If I end up with a locally installed root kit on my laptop, I'll only have myself to blame. For some reason, though, I lack the motivation to recompile the kernel to protect myself from myself.
Same story here...except Outlook doesn't work on Linux. Thunderbird + webmail extensions solved all my problems. I'd only lose 30-days of messages if I'm ever offline for that long (but that probably means I'm dead anyway), because I get local copies in Thunderbird. Thus, I feel no pain inflicted by any monopolistic tactics - if someday Microsoft does something to break those extensions in Thunderbird, then I'll be kind-of pissed off, but that just means I'll stop using it. Really, it would be a small inconvenience for me in the long-run.
Yes, you're right about that too. Particularly with Open Source software, but at least Open Source is upfront about it, and responds with updates/patches as soon as they can be fixed. Proprietary software like Windows is sold under the premise that it's a complete and fully functional product, and that's what they expect you to pay for. I can't say I've read the labels, but I highly doubt that it says anywhere on the box for Vista that you should expect problems, which may or may not be resolved in subsequent updates or service packs (as deemed appropriate by Microsoft).
You may be right (I haven't used Vista myself), but you certainly reinforce the case that it's better to wait until SP1 or SP2 before migrating to Vista. If Vista is still maturing, then it was immature when it was released...I think most customers would prefer that the products they pay for are in fully functional order.
I think mowing lawns is the skill you'll want to hone the most...it is the most likely to satisfy your amazonian woman overlords enough to keep you around.
...would be to just shut down MySpace altogether. That'll accomplish essentially the same thing, won't it? Unless anyone over the age of 18 actively uses MySpace (except for self-promoting politicians and pop-stars)...
Haven't you seen the Body Snatchers? The big media industries want everyone to be mindless drones who point and scream to alert others if anyone is infringing copyright.
Sure, but there are plenty of areas where none of the above apply. I live in an area where that is not near any water, has only intermittent sun and wind so another power source is necessary. Do you have to live next to a nuclear reactor or a coal fired power plant to get electricity? I think the issue of distance between production and use of electricity has already been dealt with.
I imagine you are right about this. However, this is not well known (at least not among my peers in Canada - and you can bet that I don't really plan to verify so myself). However, the fact that there is an option to do this should be relatively common knowledge...if anything to provide a benchmark against which the trustworthiness of electronic systems should be measured.
Now, how should I notice whether my vote has been counted correctly or whether it has been twisted around? I think this is equally applicable to paper voting...on an individual level at least. When I vote, I mark a piece of paper and put it in a box - once it's in the box, there is no link back to me (except maybe fingerprints). That's the last I ever see of of my ballot. I personally have no means to verify that the piece of paper I submitted has been counted correctly, or if my vote was altered in any way.
The first one I came across a few years ago was Kahvi. Since then I've followed leads from Kahvi, and dug around to get more variety. I've found that the problem is not finding free (legal) music, but that it's difficult to such music that I actually like. Basically, about half of what I encounter is worth listening to more than once, and maybe one in ten releases I find are really good (worth listening to many times). That, and basically everything I find is electronic (which often comes in the form of somewhat boring ambient or arbitrary noise). Here's a few netlabels/artists/archives that I've been following that seem better than most:
http://kahvi.org/ (as described above - definitely some really good stuff here, if you can sift through the music that doesn't suit you from the hundreds of releases)
http://psilodump.se/ Psilodump is by far one of my favourites...his releases are scattered around in various locations (e.g., Kahvi, X-Dump), but they can be found
Of course, as others have pointed out already, many of these artists/netlabels have their media hosted by scene.org or archive.org - for the larger collections, it's sometimes easier just to browse the corresponding file repositories via FTP.
To the point: does ET really matter?
on
Is SETI Worth It?
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· Score: 1
Lets think about this for a moment. Sure...any rational person is likely to agree that, given the size of the universe, our own existence is proof enough that sentient life probably exists elsewhere.
But really...until we learn to transfer communications at speeds faster than light (let's not worry about travel yet), what's the point? Yay...we find out there are aliens somewhere. What meaningful interaction can we possible have with another species that resides on a rock located some hundreds or thousands of light years away? This also assumes they'd notice us too, and would return communication. If not, then we're going to have to get some really wicked telescopes to learn more about them - or hopefully learn warp speed to pay them a visit.
So...back to reality, and the small chance we find ET somewhere. My question is: Would simple confirmation of the existence of ET (and the likelihood of gaining nothing more than that tidbit of knowledge) really be worth the money/resources expended?
