All "information" and "ideas", which includes music, software, text, and other unique works, should be allowed to freely flow between people in an unlimited fashion without any encumbrances of ownership;
That's the problem!!!
I disagree - completely. People need to realize that there is real investment in creating this stuff, and the people that create it deserve to be compensated in a way that reflects the value you derive from its use.
This is not to say that their can't be alternatives that, by the choice of its authors, don't require payment, but I really take issue with the notion that creative people are everyone's bitch. They aren't. Either be be prepared to pay for what you want to use, or use something else. Better yet, create it yourself.
But then again, I have the ability to respect property that belongs to someone else. I realize that I'm probably in the minority, but that aside, there are simply too many things wrong with DRM- ANY kind of rights management, really. I agree that authors should have control over what they create, but only from a more general perspective. This control, is, in fact, granted by current copyright laws. I'm not interested in enslaving myself to a system that monitors every single thing I do just so it can determine if I'm violating a DRM policy.
I get the feeling that the content industry wants to produce a "zero loss" environment, where every single "use" of a given work is covered by some kind of payment. From the perspective of maximizing profits, this might be an option (if not an exceptionally greedy one), but it can either negate the whole notion of fair use, or start us squarely down that path.
I was waiting for someone ot say this - the point is, that in many cases, the only difference between full-time employees and "contractors" is what they're called. You see, with "contractors," the company also doesn't have to foot the bill for payroll tax. So, calling them "contractors" has many tangible benefits for the company, but the government's interest is a tax issue.
I've never quite understood why companies "hire" so many non-employees.
It's right there in the article - if they're non-employees, the company saves a bundle by not having to pay them benefits, pensions, vacation time, etc. But here's the irony - many contractors were willing to put up with this, because as contractors, they had more freedom. The problem is that these companies hire "contractors," and treat them like regular employees. Now they lose the both the freedom, AND the benefits/perks- the company effectively gets a lot more work for a lot less money.
It made Disney look like a bunch of heartless bastards, and HB look like saviors.
Disney, if I recall correctly, was a major supporter of the copyright extension act. If I had kids, I would FORBID the purchase of anything that has Disney's name on it.
"Scrabble" does belong to Hasbro. That's just the way it is. However, although Hasbro has the copyright and trademark, I think it would have been a more informed choice to make a similar type of game with a different name, and perhaps a slightly different style of gameplay (slightly). However, the truly sad part is the distinct possiblity that someone may actually have a patent on "a style of gameplay whereby users take turns forming words with game pieces, each piece having a single letter."
Somehow the modern student thinks that everything about learning is supposed to be "entertaining" or "fun", and if it isn't, then it isn't worth doing. What a load. Sometimes learning is just hard work. Yes...it actually requires THINKING.
Part of the problem as I see it, is that we live in a culture that is being increasingly abstracted- more abstraction means less exposure to the basics. Instead of learning how to solve problems, we learn how to find what it is that will solve the problem for us.
AS I've pointed out so many times before, nobody has a right to someone else's property, whether it be music, real estate, or whatever. The *AA hasn't stolen from anyone - people who buy the crap they sell do so willingly. The only stealing going on here is the people who are helping themselves to music that doesn't belong to them. The only real, long-term solution is to pick up your marbles and go play somewhere else. Leave *AA alone...completely. Don't buy it, don't listen to it, and most of all, DON'T TAKE IT. It's not yours. Treat it like any other commodity.
This all depends on whether that "value" is artificially created by virtue of the fact that someone has merely decided to call something a "service" and charge extra for it. It's all in the marketing and packaging.
I already believe that my cable costs too much. I get a good DL bandwidth, but that only comes in useful once in a while. In addition, the upload bandwidth sucks, and if I want to increase that I'd have probably have to pay for a "business class" subscription. In reality, they could just say, "increase your upload bandwidth, but in order to that, we'll cut your download bandwidth by a certain amount." But they're just playing with numbers - it eventually ALL comes from the same backbone connection, so what's the difference? Simple...if they can call it a "service", they can then justify an increased rate, even when there are no additional resource requirements on their end.
ISPs only get a little for supplying fat dumb connectivity. They're looking for ways to sell "value-added services" to enhance their revenue.
No they aren't. They're doing what most companies do in their life cycle. As a given market matures, instead of offering any real additional services that truly add value, they figure out ways to extract more cash from what they already have by adding extra fees, differentiating "services" that technically entail no additional cost to them, etc. All the priority routing means is that a router pays attention to a single flag in the packet header.
If we follow your logic to the extreme, it wouln't be entirely unfair that an ISP could start to sell services based on protocol - http/https/ftp is standard, and anything beyond that costs extra. Is that where we want to see ISPs headed?
