I suppose the difference is whether or not you actually wrote code or work for a PR agency. With respect to your professional ethics, I suspect that you'd be equally cheerful about and willing to tell us the benefits of pitching tobacco to schoolkids if that's where the money was today.
Compare broadband outside the US/Canada... cheaper, and a lot more bandwidth in quite a few places.
Compare cell phones... a cell phone purchased outside the US can be considered a world cell phone, it works everywhere but here. A cell phone purchased inside the US... US/Canada only.
Then, there are the hot new consumer tech devices made in Japan and shipped to the US market when they get around to it, maybe in dumbed down form. Perhaps people would be pissed about not being good enough by virtue of being Americans to possess cutting-edge consumer tech if they knew about this, but this is a story the mass media isn't interested in telling.
We aren't too far from the day when with respect to technology for people, the US is going to be considered a primitive backwater.
This bill combined with the piece of shit bill Conyers is carrying in the House (see the EFF discussion) is a great big step in that direction
We're going to have put up with this crap, or band together to buy our own politicians. If the majority of slashdot users kicked in $20, that would be enough money to start a PAC with a DC lobbying operations capable of handing out checks to politicians we like, and to the opponents of politicians we don't like.
We can't depend on Silicon Valley to do this for us, the computer industry lobbyists aren't going to do anything about Hollywood until after their companies are drastically inconvenienced. Google? They just hired their first lobbying firm, and their fight is going to be with telecom and the publishing industry.
For those of us who want to practice technological arts without Hollywood interference, we're quickly running out of time, the options are to band together or to look for other countries not 0wn3d by Hollywood cartel special-interest money.
I don't bother with the pruning you discuss, since I have a life, I don't have time, and disk space is cheap and getting cheaper. The kind of "best practices" you described were appropriate for 20 meg hard drives... but that was last century.
More to the point, the reward for a good cleanup job of the sort you described is. . . finding that you desperately need something that you dumped (usually for something having to do with making money), and that you can NOT get another copy.
The numbers I've seen say that 3% is the point of diminishing returns. The source was "Renewable biological systems for alternative sustainable energy production (FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin - 128)" - google is your friend.
The point here is to intercept CO2 from the atmosphere by turning it into biodiesel, then use that biodiesel to replace the fossil fuel that would otherwise be burned. So we still wind up with a net loss of CO2 going into the atmosphere.
No argument about the need to get rid of coal, but one problem at a time, getting rid of oil imports is the one that's easiest to solve.
What if in connection with an insider-trading case, the SEC gets wind of use of third-party IM networks and subpoenas the network providers to find out what messages are still stored on the network? That's a for instance. Just because a message hits your inbox doesn't mean it's the only copy in existence.
I don't remember details, but there was a case of an employee allegedly stealing proprietary company information where the case was essentially cracked by subpoenaing the IM provider.
They've now got several class action lawsuits in project, one of which is EFF/Lerach... I think a couple from state AGs... most of the music with the malware on it tanked in the charts as soon as the word got out... and I suspect that they're waiting for legal action from their artists against them, especially the ones who were looking for an excuse to break their contracts anyway.
But that isn't enough. Their stock needs to be hammered down to 10% or less of their pre-rootkit price. If their price goes so low that a consumer technology company buys them for fire sale prices... that will be enough, because nobody in the industry will ever try it again... because the CEO who signed off on it has become radioactive with stockholder lawsuits attempting to take his golden parachute out of his hide.
for the last 18 years to first print magazines and now, online publications owned by publishers like CMP, IDG, and Ziff Davis, I've never taken a journalism course in my life. So I'm not "a journalist" by your definition, I just make a living at this point as a journalist?
Interesting distinction, but it wouldn't impress the people who sign my article checks.
How many sales does anyone think got lost over the Usenet availability of the latest Harry Potter hit? A dozen?
