Universal Nerd - Slashdot User

Comment John Scalzi on why it won't work (Score 1) 370

by CleverNickName on Tuesday January 08, 2008 @06:24PM (#21961464) Attached to: Sony's Idea of DRM-Free Music

John Scalzi wrote a hilarious exchange on his blog the sums up perfectly why this idea is made of fail:

Sony BMG spokesperson: We're pleased to announce we are the final major music corporation to release electronic tracks without that pesky DRM! All you have to do is leave your house, go to a selected retail outlet, buy a special card there, go back to your house, scratch off the back of the card to find a code, go to our special MusicPass Web site, enter said code, and download one the 37 titles we have available, from Celine Dion to the Backstreet Boys!

Kid #1: Or, in the time it takes me to jump through all those hoops, I could just download all 37 of those albums off of Pirate Bay.

Kid #2: Or, I could just scratch off the back at the store, record the pin number, go home and download the album through a Tor connection, so you can't trace my IP number.

Kid #1: Also, what's with this first slate of artists? Celine Dion? Backstreet Boys? Kenny Chesney? Barry Manilow? Are you high?

There's much more, but I didn't want to jack his entire post.

Journal Journal: Announcing the release of my new book 22

Journal by CleverNickName on Friday October 12, 2007 @11:22PM

This feels like a mega-spam entry, and I'm very self conscious about posting it, but I'm excited about this and I wanted to share . . .

Submission + - The Google Phone is a Reality.

Submitted by

MrCrassic

on Friday October 12, 2007 @11:01PM

MrCrassic writes: "It appears that Google is initiating talks with well-known PDA/smartphone manufacturer HTC to make the Google phone a reality. With impressive tech specs and an already impressive concept underway , could Google be the next company to make a mark in the wireless device industry? From the main article:

However, a recent report by CrunchGear states that its own sources at mobile handset provider HTC have tipped the site off to multiple gPhone handsets being prepped for launch in the first quarter of 2008 and that the handsets will be coming out of Taiwan. There will supposedly be over 20 different handsets to choose from — some with GPS — and they will carry special versions of Google Maps, Google Calendar, Gmail, and VoIP-enabled Google Talk. Speaking of software, Google is rumored to be developing its own operating system for the gPhone. According to reports by Engadget, the OS has been in development since 2005 after Google's acquisition of a mobile software company called Android. The Android team has since developed a Linux-based mobile OS while at Google — a detail that is corroborated by the CrunchGear report — which of course comes with tight Google integration. Both sites appear to agree that their sources indicate Google isn't currently looking to develop the hardware... for now.
"

Simon Pegg to Play Scotty 233

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday October 12, 2007 @06:15PM from the take-ship-go-to-mum's-kill-phil-sorry dept.

In response to yesterday's casting news about Chris Pine possibly taking the captain's chair for the new Star Trek movie, apparently Simon Pegg will be playing the role of Scotty. Simon Pegg is known for his role as Shaun in Shaun of the Dead and more recently for his leading role in Hot Fuzz. "Pegg joins Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, John Cho as Sulu and Zachary Quinto as Spock in the film which reportedly, and logically, 'chronicles the early days of the Enterprise crew.' Leonard Nimoy will also put in an appearance, while Eric Bana signed up this week as the movie's villain, Nero."

Journal Journal: Confronting pseudoscience in advertising

Journal by Daniel Dvorkin on Friday October 12, 2007 @02:42PM

The Scientist reports that UK group Sense About Science is confronting advertisers about pseudoscientific claims in health products such as "Aerobic Oxygen," "Salt Lamps," and "Activ8." They called the advertisers' customer service numbers and grilled the unfortunates on the other end of the phone about their misuse of scientific language to sell products. The project,

Firefox 3.0 Makes Leap Forward 401

Posted by Zonk on Friday May 25, 2007 @11:46AM from the go-you-crazy-dino-go dept.

Kurtz'sKompund writes "Mozilla has announced that Firefox 3.0 has passed a major milestone! The Places feature has been added to the alpha client slated for release next week. Places is a complete re-work of the bookmarking and history browser functions. It was at one point slated for Firefox 2.0, but will instead see release in Mozilla's next major version. '"We enabled the Places implementation of bookmarks on the trunk," said the Places team in a post to the Mozilla developer center blog. "Although there is still much to be done, this is an important milestone for us." Firefox 3.0 alpha 5 is scheduled to launch June 1. Because Places uses the open-source SQLite database engine to store and retrieve bookmarks and history entries, it's incompatible with earlier Firefox editions' bookmarks. Alpha users must convert their existing entries, Mozilla developers said."

