I never said abuse didn't happen before, only that the cameras could be potentially abused, and easily so.
So basically you're saying that it's ok for power to be abused in this manner now that it's obviously being abused? Or is this just more along the lines of preferring a known evil vs. an unknown one?
Though I personally am not particularly concerned about traffic cameras, I think I can address one of your points.
The difference between cell cameras and traffic cameras is that traffic camera video is all pooled together and can be used to track someone (by license plate) with relative ease (compared to cell cameras). The issue isn't that the pictures are being taken, it's that there are so many being controlled by one organization.
It's not so much the threat to liberty that's an issue but rather the fact that it can be potentially abused by someone with access to the data.
Of course the problem there is that your average Internet user doesn't know or care about the difference between the levels of service / verification provided by the different authorities.
For them, if the browser lets them in without a warning (or maybe, at the absolute most advanced, they actually look for the "little lock icon"), it must be ok to be there.
As long as browsers keep letting the little $14 "Turbo" (or whatever) certs through with the same level of confidence as the "real" ones, SSL certs will continue to do nothing but encrypt the connection between the browser and server.
Where I live, I pay to have my trash picked up. It's a flat fee for up to n cubic feet of solid waste (I don't remember the actual number). It's on my water bill (not just in some tax), and in fact is higher than the actual water part.
Is there finally a Linux/Myth compatible HD tuner card with CableCard support? If not, they simply cannot be considered a viable alternative to the Series 3 / Tivo HD.
I was really, really hoping you were joking about that. I almost hoped it was a rickroll or goatse or something. Anything would've been better than that.
It may be a fringe use but I can see where it would be useful to have the drives encrypted so that, in case of failure, the drives can be easily disposed of or returned to the manufacturer without any privacy concerns.
The HR people all invariably say "that's not what we're intending"- BULLSHIT.
Exactly. I went back and forth with my current employer for a month over my employment agreement trying to get the noncompete and IP clauses tweaked. The fact was that he didn't even know what was in it or what those clauses meant. The lawyer had pretty much churned out the whole thing and I had to go through it and rewrite / tweak the parts I disagreed with. The whole time, I had to explain to my (soon to be) employer what everything meant and why I wouldn't agree to have everything I do be owned by the company and agree not to work again in the region for years after I was done with the job. After several revisions, it finally got where everyone was happy.
You really have to pay attention to what you're signing and have a decent idea of what it all means. As my situation shows, even if your employer has the best of intentions, it may be a bad agreement. You have to take responsibility for looking out for your own best interests.
Lucky for you, there is Ogg Vorbis, which is technically superior to MP3 anyway, in terms of quality per byte.
Ok, let's briefly go over the list of players I own that will support MP3 without any additional h4x0ring required (i.e., the format can be played using minimal effort and official software):
The PCs running Windows (obviously)
Car stereo
Mobile phone
DVD players (all 5 of them from different manufacturers)
iPod Shuffle
TiVo
PSP
... and I'm probably missing a few. Just about everything can play MP3s these days. It's ridiculous. I'd be surprised if someone hasn't already released an MP3-playing toothbrush.
The album I bought was tagged as having been encoded with LAME 3.97 V0. That's better than I encode my own rips, and I'm usually pretty picky about quality, so I have no problems with their encoding quality.
I think this is fantastic. I was able to get a Lol Hammond album I've been looking for (All This is Bliss) for $15+ less than I would've had to pay for the CD (assuming I could find the CD), the quality is as near perfect as I care about, I didn't have to wait for shipping, and there's no DRM to fool with. I really hope this is successful.
Two: this is where Wall Street has a darling busted by DRM. It's really too much to hope for, but since TiVo is a household name, maybe finally a few legislators may become personally aware of how over-restrictive media controls really interfere with the consumer's best interests.
Could you elaborate on that? I looked through the article and didn't see any mention of DRM causing problems.
Aside from a few bugs last year, I can't recall DRM being a problem for the TiVo. I personally have been able to do pretty much whatever I want with the content on the TiVo (copying it to a computer, using it on other devices, burning to DVDs, you name it). I also have no problems with transferring whatever video I want off the computer onto the TiVo. Both of my TiVos are completely unmodified and I'm only using readily-available software either provided by TiVo or otherwise readily available and linked from their own forums.
So how exactly is DRM causing problems for TiVo? Or are you saying that it's their lack of overly-restrictive DRM is what's causing the problem?
That's exactly my take on this. For years, I would spend hours on end configuring, tweaking, and customizing and then one day I had one reinstall too many and decided all the customizing wasn't worth it. No more renaming "My Computer," changing icons, or setting themes and screensavers. These days, I pretty much set wallpaper, install 7-zip, Firefox, IrfanView, and SciTE, and I'm good to go. That takes maybe 10-15 minutes, max.
