The Republicans now have a torture advocate and a creationist Nazi-sympathizing theocrat on their ticket for November.
I realize this is off topic, but am curious - do you actually believe that? McCain is on record as opposing torture every time it has ever come up as an issue. And he seems like the least religion oriented Republican to run for President in a long time.
I'm sure this has already been said, but I'm going to say it again to drive the point home:
PEOPLE WILL NOT PAY $25 - $30 FOR A MOVIE. Hell, we don't want to pay that much for a full season of our favorite TV show anymore.
The dramatic fall in price of DVD's might have been great for consumers, but its going to hurt sales of Blu-Ray until these prices fall back in line. I was at a Best Buy last weekend, saw the prices of their "on sale" movies, and wouldn't even look anymore. Its simply too expensive. You want us to buy them, drop the price.
I was told by my bio professor in college - when discussing prions, mad cow, etc. - that meat from Whole Foods comes from cows which were never fed from cow...extracts.
Can anyone confirm this? If so, its a good reason to spend a little extra on your beef...
I don't agree with that. I don't believe a group created with the sole purpose of suing people is also charged with "increasing" sales - that's a completely unrealistic expectation. They probably look at it a little more realistically - as a way to curtail the rapid decline of the CD.
The RIAA represents industry, not CDs, right? If so, increased sales from online distributors (iTunes, Amazon, Napster, etc) could represent profit where CDs once did. Online sales from these distributors have growing year over year, and I doubt the presence of the RIAA is preventing people from embracing these new services. Rather, if they are motivating factors, the argument could be made the lofty investment being made now could pay off in the end.
Disclaimer: I didn't read the article - only read caption above and had this thought...
Pretty much everyone using/. has no fear of the RIAA because, well, its really not that hard to file share and not get caught. Slashdot is a community of people who praise themselves on being technology adept at such things.
That being said, I'm forced to wonder if the RIAA has been more successful than they're being credited for. Many/most of my friends don't share the same enthusiasm for all things tech that I do, and I don't think its a leap to say they're less educated about these things. Not a single one of them has been prosecuted by the RIAA, nor have they been threatened by the RIAA. To the best of my knowledge, none of them even knows anybody who has been threatened by the RIAA, much less prosecuted by it.
Nonetheless, I hear things like "I don't download anymore, its not worth the risk" or "I just use iTunes now, its much safer" on a regular basis (we'll say bi-weekly for the purpose of this conversation). That's not hearing the same thing from the same person, but rather hearing these things from lots of different people. I hear it from people at work. I hear it from my distant family. And I'm starting to conclude that with the perceived threat of prosecution by the RIAA, coupled with the ease of using services such as iTunes or Amazon, there is a movement underway (possibly a massive one, depending on how you define this) towards "safe", legitimate file downloading.
I heard a lot about this in college, which is where a lot of RIAA hype was focused. I can't speak to the high school and younger crowd (who may be more advanced with file sharing, I don't know), but most of the people I know who are unfamiliar with Bit Torrents but continue to download music, games, movies, etc., are transitioning to doing so in a legal way. I can't say with any certainty how much of this is due to the fear of prosecution, but I can say I hear a lot about it, and how its just not worth it anymore.
Here's one other thought, slightly off topic: I've been using Pandora for about a year now. While I still use Bit Torrent occasionally to download music, I've found using Amazon a pleasant, fair experience when I find new music from bands I'm interested in hearing more of. Bit Torrents generally only offer entire albums, and its nice to not have to wait for an entire album when all you want sometimes is a single song.
I know. I actually did look it up before posting, but I still can't comprehend how people settled on the system. It just seems unnatural to base a system on "the average person" (lots of ambiguity), rather than on factors of ten (no ambiguity).
I guess what I'm saying is that anyone could really invent a system like that, based on average anything. It just doesn't seem likely it would be adopted by society as a new standard.
Wait, you mean it wasn't caused by global warming? Blasphemy!
Also, I saw somebody else make a comment concerning the metric system. I'm also an American, and I too would prefer we switched to the metric system. Who decided to base a mile on 5,280 feet, with a foot being twelve inches, I'll never know. But it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
To keep things in perspective, if Microsoft tried bundling in these programs, they would be slapped with an anti-trust suit. Again.
Its nice how they're readily available in Linux, but just because they're available there doesn't mean M$ cannot or doesn't want to include them. They're precluded from doing so by our justice system. Which makes sense.
