The RIAA and others seem unable to realize that when something is technologically possible, and becomes known and embraced, it is de facto the new reality and no amount of scheming or prohibitions will bring back the old.
I do remember vinyl LPs, and how the advent of CDs shut down my favorite record stores on Melrose in short order. Nowadays we have P2Ps and other filesharing methods. Nowadays a talented musician can easily obtain equipment and create music away from studios, right there in her living room.
No amount of lawsuits or tricks such as the one under discussion can ever turn the clock back, and I sure hope the distribution companies decide to bow to the inevitable. It is not clear what the new equilibrium is going to be, but I believe they will have at best a small part in it while the artists a much bigger one. Oh, and cost and prices will go down... down... down. The days of huge profits are gone forever.
The sooner they come to terms with reality, the better.
Some time ago I picked up a barcode card for a clearance laptop from the O.D. stacks. Right then I received a phone call and I left the store in a hurry without buying anything.
A couple of days later I was at the same store and noticed that the price was higher, $50 more or so. I bought it anyway... went home, and was able to find the old barcode card in the pocket of the coat I had been wearing the other day
Intrigued, I took the card and the sales receipt back to the store. Well, as soon as they heard my story they INSTANTLY scanned the barcode and gave me the extra money back, on the spot, no manager approval needed, nothing!
At the time I did not realize that maybe, just maybe, something systematic was going on and they had good reason to avoid a fuss and end the matter as quickly and quietly as possible!
Over the years I've bought a couple of laptops at Circuit City, mostly because I found them at a good discount. Service was either non-existent or worse: it took them 15 minutes to fetch from their stockroom what I asked for, and then it was up to me to notice that the model number was the wrong one. They didn't know what they were selling.
It was also downright insulting when they checked at the exit all bag contents against the sales slip, radiating suspicion that their customers were thieves. Fry's Electronics has an exit check too, but much more low-key
These days I tend to visit B&M stores for a hands-on experience and then order what I choose online. I would accept paying a $50 markup for the convenience of having a $1000 laptop in my hands on the spot, but B&Ms seem to want more than that. It doesn't fly.
Let me attempt to assist authorities in prosecuting such heinous crime.
I was at a Kinko's store happily surfing when a girl next to me asked for help. I duly assisted her in setting up her Craigslist "erotic services" ad. [She offered me her business too but I pointed out to her her ad: her hourly rate was higher than what I make consulting. That gave me a graceful way to bow out)
Presently, after a few minutes of exposure, her ad generated responses. The entire room was treated to her loudly intoning "Yes! Yes! (Fsck) me! I love it in my (Ascii)..." Half the people in the room came to their feet, red-faced, while the other half...oh, we were stretched back in our seats laughing our heads off.
As if it weren't bad enough to be using skewed or insufficient inputs, we also had everybody doing the exact same thing -- seeking a talisman to exorcise danger and legitimize universal greed.
GP may have a point. A small company that called me in as a consultant turned out to be happily living in a computer past -- WinXP, Macs and even Win 2000 machines, as they were sufficient for the software their bread-and-butter work needed. The were all running off a Linux server untouched by human hands for years -- an old SuSE distro, as it turned out. I had to do some Samba reconfiguring and I dreaded what I would have to go through -- but surprisingly it turned out to be a smooth exercise. Let's hear it for old tools still doing good work, and at no monetary outlay for their owners.
I do browse the Internet with my BlackBerry Pearl, and no, I cannot get Flash video on it. Was the definition of "Internet viewer" tailored to purpose, by any chance?
I can see how HR, pressed for time, might not delve into truth or falsehood but quietly eliminate from consideration a candidate thus clouded by suspicion. Unfair, sure... but what are you going to do about it?... assuming you can find out it happened in the first place?
I have been counting cards in Blackjack for years and grinding out a modest return -- it pays for the trip to Vegas and concommitant fun. No, I don't use iPhone or other devices. The danger of detection exists -- the casinos videotape everything and can rerun the session and assess your play. The solution is to lose yourself in the crowd: play for an hour at most before you move on, and avoid greed.
