That's a good point about deb's actually, they are designed to uninstall.
However, it's not hard to imagine that when people trying to make problems do so they are going to eventually learn to do it well. www.amazonn.net etc. Or some obscure blog somewhere. And what is to say that the deb isn't actually something else just named that? Isn't that the point?
As an artist myself I've often wanted to draw on the computer too. I've never suceeded. However, I've seen a very skilled person draw on the computer. The way to do it is this: use your right hand to carefully draw with the mouse - keep your left hand on Ctrl+Z. It's a computer so no matter how many times you erase you won't rub through the paper. he was really good with it, albeit his drawing style was somewhat limited - slightly gestural if you know what that means. He would make lots and lots of marks and CtrlZ most of them. But he had a good flow back and forth and the constant motion allowed him to stop being tentative and really express the line through the mouse motions. Also you have to have a good mouse that doesn't stick or act up... obviously. I've never seen anyone with those digipens draw right into the computer like this guy did using CtrlZ.
This is his website. But I' have no idea what medium he used for any of his drawings there... Suffice it to say I wouldn't be surprised if it was drawn via the mouse. He was that good with it.
*IF* it can be flexible enough to not give you repetitive strain injuries. Almost all of these "human" UI will give you that because they have to only accept a very limited range of motion in order to be useful. For 15 minutes, no problem but for days and weeks it has to be really flexible and not just packaged as human compatable.
Well, I do think there are some interesting possibilities in that thing where they interact with the topography using the cut out shapes.
However, I too was thinking about my love of the command line. Basically, as they claim, 2D interface came along in 1984. It basically still has a lot to be worked out to make it useful. I do prefer point and click for many things there the command line options are just too complicating. It's easier to cut and paste 5 random files from one place to another than to find some common search thread between them all or to type it all out... Basically only simple things work well this way.
So the irony is that - it takes a long time to make a GUI useful, it will take longer to make a 3DGUI useful, and we've really only been able to work out the simpler applications (moving files, grouping non-text similar things) so it's like this technology will be only useful for very simple tasks for a long while yet... All the new and advanced stuff is likely to stay only really efficiently done via text commands. So the new fancy GUI will serve up old simple solutions. Probably the making of the complicated fancy GUI will be all accomplished using command line text =)
I'm not trying to disparage the use of custom repos, I'm just saying that these are avenues that are open to exploitation at some later date in the future. Right now it's too obscure to worry about because as you point out, there are only a relative few, yes WINE is one that I use. But eventually when all of this becomes more popular and you have newbies cut and pasting code and repo sources into their machine from random websites (I did it when I was learning, I mostly still trust any site geeky enough to sound like they know what they are talking about) then you are bound to get problems eventually. I think the current gpg annoyance that gives you a message about untrusted sources is a good measure at the moment. But that doesn't change the fact that we are essentially relying on security through obscurity. And if we really are aiming for linux world domination (and I am) then at some point we are not going to be able to rely on being obscure. A lot of non-geeks I know have heard of ubuntu (not just from me) nowadays whereas in the not too distant past I really knew nothing about linux at all. As we become a more digital culture the ideas behind free software and linux in general become less trivial and inherently more popular.
Actually I think this is a really smart move of M$. Sure we can all punch holes in it but its been that way for years.
What this will do that is so brilliant is allow the typical I'd-rather-not-touch-anything hotmail user who wants to keep it simple to do just that. People install a virus scanner they don't understand and it slows down their computer. This M$ version will presumably run much more quickly and not bog things down as much. This is probably the easiest way to speed up the average speed of installed windows platforms the world over. That will impress a lot of people.
Next, re: Patches, this will give a quicker way to update rather than waiting for quarterly patches. Windoze really needs that, most linux suites usually include an update manager that does just that.
I'm sure there will be major embarrassing problems for them but this is one of their wise moves. It will cut into but not kill the commercial anti-virus software market, sure, but the important things are speed and speedy patching.
As usual, just when you think M$ will collapse in stupidity they pull another thing like this out and the tank keeps on rolling.
