How quaint. You seem to have an odd notion that the people who work 12-hour shifts in horrible factories get to make meaningful decisions about their career paths. Never mind that if you're a subsistence farmer, the Chinese government can seize your land at any time. Or suddenly decide, "Hey, you guys, you're not farmers any more." And if you were born to parents who work in sweatshops...what are you going to do, go out and buy a dozen acres on $0.41/hour?
It's more like, they own a piece of real estate, and they license it out to street vendors who sell bootlegs. Are they actually sitting out there with the one-legged guy (Sancho) and the monkey (Senor Mono) selling low-quality Lord of the Rings DVDs? No, but Sancho and Senor Mono are part of their business plan; the black market is how they make their money, and whether or not they're actually selling DVDs, they're clearly complicit.
I think you read the comment that you expected to read, not the comment that I actually wrote. To reiterate the point: 1) Overall, media providers lose money on piracy, 2) Not all content is equally affected.
A possible corollary would be that there may be some sort of evolution in the kind of media that is produced. A pop single from a one-hit wonder that everyone downloaded and no one bought isn't a good source of revenue, and smart media moguls will abandon that kind of business plan. A highly-branded band that makes their money from concerts, t-shirt sales, posters, cross-endorsement, etc., can produce a bigger profit, so you might see more emphasis on that kind of promotion. (In fact, I would say this may have already happened.)
Obviously, distribution methods will change and have changed, but what's more interesting is how the content itself of our media will be affected. Perhaps Hollywood will find that smaller-budget niche films are more easily able to make a profit among diehard fans, and spend its resources toward those kinds of films. Or maybe it will put more gimmickry into theatrical releases of Big Blockbuster movies---like it's been doing with the whole 3D craze. You have to wonder.
Keep in mind that none of this is meant to say *anything* about the moral implications of piracy. I don't really have an opinion as to whether it's right or wrong, but we don't have to make that kind of determination in order to evaluate its impact.
I think it does in aggregate. I know that for plenty of things I've pirated, I've ended up generating revenue for the people involved. For instance, I pirate a lot of books. If I like a book and it's something I think I'll want later, I'll go out and buy the dead tree version. I watch BSG on Hulu nowadays and generate ad revenue for the show (and when I have money I'll buy it on DVD), but I would never have gotten into it if I had started watching broadcasts in the third season. (Who's the woman in the red dress? What's a "frakking toaster"?)
Again, I'm perfectly aware of the fact that piracy exerts a net negative force on media producers, and that for everything I can think of that got money from me because of piracy, there are a gazillion things I might have bought but didn't. But it's not *entirely* bad for them, assuming the work is quality.
1) WOTDR 2) No, for most people, it's really about free as in beer. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that for the most part, people would literally prefer free beer over free speech.
"Hey, I'll give you a free beer if you shut the fuck up about politics." "Sounds great!"
Because no one will ever suspect that the guy with the advanced degree, antisocial personality disorder, questionable source of income, and miraculous discovery of "the real hackers," would have had anything to do with it.
Mine don't either. The other day I wrote a very long drunken email to my father ranting about IE standards compliance. He finally told me he'd switch, probably just to shut me up.
I was watching television about a month ago with my grandfather, who is pushing eighty. One of the public service announcements about the switch came on.
"Is there anyone who seriously hasn't seen this commercial a hundred times already?" my grandfather asked. "I don't see why they keep playing them."
Conclusion: if you're old enough that you haven't noticed that analog television isn't going to work any more, you probably don't know the difference between regularly-scheduled programming and white noise.
a) "Bunch" is singular. That is one bunch of bananas. b) I shouldn't have to explain this, but in said bunch, there are ones, and there are zeros. A single bit is a one or a zero; multiple bits, each of which is either a one or a zero, provide a set of that contains both ones and zeros. (Assuming that there is at least 1 one and 1 zero in a given set. If the set were all ones or all zeros, then it would indeed be correct to call it a set of "ones or zeros.") c) Spellcheck should provide the insight on this one.
