Let's suppose we live in a world where cell phone contracts and phone locking didn't exist. You say that there would then be no incentive for the carriers to subsidize the cost of the phone. This is true, but then, they would have no need to. A cell phone manufacturer would then need to make their phone affordable to consumers.
I believe that I have seen this strange world before. In this world, telephones have wires coming out of them and they plug into the wall. Seriously, we have to believe that this will come eventually, but the phone companies will fight it tooth and nail.
I really don't know what was so wrong with that system that they had to change it.
I've done some work for a promoter in the past and I can tell you that its a pain in the butt to do this. Here is why:
-You have to deal with the logistics of getting the tickets to all the stores and managing their inventory. If one sells out and another doesn't sell any, you have to move some tickets. Also the booking agents are constantly calling to find out how many have been sold.
-You have to have an agreement with all of the stores; not necessarily something legal, but something to make sure you are on the same page, because issues WILL come up.
-You have to trust that the employees won't hold tickets for their friends, etc., and then when the friend decides not to go, you end up with an unsold ticket.
-You need to try to collect all the money and unsold tickets prior to the show. That means that you have to count all the unsold tickets and the money to make sure that everything is correct. God help you if its not. It also means that someone has to be able to give you the money (usually the owner for an indie record shop). I've had cases where the owner was drunk at home and the kid in the store couldn't get the money from the safe. The owner said over the phone that I could get the money tomorrow. Well, I have to pay the band tonight, so that doesn't really help. Try doing this the day of the show for multiple stores while you are trying to take care of everything on the rider and make sure load in and sound check goes properly.
There's more to it, but that is the gist of what was wrong with the system from one angle.
Did you even read your link? The user still can't replace the battery. You send it in to Apple, pay a high fee, and don't even get back the exact ipod you sent in.
I really wish that scientists and doctors would quit trying to hand out excuses.
Too many people today blame anyone or anything but themselves for the dilemmas they find themselves in.
Since when does scientists looking for causal factors constitute handing out excuses? Explanations are not excuses. If I kick you in the face, the reason may be because you made a stupid comment. But that is still no excuse. The doctors and scientists are not saying that the people had no choice. This study says that in a certain situation, people are more likely to make poor choices.
Great, two big companies fighting over their middleman territory. The artist who creates the product and the user who purchases it are just collateral damage.
Assuming an iPhone costs $600, why not just sell them in the Apple store and let customers sort their own phone plan out... All Apple have done by their move is ensure that anyone buying their phone package is locked into a contract that with the phone costs anywhere upwards of $2000 for two years.
You do realize that Apple gets a cut of that $2000 (beyond what is paid for the phone) right? AT&T agreed to let Apple have a piece of the service fees which is likely why they have the exclusivity. You have to sign up for 2-year contract which means that Apple will still be reaping the benefits of each iphone purchase for 24 months after the initial transaction. I bet they are going to make more money off of the service agreement than they do off of the phones.
the handheld crowed...
I don't know about the rest of you but when my PDA starts crowing, I think it will be time for me to look for a nice quiet padded room somewhere.
Dude, if you read the article, you would know that this is supposed to say, "handheld crowd"; apparently someone has finally figured out how to make a crowd fit in your hand. I've been waiting for this for so very long.
I don't know where the law comes down on small mom and pop outfits that have the radio on in the background, but anyplace that has piped in music is paying.
A mom and pop outfit can have a small non professional stereo system (e.g. boombox or shelf system, but not a big stereo with a bunch of built in speakers) and they won't have to pay anybody for playing CDs. If they have more than that, then the publishing companies and copyright owners will shake them down. That's for playing CDs. I don't know about radio.
By the way, anyone interested in this stuff should listen to the Barely Legal Radio Program on Indie 103 in LA. The DJ is a former entertainment lawyer and he talks about this stuff on Friday mornings from 9:00-10:00 pacific. It's streaming and they have mp3 archives on the site: http://barelylegalradio.com/
P.S. I have no affiliation with the aforementioned program but I find it a great resource.