My biggest worry as a non-M$ user is that these changes will eventually become so ubiquitous that Linux GUI designers will start making it in a way which mimicks the M$ design somewhat which is always stupid because you know it is regression. (Why does Evolution and Thunderbird mimic outlook instead of Eudora, why does OpenOffice Mimick Office instead of AmiPro or something better??? M$ always lowers the bar)
Well, I'm an ubuntu evangelist as much as anyone, but the real reason you don't get the problem is there is no such somefamouspersonnaked.deb. We act smug as much due to our obscurity as we do for better software. There will be one day a somefamouspersonnaked.deb exploit and it will be embarrassing how many of us fall for it. Restricting yourself to what is only in repos isn't much fun or Free as in Freedom of software. However, you're right that it does cut down the chances of malfeasance considerably. I certainly look there first because it's a lot easier.
Custom repos are great too but could be exploited. Right now its too obscure that saves us.
Where do we go to paypal donate and pay this guy's fine? I'd happily contribute a dollar to pay off this unjust fine so that I can keep getting the crappy but wonderful cam's I like to occasionally watch for 5 minutes until I am reminded why I don't want to pay OR watch the movie.
Seriously, this is a downhill battle and I'd love to make the fine into a joke. However, I do want to know what exact movie it was first. I'm not going to contribute if it was High School Musical 3.
I like the gist of what you are saying but I disagree with your notions of progress. The dog-eat-dog morality and cultural norm was as false then as it is now. There are always ups and downs in certain areas. We have food that you don't have to fight for. Back then you didn't have to fight to copy an idea (as that is how people's minds work, by copying then processing - as any computer). Certain Europeans were good at portraying things in terms of progress for their own reasons. Some of this was good. Some of this was creating of the very idea of private property land etc. that has lead directly to the private property mind of nowadays problems.
"Thankfully, for all of us, the courts aren't so stupid."
Now that my friend is comedy gold! Next time I need a lesson in learning something useful about making the tubes in the interwebs go I'm going to step into a courtroom and ask the judge for a quick howto. They sure are helpful in there.
I'm actually not very experienced with this sort of applied mechanical electronics. But I've seen and helped out with PedalPlay's project of using pedal electric generator bikes to power a huge outdoor dance floor sound system.
They have gone through various configurations of varied efficiency. It can make a big differance how you rig it and apparently an inverter is key.
Basically their optimal setup was these sort of portable exercise stand/generators that you can mount a regular bicycle into. They had 4 for 4 bikes. Volunteers at the party take turns riding the stationary bikes for a few minutes. The power goes through a 12V car battery to stabalise current and to store the charge. I think the sound goes for about 20 minutes without pedalling from a full charge but the idea is to be constantly charging it. You could have less than 4 bikes in the system but then you would need to be a lot more careful about keeping them running constantly - something that would be difficult with casual volunteers. Also, usually one of the bikes would break down.
I've also ridden the same system mounted to a side-by-side quadricycle. (rolling) Basically the generator hung off the back wheels. This was quite bit of work for a large, long, slowish Critical Mass ride. It was amazing how you could turn up the volume on the sound and it would get significantly harder to pedal. Also we were carrying a pretty heavy sound system and our home made quadricycle rig wasn't perticularly optimal (more like throw together at the last minute)
At the 4 bike party system they also hooked up a small ancient monochrome display laptop to the output for people to play pac-man. I think the power consumption of the laptop was quite trivial compared to the sound system.
So, what I'm trying to say is my experience is with significant pedal power so smaller devices seem easy. It was a lot of work for the big power but for small stuff like a laptop human power has a lot of real potential. Of course you need cyclist types to not be afraid of the legwork involved.
Ideally I'd like to see a small wheel mount dynamo generator a bit bigger than the lighting/mp3 variety that could power a laptop with a regular bike. Why have a second dedicated plastic crank when a very sturdy comfortable bicycle is easy to come by? However I agree that something dragging on the tyre isn't optimal but a hub generator can't be just thrown on any old bike without modification.
Anyway, thanks for the links. I had no idea there was already so much hardware around off the shelf. The projects I've been involved with were all a lot more home made.
PS I also saw a bike-in movie theatre in Portland that used 7 bikes to power an old fashioned film reel projector and sound system. That system wasn't well built as it required tremendous work even with the 7 riders. Also I suppose the film projector wasn't especially efficient. Maybe some kind of super LED projection bulb would really cut down on the work required.
