Did you explain that the songs he can buy on iTunes Plus work too? Because while I haven't used iTMS in a long time, IIRC the music store advertises pretty clearly that iTunes Plus songs work anywhere and the M4Ps don't.
Icecast-for-video is that big? I use icecast myself for streaming audio (MP3, mostly because nobody can grok Vorbis), but I've never seen it used for video.
That said, the FSF would never deign to offer a good, workable alternative; their game, at least with the DefectiveByDesign crew, seems to just be to scream and rant about how bad the current system is. Not once have I seen them offer a good way for content creators to make money (I'm not talking the RIAA, I'm talking about the people actually making the music). It's just "give for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!", with the predictably short-sighted results. (Not all musicians can tour, for example.)
You misunderstand him. The software running the DRM'd material is better than the free offerings, so people (fairly rationally, for a non-savvy user) use it to purchase their music too. I don't much like iTunes, but it's a hell of a lot better than the open source software available on OS X/Windows for a similar task.
1) Apple's trying very hard to get rid of DRM, if you hadn't noticed (and since you're posting this, I'm certain you haven't). It's not like it's their idea.
2) You complain about anything Apple does and you're supporting Creative fucking Labs? Really?
Of course it's just for publicity. (The DefectiveByDesign crew has a stated goal and god help you if you ask them if it's the right way to go about it or point out how they're wrong. They absolutely blew a gasket when a bunch of people started posting to their blog when they were advocating that you go waste the time of people at Apple's Genius Bars, wrote a snarky message to everyone who had commented saying that what they were suggesting was not a good way to do it, and then closed blog comments for that entry and deleted all the ones that were there. Silly children can't take criticism.)
I did not call NeverVotedBush a freetard because he was "uninformed." I called him a freetard because he is very much exemplifying the knee-jerk, "MUST TIE EVERYTHING INTO WHY WINDOWS SUCKS" attitude that pervades a very large part of Slashdot. The groupthink that anything even peripherally related to Windows or Microsoft, whether or not it still applies, is--well, more or less precisely that: the act of a freetard. It's a behavior pattern, not simply a pejorative.
And for what it's worth, I agree with you regarding insecure nerds. My fiancee might suggest that it doesn't quite apply to me, though.;-) Or, at least, not IRL, and I don't consider being pointed and aggressive online to be a mark of security or insecurity. I have no real issue with being as pointed as the situation warrants--and given that the person I replied to is more or less a troll himself, "very pointed" was the order of the day. You'll notice that in speaking to you, to another poster who writes with a degree of eloquence and intelligence, I'm making a concerted effort to be respectful and explain my position. "NeverVotedBush" does not rate that, and so I did not do so.:-)
Digital download. Ability to download your games on as many machines as you want (and play on one at a time, which I consider fair). Integrated grouping/friends-lists with Steam Friends and a built-in matchmaker.
Moonlight's already working in trunk for a good chunk of code. Isn't there yet, but hey--it's open source, they're supposed to get a pass for that, right?:)
(And to head off the "OMG TROLL!" screams: Vorbis is an extremely good audio format, and one I use myself in my own projects because the libraries for it are reasonably good and easy to handle--but Theora is an absolute shit video format compared to pretty much everything else in common use.)
Abstraction and cross-platform targeting are both "lazy" and "smart."
I mean, we could all write code in assembly language for every architecture we could ever want. Or we could use Flash/.NET/Java/whatever to target everything we might conceivably want with less hassle. Tough choice, that.
I knew somebody would question that. Keep in mind that this is not a condemnation of the Muslim religion or the majority of its adherents.
That said, a) riots among Muslim youths in Western Europe, b) the rise of madrasa-type schools across Europe, c) the outright refusal to assimilate into the general culture into which they're moving, and d) the viciously forceful insistence on bending the general culture to do what they as a small minority want--I consider those all pretty gnarly problems with Muslim immigration as a whole right now, and it looks very much like Europe would rather capitulate and hand everything to these groups on a silver platter than assert their own status as sovereign nations.
As such, I question whether they have the strength of will, as an organization, to assert the power that they have as a large, affluent, influential group of nations.
I agree with you on what Friedman tends to do, but this is something of the exception. He points to what he calls, tongue-in-cheek, the Dell Theory of Conflict Management. As global supply chains grow and interlock, it'll grow harder and harder to engage in conflicts, either socially, politically, or militarily, for fear of twisting up your economic "place" in those supply chains (Dell being the obvious example of a company with a very integrated, very slick global supply network).
It really is worth a read, once you get past the halfway point or so.
Slashdot Mirror
Did you explain that the songs he can buy on iTunes Plus work too? Because while I haven't used iTMS in a long time, IIRC the music store advertises pretty clearly that iTunes Plus songs work anywhere and the M4Ps don't.
Chromium is the browser he should be checking out. It's the official community-dev fork of Chrome.
Isn't that the magic of open source? You can go look at the code?
Fearmongering retardation for the lose.
Except for an independent-process, one-tab-dies-the-rest-of-it's-fine browser that doesn't suck?
The only thing keeping me on Firefox is AdBlock Plus. The second that's in Chrome (or Chromium), I'm gone.
Icecast-for-video is that big? I use icecast myself for streaming audio (MP3, mostly because nobody can grok Vorbis), but I've never seen it used for video.