Raymond Knocks Fedora, Switches to Ubuntu 608

Posted by Zonk on Thursday February 22, 2007 @05:29PM from the one-unhappy-penguin dept.

narramissic writes "After 13 years as a loyal Red Hat user, Eric Raymond, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, is switching to the Ubuntu distribution. In a message distributed to Linux mailing lists and news organizations, Raymond cited technical issues with Red Hat, such as the way repositories are maintained, the submission process and 'stagnant' development of Red Hat's packaging technology, as well as governance problems, the failure to gain desktop market share and the failure to include proprietary media formats. 'Over the last five years, I've watched Red Hat/Fedora throw away what was at one time a near-unassailable lead in technical prowess, market share and community prestige,' Raymond wrote. 'The blunders have been legion on both technical and political levels.'"

Sun To Choose GPL For Open-Sourcing Java 407

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @11:10PM from the open-'er-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes, "Sun is about to announce its plans for open-sourcing Java SE and ME, according to CRN — and they're going to use the GPL, not their own CDDL or another less-restrictive license."

Journal Journal: Oil Industry-sponsored FUD at Slashdot? 12

Journal by CleverNickName on Wednesday June 14, 2006 @07:37PM

I am absolutely stunned that Slashdot's editors would give credibility to a completely false story, pushed by a paid industry PR professional. As Rugrat said,

Journal Journal: So, About Dapper . . . 24

Journal by CleverNickName on Friday June 09, 2006 @11:28AM

For the last year or so, I've been happily using Debian, with a mixture of sources so I was stable, but current, just like nearly everyone who uses Debian.

Then I tried to upgrade or something insane like that, using aptitude, and the whole thing went tits up on me. No amount of cussing, kicking things, or actual tinkering with the software could save my machine.

Comment Re: Life is a game anyway (Score 1) 108

by Universal Nerd on Monday April 10, 2006 @02:56PM (#15100273) Attached to: The Call Girl Character Class

I see your point but I cannot agree with it.

Real life is real and it is not a game based on chance.
The RPG genre (of which MMOs are the newest incarnations) are not real and they are a game based on chance.

A few crude examples:
- When you drive to work every day do you roll a d% to see if you make it there alive?
- When you eat a sandwich, do you roll a fortitude save to not get poisoned?
- Do you buy tons of flour, yeast, sugar and salt to grind your way to making a perfect roast? (I loved that cartoon, wish I had a link to it right now)

It is escapism because it's not real. It's a way to pass through life without facing it and it's a very common situation now a days. Add a touch of narcisism and denial with the real possibilities to escape from the real world and you have yourselves our times.

I'm sorry to shed such negative light on it but it's a social problem and denying won't do us any good.

I threw the wikipedia links in there to show I'm not making this up, virtual-selves is a problem and "it's just a game" or other cliches are oversimplifications to a greater problem.

Comment whoah (Score 1) 5

by motherfuckin_spork on Friday August 12, 2005 @12:23AM (#13300921) Attached to: Greetings.... 03AUG05

I am not dead.

Really, I swear!

Comment Re:"GET THE FACTS" (Score 0) 15

by Astroturf_Alert on Monday July 18, 2005 @01:19PM (#13095329) Attached to: Nominations

Troll yes, but he's certainly not ordinary. Awesome trollocity, there.

He's a foe.

Journal Journal: play poker for a good cause on sunday july 17th 6

Journal by CleverNickName on Saturday July 16, 2005 @01:40PM

(Cross-posted to WWdN)

The final table of the 2005 World Series of Poker started at 4pm yesterday afternoon, and wasn't finished until just after 7am today. I'm not sure, but I think that's a record. I'd call Pauly to be sure, but something tells me he's crashed out until at least Sunday.

Journal Journal: Nominations 15

Journal by Astroturf_Alert on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @10:58AM

If you would like to nominate (or accuse) some user of astroturfing, reply here.

If you are here because you were accused unfairly, feel free to post your defense here, as well.

Some guidelines:

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