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Perhaps what is being discussed is the theme of Ellen Ullman's series "The Dumbing Down of Programming" (here and here). The point is that many of today's so-called programmers have lost touch with what the fundamentals of what it really means to program, having been too deeply insulated from it by the tools they use. Windows development does this isolation to an extreme degree, under GNU/Linux this is far less so, and likely to remain that way.

I emailed the British Government when Tessa Jowell talked about changing ITC rules to allow prior restraint of programs like Brass Eye to tell them not to and got an email back, saying "the Secretary of State[Jowell] expressing her personal views as a viewer and parent and made it absolutely clear that the programme content and regulatory matters are for the regulators to deal with and not the
Government". Which is sort of backing away from doing what I didn't want them to do.

Now see? There you go with that mantra "It's just good business" and "maximizing profit". Yeah, I have no idea what I'm talking about. Would you rather hear it from an artist? Then will you believe me? Stop listening to RIAA propaganda and think for yourself.

http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/l ove/print.html

"The best price is that optimal point on the curve which generates the highest profits."

It cracks me up how one of the main things that I say is bad is the exact thing you say back to me as good. Just because something has text books and schools to teach it doesn't mean it's a good thing. They also teach how to use psychology to manipulate people into buying things they don't actually want or need... and they use this knowledge on children. Is that a good thing? I'm, sure you probably do, after all its "just good business" right? Your quote is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. You're talking about schools that teach how to overcharge someone to just the right extent that they don't actually get pissed enough to not buy your product while maximizing profit. I'm sorry but that's just wrong. It may be how things are, but it's wrong.

"Are you sure you're not confusing net profits and gross sales? If you're not making any money on that $0.05 sale, volume doesn't make a difference."

Actually volume CAN make a difference. The cost to produce is a finite number and once you have made that back from sales the remainder is basically profit. Sure this is a simplistic description but you get the point. We're in a world where the listening audience is no longer millions it's hundreds of millions and with the increase in listeners is an increase in sales. Remember, internet downloadable sales has virtually nil overhead. No more for one song than 1000 songs. No packaging, no shipping, no store staff. So once the song is produced the expenses drop drastically. But since the price to BUY them has gone up the profits soar... and we get screwed.

You don't have to charge an outrageous amount to profit. You can also profit buy making a good product that sells more.

I worked in show business for over 25 years, you know, last I checked they still pay the Band cash for live performances, care to ask why?
This link info is old but ultimately relevant.

Courtney Love Does the Math (2000)

"They can't torture me like they could Lucinda Williams."

http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/l ove/print.html

Not the "dumb chick" they make her out as.

McCartney's no fool. Surround yourself with quality people.

"Because we were bloody brilliant. Pure genius, that's all. 'We were very good,' he [McCartney] said modestly,' " and he smiles for his failure to conjure up the requisite humility. "The good thing is, now you can say that. People used to say, 'Don't you think you're a bit conceited?' And I'd say, 'I know what you mean, you could say it's conceited, but I really do know we're good. I can feel it every time we write a song.' Because John and I were very good collaborators. We really helped each other massively and admired each other greatly."

No brag, just a fact. [flamewar ensues]

Funny thing about his music, a personal thing, I'd buy his latest album/CD - whatever, slap it on and without fail I'd HATE it, put it away, then come back to it - find myself playing it more and more - to where finally it was my favorite album - most every time ... this would happen.
"Something in the wayyy ...."

My all time favorite? His first:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCartney_(album)

Congress didn't buy Amazon's argument that the failure of a defunct Jeff Bezos-funded company to award a $10,000 bounty offered by Tim O'Reilly for prior art that could bust Bezos' 1-Click patent was proof of 1-Click's novelty. The Commissioner for Patents, on the other hand, was duly impressed. As was one of his patent Examiners, who broke ranks from a less-impressed fellow Examiner and re-Examiner, to push through last week's issuance of U.S. patent no. 7,222,087, a 'continuation' of 1-Click which adds innovative claims like contacting the recipient of an order via e-mail or a phone call to obtain additional info.

