If you couldn't obtain it for free, you would pay for it.
Not necessarily. I would borrow CD's from friends or trading with them, or I would gather 5-10 friends and buy one record with them and so on.
Some people don't realize there are millions of people who really have other priorities in life then to buy a CD for 30 dollars when they earn 300 dollars a week or even less and the rent is 200 dollars and the various monthly fees are 60 dollars. But they would buy at least one CD a month if the CD was 9.99 dollars.
Some people don't believe in buying records when the music on those records is freely available on FM radios, they would copy it anyway from the Internet, but these people would gladly go to a concert if it was possible. For example, I would NOT pay 40 dollars for a Yanni CD but I would pay 100-150 dollars without blinking for a concert ticket if Yanni or Mike Oldfield concert in my country. These are concerts where you "feel" the music, if you're at a live concert.
Furthermore, I believe that downloading music often increases sales, because I can't remember how often I'd recommended bands and albums to other people, which later on have purchased tracks or albums from iTunes. I may not be buying, but I'm referring people.
Check out the forums of Digitally Imported for example, and see what people are saying at various tracks, you'll see lots of comments like "Wow! Where can I buy this mix?" Would you consider that by listening to that mix on DI.fm, that artist lost a sale? He won hundreds just by gaining popularity and getting his work known.
Besides activity by other threads, media playback can also be affected by network activity. When a network packet arrives at system, it triggers a CPU interrupt, which causes the device driver for the device at which the packet arrived to execute an Interrupt Service Routine (ISR). Other device interrupts are blocked while ISRs run, so ISRs typically do some device book-keeping and then perform the more lengthy transfer of data to or from their device in a Deferred Procedure Call (DPC) that runs with device interrupts enabled. While DPCs execute with interrupts enabled, they take precedence over all thread execution, regardless of priority, on the processor on which they run, and can therefore impede media playback threads.
They're saying that every packet received causes an interrupt request, which causes the CPU to get loaded at high transfer speeds.
Apparently they haven't heard of interrupt moderation or polling, technologies that are used by network cards to offload the CPU.
Even my Marvell semi-hardware (I think) Gigabit on-board network card used about 14% CPU (Barton 1833Mhz) when transferring files at about 45Mbps.
I don't know, everything seems really stupid, and I'm not sure it's just a "bug", or their description is just a part of what really happens behind the scene.
The Securom protection in the executable of the DEMO is needed because the game makers were probably too lazy to compile a different version of the executable for the DEMO, with less functions.
Some crackers would take the executables from a DEMO and the content from a game CD and thus would have nothing to crack.
While the protection is anyway removed in less than a week from the game it is released, it is often pushed by the people in distribution chain and by people that finance the development of the game.
It's just too slow down the piracy of the game in the few days the game is released in retail stores, when the hype is at the maximum.
Combined with the online activation I believe it has, it's good enough.
In my country (.ro) girls use to be better at maths at school, mostly because they learn more and want better grades (there's competition)... boys use to be more careless, they don't care so much about grades and end of year prizes. I know I didn't care much about much, usually got only C's at maths and physics.. and now i'm working in IT. Or at least it was about 16 years ago like that, when i was in high school, nowadays the school system sucks more and more with each day...
Try to tell that to your mother after she goes with the vacuum throughout the house. move the computer and messes up one of the cable and all she knows to do with a computer is to turn it on, click on my nickname inside Yahoo Messenger and then click on "Call".
The world is not made out only of geeks that know how to fix their computers.
But I agree, this is not the point of the article and there shouldn't be a need for two cables in the first place.
I'm not sure you would like to do that. What would happen if one cable suddenly gets removed?
It would be much easier for each cable to transmit one half of the image at full 10bit depth and have the electronics inside the display interlace each line and form the complete image. If one cable is removed, the display would double the line received from the first cable, effectively lowering the resolution but yet you would still have image. Then, maybe you would get the option to lower the color depth to 8bits/color.
I honestly hope this gets off to a good start and that it will be supported by the industry.
As far as I know, it has less (or no) DRM included and is much better at handling large resolutions.
Wait a few months and Steve Jobs will appear at another conference introducing a new cool feature to iTunes that allows you to buy an MP3 file for 2$ and convert it to ringtone on your iPhone. Plus, you will be able to "share" the ringtone with up to 3 friends for only 0.99$ (each). Wow, a new cool feature for iPhone!! omg, 133t, 111!!!
