I'm against pirating, but only because I like to give artists the money that they deserve for their movies/music. Movie studios and record companies, in my mind, serve as middle men to suck money from consumers and artists. I love buying music straight from indie bands: the money goes from my wallet directly into theirs. I wish there was a way to do the same thing with movies and popular music.
When you watch TV, the content is predetermined to some extent. There are a limited number of channels, and you are stuck with one of them. The internet, for all practical purposes, has an infinite amount of material to choose from. Because of this, the internet encourages people to seek out better and better content, thus forcing websites to compete on a higher level. I, for one, don't have cable or satellite TV. Most of the media that I watch comes from the internet, because I can choose which sites have the best and most relevant content. The internet also lets me contribute to that content if I choose.
Wal-Mart put some annoying restrictions on their movies. Here's a quote from their FAQ:
Due to licensing restrictions, you cannot copy or transfer your video files and play them on a different computer. What if I want to watch movies on my laptop and my desktop? What if I decide to buy a new computer and can't watch my movies anymore? Wal-Mart should realize that people can just download a movie via P2P and not have to deal with any restrictions like this. I for one and much more willing to pay money for media if I can do whatever I want with it.
This is only fair if the royalties are paid to whoever is buried in the pyramids. I'm sure they could put those royalties to good use in the afterlife.
I think that SETI is a waste of time. It's freakin' miracle that there is life on earth, let alone intelligent life. What are the chances of finding another intelligent species?
Are you sure that those games weren't being counted? Besides, I think that knowing the number of serious gamers is more important than the number of people who play solitaire. There's a lot more money to be made off of the latter group.
If only an overhaul of the legal system would take place. Unfortunatly, the government is like a poorly written computer program. If something doesn't work, they either don't fix it or try to write some new code to fix it, instead of just fixing the original problem.
MS is winning the browser war only because there are so many people who are don't know or don't care that there are better browsers out there. Almost every one of my tech-savvy friends uses Firefox or some other alternative browser (right now I'm using Opera). If it weren't for all of the casual internet users who don't know any better than to use IE, Firefox and Opera would represent a much greater percentage of users.
I love Opera, and I use it for most of my browsing, but I think it's silly for them to try to get MS to unbundle IE or make IE conform to web standards. MS is winning the browser war only among people who don't really care that much about what browser they're using. Almost every single one of my tech-savvy friends (with a few exceptions) uses Firefox or some other alternative browser. If all of the casual internet users weren't tallied up, I'm sure Firefox and Opera would have a much greater percentage of users.
Honestly, what does Best Buy have to lose if they let someone print shirts that look like their shirts? All they're going to get is bad publicity by asking these guys to C&D. Even worse, they're trying to keep the story off of the internet, which is impossible, as evidenced by the fact that it is here on/.
"We discovered that people are not like [a fictional character] in [a fictional science fiction movie]". What will those brilliant scientists discover next?
A couple of the "scientific discoveries" weren't really that important to science. Discovering the brightest supernova or the oldest living animal have their merit, but really they're just interesting things that people found. Something like this deserved to be on the list instead: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/22/photon-storage.html
It seems unfair that the FCC gets to tell corporations what to do. Not that a huge fan of large corporations, but I still don't think that the FCC should have that kind of control. If a cell service provider thinks that it's valuable to have backup power, then they will provide backup power themselves.
Any project like Wikipedia will be subject to abuse. That's just the way things are. Actually, I'm always surprised the Wikipedia is as reliable as it is, and that so many people are willing to devote their time and effort to make it better.
True, but a robot ear can never be programmed to hear what a human ear hears. A robot can't really bring out the emotion in a song. (It could be very good at simulating emotion, though).
He can also create a much broader awareness of important issues that are normally overlooked. For example, the US has a very fragile economy because of national debt and a currency that is no longer backed by a gold standard. This often gets overlooked, but a guy like Ron Paul could make the nation aware of it.
But it does make sanse that we spend four years worrying about who is elected President (albiet because the system we have is flawed). Once someone is elected, they can do almost anything they want and the voters won't have a choice. The only reason most politicians have for listening to the public is to appease them for future re-election. Notice how George Bush was more popular during his first term, but now that he can't run again his approval ratings are lower. Since no one can do anything about our current President and current policy, people spend all of their time hoping that the next President is better.
Another note, candidates don't need corporation-sized funding to get by. Ron Paul has raised over $8 million from private individuals.