It's just a different transformative agenda than what the more far-left elements of the Democratic party want.

There are no "far-left elements" of the Democratic party. Certainly Dennis Kucinich would be the standard bearer for the left wing, and he could run quite easily as a centrist in most non-American elections. Wake me up when we see someone urging Hugo Chavez-like direct wealth redistribution from within the Democratic party.

Is this a rehash of "the great right-wing fraud to repudiate George W. Bush" in which we find out that GWB is actually a liberal?

Considering the goth sex orgies that were going on instead of the creation/maintanence of good games, they weren't doing so hot.

That depends on your point of view - the above sounds like a game I might be very interested in playing!?

Considering the goth sex orgies that were going on instead of the creation/maintanence of good games, they weren't doing so hot.

Salon.com actually refers to the AK-47 as the "the world's most popular open-source assault rifle" in an article from yesterday. When I saw this article in my RSS reader I thought it would be pointing to that article. It compares the AK-47 to the QWERTY keyboard and attributes its success to the fact that no one has a patent on the design.

How is an AK-47 like a QWERTY keyboard?

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/?last_story=/tech/h tww/2007/06/01/ak_47/

Seriously, the linked article is dated 1 June 2007. The World Bank policy paper it covers is from April 2007 (http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDS ContentServer/IW3P/IB/2007/04/13/000016406_2007041 3145045/Rendered/PDF/wps4202.pdf).

Quote from the paper (also quoted in the salon article):

The AK-47's ubiquity [in conflicts in third world countries] could alternatively be explained as a result of a path dependent process. Economic historians recognize that an inferior product may persist when a small but early advantage becomes large over time and builds up a legacy that makes switching costly (David 1975). In the case of the AK-47 that early advantage may be that as a Soviet invention it was not subject to patent and so could be freely copied.

Either this patent story is a joke, or Sergei Ivanov is spending too much time on teh internets...

It appears to be a tracking cookie (rather than a session identifier) and I agree it's bad design.

I tested the page in lynx and it worked fine, dunno if it's using heuristics or something but the cookie is only the tip of the iceberg. This is the page I get in firefox - I have javascript disabled.

It's a more general problem, it's not just most web developers that are utterly clueless. Every industry is full of clueless people with no interest in what they're doing other than the paycheck at the end of the month.

Read about the case here, and here, and here. I'm sure you can find the case itself, given the dates and so forth; I'm not familiar with findlaw. I just pay attention to the rumblings in the news, particularly when there appears to be someone shitting on the constitution, and particularly when that someone is the supreme court.

Unfortunately the "reform" we got was not exactly what we needed. When bankruptcy judges themselves are saying the law is too harsh, it seems like it is doing more than just trying to "reign in the freeloaders".

It has already been established that Apple is the Toyota of computers.

Wonderful Special Effects. Poor material, especially after the first released movie.

Please take if off the pedestal.

See:

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/15 /brin_main/index.html/
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/15 /brin_side/index.html/
http://www.davidbrin.com/starwarsarticle1.html/

Wonderful Special Effects. Poor material, especially after the first released movie.

Please take if off the pedestal.

See:

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/15 /brin_main/index.html/
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/15 /brin_side/index.html/
http://www.davidbrin.com/starwarsarticle1.html/

European cities tend to have sharper boundaries between city and country due to better zoning regulations, making the country more accessible as it starts right after a sharp edge to the city. US cities tend to have a huge blurry suburban boundary stretching on and on where there is little nature -- making for long trips out of the city before one can reach anything faintly natural. Also, European countries tend to have laws permitting the free passage (and even camping) across undeveloped and even farm lands, whereas the USA laws tend to restrict that as trespassing (or owners "post" their lands for liability reasons, resulting in the same thing).

Perhaps one of the factors for your family was a change in work situation (given how demanding most farmwork can be) making available more free time to spend together as a family in nature?

One more part of that interview on Nature Deficit Disorder:
    http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2005/06/02/ Louv/index.html
"Is this just an urban problem, or does it affect children in suburban and rural areas as well?

