I can add something to this discussion, only a little tidbit, though.
I can tell you that being a convicted felon makes it impossible for one to get a security clearance of any sort from the U.S. Gov't. The FBI will sniff that one out in a second, and if you've got a felony conviction on your record, no clearance. One or two misdemeanors might make it.
So, if you're a security firm, and you hope to land fat gov't contracts which will require your people to get cleared to some level of security, do you want to hire convicted felons, who can't be cleared?
I haven't been to see a major, Hollywood film since November of last year.
I won't ever see their dreck again.
I also do not own, nor ever will own a DVD player. Perhaps, a DVD-RAM someday, but only if it works with OpenBSD and Linux and only if I get source to the drivers! Hell, I might write the drivers myself.
I'm sick of these corporate bastards and their lawyers. They try to make up for their own mediocrity by suing everything in sight.
But, this does prove one thing: the Internet truly is an amazing and unprecedented invention. It will wreak havoc with the law because of questions like this one, here: who has jurisdiction when some country's laws are broken.
I don't know that any laws were broken in this case. Why must they always parrot the "this software aids copying line" when it's clear that all we want is software to play their stinking movies? They're just pissed the software was written without using their reference implementation and therefore without a license fee having been paid. All I can say is, get used to it, boys! The world as you knew it is coming to an end.
Suppose we could abolish the MPAA. All you have to do is get the Justice Department to investigate it an illegal trust. After all, it isn't just one company, but a cartel of several. If you could prove that the members of the MPAA were using their combined muscle to quash competition and to extend their influence to their own benefit and the detriment of the consumer, then you might have a case.
Just remember, the side with the better dressed attorney usually wins. What was said of Judge Kaplan is true of most U.S. judges.
Sounds to me like, "We've got this product and our sales are really slipping and it's costing us more to maintain it than we're bringing on sales and upgrades. Hmm, let's just throw it away....No, wait! Let's release the source code, let the customers maintain it, call it 'Open Source' and get a temporary boost in our stock price to offset our losses. Yeah, that's the ticket."
Besides, is 100 FPS really that much better than, say, 40 or 50?
Actually anything over about 30 fps is pretty much wasted. Unless you're very exceptional or highly attuned to these things, your eye won't notice much of a difference in performance once you get over 30 fps. Any differences in frame over that would likely be imperceptible. Every human eye is a bit different, but the general cut off is somewhere around 30 - 60 fps.
So, if you're buying some super hot vid card to get 100 fps in Quake III, you're wasting money. Buy one that'll get you 40 fps and you won't notice the difference in playing the game.
Blade Runner in particular shows a very decadent culture of the future (now only 17 years away, and damn if it doesn't look familiar now) where again human life and privacy and freedom are all for sale.
I'm sorry, I can't help it. That sentence reminds me of the lyrics from a Bernard Lavilliers' song (Faits Divers):
Comment va la vie? Il y a des endroits
Elle vaut dix dollars. Combien je te dois?
A translation into English is something like:
How's it going for Life. There are places
it's worth ten dollars. How much do I owe you?
Interesting. That's the way publishing and copyright used to work in the bad, old days before the Western Nations underwent democratic revolutions. You used to have to get permission from the King or some government agency empowered by the local despot to be able to publish your books. If the ruler didn't like you or what you had to say, tough luck, you have to move to Holland, where the press was pretty much free, and where most of the truly interesting books of the time were printed.
On TV you can see all sorts of things that 20 years ago never would have been allowed.
I don't know where you are from, but from where I sit, that sentence is utter bullshit. TV is even more constipated today than it was in the 1970s, at least here in the United States. Sure, you can see more tits and ass, as well as more asses (i.e. iditots) on television, but you don't see much on TV anymore that is truly controversial. Do you think that in today's climate in the U.S. that any studio would think to make a show like ALL IN THE FAMILY? Fuck no!
What is happening is that the powerful groups of oligarchs who really control everything are giving you the illusion of more freedom. Their idea of freedom is "consumer choice," but only so long as that choice is Coke or Pepsi. What the Hell do you think Jose Bove is about, or the protests in Seatle? Rampant consumerism is no replacement for real freedom.
