Recent Posts

5926

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2012, 11:15 AM »

and the premise is the idea that yes, corporations are required to increase value for shareholders before anything else.

-tranglos (March 11, 2012, 08:53 AM)

Possibly. (I still don't see where it says that in the law itself BTW.) Most of the argument is by extrapolation and assertion that "this is so" rather than actual wording in the law. And in this particular context it borders on applying reductio ad absurdum to the legal concept of "fiduciary responsibility." In short, a great way of thinking about it - except that's not what the law actually says - even if some people running some corporations might think so.

The reason this distinction is important is because it still doesn't give a business or corporation carte blanche to break the law in the name of maximizing profit. The judicial system has been very clear about that in numerous cases.

If corporations were always required to pursue maximization of profit under law, it would be allowed as an absolute defense in court , much like truth is defense against the charge of libel.

Just to be clear on US law, I bounced it off an attorney. She said it was a common misunderstanding of what the law requires of corporations and fiduciaries. "Just because most people might think the same way about something doesn't make it the law," she said. "As many people learn the hard way when they land in court."
 

5927

MEWLO Web Framework / Re: OLD - Unfinished Web project: YUMPS

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2012, 10:56 AM »

Quick question: how do you primarily envision YUMPS.  Is this framework more geared towards creating social sites, or is it more intended as a classic CMS with social features?

5928

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 24-bit/192kHz music files make no sense - and may be bad for you!

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2012, 01:18 AM »

I personally think LPs sound better because what you're hearing is the actual music and not a digital resynthesis of it. I think there are subliminal qualities and cues in analog music reproduction (that certain 'breathiness' or 'air' as it's been called) that make LPs sound more natural to our ears. I don't really know how to describe it other than to say when you first cue an LP, just before the music starts you can hear "the room." That empty but not totally silent "space" that the music starts playing in a second or so later. That ambient space is something digital recordings don't have. Digital is pristine. Almost too pure at times. (Which is why some noise often gets added to a digital mix just to remove some of that "too clean" quality.)

The other thing that I think makes a big difference is the mastering. With analog multitrack tape, there was always some slight "bleed" between the tracks. Nothing can be totally isolated on an analog master tape. Digital, on the other hand, totally isolates each track. I don't know if everybody hears it this way, but to me CDs have this odd effect of making each track sound like it's in a separate "layer." Almost like there's separate "planes" that each of the tracks are on. And they're "stacked." You don't get a normal sense of 3D in the audio space. On some level you have to connect the dots and create it yourself.

If analog's soundspace can be imagined as a cube, digital (again to my ears) sounds more like stacked 2D layers.

Something like this:



I don't know if it makes any sense the way I'm describing it, but to me it's almost like you're missing that continuous Z-axis with digital. I'm aware of discreet layers in the Z-axis of the sound when I pay attention to it. It doesn't "mush together" like an analog recording does. And like sound does in the real world.

And I think that on a largely subconscious level, a part of your brain detects it and thinks there's something wrong until you learn to ignore it. Much like you learn to ignore parallax when you wear glasses. You learn to look through them rather than focus on the front or back of the lens surface.

I think you teach your brain to do something similar when listening to digital music playback.

Hope some of this makes sense. I have a hard time trying to communicate something as subjective as this.

5929

Living Room / Re: URGENT Board Mod Request: Sobriety Mod

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 01:41 PM »

Just for Renegade: The "I'm drunk right now!" emoticon.



                                  ;-}



Enjoy. We luv ya!

5930

General Software Discussion / Re: How to win friends. Microsoft to CIOs: Adopt Windows 8 - or else.

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 01:01 PM »

@ J-Mac: If you think you've gone crazy now, wait until it all suddenly and magically starts working several hours and reboots later - and for no apparent reason. Or just as suddenly stops working. I've seen both happen at client sites.

I hate peer-to-peer personal networks. I really do.

5931

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WordPress bundle: $59 instead of $609!

