... most of their tools are prefixed with GNU in some fashion?
We developed programs such as GCC, GNU Emacs, GAS, GLIBC, BASH, etc., because we needed them for the GNU operating system. GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection is the compiler that we wrote for the GNU operating system. We developed Ghostscript, GNUCash, GNU Chess and GNOME for the GNU system too.
You'd think that would be enough to let people know who wrote the tools.........
The name of each authentication effort implies that we'll be gaining some type of "freedom" in handling our online commerce affairs. But isn't this just bringing us one step closer to Larry Ellison's vision of user profiling on a nationwide -- perhaps even global -- scale?
In addition, there's no way I trust what a corporation is going to do with my data, given the ease with which privacy statements are altered. Maybe if I lived in the European Union, I might feel better about it -- those guys seem to take privacy seriously, even if their networks aren't as built-up as those in the US -- but I simply don't trust American Big Business at all these days.
....exceptional hardware/software driver detection and installation, an intuitive interface that has been copied time and again (KDE PIM?), and the largest library of software (freeware, shareware or proprietary) on the planet?
Yes, I'll be the first to admit -- Windows has been pissing me off as of late. But I'm a techie........ apparently the # of people like me versus the overall market is quite low. I can put up with the bugs in the system.......... you ask the average user to sit down with a Linux box, search the net for Linux drivers for any given bit of hardware, etc....... it ain't gonna happen.
I'll probably get troll-modded and/or flamed for this, but hey -- you're entitled to your opinion.
I'm looking to get into Linux _and_ get more nitty-gritty experience with hardware....... I don't suppose there's anything like this in NJ/NY? I'd gladly volunteer my time with an effort like this, in exchange for some hand-holding and with the product of my efforts ultimately going towards a good cause.
... One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Redmond where the APIs lie. One OS to rule them all, some DRM to find them, One OS to bring them all and with their EULA bind them In the Land of Redmond where the APIs lie.
I suppose this means telecoms will now be held accountable for the traffic passing across their networks. That should be fun for them......... will they be pushing legislation that will allow them to h4x0r j00r cellphone now, as well?
.... although I'd refine it a bit saying this: by boosting prices to pump up revenues, the music industry is losing business to smaller bakeries that specialize in high-quality but somewhat less mainstream types of bread (French boulangeries, Jewish delis, etc). Or people would buy their own bread-making machine and roll their own.
All of this is true now -- people can buy their own breadmaking machines and make their own bread, and it actually does taste quite good (even if you don't get the satisfaction of window-shopping for it). Of course, the reason Wonder Bread is still in business is that their product is priced affordably, and the cost is in line with the convenience it affords. In buying a loaf of Wonder Bread, you don't have to buy your own ingredients, wait the requisite amount of time for the bread to bake, bother with the cleanup. And given the margin savings by baking your own, a lot of people (most?) do buy bread from the store.
The music industry, on the other hand, has not opted to price their music affordably. Or at least, to the point where people find that the time and money saved (on various "ingredients" -- in this case, burner + software + media + digital players) makes their music as attractive (no less so) than buying it from the store. In fact, pirating music has outstripped the music industry's own ability to give the people what they want.
The answer to the music industry's problems aren't as simple as some might have you believe. But I believe that it starts with their assumption that they are responsible for the success of the music industry. GOOD MUSIC sells good music -- it's the crappy flash-in-the-pan acts that require a $100 million budget to promote their schtick. And I think this leads to the biggest crime of all -- a lot of successful artists aren't being compensated fairly for their success, because their profit margins are being cannibalized to subsidize all the unsuccessful acts the Industry backs!
Here's an idea: instead of selling CDs at retail, boost the price of show tickets and give the CDs away while they're on tour (at first, anyway). More money goes to the artists and the fans get music for cheap. And if the fans should happen to share the music online, it's no big deal -- the artist doesn't make any money on them anyway, and it can only help to promote their music. It's an idea..............
Here's a doomsday scenario for the RIAA: backup devices finally catch up to hard drive space, in terms of size and speed. Meanwhile, the RIAA begins busting individual traders........ or at least trying to. All it would take is backing up a 320GB drive to tape(s), and then sending a copy of the tape(s) to contacts beyond the legal reach of the RIAA. Guerilla pirating at its absolute worst.......... in the RIAA's eyes, of course.
