The Fountains Of Wayne proved that "Baby One More Time" was, in fact, a well-crafted pop song. So's "Toxic", for that matter.
Britney is really only an interpreter of a creative work, not the source. As such, she was always vulnerable to being used up and thrown out - and will continue to be, unless she either learns to be a good manager or finds one that won't fleece her.
You know and I know that these arguments are specious. The Obama admimistration and it's lawyers know it, too, but when the only other option is "Okay, you're right, let's settle", you do what you're supposed to do: defend within the limits of the law, and test where those limits are.
The big difference I see here was that Bush's defense was saying "You're anti-American for pursuing this" while Obama's is "Here's the argument. Have at it. It's up to you to make sure nobody else tries making the same argument, ever."
Unlike the previous admin, Obama's administration is open to the possibility of no longer having the majority, and making sure that, if they don't, the new majority can't pull the same stunts the last administration did.
...but it was these guys that made the "Un-pimp My Ride" commercials for Volkswagen......and because you wanna watch 'em, here's the first, second and third of those...
That's an easy charge (and in the case of Ms. Spears, absolutely correct, even though Fountains Of Wayne prove that "Baby, One More Time" is actually a well-crafted pop song as written) but I'd have to say Timberlake's voice is of a significantly higher quality, and he does occasionally do something interesting with it.
Really, though, the music industry's woes can be summed up in the following:
"Gee, I've got $50 in my pocket - will I buy three CDs with one decent song each totalling maybe 20 minutes of entertainment, a couple of DVDs featuing movies and features I'll watch all the way through, or a video game I'll play for hours? Hm...."
It's all about value for money spent, and most of the major labels' output just ain't got it, when compared to the other stuff that's competing for the dwindling supply of disposable cash.
Plus, this is an industry that:
- insists on treating its customers as criminals rather than trying to figure out what they need to do "right" in order to give their business a future.
- insists on treating its contributors as mere cogs in the machine, rather than its actual driving force...and those cogs are catching on. The industry's been in overdrive trying to spin Radiohead's online release of "In Rainbows" as a boneheaded move, when in fact it's very much the opposite.
Even investor reports are now coming to the conclusion that giving the music industry another leg to stand on only gives them another foot to shoot themselves in.
The school's not burning - the students have just found out they no longer have to go there, so it really doesn't matter whether it burns down or not.
Technology has done what it always does: render some actions incredibly easy for the average person, while shifting value (and thus the ability to make money) somewhere else.
Musicians will still make music; they do that. More of them are now able to put it in front of you. Seems like, just as in the case of bottled water, you're no longer paying for the product itself, you (or someone who wants your eyeballs looking at them) are paying for the filter that put the product in front of you.
Find the value people are willing to pay money for, and you'll make money. No change there.
Could have been communicated better, and probably will be when you watch the DVD (and the laughter isn't drowning out the lines) but this is what I got out of it:
Apparently, on Vogsphere, the slappers are an indiginous creaturethat, being slightly telepathic, crave ideas so much that they try to get as close as possible, as quickly as possible, to the creature thinking it. Effect: if you have an idea, you get smacked in the face.
Actually, that's an interesting question: How much of a leader might he wind up? "Senate Minority" leader has a nice ring, and it carries with it the possibility of being a constant thorn in Bush's side...
I don't think that's true. Most of Bush's "right ideas" so far have backfired or have caused a potential for horrendous blowback. There has been more terrorism worldwide on his watch than under any other President, and that's not even counting 9/11. He says 75% of Al Qaeda leadership has been captured or killed, but forgets to note that his number is as of 9/11/01 - they've regrouped, decentralized and grown, because we didn't finish the job in Afghanistan.
I'll accept the phrase "wobbly implementation" only if you're using the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as an example.
Let's put it this way: Everyone agreed, at the very least, that Saddam was hiding *something*.
The President threatened Saddam, but that threat would have been toothless unless he had the authority to back it up. Congress is in charge of that authority.
You're a lot more threatening with a stick. Kerry (and the rest of Congress) gave Bush that stick. They expected Bush to use it responsibly, and he hasn't.