For my research, I tried to cross every barrier I could think of -- for instance, I did interviews in more rural areas and suburban areas, like the one I grew up in outside Kansas City, which still has a lot of nature. I went in there thinking, Well, certainly if you have woods next to you, kids will be out in them. But that simply wasn't true. The parents and the kids there were saying the same things as kids in more urban areas. In fact, the amount of nature you have in New York City is actually better than some of the newer suburbs; imagine, today, a city building a Central Park.

A major study came out a few months ago that said that the rate of obesity in children is growing faster in rural areas than it is in cities and suburbs. Again, it seems counterintuitive. But it's not so counterintuitive when you think about the fact that the family farm is fairly nonexistent now. Kids in rural areas are playing the same video games, watching the same television, and they're on longer car rides."

So indeed, kids in rural areas can suffer from NDD too!

Check out:
    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=nature+defici t+disorder
From:
    http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2005/06/02/ Louv/index.html
"Do today's kids have "nature-deficit disorder"?

A new book argues that children desperately need to be able to play in the woods -- and that our culture's sterile rejection of nature is harming them in body and soul.

"In the not-so-distant past, kids ruled the country's woods and valleys -- running in packs, building secret forts and treehouses, hunting frogs and fish, playing hide-and-seek behind tall grasses. But in the last 30 years, says journalist Richard Louv, children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world, with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long-term mental and spiritual heath.

In his new book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder," Louv argues that sensationalist media coverage and paranoid parents have literally "scared children straight out of the woods and fields," while promoting a litigious culture of fear that favors "safe" regimented sports over imaginative play. Well-meaning elementary school curricula may teach students everything there is to know about the Amazon rain forest's endangered species, but do little to encourage kids' personal relationship with the world outside their own doors. And advances in technology, while opening up a wealth of "virtual" experiences to the young, have made it easier and easier for children to spend less time outside.

Louv spent 10 years traveling around the country reporting and speaking to parents and children, in both rural and urban areas, about their experiences in nature. In "Last Child in the Woods," he pairs their anecdotes with a growing body of scientific research that suggests children who are given early and ongoing positive exposure to nature thrive in intellectual, spiritual and physical ways that their "shut-in" peers do not. By reducing stress, sharpening concentration, and promoting creative problem solving, "nature-play" is also emerging as a promising therapy for attention-deficit disorder and other childhood maladies. Indeed Louv, in both the book's title and content, suggests that while increased exposure to nature may prove a salve for many of the childhood disorders that now run rampant, the very ubiquity of those disorders is evidence that two generations of alienation from nature may have already resulted in considerable harm to our kids."

Yes, but according to this article, 24% of US citizens believe bombing aimed at civilians are justified "often" or "sometimes" and another 27% think it is justified rarely. So yes, that poll is disturbing, but not necessarily more than such a poll of any other group of people would be.

American farmers, spurred by ethanol frenzy, are planting the largest corn crop in more than 50 years.The demand is so high, reports Farm News, that seed companies are running out of the most popular varieties of corn seed.

At the top of the list are "triple stack hybrids" sold mostly by Monsanto-owned subsidiaries. A triple stack hybrid combines genetic modifications that result in three different "traits." In this case, the corn comes with built-in resistance to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, and built-in insecticides that target two of the corn plant's most fearsome foes, the dreaded corn borer and the equally devastating corn rootworm. (The corn borer and corn rootworm toxins are derived from two different subspecies of the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis -- triple stack hybrids thus include two different "Bt" genetic modification "events.")

For Monsanto, the apparent popularity of triple stack hybrid corn seed is an opportunity to tout the market's embrace of its latest products. For critics of GM corn, the rush to such varieties presages a future filled with weeds that evolve to resist Roundup and new generations of corn borers and rootworms that shrug off Bt toxins.

No doubt Monsanto plans to come up with new, "improved" corn seed products that will target new, improved pests, and will be able to resist new, improved herbicides. That is the treadmill that the human race has put itself on, and whether we'll ever be able to get off of it seems a highly doubtful proposition, unless food prices rise so high that biofuels become politically impossible. But that dreary quagmire is not the point of this post.