I believe the rational that most vegetarian activists put forward (not me, I just live with them and agree with about half of their ideas)... is that the intermediary stage of putting the solar energy through the animal and plant vs just the plant is less efficient. Surely the animal uses a bunch of the energy for itself. There is no doubt that the carnivore gets a higher concentration of energy more quickly via eating meat - but the issue isn't solely judged from the perspective of the carnivore.
Which brings up my problem with the buzzword "efficiency" that we always throw around. Especially in politics it leads to confusion or deception. Efficient at what? War is efficient at killing people. Cars are efficient at moving steel cages. Bicycles are efficient at moving people...
You make the point well when you say that cannibal is ultimately efficient. Efficient at something we don't actually want - and efficient in a way that ignores some very fundamental problems... such at buildup of toxins... the most efficient way to poison yourself is to eat yourself (especially the poop =p)
Why does the panel/crank power supply have to be in the same spot as the laptop? Obviously it would be optimal to only have one battery and that should be with the PC. But a wire can transmit a charge - I do believe. Not exactly universal roaming but putting the panel in the window 30ft away wouldn't be totally impractical.
I'm a cyclist and I sure would be. Human power is seriously overlooked. Using your much stronger leg would be easier.
I have a cheap hand crank flashlight that has a plugin supposedly able to charge a cell phone. Never tried it but I don't see why it wouldn't have sufficient power - a cell phone is extremely frugal and has a great battery. The biggest obstacle would be getting the power at the right level to charge and circumventing proprietary plugs for phones.
Are there practical crank chargers out there?
Thus the sun charges the plant, I eat the plant, I crank the laptop. (Or you could insert meat into that supply chain if you wanted it less efficient but more tasty)
web/http is accessible to nearly all internet users. Vs. Special client/ special search protocol means more and more barriers to adoption. These barriers may be trivial to a geeky individual, but the P2P system is utterly dependant on popularity for success and most individuals being less geeky that readers here...
It's the same reason Youtube video is more sucessful than Bittorrent. My housemates will even watch a crappy flash file of a movie in their browser without expanding the window to fullscreen rather than figure out how to burn a DVD or transfer the much better version of the file that I have in my Bittorrent collection. They just gravitate to what they think they know.
It's frustrating. But even though getting the file off of my computer (upstairs) down to them to watch is technically much much simpler than getting it off of the youtube server - they still prefer doing it the harder less quality way because the GUI of youtube makes it apparent what they need to do whereas files hiding somewhere physically on my computer only a few feet away are abstract and lack GUI. (Unless I put up the samba... and even then...)
Yeah the oldies were more reliable. But...
I did some archaeology on an old 386 desktop computer and the HDD still had the price tag on it. $630 for a 120MB drive!!! Nowadays we expect to get a whole home computer at that price and with all the latest.
Obviously the production has become more efficient in terms of price but we make computers more and more as disposable and so we get what we pay for.
actually I think seatbelts were required by law in most places. Maybe not your state, but you may have benefited from everyone else having the laws.
But I agree with you there is no way to ban all stupid driving.
EG:
it is often decried that 1/3 of car crashes are caused by drunks. This ignores the even more starteling fact that 2/3 of crashes are from driving SOBER!
Mothers Against Drunk Driving aren't very serious:
we need
Muthas Against Driving
(ride a bike!)
Copying for the purpose of sharing for free on P2P
on
DMCA Exemption Time
·
· Score: 1
Copying for the purpose of sharing for free on P2P networks should be exempted because it's the polite thing to do and enriches our public culture.
Also, it's going to happen anyway: any law that goes against the general consensus is unlawful in a democracy - we ought to make this a more law abiding society by updating the law! No more special protection for those who would rather steal from the commons than share with it!
Copy copiously!
Actually i heard there is a spike in demand coming from Germany and people were complaining this made it unafforable to buy solar for people in Africa... other hot places that aren't rich like germany... And that solar is wasted in Germany given that - they could afford other methods, and they don't have as much sun as the poor,hot countries.