This poster has it.
That said, the FSF would never deign to offer a good, workable alternative; their game, at least with the DefectiveByDesign crew, seems to just be to scream and rant about how bad the current system is. Not once have I seen them offer a good way for content creators to make money (I'm not talking the RIAA, I'm talking about the people actually making the music). It's just "give for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!", with the predictably short-sighted results. (Not all musicians can tour, for example.)
You misunderstand him. The software running the DRM'd material is better than the free offerings, so people (fairly rationally, for a non-savvy user) use it to purchase their music too. I don't much like iTunes, but it's a hell of a lot better than the open source software available on OS X/Windows for a similar task.
1) Apple's trying very hard to get rid of DRM, if you hadn't noticed (and since you're posting this, I'm certain you haven't). It's not like it's their idea.
2) You complain about anything Apple does and you're supporting Creative fucking Labs? Really?
Of course it's just for publicity. (The DefectiveByDesign crew has a stated goal and god help you if you ask them if it's the right way to go about it or point out how they're wrong. They absolutely blew a gasket when a bunch of people started posting to their blog when they were advocating that you go waste the time of people at Apple's Genius Bars, wrote a snarky message to everyone who had commented saying that what they were suggesting was not a good way to do it, and then closed blog comments for that entry and deleted all the ones that were there. Silly children can't take criticism.)
Why would the average computer user want to listen to their music on Linux? They use Windows or OS X.
But I'd agree with that. :(
You know what the fun thing is? I agree with you.
I did not call NeverVotedBush a freetard because he was "uninformed." I called him a freetard because he is very much exemplifying the knee-jerk, "MUST TIE EVERYTHING INTO WHY WINDOWS SUCKS" attitude that pervades a very large part of Slashdot. The groupthink that anything even peripherally related to Windows or Microsoft, whether or not it still applies, is--well, more or less precisely that: the act of a freetard. It's a behavior pattern, not simply a pejorative.
And for what it's worth, I agree with you regarding insecure nerds. My fiancee might suggest that it doesn't quite apply to me, though. ;-) Or, at least, not IRL, and I don't consider being pointed and aggressive online to be a mark of security or insecurity. I have no real issue with being as pointed as the situation warrants--and given that the person I replied to is more or less a troll himself, "very pointed" was the order of the day. You'll notice that in speaking to you, to another poster who writes with a degree of eloquence and intelligence, I'm making a concerted effort to be respectful and explain my position. "NeverVotedBush" does not rate that, and so I did not do so. :-)
As far as I'm aware, it's an entirely new defrag engine. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure.
The "link" (however security-audited and tested) that was entirely removed for Server 2008/Vista? Really?
Christ, freetard. Get a grip.
Keep pirating. Buy the games you like.
The problem with this is that far, far too many people will go "keep pirating--buy nothing."
Ever see a torrent that's full of .rar file segments?
They're full of .rar chunks because that's how the 0-day group released it on usenet.
Right, but with this, you can install it as many places as you want, no CD checks--it only plays on one at a time.
So you should be able to play your games on as many computers concurrently as you want?
Gee, I can't imagine how that doesn't screw the publisher.
Idiot.
Digital download. Ability to download your games on as many machines as you want (and play on one at a time, which I consider fair). Integrated grouping/friends-lists with Steam Friends and a built-in matchmaker.
It's pretty excellent.
Moonlight's already working in trunk for a good chunk of code. Isn't there yet, but hey--it's open source, they're supposed to get a pass for that, right? :)
Too bad Theora sucks.
(And to head off the "OMG TROLL!" screams: Vorbis is an extremely good audio format, and one I use myself in my own projects because the libraries for it are reasonably good and easy to handle--but Theora is an absolute shit video format compared to pretty much everything else in common use.)
Abstraction and cross-platform targeting are both "lazy" and "smart."
I mean, we could all write code in assembly language for every architecture we could ever want. Or we could use Flash/.NET/Java/whatever to target everything we might conceivably want with less hassle. Tough choice, that.
I knew somebody would question that. Keep in mind that this is not a condemnation of the Muslim religion or the majority of its adherents.
That said, a) riots among Muslim youths in Western Europe, b) the rise of madrasa-type schools across Europe, c) the outright refusal to assimilate into the general culture into which they're moving, and d) the viciously forceful insistence on bending the general culture to do what they as a small minority want--I consider those all pretty gnarly problems with Muslim immigration as a whole right now, and it looks very much like Europe would rather capitulate and hand everything to these groups on a silver platter than assert their own status as sovereign nations.
As such, I question whether they have the strength of will, as an organization, to assert the power that they have as a large, affluent, influential group of nations.
Unfortunately, that's not how it'll work. If everybody went and preferred "hard assets," the global economy would seize up overnight.
This particular method of making something from nothing (loan paper and derivatives) will not be popular, though, you're right about that.
I agree with you on what Friedman tends to do, but this is something of the exception. He points to what he calls, tongue-in-cheek, the Dell Theory of Conflict Management. As global supply chains grow and interlock, it'll grow harder and harder to engage in conflicts, either socially, politically, or militarily, for fear of twisting up your economic "place" in those supply chains (Dell being the obvious example of a company with a very integrated, very slick global supply network).
It really is worth a read, once you get past the halfway point or so.