Learn from the mistakes of others

what is it with wiener fucktard scriptkiddie clickbotters?

why bother paying# for an applet to create proprietary archives of DVDs when there are plenty of perfectly good free programs that do a better job and create, oh, i dunno, commonly used archive types ...

[edit] .daa wtf!?*

why not .iso that everyone can use without having to burn images off to disc? i mean, fuck it, fucktard, fucknuckle. and you hid this fucking shame inside a rar file inside a zip file. *headdesk*

what's with kids these days?

i want my wasted dl quota back. [edit: i got the fucknuckle banned from two torrent sites - it's not the first time he/she/it failed to follow basic rules.]

---
# ok. they may have dled a cracked copy like i've just had to do, but it takes only a moment to ensure you're being good when you're trying to get rep. this kind of thing only hurts. *headdesk*##

## certainly if some other people get hold of the fucktard, they're gonna hurt. *headdesk*

* i had to go hunting for a cracked copy of "poweriso"** to find out the files are broken anyway ... *headdesk* *selects favourite blunt spoon*

** as inaccurately named as they could manage ... i does do iso, but the kiddies all use it for dda - because it claims to have special features' - i think that's special as in "you're special" *headdesk*

what is it with wiener fucktard scriptkiddie clickbotters?

why bother paying# for an applet to create proprietary archives of DVDs when there are plenty of perfectly good free programs that do a better job and create, oh, i dunno, commonly used archive types ...

[edit] .daa wtf!?*

why not .iso that everyone can use without having to burn images off to disc? i mean, fuck it, fucktard, fucknuckle. and you hid this fucking shame inside a rar file inside a zip file. *headdesk*

what's with kids these days?

i want my wasted dl quota back. [edit: i got the fucknuckle banned from two torrent sites - it's not the first time he/she/it failed to follow basic rules.]

---
# ok. they may have dled a cracked copy like i've just had to do, but it takes only a moment to ensure you're being good when you're trying to get rep. this kind of thing only hurts. *headdesk*##

## certainly if some other people get hold of the fucktard, they're gonna hurt. *headdesk*

* i had to go hunting for a cracked copy of "poweriso"** to find out the files are broken anyway ... *headdesk* *selects favourite blunt spoon*

** as inaccurately named as they could manage ... i does do iso, but the kiddies all use it for dda - because it claims to have special features' - i think that's special as in "you're special" *headdesk*

Digital [Rights|Restrictions] Management ... "building in more nothing than we did last time" ... again

According to DCITA;

DRM sits at the nexus of technical, legal and commercial considerations and offers a systematic way of approaching new developments in digital content. It can be a valuable tool for multimedia creators and developers. It has the potential to reduce much of the time currently spent in locating and negotiating with copyright owners and can reduce transaction costs upstream to rightsholders and downstream to users. Most DRM systems also include features to protect content from copyright infringement.

A Guide to Digital Rights Management

DRM technologies are touted as a solution to the messy problems associated with copyright - there being no central registers like there are for patents and designs and trade marks.

We, the consumers/users, are told that DRM will reduce costs and those will be passed on to us. Sorry, we're no longer so gullible. Cigarettes, Petroleum. Private Healthcare Just a few examples of industries where cost savings are not passed on. But any excuse to pass on a "cost" is readily taken up.

There are many problems with DRM technologies, not just technical. Thought he technical ones aren't a bad place to start. Sony rootkits ... hijacked by malware manufacturers within a very short time - probably sooner than the true nature of Sony's DRM were made public. Apple iPods and iTunes .. oh grow up Apple. How much sleep do you thing coders lost over finding ways around the iPod's software. iTunes is big, but neither monolithic nor monopolistic. Microsoft XBox ... cheap PCs ... for Linux.

A range of groups actively advocate against DRM: http://defectivebydesign.org/, http://freeculture.org/, http://stopdrmnow.org/, http://www.eff.org/IP/fairuse/, http://stopdrm.info/ (in French) are just a few.

I doubt DRM will go away anytime soon. Creating new technologies is much easier than talking to customers. Certainly finding new ways to impose upon us, or to capture (trap?) us, is more profitable in the short term than adapting or changing old business models to take advantage of technologies already in the marketplace.

Such a short-sighted approach is typical of mundanes, but really - is it so hard to stop and learn a little? Belligerence is not the way to win friends, whatever you read last week by Dale Carnegie ...

Once again, it's easier to try to lock us into old stuff you already own, and to try to flog it to us again and again, than to do something actually innovative - to capture us with content - to provide a really compelling reason to buy your shit.

Digital [Rights|Restrictions] Management ... "building in more nothing than we did last time" ... again

According to DCITA;

DRM sits at the nexus of technical, legal and commercial considerations and offers a systematic way of approaching new developments in digital content. It can be a valuable tool for multimedia creators and developers. It has the potential to reduce much of the time currently spent in locating and negotiating with copyright owners and can reduce transaction costs upstream to rightsholders and downstream to users. Most DRM systems also include features to protect content from copyright infringement.