If a kid gets promised the latest Harry Potter hit for Xmas, he isn't going to be happy with a giant pile of printout. And the idiot printing it out is going to be even unhappier when he realizes what the ink cost him... hint: buying the book is A LOT cheaper.
Re:no argument... (Score:2)
by bcrowell (177657) on Wednesday December 07, @04:26PM (#14205278)
(http://www.lightandmatter.com/)
BTW, the only real success I know with respect to digital-age publishing is Baen Books.
Baen got it right and profited. Other content publishers are more interested in control and future (usually imaginary) profit from a work than actually making actual money with it in the real world. As far as I'm concerned, leave 'em to Darwin.
At an old-line *AA record company, 90% is in vinyl or shellac or even wax cylinder masters locked in vaults. No more than a handful of these masters will ever be turned into anything a label can make money on. Why not digitize it all and put it up for sale? They're afraid that somebody might steal a few, so those masters will sit in storage until somebody smarter takes over the company. May not take too long, traditional content providers aren't exactly in great financial shape in most cases.
two words. DMCA takedown. Not effective everywhere, but nothing's perfect. While the DMCA was written with the intent of salvaging an obsolete business model, i.e. as advanced rent-seeking, even a bad law has occasional good uses.
If I choose to make the work freely available, that's my decision. Just as it's my decision not to put DRM on anything like a book I either get published or self-publish for sale on the basis that I'll make less money.
However, the question would be better asked to the SF writers at Baen Books, many of whom have given permission to have their books put up on the Baen Books website "Free Library". And more who have given permission for their current books to be sold without any form of DRM. Their experience as authors (would they do this if this didn't make money for them?) and my experience as customer has persuaded me that DRM-free is the way to go.
I thank you for your concern over my ability to make money off my published work, but judging from your question, you obviously haven't had a hell of a lot of experience with making creative content for profit.
Whether the product is digital tracks from a band, video, or text, the hard part is getting noticed.
Locking up content interferes with the "getting noticed" part.
Admitedly, reading an e-book means I'm chained to my desktop until I get a laptop or something I can move around with. That's one reason at best, an e-book has a bit less value than a paper book. The problem with DRM in this kind of environment is that it adds hassles to that of having to use a computer to read the thing, specialized readers keyed to specific machines are a hassle and if one adds enough hassles the user experieence, the user is too likely to go somewhere else for comparable content to a competitor.
Stephen King tried an e-book serial using a DRM-locked e-book reader program. Even he couldn't make money doing this, people weren't buying. Why have the leaser-known writers at Baen making it? DRM-free is the difference.
Give people content they want that's easy to find in a form that's easy to use, they'll buy it even if it's relatively easy to steal. The traditional content vendors seem to be concentrating so hard on control that they seem to have forgotten that this business is about making money.
about private universities (Harvard and Yale, IIRC) where the Feds contend that since the schools take Federal money, that they have the right to send military recruiters onto campus whether the school wants them or not.
SCOTUS is expected to take the government side. One justice already suggested that if a school doesn't want military recruiters, they don't need government aid.
You don't like it? Get on a plane and argue it with them yourself.
I'm a published author myself... Linux how-to articles at this point... try searching on:
alizard Linux
If I write a book, I very definitely want my stuff online and searchable.
If my book is any good, the more people who see it, the more are going to buy it. Making the book good is my problem, and to a smaller extent, that of my editors. Make the book invisible and nobody will buy it.
Isn't making money off IP content what publishing is supposed to be about? Not making content invisible or putting it on sale after locking it into a digital toilet.
BTW, the only real success I know with respect to digital-age publishing is Baen Books.
They make their backlist free and downloadable with no DRM and no brain-dead e-reader software, open in your word processsor or browser. They do the same with their current books, only you have to pay for those.
The first hit is always free is a time honored and sound marketing principle. Once you're read the first several books in a series, the buying decision on the next few is a very easy one to make, especially since the content doesn't have DRM-crapware on it that makes it harder to read where I feel like reading it. They're also cheaper since they don't have to pay print costs, just bandwidth. This isn't hypothetical, I've already bought several of their books and plan on buying 2 or 3 more as soon as I get my next article check.