Linux: It's Not Just For Computer Geeks Anymore By Carl Lumma | May 2007 You might think there's no way a free operating system written by volunteers could compete when it comes to music production. But in the past couple of years, all the tools you need to make music have arrived on Linux. For years, Linux has enjoyed market leadership as a server operating system -- Google's servers run it, for starters -- while struggling with the stigma that it isn't polished enough for desktop use. Those days are over, and word is getting out. Linux is quickly becoming the OS you'd set up for your grandmother, with no fuss over activation, software updates, or viruses. Unlike any version of Windows or Mac OS, Linux is open-source. What does this mean to musicians? For starters, there are no company secrets to keep or non-disclosure agreements to sign, so software developers and users alike can get on the same page very quickly, speeding the flow of bug fixes and feature additions. Linux demands more nuts-and-bolts computer knowledge for pro audio than for web browsing, but if you've ever tried to troubleshoot a latency or driver issue on a store-bought laptop, you're probably still listening. If you upgrade your hard drive, you won't have to reactivate all your apps due to the hardware change, and when you discover a cool tool or workflow, you can share it with friends without them shelling out hundreds of dollars or resorting to piracy. With the exception of Linux versions that include commercial tech support, most everything in the Linux world is free for the asking, Many developers accept voluntary donations, which we encourage you to make.
HOW IS IT DONE? Let's look over the shoulder of Aaron Krister-Johnson, the keyboardist and choir director at Temple Sholom in Chicago. He also composes incidental music for local theater, and is half of the electronica duo Divide by Pi, Keyboard's June '04 unsigned artist of the month. The core of his home studio is a PC running Linux (see Figure 1). To obtain Linux, you download a particular distribution or "distro," which is a particular version of Linux someone put together, for free or a donation. Some distros are available boxed at very low cost. Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com) is popular for home-computer tasks, but Aaron uses Zenwalk (www.zenwalk.org). Software compiled for a particular distro will only run on that distro, so most come with several free applications that you can install along with the basic OS. We recommend Fedora (www.fedoraproject.org), because you can then install the Planet CCRMA package (ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software), which includes just about every Linux audio application in existence. Speaking of music applications, the most popular DAW for Linux is Ardour, and Aaron also uses JACK (see "You Don't Know JACK?" below), a soft synth called ZynSubAddFx, and an arpeggiator he wrote called Pymidichaos. Some distros come with binaries -- apps that have been compiled, i.e. converted from the programming language the developers used to the ones and zeroes computers understand at their innermost level. Three such distros are meant to provide install-and-go solutions for Linux-curious musicians: Studio to Go (www.ferventsoftware.com), Musix (www.musix.org.ar/en) and 64Studio (www.64studio.com). But sooner or later (most likely sooner), you're going to have to take some groovy, free program you've downloaded and compile it yourself. This is where musicians used to commercial software might get scared off. Fear not, and remember that all the actual programming is alrea
Revenue is only 30% higher after releasing a new product, and this is higher than expected? I'm no expert, but for a new "revolutionary" product that the whole Windows world is expected to adopt... not so good.
I'm surprised that the revenue is 30% greater overall because much of the Vista revenue surely cannibalizes XP revenue.
He said that it was an unusual sort of death. People get shot all the time; I'm saying that it is everything else that is unusual. Maybe he meant that too, I don't know.
Every day over 100 people (I think) die in the US alone in road traffic accidents. About 30,000 children die in the world every day due to poverty. This incident is pretty insignificant, really. It just gets noticed because it's an unusual sort of death.
Who modded this up? It gets noticed because a whole bunch of people were killed by one person, intentionally. They were not vitims of policy, unfortunate circumstance, living in a war torn area, etc., they were victims of one dude with a gun in an unexpected situation. That is why it gets noticed. And, while it may not be insignificant in the overall scheme of things, incidents like this do have strong repercussions for better or worse (think gun control, emergency response, movies like bowling for columbine, etc.)