He also pays for the service with his taxes. He went two times to the doctor in... I don't know... 10,20 years of work. Don't you think he earned the privilege to not pay for the doctor 2 times in some much time? In these 10,20 years... how many poor people were helped by his taxes? You give, you receive back, in the end it all balances out.
We all make stupid things from time to time and it's just nice to know you can rely on other people from time to time for help, when you really need it.
DI.fm will keep the payed channels running due to contracts. Pandora... I don't know.
However, you'll have to realize that if these form of protests will not help and the decision will remain, you will have no Pandora or you will pay about 6-10 times as much as you pay now.
I believe it's a small price to pay.
Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning? A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? A: Yes. Q: And what were you doing at that time?
Q: She had three children, right? A: Yes. Q: How many were boys? A: None. Q: Were there any girls?
Q: How was your first marriage terminated? A: By death. Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
Q: Can you describe the individual? A: He was about medium height and had a beard. Q: Was this a male, or a female?
Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney? A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to? A: Oral.
Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time? A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.
Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? A: No. Q: Did you check for blood pressure? A: No. Q: Did you check for breathing? A: No. Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? A: No. Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor? A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.
On the same note...
Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
__________________________________
Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
_____________________________________
Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
______________________________________
Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?
______________________________________
Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?
______________________________________
Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
______________________________________
Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?
______________________________________
Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
_______________________________
Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
______________________________________
Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.
______________________________________
Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.
______________________________________
Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
______________________________________
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.
I started laughing when I let the mouse hover on the third picture in this TheInq article : http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=39411, the alt text says "And the magic number is: 09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0" .
Good job , Kudos The Inquirer !:D
UHARC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHarc) is missing from that list.
It's best know for Game rips, it compresses multimedia files really well but also takes a lot of time to do it.
Everything you mentioned could have been easily implemented on Windows 2000. The same thing that happens in Vista with features that will not appear in XP. It's just an artificial added value to the newer operating system in order to justify the price differences and forcing you to upgrade to more DRMed operating systems.
About 8 years ago while I still was in highschool, me and a friend went to visit a girl that was in class with us.
He went to the computer running Windows 2000, and clicked on Print in Word 95 to print a 1 page document (an A4 invitation..something with wordart)... She then said: "Let's go in the other room and watch a comedy or something on TV because it will take a while.."
I was thinking how much could a one page print take but after about 20 minutes coudn't resist and asked her why it takes so much...
She said she doesn't know because the computer had 96 MB of RAM and should run fine.. When I right click My Computer I found out it was a 486 DX2 running at 8 Mhz... Obviously, the HP printer driver processed the page in Windows..
I'm from Romania and this is the first time I hear about this option, to rent software.. and with modesty I'm pretty much informed about IT...
Price is too high anyway and probably companies would rather buy licenses because bureacracy (it probably spelled wrong) and legal complications are too high.
The company that I work for is planning to organize a programming contest (the ideea is to find future programmers in highschools, recruitment and so on) and contacted the Microsoft office here in Romania and asked if they would be willing to send us some promotional content (flyers, demo cds and stuff like that).. A week later a package comes straight from Microsoft Ireland with lots of coupons for Microsoft exams and about 5 dvds with the full, unrestricted version of Windows Vista Bussines edition and a 60 day limited version of Office 2007. Legally, our company probably can't use those because the company has no receipt for the dvds and no papers and stickers but what would stop the company give a full Windows Vista and a 60 day trial of Office to programmers as prizes?
Users aren't really excited about renting software, they'll either pirate the software or use freeware/open source products. You can actually live one week here with 15 dollars (excluding rent).
http://www.retelefo.ro/produsefo.php/ has a large list of fiber optics cable, I'm not a specialist but I can assume that a cable capable of 10 gbps transfer is less than 1$/meter (way less if you buy thousands of meters).
It does NOT cost a lot to make an infrastructure. You can easily install up to 50 cables that handle 10 gbps in one pipe, at once. Telecom companies could even share the costs of digging streets and stuff like that.
People in my country make agreements with ISP providers and pay about 70% of the fiber cable and the ISP installs it almost at his house. People have no problems paying up to 1 km of fiber cable and get good deals from ISP companies (for example 100 mbps up/down inside the country, 10 mbps down anywhere and about 3 mbps upstream for 80-150 dollars/month. In two years, the person that payed up to 800-1000 dollars for the cable manages to recover the cost (his bussines is much better, gains more clients through online activities and so on, he may even resell a part of the bandwith..)
What's the gain for the ISP? Customer helps the ISP extend its network and gets a good deal in return, ISP also has a location from where it can have deals with people close to this person. ISP extends, gains customers , a win-win situation.