Anything beyond that and it's more like installing whatever apps the computer needs to do what I own it for, which I don't really consider "making it home," because it's different for every box.
Actually, they probably do mean iPod specific. There are plenty of new cars that come with iPod control options (control through the steering wheel or head unit, similarly to a CD changer). From what I've read, most of these leave a lot to be desired.
I'd actually prefer a standard AUX in, personally.
Because that CD was not intended only for you, and there are only a limited number of CDs pressed, the seller didn't lose money (someone else will come along and buy the record).
But we're not talking about a CD. We're talking about an MP3 of which they can essentially make infinite copies. By restricting sales of the MP3 to a specific market (probably the UK or Europe in general, in this case), they're losing money on any potential sales outside that region.
Sure, it's probably more due to their lack of a license to distribute outside that region than anything else but that only goes further to illustrate the brokenness of regional distribution contracts for digitally distributed media.
This looks a lot like Launchy, which does a lot of this but is free and open source.
I've been using it for months and it's fantastic. From looking at the demos, I can't seem to find anything Enso has added to make it worth the price premium.
Interestingly enough, this is a problem I rarely encounter buying physical media. Only the downloads are ever restricted in this manner.
For instance, I was just yesterday digging in Beatport for an Armin Van Buuren track that was released on Nebula. They had exactly what I wanted but wouldn't sell it to me due to region.
I figured I had two options: steal it from somewhere or buy the physical record from a store in the states. I bought the record and, as it was on a different label (but still imported), both Beatport and Nebula lost money on that one.
It's due to restrictions like this that, while digital distribution is growing, the market for physical media (even vinyl records, in this particular case) is going to be around for at least a little while longer.
They have your money already and, hence, little incentive to listen to you anymore. Sony only needs to care about this if it prevents the sale of their system and they don't seem to be having any problems moving units.
What, did the FSF see this coming months in advance and include a clause to handle this specific situation or are they now going back to add it?
As bad an idea as I think this MS / Novell deal is, statements like that really make GPLv3 look more like a political statement than a viable, useful license. It may make people feel good to put things like this in there but it doesn't change the fact that it's still a highly complex and restrictive license.
Thanks for confirming the satellite bitrate... I've always wondered about that. I had Sirius for about 6 months last year but dumped it because it sounded horrible (worse than FM, IMO) and they dropped Remix.
Right on. That's pretty much what I meant. They're removing something cheap that people do want but leaving the BluRay drive that most people don't seem to be interested in.
Hirai says they're removing the technology the consumer doesn't really need so they can make it more affordable. That makes perfect sense in context, don't you think?
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I never said abuse didn't happen before, only that the cameras could be potentially abused, and easily so.
So basically you're saying that it's ok for power to be abused in this manner now that it's obviously being abused? Or is this just more along the lines of preferring a known evil vs. an unknown one?
Though I personally am not particularly concerned about traffic cameras, I think I can address one of your points.
The difference between cell cameras and traffic cameras is that traffic camera video is all pooled together and can be used to track someone (by license plate) with relative ease (compared to cell cameras). The issue isn't that the pictures are being taken, it's that there are so many being controlled by one organization.
It's not so much the threat to liberty that's an issue but rather the fact that it can be potentially abused by someone with access to the data.
Of course the problem there is that your average Internet user doesn't know or care about the difference between the levels of service / verification provided by the different authorities.
For them, if the browser lets them in without a warning (or maybe, at the absolute most advanced, they actually look for the "little lock icon"), it must be ok to be there.
As long as browsers keep letting the little $14 "Turbo" (or whatever) certs through with the same level of confidence as the "real" ones, SSL certs will continue to do nothing but encrypt the connection between the browser and server.
Where I live, I pay to have my trash picked up. It's a flat fee for up to n cubic feet of solid waste (I don't remember the actual number). It's on my water bill (not just in some tax), and in fact is higher than the actual water part.
Is there finally a Linux/Myth compatible HD tuner card with CableCard support? If not, they simply cannot be considered a viable alternative to the Series 3 / Tivo HD.
I was really, really hoping you were joking about that. I almost hoped it was a rickroll or goatse or something. Anything would've been better than that.
It may be a fringe use but I can see where it would be useful to have the drives encrypted so that, in case of failure, the drives can be easily disposed of or returned to the manufacturer without any privacy concerns.
I'd like to try that out. Could you link to those programs please?
