I understand the issue with the License, but there are big fans (like me) in the U.S. that would gladly pay for a British TV License so they could see their favorite shows at broadcast. The fact is the BBC (and some of the government bureaucracy) so far has simply just cut off other fans around the world when the technology is there.
Plus, as someone else has mentioned already, region encoding is simply an artificial way for broadcasters to keep their advantage from the time when NTSC to PAL conversions cost thousands of dollars and physically had to be shipped to the U.S. There is no reason for the time lag any more...
As a U.S. BBC fan this doesn't sound good AT ALL, actually. You can almost guarantee that somewhere in there is region control... the exact same problem U.S. fans have with iPlayer.
Region control on the Internet is a step BACKWARDS.
The Android thing is definitely just whining. It's a great platform and even I, with my modest skill, can code up stuff that works on multiple devices. Planning for different screens is nothing new... it happens in the PC and web world ALL the time.
Good aps are NOT hard to find even if it involves a little more community involvement to see what people are using for some given task. On top of it *I* get to decide what I put on my phone, not some nameless Apple employee, and that is very important to me.
Android isn't perfect, but neither is iPhone. I think it has a lot more potential than Apple in the long run, especially if they hurting developers with their Ivory Tower style decisions on high about what apps stay and what apps go.
> But when it's a large corporation, we somehow think they should be held to a higher standard? No, I don't think they should.
Why the hell SHOULDN'T they be held to a higher standard? They are a huge corporation that has a huge amount of money therefore they are hold a huge amount of power. They should be at a MUCH higher standard. As an individual I have the power and money that I could probably ruin the environment for my neighborhood... in this case BP holds the money, power, and equipment to ruin an entire coastline.
This statement is fairly typical of American thinking right now: let corporations have all the benefits and none of the responsibilities. It's the individuals that had nothing to do with the bad decisions and cut corners that are paying in our current corporate dominated culture and government.
We actually already have one of the most competent armed services/governmental agencies on the job: the Coast Guard. They have one of the widest areas of responsibility in government and they actually do quite a good job with it. This was such a clusterfark in terms of things that went wrong, though, it will take even the best minds a long time to figure it all out.
Do you know WHY governmental regulation has been so bad in the last dozen or so years? It's because presidential administrations and Congress have NOT ALLOWED it to be good. They have purposefully put people in those political jobs knowing that they weren't going to regulate on purpose. The Bush administration did this more than anyone else. The Clinton administration was 2nd only to Bush, and Bush, Sr. was a close 3rd.
Do you think government can't get the experts it needs to professionally oversee these companies? Are you kidding? They could in a second. It's that the politicos don't want to put competent people without conflicts of interest in these positions. And we're paying the price for it now and he gulf cost will be paying the price for the next century or so....
DOS is not a great innovation. DOS, like most Microsoft products, is just a rework of someone's earlier innovation. If there is innovation there it's in how they adapted well established systems (like CP/M and, even earlier, BASIC) from Mainframe and Mini computers to much less powerful PCs and home computers. Bill Gates is good at that, but he by no means has been an inventor. At best he's dumbed down many of the best computer innovations so he can get them through the front door of offices and homes.
there is also no reason to defend your copyright against someone who is encouraging others to buy and use your copyrighted product.
There are a lot of stupid copyright suits, but these type are the ones that absolutely astonish me the most. They aren't suing someone who makes them lose money or even a use that does nothing for the bottom line, they are suing people that are helping them make money by giving out free positive promotion and rallying their customer base. They ought to be sending them a thank you a "Warhammer approved!" website badge. When companies that I patronize do this it makes me reconsider being their customer in the future... especially when it's a "want" product like a game rather than a need.
I love Phil Dick's books. I've read the majority of them and even the bad ones are masterpieces in their own way. I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the Exegesis being published, because as interesting as it will be to read I think it is going to further tarnish his reputation. Phil Dick was the kind of person that was so smart that it caused mental disorder and he had some absolutely crazy beliefs. The Exegesis will probably underscore that.
