX was released. He then vowed to Fucking Kill(TM) his staff as he continued down the list of things to Fucking Kill(TM), booking a plane to Europe to hopefully "deal" with the EU.
It's funny, in my Operating Systems class they praise UNIX's multiple IPC methods, and we were assigned a project where we had to do a whole bunch (sockets, command line args, shared memory, and pipes). We don't learn anything about Windows coding, but they always presented it to us as though Windows IPC methods were inferior. It's interesting to hear it from someone who appears to have done both.
I think it's pretty clear that Gates is just covering for Ballmer's earlier comments:
"...I've done it before and I'll do it again. I'm going to Fucking Kill(TM) $100 laptops for children!"
If this had gotten more press it may have been a nightmare for Microsoft (not to be confused with Microsoft Nightmare, the codename for Microsoft's next OS after Vista) so Bill had to step in.
I agree. The first thing I do when I buy a new CD is make a copy for my car and MP3 it so it can enter the regular rotation, while the actual CD sits on a shelf and collects dust, but dammit, it's still nice to have. A lot of artists still put a lot of work into the art and content of the cases, and my car (which was made in 1999 and has a Bose stereo system, mind you) has a hard time with CD-Rs (yes, even when I use expensive discs burnt at 4x) so it's nice to have originals for that. I just don't get it when people buy full albums online at nearly the same price of the CD. They're missing out on the tangible CD from the purchase, all the artwork, and the full-quality audio.
Well, that's one step closer to a car that runs on hopes and dreams I guess.
Clearly you didn't get my ironic reference to the myspace suicide that swept the internet not long ago.
do me a favore... forget about myspace.
Upon hearing the news, Steve Ballmer was happy to hear that his long-thought-out plan to Fucking Kill(TM) UNIX was well underway. When he asked what was next, his advisers told him he'd have to wait, as the database of things to Fucking Kill(TM) had grown too large for Windows to handle so it had to be converted to a UNIX box.
Steve Ballmer is now in the process of Fucking Kill(TM)ing his entire staff.
I like messing with the Phishers, by leaving usernames like "ScrewYouBastards" with passwords like "IHopeYouDie". On a related note, ever seen 419Eater.com? They mess with the Nigerian 419 spammers with the theory that, by wasting their time, thats one less person they can scam.
You've never coded in asm, have you? 64 bit has a lot more advantages than just an increase in allowable memory. Also, last time I checked, I don't believe many of the AMD 64 chips allow more than 4 GB for some reason, although you would believe it to be a primary reason for having 64-bit in the first place.
I agree with you... yes, they're right that the move to 64 bit isn't exactly "rapid", but do you really want a chip that won't be able to run the more powerful version of the next OS? Buying a 64-bit chip costs around the same and allows you to run 64-bit applications now... I think it'd be dumb for anyone to buy a 32 bit chip at this stage, even if everything is still 32 bit.
Aggrivated by false "failure to comply" notices, Gates confided in one of his best friends, Steve Ballmer, about the issue. Ballmer has since vowed to Fucking Kill(TM) the IRS, stating that he's "Done it before and he'll do it again". He then chucked a copy of Microsoft Money 2006 in the general direction of Washington DC.
Thank you. Everyone these days is so biased against Microsoft and so biased for Google... some of it certainly has a good foundation, but some of it is really no better than children on a playground making fun of other children. Microsoft is capable of doing good. Google is capable of doing bad. Without BOTH companies, the world would be a vastly different place. So Google is censoring in China. So Google refuses to cooperate with the US government. It's not the end of the world. Got a problem with it? There's plenty of other search engines out there. So Microsoft steals other companies' good ideas and incorporates it in their software. So Microsoft has some ruthless Fucking Kill(TM) everyone business strategies. Got a problem with it? Buy a Mac or run Linux. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but just because you don't like some of what a company does does not make it entirely evil. Censoring in China doesn't make Google evil, and using drop-down boxes doesn't make Microsoft evil. They may not be good things to do, but it doesn't make them evil.
Meanwhile, Steve Ballmer has vowed to Fucking Kill(TM) any unauthorized person who comes in contact with the IE7 beta. After speaking with the development team, he decided to save his energy to help Fucking Kill(TM) the next threat that comes along, as the buggy code is expected to (regular) Kill anyone who installs it anyway.
My guess is that Spam is at the bottom of Steve Ballmer's Things to Fucking Kill(TM) stack and he just hasn't popped it off yet. Don't worry, he'll get there eventually.
(Sorry, this is required by law) ...meanwhile, Steve Ballmer as vowed to Fucking Kill (TM) IBM and all its partners.
Amen to that. I know MySQL has its advantages, but when I go to the MySQL homepage and I see "October 2005 - NOW WITH TRIGGERS!!!" it makes me wonder. Now, I know triggers suck and should not be used unless absolutely necessary, but its just an example of one of may things... I expect a DBMS to have that ability, whether I use it or not... and other DBMSes have done it for years...