I wish I could just pass out when my wife asks me some stupid question that I don't want to answer
What would actually happen is that your wife would tell you to do something and you could only say OK or cancel. There would be no option for "No, not ok". If you cancel, the next time you see her, she will ask again.
but they are certainly right - and Sony wrong - from a moral perspective
Let's say you have a friend and someone tells your friend the hot rumor about you getting a new job out of state. Then your friend asks you about it. You say, "I don't want to talk about it right now. Can you please not talk to anyone about it?" Then your friend goes and tells everybody that you are moving. Who is morally wrong here?
Kotaku has no moral responsibility to publish or not publish this type of rumor. It's not like it's a rumor about Sony's batteries catching on fire. Journalists often establish give and take relationships with sources and there is nothing wrong one side pulling out if the other side just takes.
approach to ending the format war. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)
(x) Blu-Ray doesn't want to allow dual format players (x) Nobody cares because either format is only an incremental improvement over DVD ( ) Remember Beta vs. VHS? (x) DVD-R and DVD+R isn't a valid comparison ( ) Either way, there is too much DRM ( ) There is already a workaround for AACS ( ) Users of will not put up with it ( ) Microsoft will not put up with it ( ) The police will not put up with it ( ) Requires too much cooperation from consortiums ( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once ( ) Many people don't even have HDTV anyway so there isn't enough consumer influence (X) Sony doesn't care about anyone
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Which ones can be played on Linux? ( ) Eternal arms race involved in DRM ( ) Extreme profitability DVDs ( ) The MPAA ( ) The installed base of PS3s (X) The vested financial interest of some media companies in the hardware ( ) My Dad's old black and white TV isn't HDCP compliant
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
( ) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever worked ( ) Which format has Pr0n
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(X) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work. ( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it. ( ) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn your house down
P.S. just kidding, I think this will be resolved without a clear winner.
I misread the title at a glance and thought it said, Wii Telecommuting Kill a Career? First the Wii is killing ladies who drink too much water, now it's killing careers. Where will it end?
"FCC Commissioner Michael Copps was also on hand at the conference and took broadcasters to task for their current content, speaking of "too little news, too much baloney passed off as news. Too little quality entertainment, too many people eating bugs on reality TV. Too little local and regional music, too much brain-numbing national play-lists."
Nice to see this from the FCC chair, but what can he do about it?
Slashdot Mirror
I believe that I have seen this strange world before. In this world, telephones have wires coming out of them and they plug into the wall. Seriously, we have to believe that this will come eventually, but the phone companies will fight it tooth and nail.
Not the pound, shilling, and penny, but hours, minutes, and seconds. It's all about time.
I've done some work for a promoter in the past and I can tell you that its a pain in the butt to do this. Here is why:
-You have to deal with the logistics of getting the tickets to all the stores and managing their inventory. If one sells out and another doesn't sell any, you have to move some tickets. Also the booking agents are constantly calling to find out how many have been sold.
-You have to have an agreement with all of the stores; not necessarily something legal, but something to make sure you are on the same page, because issues WILL come up.
-You have to trust that the employees won't hold tickets for their friends, etc., and then when the friend decides not to go, you end up with an unsold ticket.
-You need to try to collect all the money and unsold tickets prior to the show. That means that you have to count all the unsold tickets and the money to make sure that everything is correct. God help you if its not. It also means that someone has to be able to give you the money (usually the owner for an indie record shop). I've had cases where the owner was drunk at home and the kid in the store couldn't get the money from the safe. The owner said over the phone that I could get the money tomorrow. Well, I have to pay the band tonight, so that doesn't really help. Try doing this the day of the show for multiple stores while you are trying to take care of everything on the rider and make sure load in and sound check goes properly.
There's more to it, but that is the gist of what was wrong with the system from one angle.
I, for one, hope the Google doesn't sign exclusively with one carrier.
Did you even read your link? The user still can't replace the battery. You send it in to Apple, pay a high fee, and don't even get back the exact ipod you sent in.
Did they include the costs necessary to pay the legal department for the forthcoming non-replaceable battery lawsuits?
I really hope that Google, the EFF, etc. file amicus briefs on this one.
Since when does scientists looking for causal factors constitute handing out excuses? Explanations are not excuses. If I kick you in the face, the reason may be because you made a stupid comment. But that is still no excuse. The doctors and scientists are not saying that the people had no choice. This study says that in a certain situation, people are more likely to make poor choices.