Given that the illustrator in question did all the "guide" illustrations for the TV series (which very much look like a proper answer to the question "how would one illustrate a text adventure?") I'm actually really looking forward to this.
He has a knack for using "informative" line illustrations in very funny ways, such as the diagrammatic display of a Vogon's intestine leaping up through his neck and throttling his brain.
Well, here's the thing: if a company conducts itself in such a way that this kind of story gets out, and causes everyone who hears it to kind of nod their head and say to themselves "yeah, it sounds like them"...
...whose fault is that? Your company's image is based not just on what it says, but on what it does and how the public perceives it. Right now, the public who care to think about it, think Clear Channel is a conniving bunch of monopolists who curry favor with the neoconservatives (who are ruining what was a perfectly serviceable Republican party) in the interest of expanding their monopolies.
In fact, unless I miss my guess, this is how it infects you:
1. Receive mail. 2. Open mail. 3. Double-click attachment. This opens the archive. 4. Double-click the payload inside the attachment, thus executing it. 5. Get infected. Lather, rinse, repeat.
So, in order to get infected, you have to open a suspect file inside a suspect archive inside a suspect e-mail.
And it's spreading like wildfire. I was going to ask "are people really this dumb", but I guess the empirical data available makes that question moot...
No double standard. Kazaa does exactly what it says it's going to do. Microsoft's platform has a whole bunch of unexpected (and harmful) side effects.
If Kazaa started infecting people with viral code (outside of the spyware we all *know* it ships with) and people turned a blind eye, *then* there'd be a double standard.
If your argument is that a stream, any stream, provides its listeners with a perfect copy of music being played over it, you are wrong.
MP3, RA & WMA are lossy to begin with. The lower the bit-rate, the less they sound like the original.
- A 256K stream might approach the quality of the original CD...
- A 128k stream might approach the quality of hearing that CD on FM radio.
- Most webcasters are using 56k streams or less - roughly the same as AM Stereo. Why? They want to reach as many listeners as possible, given the limits of their connection to the Internet (not to mention the limitations of the Internet itself.)
You might make a perfect digital copy of the stream, but the stream is not a perfect digital transmission of the music it's transmitting.
-HubCity
(I have many streams at www.altrok.com courtesy Live365, whom I'll be paying to keep them running; if you believe they transmit perfect copies of the music I'm playing, you need your hearing checked badly.)
Actually, if your TV picture is full of interference, is it possible that you shouldn't expect your data connection over the same interfered-with cable to be very robust?
One (minor) ray of hope: AT&T Local Network Service switches, located directly beneath one of the collapsed towers, finally quit switching calls because they ran out of battery power, at 4:00pm the day of the collapse. Switches being sensitive things (well built, yes, but not prone to handling being pulverized in anywhere near a robust manner) it's certainly possible that some of the underground areas didn't collapse. (Yes, all the AT&T people that managed it got out.) I'd worry about going in there, though, at this point.
Actually, there's two PATH lines, one to WTC (which is the only station outside NJ on that line, and is likely destroyed) and one to the West Village, continuing on to Midtown (33rd St.) The 33rd St. line is the one that's running. To their credit, they've got trains running every five minutes along that line, which means they had more trains in their yard in NJ than they did on the small yard beneath the WTC (which are also likely lost.)
Actually, the NY Battle was taped by Fuji TV, and aired in Japan a few weeks back. It's interesting to note that many, if not most, of the folks in that audience were aware of, if not regular readers of, the sites that have since been C&D'd out of existence... -HubCity
This is best described as a novel with pictures. The story is told in paragraphs (rather than speech baloons and captions) and the illustrations accompany the text. So, yeah, "illustrated prose" really is the best way to describe it.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm *very* surprised it took that long for this reference to pop up. I shall now leave satisfied.
Fred and Carrie, of course.
http://gawker.com/5754009/portlandia-sorry-about-the-music-industrys-downfall-aimee-mann-and-sarah-mclachlan
...did they find they now walked with a limp?