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I'm against pirating, but only because I like to give artists the money that they deserve for their movies/music. Movie studios and record companies, in my mind, serve as middle men to suck money from consumers and artists. I love buying music straight from indie bands: the money goes from my wallet directly into theirs. I wish there was a way to do the same thing with movies and popular music.
When you watch TV, the content is predetermined to some extent. There are a limited number of channels, and you are stuck with one of them. The internet, for all practical purposes, has an infinite amount of material to choose from. Because of this, the internet encourages people to seek out better and better content, thus forcing websites to compete on a higher level. I, for one, don't have cable or satellite TV. Most of the media that I watch comes from the internet, because I can choose which sites have the best and most relevant content. The internet also lets me contribute to that content if I choose.
Now all we need is a "Top Ten 'Top Ten Lists' of 2007!"
This is only fair if the royalties are paid to whoever is buried in the pyramids. I'm sure they could put those royalties to good use in the afterlife.
Someone call Bill Gates and tell him to read this.
Enough time in this case is infinity.
I think that SETI is a waste of time. It's freakin' miracle that there is life on earth, let alone intelligent life. What are the chances of finding another intelligent species?
Are you sure that those games weren't being counted? Besides, I think that knowing the number of serious gamers is more important than the number of people who play solitaire. There's a lot more money to be made off of the latter group.
If only an overhaul of the legal system would take place. Unfortunatly, the government is like a poorly written computer program. If something doesn't work, they either don't fix it or try to write some new code to fix it, instead of just fixing the original problem.
MS is winning the browser war only because there are so many people who are don't know or don't care that there are better browsers out there. Almost every one of my tech-savvy friends uses Firefox or some other alternative browser (right now I'm using Opera). If it weren't for all of the casual internet users who don't know any better than to use IE, Firefox and Opera would represent a much greater percentage of users.
I love Opera, and I use it for most of my browsing, but I think it's silly for them to try to get MS to unbundle IE or make IE conform to web standards. MS is winning the browser war only among people who don't really care that much about what browser they're using. Almost every single one of my tech-savvy friends (with a few exceptions) uses Firefox or some other alternative browser. If all of the casual internet users weren't tallied up, I'm sure Firefox and Opera would have a much greater percentage of users.
If this catches on, health care will become a little more affordable. 60% of IT costs is quite a bit of money for hospitals to save.
Yes.
Honestly, what does Best Buy have to lose if they let someone print shirts that look like their shirts? All they're going to get is bad publicity by asking these guys to C&D. Even worse, they're trying to keep the story off of the internet, which is impossible, as evidenced by the fact that it is here on /.
"We discovered that people are not like [a fictional character] in [a fictional science fiction movie]". What will those brilliant scientists discover next?
A couple of the "scientific discoveries" weren't really that important to science. Discovering the brightest supernova or the oldest living animal have their merit, but really they're just interesting things that people found. Something like this deserved to be on the list instead: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/22/photon-storage.html
It seems unfair that the FCC gets to tell corporations what to do. Not that a huge fan of large corporations, but I still don't think that the FCC should have that kind of control. If a cell service provider thinks that it's valuable to have backup power, then they will provide backup power themselves.
We can spy on Padmé.
It's just a pet robot for people who aren't cool enough to build their own.
Any project like Wikipedia will be subject to abuse. That's just the way things are. Actually, I'm always surprised the Wikipedia is as reliable as it is, and that so many people are willing to devote their time and effort to make it better.
True, but a robot ear can never be programmed to hear what a human ear hears. A robot can't really bring out the emotion in a song. (It could be very good at simulating emotion, though).
Robots will never be be able to match the musical abilities of some humans. There are too many tonal subtleties involved, especially on the violin.
That is still very impressive, nonetheless.
He can also create a much broader awareness of important issues that are normally overlooked. For example, the US has a very fragile economy because of national debt and a currency that is no longer backed by a gold standard. This often gets overlooked, but a guy like Ron Paul could make the nation aware of it.
But it does make sanse that we spend four years worrying about who is elected President (albiet because the system we have is flawed). Once someone is elected, they can do almost anything they want and the voters won't have a choice. The only reason most politicians have for listening to the public is to appease them for future re-election. Notice how George Bush was more popular during his first term, but now that he can't run again his approval ratings are lower. Since no one can do anything about our current President and current policy, people spend all of their time hoping that the next President is better.
Another note, candidates don't need corporation-sized funding to get by. Ron Paul has raised over $8 million from private individuals.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/summary.asp?cycle=2008&id=N00005906