On the other hand popularity means people figure out ways to make it cheaper despite restricted supply. I think the rare minerals that make up the supply chain really are the bottleneck.
it's important to distinguish between what is censored by Google and what is censored by the map provider. But that would be hard to know. I've seen blurred areas in Amsterdam - not sure why. And the roof of the Whitehouse is obviously greyed out the detail.
Who do you blame, google or the map maker? There would be a whole chain of links between taking the photo from space and getting to your monitor.
And yes, it would make sense to assume they get their maps from more than one source wouldn't it? It looks like a patchwork so I'd be very surprised if it wasn't.
I would imagine google would be pretty quick to blur something because otherwise someone might start a trend of suing them or otherwise stop them from doing so well with what is essentially something that doesn't really belong to them (global maps)
Perhaps in time more adventurous sites like wikileaks might host the uncensored versions that might exist between updates or from various sources.
I've never been like one of those apologists for piracy who are trying to make it work for the MPAA to keep existing. "Actually mp3s are good for business and they should stop fighting the consumer"
I'm glad they are fighting the consumer because I hope that whole propaganda system (aka: violence is the only interesting story and gives our life meaning... working together is not something to think about... etc) to die.
But,
I beleive the industry is doing better in both DVD and Cinema sales than it would without piracy. In the late 90s the movies all sucked and people were not paying attention. Now that I am addicted to BT I pay attention to all the movies even the dumb ones. Its so pathetic. I'm way more likely now to care about movies and buy them. I use to just ignore them completely. Now that I can get them free and feel a little high that I'm cheating The Man, I pay attention to the dumb movies. It's really clever marketing on their part, intentional or not. I'm sucked in and do all this research and try to get old movies. Mow I have DVDs I actually WANT and may get if I can't find them p2p or if the quality of the p2p copy isn't ok (subtitles etc)
Of course the realities of IP are on their side. They don't really lose anything when you make a copy. All they do is get you to do the work of copying for them so it is super for them. Their industry is propaganda of ideas. Maybe they miss a few royalties on discs pressed, but then they don't have to press a disc which may be cheap but isn't free. We suck up the costs now. Pay huge ISP rates for the privledge.
On the up side I think it has forced there to be better movies overall. All that research into obscure movies and the convienience of only paying for something you like means the typical Hollywood fare is less profitable and I would argue we are seeing more creativity. Even some movies which aren't completely spoken in cliche and violence.
Still, we are absorbing the propaganda more efficiently than ever and they are still getting rich.
And I agree with many comments, they will say this increase in profit is due to anti-piracy. It's illogical but the press will report it. The Anti-Piracy makes us all think that BT is helping to fight the man, when in fact we are just watching movies - keeps us involved. The Anti-Piracy sweeps also serve to keep the business model from changing to new technology or having to sell movies on the merit of the content alone rather than the experience of being a 'clever hacker.' Also they can beat down the real radicals like piratebay and help support the more corrupt businesses that will never be real competitors (too short term)
Slashdot Mirror
That's a good point about deb's actually, they are designed to uninstall.
However, it's not hard to imagine that when people trying to make problems do so they are going to eventually learn to do it well. www.amazonn.net etc. Or some obscure blog somewhere. And what is to say that the deb isn't actually something else just named that? Isn't that the point?
This is his website. But I' have no idea what medium he used for any of his drawings there... Suffice it to say I wouldn't be surprised if it was drawn via the mouse. He was that good with it.
*IF* it can be flexible enough to not give you repetitive strain injuries. Almost all of these "human" UI will give you that because they have to only accept a very limited range of motion in order to be useful. For 15 minutes, no problem but for days and weeks it has to be really flexible and not just packaged as human compatable.
However, I too was thinking about my love of the command line. Basically, as they claim, 2D interface came along in 1984. It basically still has a lot to be worked out to make it useful. I do prefer point and click for many things there the command line options are just too complicating. It's easier to cut and paste 5 random files from one place to another than to find some common search thread between them all or to type it all out... Basically only simple things work well this way.