Yes, the RIAA probably has miles upon miles of vat-grown, genetically-engineered pop superstars waiting to be activated in their lair, deep within the bowls of Mount Rosen. But that doesn't mean a good band that doesn't fit the mold can't hit it big without their help.
Think about it -- if you cut out the majority of the (unnecessary) expenses that go into "making" a good group, you have a chance. This means that you look for solid ways to get your music heard on the cheap: college airwaves, local radio stations, online downloads, flyers at concerts, heavy touring. Hell, Wierd Al Yankovic did it (I'm not joking) -- why not these guys?
Also, keeping your expenses in check will help as well. This means shopping around for decent prices at places to stay; shopping around for decent prices when manufacturing CDs, or purchasing gear to burn CDs and print labels. At least at first -- once they make their first billion, then maybe the Hilton might look nicer than the Super-8 $12 special.:)
But make no mistake -- it won't be easy. Which is the point, really -- only those bands who really love the music will make the effort, and hence reap the rewards. You _could_ always go with a label, but then you're playing according to somebody else's rules.............
Actually, by buying an X-Box and running Linux on it, you're actively contributing to the downfall of Microsoft. Here's how:
Microsoft relies on selling game licenses to make a profit off of their whole X-Box venture. And in order to remain competitive with Sony's PSX-2 pricing, they've had to heavily slash their unit costs. The net effect? They take a loss on each unit sold ($150, maybe more?), with the expecatation that if they sell enough games per unit, they'll be able to make that money back (and then some). By buying an X-Box, you're hitting MS where it hurts...... and no, companies don't have nuts.
Live365.com is the one that comes to mind right away -- but my tastes skew more towards the trance / goa scene for online radio, so the rest of the sites that I know of probably aren't appropriate.
Online radio = a good thing. Even regular radio = a good thing.
I thought I was gonna get my ass kicked at a Sox-Yankees game a few months ago. Sox ended up waxing the Yankees by the 8th, and everybody started leaving. This after they were so vocal about how they sucked........ so I stood up and started yelling: "Why are you all leaving? It's not over yet, is it? The Yankees really are the best players in baseball, right?". Got some very unpleasant looks from people....... fortunately, I had already spent upwards of $50 on beer, so I didn't mind at the time.
I have no desire to intentionally spam people, but if that ad isn't all in their faces, is it really that bad of a thing? And honestly, Shareaza works 5x as well for me as Gnucleus ever did. Plus, it looks / feels like a mature application....... not a big deal to some, but a trait that I definitely miss from the Napster days of yore.
Or at least, interestingly. I'm really not that hardcore of a geek -- I'm just about to learn how to install / config multiple HDDs (under Windows, no less) this coming weekend, and I haven't worked with a real command-line language since DOS 6.22 -- so I'm a bit anxious about jumping into Linux. But I'd at least like to find out what all the hubbub is about, especially since it seems like Linux is finally approaching its critical mass.........
A good friend of mine who gave it a shot (and is very similar to me, in terms of technical background and disposition) says it's still not that much fun to use, and that a lot of the tools out there aren't as friendly as Windows. But at the very least, I would like to explore Linux as a media / file storage platform -- the whole Windows Media Player debacle has really pissed me off in the past few months, and I have no intention of letting a damn COMPANY tell me what I can or can't do with my files (be they warezed, ripped or 100% legit).
So we'll see where this takes me......... should be interesting, to say the least.:)
Up until recently, I didn't think there was a quality alternative to Microsoft's Windows Media Player for playing videos on my box. This really started to irk me when they started factoring all kinds of DRM stuff into it -- into the EULA and the app itself.
Imagine my joy when I discovered that the newest version of WinAmp now supports video playback for a number of popular file formats. And even if it is an early release, it will only get better...... as such, I've uninstalled WMP and have no plans to upgrade my OS going forward. In fact, I suspect I'll probably be giving Linux a fair shot in the coming months....... I figure the ability to make the OS work for _me_ far outweighs the compromises I'd have to settle for if I went with Microsoft instead.
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... most of their tools are prefixed with GNU in some fashion?
We developed programs such as GCC, GNU Emacs, GAS, GLIBC, BASH, etc., because we needed them for the GNU operating system. GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection is the compiler that we wrote for the GNU operating system. We developed Ghostscript, GNUCash, GNU Chess and GNOME for the GNU system too.