Downloaded and installed on my six year old ThinkPad A31 last night -- everything works fine. Didn't even take all that long.
Might be redundant, but I think its become important for people not having problems to report on that now too, considering the heat M$ takes on just about everything these days. If my old computer can handle the process of upgrading to SP3, not sure why its "wreaking havoc" with so many others...
Note: Just because we don't agree, or disagree in the strongest terms possible, hardly means someone deserves to be punished for posting an honest, non-inflammatory, contradicting opinion.
If you disagree, go ahead and do so in a constructive way - by posting an intelligent rebuttal. But if punishing someone for taste were allowed on/., the boards would degenerate into Mac vs. PC, Xbox vs. PS3, Red vs. Blue, reasoned vs. impertinent...oh wait.
Apple's popularity is only growing because of it and while there may be some out there, I have yet to actually hear about people switching back from Mac once they've committed to the move. While I agree this is somewhat uncommon, just to put into perspective I have seen people make the switch back numerous times.
That's really interesting, I'm surprised to hear it. Obviously, this has just been my experience, but where I live there is kind of an "anybody but Hillary" attitude amongst Republicans (and even some Democrats). I've heard people talk about switching party lines to vote for Obama...but not necessarily because they want to cause contention -- they seem to genuinely seem like Obama, and seem tot have resigned themselves to a GOP defeat in '08.
I was starting to think that nationally Republicans have more or less accepted 2008 as a lost election. It seemed they were willing to go with Obama as they saw him as a decent man worth giving a shot to, while also being grateful he stopped Hillary... I'm surprised to hear people like Limbaugh would advocate voting for Hillary under any circumstance, as the Clinton's have long been the bane of their world...
I have no idea what Rush Limbaugh said about this, but it seems unlikely to me that any Republicans would cross over and vote for Hillary to muddy the waters in the Dem election. Cross and vote for Obama, that's definitely possible. Most every Republican I have spoken to seems almost willing to accept on Obama presidency -- just to avoid a Hillary candidacy.
I'm with you on this. Personally, other than my name, class, and home town, I never put anything up on Facebook which can comprimise me. I won't even give them my DOB, real or fake (they have come up with some pretty annoying ways of getting me to input this information, however). I barely use Facebook anymore, for the same reason I never signed up on MySpace -- I feel like I get assaulted every time I look at somebody's profile.
I've never had any interest in adding applications to my account, and the one time I did click on one to have a look, I saw the disclaimer about personal information and promptly closed the window. Haven't bothered looking at one again. Those who do choose to install these applications also choose to post their personal information...if they don't read the disclaimer, that's their problem. Facebook is a company, not some benevolent fun time social network paid for with smiles and ice cream. They're in this to make money, and while I understand privacy concerns, this outcry may indicate a serious lack of realism amongst Facebook's user base.
Facebook is a free service users opt-in to. They choose to input whatever information shows up on their profile. And they choose to install applications. If they don't like it, they can cancel their account and go elsewhere -- maybe even outside. If they install apps despite being warned about information being shared, and then get upset about it...well, good luck when you get out of college.
*Beacon is the one exception I can think of here. Facebook should have been held accountable in some respect for the way they implemented that program, and opted everyone in without their knowledge.
Oh, and I'm about as far from an Apply fan-boy as a person can get. I just tried Vista a few weekends ago for the first time...I had very little in the way of expectations, but figured it couldn't possibly be as bad as people we're making it out to be. After being asked no less than five times if I was sure I wanted to install iTunes, and four times whether I wanted to delete an unnecessary file from Program Files, I gave up. I don't know what to say anymore. All I know is, multi-tasking efficiently can't be easy with Windows Vista...
I would argue the "Cold War" started with the Bolshevik revolution itself. However, the person above us who argued the "fact" the United States started the Cold War is confused. Deeply confused.
Exactly. You have to wonder if developers aren't going to get somewhat frustrated with the disparity in 360 consoles. I like the idea of a cheap 360, but having no hard drive? That seems insane. At least throw an 8 GB disc on there or something!
On another note, do you happen to know if people can install their own hard discs on the "Arcade" 360's?
Slashdot Mirror
The Republicans now have a torture advocate and a creationist Nazi-sympathizing theocrat on their ticket for November.