It's time you wake up, open your eyes, and take a good, hard look at what is going on in the western media and in people's day to day lives.
Nah, the real answer is ANSWERING MACHINE and turn the ringer off. YES! Quiet at last. I can now check the messages, mostly blank, whenever I feel like it. IF my wife answers the phone that's her affair. I don't speak to telemarketers.
I've tried this don't call me shit, and the telemarketer that called Tuesday night was from a company that I had previously told not to call me. That shit doesn't work.
The simple solution is to ban cold calls outright.
I was going to moderate you up with "Interesting," but I chose to post a reply instead. I basically agree with you on your B2C comments, but I disagree with you on Amazon and in a subtle way.
Firstly, I don't think Amazon is going to survive long term. Yeah, they'll still be there in another 1-2 years, but to me that's short term. I don't think Amazon is gonna make it another ten years. Anyway, we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. They can't continue to hemorrhage money and stay in business, no matter how many customers they have. It's simple economics. Once the VC cash is spent and there's not profit, there's nothing but Chapter 11.
Secondly, while I don't think that the B2C model has much of a future on the web, I do think that the web offers smaller merchants and individuals an opportunity to reach a larger market with their unique wares for less money than any other currently available method. You're right though, the company or individual must be offering something truly unique in order to survive. However, in the case of individuals or extremely small companies (2-5 people) their survival needs (in terms of income) are modest compared to the big guys, like Amazon. So, it will be easier for an individual to keep an ecommerce site going as long as the balance sheet is positive.
While we're at it, I'll touch on the security issue. Yeah, security is paramount. You must protect the information that the consumer has provided to you from theft by others. This is really a liability issue. You don't want to get sued. As for your statement that no one else is selling your customer's info, well that's just preposterous. Banks, credit card processors, and credit reporting agencies are selling your information all the time. Why do you think you keep getting all those cold calls from companies you've never heard of, trying to sell you crap you don't need? It's because you have a credit card and everything that you've ever bought with it is available to the highest bidder.
Screw the anti-Spam bill, even if it makes it into law. I want cold calls made illegal.
Unsolicited email is less of an interruption because I'm already sitting there, going through my email. I'm in email reading mode, so it's not a distraction from what I'm doing. The damned phone can ring at any time no matter what I'm doing. It's a distraction, at the least, an interruption if I bother to answer it, which I usually don't. That's what answering machines are for.:-)
Phones could disappear tomorrow, as long as I've got email and the 'Net, and I would rejoice
I guess I'll just have to hack up a device for my phone to identify cold calls and disconnect them before the phone rings.
While we're at it, we ought to get rid of all these businesses trading personal information. If I want to do business with you, I'll get in touch with you. You don't need to come looking for me. 'Cause even if I wanted to do business with you, now I don't, 'cause you've intruded on my life and tried to set the agenda for when and how I deal with you. Well, I'm the customer, so FUCK YOU! I'll take my money and (much more importantly) my time somewhere else, where I'm actually respected as more than just a gaping wallet.
Also, suppose I need two pieces of hardware, and the supported kernel is different for both pieces?
Then, you need to decide which piece you need more, or get a different machine for each piece.
You can also live dangerously and try loading the modules anyway. As long the difference in the kernel requirements is in the number after the third dot, you just might get away with it. Then again, your machine might just lock up. }:-)
Seriously, though, I don't see binary drivers or special kernel versions (with drivers compiled in) being a problem for folks who need the special hardware. This is exactly where the custom programming and service model of making money with Open Source comes in.
The question really becomes does linking your driver code into the Linux kernel violate the GPL if you don't distribute the source for your driver. If the answer is yes, then only support BSD and tell the Linux weanies to go to Hell. }:-)
So, why does anyone need a video card with 64MB of RAM and a 183MHz chip? Like, what are you trying to display? 1,000 fps in Quake III? I mean really, beyond 30 fps and your eye really can't tell the difference. What, are you displaying a bitmap of the Milky Way galaxy at.2 micron pitch and you want to rotate it in 3-D in real time?