Two things---I have some sincere respect for the talent behind some of these games. WoW is as much a work of art as it is a game. I feel the same way about Lineage 2 - minus the apparent T&A fixation. The problem is that they all use the same premise: kill stuff, get stuff, level up, kill more stuff, get more stuff, level up some more. At least Blizzard started to introduce some variety into WoW's quests, but even they entail a lot of "kill an undetermined number x and bring y back to me".
That having been said, I still think there's a social element that provides some cohesion, despite the gameplay, at least for MMORPGs. And, there's also the competitive aspect - get up to a higher level, and you can start to make a difference during raids, castle seiges, or whatever. What I don't like is the fact that that once the "online" is gone, the game is done. In other words, you buy the game, but it's useless without the online service. You can't play with other players individually, and you can't play solo- it's an all-or-nothing proposition. I guess that's just the nature of the beast.
Maybe I'll consider giving a few indie games a try.
Who cares what EDS thinks? Sure, they have their hands deep into the pockets of the Fortune 500, but they're no less vulnerable to the effects that Linux may have on the market.
First, your suggestion is fallacious, because it presumes that only less-abled athletes use steroids - as you well know, nothing could be further from the truth. Second, I fail to see the logic in using steroids as a way to "level the playing field." This sounds as misguided as giving every kid a trophy just because they happened to be on the team- whether or not the team actually did anything worthwhile. Some people are athletes, some aren't. That's life.
I won't even get INTO the nauseating mentality that has become part of mainstream America: "Got a problem? Pop a pill!"
An athlete that forgoes the use of steroids is a true athlete- he/she is relying on natural skill, strength, what have you - those qualities that MAKE an athlete. The use of steroids is notthing more than a form of corruption - way to get ahead without acutally being ahead. Unfornuately, wherever there is big money at stake, various forms of corruption almost always take hold.
I've always been amazed at the fixation on super loud bass. When ever I walk into most electronics stores, that's the firs thing I hear, and I usually end up having to listen to it until I leave. Of course, the most eggregious offenders are the boomcar fairies.
One thing that MAY come of this is that the EU, UNLIKE the US, may show everyone they have a spine when it comes do dealing with Microsoft. I'm not sure the US outcome could even be considered a slap on the hand. Nothing really changed, except that now it's public information that Bill Gates & Co. aren't exactly truthful when it comes to their own business affiars. But so what? Thngs are pretty much the same.
It's always good to periodically review that document to remind people what of the upcoming digital imprisonment.
One particularly interesting paragraph: (Mandatory access control can be more useful for smaller organisations with more focused missions: for example, a cocaine smuggling ring can arrange that the spreadsheet with this month's shipment details can be read only by five named PCs, and only until the end of the month. Then the keys used to encrypt it will expire, and the Fritz chips on those five machines will never make them available to anybody at all, ever again.)
This would seem to make it easier for "terrorists" (both real and declared by virtue of convenience) to communicate without the prying eyes of anyone outside. Of course, this assumes that there's no back door- I'd be very surprised if there wasn't.
I dare say the primary reason for ID theft is all the corporate pimps that sell information. The internet might make it easier to get to in some cases, but turning off the net won't stop the ID theft...there are other ways to get information. The problem is that there are too many people with FAR too much information - and no way to control it. Combine this with a spineless government that would rather bow to an industry lobby than enact some sane laws governing the use and control of such information, and you get what we have now.
Well, more specifically, I was referring to Konqueror's Bookmarks menu. Of all menus to use that kind of implementation...it's really quite nasty. The only place I've seen it in Windows is the Start menu, though there might be others.
I'm not sure what you're looking at, but almost every menu *I've* seen or used, is vertical scroll. I'm not a computer neophyte- I've have Apple, Linux, and Windows. I can assure you that the horizontally-expanding menus are not common. At least that's one thing where common sense has prevailed.
I do my absolute best to make sure that my identity is NOT part of most transactions. This includes the grocery store, and anything I buy with cash, which is most items. In fact, just today, I had a little incident at a store where they overcharged me for something. I brought it to the attention of the cashier, and in order to give me a refund (cash, mind you), I had to sign a form with my name and telephone number. Usually I make a fuss about this, but I obliged- except I made sure that both were completely illegible. I also made a huge deal about this at an electronics store when I had to return something that was a total piece of junk. A cash purchase, and they make me sign something. I made it very clear that I wasn't going to sign anything. The CS rep talked to someone, and then they talked to someone, and finally they just let me have my refund.
Most of all, I DO NOT USE PLASTIC. Even with these so-called "loyalty" cards, there are ways to deal with them. I'd actually be kind of pissed if I was geting stuff like this in the mail...it's not like they actually give a damn, and even more important, it's not like I'd WANT them to give a damn. It's none of their business.
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Stuff burns when it gets real hot.