I realize this is off topic, but am curious - do you actually believe that? McCain is on record as opposing torture every time it has ever come up as an issue. And he seems like the least religion oriented Republican to run for President in a long time.
I'm sure this has already been said, but I'm going to say it again to drive the point home:
PEOPLE WILL NOT PAY $25 - $30 FOR A MOVIE. Hell, we don't want to pay that much for a full season of our favorite TV show anymore.
The dramatic fall in price of DVD's might have been great for consumers, but its going to hurt sales of Blu-Ray until these prices fall back in line. I was at a Best Buy last weekend, saw the prices of their "on sale" movies, and wouldn't even look anymore. Its simply too expensive. You want us to buy them, drop the price.
I was told by my bio professor in college - when discussing prions, mad cow, etc. - that meat from Whole Foods comes from cows which were never fed from cow...extracts.
Can anyone confirm this? If so, its a good reason to spend a little extra on your beef...
I don't agree with that. I don't believe a group created with the sole purpose of suing people is also charged with "increasing" sales - that's a completely unrealistic expectation. They probably look at it a little more realistically - as a way to curtail the rapid decline of the CD.
The RIAA represents industry, not CDs, right? If so, increased sales from online distributors (iTunes, Amazon, Napster, etc) could represent profit where CDs once did. Online sales from these distributors have growing year over year, and I doubt the presence of the RIAA is preventing people from embracing these new services. Rather, if they are motivating factors, the argument could be made the lofty investment being made now could pay off in the end.
Disclaimer: I didn't read the article - only read caption above and had this thought...
/. has no fear of the RIAA because, well, its really not that hard to file share and not get caught. Slashdot is a community of people who praise themselves on being technology adept at such things.
Pretty much everyone using
That being said, I'm forced to wonder if the RIAA has been more successful than they're being credited for. Many/most of my friends don't share the same enthusiasm for all things tech that I do, and I don't think its a leap to say they're less educated about these things. Not a single one of them has been prosecuted by the RIAA, nor have they been threatened by the RIAA. To the best of my knowledge, none of them even knows anybody who has been threatened by the RIAA, much less prosecuted by it.
Nonetheless, I hear things like "I don't download anymore, its not worth the risk" or "I just use iTunes now, its much safer" on a regular basis (we'll say bi-weekly for the purpose of this conversation). That's not hearing the same thing from the same person, but rather hearing these things from lots of different people. I hear it from people at work. I hear it from my distant family. And I'm starting to conclude that with the perceived threat of prosecution by the RIAA, coupled with the ease of using services such as iTunes or Amazon, there is a movement underway (possibly a massive one, depending on how you define this) towards "safe", legitimate file downloading.
I heard a lot about this in college, which is where a lot of RIAA hype was focused. I can't speak to the high school and younger crowd (who may be more advanced with file sharing, I don't know), but most of the people I know who are unfamiliar with Bit Torrents but continue to download music, games, movies, etc., are transitioning to doing so in a legal way. I can't say with any certainty how much of this is due to the fear of prosecution, but I can say I hear a lot about it, and how its just not worth it anymore.
Here's one other thought, slightly off topic: I've been using Pandora for about a year now. While I still use Bit Torrent occasionally to download music, I've found using Amazon a pleasant, fair experience when I find new music from bands I'm interested in hearing more of. Bit Torrents generally only offer entire albums, and its nice to not have to wait for an entire album when all you want sometimes is a single song.
I know. I actually did look it up before posting, but I still can't comprehend how people settled on the system. It just seems unnatural to base a system on "the average person" (lots of ambiguity), rather than on factors of ten (no ambiguity).
I guess what I'm saying is that anyone could really invent a system like that, based on average anything. It just doesn't seem likely it would be adopted by society as a new standard.
Wait, you mean it wasn't caused by global warming? Blasphemy!
Also, I saw somebody else make a comment concerning the metric system. I'm also an American, and I too would prefer we switched to the metric system. Who decided to base a mile on 5,280 feet, with a foot being twelve inches, I'll never know. But it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
To keep things in perspective, if Microsoft tried bundling in these programs, they would be slapped with an anti-trust suit. Again.
Its nice how they're readily available in Linux, but just because they're available there doesn't mean M$ cannot or doesn't want to include them. They're precluded from doing so by our justice system. Which makes sense.
If this guy is the Thomas Edison of the 21st century, its no wonder we don't have flying cars.
