I believe in free speech, I believe in libertarian values.
If you think the government should limit the freedoms of responsible adults because irresponsible adults allow minors to find their porn, booze, tobacco, guns, or drugs, perhaps you should reevaluate your belief in libertarian values.
Now, if you think this type of entertainment should not be allowed for adults to consume, that's another matter. But banning it because a child might stumble upon it is completely bogus.
His daughter probably only wants the one song, not the whole album.
It's not DRM on the music per se, but there are indeed restrictions on distribution which forces many non-US residents to go the pirate route. As for iTunes on Linux, it's not officially supported but I supposed he could access the store using Wine to install the iTunes windows app. But again, it's more convenient to pirate if Linux users have to jump through hoops to buy music.
20% or more of us feel its their right to download entertainment content. At what point will moral conform to public opinion? Is something wrong when 100% of the people do it? Is it wrong when 50% do it? 49%? When?
With that logic, if 99% of the population supported laws that discriminate based on race, it would be OK. What about if 20% or more of us felt it was OK to kill another person?
You cannot expect a majority infringing on a minority's liberty to decide it is wrong. This also does not mean the minority has free reign to do anything it pleases.
Having said that, I agree that intellectual property laws are too strong, and perhaps should not even exist. However, abolishing particular regulations only happens in a libertarian's wet dream. Therefore, a compromise must be made that weighs the economic impact of copyright, patents, and other IP laws with the natural right to share information.
The problem with raising teacher pay is that it will attract more people.
With that logic, we should be lowering the pay for medical doctors. We wouldn't want people who are hungry for money to be saving lives, right? We only want those who love their job enough to be paid meager wages to perform it, regardless of the demand for high quality workers.
Attracting more people to the teaching profession will not filter out those who love teaching. Interviewing and selecting for the most skilled and passionate candidates is a problem all employers face.
The chances of a random collection of notes on a piano being a recognizable song is infinitesimal. Society grants copyrights to works which are not completely random, but have a certain organization of its contents, be it words or music.
Copyright may not be desirable for society, but that is a different argument. Arguing that music is equivalent to a random sequence of 1s and 0s is silly. And frankly irrelevant since people are being caught uploading music on torrents, presumably with evidence that the files they are sharing are in fact copyrighted material.
How does this one person represent the state when the minority is virtually the other half of the state? Are you saying the wishes of half the state should go unheard? This is a big problem in many voting systems in the US, especially where people are allowed to vote on state legislature. Essentially, 50.1% of the population can decide what 49.9% can or cannot do.
If you are unsatisfied with the medical care your child is receiving, then as a parent you have a responsibility to get second opinions from other doctors who better serve your needs, whether it be thoroughly explaining vaccinations or determining if your child would be at any risk due to a pre-existing condition.
To throw up your hands and say there is too much to know, and then relying on the advice of friends and family, while ignoring expert advice, to determine the best care for your child is irresponsible.
For an exploration type game such as Myst, or free-roaming American RPGs, there is no real set plot or characters aside from your own. These games feature ambient music (minimalistic) that set the mood and tension for cities and dungeons, but they also do not stand out enough to distract gamers from their immersion in exploration.
In addition to exploration aspects, Japanese RPGs feature wide casts of recurring, developed characters important to a fairly linear plot. Having recognizable themes (melodies) for notable characters give them life and enhance the story telling aspect of these games.
Having said that, comparing Final Fantasy with Myst composition based on cultural influences is difficult. And alas, I'm not a hardcore gamer, so I can't name two games useful to compare for your inquiry.
How many of these ships taken hostage have been American owned? None that I know of. Even if they were all American ships, the pirates only received an estimated $30 million in ransoms this year. Not exactly a huge chunk of US GDP.
Consider focusing your concerns on issues within the country, rather than get distracted by FUD like terrorism and piracy.
And if the draft had been in place, I think this nonsense of a war in Iraq would have never started, and if it did, it would not have lasted this long.
This worked in Vietnam.