The Fountains Of Wayne proved that "Baby One More Time" was, in fact, a well-crafted pop song. So's "Toxic", for that matter.
Britney is really only an interpreter of a creative work, not the source. As such, she was always vulnerable to being used up and thrown out - and will continue to be, unless she either learns to be a good manager or finds one that won't fleece her.
You know and I know that these arguments are specious. The Obama admimistration and it's lawyers know it, too, but when the only other option is "Okay, you're right, let's settle", you do what you're supposed to do: defend within the limits of the law, and test where those limits are.
The big difference I see here was that Bush's defense was saying "You're anti-American for pursuing this" while Obama's is "Here's the argument. Have at it. It's up to you to make sure nobody else tries making the same argument, ever."
Unlike the previous admin, Obama's administration is open to the possibility of no longer having the majority, and making sure that, if they don't, the new majority can't pull the same stunts the last administration did.
Cmon, you never saw Space: 1999? It's a disaster in the making!
(On the other hand, there's Catherine Schell...)
I dunno, they seemed kinda "master-racist" to me...
...but it was these guys that made the "Un-pimp My Ride" commercials for Volkswagen... ...and because you wanna watch 'em, here's the first, second and third of those...
That's an easy charge (and in the case of Ms. Spears, absolutely correct, even though Fountains Of Wayne prove that "Baby, One More Time" is actually a well-crafted pop song as written) but I'd have to say Timberlake's voice is of a significantly higher quality, and he does occasionally do something interesting with it.
Really, though, the music industry's woes can be summed up in the following:
"Gee, I've got $50 in my pocket - will I buy three CDs with one decent song each totalling maybe 20 minutes of entertainment, a couple of DVDs featuing movies and features I'll watch all the way through, or a video game I'll play for hours? Hm...."
It's all about value for money spent, and most of the major labels' output just ain't got it, when compared to the other stuff that's competing for the dwindling supply of disposable cash.
Plus, this is an industry that:
- insists on treating its customers as criminals rather than trying to figure out what they need to do "right" in order to give their business a future.
- insists on treating its contributors as mere cogs in the machine, rather than its actual driving force...and those cogs are catching on. The industry's been in overdrive trying to spin Radiohead's online release of "In Rainbows" as a boneheaded move, when in fact it's very much the opposite.
Even investor reports are now coming to the conclusion that giving the music industry another leg to stand on only gives them another foot to shoot themselves in.
The school's not burning - the students have just found out they no longer have to go there, so it really doesn't matter whether it burns down or not.
Technology has done what it always does: render some actions incredibly easy for the average person, while shifting value (and thus the ability to make money) somewhere else.
Musicians will still make music; they do that. More of them are now able to put it in front of you. Seems like, just as in the case of bottled water, you're no longer paying for the product itself, you (or someone who wants your eyeballs looking at them) are paying for the filter that put the product in front of you.
Find the value people are willing to pay money for, and you'll make money. No change there.
Could have been communicated better, and probably will be when you watch the DVD (and the laughter isn't drowning out the lines) but this is what I got out of it:
Apparently, on Vogsphere, the slappers are an indiginous creaturethat, being slightly telepathic, crave ideas so much that they try to get as close as possible, as quickly as possible, to the creature thinking it. Effect: if you have an idea, you get smacked in the face.
Which explains the evolution of the Vogons.
Actually, that's an interesting question: How much of a leader might he wind up? "Senate Minority" leader has a nice ring, and it carries with it the possibility of being a constant thorn in Bush's side...
I don't think that's true. Most of Bush's "right ideas" so far have backfired or have caused a potential for horrendous blowback. There has been more terrorism worldwide on his watch than under any other President, and that's not even counting 9/11. He says 75% of Al Qaeda leadership has been captured or killed, but forgets to note that his number is as of 9/11/01 - they've regrouped, decentralized and grown, because we didn't finish the job in Afghanistan.
I'll accept the phrase "wobbly implementation" only if you're using the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as an example.
Let's put it this way: Everyone agreed, at the very least, that Saddam was hiding *something*.