There are funds to extend networks in USA, the only problem would probably be installing them in the underground and under highways I guess but it's possible. I think telecom companies are simply not interested to do this as long as they can "milk" you as much as they want.
You should watch "This film is not yet rated". Hollywood companies create lots of small companies and all the profit from the movie is split between those companies...i'm not explaining it well but if you see the movie you'll understand...lots of artists that ask for a percent of the winnings are very pissed when the studios say at the end that they've made no winnings and their box office movie is actually a failuri. In the end, a box office movie can actually show up as loss on the company's profile because all the profits are hidden as payments to those small companies.. Same thing happens with music companies.
I would probably buy more records that I enjoy if they wouldn't be about 7% of my salary. For example Cafe Del Mar, Buddha Bar, Yanni CDs are about 20-25 dollars. Make them 6-10 dollars and I'll consider buying them more.
Lots of artists I like are impossible to find in shops in my country, for example artists from Bluefm.net, Soma.fm (Groove Salad) or DI.fm Chillout/Instrumental channels (and NO, Amazon won't ship cd's in any country, and NO, not all countries can pay using Paypal and support artists/online radios)
I was actually prepared to charge my card and buy some very rare music tracks from Allofmp3.com or whatever that site name is but then I found out about a certain torrent site that hosts FLAC releases and...
Monthly rent, food, clothes, internet subscriptions that gets extra programming jobs are more important then a piece of plastic to lots of people including me.
So...
"most of us will simply go out and buy a record if we really want to have it." - yes, if the price is right and if a shop actually stores the record (lots of shops don't store records unless they sell at least 10 copies in a month. Combine this with high price and...) "If we don't really want to have it, we may still pirate it." - sometimes I hear a record on the radio, hate it, find the album on p2p and love some of the other tracks, sometimes enough to make me search for other albums and recommend the artist to other people...
Slashdot Mirror
If you couldn't obtain it for free, you would pay for it.
Not necessarily. I would borrow CD's from friends or trading with them, or I would gather 5-10 friends and buy one record with them and so on.
Some people don't realize there are millions of people who really have other priorities in life then to buy a CD for 30 dollars when they earn 300 dollars a week or even less and the rent is 200 dollars and the various monthly fees are 60 dollars. But they would buy at least one CD a month if the CD was 9.99 dollars.
Some people don't believe in buying records when the music on those records is freely available on FM radios, they would copy it anyway from the Internet, but these people would gladly go to a concert if it was possible. For example, I would NOT pay 40 dollars for a Yanni CD but I would pay 100-150 dollars without blinking for a concert ticket if Yanni or Mike Oldfield concert in my country. These are concerts where you "feel" the music, if you're at a live concert.
Furthermore, I believe that downloading music often increases sales, because I can't remember how often I'd recommended bands and albums to other people, which later on have purchased tracks or albums from iTunes. I may not be buying, but I'm referring people.
Check out the forums of Digitally Imported for example, and see what people are saying at various tracks, you'll see lots of comments like "Wow! Where can I buy this mix?" Would you consider that by listening to that mix on DI.fm, that artist lost a sale? He won hundreds just by gaining popularity and getting his work known.
As written in the article...
Besides activity by other threads, media playback can also be affected by network activity. When a network packet arrives at system, it triggers a CPU interrupt, which causes the device driver for the device at which the packet arrived to execute an Interrupt Service Routine (ISR). Other device interrupts are blocked while ISRs run, so ISRs typically do some device book-keeping and then perform the more lengthy transfer of data to or from their device in a Deferred Procedure Call (DPC) that runs with device interrupts enabled. While DPCs execute with interrupts enabled, they take precedence over all thread execution, regardless of priority, on the processor on which they run, and can therefore impede media playback threads. They're saying that every packet received causes an interrupt request, which causes the CPU to get loaded at high transfer speeds.
Apparently they haven't heard of interrupt moderation or polling, technologies that are used by network cards to offload the CPU.
Even my Marvell semi-hardware (I think) Gigabit on-board network card used about 14% CPU (Barton 1833Mhz) when transferring files at about 45Mbps.
I don't know, everything seems really stupid, and I'm not sure it's just a "bug", or their description is just a part of what really happens behind the scene.
The Securom protection in the executable of the DEMO is needed because the game makers were probably too lazy to compile a different version of the executable for the DEMO, with less functions.
Some crackers would take the executables from a DEMO and the content from a game CD and thus would have nothing to crack.