This is the Telephone Operator fallacy. When automatic switching equipment was invented, operators whined that they would lose jobs. If we accepted that mentality we would now need to employ more telephone operators in the U.S. than the entire population.
If you keep growing the network this "job loss" is negated by orders of magnitude. Again... another report that trying to exploit the ignorance and lack of reasoning ability in the masses (and our legislators).
Trying to maximize shareholder profit does not automatically make anyone a money-grubbing capitalist.
Trying to maximize shareholder profit at the expense of every ethical principle without any thought as to what is right or wrong DOES make someone a money-grubbing capitalist. People like me get accused all the time of thinking profit is evil. I don't think profit is evil... I think profit at the cost of ethics and even human life is evil.
The largest source of intelligence has nothing to do with covert activity or super secret spy satellites. It has to do with general information that is easy for anyone to get and always has been. It's even more true with the Internet now.
Reminds me of that bit in Doctor Strangelove where the Russian ambassador says he knew that the U.S. was working on a doomsday weapon and when Muffley denies it he says his source was the New York Times.
Preventing the Chinese elite from getting info from Google is probably a bigger problem to them than any of us can realize.
Slashdot Mirror
I understand the issue with the License, but there are big fans (like me) in the U.S. that would gladly pay for a British TV License so they could see their favorite shows at broadcast. The fact is the BBC (and some of the government bureaucracy) so far has simply just cut off other fans around the world when the technology is there.
Plus, as someone else has mentioned already, region encoding is simply an artificial way for broadcasters to keep their advantage from the time when NTSC to PAL conversions cost thousands of dollars and physically had to be shipped to the U.S. There is no reason for the time lag any more...
As a U.S. BBC fan this doesn't sound good AT ALL, actually. You can almost guarantee that somewhere in there is region control... the exact same problem U.S. fans have with iPlayer.
Region control on the Internet is a step BACKWARDS.
What makes you think that US wireless service (or much of any other U.S. industry for that matter) is a functioning free market?
It's huge companies operating in a virtual trust structure. You have no real choice... just varying degrees of bad.
The Android thing is definitely just whining. It's a great platform and even I, with my modest skill, can code up stuff that works on multiple devices. Planning for different screens is nothing new... it happens in the PC and web world ALL the time.
Good aps are NOT hard to find even if it involves a little more community involvement to see what people are using for some given task. On top of it *I* get to decide what I put on my phone, not some nameless Apple employee, and that is very important to me.
Android isn't perfect, but neither is iPhone. I think it has a lot more potential than Apple in the long run, especially if they hurting developers with their Ivory Tower style decisions on high about what apps stay and what apps go.
> But when it's a large corporation, we somehow think they should be held to a higher standard? No, I don't think they should.
Why the hell SHOULDN'T they be held to a higher standard? They are a huge corporation that has a huge amount of money therefore they are hold a huge amount of power. They should be at a MUCH higher standard. As an individual I have the power and money that I could probably ruin the environment for my neighborhood... in this case BP holds the money, power, and equipment to ruin an entire coastline.
This statement is fairly typical of American thinking right now: let corporations have all the benefits and none of the responsibilities. It's the individuals that had nothing to do with the bad decisions and cut corners that are paying in our current corporate dominated culture and government.
We actually already have one of the most competent armed services/governmental agencies on the job: the Coast Guard. They have one of the widest areas of responsibility in government and they actually do quite a good job with it. This was such a clusterfark in terms of things that went wrong, though, it will take even the best minds a long time to figure it all out.
Do you know WHY governmental regulation has been so bad in the last dozen or so years? It's because presidential administrations and Congress have NOT ALLOWED it to be good. They have purposefully put people in those political jobs knowing that they weren't going to regulate on purpose. The Bush administration did this more than anyone else. The Clinton administration was 2nd only to Bush, and Bush, Sr. was a close 3rd.
