New movie distribution route - you go to the cinema and they download 2 hours of memories directly into your head. Just think of all the time it could save...
Then again, just think of the advertising bastardry they could pull off with direct access to your brain - overwrite your positive memories of Brand X with memories of it catching fire and killing your puppy.
Those other risky things don't carry such high risk as a proportion of the number of people undertaking them - 1/12 chance of losing a crew equals quite a high proportion of the astronauts launched potentially dying.
A lot more people die while driving in terms of raw numbers, but a lot less if you convert it to a percentage of all car-owners.
FSM round 2? Insist that if they're going to allow competing theories into science class that they teach *all* the competing theories.
Aztec sacrifice, elephants on the backs of turtles, the "hollow earth" theory, a couple of conspiracy theories, heliocentrism, the Norse creation myth... anything goes because we have to "teach the controversy", right?
Oh... but I'm forgetting, there is no controversy, not among people who are actually qualified to speak on the subject.
This is a problem... AC has become more firmly linked in my mind to "Anonymous Coward" then "Air Conditioning". I honestly didn't get what the GP was saying until I read your post.
Air conditioning isn't that common around here though... good old temperate climate, we have no need of artificial cool-making. Might need it in 10 years time though...
If Sci-Fi want the show made, then they would have to pay the people who make it, the only thing that changes is that no-one gets to keep the copyright under their control. Someone else could re-broadcast it, but they'd always be an episode behind; being the official channel for a show is still going to draw in the bulk of the viewership. Besides, the rebroadcasters are providing a useful service for people who missed the show the first time around, if Sci-Fi don't want the ad money from doing a re-run the next day they why shouldn't some other channel?
People aren't going to suddenly stop paying for their media, just because copying is allowed... some people might, but there's still money to be had by broadcasting TV (some will prefer that to a download) or charging attendance to a movie theatre, or selling books. Hell, some people might even prefer to pay for things they could obtain a free copy of with minimal effort just for the "official" version, or to get some neat extras or something.
Or even, how's this for an idea, because they like the media in question and want it to continue being made. If it were a case of "here's our show (or music, or game, or movie), we know you can get it for free, but if you like it then either support us by getting it via [approved distribution channel] or sling us a donation" then I'd be happy to toss some money into the metaphorical hat. Case in point, I played some of a pirate copy of Half-Life 2 then decided I'd rather pay for it because it was a great game and Valve deserved to be paid for it.
Even without copyright I think there's money to be made online if the producers are sensible about it. They'll still be the first to have it, the recognised name for having it, a stronger brand than the pirate site (or at least they would be if they'd taken this route from the start - now TPB is pretty well rooted)... so long as they don't pull stupid shit like loading it down with DRM or restricting people to a crappy web player or something, they could make money from it.
If you're using the pizza oven to make pizza anyway, why not let the solar panel production process leech off some of the heat? Even if the process is expending energy overall, it'll be less energy than previous because you've gotten some back from solar power.
I remember a Foster's advert from a while back involving a Japanese robot, it had the usual "Think Australian, Drink Australian" tag line, and in small grey text at the bottom said "Brewed in the UK".
So they had a robot from Japan advertise an "Australian" beer that's actually from the UK. Pure madness.
That and the cases where some site or other won't work in anything except IE - then you can keep using IE for that thing, but install the plugin to make it less shitty the rest of the time.
So long as the IE-only site wasn't built around one of the flaws that the plugin fixes that is.
I'm depressed by the thought that you might be right... the US might actually be better off getting gouged by the insurance companies, who at least don't care what you're claiming for so long as they can weasel their way out of paying in X% of cases.
Well, I'll just carry on enjoying the UK - free medical care that doesn't contain nuts.
The difference being that a society where people are left to die because they can't afford medical care seems just a little tiny bit unfeeling, whereas one where people aren't able to buy music... well tough shit, music's not a necessity.
The line you're taking values human life at the same as a CD collection, both being technically optional, both requiring some upkeep money, and apparently it doesn't bother you in either case if there are people who can't afford to pay for it.
Welcome to society, part of living here is that we help people who can't afford to help themselves. The payback to you is that you get to benefit from the same system if you ever find yourself down on your luck.
The "Jesus Sightings" are a demonstration of how good we are at recognising patterns, especially faces - we see them even when they aren't there (in evolutionary terms it's better to look into the dark and think "holy fuck it's a tiger, run" when it's just a trick of the light, than it is to not see the tiger and get eaten). The same effect allows us to connect and empathise with a cartoon character - we recognise the basic pattern of a human face there instead of just thinking "my, that's an odd collection of colours and shapes, why is it talking?"
We recognise these patterns, but we simultaneously recognise that they aren't the real thing, just something that's intended to represent the real thing. The uncanny valley problem occurs when they get close enough to not trigger the "it's only a simulation" reflex, and instead we're thinking of them as a real face, but then the little differences become horribly apparent.