Seriously though, blaming our woes in the middle east on this idea that soldiers took the job for survival reasons is bogus. The major problem lies in the illusion that the US can easily rebuild a war-torn nation like Iraq, just because we did it after WWII with Germany and Japan, countries which were under completely different circumstances. Reinstating the draft solves nothing.
Anyway, the parent was not even talking about wartime drafts, but this required community service being pushed. It may be a good thing, but I simply don't believe altruism should be mandated by government.
If you want to change the system, vote for anyone except a Democrat or Republican. Any time another party looks like it might be competitive it will scare both parties into better behavior.
Many people have said something along these lines, but is there any evidence of this being the case? Do Democrats now try to appeal to the Green Party after the debacle in 2000 with Nader?
I understand voicing your opinion through voting is important, but if you are in a state with a close race, voting your second choice who has a chance to win is a better strategy to get what you want.
I agree that these people do have rights. So after they have served a prison term, supposedly as punishment for their actions, why are they subjected to lifetime branding as sex offenders? Forced to register their home address in an online database for the public to see? And not allowed to live within a certain distance from schools?
I believe this is the issue the parent is questioning. This is not about justice, but a "Think of the children" mindset that politicians who would oppose risk career suicide.
The article never says game music of old is better than current offerings.
His concern is that actual music games are relying on licensed music from famous artists. As part of the music game industry, he believes, for its continued growth, that musicians must be more intimately involved in the game making process.
In actuality the article only briefly covers actual music in games, talking more about what is fun about video games and how he believes interactivity and cooperation should be a big part of it.
Actually, in the plurality voting system we have now, a vote for a third party IS a vote for the candidate you like least. Ralph Nader ran in 2000 knowing full well the possibility of him stealing votes from Gore, and that is exactly what happened in Florida. It is very likely that most people who voted for Nader prefer Gore over Bush. The problem is we'll never know for sure because ballots only provide information on who you like best, not your ranking of all available candidates.
If your candidate has zero chance of winning, you want to be able to vote for him to show your support and also be able to have a say between the two majority candidates. There is a voting system that allows for this called range voting. In a nutshell, it allows voters to rate all candidates on a scale to show their preference. This does not preclude you from choosing ONLY Nader, but it gives the choice of casting multiple votes for people who want to. According to many studies, range voting is as close to perfection as any voting system can get.
There's a great book that goes through the history of various voting systems and their applications over the years in the US called Gaming the Vote by William Poundstone. It's a fascinating read, and the book that turned me to range voting.
Good News: Today we announced that the ship date for Dead Space has been moved up to October 14th (20th on PC) in North America and October 24th in Europe! We're happy to give everyone in our community a chance to play the game a week earlier than they otherwise would have. As you may know, ship dates have a tendency to move around, and usually that means you get the game later. Fortunately, due to the tremendous efforts of the Dead Space development team, we are able to move the date in and distract you from working on your awesome ghost costume!
Bad News: Unfortunately, we've recently found out that Dead Space will be banned in Germany, China and Japan. This is hard for us, especially after we got a chance to meet and hang out with so many amazing German fans and getting some great coverage at the Leipzig Games Convention last month. We'd like to thank the German, Chinese and Japanese communities for their amazing support and enthusiasm and say that we are truly sorry that you will not be able to find Dead Space in your local shop next month.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually...
I believe in free speech, I believe in libertarian values.
If you think the government should limit the freedoms of responsible adults because irresponsible adults allow minors to find their porn, booze, tobacco, guns, or drugs, perhaps you should reevaluate your belief in libertarian values.
Now, if you think this type of entertainment should not be allowed for adults to consume, that's another matter. But banning it because a child might stumble upon it is completely bogus.
Streamripper is able to save the stream, and with meta data and silence detection, split it into tracks. Works for mp3 and ogg streams.
Or you can just run Audacity and consult a programming schedule
His daughter probably only wants the one song, not the whole album.