Lack of Funding for Free Software (Score: 5, Insightful) by twitter_sockpuppet on Tuesday, April 14 @6:03PM
Where are the appropriations for GNU/Linux? I see a number of tax breaks for big businesses, such as Micro$soft, but no tax breaks for promoting free software. Apparently the US government is only concerned with making money for Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, etc.
----->Re: Lack of Funding for Free Software by another_twitter_sockpuppet on Tuesday, April 14 @6:07PM
You speak the truth. I can tell that you are a wise and good person, with an above-average IQ. I am also awesome, and would like to be your friend, as would everyone else who is awesome.
I had to actually check to make sure that there was ever such a product as "Microsoft Train Simulator."
"Microsoft Train Simulator brings the power and excitement of some of the world's most famous trains to your PC, placing you in the role of engineer or passenger with unprecedented realism, exciting real-world rail challenges, and the tools to recreate almost any railroad experience in the world."
My God. Riding an actual train is boring enough. People bring books for that. But actually seeking out a simulated bored-on-a-train experience, for your leisure time? Just get a damn book.
"I did NOT willfully download child pornography. My Windows operating system hijacked my computer, downloaded the material, and brought it up in Internet Explorer every day between 6 and 10 PM on weekdays, and between 7 AM and 10 PM on weekends, holidays, and days I had sick leave."
Not to point out the obvious, but you are hiring college-educated kids to work at a tech firm.
You must be aware that most people who use computers are not "implementing various solutions." Of course computer science majors know something about Unix. One would expect philosophy majors to know something about Kant. Most people don't spend much time evaluating the Categorical Imperative.
I'm 23. In elementary school, all of my school's computers were Macs. (Once we got Macs---we still had a room full of old Apple IIs.) In middle school, we had a few Windows computers in the library, but the labs and the classroom computers were all Macs. I don't remember seeing a single Mac in high school. The computers I've seen at my university have all been Windows (although the servers are from Sun), but I rarely use them and haven't looked around much.I bet if I went back to my old elementary and middle schools, all of the computers there would be running XP.
I think it's just a function of Apple. They gave a lot of discounts to schools back in the day, so that's what the schools adopted. I don't know whether they continued this program or not. I don't know what kind of deals Microsoft/OEMs were offering at the time. I'm sure it was largely a function of cash. And also: when it became obvious that most students and faculty were using Windows all the time outside of school---e.g., that Microsoft had definitively won and Apple was irrelevant (I am, of course, speaking historically), then from a practical educational standpoint, it only made sense to use Windows machines.
That point is important. It may be the case that Linux would save schools money. But if the schools' only interest were saving money, they wouldn't have computers at all---or they'd still be using those old Apple IIs from my elementary. If you can use one operating system, it is (and should be) Windows. For younger students, the school's objective is to teach computer literacy, so they want to have Windows computers. For older students, the school's objective is to use them as a tool and not have to worry about showing the classroom idiot how to use GNOME, so they want to have Windows computers. If Linux were widely used on the desktop, then schools would have no problem switching---but that's a chicken-and-egg problem.
Slashdot Mirror
How quaint. You seem to have an odd notion that the people who work 12-hour shifts in horrible factories get to make meaningful decisions about their career paths. Never mind that if you're a subsistence farmer, the Chinese government can seize your land at any time. Or suddenly decide, "Hey, you guys, you're not farmers any more." And if you were born to parents who work in sweatshops...what are you going to do, go out and buy a dozen acres on $0.41/hour?
I don't agree with that analogy.
It's more like, they own a piece of real estate, and they license it out to street vendors who sell bootlegs. Are they actually sitting out there with the one-legged guy (Sancho) and the monkey (Senor Mono) selling low-quality Lord of the Rings DVDs? No, but Sancho and Senor Mono are part of their business plan; the black market is how they make their money, and whether or not they're actually selling DVDs, they're clearly complicit.