And so it was, for years... until the 6- and 8- deck shoes became ubiquitous and utterly diluted the counter's advantage. Thanks for the memories:)
I have been happy with my BlackBerry for years, and no, I have not been tempted by iPhone. As Android phones come of age and become competitive, however, I'm sure I'll give them a look.
I find it highly objectionable that a scientific paper has been silenced and (almost) removed from the Web instead of countered by scientific arguments -- if such exist.
A note for other T-Mobile BB users: I have been doing this around the world, BUT -- GSM/GPRS are not enough, EDGE is required. In countries where such is not available I am out of luck.
I have been using my T-Mobile unlimited data plan for years, sometimes leaving my BlackBerry tethered for days on end, bittorrents and all. There never was any extra charge -- the $20 a month cover both BB Internet access AND use as modem. So no, I have not experienced any lying.
I have been doing this for years as well, connecting to the Internet via RIM drivers and my USB-tethered T-Mobile BlackBerry -- on Windows. (No extra cost, it is covered by my Data Plan.) RIM does not provide software for Linux, though, and if there is a way to set up wrappers around the drivers I never had the time to pursue it. So this new development is very welcome, at least for me -- it obviates the one reason I had to still run Windows instead of my beloved Linux.
Ok, we joke about it, recall (!?) "Total recall" or "Men in black"... but if this is or becomes truly possible for humans it would be unimaginably dangerous and frightening. Our memory IS us, much more than a foot, a leg or an eye. Removing it is indeed "crippling" in the worst way imaginable, and it is no consolation that the victim might not be aware after the deed of what happened. It is indeed abstractly equivalent to no less than murder.
Slashdot Mirror
The RIAA and others seem unable to realize that when something is technologically possible, and becomes known and embraced, it is de facto the new reality and no amount of scheming or prohibitions will bring back the old.
I do remember vinyl LPs, and how the advent of CDs shut down my favorite record stores on Melrose in short order. Nowadays we have P2Ps and other filesharing methods. Nowadays a talented musician can easily obtain equipment and create music away from studios, right there in her living room.
No amount of lawsuits or tricks such as the one under discussion can ever turn the clock back, and I sure hope the distribution companies decide to bow to the inevitable. It is not clear what the new equilibrium is going to be, but I believe they will have at best a small part in it while the artists a much bigger one. Oh, and cost and prices will go down... down... down. The days of huge profits are gone forever.
The sooner they come to terms with reality, the better.
Some time ago I picked up a barcode card for a clearance laptop from the O.D. stacks. Right then I received a phone call and I left the store in a hurry without buying anything.
A couple of days later I was at the same store and noticed that the price was higher, $50 more or so. I bought it anyway... went home, and was able to find the old barcode card in the pocket of the coat I had been wearing the other day
Intrigued, I took the card and the sales receipt back to the store. Well, as soon as they heard my story they INSTANTLY scanned the barcode and gave me the extra money back, on the spot, no manager approval needed, nothing!
At the time I did not realize that maybe, just maybe, something systematic was going on and they had good reason to avoid a fuss and end the matter as quickly and quietly as possible!
Now instead when I see his face
I take him away to that special place
And if he stared too long
I probably wouldn't give a damn
(Woahhhh) Sweet child o' mine...
Tut, tut
Over the years I've bought a couple of laptops at Circuit City, mostly because I found them at a good discount. Service was either non-existent or worse: it took them 15 minutes to fetch from their stockroom what I asked for, and then it was up to me to notice that the model number was the wrong one. They didn't know what they were selling.
It was also downright insulting when they checked at the exit all bag contents against the sales slip, radiating suspicion that their customers were thieves. Fry's Electronics has an exit check too, but much more low-key
These days I tend to visit B&M stores for a hands-on experience and then order what I choose online. I would accept paying a $50 markup for the convenience of having a $1000 laptop in my hands on the spot, but B&Ms seem to want more than that. It doesn't fly.
Let me attempt to assist authorities in prosecuting such heinous crime.