For some time, How the World Works has been convinced that the rush to biofuels will significantly boost the ongoing rollout of genetically modified organisms. There's just too much money at stake in the energy business for it to be otherwise. The popularity of the latest biotech crops is a perfect illustration of this. These seeds aren't cheap -- they are top-of-the-line products. But for well-financed farmers and industrial-scale agribusinesses aiming to cash in on ethanol demand, seed costs are not a significant barrier. It seems reasonable to expect, in the not-too-distant future, quadruple- and quintuple- and sextuple-stacked hybrids that do all kinds of fancy things such as incorporate herbicide resistance, targeted pesticides, and modifications that make the corn cheaper and easier to industrially transform into ethanol.

As more and more modifications are incorporated into a single organism, our ability to understand and predict how wide-scale proliferation of those organisms will affect the greater environment will become even more difficult than it already is. So maybe "treadmill" isn't the best metaphor to describe the current dynamic. A rocket launch into territory unknown might offer a more appropriate analogy.

-- Andrew Leonard

American farmers, spurred by ethanol frenzy, are planting the largest corn crop in more than 50 years.The demand is so high, reports Farm News, that seed companies are running out of the most popular varieties of corn seed.

At the top of the list are "triple stack hybrids" sold mostly by Monsanto-owned subsidiaries. A triple stack hybrid combines genetic modifications that result in three different "traits." In this case, the corn comes with built-in resistance to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, and built-in insecticides that target two of the corn plant's most fearsome foes, the dreaded corn borer and the equally devastating corn rootworm. (The corn borer and corn rootworm toxins are derived from two different subspecies of the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis -- triple stack hybrids thus include two different "Bt" genetic modification "events.")

For Monsanto, the apparent popularity of triple stack hybrid corn seed is an opportunity to tout the market's embrace of its latest products. For critics of GM corn, the rush to such varieties presages a future filled with weeds that evolve to resist Roundup and new generations of corn borers and rootworms that shrug off Bt toxins.

No doubt Monsanto plans to come up with new, "improved" corn seed products that will target new, improved pests, and will be able to resist new, improved herbicides. That is the treadmill that the human race has put itself on, and whether we'll ever be able to get off of it seems a highly doubtful proposition, unless food prices rise so high that biofuels become politically impossible. But that dreary quagmire is not the point of this post.

For some time, How the World Works has been convinced that the rush to biofuels will significantly boost the ongoing rollout of genetically modified organisms. There's just too much money at stake in the energy business for it to be otherwise. The popularity of the latest biotech crops is a perfect illustration of this. These seeds aren't cheap -- they are top-of-the-line products. But for well-financed farmers and industrial-scale agribusinesses aiming to cash in on ethanol demand, seed costs are not a significant barrier. It seems reasonable to expect, in the not-too-distant future, quadruple- and quintuple- and sextuple-stacked hybrids that do all kinds of fancy things such as incorporate herbicide resistance, targeted pesticides, and modifications that make the corn cheaper and easier to industrially transform into ethanol.

As more and more modifications are incorporated into a single organism, our ability to understand and predict how wide-scale proliferation of those organisms will affect the greater environment will become even more difficult than it already is. So maybe "treadmill" isn't the best metaphor to describe the current dynamic. A rocket launch into territory unknown might offer a more appropriate analogy.

-- Andrew Leonard

You may want to read Salon.com's analysis, which contradicts your empty review.

In this excerpt the last bit (Item 2, at the bottom of the page) looks like a pretty good analysis.

Comparing Chistianity to Scientology is like comparing Aristotle (who's science was wrong) to that voice that uses genetic technobabble to narrate the beginning of Heroes (its science is wrong too.) Christianity has had the great geniuses of the Western world contributing to it over last 2000 years, and it based on the Hebrew Bible, a great work as literature. It may or may not be wrong, but it has important, or at least sophisticated, things to say. Scientology has Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and is based on Dianetics. (I haven't read Dianetics, but I have seen the film version of Battlefield Earth, and that is enough for me.)