Doesn't a solid state drive already get us halfway there? Maybe instant-on would be nice, but having little or no room to customize/make changes to the software I run would be unbearable for me, and many others I imagine.
I'd also add that while I would miss/. should it someday disappear, I'm not really worried about what will happen if it does. It would be particularly bad for those closest/most involved. However, I know that there are enough smart people here that the community would likely re-emerge more or less intact, with essentially all of the same ideals, but hosted/managed elsewhere.
Add to this the problem that XP on a low cost laptop becomes the initial hardware price, plus $X for the OS, plus $Y for useful productivity software (assuming MS pushes that too), plus $Z for who knows what else. I know there's no reason anyone would be forced to buy extra software just because their machine runs Windows, but you have to admit that it helps reinforce the mindset that software should be purchased from a company like MS. Try to imagine that mindset combined with the perspective of new users in developing regions where computing is still not so ubiquitous as it is in more developed places. OTOH, Linux (BSD or whatever) on a low cost laptop is the initial hardware price, plus $0 for the OS, $0 for useful productivity software that is often pre-installed, plus $0 for whatever else...and of course, it opens up greater possibilities for for those that move past the point-and-click stage of the computing learning curve.
It's called msconfig. Run it from commandline...go through the startup items in the dialogue that pops up and uncheck anything that you don't want to run by default. It'll prompt for restart (optional), and will prompt again after reboot (just tell it to go away). After that, all the junk that likes to make itself run on startup will no longer run unless you ask it to. I ran an update on one of my machines yesterday, saw this desktop search and immediately disabled it.
Such a tool is only for losers anyway...file losers specifically.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like watching a show that's been sliced and diced into little pieces...I generally prefer the whole thing. I'm sure that having individual parts reduces overall bandwidth for their servers, but could there at least be an option for the whole show? Otherwise, I don't see how this is any better than if someone were to download it at a higher resolution/bitrate from a torrent site.
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If I end up with a locally installed root kit on my laptop, I'll only have myself to blame. For some reason, though, I lack the motivation to recompile the kernel to protect myself from myself.
Same story here...except Outlook doesn't work on Linux. Thunderbird + webmail extensions solved all my problems. I'd only lose 30-days of messages if I'm ever offline for that long (but that probably means I'm dead anyway), because I get local copies in Thunderbird. Thus, I feel no pain inflicted by any monopolistic tactics - if someday Microsoft does something to break those extensions in Thunderbird, then I'll be kind-of pissed off, but that just means I'll stop using it. Really, it would be a small inconvenience for me in the long-run.
Yes, you're right about that too. Particularly with Open Source software, but at least Open Source is upfront about it, and responds with updates/patches as soon as they can be fixed. Proprietary software like Windows is sold under the premise that it's a complete and fully functional product, and that's what they expect you to pay for. I can't say I've read the labels, but I highly doubt that it says anywhere on the box for Vista that you should expect problems, which may or may not be resolved in subsequent updates or service packs (as deemed appropriate by Microsoft).
You may be right (I haven't used Vista myself), but you certainly reinforce the case that it's better to wait until SP1 or SP2 before migrating to Vista. If Vista is still maturing, then it was immature when it was released...I think most customers would prefer that the products they pay for are in fully functional order.
I think mowing lawns is the skill you'll want to hone the most...it is the most likely to satisfy your amazonian woman overlords enough to keep you around.
...would be to just shut down MySpace altogether. That'll accomplish essentially the same thing, won't it? Unless anyone over the age of 18 actively uses MySpace (except for self-promoting politicians and pop-stars)...
Haven't you seen the Body Snatchers? The big media industries want everyone to be mindless drones who point and scream to alert others if anyone is infringing copyright.
I imagine you are right about this. However, this is not well known (at least not among my peers in Canada - and you can bet that I don't really plan to verify so myself). However, the fact that there is an option to do this should be relatively common knowledge...if anything to provide a benchmark against which the trustworthiness of electronic systems should be measured.
Superman already has this in his fortress of solitude...
Same difference...I'm sure an American court won't get hung-up on the semantics.
Right. Little choice for sure...between Vista, Fedora, (K)Ubuntu, CentOS, openSUSE, etc...XP (if you scab it off your old machine maybe)
Phew...thanks for the umbrella - just in time too.
Sorry...I guess I haven't earned enough airmiles yet.