We're immensely good at seeing the patterns, so we notice all the little glitches and flaws that make it seem creepy, unless it's unreal enough for us to know that it's not intended to be real.
Even if every person currently alive owed their existence to a rape at some point in their ancestry, it's not like the human race would have mysteriously died out in the absence of rape.
We'd just have different people produced by consenting reproduction.
Nah, the penis shaped one is Flordia. California is on the other side of the country and it's shaped more like a piece of bacon... or maybe I just have bacon on the brain
There's a lot of miles of motorway in the world that are already as ugly as they're going to get, we could use the land alongside there for solar/wind without anyone having to complain about it ruining the view.
Might be some problems with vehicle pollution griming up the solar panels... but of course that won't be a problem once everyone's driving an electric car
According to copyright law, we can't make unauthorised copies of media... how well is that one working out?
It may get put into the law books, but that doesn't make it enforceable - in reality, if it's in my house then I can tamper with it to my heart's content (unless it has some way to notice tampering and call the police on me, up until the point where I disable that function)
At the moment, any media that can be seen can be captured, because we control the computer. If they try to control the computer then that will fail too because we control the hardware. If they managed to take absolute control of the hardware then we might be fucked, but that would be more or less impossible.
I'm pretty sure TalkTalk have specifically said they won't disconnect any of their customers... that puts them a small step ahead of the other 5 in my estimation.
Obviously the other alternatives that haven't signed up at all are better, but we're already on TalkTalk and the broadband comes free with the phone, so I have to find some reason to justify not dumping them.
People can't already easily download anything they want from Youtube? There are plentiful sites that'll do that for you, and if you take 5 minutes to learn you can do it by hand.
I agree Joe Sixpack won't be delving into the page source to do it by hand, but any idiot can put "download youtube" into Google and get whatever they want with a few clicks.
How do you undercut free? Why don't you ask Microsoft that, they've been doing pretty well despite the presence of free alternatives for some time now. God knows how, but if there's anyone who knows how to compete with free and win, its Microsoft.
Slashdot Mirror
New movie distribution route - you go to the cinema and they download 2 hours of memories directly into your head. Just think of all the time it could save...
Then again, just think of the advertising bastardry they could pull off with direct access to your brain - overwrite your positive memories of Brand X with memories of it catching fire and killing your puppy.
Those other risky things don't carry such high risk as a proportion of the number of people undertaking them - 1/12 chance of losing a crew equals quite a high proportion of the astronauts launched potentially dying.
A lot more people die while driving in terms of raw numbers, but a lot less if you convert it to a percentage of all car-owners.
Son of a bitch... I got my helio and my geo round the wrong way.
FSM round 2? Insist that if they're going to allow competing theories into science class that they teach *all* the competing theories.
Aztec sacrifice, elephants on the backs of turtles, the "hollow earth" theory, a couple of conspiracy theories, heliocentrism, the Norse creation myth... anything goes because we have to "teach the controversy", right?
Oh... but I'm forgetting, there is no controversy, not among people who are actually qualified to speak on the subject.
Something, something something *dark side*. Something something something *complete*.
Take the overinflated numbers they used, then see how many of them you can multiply the damages by... I like the way you think.
This is a problem... AC has become more firmly linked in my mind to "Anonymous Coward" then "Air Conditioning". I honestly didn't get what the GP was saying until I read your post.
Air conditioning isn't that common around here though... good old temperate climate, we have no need of artificial cool-making. Might need it in 10 years time though...
If Sci-Fi want the show made, then they would have to pay the people who make it, the only thing that changes is that no-one gets to keep the copyright under their control. Someone else could re-broadcast it, but they'd always be an episode behind; being the official channel for a show is still going to draw in the bulk of the viewership. Besides, the rebroadcasters are providing a useful service for people who missed the show the first time around, if Sci-Fi don't want the ad money from doing a re-run the next day they why shouldn't some other channel?
People aren't going to suddenly stop paying for their media, just because copying is allowed... some people might, but there's still money to be had by broadcasting TV (some will prefer that to a download) or charging attendance to a movie theatre, or selling books. Hell, some people might even prefer to pay for things they could obtain a free copy of with minimal effort just for the "official" version, or to get some neat extras or something.
Or even, how's this for an idea, because they like the media in question and want it to continue being made. If it were a case of "here's our show (or music, or game, or movie), we know you can get it for free, but if you like it then either support us by getting it via [approved distribution channel] or sling us a donation" then I'd be happy to toss some money into the metaphorical hat. Case in point, I played some of a pirate copy of Half-Life 2 then decided I'd rather pay for it because it was a great game and Valve deserved to be paid for it.
Even without copyright I think there's money to be made online if the producers are sensible about it. They'll still be the first to have it, the recognised name for having it, a stronger brand than the pirate site (or at least they would be if they'd taken this route from the start - now TPB is pretty well rooted)... so long as they don't pull stupid shit like loading it down with DRM or restricting people to a crappy web player or something, they could make money from it.