The President threatened Saddam, but that threat would have been toothless unless he had the authority to back it up. Congress is in charge of that authority.
You're a lot more threatening with a stick. Kerry (and the rest of Congress) gave Bush that stick. They expected Bush to use it responsibly, and he hasn't.
Given that the illustrator in question did all the "guide" illustrations for the TV series (which very much look like a proper answer to the question "how would one illustrate a text adventure?") I'm actually really looking forward to this.
He has a knack for using "informative" line illustrations in very funny ways, such as the diagrammatic display of a Vogon's intestine leaping up through his neck and throttling his brain.
Well, here's the thing: if a company conducts itself in such a way that this kind of story gets out, and causes everyone who hears it to kind of nod their head and say to themselves "yeah, it sounds like them"...
...whose fault is that? Your company's image is based not just on what it says, but on what it does and how the public perceives it. Right now, the public who care to think about it, think Clear Channel is a conniving bunch of monopolists who curry favor with the neoconservatives (who are ruining what was a perfectly serviceable Republican party) in the interest of expanding their monopolies.
Can't stand the heat? Get out.
In fact, unless I miss my guess, this is how it infects you:
1. Receive mail.
2. Open mail.
3. Double-click attachment. This opens the archive.
4. Double-click the payload inside the attachment, thus executing it.
5. Get infected. Lather, rinse, repeat.
So, in order to get infected, you have to open a suspect file inside a suspect archive inside a suspect e-mail.
And it's spreading like wildfire. I was going to ask "are people really this dumb", but I guess the empirical data available makes that question moot...
-HubCity
Altrok & Altrok Radio
No double standard. Kazaa does exactly what it says it's going to do. Microsoft's platform has a whole bunch of unexpected (and harmful) side effects.
If Kazaa started infecting people with viral code (outside of the spyware we all *know* it ships with) and people turned a blind eye, *then* there'd be a double standard.
-HubCity
If your argument is that a stream, any stream, provides its listeners with a perfect copy of music being played over it, you are wrong.
MP3, RA & WMA are lossy to begin with. The lower the bit-rate, the less they sound like the original.
- A 256K stream might approach the quality of the original CD...
- A 128k stream might approach the quality of hearing that CD on FM radio.
- Most webcasters are using 56k streams or less - roughly the same as AM Stereo. Why? They want to reach as many listeners as possible, given the limits of their connection to the Internet (not to mention the limitations of the Internet itself.)
You might make a perfect digital copy of the stream, but the stream is not a perfect digital transmission of the music it's transmitting.
-HubCity
(I have many streams at www.altrok.com courtesy Live365, whom I'll be paying to keep them running; if you believe they transmit perfect copies of the music I'm playing, you need your hearing checked badly.)
Actually, if your TV picture is full of interference, is it possible that you shouldn't expect your data connection over the same interfered-with cable to be very robust?
One (minor) ray of hope: AT&T Local Network Service switches, located directly beneath one of the collapsed towers, finally quit switching calls because they ran out of battery power, at 4:00pm the day of the collapse. Switches being sensitive things (well built, yes, but not prone to handling being pulverized in anywhere near a robust manner) it's certainly possible that some of the underground areas didn't collapse. (Yes, all the AT&T people that managed it got out.) I'd worry about going in there, though, at this point.
Actually, there's two PATH lines, one to WTC (which is the only station outside NJ on that line, and is likely destroyed) and one to the West Village, continuing on to Midtown (33rd St.) The 33rd St. line is the one that's running. To their credit, they've got trains running every five minutes along that line, which means they had more trains in their yard in NJ than they did on the small yard beneath the WTC (which are also likely lost.)
Actually, the NY Battle was taped by Fuji TV, and aired in Japan a few weeks back. It's interesting to note that many, if not most, of the folks in that audience were aware of, if not regular readers of, the sites that have since been C&D'd out of existence... -HubCity
Nope, this is all Amano. Which ain't a bad thing.
This is best described as a novel with pictures. The story is told in paragraphs (rather than speech baloons and captions) and the illustrations accompany the text. So, yeah, "illustrated prose" really is the best way to describe it.