I think you read the comment that you expected to read, not the comment that I actually wrote. To reiterate the point: 1) Overall, media providers lose money on piracy, 2) Not all content is equally affected.
A possible corollary would be that there may be some sort of evolution in the kind of media that is produced. A pop single from a one-hit wonder that everyone downloaded and no one bought isn't a good source of revenue, and smart media moguls will abandon that kind of business plan. A highly-branded band that makes their money from concerts, t-shirt sales, posters, cross-endorsement, etc., can produce a bigger profit, so you might see more emphasis on that kind of promotion. (In fact, I would say this may have already happened.)
Obviously, distribution methods will change and have changed, but what's more interesting is how the content itself of our media will be affected. Perhaps Hollywood will find that smaller-budget niche films are more easily able to make a profit among diehard fans, and spend its resources toward those kinds of films. Or maybe it will put more gimmickry into theatrical releases of Big Blockbuster movies---like it's been doing with the whole 3D craze. You have to wonder.
Keep in mind that none of this is meant to say *anything* about the moral implications of piracy. I don't really have an opinion as to whether it's right or wrong, but we don't have to make that kind of determination in order to evaluate its impact.
Oh come on, Flamebait? I was just teasing.
I think it does in aggregate. I know that for plenty of things I've pirated, I've ended up generating revenue for the people involved. For instance, I pirate a lot of books. If I like a book and it's something I think I'll want later, I'll go out and buy the dead tree version. I watch BSG on Hulu nowadays and generate ad revenue for the show (and when I have money I'll buy it on DVD), but I would never have gotten into it if I had started watching broadcasts in the third season. (Who's the woman in the red dress? What's a "frakking toaster"?)
Again, I'm perfectly aware of the fact that piracy exerts a net negative force on media producers, and that for everything I can think of that got money from me because of piracy, there are a gazillion things I might have bought but didn't. But it's not *entirely* bad for them, assuming the work is quality.
1) WOTDR
2) No, for most people, it's really about free as in beer. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that for the most part, people would literally prefer free beer over free speech.
"Hey, I'll give you a free beer if you shut the fuck up about politics."
"Sounds great!"
the 25.000.000 worldwide
Like in America, where we use commas to separate numeric digits!
(I know, I know, stop imperializing the poor peoples of the world consigned to those crazy, newfangled ideas like the metric system.)
Because no one will ever suspect that the guy with the advanced degree, antisocial personality disorder, questionable source of income, and miraculous discovery of "the real hackers," would have had anything to do with it.
My roommate has a rat terrier.
Stay the fuck away from those dogs! Cats are much easier to herd, literally and figuratively. I assure you, it's better to deal with the rats.
Mine don't either. The other day I wrote a very long drunken email to my father ranting about IE standards compliance. He finally told me he'd switch, probably just to shut me up.
But hey, if that's what it takes....
I was watching television about a month ago with my grandfather, who is pushing eighty. One of the public service announcements about the switch came on.
"Is there anyone who seriously hasn't seen this commercial a hundred times already?" my grandfather asked. "I don't see why they keep playing them."
Conclusion: if you're old enough that you haven't noticed that analog television isn't going to work any more, you probably don't know the difference between regularly-scheduled programming and white noise.
I used to get that way talking to foreigners about Bush.
Me: "I freaking hate George Bush."
Them: "Yeah, how could the Americans actually elect such a loser?"
Me: "Hey, watch it, fool! America is awesome!"
Wrong on all 3.
a) "Bunch" is singular. That is one bunch of bananas.
b) I shouldn't have to explain this, but in said bunch, there are ones, and there are zeros. A single bit is a one or a zero; multiple bits, each of which is either a one or a zero, provide a set of that contains both ones and zeros. (Assuming that there is at least 1 one and 1 zero in a given set. If the set were all ones or all zeros, then it would indeed be correct to call it a set of "ones or zeros.")
c) Spellcheck should provide the insight on this one.