A Guide to Digital Rights Management

DRM technologies are touted as a solution to the messy problems associated with copyright - there being no central registers like there are for patents and designs and trade marks.

We, the consumers/users, are told that DRM will reduce costs and those will be passed on to us. Sorry, we're no longer so gullible. Cigarettes, Petroleum. Private Healthcare Just a few examples of industries where cost savings are not passed on. But any excuse to pass on a "cost" is readily taken up.

There are many problems with DRM technologies, not just technical. Thought he technical ones aren't a bad place to start. Sony rootkits ... hijacked by malware manufacturers within a very short time - probably sooner than the true nature of Sony's DRM were made public. Apple iPods and iTunes .. oh grow up Apple. How much sleep do you thing coders lost over finding ways around the iPod's software. iTunes is big, but neither monolithic nor monopolistic. Microsoft XBox ... cheap PCs ... for Linux.

A range of groups actively advocate against DRM: http://defectivebydesign.org/, http://freeculture.org/, http://stopdrmnow.org/, http://www.eff.org/IP/fairuse/, http://stopdrm.info/ (in French) are just a few.

I doubt DRM will go away anytime soon. Creating new technologies is much easier than talking to customers. Certainly finding new ways to impose upon us, or to capture (trap?) us, is more profitable in the short term than adapting or changing old business models to take advantage of technologies already in the marketplace.

Such a short-sighted approach is typical of mundanes, but really - is it so hard to stop and learn a little? Belligerence is not the way to win friends, whatever you read last week by Dale Carnegie ...

Once again, it's easier to try to lock us into old stuff you already own, and to try to flog it to us again and again, than to do something actually innovative - to capture us with content - to provide a really compelling reason to buy your shit.

newscientist reports

A DEVICE that can pick up on people's emotions is being developed to help people with autism relate to those around them. It will alert its autistic user if the person they are talking to starts showing signs of getting bored or annoyed.

they've called it an "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" device ...

One of the problems facing people with autism is an inability to pick up on social cues. Failure to notice that they are boring or confusing their listeners can be particularly damaging, says Rana El Kaliouby of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's sad because people then avoid having conversations with them."

the article is interesting, and also amusing. thanks reverancepavane :)

[the following rant bears no reflection on reverancepavane, or anyone else i know. this article just pushed some buttons, 'tis all. thought i'd share some of my thoughts and feelings]

but then again, this has reminded me about one thing that really, really irritates me about autism research(ers).

they're so bloody condescending.

( rant inside )

anyway, back to the article, which ends this way:

Timothy Bickmore of Northeastern University in Boston, who studies ways in which computers can be made to engage with people's emotions, says the device would be a great teaching aid. "I would love it if you could have a computer looking at each student in the room to tell me when 20 per cent of them were bored or confused."

in other words, even neurotypicals can't always tell - or is it that they can get so self-absorbed that they too miss "obvious" social cues?

me, i just ask if i'm not sure. bloody people and their computers.

*wink*

newscientist reports

A DEVICE that can pick up on people's emotions is being developed to help people with autism relate to those around them. It will alert its autistic user if the person they are talking to starts showing signs of getting bored or annoyed.

they've called it an "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" device ...

One of the problems facing people with autism is an inability to pick up on social cues. Failure to notice that they are boring or confusing their listeners can be particularly damaging, says Rana El Kaliouby of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's sad because people then avoid having conversations with them."

the article is interesting, and also amusing. thanks reverancepavane :)

[the following rant bears no reflection on reverancepavane, or anyone else i know. this article just pushed some buttons, 'tis all. thought i'd share some of my thoughts and feelings]

but then again, this has reminded me about one thing that really, really irritates me about autism research(ers).

they're so bloody condescending.

( rant inside )

anyway, back to the article, which ends this way:

Timothy Bickmore of Northeastern University in Boston, who studies ways in which computers can be made to engage with people's emotions, says the device would be a great teaching aid. "I would love it if you could have a computer looking at each student in the room to tell me when 20 per cent of them were bored or confused."

in other words, even neurotypicals can't always tell - or is it that they can get so self-absorbed that they too miss "obvious" social cues?

me, i just ask if i'm not sure. bloody people and their computers.

*wink*

stupid design™ seems sensible and sane, until you ask dumb questions like:

if it's a theory, what does it predict?
if it's a methodology, how do you do it?

after all, if it is supposed to supplant or supplement science, surely it ought to achieve similar things?

as leminkainen points out, "Intelligent design didn't create the TVs that televangelists speak through..."

it will be interesting to see how things progress when it finally occurs to the masses that stupid design™ doesn't offer them the things they've become accustomed to from the science & engineering family.

stupid design™ seems sensible and sane, until you ask dumb questions like:

if it's a theory, what does it predict?
if it's a methodology, how do you do it?

after all, if it is supposed to supplant or supplement science, surely it ought to achieve similar things?

as leminkainen points out, "Intelligent design didn't create the TVs that televangelists speak through..."

it will be interesting to see how things progress when it finally occurs to the masses that stupid design™ doesn't offer them the things they've become accustomed to from the science & engineering family.