So the irony is that - it takes a long time to make a GUI useful, it will take longer to make a 3DGUI useful, and we've really only been able to work out the simpler applications (moving files, grouping non-text similar things) so it's like this technology will be only useful for very simple tasks for a long while yet... All the new and advanced stuff is likely to stay only really efficiently done via text commands. So the new fancy GUI will serve up old simple solutions. Probably the making of the complicated fancy GUI will be all accomplished using command line text =)
I'm not trying to disparage the use of custom repos, I'm just saying that these are avenues that are open to exploitation at some later date in the future. Right now it's too obscure to worry about because as you point out, there are only a relative few, yes WINE is one that I use. But eventually when all of this becomes more popular and you have newbies cut and pasting code and repo sources into their machine from random websites (I did it when I was learning, I mostly still trust any site geeky enough to sound like they know what they are talking about) then you are bound to get problems eventually. I think the current gpg annoyance that gives you a message about untrusted sources is a good measure at the moment. But that doesn't change the fact that we are essentially relying on security through obscurity. And if we really are aiming for linux world domination (and I am) then at some point we are not going to be able to rely on being obscure. A lot of non-geeks I know have heard of ubuntu (not just from me) nowadays whereas in the not too distant past I really knew nothing about linux at all. As we become a more digital culture the ideas behind free software and linux in general become less trivial and inherently more popular.
What this will do that is so brilliant is allow the typical I'd-rather-not-touch-anything hotmail user who wants to keep it simple to do just that. People install a virus scanner they don't understand and it slows down their computer. This M$ version will presumably run much more quickly and not bog things down as much. This is probably the easiest way to speed up the average speed of installed windows platforms the world over. That will impress a lot of people.
Next, re: Patches, this will give a quicker way to update rather than waiting for quarterly patches. Windoze really needs that, most linux suites usually include an update manager that does just that.
I'm sure there will be major embarrassing problems for them but this is one of their wise moves. It will cut into but not kill the commercial anti-virus software market, sure, but the important things are speed and speedy patching.
As usual, just when you think M$ will collapse in stupidity they pull another thing like this out and the tank keeps on rolling.
My biggest worry as a non-M$ user is that these changes will eventually become so ubiquitous that Linux GUI designers will start making it in a way which mimicks the M$ design somewhat which is always stupid because you know it is regression. (Why does Evolution and Thunderbird mimic outlook instead of Eudora, why does OpenOffice Mimick Office instead of AmiPro or something better??? M$ always lowers the bar)
Well, I'm an ubuntu evangelist as much as anyone, but the real reason you don't get the problem is there is no such somefamouspersonnaked.deb. We act smug as much due to our obscurity as we do for better software. There will be one day a somefamouspersonnaked.deb exploit and it will be embarrassing how many of us fall for it. Restricting yourself to what is only in repos isn't much fun or Free as in Freedom of software. However, you're right that it does cut down the chances of malfeasance considerably. I certainly look there first because it's a lot easier. Custom repos are great too but could be exploited. Right now its too obscure that saves us.
Seriously, this is a downhill battle and I'd love to make the fine into a joke. However, I do want to know what exact movie it was first. I'm not going to contribute if it was High School Musical 3.
Here we are now, entertain us... You are stupid and contagious! (sorry kurt)
I like the gist of what you are saying but I disagree with your notions of progress. The dog-eat-dog morality and cultural norm was as false then as it is now. There are always ups and downs in certain areas. We have food that you don't have to fight for. Back then you didn't have to fight to copy an idea (as that is how people's minds work, by copying then processing - as any computer). Certain Europeans were good at portraying things in terms of progress for their own reasons. Some of this was good. Some of this was creating of the very idea of private property land etc. that has lead directly to the private property mind of nowadays problems.
Now that my friend is comedy gold! Next time I need a lesson in learning something useful about making the tubes in the interwebs go I'm going to step into a courtroom and ask the judge for a quick howto. They sure are helpful in there.
They have gone through various configurations of varied efficiency. It can make a big differance how you rig it and apparently an inverter is key.
Basically their optimal setup was these sort of portable exercise stand/generators that you can mount a regular bicycle into. They had 4 for 4 bikes. Volunteers at the party take turns riding the stationary bikes for a few minutes. The power goes through a 12V car battery to stabalise current and to store the charge. I think the sound goes for about 20 minutes without pedalling from a full charge but the idea is to be constantly charging it. You could have less than 4 bikes in the system but then you would need to be a lot more careful about keeping them running constantly - something that would be difficult with casual volunteers. Also, usually one of the bikes would break down.
