Sorry for the all caps subject but I am a huge fan of track ball mice one model in particular. I bought my first track ball when I bought my first computer for myself back in '98. I own a Logitech Trackman Marble FX mouse it is the single greatest mouse I have ever, and still, used. There is probally no one who can claim to have used the same actual mouse for 9+ years. I bought it for 75 bucks in '98 and would pay anything to keep it working. Trackball mice are great if you can find the right model to use. If you google mine you will see it is a "large" ball trackball mouse which while it looks strange is very comfortable to use for long periods and works well for games. Unfortunately my right click button has been giving me big problems but I am prepared, don't faint when I say this, pay to have a mouse repaired. I once looked online to buy a replacement in case mine dies and there are only 2 places it can be found, ebay with used models going for $100+ each or on amazon for well over $250 used. From doing a little searching I found out this model is very highly prized for graphic designers. And just in case ANYONE in the vast slashdot army has one in good condition let me know. And just as a side note anyone else have any suggestions for a good replacement for the one I have now.
I think one thing that gets left out of the equation is that pretty much up until napster pirating movie and music was a much smaller problem, mainly because most average people had no idea how to even go about getting a movie or songs free. And really the industry only made a big deal of the whole napster situation (which I believe made the whole pirated media problem major news) because they didn't think they were making the money they should have been making. they sat there and said hey how come we are not selling as many albums and movies well it must be the pirates taking our money. What they fail to realize is that they themselves the studios and record labels are actually part of the problem as well. People have been able to copy albums and movies for a very long time since the introduction of VHS and cassette tapes. But people were still willing to pay for the product because it was worth their money, and a lot of people like myself will get mp3s of new bands to determine if they are worth buying. It was a quality product in their eyes, the problem now is there is a lot more quantity and a lot less quality. If the product was up to snuff more people would buy it legally, but frankly there are a lot of people who think the products the companies are producing aren't worth the money. There are 2 different kind of people out there those who just will not pay for a movie or album and those that will. Those that don't want to pay won't and they will continue to steal it period. Do I download music yes do I pay for it not often, becuase I refuse to pay 15 dollars or more for a album with 2 good songs, it is not worth my hard earned money to get the 2 songs I want, can I get it legally through one of the many online music stores maybe but then I have to find which one is selling A) the songs I want and B) has it in a format I can use on the player I want to use. I still buy several cds a month, do I buy as many as i used to buy no because IMO there is not as much worth buying or for that matter downloading it is IMO crap for the sake of a better word.
The problem is not so much people stealing the movies or music so much is it that the record companies and movie studios have at least recently been putting out a lot of stuff people just don't want. They try and equate pirating with an actual loss of money, but the fact of the matter is that most of the people I think are downloading the content are saying this isn't worth what you are asking, it is substandard so to speak and they would not have paid for it anyway and you can't lose money you were not going to get in the first place. (With movies you could include rental fees for movie X but I really doubt the studios are getting a very big cut in that instance) If you look at movie releases recently they tend to put out more movies than used to be the case, whereas maybe 10 years ago you would have maybe 2 or 3 movies a month that would stay in the theaters for a few months to now where on occasion you can have 10 or 15 movies a month get released and then with in 3 months are on DVD. The studios keep trying to make more and more product and sacrifice the quality of the goods. It has been proven time and again when they release a good movie people will flock out in droves to see it, look at LOTR, Spider Man, X Men, they all did very very well in the theaters because they we quality movies.
Another point is that the studios tend to focus on box office sales to determine if a movie was successful and profitable but why would you or I go pay 10 dollars or more to watch a movie when you can just wait 3 months and buy or rent it on dvd. I seem to remember a time when it could take almost a year or longer for a movie to come out in stores so if you wanted to see it you had to go to the theater or just wait. I know nothing of what the profit margin is on a movie in the theater versus releasing it to the store, but I would think (I am probably wrong) that the studio makes more money from the theater run than on dvd sales (although dvd sale
While I agree with you in principal I tend to disagree and maybe I am wrong I am sure someone will tell me I am. First let me preface my comment with this, I personally find nothing wrong with viewing porn, and to be perfectly honest I view it anywhere from once or twice a week or more. I am 27 and have no kids nor am I a religious nut case I politically tend to lean more over to the libertarian side of the view that as long as it is not hurting someone else then there is no problem, I don't care what you do in your house just don't involve me. Now you are absolutely correct to point out that porn would be easy to find, but I really doubt you can make it much easier to find than it is now. You type in the word sex in ANY search engine and you will get tens of millions of hits. If a child wants to find it he will find it period.