You'd think that would be enough to let people know who wrote the tools.........
The name of each authentication effort implies that we'll be gaining some type of "freedom" in handling our online commerce affairs. But isn't this just bringing us one step closer to Larry Ellison's vision of user profiling on a nationwide -- perhaps even global -- scale?
In addition, there's no way I trust what a corporation is going to do with my data, given the ease with which privacy statements are altered. Maybe if I lived in the European Union, I might feel better about it -- those guys seem to take privacy seriously, even if their networks aren't as built-up as those in the US -- but I simply don't trust American Big Business at all these days.
....exceptional hardware/software driver detection and installation, an intuitive interface that has been copied time and again (KDE PIM?), and the largest library of software (freeware, shareware or proprietary) on the planet?
Yes, I'll be the first to admit -- Windows has been pissing me off as of late. But I'm a techie........ apparently the # of people like me versus the overall market is quite low. I can put up with the bugs in the system.......... you ask the average user to sit down with a Linux box, search the net for Linux drivers for any given bit of hardware, etc....... it ain't gonna happen.
I'll probably get troll-modded and/or flamed for this, but hey -- you're entitled to your opinion.
They should just call it Nasal Gonorrhea and be done with it. :)
I'm looking to get into Linux _and_ get more nitty-gritty experience with hardware....... I don't suppose there's anything like this in NJ/NY? I'd gladly volunteer my time with an effort like this, in exchange for some hand-holding and with the product of my efforts ultimately going towards a good cause.
"KaZaA" and "Lite". http://www.kazaalite.com/
he's probably a 133+ g4mz3r!
+h3 c0rr3c+ 4n5|/\|3r 15 "nu+z".
"ay-pee-eyes"
... One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Redmond where the APIs lie.
One OS to rule them all, some DRM to find them,
One OS to bring them all and with their EULA bind them
In the Land of Redmond where the APIs lie.
... with one small difference, of course: WTM isn't safe. :)
I suppose this means telecoms will now be held accountable for the traffic passing across their networks. That should be fun for them......... will they be pushing legislation that will allow them to h4x0r j00r cellphone now, as well?
.... although I'd refine it a bit saying this: by boosting prices to pump up revenues, the music industry is losing business to smaller bakeries that specialize in high-quality but somewhat less mainstream types of bread (French boulangeries, Jewish delis, etc). Or people would buy their own bread-making machine and roll their own.
All of this is true now -- people can buy their own breadmaking machines and make their own bread, and it actually does taste quite good (even if you don't get the satisfaction of window-shopping for it). Of course, the reason Wonder Bread is still in business is that their product is priced affordably, and the cost is in line with the convenience it affords. In buying a loaf of Wonder Bread, you don't have to buy your own ingredients, wait the requisite amount of time for the bread to bake, bother with the cleanup. And given the margin savings by baking your own, a lot of people (most?) do buy bread from the store.
The music industry, on the other hand, has not opted to price their music affordably. Or at least, to the point where people find that the time and money saved (on various "ingredients" -- in this case, burner + software + media + digital players) makes their music as attractive (no less so) than buying it from the store. In fact, pirating music has outstripped the music industry's own ability to give the people what they want.
The answer to the music industry's problems aren't as simple as some might have you believe. But I believe that it starts with their assumption that they are responsible for the success of the music industry. GOOD MUSIC sells good music -- it's the crappy flash-in-the-pan acts that require a $100 million budget to promote their schtick. And I think this leads to the biggest crime of all -- a lot of successful artists aren't being compensated fairly for their success, because their profit margins are being cannibalized to subsidize all the unsuccessful acts the Industry backs!
Here's an idea: instead of selling CDs at retail, boost the price of show tickets and give the CDs away while they're on tour (at first, anyway). More money goes to the artists and the fans get music for cheap. And if the fans should happen to share the music online, it's no big deal -- the artist doesn't make any money on them anyway, and it can only help to promote their music. It's an idea..............
Here's a doomsday scenario for the RIAA: backup devices finally catch up to hard drive space, in terms of size and speed. Meanwhile, the RIAA begins busting individual traders........ or at least trying to. All it would take is backing up a 320GB drive to tape(s), and then sending a copy of the tape(s) to contacts beyond the legal reach of the RIAA. Guerilla pirating at its absolute worst.......... in the RIAA's eyes, of course.