I agree with the folks who say, "Why must everything be Open Source?"
Why not just release binary drivers as modules and specify which version of the Linux kernel is required? If people need your hardware, then they'd be delighted to run whatever version of Linux is required. (I'm talking about kernel versions, not distros.)
Just because you port something to Linux doesn't mean it has to be Open Source, or even free.
Exactly! Which is why I refuse to work anywhere that a drug test is mandatory. I don't use illegal drugs, just the legal ones.:-) I do, however, refuse to work where I AM NOT TRUSTED.
Actually, dude, I've been on Slashdot since before Katz came along. I didn't get moderated up to 2, I post at 2.:-b I usually don't read Katz's articles, 'cause I read a bunch in the past, so I have the Katz filter on to trash his stuff.
This one was a bit better than usual. Perhaps, I got lost in some of my enthusiasm for the topic.
I think you'll see more companies online offering their services to clients. You'll see some sites that offer free downloads of software (whether free or closed) and then offer their programming services to customize that application to a customer's need.
You'll also see a few e-commerce sites prosper, while most wither like your petunias.
There's more to the Internet than just the web. I'd look for more ad-supported email digests and mailing lists.
I think someone who offers a service to a particular community might be able to make a go of it with a subscription based section of their web site that offers some truly unique information (ie. information not available anywhere else, not just all the information from everywhere else collected in one spot). You combine that with ecommerce and special support services tailored to that community and you might just have a winner.
The gold rush is over, but that doesn't mean you can't make money on the 'Net or that you can't get rich. It just means you have to earn it, and it won't just be handed to you.
Slashdot Mirror
I can add something to this discussion, only a little tidbit, though.
I can tell you that being a convicted felon makes it impossible for one to get a security clearance of any sort from the U.S. Gov't. The FBI will sniff that one out in a second, and if you've got a felony conviction on your record, no clearance. One or two misdemeanors might make it.
So, if you're a security firm, and you hope to land fat gov't contracts which will require your people to get cleared to some level of security, do you want to hire convicted felons, who can't be cleared?
I haven't been to see a major, Hollywood film since November of last year.
I won't ever see their dreck again.
I also do not own, nor ever will own a DVD player. Perhaps, a DVD-RAM someday, but only if it works with OpenBSD and Linux and only if I get source to the drivers! Hell, I might write the drivers myself.
I'm sick of these corporate bastards and their lawyers. They try to make up for their own mediocrity by suing everything in sight.
But, this does prove one thing: the Internet truly is an amazing and unprecedented invention. It will wreak havoc with the law because of questions like this one, here: who has jurisdiction when some country's laws are broken.
I don't know that any laws were broken in this case. Why must they always parrot the "this software aids copying line" when it's clear that all we want is software to play their stinking movies? They're just pissed the software was written without using their reference implementation and therefore without a license fee having been paid. All I can say is, get used to it, boys! The world as you knew it is coming to an end.
What a large company, listen to their customers? No, never.
:-)
Don't get your panties in a wad. It was just my first reaction on reading the announcement. I never said it was true.
Suppose we could abolish the MPAA. All you have to do is get the Justice Department to investigate it an illegal trust. After all, it isn't just one company, but a cartel of several. If you could prove that the members of the MPAA were using their combined muscle to quash competition and to extend their influence to their own benefit and the detriment of the consumer, then you might have a case.
Just remember, the side with the better dressed attorney usually wins. What was said of Judge Kaplan is true of most U.S. judges.
Sounds to me like, "We've got this product and our sales are really slipping and it's costing us more to maintain it than we're bringing on sales and upgrades. Hmm, let's just throw it away....No, wait! Let's release the source code, let the customers maintain it, call it 'Open Source' and get a temporary boost in our stock price to offset our losses. Yeah, that's the ticket."
Besides, is 100 FPS really that much better than, say, 40 or 50?