I was at a Kinko's store happily surfing when a girl next to me asked for help. I duly assisted her in setting up her Craigslist "erotic services" ad. [She offered me her business too but I pointed out to her her ad: her hourly rate was higher than what I make consulting. That gave me a graceful way to bow out)
Presently, after a few minutes of exposure, her ad generated responses. The entire room was treated to her loudly intoning "Yes! Yes! (Fsck) me! I love it in my (Ascii)..." Half the people in the room came to their feet, red-faced, while the other half...oh, we were stretched back in our seats laughing our heads off.
There you have it. Guilty as charged.
Aw, cheer up. The good Sheriff might have sued THE INTERNET.
As if it weren't bad enough to be using skewed or insufficient inputs, we also had everybody doing the exact same thing -- seeking a talisman to exorcise danger and legitimize universal greed.
And then it came. Correlation's revenge!
GP may have a point. A small company that called me in as a consultant turned out to be happily living in a computer past -- WinXP, Macs and even Win 2000 machines, as they were sufficient for the software their bread-and-butter work needed. The were all running off a Linux server untouched by human hands for years -- an old SuSE distro, as it turned out. I had to do some Samba reconfiguring and I dreaded what I would have to go through -- but surprisingly it turned out to be a smooth exercise. Let's hear it for old tools still doing good work, and at no monetary outlay for their owners.
I do browse the Internet with my BlackBerry Pearl, and no, I cannot get Flash video on it. Was the definition of "Internet viewer" tailored to purpose, by any chance?
I can see how HR, pressed for time, might not delve into truth or falsehood but quietly eliminate from consideration a candidate thus clouded by suspicion. Unfair, sure... but what are you going to do about it?... assuming you can find out it happened in the first place?
I have been counting cards in Blackjack for years and grinding out a modest return -- it pays for the trip to Vegas and concommitant fun. No, I don't use iPhone or other devices. The danger of detection exists -- the casinos videotape everything and can rerun the session and assess your play. The solution is to lose yourself in the crowd: play for an hour at most before you move on, and avoid greed.
And so it was, for years... until the 6- and 8- deck shoes became ubiquitous and utterly diluted the counter's advantage. Thanks for the memories :)
I have been happy with my BlackBerry for years, and no, I have not been tempted by iPhone. As Android phones come of age and become competitive, however, I'm sure I'll give them a look.
Infidelcastrix?
Windows cannot find Control Tower. Hit any key to continue.
I find it highly objectionable that a scientific paper has been silenced and (almost) removed from the Web instead of countered by scientific arguments -- if such exist.
A note for other T-Mobile BB users: I have been doing this around the world, BUT -- GSM/GPRS are not enough, EDGE is required. In countries where such is not available I am out of luck.
I have been using my T-Mobile unlimited data plan for years, sometimes leaving my BlackBerry tethered for days on end, bittorrents and all. There never was any extra charge -- the $20 a month cover both BB Internet access AND use as modem. So no, I have not experienced any lying.
I have been doing this for years as well, connecting to the Internet via RIM drivers and my USB-tethered T-Mobile BlackBerry -- on Windows. (No extra cost, it is covered by my Data Plan.) RIM does not provide software for Linux, though, and if there is a way to set up wrappers around the drivers I never had the time to pursue it. So this new development is very welcome, at least for me -- it obviates the one reason I had to still run Windows instead of my beloved Linux.
How many of those parallel Universes do you suppose carry (a) life, (b) Slashdot, (c) this discussion?
My girlfriend might object, though, when I reach for her "Off" button.
Actually, AVG is not wrong -- quite the opposite; but it doesn't go far enough. ALL of Windows is a virus :D
WTF, why not!
I can see it now...
Department of Justice: From-the-Eeny-meeny-meeny-moe-Dpt
Department of Defense: From-the-Fire-up-the-Ornithopter-Dpt
Ok, we joke about it, recall (!?) "Total recall" or "Men in black"... but if this is or becomes truly possible for humans it would be unimaginably dangerous and frightening. Our memory IS us, much more than a foot, a leg or an eye. Removing it is indeed "crippling" in the worst way imaginable, and it is no consolation that the victim might not be aware after the deed of what happened. It is indeed abstractly equivalent to no less than murder.