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 12:57 PM »

It's a great way for a company to hook new users on the subscription model.

-Innuendo (March 10, 2012, 12:37 PM)

And also a good way to get somebody to try something they never would have if they had to pay for it from day one. That's your basic "no risk" offer. Which is perfectly fair and acceptable as long as no tricks are played or impediments introduced to delay or prevent cancelling the service once the free period is over.

5932

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 12:50 PM »

Sorry 40hz, but with comments like the following dl90h is briefly explaining what rootkits are and then intimating that software pirates are the main cause of it - with all CAPS even! Just thought I would educate back a bit.

Jim

-J-Mac (March 10, 2012, 12:32 PM)

I hear ya Jim! I'm not trying to lecture. (See my previous comment for a fuller explication of what I was thinking when I wrote that.)

-----------------

@db90h - Personal request from 40hz: Please don't do the ALL CAPS thing? Pretty please? With sugar on it? (Maybe use italics for emphasis instead?) Thanks!

5933

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 12:44 PM »

J-Mac was merely making the counter-point that even if one were to never pirate anything, one might become a victim of malware through the actions of a 'respectable' corporation.

-Innuendo (March 10, 2012, 12:12 PM)

Yes they can become victims. By a misguided response on the part of a content producer to a perceived threat from pirating activities...by people who were pirating originally because...

This can only turn into a "chicken or egg" circular argument after several iterations. Once again, it's turtles all the way down.

The only way to get beyond that is to handle it the same way reconstruction gets handled after civil wars. There comes a time when you have to say, we're victims of historic precedent. SO the only way to move forward is to remove the restraints such precedent has put on us and start with a blank slate. Forget about the past and put all the arguments and options on the table fresh.

It's no guarantee an acceptable compromise can be hammered out. But it at least provides hope that one could be.

None of this will ever go anywhere until both parties to the debate about creator's rights and consumer's rights agree to put the past behind them and stop looking to assign ultimate blame to someone. Because all of  that really is tangential to what all parties to this debate are hoping to accomplish - finding a way out of the mess we've created for ourselves over this.

Both sides have been guilty of selfishness, excess, and dishonesty.

How about clearing the tables and entering into some constructive dialog for a change?

That's all I'm saying.

5934

Living Room / Re: URGENT Board Mod Request: Sobriety Mod

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 12:30 PM »

FWIW we'd lose an awful lot of Renegade's entertainment value if that request ever did get implemented. 

5935

Screenshot Captor / Re: screen capture secure-eBook and print

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 12:01 PM »

Does any of this ignore the fact the creator of the ebook specifically did not want any hardcopy generated from it...or am I missing something here?

-40hz (March 10, 2012, 11:46 AM)

No, it's for making the allowed, but nearly impossible to create, backup of the original on/in another medium.

-Ath (March 10, 2012, 11:50 AM)

Ok. If you so say - although that "allowed" backup part isn't an automatic given any more. (Never officially was either IIRC. That was always more what you'd call "a guideline" as Captain Barbarossa so nicely put it.)

Just thought that should be pointed out.

I'm also not sure how I'd know what the OP actually wanted to accomplish by circumventing the no-print restriction since I see no mention of 'backups' anywhere in their post. Not even so much as a hint.

But maybe I missed something there too...

Now to go back to my original question: Does any of this ignore the fact the creator of the ebook specifically did not want any hardcopy generated from it?

5936

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 11:57 AM »

db90h, you talk as if software pirates invented the rootkit! Please try to remember exactly WHO first introduced most of the public to the "joys" of rootkits!

(Hint: Not to mention Sony BMG by name... -Oops! - but could it have been an overbearing corporation claiming to protect their copyrighted material?? So much for blaming pirates, db90h!)

Jim

-J-Mac (March 10, 2012, 11:35 AM)

In all fairness, I don't think it's all that relevant who may or may not have invented the rootkit. Or who first attempted to deploy one. It's still unacceptable no matter who did it, when they did it, or for what purpose. Rootkitting someone is wrong.