Actually anything over about 30 fps is pretty much wasted. Unless you're very exceptional or highly attuned to these things, your eye won't notice much of a difference in performance once you get over 30 fps. Any differences in frame over that would likely be imperceptible. Every human eye is a bit different, but the general cut off is somewhere around 30 - 60 fps.
So, if you're buying some super hot vid card to get 100 fps in Quake III, you're wasting money. Buy one that'll get you 40 fps and you won't notice the difference in playing the game.
"Publius features no search utility and a maximum file size of 100k," and is therefore useless.
Blade Runner in particular shows a very decadent culture of the future (now only 17 years away, and damn if it doesn't look familiar now) where again human life and privacy and freedom are all for sale.
I'm sorry, I can't help it. That sentence reminds me of the lyrics from a Bernard Lavilliers' song (Faits Divers):
A translation into English is something like:
Scary, no?
Interesting. That's the way publishing and copyright used to work in the bad, old days before the Western Nations underwent democratic revolutions. You used to have to get permission from the King or some government agency empowered by the local despot to be able to publish your books. If the ruler didn't like you or what you had to say, tough luck, you have to move to Holland, where the press was pretty much free, and where most of the truly interesting books of the time were printed.
On TV you can see all sorts of things that 20 years ago never would have been allowed.
I don't know where you are from, but from where I sit, that sentence is utter bullshit. TV is even more constipated today than it was in the 1970s, at least here in the United States. Sure, you can see more tits and ass, as well as more asses (i.e. iditots) on television, but you don't see much on TV anymore that is truly controversial. Do you think that in today's climate in the U.S. that any studio would think to make a show like ALL IN THE FAMILY? Fuck no!
What is happening is that the powerful groups of oligarchs who really control everything are giving you the illusion of more freedom. Their idea of freedom is "consumer choice," but only so long as that choice is Coke or Pepsi. What the Hell do you think Jose Bove is about, or the protests in Seatle? Rampant consumerism is no replacement for real freedom.
It's time you wake up, open your eyes, and take a good, hard look at what is going on in the western media and in people's day to day lives.
this appears to be
a haiku but sorely lacks
poetic value
That's a haiku!
Anyone for Renga?
Being a developer myself, I think my answer would be biased. :-)
Frankly, I don't think most true end users care about licenses or source code. They just want software that more or less works.
Nah, the real answer is ANSWERING MACHINE and turn the ringer off. YES! Quiet at last. I can now check the messages, mostly blank, whenever I feel like it. IF my wife answers the phone that's her affair. I don't speak to telemarketers.
I've tried this don't call me shit, and the telemarketer that called Tuesday night was from a company that I had previously told not to call me. That shit doesn't work.
The simple solution is to ban cold calls outright.
I was going to moderate you up with "Interesting," but I chose to post a reply instead. I basically agree with you on your B2C comments, but I disagree with you on Amazon and in a subtle way.
Firstly, I don't think Amazon is going to survive long term. Yeah, they'll still be there in another 1-2 years, but to me that's short term. I don't think Amazon is gonna make it another ten years. Anyway, we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. They can't continue to hemorrhage money and stay in business, no matter how many customers they have. It's simple economics. Once the VC cash is spent and there's not profit, there's nothing but Chapter 11.
Secondly, while I don't think that the B2C model has much of a future on the web, I do think that the web offers smaller merchants and individuals an opportunity to reach a larger market with their unique wares for less money than any other currently available method. You're right though, the company or individual must be offering something truly unique in order to survive. However, in the case of individuals or extremely small companies (2-5 people) their survival needs (in terms of income) are modest compared to the big guys, like Amazon. So, it will be easier for an individual to keep an ecommerce site going as long as the balance sheet is positive.
While we're at it, I'll touch on the security issue. Yeah, security is paramount. You must protect the information that the consumer has provided to you from theft by others. This is really a liability issue. You don't want to get sued. As for your statement that no one else is selling your customer's info, well that's just preposterous. Banks, credit card processors, and credit reporting agencies are selling your information all the time. Why do you think you keep getting all those cold calls from companies you've never heard of, trying to sell you crap you don't need? It's because you have a credit card and everything that you've ever bought with it is available to the highest bidder.
