And what does music CD's have to do with MPAA? Nothing.
"The MPAA said the information detected by the free program would not be shared with it or any other body, but could be used to remove any 'infringing movies or music files' and remove file sharing programs."
Apparently the MPAA software will look for movie and music files. Maybe this software will be done jointly with the RIAA, maybe not. Just going by what the article says.
Somebody at the MPAA must be crazy if this is true.
So this program, presumably similar to what they use to find movies and music, is actually available to everyone? So, for example, I can "check" "my" drive for any "illegal" music or movies? I've ripped most of my CDs onto my hard-drive. Of course the MPAA doesn't know if I own those CDs (they would have to prove I do not), but I will gladly direct them to the boxes downstairs where I keep all the jewel cases (for the record, since file-sharing, my music purchasing has gone from 1-2 CDs per month to 3-4 CDs per week).
Other people might use the program as "insurance" to make sure they are safe from any one tracking them.
As I don't have anything to hide, I would not mind using that program. Rest assured I would do my best to make sure information isn't being sent somewhere (custom host file? firewall? who knows).
So, my guess is I am the anomaly and would actually not mind downloading that software and trying it out.
Probably completely unrelated, and Googling has found similar complaints across all recent MS OSs, but I keep getting errors and/or corruption in the MS Kernel for Audio, to the point where, even after multiple re-installations of sound hardware, the device manager shows my hardware "working" but that never translates into applications having working sound. Makes it just a bit tough for me.
I know that most of SP2 were security changes/ The (pre-SP2) migration to Firefox means I don't really see those changes too often. I do have to say that for the installed userbase I am familiar with (coworkers in the offices), SP2 seems to be a bit more robust, but only time will tell.
Makes me cry
on
The Music Man
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
From the article, this guy (or his wife) is apparently well-off (or in debt). Either way, he seems to be spending a lot of time because he's worried that "whether or not [we] know it" we are in fact "in the middle of World War 3" right now.
So not only is this guy incredibly ill-informed regarding current political events, he thinks the best use of his money and time is to spend it collecting all possible recorded music.
If he was really concerned about the state of the world, he would be doing more than sipping Grand Marnier and downloading the latest Chingy remix.
What? I won't stand this unfounded adulation towards these "Dark Elf Shadowknights" and what have you. Let them match their worthless warriors against DocutronXP, my level 48 Hunter Strangler, hailing from the Land of Enchantment & Good Prices on Leather Sofas. You have never met a more brave and stunning Enchanted Motorcycle. Foes cower at my Level XXXVIII Clever Fellow. Those not vanquished by my level XXII Lockjaw will succumb to the one-two punch of my level XIX Animate Nightstnad and/or a Rabbit Punch from my +25 Custom Studded Titanium Gauntlets.
To put that in perspective, the Internet has less than half as much data, according to experts.'
How the hell can they estimate that? Assuming "less than half" means about 45%, that gives us about 207 TB. Let's just round that up to 240.148445 TB to make it a nice, even number.
Google is searching 8,058,044,651 "webpages"* -- who knows what that means. Now, Google isn't searching every single page on the internet, certainly. But also, they can't be searching pages that don't exist. So the 8bn Google pages aren't certainly all the internet. But Google isn't double or triple counting pages. Still, at 240.148445 TB (my rough estimate), we come up with a page size of exactly> 32KB per page.**
Is this just counting the text? The code for this page right here (comments.pl) weighs in at about 14KB. Wal-Mart, in no way, has twice as much info as the internet. I would say the "internet" should be measured in at least petabytes. Archive.org itself already has 1PB, and I consider any of that content available to me "on the internet".
* I'm not even counting the Google cache. * Which means Mr. Gates over-estimated by a factor of 20 when considering how much memory we all needed!
I know. I'm getting tired of hearing about the same insecure, overrated, virus-filled, money-hungry useless piece of crap without any redeeming qualities.
I'm sure I'll get tired of hearing about Microsoft too.
On any machine I install Firefox, I name the link on the desktop "Internet" and delete the "Internet Explorer" -- if someone really wants to use IE they can. Just don't delete IE completely so non-Firefox sites can still be accessed.