I've also ridden the same system mounted to a side-by-side quadricycle. (rolling) Basically the generator hung off the back wheels. This was quite bit of work for a large, long, slowish Critical Mass ride. It was amazing how you could turn up the volume on the sound and it would get significantly harder to pedal. Also we were carrying a pretty heavy sound system and our home made quadricycle rig wasn't perticularly optimal (more like throw together at the last minute)
At the 4 bike party system they also hooked up a small ancient monochrome display laptop to the output for people to play pac-man. I think the power consumption of the laptop was quite trivial compared to the sound system.
So, what I'm trying to say is my experience is with significant pedal power so smaller devices seem easy. It was a lot of work for the big power but for small stuff like a laptop human power has a lot of real potential. Of course you need cyclist types to not be afraid of the legwork involved.
Ideally I'd like to see a small wheel mount dynamo generator a bit bigger than the lighting/mp3 variety that could power a laptop with a regular bike. Why have a second dedicated plastic crank when a very sturdy comfortable bicycle is easy to come by? However I agree that something dragging on the tyre isn't optimal but a hub generator can't be just thrown on any old bike without modification.
Anyway, thanks for the links. I had no idea there was already so much hardware around off the shelf. The projects I've been involved with were all a lot more home made.
PS I also saw a bike-in movie theatre in Portland that used 7 bikes to power an old fashioned film reel projector and sound system. That system wasn't well built as it required tremendous work even with the 7 riders. Also I suppose the film projector wasn't especially efficient. Maybe some kind of super LED projection bulb would really cut down on the work required.
Thanks! Pretty inexpensive too!
Which brings up my problem with the buzzword "efficiency" that we always throw around. Especially in politics it leads to confusion or deception. Efficient at what? War is efficient at killing people. Cars are efficient at moving steel cages. Bicycles are efficient at moving people...
You make the point well when you say that cannibal is ultimately efficient. Efficient at something we don't actually want - and efficient in a way that ignores some very fundamental problems... such at buildup of toxins... the most efficient way to poison yourself is to eat yourself (especially the poop =p)
The sheet metal on that was bombproof. Much thicker than on a modern desktop. You could jump up and down on it.
for the Kaypro lovers: java clone of CP/M ladder game
Why does the panel/crank power supply have to be in the same spot as the laptop? Obviously it would be optimal to only have one battery and that should be with the PC. But a wire can transmit a charge - I do believe. Not exactly universal roaming but putting the panel in the window 30ft away wouldn't be totally impractical.
I'm a cyclist and I sure would be. Human power is seriously overlooked. Using your much stronger leg would be easier.
I have a cheap hand crank flashlight that has a plugin supposedly able to charge a cell phone. Never tried it but I don't see why it wouldn't have sufficient power - a cell phone is extremely frugal and has a great battery. The biggest obstacle would be getting the power at the right level to charge and circumventing proprietary plugs for phones.
Are there practical crank chargers out there?
Thus the sun charges the plant, I eat the plant, I crank the laptop. (Or you could insert meat into that supply chain if you wanted it less efficient but more tasty)
web/http is accessible to nearly all internet users. Vs. Special client/ special search protocol means more and more barriers to adoption. These barriers may be trivial to a geeky individual, but the P2P system is utterly dependant on popularity for success and most individuals being less geeky that readers here... It's the same reason Youtube video is more sucessful than Bittorrent. My housemates will even watch a crappy flash file of a movie in their browser without expanding the window to fullscreen rather than figure out how to burn a DVD or transfer the much better version of the file that I have in my Bittorrent collection. They just gravitate to what they think they know. It's frustrating. But even though getting the file off of my computer (upstairs) down to them to watch is technically much much simpler than getting it off of the youtube server - they still prefer doing it the harder less quality way because the GUI of youtube makes it apparent what they need to do whereas files hiding somewhere physically on my computer only a few feet away are abstract and lack GUI. (Unless I put up the samba... and even then...)