What's so unreliable about kcalc or gcalctool?
The first one I came across a few years ago was Kahvi. Since then I've followed leads from Kahvi, and dug around to get more variety. I've found that the problem is not finding free (legal) music, but that it's difficult to such music that I actually like. Basically, about half of what I encounter is worth listening to more than once, and maybe one in ten releases I find are really good (worth listening to many times). That, and basically everything I find is electronic (which often comes in the form of somewhat boring ambient or arbitrary noise). Here's a few netlabels/artists/archives that I've been following that seem better than most:
http://kahvi.org/ (as described above - definitely some really good stuff here, if you can sift through the music that doesn't suit you from the hundreds of releases)
http://foem.info/ a blog that lists lots of free/non-RIAA releases
http://psilodump.se/ Psilodump is by far one of my favourites...his releases are scattered around in various locations (e.g., Kahvi, X-Dump), but they can be found
http://www.dinstalker.com/ Din Stalker is also a favourite...same story as above
http://x-dump.com/ A net label that also includes the above two artists, and has been featured on Kahvi
http://www.dirtybirdrexx.org/ A pretty cool netlabel I found via the FOEM blog
http://www.infinityloopmusic.com/ Also found via FOEM...fairly decent
http://mono211.com/ the monotonik netlabel + friends
http://archipel.cc/ the Archipel netlabel
http://acediamusic.org/ the Acedia Music netlabel
http://www.thinner.cc/ the Thinner/Autoplate netlabels
Of course, as others have pointed out already, many of these artists/netlabels have their media hosted by scene.org or archive.org - for the larger collections, it's sometimes easier just to browse the corresponding file repositories via FTP.
Lets think about this for a moment. Sure...any rational person is likely to agree that, given the size of the universe, our own existence is proof enough that sentient life probably exists elsewhere. But really...until we learn to transfer communications at speeds faster than light (let's not worry about travel yet), what's the point? Yay...we find out there are aliens somewhere. What meaningful interaction can we possible have with another species that resides on a rock located some hundreds or thousands of light years away? This also assumes they'd notice us too, and would return communication. If not, then we're going to have to get some really wicked telescopes to learn more about them - or hopefully learn warp speed to pay them a visit. So...back to reality, and the small chance we find ET somewhere. My question is: Would simple confirmation of the existence of ET (and the likelihood of gaining nothing more than that tidbit of knowledge) really be worth the money/resources expended?
Doesn't a solid state drive already get us halfway there? Maybe instant-on would be nice, but having little or no room to customize/make changes to the software I run would be unbearable for me, and many others I imagine.
I agree.
/. should it someday disappear, I'm not really worried about what will happen if it does. It would be particularly bad for those closest/most involved. However, I know that there are enough smart people here that the community would likely re-emerge more or less intact, with essentially all of the same ideals, but hosted/managed elsewhere.
I'd also add that while I would miss
Add to this the problem that XP on a low cost laptop becomes the initial hardware price, plus $X for the OS, plus $Y for useful productivity software (assuming MS pushes that too), plus $Z for who knows what else. I know there's no reason anyone would be forced to buy extra software just because their machine runs Windows, but you have to admit that it helps reinforce the mindset that software should be purchased from a company like MS. Try to imagine that mindset combined with the perspective of new users in developing regions where computing is still not so ubiquitous as it is in more developed places. OTOH, Linux (BSD or whatever) on a low cost laptop is the initial hardware price, plus $0 for the OS, $0 for useful productivity software that is often pre-installed, plus $0 for whatever else...and of course, it opens up greater possibilities for for those that move past the point-and-click stage of the computing learning curve.
Wouldn't an anonymous whistleblower be far less credible than an identifiable one?
It's called msconfig. Run it from commandline...go through the startup items in the dialogue that pops up and uncheck anything that you don't want to run by default. It'll prompt for restart (optional), and will prompt again after reboot (just tell it to go away). After that, all the junk that likes to make itself run on startup will no longer run unless you ask it to. I ran an update on one of my machines yesterday, saw this desktop search and immediately disabled it. Such a tool is only for losers anyway...file losers specifically.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like watching a show that's been sliced and diced into little pieces...I generally prefer the whole thing. I'm sure that having individual parts reduces overall bandwidth for their servers, but could there at least be an option for the whole show? Otherwise, I don't see how this is any better than if someone were to download it at a higher resolution/bitrate from a torrent site.