If that's what they want, that's what they'll get -- a daily helping of the contents of my Spam folder, courtesy of Cloudmark's SpamNet.
We should pit Joshua against Deep Blue and see who comes out on top.
And you thought Doom 3 required a lot of resources? Baby ain't got NOTHING on Mancala!
Yes, the RIAA probably has miles upon miles of vat-grown, genetically-engineered pop superstars waiting to be activated in their lair, deep within the bowls of Mount Rosen. But that doesn't mean a good band that doesn't fit the mold can't hit it big without their help.
:)
Think about it -- if you cut out the majority of the (unnecessary) expenses that go into "making" a good group, you have a chance. This means that you look for solid ways to get your music heard on the cheap: college airwaves, local radio stations, online downloads, flyers at concerts, heavy touring. Hell, Wierd Al Yankovic did it (I'm not joking) -- why not these guys?
Also, keeping your expenses in check will help as well. This means shopping around for decent prices at places to stay; shopping around for decent prices when manufacturing CDs, or purchasing gear to burn CDs and print labels. At least at first -- once they make their first billion, then maybe the Hilton might look nicer than the Super-8 $12 special.
But make no mistake -- it won't be easy. Which is the point, really -- only those bands who really love the music will make the effort, and hence reap the rewards. You _could_ always go with a label, but then you're playing according to somebody else's rules.............
Actually, by buying an X-Box and running Linux on it, you're actively contributing to the downfall of Microsoft. Here's how:
Microsoft relies on selling game licenses to make a profit off of their whole X-Box venture. And in order to remain competitive with Sony's PSX-2 pricing, they've had to heavily slash their unit costs. The net effect? They take a loss on each unit sold ($150, maybe more?), with the expecatation that if they sell enough games per unit, they'll be able to make that money back (and then some). By buying an X-Box, you're hitting MS where it hurts...... and no, companies don't have nuts.
Live365.com is the one that comes to mind right away -- but my tastes skew more towards the trance / goa scene for online radio, so the rest of the sites that I know of probably aren't appropriate.
Online radio = a good thing. Even regular radio = a good thing.
I thought I was gonna get my ass kicked at a Sox-Yankees game a few months ago. Sox ended up waxing the Yankees by the 8th, and everybody started leaving. This after they were so vocal about how they sucked........ so I stood up and started yelling: "Why are you all leaving? It's not over yet, is it? The Yankees really are the best players in baseball, right?". Got some very unpleasant looks from people....... fortunately, I had already spent upwards of $50 on beer, so I didn't mind at the time.
I have no desire to intentionally spam people, but if that ad isn't all in their faces, is it really that bad of a thing? And honestly, Shareaza works 5x as well for me as Gnucleus ever did. Plus, it looks / feels like a mature application....... not a big deal to some, but a trait that I definitely miss from the Napster days of yore.
Or at least, interestingly. I'm really not that hardcore of a geek -- I'm just about to learn how to install / config multiple HDDs (under Windows, no less) this coming weekend, and I haven't worked with a real command-line language since DOS 6.22 -- so I'm a bit anxious about jumping into Linux. But I'd at least like to find out what all the hubbub is about, especially since it seems like Linux is finally approaching its critical mass.........
:)
A good friend of mine who gave it a shot (and is very similar to me, in terms of technical background and disposition) says it's still not that much fun to use, and that a lot of the tools out there aren't as friendly as Windows. But at the very least, I would like to explore Linux as a media / file storage platform -- the whole Windows Media Player debacle has really pissed me off in the past few months, and I have no intention of letting a damn COMPANY tell me what I can or can't do with my files (be they warezed, ripped or 100% legit).
So we'll see where this takes me......... should be interesting, to say the least.
Up until recently, I didn't think there was a quality alternative to Microsoft's Windows Media Player for playing videos on my box. This really started to irk me when they started factoring all kinds of DRM stuff into it -- into the EULA and the app itself.
Imagine my joy when I discovered that the newest version of WinAmp now supports video playback for a number of popular file formats. And even if it is an early release, it will only get better...... as such, I've uninstalled WMP and have no plans to upgrade my OS going forward. In fact, I suspect I'll probably be giving Linux a fair shot in the coming months....... I figure the ability to make the OS work for _me_ far outweighs the compromises I'd have to settle for if I went with Microsoft instead.
"I like to build things and change my world."