Yeah the oldies were more reliable. But... I did some archaeology on an old 386 desktop computer and the HDD still had the price tag on it. $630 for a 120MB drive!!! Nowadays we expect to get a whole home computer at that price and with all the latest. Obviously the production has become more efficient in terms of price but we make computers more and more as disposable and so we get what we pay for.
actually I think seatbelts were required by law in most places. Maybe not your state, but you may have benefited from everyone else having the laws. But I agree with you there is no way to ban all stupid driving. EG: it is often decried that 1/3 of car crashes are caused by drunks. This ignores the even more starteling fact that 2/3 of crashes are from driving SOBER! Mothers Against Drunk Driving aren't very serious: we need Muthas Against Driving (ride a bike!)
Copying for the purpose of sharing for free on P2P networks should be exempted because it's the polite thing to do and enriches our public culture. Also, it's going to happen anyway: any law that goes against the general consensus is unlawful in a democracy - we ought to make this a more law abiding society by updating the law! No more special protection for those who would rather steal from the commons than share with it! Copy copiously!
Actually i heard there is a spike in demand coming from Germany and people were complaining this made it unafforable to buy solar for people in Africa... other hot places that aren't rich like germany... And that solar is wasted in Germany given that - they could afford other methods, and they don't have as much sun as the poor,hot countries. On the other hand popularity means people figure out ways to make it cheaper despite restricted supply. I think the rare minerals that make up the supply chain really are the bottleneck.
it's important to distinguish between what is censored by Google and what is censored by the map provider. But that would be hard to know. I've seen blurred areas in Amsterdam - not sure why. And the roof of the Whitehouse is obviously greyed out the detail. Who do you blame, google or the map maker? There would be a whole chain of links between taking the photo from space and getting to your monitor. And yes, it would make sense to assume they get their maps from more than one source wouldn't it? It looks like a patchwork so I'd be very surprised if it wasn't. I would imagine google would be pretty quick to blur something because otherwise someone might start a trend of suing them or otherwise stop them from doing so well with what is essentially something that doesn't really belong to them (global maps) Perhaps in time more adventurous sites like wikileaks might host the uncensored versions that might exist between updates or from various sources.
I've never been like one of those apologists for piracy who are trying to make it work for the MPAA to keep existing. "Actually mp3s are good for business and they should stop fighting the consumer"
I'm glad they are fighting the consumer because I hope that whole propaganda system (aka: violence is the only interesting story and gives our life meaning... working together is not something to think about... etc) to die.
But,
I beleive the industry is doing better in both DVD and Cinema sales than it would without piracy. In the late 90s the movies all sucked and people were not paying attention. Now that I am addicted to BT I pay attention to all the movies even the dumb ones. Its so pathetic. I'm way more likely now to care about movies and buy them. I use to just ignore them completely. Now that I can get them free and feel a little high that I'm cheating The Man, I pay attention to the dumb movies. It's really clever marketing on their part, intentional or not. I'm sucked in and do all this research and try to get old movies. Mow I have DVDs I actually WANT and may get if I can't find them p2p or if the quality of the p2p copy isn't ok (subtitles etc)
Of course the realities of IP are on their side. They don't really lose anything when you make a copy. All they do is get you to do the work of copying for them so it is super for them. Their industry is propaganda of ideas. Maybe they miss a few royalties on discs pressed, but then they don't have to press a disc which may be cheap but isn't free. We suck up the costs now. Pay huge ISP rates for the privledge.
On the up side I think it has forced there to be better movies overall. All that research into obscure movies and the convienience of only paying for something you like means the typical Hollywood fare is less profitable and I would argue we are seeing more creativity. Even some movies which aren't completely spoken in cliche and violence.
Still, we are absorbing the propaganda more efficiently than ever and they are still getting rich.
And I agree with many comments, they will say this increase in profit is due to anti-piracy. It's illogical but the press will report it. The Anti-Piracy makes us all think that BT is helping to fight the man, when in fact we are just watching movies - keeps us involved. The Anti-Piracy sweeps also serve to keep the business model from changing to new technology or having to sell movies on the merit of the content alone rather than the experience of being a 'clever hacker.' Also they can beat down the real radicals like piratebay and help support the more corrupt businesses that will never be real competitors (too short term)