It's not DRM on the music per se, but there are indeed restrictions on distribution which forces many non-US residents to go the pirate route. As for iTunes on Linux, it's not officially supported but I supposed he could access the store using Wine to install the iTunes windows app. But again, it's more convenient to pirate if Linux users have to jump through hoops to buy music.
20% or more of us feel its their right to download entertainment content. At what point will moral conform to public opinion? Is something wrong when 100% of the people do it? Is it wrong when 50% do it? 49%? When?
With that logic, if 99% of the population supported laws that discriminate based on race, it would be OK. What about if 20% or more of us felt it was OK to kill another person?
You cannot expect a majority infringing on a minority's liberty to decide it is wrong. This also does not mean the minority has free reign to do anything it pleases.
Having said that, I agree that intellectual property laws are too strong, and perhaps should not even exist. However, abolishing particular regulations only happens in a libertarian's wet dream. Therefore, a compromise must be made that weighs the economic impact of copyright, patents, and other IP laws with the natural right to share information.
The problem with raising teacher pay is that it will attract more people.
With that logic, we should be lowering the pay for medical doctors. We wouldn't want people who are hungry for money to be saving lives, right? We only want those who love their job enough to be paid meager wages to perform it, regardless of the demand for high quality workers.
Attracting more people to the teaching profession will not filter out those who love teaching. Interviewing and selecting for the most skilled and passionate candidates is a problem all employers face.
The chances of a random collection of notes on a piano being a recognizable song is infinitesimal. Society grants copyrights to works which are not completely random, but have a certain organization of its contents, be it words or music.
Copyright may not be desirable for society, but that is a different argument. Arguing that music is equivalent to a random sequence of 1s and 0s is silly. And frankly irrelevant since people are being caught uploading music on torrents, presumably with evidence that the files they are sharing are in fact copyrighted material.
I don't disagree, but this mashup certainly did not throw together random sounds together.
How does this one person represent the state when the minority is virtually the other half of the state? Are you saying the wishes of half the state should go unheard? This is a big problem in many voting systems in the US, especially where people are allowed to vote on state legislature. Essentially, 50.1% of the population can decide what 49.9% can or cannot do.
But if they're lucky, customers will be able to hit that cap quickly.
This refers to the 60Mbps service being offered. However, the summary itself says it will have no cap.
Does Charter offer their customers anyway to check on their bandwidth usage? If not, do they intend to release those tools?
Areas with widespread legal firearms ownership tend to have less crime than areas with severe gun restrictions.
Perhaps areas with high gun violence tend to enact severe gun restrictions.
If you are unsatisfied with the medical care your child is receiving, then as a parent you have a responsibility to get second opinions from other doctors who better serve your needs, whether it be thoroughly explaining vaccinations or determining if your child would be at any risk due to a pre-existing condition.
To throw up your hands and say there is too much to know, and then relying on the advice of friends and family, while ignoring expert advice, to determine the best care for your child is irresponsible.
For an exploration type game such as Myst, or free-roaming American RPGs, there is no real set plot or characters aside from your own. These games feature ambient music (minimalistic) that set the mood and tension for cities and dungeons, but they also do not stand out enough to distract gamers from their immersion in exploration.
In addition to exploration aspects, Japanese RPGs feature wide casts of recurring, developed characters important to a fairly linear plot. Having recognizable themes (melodies) for notable characters give them life and enhance the story telling aspect of these games.
Having said that, comparing Final Fantasy with Myst composition based on cultural influences is difficult. And alas, I'm not a hardcore gamer, so I can't name two games useful to compare for your inquiry.
If only there was some way for people to preview art before they purchase, like test-driving a car.
Also, what's stopping today's nobility from hiring an artist to personally satisfy his taste in art? The market for art today is live and well.
How many of these ships taken hostage have been American owned? None that I know of. Even if they were all American ships, the pirates only received an estimated $30 million in ransoms this year. Not exactly a huge chunk of US GDP. Consider focusing your concerns on issues within the country, rather than get distracted by FUD like terrorism and piracy.