The French publishers simply want government protection for an industrial-age business model, just like the crapheads at the *AA member labels and studios do... fuck 'em.
1. They're receiving Federal aid, so they accept outside regulation.
2. Was the student informed in advance that buying education from that school means that he'd voluntarily waived his freedom of speech at the convenience of the university?
I've gotten a couple of computer rebates, one recently from Canon for my IP3000 printer, and one a while back, I forget who from. They took a while, but they did show up, and when I called in, I got actual humans who told me 'yes, we got it, and it's in processing'...
The only mail-in rebate I have sent in for and not received after a year plus is the Microsoft class-action suit rebate...
Slashdot Mirror
As "Funny", I suppose. The post certainly makes more sense than the school district does.
I suppose the difference is whether or not you actually wrote code or work for a PR agency. With respect to your professional ethics, I suspect that you'd be equally cheerful about and willing to tell us the benefits of pitching tobacco to schoolkids if that's where the money was today.
Compare cell phones... a cell phone purchased outside the US can be considered a world cell phone, it works everywhere but here. A cell phone purchased inside the US... US/Canada only.
Then, there are the hot new consumer tech devices made in Japan and shipped to the US market when they get around to it, maybe in dumbed down form. Perhaps people would be pissed about not being good enough by virtue of being Americans to possess cutting-edge consumer tech if they knew about this, but this is a story the mass media isn't interested in telling.
We aren't too far from the day when with respect to technology for people, the US is going to be considered a primitive backwater.
This bill combined with the piece of shit bill Conyers is carrying in the House (see the EFF discussion) is a great big step in that direction
We can't depend on Silicon Valley to do this for us, the computer industry lobbyists aren't going to do anything about Hollywood until after their companies are drastically inconvenienced. Google? They just hired their first lobbying firm, and their fight is going to be with telecom and the publishing industry.
For those of us who want to practice technological arts without Hollywood interference, we're quickly running out of time, the options are to band together or to look for other countries not 0wn3d by Hollywood cartel special-interest money.
More to the point, the reward for a good cleanup job of the sort you described is. . . finding that you desperately need something that you dumped (usually for something having to do with making money), and that you can NOT get another copy.
and thanks for sourcing your number, it might come in handy one of these days.
The point here is to intercept CO2 from the atmosphere by turning it into biodiesel, then use that biodiesel to replace the fossil fuel that would otherwise be burned. So we still wind up with a net loss of CO2 going into the atmosphere.
No argument about the need to get rid of coal, but one problem at a time, getting rid of oil imports is the one that's easiest to solve.
has learned anything from Internet bubbles is invited to watch the herd at the VC blog and get cured of that delusion.
I don't remember details, but there was a case of an employee allegedly stealing proprietary company information where the case was essentially cracked by subpoenaing the IM provider.
But that isn't enough. Their stock needs to be hammered down to 10% or less of their pre-rootkit price. If their price goes so low that a consumer technology company buys them for fire sale prices... that will be enough, because nobody in the industry will ever try it again... because the CEO who signed off on it has become radioactive with stockholder lawsuits attempting to take his golden parachute out of his hide.
thanks
If you're an Aussie that finds this offensive, get his worthless ass voted out of office.
This is a proposition that should be saleable to local voters... most people find the Internet far more useful than they find their local politicians.
Interesting distinction, but it wouldn't impress the people who sign my article checks.
How many sales does anyone think got lost over the Usenet availability of the latest Harry Potter hit? A dozen? If a kid gets promised the latest Harry Potter hit for Xmas, he isn't going to be happy with a giant pile of printout. And the idiot printing it out is going to be even unhappier when he realizes what the ink cost him... hint: buying the book is A LOT cheaper.