Or, as is common in experiments with rats, they could simply be asked to remember how to get to the Cheetos.
Lack of Funding for Free Software (Score: 5, Insightful)
by twitter_sockpuppet on Tuesday, April 14 @6:03PM
Where are the appropriations for GNU/Linux? I see a number of tax breaks for big businesses, such as Micro$soft, but no tax breaks for promoting free software. Apparently the US government is only concerned with making money for Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, etc.
----->Re: Lack of Funding for Free Software
by another_twitter_sockpuppet on Tuesday, April 14 @6:07PM
You speak the truth. I can tell that you are a wise and good person, with an above-average IQ. I am also awesome, and would like to be your friend, as would everyone else who is awesome.
I had to actually check to make sure that there was ever such a product as "Microsoft Train Simulator."
"Microsoft Train Simulator brings the power and excitement of some of the world's most famous trains to your PC, placing you in the role of engineer or passenger with unprecedented realism, exciting real-world rail challenges, and the tools to recreate almost any railroad experience in the world."
My God. Riding an actual train is boring enough. People bring books for that. But actually seeking out a simulated bored-on-a-train experience, for your leisure time? Just get a damn book.
I remember talking to an Iranian roommate of mine, and I mentioned that it seemed like the main gist of the nuclear program was nuclear power.
He started laughing out loud.
a) Prick
b) Empirical studies show that outsourcing isn't really a big deal.
c) No, if they outsource, they just outsource to China/WTFistan instead.
And for political reasons I'd prefer that if they do outsource, they outsource to India.
Shush! He's our president! You don't get to have him!
"I did NOT willfully download child pornography. My Windows operating system hijacked my computer, downloaded the material, and brought it up in Internet Explorer every day between 6 and 10 PM on weekdays, and between 7 AM and 10 PM on weekends, holidays, and days I had sick leave."
Not to point out the obvious, but you are hiring college-educated kids to work at a tech firm.
You must be aware that most people who use computers are not "implementing various solutions." Of course computer science majors know something about Unix. One would expect philosophy majors to know something about Kant. Most people don't spend much time evaluating the Categorical Imperative.
I'm 23. In elementary school, all of my school's computers were Macs. (Once we got Macs---we still had a room full of old Apple IIs.) In middle school, we had a few Windows computers in the library, but the labs and the classroom computers were all Macs. I don't remember seeing a single Mac in high school. The computers I've seen at my university have all been Windows (although the servers are from Sun), but I rarely use them and haven't looked around much.I bet if I went back to my old elementary and middle schools, all of the computers there would be running XP.
I think it's just a function of Apple. They gave a lot of discounts to schools back in the day, so that's what the schools adopted. I don't know whether they continued this program or not. I don't know what kind of deals Microsoft/OEMs were offering at the time. I'm sure it was largely a function of cash. And also: when it became obvious that most students and faculty were using Windows all the time outside of school---e.g., that Microsoft had definitively won and Apple was irrelevant (I am, of course, speaking historically), then from a practical educational standpoint, it only made sense to use Windows machines.
That point is important. It may be the case that Linux would save schools money. But if the schools' only interest were saving money, they wouldn't have computers at all---or they'd still be using those old Apple IIs from my elementary. If you can use one operating system, it is (and should be) Windows. For younger students, the school's objective is to teach computer literacy, so they want to have Windows computers. For older students, the school's objective is to use them as a tool and not have to worry about showing the classroom idiot how to use GNOME, so they want to have Windows computers. If Linux were widely used on the desktop, then schools would have no problem switching---but that's a chicken-and-egg problem.
My name is Steve, I run a company that makes a product that competes with Flash, and I approve this message.
They already are, if you're a BSG fan.
Because they send it out so that everything that's left is good and holy. ;-)