Except that there ARE sites that do not work with Firefox and you NEED Internet Explorer. I would be sure to report you to your supervisor, the administration, etc. for making life so difficult. I love Firefox, I don't like IE, but your elitism is pig-headed and arrogant, at least until 100.00000% of sites work with Firefox.
There's still a couple of webpages I use for work which *only* work with IE. The bad part is, it's affecting my ability to recommend migration because those 2-3 sites are 50% of the sites that work uses. It has to do with some piece of JavaScript which Firefox doesn't recognize regarding dropdowns with, I believe, HierMenu. I can't show any examples because the pages aren't public. Being a proud user of FF but basically knowing zilch about Moz, is that something that can be brought up to them? If so, how? I did some searching on Google but couldn't find anything. Enlighten me, if possible.
Knights of the Grand Turismo Solid Halo-Life 2 Forever
Just remember. Online play for KOTGSHL2F will come out in Grand Turismo Solid Halo-Life 2 Forever: Online, which will come a year or so later after "when it's done".
Re:Gamers taking day off from work
on
Halo 2 Released
·
· Score: 1
Three percent of my employer's staff (well, three out of about one hundred) took vacation today in order to play Halo 2 all night. Now that's intense.
You misspelled
'incredibly dorky'.
You mispelled, "On the list for next round of layoffs."
It makes sense. iD is a small niche studio which by all accounts is at the top of their game. Dreamworks, however, is now going to face increased competition not only from Pixar, which will now be flush with cash and little creative restrictions, as well as Disney. They need all the help they can get.
Good, I was hoping I could speak out somewhere about this. HBO's forums were not accessible. I need to release my opinion on this, as not doing so would create some sort of cancerous growth within me. That and I just had my third double espresso...
I never pre-ordered Halo 2. I just think the idea of pre-ordering a game is ridiculous, as real shortages almost never appear. So I sat here counting down the time last night all the time while being accosted. "Oh, I bet you can't wait for the nerd convention!" "Hug the first guy dressed as Master Chief!" My local video game retailer (Rhymes with "GameStop") was opening at "12:01" to sell the game. Now, I'm sort of in the middle of nowhere, so I didn't expect a lot of crowds as there were other ritzier stores also selling the game probably with like chips and soda and balloons. But this store was about half a mile away so I could deal with not having the fanfare. At about 11:30 I decided I would swing by the parking lot to see if there was a line, and, if not, get some groceries from the supermarket.
Well, there's a line. There were about 100-150 people all single-file, wrapping around the corner of the shopping center. What surprised me is that they were almost all kids. I'm not saying "kids" like how old people say it (i.e. 'under 40'), I'm talking about 18 and under boys, many not accompanied by their parents but rather a hoodie and a pack of Camels trying to stay warm in the November cold. From talking with others in the line I find out most of the crowd got there by 8pm, with a few bringing chairs and camping out at 5:30pm earlier. They had been sitting there for six HOURS. Purely unnecessary, as you will soon find out.
At about 11:40 one of the frightened employees came out and told us to form two lines. One would go to the right and was reserved for "VIPs" -- that is, people who had pre-ordered and paid in full. Anyone that did not order or pay in full can form a new line to the left.
Well, the line on the left was me and about 4 other guys. By 11:45 I was leaning against the window of the store, about a yard away from the entrace. One of the VIPs who had been there since 5:30 as it turns out, was a Mom from Maryland (next state over, lots of people coming from Maryland) who was there with her children and apparently all her children's friends. She was talking about Halo 2 and Marathon and a bunch of games you don't hear outside of Penny Arcade's front page, in general. Then she handed out Mountain Dews. (Now, as "cool" as this "cool mom" is, I still don't understand why so many schoolkids were out here so late -- at best I can hope there was a strict 1/2am curfew for them. I really hope none of them got a "sick day" the next day).