Courtney Love has a nice article on her take on piracy etc.
Her view on the issue is that the music industry is a huge, profiteering middleman and artists are swindled by them. She's of the opinion that for an artist, more exposure, however it comes, is a good thing and will lead to people buying more stuff.
The music industry is whining just because they're being cut out from a direct experience between an artist and the listener.

Yeah, lets see a newspaper pull that off. "But your honor one of our sources reported that Celebrity T was doing R bad thing at the time therefore we didn't slander them."

It's good to see you've discovered the internet since waking from your coma, although you may be disappointed to find out that along with television it's eating the newspaper industry alive. There have been some other changes for the worse during the last six years, too. You're not going to be happy with the state of the news media today. Not only can they pass along lies without facing the repercussions, but they refuse to reveal the identity of lying "anonymous sources" thereby protecting those liars from facing any negative consequences at all.

Yeah, lets see a newspaper pull that off. "But your honor one of our sources reported that Celebrity T was doing R bad thing at the time therefore we didn't slander them."

It's good to see you've discovered the internet since waking from your coma, although you may be disappointed to find out that along with television it's eating the newspaper industry alive. There have been some other changes for the worse during the last six years, too. You're not going to be happy with the state of the news media today. Not only can they pass along lies without facing the repercussions, but they refuse to reveal the identity of lying "anonymous sources" thereby protecting those liars from facing any negative consequences at all.

Yeah, lets see a newspaper pull that off. "But your honor one of our sources reported that Celebrity T was doing R bad thing at the time therefore we didn't slander them."

It's good to see you've discovered the internet since waking from your coma, although you may be disappointed to find out that along with television it's eating the newspaper industry alive. There have been some other changes for the worse during the last six years, too. You're not going to be happy with the state of the news media today. Not only can they pass along lies without facing the repercussions, but they refuse to reveal the identity of lying "anonymous sources" thereby protecting those liars from facing any negative consequences at all.

You're hardly an ass, as you're one of few skeptics to admit that your original (hardly outlandish) accusations turned out to be wrong, which makes you more intellectually honest than many self-appointed DRM wonks. That group includes, most notably, Cory Doctorow, who blasted Jobs in a Salon article after "Thoughts on Music" was first posted on Apple's web site. When Jobs came through on his pledge, Doctorow was pleased but never saw fit to mention, "Hey, I probably went a bit overboard with that screed in Salon."

Unless...Cory, is that you?

Jeez, show some appreciation! After all, without a first poster, there wouldn't be a second.

The Wall Street Journal had the ten-pound testicles to refer to people too poor to pay income tax as "Lucky Duckies". Wikipedia has an excellent article on the subject; the Ruben Bolling cartoons are quite good. It's absolutely insane how people can unashamedly cry that rich people are oppressed, and no matter how many times I see it, I'm still struck by it.

Before you nuke Redmond, perhaps you should read a bit about WHY Gates is sending funds to the Discovery Institute. (hint: it's not to promote ID)

You might be able to make that claim about Chavezes initial election. Maybe. But measures such as this one pretty much guarantee that there won't be another free election in Venezuela.

So your solution is a system where Prince, Maynard James Keenan or Trent Reznor are unable to support themselves creating music full time?

First off, it's not like the record companies pay them any real money for the albums. In fact it seems like they lose money... they make their real money from touring, and copyright won't stop them from touring...
Secondly, even w/o copyright (and from TFA they're only reforming, not removing) album sales do not have to drop to zero, and proceeds from album sales to the musician also don't have to drop to zero.

Copyright changes would impact the recording industry. In a brutal way. But it wouldn't stop the artists...

The recording industry has two jobs: distribution and promotion. The Internet does both more efficiently. In capitalist economic theory when something can be done more efficiently, the old way of doing things dies off...

|Damn straight. Now, go find me a black millionaire nationally-syndicated talk-show host who makes racist remarks.