Great, two big companies fighting over their middleman territory. The artist who creates the product and the user who purchases it are just collateral damage.
You do realize that Apple gets a cut of that $2000 (beyond what is paid for the phone) right? AT&T agreed to let Apple have a piece of the service fees which is likely why they have the exclusivity. You have to sign up for 2-year contract which means that Apple will still be reaping the benefits of each iphone purchase for 24 months after the initial transaction. I bet they are going to make more money off of the service agreement than they do off of the phones.
Now, can we please get the "Burger King" to plead guilty for being creepy and climbing into people's beds while they are sleeping?
Dude, if you read the article, you would know that this is supposed to say, "handheld crowd"; apparently someone has finally figured out how to make a crowd fit in your hand. I've been waiting for this for so very long.
A mom and pop outfit can have a small non professional stereo system (e.g. boombox or shelf system, but not a big stereo with a bunch of built in speakers) and they won't have to pay anybody for playing CDs. If they have more than that, then the publishing companies and copyright owners will shake them down. That's for playing CDs. I don't know about radio.
By the way, anyone interested in this stuff should listen to the Barely Legal Radio Program on Indie 103 in LA. The DJ is a former entertainment lawyer and he talks about this stuff on Friday mornings from 9:00-10:00 pacific. It's streaming and they have mp3 archives on the site: http://barelylegalradio.com/
P.S. I have no affiliation with the aforementioned program but I find it a great resource.
The most inefficient driving is in conditions with a lot of traffic. Please don't stare at your screen when you are following me in traffic.
Wiretapping will only be allowed for those on double secret probation.
More can be found on the Google cache (http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:Zo5bcBIDaccJ: www.keyboardmag.com/story.asp%3Fstorycode%3D17973+ keyboard+magazine+linux&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us), but here is the main portion of it:
Linux: It's Not Just For Computer Geeks Anymore
By Carl Lumma | May 2007
You might think there's no way a free operating system written by volunteers could compete when it comes to music production. But in the past couple of years, all the tools you need to make music have arrived on Linux.
For years, Linux has enjoyed market leadership as a server operating system -- Google's servers run it, for starters -- while struggling with the stigma that it isn't polished enough for desktop use. Those days are over, and word is getting out. Linux is quickly becoming the OS you'd set up for your grandmother, with no fuss over activation, software updates, or viruses. Unlike any version of Windows or Mac OS, Linux is open-source. What does this mean to musicians? For starters, there are no company secrets to keep or non-disclosure agreements to sign, so software developers and users alike can get on the same page very quickly, speeding the flow of bug fixes and feature additions.
Linux demands more nuts-and-bolts computer knowledge for pro audio than for web browsing, but if you've ever tried to troubleshoot a latency or driver issue on a store-bought laptop, you're probably still listening. If you upgrade your hard drive, you won't have to reactivate all your apps due to the hardware change, and when you discover a cool tool or workflow, you can share it with friends without them shelling out hundreds of dollars or resorting to piracy. With the exception of Linux versions that include commercial tech support, most everything in the Linux world is free for the asking, Many developers accept voluntary donations, which we encourage you to make.
HOW IS IT DONE?
Let's look over the shoulder of Aaron Krister-Johnson, the keyboardist and choir director at Temple Sholom in Chicago. He also composes incidental music for local theater, and is half of the electronica duo Divide by Pi, Keyboard's June '04 unsigned artist of the month. The core of his home studio is a PC running Linux (see Figure 1).
To obtain Linux, you download a particular distribution or "distro," which is a particular version of Linux someone put together, for free or a donation. Some distros are available boxed at very low cost. Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com) is popular for home-computer tasks, but Aaron uses Zenwalk (www.zenwalk.org). Software compiled for a particular distro will only run on that distro, so most come with several free applications that you can install along with the basic OS. We recommend Fedora (www.fedoraproject.org), because you can then install the Planet CCRMA package (ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software), which includes just about every Linux audio application in existence.