At 12:02 or so, the doors opened, they let in about 20 VIPs who formed a line to the right of the store. The line on the left, my line, further split itself into two -- partial preorders and no preorders. I was now 2nd in line. Apprently, I wasn't the only one having no pre-orders because the credit card systems were incredibly slow. I can imagine there were thousands and thousands of requests suddenly coming in to the processing centers here in Delaware (Hello, MBNA/BankOne/Chase cardholders!). At 12:06, I had the "Limited Edition" version in hand ($5 for a neat-looking case and a DVD with filler isn't highway robbery). By 12:10 I was home. I dusted off my Xbox and played for the next three hours.
Like any true geek, the first thing I did was configure my player and options.
And here I ask the question, were Bungie's QA testers on Quaaludes??? For serious. I saw more build/clipping/texture errors in the first 10 minutes of Halo 2 than I ever saw building levels on UnrealEd. Models popping in and out of focus (What's this, the N64 version?). Brushes/BSP errors. Textures "flickering" to and from the background. Textures switching from "hi" to "medium" quality (mipmapping, I believ
This article is an opinion piece. That means that the opinion expressed therein does not reflect the opinions of CBS, Major League Baseball, or Sane People.
While it's not an opinion given directly by CBS, it is appearing on their website, which means they either (1) approve it or (2) think it important to be discussed. The fact that (2) is wildly skewed towards CBS basically means that CBS approved the message.
To take it to an extreme, imagine that the opinion piece said "Jews Cost Kerry the Election!" CBS couldn't say, "Hey! That's not our viewpoint." because they put in on their website (this is not the same as CNN not realizing someone renamed a Bush picture file a--hole.jpg). Whether or not the opinion came from CBS (and at this point we're talking semantics, as CBS is an entity and can never be a single person), CBS is still responsible for it.
Perhaps a more accurate headline would've been "CBS's Engberg Sees No Journalism in Blogs"
My guess is their intention is not to have 4 units so each can regain profitability (which would be nice) but to maybe funnel some of the expenses towards one or two units.*
What expenses? I don't know, the half a billion dollar legal defense fund they've set up. Which as an aside, is kind of a fucking stupid idea. It's like walking into a Mercedes dealer with a check for $150,000 and saying "What can I get?" ("Why, sir, this luxury edition E-class has so much more eagle. It saddens me to think of you missing out."). I predict the lawyer's fees will be around $500m. Bravo, smartasses.
Another part of me** thinks that all they're doing is separating these units so they can be separated into companies to not only avoid any anti-trust legislation but also to sell said company after, oh, inflating profits and reaping a tidy sum for AOLTW share-holders. Basically, let someone else worry about it. I will leave the charting of "???" and "Profit!" to somebody else.
* IANSGAAP.**** ** The part filled with the creamy nougat filling of reckless greed. *** See above Times Online link. **** I Am Not Sure of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
Considering that about 12-13 million people are regularly tuning in every week to see pointless pastiche like "Two and a Half Men" and "Survivor! VANUATU!!!" I'd say that lowest common denominator media has a long way to go before it's dead. Also, it's great that things like these will give voice to bright new talent, but that's the thing, it has to be bright new talent. Just because you've got an XL2 and a working knowledge of Premiere doesn't mean you're going to make anything I'd like to see.
However, I am a very strong believer that porn is the quickest adopter of anything in media. Considering that the adult industry's monopoly is headed by a few big players (Vivid Video, Hustler as well, I presume), there's still a lot, a lot, and I mean, A LOT of adult amateur* content on the web. Still, the monopolies exist. However, the cheap barrier to entry (a digital camera, $1000, and some desperate women {PG-13 work safe}) has created interesting new developments that "old media" probably couldn't have thought of, i.e. BangBus and all the other gimmicky gonzo websites.
So my guess is we'll be seeing a lot of this coming up.
I really really really want the word "blog" to die very soon. All that it has done is let people express their opinion, and, by capturing 0.000000002% to 0.0000004% of the world's attention (that is 15 to 3000 people), they think they're some sort of vanguard. No, I'm not interested in your "regional bands" or the fact that your condo is falling apart. I could care less what the "blogosphere" thinks. All this is doing is increasing the signal:noise ratio.
That being said, I do not have, nor ever want, a blog. The closest I can come to accepting a blog is the occasional Penny Arcade post, but that's not really similar to a blog at all.