And if the draft had been in place, I think this nonsense of a war in Iraq would have never started, and if it did, it would not have lasted this long.
This worked in Vietnam.
Seriously though, blaming our woes in the middle east on this idea that soldiers took the job for survival reasons is bogus. The major problem lies in the illusion that the US can easily rebuild a war-torn nation like Iraq, just because we did it after WWII with Germany and Japan, countries which were under completely different circumstances. Reinstating the draft solves nothing.
Anyway, the parent was not even talking about wartime drafts, but this required community service being pushed. It may be a good thing, but I simply don't believe altruism should be mandated by government.
If you want to change the system, vote for anyone except a Democrat or Republican. Any time another party looks like it might be competitive it will scare both parties into better behavior.
Many people have said something along these lines, but is there any evidence of this being the case? Do Democrats now try to appeal to the Green Party after the debacle in 2000 with Nader? I understand voicing your opinion through voting is important, but if you are in a state with a close race, voting your second choice who has a chance to win is a better strategy to get what you want.
The researcher is on KPCC (NPR station) right now, 11:36 am PST. MP3 pls stream or go to KPCC and listen live for web stream.
I agree that these people do have rights. So after they have served a prison term, supposedly as punishment for their actions, why are they subjected to lifetime branding as sex offenders? Forced to register their home address in an online database for the public to see? And not allowed to live within a certain distance from schools? I believe this is the issue the parent is questioning. This is not about justice, but a "Think of the children" mindset that politicians who would oppose risk career suicide.
Note the distinction "music games" in what you quoted.
The article never says game music of old is better than current offerings.
His concern is that actual music games are relying on licensed music from famous artists. As part of the music game industry, he believes, for its continued growth, that musicians must be more intimately involved in the game making process.
In actuality the article only briefly covers actual music in games, talking more about what is fun about video games and how he believes interactivity and cooperation should be a big part of it.
Actually, in the plurality voting system we have now, a vote for a third party IS a vote for the candidate you like least. Ralph Nader ran in 2000 knowing full well the possibility of him stealing votes from Gore, and that is exactly what happened in Florida. It is very likely that most people who voted for Nader prefer Gore over Bush. The problem is we'll never know for sure because ballots only provide information on who you like best, not your ranking of all available candidates.
If your candidate has zero chance of winning, you want to be able to vote for him to show your support and also be able to have a say between the two majority candidates. There is a voting system that allows for this called range voting. In a nutshell, it allows voters to rate all candidates on a scale to show their preference. This does not preclude you from choosing ONLY Nader, but it gives the choice of casting multiple votes for people who want to. According to many studies, range voting is as close to perfection as any voting system can get.
There's a great book that goes through the history of various voting systems and their applications over the years in the US called Gaming the Vote by William Poundstone. It's a fascinating read, and the book that turned me to range voting.
If the majority of voters in the country are in this "whiny, bitter losers" category, can you honestly say that it was a legitimate election?
Hey Everyone,
I've got some good news and some bad news.
Good News: Today we announced that the ship date for Dead Space has been moved up to October 14th (20th on PC) in North America and October 24th in Europe! We're happy to give everyone in our community a chance to play the game a week earlier than they otherwise would have. As you may know, ship dates have a tendency to move around, and usually that means you get the game later. Fortunately, due to the tremendous efforts of the Dead Space development team, we are able to move the date in and distract you from working on your awesome ghost costume!
Bad News: Unfortunately, we've recently found out that Dead Space will be banned in Germany, China and Japan. This is hard for us, especially after we got a chance to meet and hang out with so many amazing German fans and getting some great coverage at the Leipzig Games Convention last month. We'd like to thank the German, Chinese and Japanese communities for their amazing support and enthusiasm and say that we are truly sorry that you will not be able to find Dead Space in your local shop next month.
-Ben
About the racist bit, I think he's referring to Michael Richards and his tirade at the Laugh Factory two years ago.