While the protection is anyway removed in less than a week from the game it is released, it is often pushed by the people in distribution chain and by people that finance the development of the game.
It's just too slow down the piracy of the game in the few days the game is released in retail stores, when the hype is at the maximum.
Combined with the online activation I believe it has, it's good enough.
In my country (.ro) girls use to be better at maths at school, mostly because they learn more and want better grades (there's competition)... boys use to be more careless, they don't care so much about grades and end of year prizes. I know I didn't care much about much, usually got only C's at maths and physics.. and now i'm working in IT. Or at least it was about 16 years ago like that, when i was in high school, nowadays the school system sucks more and more with each day...
Try to tell that to your mother after she goes with the vacuum throughout the house. move the computer and messes up one of the cable and all she knows to do with a computer is to turn it on, click on my nickname inside Yahoo Messenger and then click on "Call".
The world is not made out only of geeks that know how to fix their computers.
But I agree, this is not the point of the article and there shouldn't be a need for two cables in the first place.
I'm not sure you would like to do that. What would happen if one cable suddenly gets removed?
It would be much easier for each cable to transmit one half of the image at full 10bit depth and have the electronics inside the display interlace each line and form the complete image.
If one cable is removed, the display would double the line received from the first cable, effectively lowering the resolution but yet you would still have image. Then, maybe you would get the option to lower the color depth to 8bits/color.
I honestly hope this gets off to a good start and that it will be supported by the industry. As far as I know, it has less (or no) DRM included and is much better at handling large resolutions.
Wait a few months and Steve Jobs will appear at another conference introducing a new cool feature to iTunes that allows you to buy an MP3 file for 2$ and convert it to ringtone on your iPhone. Plus, you will be able to "share" the ringtone with up to 3 friends for only 0.99$ (each). Wow, a new cool feature for iPhone!! omg, 133t, 111!!!
It's all about the money.
Because Mozilla doesn't pay them for each installation like Microsoft and others do...
He also pays for the service with his taxes. He went two times to the doctor in... I don't know... 10,20 years of work. Don't you think he earned the privilege to not pay for the doctor 2 times in some much time? In these 10,20 years... how many poor people were helped by his taxes? You give, you receive back, in the end it all balances out. We all make stupid things from time to time and it's just nice to know you can rely on other people from time to time for help, when you really need it.
DI.fm will keep the payed channels running due to contracts. Pandora... I don't know. However, you'll have to realize that if these form of protests will not help and the decision will remain, you will have no Pandora or you will pay about 6-10 times as much as you pay now. I believe it's a small price to pay.
Yeah.. well, he actually posted the complete movie on Google Video. Maybe just a move against the US government or just an advertising move.
Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?
Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?
Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?
Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.
Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.
Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.
On the same note... Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning? A: Did you actually pass the bar exam? __________________________________ Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he? _____________________________________ Q: Were you present when your picture was taken? ______________________________________ Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? A: Yes. Q: And what were you doing at that time? ______________________________________ Q: She had three children, right? A: Yes. Q: How many were boys? A: None. Q: Were there any girls? ______________________________________ Q: How was your first marriage terminated? A: By death. Q: And by whose death was it terminated? ______________________________________ Q: Can you describe the individual? A: He was about medium height and had a beard. Q: Was this a male, or a female? ______________________________________ Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney? A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. _______________________________ Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. ______________________________________ Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to? A: Oral. ______________________________________ Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time? A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy. ______________________________________ Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample? ______________________________________ Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? A: No. Q: Did you check for blood pressure? A: No. Q: Did you check for breathing? A: No. Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? A: No. Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor? A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.
I started laughing when I let the mouse hover on the third picture in this TheInq article : http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=39411, the alt text says "And the magic number is: 09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0" . Good job , Kudos The Inquirer ! :D
Yeah.. they forgot to mention that the ink is probably enough for 50-100 pages. Go LASER, you won't be sorry.
UHARC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHarc) is missing from that list. It's best know for Game rips, it compresses multimedia files really well but also takes a lot of time to do it.
Well then.. let's start a wikipedia like vote system.. maybe in 6 months we'll agree on something.. like anybody cares...
Everything you mentioned could have been easily implemented on Windows 2000. The same thing that happens in Vista with features that will not appear in XP. It's just an artificial added value to the newer operating system in order to justify the price differences and forcing you to upgrade to more DRMed operating systems.
About 8 years ago while I still was in highschool, me and a friend went to visit a girl that was in class with us.
..something with wordart)... She then said: "Let's go in the other room and watch a comedy or something on TV because it will take a while.."