I also break out in hives whenever anyone uses the word "blogosphere" -- as if all the world's idiocy could be contained in an area of (4/3 pi r^3).
Now, for those of you who just love blogs, and have a fair number of/. Friends should check out: My Amigos which is just a list of all the recent journal entries on any of your/. Friends.
Sigh.
Re:Convert friends - add top 10 reasons for FF her
on
Firefox 1.0 Released
·
· Score: 1
9. Price
Firefox is free! Free to download, free to share. It is being provided by a not-for-profit organization.
You're describing the retail cycle. It's been going on for the past couple of hundred years. Don't mean to troll, but there will never be "one" way to sell something.
This happened to me. When the Xbox version of GTA came out they had games reserved in the back for people who bought an Xbox and accessories and the warranty, "Hey, you know, I think we might have a copy or two of that hot new game out."
This was with GTA being heavily advertised in their circular.
Luckily I have a cadre of associates I know who work at Best Buy so they were not only able to get that for me, but they had also held a Dreamcast for me ($49!) and they accepted a "misprice" on a DVD rack that basically gave me $50 off.
I remember my first experience with being asked to get an extended warranty at (now defunct) American Appliance. I went in before college to get a 13" Sharp TV/VCR combo for the very aggreeable price of $139. I remember this very clearly...
As I carry the little guy to the register:
Salesman: "Is that all for you today?" Me: "Yup." Salesman: "Have you heard about our extended warranty which will cover product failure?" Me: "Nope." Salesman: "Well, when the product breaks, this warranty-" Me: "Oh nevermind, I don't want this TV if it's going to break on me suddenly. I thought I could buy a quality product here." Salesman: "Oh no, it's quality product. See, if the remote breaks, that's $79 right there! We'd replace it if you lose it. The warranty is only $50 so it pays for itself." Me: "Can I get the TV without the remote just for $60?" Salesman: "Uhh, no." Me: "But I can get a generic remote for $9 from one of your competitors, and that's still cheaper..." Salesman: "Ok sir that will be $139."
At some point during one of my many moves the TV stopped working*. Technically, it would continually go up in channels regardless of what you instructed it to do. Having no extended warranty at this point, I wasn't bummed. (American Appliance had since gone out of business and was being liquidated. Some company was selling their computer inventory at a 10% discount from 1993 prices. We're talking $199 *Quad-Speed* CD-ROM drives on "sale"). I took a $3.99 toe nail clipper and wedged it into the TV through one of the front buttons. Being impervious to death by electrocution, I suffered no harm and automagically repaired my TV. The next time I moved, when I took the toe nail clipper out, it no longer switched channels by itself anymore. I was disappointed, as I had been looking forward to my monthly toe clipping time, by which I could channel surf without needing to do anything.
Slashdot Mirror
"The MPAA said the information detected by the free program would not be shared with it or any other body, but could be used to remove any 'infringing movies or music files' and remove file sharing programs."
Apparently the MPAA software will look for movie and music files. Maybe this software will be done jointly with the RIAA, maybe not. Just going by what the article says.
Somebody at the MPAA must be crazy if this is true.
So this program, presumably similar to what they use to find movies and music, is actually available to everyone? So, for example, I can "check" "my" drive for any "illegal" music or movies? I've ripped most of my CDs onto my hard-drive. Of course the MPAA doesn't know if I own those CDs (they would have to prove I do not), but I will gladly direct them to the boxes downstairs where I keep all the jewel cases (for the record, since file-sharing, my music purchasing has gone from 1-2 CDs per month to 3-4 CDs per week).
Other people might use the program as "insurance" to make sure they are safe from any one tracking them.
As I don't have anything to hide, I would not mind using that program. Rest assured I would do my best to make sure information isn't being sent somewhere (custom host file? firewall? who knows).
So, my guess is I am the anomaly and would actually not mind downloading that software and trying it out.
Probably completely unrelated, and Googling has found similar complaints across all recent MS OSs, but I keep getting errors and/or corruption in the MS Kernel for Audio, to the point where, even after multiple re-installations of sound hardware, the device manager shows my hardware "working" but that never translates into applications having working sound. Makes it just a bit tough for me.