All "information" and "ideas", which includes music, software, text, and other unique works, should be allowed to freely flow between people in an unlimited fashion without any encumbrances of ownership;
That's the problem!!!
I disagree - completely. People need to realize that there is real investment in creating this stuff, and the people that create it deserve to be compensated in a way that reflects the value you derive from its use.
This is not to say that their can't be alternatives that, by the choice of its authors, don't require payment, but I really take issue with the notion that creative people are everyone's bitch. They aren't. Either be be prepared to pay for what you want to use, or use something else. Better yet, create it yourself.
But then again, I have the ability to respect property that belongs to someone else. I realize that I'm probably in the minority, but that aside, there are simply too many things wrong with DRM- ANY kind of rights management, really. I agree that authors should have control over what they create, but only from a more general perspective. This control, is, in fact, granted by current copyright laws. I'm not interested in enslaving myself to a system that monitors every single thing I do just so it can determine if I'm violating a DRM policy.
I get the feeling that the content industry wants to produce a "zero loss" environment, where every single "use" of a given work is covered by some kind of payment. From the perspective of maximizing profits, this might be an option (if not an exceptionally greedy one), but it can either negate the whole notion of fair use, or start us squarely down that path.
I was waiting for someone ot say this - the point is, that in many cases, the only difference between full-time employees and "contractors" is what they're called. You see, with "contractors," the company also doesn't have to foot the bill for payroll tax. So, calling them "contractors" has many tangible benefits for the company, but the government's interest is a tax issue.
That game looks quite creative. Very nice.
I've never quite understood why companies "hire" so many non-employees.
It's right there in the article - if they're non-employees, the company saves a bundle by not having to pay them benefits, pensions, vacation time, etc. But here's the irony - many contractors were willing to put up with this, because as contractors, they had more freedom. The problem is that these companies hire "contractors," and treat them like regular employees. Now they lose the both the freedom, AND the benefits/perks- the company effectively gets a lot more work for a lot less money.
It made Disney look like a bunch of heartless bastards, and HB look like saviors.
Disney, if I recall correctly, was a major supporter of the copyright extension act. If I had kids, I would FORBID the purchase of anything that has Disney's name on it.
"Scrabble" does belong to Hasbro. That's just the way it is. However, although Hasbro has the copyright and trademark, I think it would have been a more informed choice to make a similar type of game with a different name, and perhaps a slightly different style of gameplay (slightly). However, the truly sad part is the distinct possiblity that someone may actually have a patent on "a style of gameplay whereby users take turns forming words with game pieces, each piece having a single letter."
Somehow the modern student thinks that everything about learning is supposed to be "entertaining" or "fun", and if it isn't, then it isn't worth doing. What a load. Sometimes learning is just hard work. Yes...it actually requires THINKING.
Part of the problem as I see it, is that we live in a culture that is being increasingly abstracted- more abstraction means less exposure to the basics. Instead of learning how to solve problems, we learn how to find what it is that will solve the problem for us.
AS I've pointed out so many times before, nobody has a right to someone else's property, whether it be music, real estate, or whatever. The *AA hasn't stolen from anyone - people who buy the crap they sell do so willingly. The only stealing going on here is the people who are helping themselves to music that doesn't belong to them. The only real, long-term solution is to pick up your marbles and go play somewhere else. Leave *AA alone...completely. Don't buy it, don't listen to it, and most of all, DON'T TAKE IT. It's not yours. Treat it like any other commodity.
Hatch is a psychopath.
He's also the *AA's bitch.
This all depends on whether that "value" is artificially created by virtue of the fact that someone has merely decided to call something a "service" and charge extra for it. It's all in the marketing and packaging.
I already believe that my cable costs too much. I get a good DL bandwidth, but that only comes in useful once in a while. In addition, the upload bandwidth sucks, and if I want to increase that I'd have probably have to pay for a "business class" subscription. In reality, they could just say, "increase your upload bandwidth, but in order to that, we'll cut your download bandwidth by a certain amount." But they're just playing with numbers - it eventually ALL comes from the same backbone connection, so what's the difference? Simple...if they can call it a "service", they can then justify an increased rate, even when there are no additional resource requirements on their end.
ISPs only get a little for supplying fat dumb connectivity. They're looking for ways to sell "value-added services" to enhance their revenue.
No they aren't. They're doing what most companies do in their life cycle. As a given market matures, instead of offering any real additional services that truly add value, they figure out ways to extract more cash from what they already have by adding extra fees, differentiating "services" that technically entail no additional cost to them, etc. All the priority routing means is that a router pays attention to a single flag in the packet header.
If we follow your logic to the extreme, it wouln't be entirely unfair that an ISP could start to sell services based on protocol - http/https/ftp is standard, and anything beyond that costs extra. Is that where we want to see ISPs headed?
I've heard mention of that game, but never played it.