Do you think government can't get the experts it needs to professionally oversee these companies? Are you kidding? They could in a second. It's that the politicos don't want to put competent people without conflicts of interest in these positions. And we're paying the price for it now and he gulf cost will be paying the price for the next century or so....
shoot.. modded that down.
DOS is not a great innovation. DOS, like most Microsoft products, is just a rework of someone's earlier innovation. If there is innovation there it's in how they adapted well established systems (like CP/M and, even earlier, BASIC) from Mainframe and Mini computers to much less powerful PCs and home computers. Bill Gates is good at that, but he by no means has been an inventor. At best he's dumbed down many of the best computer innovations so he can get them through the front door of offices and homes.
there is also no reason to defend your copyright against someone who is encouraging others to buy and use your copyrighted product.
There are a lot of stupid copyright suits, but these type are the ones that absolutely astonish me the most. They aren't suing someone who makes them lose money or even a use that does nothing for the bottom line, they are suing people that are helping them make money by giving out free positive promotion and rallying their customer base. They ought to be sending them a thank you a "Warhammer approved!" website badge. When companies that I patronize do this it makes me reconsider being their customer in the future... especially when it's a "want" product like a game rather than a need.
I love Phil Dick's books. I've read the majority of them and even the bad ones are masterpieces in their own way. I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the Exegesis being published, because as interesting as it will be to read I think it is going to further tarnish his reputation. Phil Dick was the kind of person that was so smart that it caused mental disorder and he had some absolutely crazy beliefs. The Exegesis will probably underscore that.
This is the Telephone Operator fallacy. When automatic switching equipment was invented, operators whined that they would lose jobs. If we accepted that mentality we would now need to employ more telephone operators in the U.S. than the entire population.
If you keep growing the network this "job loss" is negated by orders of magnitude. Again... another report that trying to exploit the ignorance and lack of reasoning ability in the masses (and our legislators).
I thought this was going to be an article about J-Pop. I guess "Space Rock" isn't really coming back in Japan.
I'm pretty sure that the legislators and most of the state saw her as one of their own.
Hey lady, no one cares or even wants to THINK about you having sex.
Maybe those numbers on the billboards are simply the number of slaps on the back of your head you need.
I hope the guy who scouted her to talk to the committee got fired.
Old people can't use computers. Even if it involves lightly pressing on the accelerator.
Life is really easy when you let someone like Glen Beck do all your thinking for you, isn't it Michael?
My brain read that as "International Vultures"
Well... I guess that is pretty close.
I think we should make a pact to STOP using the word "ecosystem" when it refers to computer systems.
It's the most annoying marketing-speak since "blogosphere" (or "twitterverse")
Trying to maximize shareholder profit does not automatically make anyone a money-grubbing capitalist.
Trying to maximize shareholder profit at the expense of every ethical principle without any thought as to what is right or wrong DOES make someone a money-grubbing capitalist. People like me get accused all the time of thinking profit is evil. I don't think profit is evil... I think profit at the cost of ethics and even human life is evil.
The largest source of intelligence has nothing to do with covert activity or super secret spy satellites. It has to do with general information that is easy for anyone to get and always has been. It's even more true with the Internet now.
Reminds me of that bit in Doctor Strangelove where the Russian ambassador says he knew that the U.S. was working on a doomsday weapon and when Muffley denies it he says his source was the New York Times.
Preventing the Chinese elite from getting info from Google is probably a bigger problem to them than any of us can realize.
All Scientologists are annoying.
Barbara Streisand is annoying.
Therefore, Barbara Streisand is a Sceintologist.
Yeah, I know it's bad logic, but this logic is at least as good as a Sceintologist's.
I hope someone gets a digital copy, "fansubs" it, and sends BT links to everyone on the planet.
My mom is The Doctor's mother. So she gave birth to time, sorta.
And she's a time traveler.
And she's bigger than your Dad and can beat him up.
So There.
Well it works for Washington.
No it doesn't... never mind.