So let's not get too bogged down in finger pointing or arguing 'tit for tat' and "You're another!" This is too important an issue to allow ourselves go off on tangents.
 

5937

Screenshot Captor / Re: screen capture secure-eBook and print

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 11:46 AM »

Does any of this ignore the fact the creator of the ebook specifically did not want any hardcopy generated from it...or am I missing something here?

5938

Living Room / Re: URGENT Board Mod Request: Sobriety Mod

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2012, 08:13 AM »

Ah...Schoolboys! You just gotta love 'em. 

5939

General Software Discussion / Re: How to win friends. Microsoft to CIOs: Adopt Windows 8 - or else.

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 10:56 PM »

@J-Mac - Have you considered maybe using TeamViewer instead?

5940

General Software Discussion / Re: Program Files or Program Files (x86)?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 06:55 PM »

Agreed. It is funny, but years ago I thought x32 would be dead in no time. Here we are, years later, with it still being the defacto standard in most cases

-db90h (March 09, 2012, 05:33 PM)

Ithink you'll see 32-bit software being deployed and running on 64-bit systems as long as it is possible to continue to do so. Heavily debugged, field tested, and working software is not going to be consigned to the dustbin just because questionable gains might be achieved by going over to "64-bithood."

As long as there's still 32-bit compatibility, there will be 32-bit programs.

5941

Living Room / Re: For the LULZ or for the FBI? (Get ready to cry...)

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 06:44 PM »

Yeah... If anyone wants to say that I'm paranoid or a conspiracy nut or wearing a tinfoil hat... Guilty. The evidence is there. One only has to open one's eyes and look at the evidence to see the truth.

-Renegade (March 09, 2012, 05:40 PM)

One big problem with conspiracy theories is that they can be used to explain anything.

The other big problem with conspiracy theories is that they actually do explain many things.

Tinfoil hat? It's a badge of honor AFAIC. 

And "uneasy the head that wears such a crown" to paraphrase The Bard.

5942

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 06:39 PM »

As someone said, where's the compromise these days?

-db90h (March 09, 2012, 06:31 PM)

Good question. That is one of the real problems with all of this. Too many people insist this is a zero-sum game - and behave and think accordingly.
 

5943

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 24-bit/192kHz music files make no sense - and may be bad for you!

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 06:33 PM »

@iphigenie - If you do in fact decide you absolutely must re-encode 500 CDs, I can give you the name of an excellent psychologist I know. She specializes in the treatment of OCD.
 

-40hz (March 09, 2012, 08:55 AM)

But does she specialize in re-encoding CD's? 

-TaoPhoenix (March 09, 2012, 05:26 PM)

That would be a match made in heaven if she does!

5944

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 24-bit/192kHz music files make no sense - and may be bad for you!

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 06:32 PM »

I think I recall reading somewhere that, if you ripped your music from CDs, then it was a rip of sampled music, where the loss from sampling was inaudible/undetectable by the human ear.
That is, the analogue copy is apparently the only copy that could actually contain all the music and thus be the closet approach to the original sound.

-IainB (March 09, 2012, 05:01 PM)

That is correct. But with MP3s there are different ways to handle what gets lost. Apple uses a variable lossy algorithm which most double-blind studies seem to indicate sound marginally better than those that use fixed lossy approaches. So not all MP3s are equal.

What I should have said was that at least all the music on the source being ripped (as opposed to the real world analog source) was actually there.

Depending on the playback device I'll sometimes deliberately lower the audio quality of a re-encoding to match the playback capabilities of the device itself.

I may be kidding myself, but on lesser fidelity playback devices, having music matched more closely to the actual playback capabilities seems to my ears (or my imagination  ) to sound clearer and "fuller" than a file whose fidelity broadly exceeds them.

But there's a very good chance I'm fooling myself about that too.

