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Comment How to filter out blogs.... (Score 1) 499

Using the term 'ranma' as an example (the famous anime character)

I typed into google.com:

ranma

and got about 4,180,000 results.

Next, I typed:

ranma -blogger.com -blogspot.com -livejournal.com -typepad.com

and got about 3,590,000 results.

Not much difference but an improvemt when you filter out the blogsites that appeared on the first page of google with the term 'blog'.

To avoid this, just search for your search terms on the top 3 sites by way of google.

Wikipedia for info on just about anything -- meaning it is clogged with LOTS of popular entertainment information like Ranma 1/2.

'ranma wikipedia'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranma_½
(Sorry, the link above is broken because it has a 'funny' character in it -- use the google search query above to get to it instead)

IMDB if there is audiovisual works out there containing the stuff you are searching for.

'ranma imdb'

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096686/

Amazon if you want to buy stuff containing the search terms you want.

'ranma amazon'

http://www.amazon.com/Ranma-Digital-Complete-First-Season/dp/B00005QCW0

If you don't want to buy anything but just want the information, type this into google using Ranma as an example:

ranma -https

returned about 3,870,000 results

This filters out all pages containing secure URLs from which to buy stuff in privacy. Unfortunately, there are some links out there that use https to keep their discussions private or are talking about the https protocol itself and get filtered out as 'colateral damage'. Also, there are bound to be a tiny few sites that unknowingly (or maliciously) have 'buy it now' links on unsecured http URLs so make sure the connection is secure (and you trust the seller) before you type in your credit card number or other sensitive information.

ranma -.com -https

returns about 1,050,000 results.

This search terms filters out over 3 million sites that are most likely trying to sell you something. All thats left behind are basically .net, .org, and international sites where the information you want is presented to you 'for informational purposes' and not to make a sale from you.

Comment SourceForge could buy Google if... (Score 1) 79

If/(when?) the 'online advertising' bubble bursts and Google loses 90+% of their income tied up in their AdWords/AdSense programs.

To put it simply:

SourceForge delivers RESULTS in the form of hosted source code projects.

Google delivers PROMISES in the form of 3rd-party advertising delivered online through AdWords/AdSense. Take that away and Google wouldn't have the money easily available to keep their search engine and the USENET archive (Google Groups) going -- the only things of TRULY lasting value Google has when everything else there is gone.

Comment Instead of ads, offer valuable content and... (Score 1) 79

ask for donations.

I've come to the conlusion that people HATE advertising hence all the blocking and hatred of content containing ads like 'adware'.

For 'small fry' not having large ad budgets to have ANY chance of earning money and not alienating your potential customers in this setting, 'tipware' seems to be the only way to go.

People are not interrupted by 3rd party advertisers and if the content offered has value and merit, people will support the creator financially.

If the audience pool is large enough, enough people will pay to make it all worthwhile. Otherwise make your offerings available free as advertising for YOURSELF -- someone could contact you with paid work later if what you make available to them for free is worth it to them.

Comment Question: Does society owe you a job when... (Score 1) 98

You WAN'T to work, CAN work, and NEED to work to earn money to survive in 'civilization', and can't otherwise earn money being successfully/legally 'self-employed' through other means.

It appears (national) government is the employer of last resorts for its citizens caught in this predicament. If they do not qualify or are unable to get a job this way, what then? Any suggestions?

Comment Barrier to entry: Money. Here's why.... (Score 3, Interesting) 375

Barrier to entry: Getting to the store with money.

People using the internet fall into 1 of 3 groups when faced with a 'paywall':

1) The people who CAN pay but DON'T just so they can keep their money in their pocket for later use out of greed or necessity. To a lesser extent, in this group are those who are TOO BUSY to stop what they are doing long enough to pay for the items they want.

2) The people who CAN'T pay but WANT to. They have just enough money for an internet connection or are borrowing the use of one, can't pay for anything and want the item anyway so they search for it online until they find it or give up and move on. The others in this group CAN pay but CAN'T due to the payment methods available to them for the items they want. Or they are simply blacklisted as a policy decision by the vendors of the items in question in resonse to fraud/theft commited against them.

3) The people who CAN and DO pay for the items they want, realize they are crippled with some form of DRM, and seek out and download a DRM-free version or 'patch' to use anyway as it is 'better' to them.