Speaking of music applications, the most popular DAW for Linux is Ardour, and Aaron also uses JACK (see "You Don't Know JACK?" below), a soft synth called ZynSubAddFx, and an arpeggiator he wrote called Pymidichaos. Some distros come with binaries -- apps that have been compiled, i.e. converted from the programming language the developers used to the ones and zeroes computers understand at their innermost level. Three such distros are meant to provide install-and-go solutions for Linux-curious musicians: Studio to Go (www.ferventsoftware.com), Musix (www.musix.org.ar/en) and 64Studio (www.64studio.com).
But sooner or later (most likely sooner), you're going to have to take some groovy, free program you've downloaded and compile it yourself. This is where musicians used to commercial software might get scared off. Fear not, and remember that all the actual programming is alrea
Revenue is only 30% higher after releasing a new product, and this is higher than expected? I'm no expert, but for a new "revolutionary" product that the whole Windows world is expected to adopt... not so good.
I'm surprised that the revenue is 30% greater overall because much of the Vista revenue surely cannibalizes XP revenue.
He said that it was an unusual sort of death. People get shot all the time; I'm saying that it is everything else that is unusual. Maybe he meant that too, I don't know.
Every day over 100 people (I think) die in the US alone in road traffic accidents. About 30,000 children die in the world every day due to poverty. This incident is pretty insignificant, really. It just gets noticed because it's an unusual sort of death.
Who modded this up? It gets noticed because a whole bunch of people were killed by one person, intentionally. They were not vitims of policy, unfortunate circumstance, living in a war torn area, etc., they were victims of one dude with a gun in an unexpected situation. That is why it gets noticed. And, while it may not be insignificant in the overall scheme of things, incidents like this do have strong repercussions for better or worse (think gun control, emergency response, movies like bowling for columbine, etc.)
I wish I could just pass out when my wife asks me some stupid question that I don't want to answer
What would actually happen is that your wife would tell you to do something and you could only say OK or cancel. There would be no option for "No, not ok". If you cancel, the next time you see her, she will ask again.
but they are certainly right - and Sony wrong - from a moral perspective
Let's say you have a friend and someone tells your friend the hot rumor about you getting a new job out of state. Then your friend asks you about it. You say, "I don't want to talk about it right now. Can you please not talk to anyone about it?" Then your friend goes and tells everybody that you are moving. Who is morally wrong here?
Kotaku has no moral responsibility to publish or not publish this type of rumor. It's not like it's a rumor about Sony's batteries catching on fire. Journalists often establish give and take relationships with sources and there is nothing wrong one side pulling out if the other side just takes.
Your post advocates a
( ) technical ( ) legislative (X) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to ending the format war. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)
(x) Blu-Ray doesn't want to allow dual format players
(x) Nobody cares because either format is only an incremental improvement over DVD
( ) Remember Beta vs. VHS?
(x) DVD-R and DVD+R isn't a valid comparison
( ) Either way, there is too much DRM
( ) There is already a workaround for AACS
( ) Users of will not put up with it
( ) Microsoft will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
( ) Requires too much cooperation from consortiums
( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
( ) Many people don't even have HDTV anyway so there isn't enough consumer influence
(X) Sony doesn't care about anyone
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Which ones can be played on Linux?
( ) Eternal arms race involved in DRM
( ) Extreme profitability DVDs
( ) The MPAA
( ) The installed base of PS3s
(X) The vested financial interest of some media companies in the hardware
( ) My Dad's old black and white TV isn't HDCP compliant
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
( ) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever worked
( ) Which format has Pr0n
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(X) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work.
( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it.
( ) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn your
house down
P.S. just kidding, I think this will be resolved without a clear winner.
I misread the title at a glance and thought it said, Wii Telecommuting Kill a Career? First the Wii is killing ladies who drink too much water, now it's killing careers. Where will it end?
"FCC Commissioner Michael Copps was also on hand at the conference and took broadcasters to task for their current content, speaking of "too little news, too much baloney passed off as news. Too little quality entertainment, too many people eating bugs on reality TV. Too little local and regional music, too much brain-numbing national play-lists."
Nice to see this from the FCC chair, but what can he do about it?
Being from California, I find that most things are more tasteful with some ranch dressing.