5945

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 06:16 PM »

Well, it sounds great when put like that, but it would seem to be just a high-sounding opinion naively flying in the face of what is apparently a quite different reality in practice.

-IainB (March 09, 2012, 04:27 PM)

It's not a smart-alecky comment at all. tranglos was addressing the underlying logic and philosophical argument being made. You're discussing realpolitik - which we all can appreciate is often different from what the law may actually say - even when it isn't flying directly in the face of it.

So I wouldn't dismiss tranglos' comment as either being high-flown or naive. It just elegantly and succinctly points out how morally and logically bankrupt one of the arguments being used in support of the realpolitik of copyright enforcement (i.e. the absolute sanctity law) actually is.

It also illustrates just how divorced most IP legislation is from reality because it ignores the predominant reasonable flexibility and "living practice" of enforcing laws.

For the IP protection mavens, copyright and related legislation is being presented as something akin to an inevitable force of nature rather than the human invention any law is. And like all forces of nature, those supporting this new legislation see such laws as being neither subject to human interpretation nor to amelioration in practice. These new laws are being seen as absolutes.

Naive and high-flown arguments? I should say so...

But they aren't the ones being made by tranglos.

5946

Living Room / Re: Canadian SOPA-clone looming!

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 04:47 PM »

Canada is US-lite™

-rgdot (March 09, 2012, 03:59 PM)

As long as Canada can produce somebody like Joni Mitchell, Canada will never be "lite" anything AFAIC.     

5947

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WordPress bundle: $59 instead of $609!

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 03:21 PM »

+1 with rgdot. If the themes look good, and you plan on using one, $59 is a reasonable price to pay for a professionally developed and commercially licensed theme. The rest of the stuff is time limited and clearly offered as an encouragement to continue as a paying customer after the initial use period expires.

In the end it depends on your goals for your WP site. If you have no e-commerce plans or large ambitions, the basic convenience, performance and security plug-ins (HyperCache, Askismet, WP-Page-Navi, etc) plus a crackerjack theme are all you really need and probably want. Unless you see something that would make editing or administrative tasks easier for you.

 

5948

Living Room / Re: Canadian SOPA-clone looming!

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 03:05 PM »

Every time I read the news I can't help thinking what a really cool country Canada would be if they could just figure out a way put a leash and muzzle on their current government.

(Same goes for here BTW.)

5949

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 02:58 PM »

Also, open letters to entire swaths of people are self-indulgent and useless.

-doctorfrog (March 09, 2012, 02:36 PM)

Not when they're posted in a forum! They provide the kickoff point for a debate. That's what forums are all about.  

5950

General Software Discussion / Re: How to win friends. Microsoft to CIOs: Adopt Windows 8 - or else.

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2012, 02:41 PM »

Great thread. Thanks 40Hz for the excellent advice and (obviously) well thought out predictions for the future. (Kinda scary, but your logic seems sound to me.)

-widgewunner (March 09, 2012, 11:52 AM)

Thanks! But just between you and me? I hope I'm very very wrong!

You can pull my not-required-to-be-connected-to-the-internet Win32XPproSP2 box with MSVC6, Python, PHP and Perl from my cold dead fingers!

With you 100% on that one. Hope they're up for digging two graves if it ever comes to that. (I have no doubt they are BTW.)  

With all the disks from my old MSDN subscription, I have everything I need to stay happy, windows-wise for the foreseeable future (as long as my old hardware hangs in there - maybe its time to stock up on some spares...)

Wow! Hadn't thought of that. Hmm...that might be a smart hedge option.

There's plenty of cheap (and often free for the hauling) PCs still sitting in offices of closed businesses. Many of which have been "abandoned in place." Sometimes a word to building management, or the landlord, is enough to get the back of your van loaded up with stuff they want gone for little or no money. Especially now that you can't just (legally) toss office electronics in dumpsters most places any more.

Then there's always the outrageously inexpensive Raspberry Pi and similar devices...