Exactly. I went back and forth with my current employer for a month over my employment agreement trying to get the noncompete and IP clauses tweaked. The fact was that he didn't even know what was in it or what those clauses meant. The lawyer had pretty much churned out the whole thing and I had to go through it and rewrite / tweak the parts I disagreed with. The whole time, I had to explain to my (soon to be) employer what everything meant and why I wouldn't agree to have everything I do be owned by the company and agree not to work again in the region for years after I was done with the job. After several revisions, it finally got where everyone was happy.
You really have to pay attention to what you're signing and have a decent idea of what it all means. As my situation shows, even if your employer has the best of intentions, it may be a bad agreement. You have to take responsibility for looking out for your own best interests.
I wish I had mod points right now. That's a fantastic analogy, IMO.
Ok, let's briefly go over the list of players I own that will support MP3 without any additional h4x0ring required (i.e., the format can be played using minimal effort and official software):
Ok, and here's what supports OGG:
OGG is really catching on, isn't it?
The album I bought was tagged as having been encoded with LAME 3.97 V0. That's better than I encode my own rips, and I'm usually pretty picky about quality, so I have no problems with their encoding quality.
I think this is fantastic. I was able to get a Lol Hammond album I've been looking for (All This is Bliss) for $15+ less than I would've had to pay for the CD (assuming I could find the CD), the quality is as near perfect as I care about, I didn't have to wait for shipping, and there's no DRM to fool with. I really hope this is successful.
I wish I had mod points right now. This is exactly the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline.
Could you elaborate on that? I looked through the article and didn't see any mention of DRM causing problems.
Aside from a few bugs last year, I can't recall DRM being a problem for the TiVo. I personally have been able to do pretty much whatever I want with the content on the TiVo (copying it to a computer, using it on other devices, burning to DVDs, you name it). I also have no problems with transferring whatever video I want off the computer onto the TiVo. Both of my TiVos are completely unmodified and I'm only using readily-available software either provided by TiVo or otherwise readily available and linked from their own forums.
So how exactly is DRM causing problems for TiVo? Or are you saying that it's their lack of overly-restrictive DRM is what's causing the problem?
That's exactly my take on this. For years, I would spend hours on end configuring, tweaking, and customizing and then one day I had one reinstall too many and decided all the customizing wasn't worth it. No more renaming "My Computer," changing icons, or setting themes and screensavers. These days, I pretty much set wallpaper, install 7-zip, Firefox, IrfanView, and SciTE, and I'm good to go. That takes maybe 10-15 minutes, max.
Anything beyond that and it's more like installing whatever apps the computer needs to do what I own it for, which I don't really consider "making it home," because it's different for every box.
Seriously. Imagine trying to scroll down a really long list with the steering wheel!
Actually, they probably do mean iPod specific. There are plenty of new cars that come with iPod control options (control through the steering wheel or head unit, similarly to a CD changer). From what I've read, most of these leave a lot to be desired.
I'd actually prefer a standard AUX in, personally.
But we're not talking about a CD. We're talking about an MP3 of which they can essentially make infinite copies. By restricting sales of the MP3 to a specific market (probably the UK or Europe in general, in this case), they're losing money on any potential sales outside that region.
Sure, it's probably more due to their lack of a license to distribute outside that region than anything else but that only goes further to illustrate the brokenness of regional distribution contracts for digitally distributed media.
This looks a lot like Launchy, which does a lot of this but is free and open source.
I've been using it for months and it's fantastic. From looking at the demos, I can't seem to find anything Enso has added to make it worth the price premium.
Interestingly enough, this is a problem I rarely encounter buying physical media. Only the downloads are ever restricted in this manner.
For instance, I was just yesterday digging in Beatport for an Armin Van Buuren track that was released on Nebula. They had exactly what I wanted but wouldn't sell it to me due to region.
I figured I had two options: steal it from somewhere or buy the physical record from a store in the states. I bought the record and, as it was on a different label (but still imported), both Beatport and Nebula lost money on that one.
It's due to restrictions like this that, while digital distribution is growing, the market for physical media (even vinyl records, in this particular case) is going to be around for at least a little while longer.
What, did the FSF see this coming months in advance and include a clause to handle this specific situation or are they now going back to add it?
As bad an idea as I think this MS / Novell deal is, statements like that really make GPLv3 look more like a political statement than a viable, useful license. It may make people feel good to put things like this in there but it doesn't change the fact that it's still a highly complex and restrictive license.
Thanks for confirming the satellite bitrate ... I've always wondered about that. I had Sirius for about 6 months last year but dumped it because it sounded horrible (worse than FM, IMO) and they dropped Remix.
Right on. That's pretty much what I meant. They're removing something cheap that people do want but leaving the BluRay drive that most people don't seem to be interested in.
Hirai says they're removing the technology the consumer doesn't really need so they can make it more affordable. That makes perfect sense in context, don't you think?