At an old-line *AA record company, 90% is in vinyl or shellac or even wax cylinder masters locked in vaults. No more than a handful of these masters will ever be turned into anything a label can make money on. Why not digitize it all and put it up for sale? They're afraid that somebody might steal a few, so those masters will sit in storage until somebody smarter takes over the company. May not take too long, traditional content providers aren't exactly in great financial shape in most cases.
I deliberately ignored it. If a group of lemmings is determined to march to the sea, I don't feel obligated to join them.
If I choose to make the work freely available, that's my decision. Just as it's my decision not to put DRM on anything like a book I either get published or self-publish for sale on the basis that I'll make less money.
However, the question would be better asked to the SF writers at Baen Books, many of whom have given permission to have their books put up on the Baen Books website "Free Library". And more who have given permission for their current books to be sold without any form of DRM. Their experience as authors (would they do this if this didn't make money for them?) and my experience as customer has persuaded me that DRM-free is the way to go.
I thank you for your concern over my ability to make money off my published work, but judging from your question, you obviously haven't had a hell of a lot of experience with making creative content for profit.
Whether the product is digital tracks from a band, video, or text, the hard part is getting noticed.
Locking up content interferes with the "getting noticed" part.
Admitedly, reading an e-book means I'm chained to my desktop until I get a laptop or something I can move around with. That's one reason at best, an e-book has a bit less value than a paper book. The problem with DRM in this kind of environment is that it adds hassles to that of having to use a computer to read the thing, specialized readers keyed to specific machines are a hassle and if one adds enough hassles the user experieence, the user is too likely to go somewhere else for comparable content to a competitor.
Stephen King tried an e-book serial using a DRM-locked e-book reader program. Even he couldn't make money doing this, people weren't buying. Why have the leaser-known writers at Baen making it? DRM-free is the difference.
Give people content they want that's easy to find in a form that's easy to use, they'll buy it even if it's relatively easy to steal. The traditional content vendors seem to be concentrating so hard on control that they seem to have forgotten that this business is about making money.
Metallica got its early following in large part through tape trading.
SCOTUS is expected to take the government side. One justice already suggested that if a school doesn't want military recruiters, they don't need government aid.
You don't like it? Get on a plane and argue it with them yourself.
alizard Linux
If I write a book, I very definitely want my stuff online and searchable.
If my book is any good, the more people who see it, the more are going to buy it. Making the book good is my problem, and to a smaller extent, that of my editors. Make the book invisible and nobody will buy it.
Isn't making money off IP content what publishing is supposed to be about? Not making content invisible or putting it on sale after locking it into a digital toilet.
BTW, the only real success I know with respect to digital-age publishing is Baen Books.
They make their backlist free and downloadable with no DRM and no brain-dead e-reader software, open in your word processsor or browser. They do the same with their current books, only you have to pay for those.
The first hit is always free is a time honored and sound marketing principle. Once you're read the first several books in a series, the buying decision on the next few is a very easy one to make, especially since the content doesn't have DRM-crapware on it that makes it harder to read where I feel like reading it. They're also cheaper since they don't have to pay print costs, just bandwidth. This isn't hypothetical, I've already bought several of their books and plan on buying 2 or 3 more as soon as I get my next article check.
The French publishers simply want government protection for an industrial-age business model, just like the crapheads at the *AA member labels and studios do... fuck 'em.
Marquette receives NO Federal aid in any form at all? (including via Federal aid to its students) That's absurd.
2. Was the student informed in advance that buying education from that school means that he'd voluntarily waived his freedom of speech at the convenience of the university?
The only mail-in rebate I have sent in for and not received after a year plus is the Microsoft class-action suit rebate...
This doesn't reflect Linux as a trend, this is something the average Linux user probably won't be doing.
It's the people who look at something like this and ask "Hmmm... just what can I do with a low-powered Linux box that's k3w1?" who buy it.
But even at that, 120K units a year for a premium-priced box for hardware h4xx0rs is amazing.