There is no way to make the situation 100 percent perfect there will always be fraud in some form of another. If someone wants something bad enough more often than not they will find a way to get it, look at copy protection. When I was younger and underage I NEVER had any trouble finding porn if I wanted it online. But having a.xxx domain that is mandatory while not perfect by any stretch of the imagination will help those parents that want to shield there kids from it. I think and this is out of the norm for me, I prefer less regulation and more freedom, but I believe they should create the.xxx TLD and make the switch mandatory to the new domain while also guaranteeing that all sites that make the move can keep their existing urls save for the.xxx at the end so that you can prevent some but not all of the domain name squatting and at least minimize confusion and fraud. As far as determining what should be classified as "adult content" it gets a bit more difficult to come up with one simple answer.
I think that most people save for the ultra religious who would just prefer to outlaw all porn can come up with a fairly simple set of rules to determine what would be adult content, we have a basic set now. Yes everyone has different standards and what is explicit to one may not be to the other (as pointed out in the burka reference earlier), but I think we can agree that for instance pictures or video of 2 people (have to cover all the same sex etc bases here) having sex would not be appropiate for a child to view, or a person pleasuring themselves is not appropriate for children. Again there is no simple silver bullet answer as someone else said, but if we can make it easier for filtering software to block adult sites for those who choose not to view it it would be better for everyone. There are a few exemptions that could be made for instance educational material such as stuff on tribes in the jungle or something to that extent, granted with exceptions like that and others you really don't have a one size fits all solution, but that is something that can be worked on, time consuming yes but there is no easy way, or maybe just take what is currently considered adult content and lump that together under.xxx and then leave the rest for the people to decide, or even take the example of American broadcast and cable television standards, they are good for some and not good enough for others but it is a good middle ground. (I use American television standards since I live in the US and can't comment on foreign TV standards Is this a solution to the problem not totally but as I said there is NO 100% fool proof answer, no fool proof way to prevent access by fraudulent means short of taking DNA from everyone which is way to Orwellian for me and frankly just plain scary, and even then someone will find a way to cheat.
This is one of those situations where there really are no easy answers what works for one group will not work for the other much like the ever going debate over abortion. (Please no comments on that it is merely an example) I do however believe that the.xxx T
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Sorry for the all caps subject but I am a huge fan of track ball mice one model in particular. I bought my first track ball when I bought my first computer for myself back in '98. I own a Logitech Trackman Marble FX mouse it is the single greatest mouse I have ever, and still, used. There is probally no one who can claim to have used the same actual mouse for 9+ years. I bought it for 75 bucks in '98 and would pay anything to keep it working. Trackball mice are great if you can find the right model to use. If you google mine you will see it is a "large" ball trackball mouse which while it looks strange is very comfortable to use for long periods and works well for games. Unfortunately my right click button has been giving me big problems but I am prepared, don't faint when I say this, pay to have a mouse repaired. I once looked online to buy a replacement in case mine dies and there are only 2 places it can be found, ebay with used models going for $100+ each or on amazon for well over $250 used. From doing a little searching I found out this model is very highly prized for graphic designers. And just in case ANYONE in the vast slashdot army has one in good condition let me know. And just as a side note anyone else have any suggestions for a good replacement for the one I have now.
I think one thing that gets left out of the equation is that pretty much up until napster pirating movie and music was a much smaller problem, mainly because most average people had no idea how to even go about getting a movie or songs free. And really the industry only made a big deal of the whole napster situation (which I believe made the whole pirated media problem major news) because they didn't think they were making the money they should have been making. they sat there and said hey how come we are not selling as many albums and movies well it must be the pirates taking our money. What they fail to realize is that they themselves the studios and record labels are actually part of the problem as well. People have been able to copy albums and movies for a very long time since the introduction of VHS and cassette tapes. But people were still willing to pay for the product because it was worth their money, and a lot of people like myself will get mp3s of new bands to determine if they are worth buying. It was a quality product in their eyes, the problem now is there is a lot more quantity and a lot less quality. If the product was up to snuff more people would buy it legally, but frankly there are a lot of people who think the products the companies are producing aren't worth the money. There are 2 different kind of people out there those who just will not pay for a movie or album and those that will. Those that don't want to pay won't and they will continue to steal it period. Do I download music yes do I pay for it not often, becuase I refuse to pay 15 dollars or more for a album with 2 good songs, it is not worth my hard earned money to get the 2 songs I want, can I get it legally through one of the many online music stores maybe but then I have to find which one is selling A) the songs I want and B) has it in a format I can use on the player I want to use. I still buy several cds a month, do I buy as many as i used to buy no because IMO there is not as much worth buying or for that matter downloading it is IMO crap for the sake of a better word.