He went to the computer running Windows 2000, and clicked on Print in Word 95 to print a 1 page document (an A4 invitation
I was thinking how much could a one page print take but after about 20 minutes coudn't resist and asked her why it takes so much...
She said she doesn't know because the computer had 96 MB of RAM and should run fine.. When I right click My Computer I found out it was a 486 DX2 running at 8 Mhz... Obviously, the HP printer driver processed the page in Windows..
I'm from Romania and this is the first time I hear about this option, to rent software.. and with modesty I'm pretty much informed about IT ...
.. A week later a package comes straight from Microsoft Ireland with lots of coupons for Microsoft exams and about 5 dvds with the full, unrestricted version of Windows Vista Bussines edition and a 60 day limited version of Office 2007. Legally, our company probably can't use those because the company has no receipt for the dvds and no papers and stickers but what would stop the company give a full Windows Vista and a 60 day trial of Office to programmers as prizes?
Price is too high anyway and probably companies would rather buy licenses because bureacracy (it probably spelled wrong) and legal complications are too high.
The company that I work for is planning to organize a programming contest (the ideea is to find future programmers in highschools, recruitment and so on) and contacted the Microsoft office here in Romania and asked if they would be willing to send us some promotional content (flyers, demo cds and stuff like that)
Users aren't really excited about renting software, they'll either pirate the software or use freeware/open source products. You can actually live one week here with 15 dollars (excluding rent).
http://www.retelefo.ro/produsefo.php/ has a large list of fiber optics cable, I'm not a specialist but I can assume that a cable capable of 10 gbps transfer is less than 1$/meter (way less if you buy thousands of meters).
It does NOT cost a lot to make an infrastructure. You can easily install up to 50 cables that handle 10 gbps in one pipe, at once. Telecom companies could even share the costs of digging streets and stuff like that.
People in my country make agreements with ISP providers and pay about 70% of the fiber cable and the ISP installs it almost at his house. People have no problems paying up to 1 km of fiber cable and get good deals from ISP companies (for example 100 mbps up/down inside the country, 10 mbps down anywhere and about 3 mbps upstream for 80-150 dollars/month. In two years, the person that payed up to 800-1000 dollars for the cable manages to recover the cost (his bussines is much better, gains more clients through online activities and so on, he may even resell a part of the bandwith..)
What's the gain for the ISP? Customer helps the ISP extend its network and gets a good deal in return, ISP also has a location from where it can have deals with people close to this person. ISP extends, gains customers , a win-win situation.
There are funds to extend networks in USA, the only problem would probably be installing them in the underground and under highways I guess but it's possible. I think telecom companies are simply not interested to do this as long as they can "milk" you as much as they want.
So UAC should not prompt you for "Some band - Some track.mp3 .exe" that has a Winamp or Media Player icon?
See what I'm talking about ? Windows is badly designed by default...
You should watch "This film is not yet rated". Hollywood companies create lots of small companies and all the profit from the movie is split between those companies...i'm not explaining it well but if you see the movie you'll understand...lots of artists that ask for a percent of the winnings are very pissed when the studios say at the end that they've made no winnings and their box office movie is actually a failuri. In the end, a box office movie can actually show up as loss on the company's profile because all the profits are hidden as payments to those small companies.. Same thing happens with music companies.
Well, that's not always the case.
...)
I would probably buy more records that I enjoy if they wouldn't be about 7% of my salary. For example Cafe Del Mar, Buddha Bar, Yanni CDs are about 20-25 dollars. Make them 6-10 dollars and I'll consider buying them more.
Lots of artists I like are impossible to find in shops in my country, for example artists from Bluefm.net, Soma.fm (Groove Salad) or DI.fm Chillout/Instrumental channels (and NO, Amazon won't ship cd's in any country, and NO, not all countries can pay using Paypal and support artists/online radios)
I was actually prepared to charge my card and buy some very rare music tracks from Allofmp3.com or whatever that site name is but then I found out about a certain torrent site that hosts FLAC releases and...
Monthly rent, food, clothes, internet subscriptions that gets extra programming jobs are more important then a piece of plastic to lots of people including me.
So...
"most of us will simply go out and buy a record if we really want to have it." - yes, if the price is right and if a shop actually stores the record (lots of shops don't store records unless they sell at least 10 copies in a month. Combine this with high price and
"If we don't really want to have it, we may still pirate it." - sometimes I hear a record on the radio, hate it, find the album on p2p and love some of the other tracks, sometimes enough to make me search for other albums and recommend the artist to other people...