You have no privacy, get over it.
Screw the anti-Spam bill, even if it makes it into law. I want cold calls made illegal.
:-)
Unsolicited email is less of an interruption because I'm already sitting there, going through my email. I'm in email reading mode, so it's not a distraction from what I'm doing. The damned phone can ring at any time no matter what I'm doing. It's a distraction, at the least, an interruption if I bother to answer it, which I usually don't. That's what answering machines are for.
Phones could disappear tomorrow, as long as I've got email and the 'Net, and I would rejoice
I guess I'll just have to hack up a device for my phone to identify cold calls and disconnect them before the phone rings.
While we're at it, we ought to get rid of all these businesses trading personal information. If I want to do business with you, I'll get in touch with you. You don't need to come looking for me. 'Cause even if I wanted to do business with you, now I don't, 'cause you've intruded on my life and tried to set the agenda for when and how I deal with you. Well, I'm the customer, so FUCK YOU! I'll take my money and (much more importantly) my time somewhere else, where I'm actually respected as more than just a gaping wallet.
Oh well, 'nuff ranting.
Also, suppose I need two pieces of hardware, and the supported kernel is different for both pieces?
Then, you need to decide which piece you need more, or get a different machine for each piece.
You can also live dangerously and try loading the modules anyway. As long the difference in the kernel requirements is in the number after the third dot, you just might get away with it. Then again, your machine might just lock up. }:-)
Seriously, though, I don't see binary drivers or special kernel versions (with drivers compiled in) being a problem for folks who need the special hardware. This is exactly where the custom programming and service model of making money with Open Source comes in.
The question really becomes does linking your driver code into the Linux kernel violate the GPL if you don't distribute the source for your driver. If the answer is yes, then only support BSD and tell the Linux weanies to go to Hell. }:-)
So, why does anyone need a video card with 64MB of RAM and a 183MHz chip? Like, what are you trying to display? 1,000 fps in Quake III? I mean really, beyond 30 fps and your eye really can't tell the difference. What, are you displaying a bitmap of the Milky Way galaxy at .2 micron pitch and you want to rotate it in 3-D in real time?
I agree with the folks who say, "Why must everything be Open Source?"
Why not just release binary drivers as modules and specify which version of the Linux kernel is required? If people need your hardware, then they'd be delighted to run whatever version of Linux is required. (I'm talking about kernel versions, not distros.)
Just because you port something to Linux doesn't mean it has to be Open Source, or even free.
If it's your policy not to keep logs of any sort, then they can't be subpoena'd in court.
Exactly! Which is why I refuse to work anywhere that a drug test is mandatory. I don't use illegal drugs, just the legal ones. :-) I do, however, refuse to work where I AM NOT TRUSTED.
Fortunately, this could never happen here.
Fat lot you know, Jamie.
Actually, dude, I've been on Slashdot since before Katz came along. I didn't get moderated up to 2, I post at 2. :-b I usually don't read Katz's articles, 'cause I read a bunch in the past, so I have the Katz filter on to trash his stuff.
This one was a bit better than usual. Perhaps, I got lost in some of my enthusiasm for the topic.
Shit, Katz. I usually don't read your stuff, but this one is actually pretty damned good. Keep it up!
I think you'll see more companies online offering their services to clients. You'll see some sites that offer free downloads of software (whether free or closed) and then offer their programming services to customize that application to a customer's need.
You'll also see a few e-commerce sites prosper, while most wither like your petunias.
There's more to the Internet than just the web. I'd look for more ad-supported email digests and mailing lists.
I think someone who offers a service to a particular community might be able to make a go of it with a subscription based section of their web site that offers some truly unique information (ie. information not available anywhere else, not just all the information from everywhere else collected in one spot). You combine that with ecommerce and special support services tailored to that community and you might just have a winner.
The gold rush is over, but that doesn't mean you can't make money on the 'Net or that you can't get rich. It just means you have to earn it, and it won't just be handed to you.
Ok, so I'm changing my name.....
Henceforth, I will be "The Hacker Formerly Known as Jason."