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Comment: Re:thanks (Score 1) 359

by WilCompute (#39445485) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Which Multiple Desktop Tool For Windows 7?

For me, I find myself running Windows in a virtual machine. (I am on a Mac.) By having the virtual machine in a different window, I can full screen the VM, and simply switch quickly between the two machine states. This allows me the full screen feel on Windows, and I find it feels cleaner to switch between the two types of desktops.

Now, for everyday programs, I can use the desktops to organize the way I work. I like to read in full screen, with no distractions such as pictures and other windows. So when learning how to use new tools, I put manuals, and tutorials off to their own screen. I put background music, and other things I need to run in the back ground all on one screen, then I don't have to look at them cluttering my Dock, and they are not in my way on screen. (Here's looking at you Spotify/iTunes.)

Then, when I am doing any type of creative work, Photoshop, Maya, they all need as much real estate they can get. Giving them their own screen makes quite a bit of sense.

Not to put too fine a point on my browser usage, I use tabs like the dickens. Now, I may have 60 tabs open at once, but they don't display well on one window. I break them up into groups depending on what they are for. They then get their own screen, and are more useful to me.

Not everyone will use screens like that, but it does help my workflow, so I do.


Comment: Re:Just keep in mind the tradeoff (Score 1) 556

by WilCompute (#39342009) Attached to: Indian Gov't Uses Special Powers To Slash Cancer Drug Price By 97%

So, just to throw a wrench into the mix, yeah, it might be nice to throw some money at a company for doing a job, a the Indian government has no obligation to fund a company that exist solely as an entity in another country. In fact, the idea that companies in one country can't copy off of countries in another country is quite ridiculous. Why? Until recently, there has not been enough trade to make it matter.

Remember the first priority of a government is its people. We see again and again that people will get rid of their government when the government does not please its people. This is why we get the government we deserve, because we let it stand.

All governments that implement a patent style system have the power, if not the authority, to take over patents for use for the public good. Yes, it is even built into the authority of the American patent system.

Now, personally, one human life is worth 10billion times the money all companies that have ever existed and will ever exist will ever have total. So I hav no problem with this if, and only if, this results in lives saved. Why? Lets look at the actual consequences. Presumably, if this company can make a profit off of this medicine, then so could Bayer. Bayer will not stop selling the drug at the higher prices elsewhere, unless they are forced to compete by other governments doing the same thing.

Now, will doing this across the board stifle inovation? Not really. If the companies don't do the research, governments will. in fact, governments are usually willing to research diseases that don't have enough sufferers to interest companies to research them.

Comment: livestream or live365 (Score 1) 1

by WilCompute (#39165227) Attached to: Suggestions for Music Hosting?

You might try livestream. They are a video livestreamservice with a free tier. They allow you to upload files and play them in the cloud. If they don't allow mp3, you can make a movie of your music with a logo, and it lets you livestream talk and other events. You can host the feed on you site, and can host multiple feeds.

If you only want audio, live365 is a pay service that may be what you are looking for.

Comment: Re:I have a dream... (Score 1) 72

by WilCompute (#39056219) Attached to: EFF Launching 'Patent Fail' Campaign

Copyright came into existence for a reason. It was intended to replace the old system of patronage of the arts, that didn't distribute the art, so much as keep it in a cage, and let it out to play every now and then.

Now, we do need reform, since the current system has led back to that exact same system of patronage. Meet your new masters, they are just like your old masters.

I propose that a copyright cannot be sold. The singer always has the rights to a performance, and can only lease that to companies for set periods of time. This would fix a lot of the wrongness of the current system, if we apply it across the board.

Also, by definition, a company cannot own patents, or copyrights, only rent them from people. I would much rather the scientist that invented something get a patent, and allow companies to use it.

Comment: Re:Actual Reality check (Score 1) 722

by WilCompute (#39021615) Attached to: Reddit: No More Suggestive Content Featuring Minors

And how, pray tell do they get that experience if they are forbidden by the law, and parents don't want to talk to them about it, are afraid to talk to them about it (in the case of a single male parent, talking to his preteen/teen daughter about sex, taken the wrong way to a jury of his "peers", could be jailed.) or don't care to talk about it? Our solution? Force them to wait til their parents are no longer "legally" responsible for them, and them abandon them to the world.

Admittedly, not every parent abandons their child at 18, but how may of your friends tell their children "at 18 you are out?" This is the main reason for our unstable relationships, as when the brain has been designed to learn about dealing with the opposite sex, at puberty to full brain maturity, we try to force our children to not have sex, and then we wonder why they end up pregnant before they ever leave home.

Since the law says we don't need to deal with it til 18, we let it go.

Now, I am not agreeing with non-consensual sex, with rape, with child abuse, or any such thing. I am advocating EDUCATION!

Comment: Re:Apple doesn't claim to own your content (Score 1) 308

by WilCompute (#38814333) Attached to: Apple's iBooks EULA Drawing Ire

But we can look at the tags in use, as the .ibooks file is just a zip file, and create a converter that repackages that output to standard epub3. I would expect calibre to do some form of this, except now the author cant export the fruit of their hard labor. Saying that a company has the ownership of what I can use files that I create is just wrong, no matter if that is legal or not.


by WilCompute (#38814305) Attached to: Apple's iBooks EULA Drawing Ire

Don't know if you have looked at the book publishing industry lately, but it sucks, frankly. Not only are there no cheap, i.e. less than 5 bucks, programs that handle the export to different formats, it takes lots of programs to get onto the top ebook marketplaces, two of which are supposed to convert the formats for you. (Here's lookin' at you Amazon and SmashWords.)

To put it mildly, if I am reading a book about quilting, I want the let the quilting expert write the book, not the guy that can compile the information and has the technical proficiency to write the HTML code.

I say that as a writer, who is a geek.

Comment: Re:... of the binary produced by tool, not of cont (Score 0) 308

by WilCompute (#38814253) Attached to: Apple's iBooks EULA Drawing Ire

I am relatively certain that the iAuthor program produces an epub3 like file format. This is not a BINARY format. A binary format is an executable. The iAuthor format is zipped html5 files. In fact, you can manually edit the files in a text area. The only binary like files that it may contain would be YOUR video files, audio files, and pictures.