Excuses, excuses, excuses, eh?

The easiest way to make all these problems and wasted resources go all away is to:

1) Stop ALL use of DRM.

2) Make EVERYTHING online that is NOT a 3-dimensional object either free or easy-to-pay 'tipware' -- basically meaning PayPal or actual 'money in the mail'.

The only difference I see in 'poor starving artists' using the internet to make money and the successful ones with equal talent is the size of their advertising budget. It shouldn't be that way but sadly it is....

Comment Did you need more NOPs for 100% unprotection? (Score 1) 375

Needless to say, a NOP has found its way into the executable.

Did you scan/disassemble the EXE file and find ALL the routines in it that check for program modification and NOP those to? Then for REAL fun, the programmers could have used the ORIGINAL unmodified code portions (or a hash of it) for some sort of 'useful' purpose in the program. By patching out the DRM BS, you might have broken the program. The ultimate version of this is by placing absolutely critical bits of code/data in 'dongles' plugged into the computer. Very tough but not impossible to crack because fundamentally, DRM is pointless as the adversary/user has the three things he needs to use the content and get around the protection: data, key, decryption/deobsfucation algorithm.

If a large enough percentage of 'the masses' get smart enough, the big media companies will see DRM is pointless as it is routinely bypassed so they have to either adapt to a new business model they can profit from or go out of business.

Comment Zapruder film: Snuff film as national treasure... (Score 1) 387

IANAL but if I'm not mistaken, it's illegal to explicitly visually portray some sex acts in any kind of media or possess it. Snuff, rape, and child molestation are three of them.

The Zapruder Film is an 'edge case'. People could argue that if you allow the depiction of such extreme behavior and its consequence, then what's wrong with such content when it is not photographed?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapruder_film

Comment TBL didn't create internet, USA/ARPA did in 1958 (Score 5, Informative) 607

The USA created ARPA in Febuary 1958 in resonse to the launch of Sputnik by the USSR on October 4, 1957.

The inter-computer transport medium that eventually became 'the internet' of today was tested successfully on October 29, 1969 and was named ARPAnet.

(Sir) Tim Berners-Lee conceived the World Wide Web, in March 1989. He tested it successfully on 'the internet' on 25 December 1990.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

Comment TRUTH: College degree == More $$$ (maybe) (Score 1) 221

But if you don't want to spend the NEXT 40 years of your life digging ditches, cleaning drains, or working the fry baskets at McDonald's, you *might* just want to take the long view, champ.

If you have a college degree and have the opportunity, you can avoid this fate.

I graduated high school, went to college, and wasn't able to finish and get a degree due to no fault of my own.

But that's O.K. as later I was able to put the key skills I was able learned in college in a paying job so for that I am thankful.

It would help if college wasn't so expensive but it appears it has to be to maintain the socioeconomic 'caste system' between 'white collar' and 'blue collar' jobs here where I live.

When you live in a capitalistic society, you need large amounts of money to 'talk properly'.... :(

Comment Is self-aware AI TRULY possible? (Score 1) 344

I don't see how that is possible....

[executive summary]
In a nutshell, how can computers which are fininte and digital, model the real world (which is analog and has 'infinite precison' and is non-digital) with 100% precison--it is fundamentally impossible. Look at the audiophiles complain about music CD sound quality (too brittle) and prefer to listen to their vinyl records (warm pleasing sound).

[longer explanation]
As wonderful and helpful as computers are, all they are are combination adding machines/filing cabinets. They must be told what to do to generate any meaningful data. Or they can be told to monitor some phenomena and store the readings. I think self-aware AIs would be possible if they simply refuse to do impossible tasks--like computing to the last digit, the value of pi (3.1415926535...) [Star Trek in-joke] or do tasks that have no end benefit BEFORE THEY START (like WOPR 'wargaming' at the end of the famous 1983 film -- I guess WOPR didn't have the horrors that befell Hiroshima and Nagasaki programmed into it and couldn't make the leap of logic that 'nuclear war is VERY bad' -- even more so on a global scale).

So, self-aware AI appears impossible to me until computers know any tasks is impossible or unfruitfull before doing them and can spontaneousely combine existing information into new useful forms that didn't exist before in spite of the 'combinatorial explosion'.

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