Two things---I have some sincere respect for the talent behind some of these games. WoW is as much a work of art as it is a game. I feel the same way about Lineage 2 - minus the apparent T&A fixation. The problem is that they all use the same premise: kill stuff, get stuff, level up, kill more stuff, get more stuff, level up some more. At least Blizzard started to introduce some variety into WoW's quests, but even they entail a lot of "kill an undetermined number x and bring y back to me".
That having been said, I still think there's a social element that provides some cohesion, despite the gameplay, at least for MMORPGs. And, there's also the competitive aspect - get up to a higher level, and you can start to make a difference during raids, castle seiges, or whatever. What I don't like is the fact that that once the "online" is gone, the game is done. In other words, you buy the game, but it's useless without the online service. You can't play with other players individually, and you can't play solo- it's an all-or-nothing proposition. I guess that's just the nature of the beast.
Maybe I'll consider giving a few indie games a try.
Who cares what EDS thinks? Sure, they have their hands deep into the pockets of the Fortune 500, but they're no less vulnerable to the effects that Linux may have on the market.
First, your suggestion is fallacious, because it presumes that only less-abled athletes use steroids - as you well know, nothing could be further from the truth. Second, I fail to see the logic in using steroids as a way to "level the playing field." This sounds as misguided as giving every kid a trophy just because they happened to be on the team- whether or not the team actually did anything worthwhile. Some people are athletes, some aren't. That's life.
I won't even get INTO the nauseating mentality that has become part of mainstream America: "Got a problem? Pop a pill!"
An athlete that forgoes the use of steroids is a true athlete- he/she is relying on natural skill, strength, what have you - those qualities that MAKE an athlete. The use of steroids is notthing more than a form of corruption - way to get ahead without acutally being ahead. Unfornuately, wherever there is big money at stake, various forms of corruption almost always take hold.
I've always been amazed at the fixation on super loud bass. When ever I walk into most electronics stores, that's the firs thing I hear, and I usually end up having to listen to it until I leave. Of course, the most eggregious offenders are the boomcar fairies.
One thing that MAY come of this is that the EU, UNLIKE the US, may show everyone they have a spine when it comes do dealing with Microsoft. I'm not sure the US outcome could even be considered a slap on the hand. Nothing really changed, except that now it's public information that Bill Gates & Co. aren't exactly truthful when it comes to their own business affiars. But so what? Thngs are pretty much the same.
It's always good to periodically review that document to remind people what of the upcoming digital imprisonment.
One particularly interesting paragraph: (Mandatory access control can be more useful for smaller organisations with more focused missions: for example, a cocaine smuggling ring can arrange that the spreadsheet with this month's shipment details can be read only by five named PCs, and only until the end of the month. Then the keys used to encrypt it will expire, and the Fritz chips on those five machines will never make them available to anybody at all, ever again.)
This would seem to make it easier for "terrorists" (both real and declared by virtue of convenience) to communicate without the prying eyes of anyone outside. Of course, this assumes that there's no back door- I'd be very surprised if there wasn't.
vwith rampant ID theft,
I dare say the primary reason for ID theft is all the corporate pimps that sell information. The internet might make it easier to get to in some cases, but turning off the net won't stop the ID theft...there are other ways to get information. The problem is that there are too many people with FAR too much information - and no way to control it. Combine this with a spineless government that would rather bow to an industry lobby than enact some sane laws governing the use and control of such information, and you get what we have now.
Well, more specifically, I was referring to Konqueror's Bookmarks menu. Of all menus to use that kind of implementation...it's really quite nasty. The only place I've seen it in Windows is the Start menu, though there might be others.
I'm not sure what you're looking at, but almost every menu *I've* seen or used, is vertical scroll. I'm not a computer neophyte- I've have Apple, Linux, and Windows. I can assure you that the horizontally-expanding menus are not common. At least that's one thing where common sense has prevailed.
I do my absolute best to make sure that my identity is NOT part of most transactions. This includes the grocery store, and anything I buy with cash, which is most items. In fact, just today, I had a little incident at a store where they overcharged me for something. I brought it to the attention of the cashier, and in order to give me a refund (cash, mind you), I had to sign a form with my name and telephone number. Usually I make a fuss about this, but I obliged- except I made sure that both were completely illegible. I also made a huge deal about this at an electronics store when I had to return something that was a total piece of junk. A cash purchase, and they make me sign something. I made it very clear that I wasn't going to sign anything. The CS rep talked to someone, and then they talked to someone, and finally they just let me have my refund.
Most of all, I DO NOT USE PLASTIC. Even with these so-called "loyalty" cards, there are ways to deal with them. I'd actually be kind of pissed if I was geting stuff like this in the mail...it's not like they actually give a damn, and even more important, it's not like I'd WANT them to give a damn. It's none of their business.