How about Jesse Jackson? (Not a nationally Syndicated talk-show host, but most definitely a millionaire and a Public Figure)

http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/08/ 16/jackson/index.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/spec ial/clinton/frenzy/jackson.htm

Louis Farrakhan (also a wealthy public figure, just google for his remarks on Jews)

Racism is unacceptable, whether it comes from whites, blacks or anyone. Radical black nationalism is just as racist in ideology as radical white nationalism.

FIRST

This industry had to die.

If the record stores are not controlling the market, and the radio is not the place where music is heard, then the artists win. If you find a new artist via MySpace, the artist wins.

The artists should stop signing slave labor (or worse, pay their employer for the privilege of working for them) contracts and sell their music directly; either online or they can burn a CD as easily as a record company can press one.

A band can play a small joint, record the show to a Notebook and burn a CD to sell to the patrons for $5. Profitable gig. DONE.

Yea, it won't sound like a studio job, but the music loving community doesn't really care that much.

. The mentally retarded have to be taken care of, and cannot be expected to behave responsibly, and therefore have to be protected in varying degrees. You would not hand a gun to one, would you? And if you did and he/she shot you, would a mentally retarded person be held legally responsible for it?

I said "most", not "all". Do you even know how to read?

Name a single executive power that people fear Bush using that Clinton showed any inclination of using when he was president. Do you even know how to think?

Clinton fired 93 US Attorneys, Bush only fired 8. But guess who's getting rake over the rusty razor blades for it?

Why are you so full of shit today, Brandybuck? You are comparing apples to irrelevant oranges. Yes, Clinton did fire all 93 USA's....so did Reagan and the first president Bush. As did the second Bush when he took office. But that was at the start of their terms, not six years in. And not to their own appointees.

But since you want to bring up Clinton's firing of the USA's, lets go ahead and go there. Republicans were pissed when he did it. Absolutely fucking pissed. Nevermind, of course, that Reagan and Herbert Walker Bush did the same damn thing when they took office. Much like how military service was terribly important when Clinton was running against daddy Bush, as opposed to when Reagan was running against Carter or W. was running against Gore or Kerry.

That's the problem with the GOP today: the party is build on idiocy, incompetency, and hypocracy. Go check out that link and marvel in pure IOIYAR philosophy in action.

These are not journalists who want to uncover government corruption or act in an adversarial capacity to check government power. Rather, these are members of the royal court who are grateful to the King and his minions for granting them their status. What they want more than anything is to protect and preserve the system that has so rewarded them -- with status and money and fame and access and comfort. They're the ludicrous clowns who entertain the public by belittling any facts which demonstrate pervasive corruption and deceit at the highest levels of our government, and who completely degrade the public discourse with their petty, pompous, shallow, vapid chatter that transforms every important political matter into a stupid gossipy joke.

There is always live performances, piracy will never kill that for the artists. I wonder if record labels get a cut of that.

On the economics of the music business:
Steve Albini
Courtney Love
Steva Vai

"There'll be online dykes and gangsta Napster rappers. There'll be kids and students and mothers and just about anything else you can think of. And why not? When we said the Internet represented a "revolution," we meant it -- didn't we?"

US music sales included 588.2 million albums and 581.9 million digital tracks indicates that there is perhaps a bit of money in the field of selling albums and music, and not just performing. When it is so patently obvious that owning music is worth quite a bit to hundreds of millions of people, the old argument that recorded music "should" just be used to draw people to concerts seems more than a little self-serving.

Are you implying that artists somehow benefit from music sales? I was under the impression that platinum performing artists made next to nothing from those sales but were forced to tour perpetually to promote them.

Yes, hundreds of millions of people are willing to pay for music. The greedy pigs who own the entire history of recorded music, unfortunately are so busy both artists and fans that no one is getting what they deserve.

The vast majority of music is still acquired on CDs, but history is all they will provide in the future. Everyone but the majors are sick of the majors. New music is being produced, promoted and enjoyed without them. Online, they are just one of many providers. The future belongs to those who meet people's need for entertainment. Lawsuits, restrictions and bad deals are not fun for anyone.

please see http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/D8N7KT707.html

According a recent article on salon at http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/D8N7KT707.html, it is already happening.