The problem is not so much people stealing the movies or music so much is it that the record companies and movie studios have at least recently been putting out a lot of stuff people just don't want. They try and equate pirating with an actual loss of money, but the fact of the matter is that most of the people I think are downloading the content are saying this isn't worth what you are asking, it is substandard so to speak and they would not have paid for it anyway and you can't lose money you were not going to get in the first place. (With movies you could include rental fees for movie X but I really doubt the studios are getting a very big cut in that instance) If you look at movie releases recently they tend to put out more movies than used to be the case, whereas maybe 10 years ago you would have maybe 2 or 3 movies a month that would stay in the theaters for a few months to now where on occasion you can have 10 or 15 movies a month get released and then with in 3 months are on DVD. The studios keep trying to make more and more product and sacrifice the quality of the goods. It has been proven time and again when they release a good movie people will flock out in droves to see it, look at LOTR, Spider Man, X Men, they all did very very well in the theaters because they we quality movies.
Another point is that the studios tend to focus on box office sales to determine if a movie was successful and profitable but why would you or I go pay 10 dollars or more to watch a movie when you can just wait 3 months and buy or rent it on dvd. I seem to remember a time when it could take almost a year or longer for a movie to come out in stores so if you wanted to see it you had to go to the theater or just wait. I know nothing of what the profit margin is on a movie in the theater versus releasing it to the store, but I would think (I am probably wrong) that the studio makes more money from the theater run than on dvd sales (although dvd sale
While I agree with you in principal I tend to disagree and maybe I am wrong I am sure someone will tell me I am. First let me preface my comment with this, I personally find nothing wrong with viewing porn, and to be perfectly honest I view it anywhere from once or twice a week or more. I am 27 and have no kids nor am I a religious nut case I politically tend to lean more over to the libertarian side of the view that as long as it is not hurting someone else then there is no problem, I don't care what you do in your house just don't involve me. Now you are absolutely correct to point out that porn would be easy to find, but I really doubt you can make it much easier to find than it is now. You type in the word sex in ANY search engine and you will get tens of millions of hits. If a child wants to find it he will find it period.
.xxx domain that is mandatory while not perfect by any stretch of the imagination will help those parents that want to shield there kids from it. I think and this is out of the norm for me, I prefer less regulation and more freedom, but I believe they should create the .xxx TLD and make the switch mandatory to the new domain while also guaranteeing that all sites that make the move can keep their existing urls save for the .xxx at the end so that you can prevent some but not all of the domain name squatting and at least minimize confusion and fraud. As far as determining what should be classified as "adult content" it gets a bit more difficult to come up with one simple answer.
.xxx and then leave the rest for the people to decide, or even take the example of American broadcast and cable television standards, they are good for some and not good enough for others but it is a good middle ground. (I use American television standards since I live in the US and can't comment on foreign TV standards Is this a solution to the problem not totally but as I said there is NO 100% fool proof answer, no fool proof way to prevent access by fraudulent means short of taking DNA from everyone which is way to Orwellian for me and frankly just plain scary, and even then someone will find a way to cheat.
.xxx T
There is no way to make the situation 100 percent perfect there will always be fraud in some form of another. If someone wants something bad enough more often than not they will find a way to get it, look at copy protection. When I was younger and underage I NEVER had any trouble finding porn if I wanted it online. But having a
I think that most people save for the ultra religious who would just prefer to outlaw all porn can come up with a fairly simple set of rules to determine what would be adult content, we have a basic set now. Yes everyone has different standards and what is explicit to one may not be to the other (as pointed out in the burka reference earlier), but I think we can agree that for instance pictures or video of 2 people (have to cover all the same sex etc bases here) having sex would not be appropiate for a child to view, or a person pleasuring themselves is not appropriate for children. Again there is no simple silver bullet answer as someone else said, but if we can make it easier for filtering software to block adult sites for those who choose not to view it it would be better for everyone. There are a few exemptions that could be made for instance educational material such as stuff on tribes in the jungle or something to that extent, granted with exceptions like that and others you really don't have a one size fits all solution, but that is something that can be worked on, time consuming yes but there is no easy way, or maybe just take what is currently considered adult content and lump that together under
This is one of those situations where there really are no easy answers what works for one group will not work for the other much like the ever going debate over abortion. (Please no comments on that it is merely an example) I do however believe that the