Thanks!
Thanks! Will definitely look into now.
Hopefully it gets updated soon, because I'm hurting without it.
...and George Lucas didn't write it. Or direct it...
I installed it with McAfee running and it worked just fine.
Downloaded and installed on my six year old ThinkPad A31 last night -- everything works fine. Didn't even take all that long.
Might be redundant, but I think its become important for people not having problems to report on that now too, considering the heat M$ takes on just about everything these days. If my old computer can handle the process of upgrading to SP3, not sure why its "wreaking havoc" with so many others...
Who modded this "Flamebait"?
/., the boards would degenerate into Mac vs. PC, Xbox vs. PS3, Red vs. Blue, reasoned vs. impertinent...oh wait.
Note: Just because we don't agree, or disagree in the strongest terms possible, hardly means someone deserves to be punished for posting an honest, non-inflammatory, contradicting opinion.
If you disagree, go ahead and do so in a constructive way - by posting an intelligent rebuttal. But if punishing someone for taste were allowed on
That's really interesting, I'm surprised to hear it. Obviously, this has just been my experience, but where I live there is kind of an "anybody but Hillary" attitude amongst Republicans (and even some Democrats). I've heard people talk about switching party lines to vote for Obama...but not necessarily because they want to cause contention -- they seem to genuinely seem like Obama, and seem tot have resigned themselves to a GOP defeat in '08.
I was starting to think that nationally Republicans have more or less accepted 2008 as a lost election. It seemed they were willing to go with Obama as they saw him as a decent man worth giving a shot to, while also being grateful he stopped Hillary... I'm surprised to hear people like Limbaugh would advocate voting for Hillary under any circumstance, as the Clinton's have long been the bane of their world...
I have no idea what Rush Limbaugh said about this, but it seems unlikely to me that any Republicans would cross over and vote for Hillary to muddy the waters in the Dem election. Cross and vote for Obama, that's definitely possible. Most every Republican I have spoken to seems almost willing to accept on Obama presidency -- just to avoid a Hillary candidacy.
What was Rush encouraging people to do?
I'm with you on this. Personally, other than my name, class, and home town, I never put anything up on Facebook which can comprimise me. I won't even give them my DOB, real or fake (they have come up with some pretty annoying ways of getting me to input this information, however). I barely use Facebook anymore, for the same reason I never signed up on MySpace -- I feel like I get assaulted every time I look at somebody's profile.
I've never had any interest in adding applications to my account, and the one time I did click on one to have a look, I saw the disclaimer about personal information and promptly closed the window. Haven't bothered looking at one again. Those who do choose to install these applications also choose to post their personal information...if they don't read the disclaimer, that's their problem. Facebook is a company, not some benevolent fun time social network paid for with smiles and ice cream. They're in this to make money, and while I understand privacy concerns, this outcry may indicate a serious lack of realism amongst Facebook's user base.
Facebook is a free service users opt-in to. They choose to input whatever information shows up on their profile. And they choose to install applications. If they don't like it, they can cancel their account and go elsewhere -- maybe even outside. If they install apps despite being warned about information being shared, and then get upset about it...well, good luck when you get out of college.
*Beacon is the one exception I can think of here. Facebook should have been held accountable in some respect for the way they implemented that program, and opted everyone in without their knowledge.
Thanks buddy -- I was on the phone and actually burst out laughing when I read this.
...how about they plan an Apple/OSX competitor?
Oh, and I'm about as far from an Apply fan-boy as a person can get. I just tried Vista a few weekends ago for the first time...I had very little in the way of expectations, but figured it couldn't possibly be as bad as people we're making it out to be. After being asked no less than five times if I was sure I wanted to install iTunes, and four times whether I wanted to delete an unnecessary file from Program Files, I gave up. I don't know what to say anymore. All I know is, multi-tasking efficiently can't be easy with Windows Vista...
I would argue the "Cold War" started with the Bolshevik revolution itself. However, the person above us who argued the "fact" the United States started the Cold War is confused. Deeply confused.
Exactly. You have to wonder if developers aren't going to get somewhat frustrated with the disparity in 360 consoles. I like the idea of a cheap 360, but having no hard drive? That seems insane. At least throw an 8 GB disc on there or something!
On another note, do you happen to know if people can install their own hard discs on the "Arcade" 360's?
Haha, thanks for the laugh!