If you're using the pizza oven to make pizza anyway, why not let the solar panel production process leech off some of the heat? Even if the process is expending energy overall, it'll be less energy than previous because you've gotten some back from solar power.
I remember a Foster's advert from a while back involving a Japanese robot, it had the usual "Think Australian, Drink Australian" tag line, and in small grey text at the bottom said "Brewed in the UK".
So they had a robot from Japan advertise an "Australian" beer that's actually from the UK. Pure madness.
That and the cases where some site or other won't work in anything except IE - then you can keep using IE for that thing, but install the plugin to make it less shitty the rest of the time.
So long as the IE-only site wasn't built around one of the flaws that the plugin fixes that is.
I'm depressed by the thought that you might be right... the US might actually be better off getting gouged by the insurance companies, who at least don't care what you're claiming for so long as they can weasel their way out of paying in X% of cases.
Well, I'll just carry on enjoying the UK - free medical care that doesn't contain nuts.
The difference being that a society where people are left to die because they can't afford medical care seems just a little tiny bit unfeeling, whereas one where people aren't able to buy music... well tough shit, music's not a necessity.
The line you're taking values human life at the same as a CD collection, both being technically optional, both requiring some upkeep money, and apparently it doesn't bother you in either case if there are people who can't afford to pay for it.
Welcome to society, part of living here is that we help people who can't afford to help themselves. The payback to you is that you get to benefit from the same system if you ever find yourself down on your luck.
The "Jesus Sightings" are a demonstration of how good we are at recognising patterns, especially faces - we see them even when they aren't there (in evolutionary terms it's better to look into the dark and think "holy fuck it's a tiger, run" when it's just a trick of the light, than it is to not see the tiger and get eaten). The same effect allows us to connect and empathise with a cartoon character - we recognise the basic pattern of a human face there instead of just thinking "my, that's an odd collection of colours and shapes, why is it talking?"
We recognise these patterns, but we simultaneously recognise that they aren't the real thing, just something that's intended to represent the real thing. The uncanny valley problem occurs when they get close enough to not trigger the "it's only a simulation" reflex, and instead we're thinking of them as a real face, but then the little differences become horribly apparent.
We're immensely good at seeing the patterns, so we notice all the little glitches and flaws that make it seem creepy, unless it's unreal enough for us to know that it's not intended to be real.
Even if every person currently alive owed their existence to a rape at some point in their ancestry, it's not like the human race would have mysteriously died out in the absence of rape.
We'd just have different people produced by consenting reproduction.
Nah, the penis shaped one is Flordia. California is on the other side of the country and it's shaped more like a piece of bacon... or maybe I just have bacon on the brain
There's a lot of miles of motorway in the world that are already as ugly as they're going to get, we could use the land alongside there for solar/wind without anyone having to complain about it ruining the view.
Might be some problems with vehicle pollution griming up the solar panels... but of course that won't be a problem once everyone's driving an electric car
Then we'll put the capture device behind the decryption chip.
What? You don't have room for all that in your skull? Pfft, small-headed surrender monkey.
According to copyright law, we can't make unauthorised copies of media... how well is that one working out?
It may get put into the law books, but that doesn't make it enforceable - in reality, if it's in my house then I can tamper with it to my heart's content (unless it has some way to notice tampering and call the police on me, up until the point where I disable that function)
At the moment, any media that can be seen can be captured, because we control the computer. If they try to control the computer then that will fail too because we control the hardware. If they managed to take absolute control of the hardware then we might be fucked, but that would be more or less impossible.
Do one each day, it could be the basis of some kind of feel-good comedy film (assuming of course that you don't get eaten by a black hole on the 10th)
Unless I'm very much mistaken, the "Step 1: Something, Step 2: ???, Step 3: Profit" format is taken from the South Park episode "Gnomes"
That being the Underpants Gnomes' grand plan...
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit
I'm pretty sure TalkTalk have specifically said they won't disconnect any of their customers... that puts them a small step ahead of the other 5 in my estimation.
Obviously the other alternatives that haven't signed up at all are better, but we're already on TalkTalk and the broadband comes free with the phone, so I have to find some reason to justify not dumping them.
People can't already easily download anything they want from Youtube? There are plentiful sites that'll do that for you, and if you take 5 minutes to learn you can do it by hand.
I agree Joe Sixpack won't be delving into the page source to do it by hand, but any idiot can put "download youtube" into Google and get whatever they want with a few clicks.
How do you undercut free? Why don't you ask Microsoft that, they've been doing pretty well despite the presence of free alternatives for some time now. God knows how, but if there's anyone who knows how to compete with free and win, its Microsoft.
This comes under the heading of "stuff that matters" rather than "news for nerds".