I know that most of SP2 were security changes/ The (pre-SP2) migration to Firefox means I don't really see those changes too often. I do have to say that for the installed userbase I am familiar with (coworkers in the offices), SP2 seems to be a bit more robust, but only time will tell.
Google text-only cache of the article
From the article, this guy (or his wife) is apparently well-off (or in debt). Either way, he seems to be spending a lot of time because he's worried that "whether or not [we] know it" we are in fact "in the middle of World War 3" right now.
So not only is this guy incredibly ill-informed regarding current political events, he thinks the best use of his money and time is to spend it collecting all possible recorded music.
If he was really concerned about the state of the world, he would be doing more than sipping Grand Marnier and downloading the latest Chingy remix.
What? I won't stand this unfounded adulation towards these "Dark Elf Shadowknights" and what have you. Let them match their worthless warriors against DocutronXP, my level 48 Hunter Strangler, hailing from the Land of Enchantment & Good Prices on Leather Sofas. You have never met a more brave and stunning Enchanted Motorcycle. Foes cower at my Level XXXVIII Clever Fellow. Those not vanquished by my level XXII Lockjaw will succumb to the one-two punch of my level XIX Animate Nightstnad and/or a Rabbit Punch from my +25 Custom Studded Titanium Gauntlets.
How the hell can they estimate that? Assuming "less than half" means about 45%, that gives us about 207 TB. Let's just round that up to 240.148445 TB to make it a nice, even number.
Google is searching 8,058,044,651 "webpages"* -- who knows what that means. Now, Google isn't searching every single page on the internet, certainly. But also, they can't be searching pages that don't exist. So the 8bn Google pages aren't certainly all the internet. But Google isn't double or triple counting pages. Still, at 240.148445 TB (my rough estimate), we come up with a page size of exactly> 32KB per page.**
Is this just counting the text? The code for this page right here (comments.pl) weighs in at about 14KB. Wal-Mart, in no way, has twice as much info as the internet. I would say the "internet" should be measured in at least petabytes. Archive.org itself already has 1PB, and I consider any of that content available to me "on the internet".
* I'm not even counting the Google cache.
* Which means Mr. Gates over-estimated by a factor of 20 when considering how much memory we all needed!
I know. I'm getting tired of hearing about the same insecure, overrated, virus-filled, money-hungry useless piece of crap without any redeeming qualities.
I'm sure I'll get tired of hearing about Microsoft too.
On any machine I install Firefox, I name the link on the desktop "Internet" and delete the "Internet Explorer" -- if someone really wants to use IE they can. Just don't delete IE completely so non-Firefox sites can still be accessed.
Except that there ARE sites that do not work with Firefox and you NEED Internet Explorer. I would be sure to report you to your supervisor, the administration, etc. for making life so difficult. I love Firefox, I don't like IE, but your elitism is pig-headed and arrogant, at least until 100.00000% of sites work with Firefox.
There's still a couple of webpages I use for work which *only* work with IE. The bad part is, it's affecting my ability to recommend migration because those 2-3 sites are 50% of the sites that work uses. It has to do with some piece of JavaScript which Firefox doesn't recognize regarding dropdowns with, I believe, HierMenu. I can't show any examples because the pages aren't public. Being a proud user of FF but basically knowing zilch about Moz, is that something that can be brought up to them? If so, how? I did some searching on Google but couldn't find anything. Enlighten me, if possible.
If HBO's OZ has taught me anything...
... I'd be afraid.
1. Commit crime
2. Go to prison
3. ????
4. Gay sex!
Unless you're a chick. But with a name like "Barlo Mung"
Knights of the Grand Turismo Solid Halo-Life 2 Forever
Just remember. Online play for KOTGSHL2F will come out in Grand Turismo Solid Halo-Life 2 Forever: Online, which will come a year or so later after "when it's done".
You mispelled, "On the list for next round of layoffs."
It makes sense. iD is a small niche studio which by all accounts is at the top of their game. Dreamworks, however, is now going to face increased competition not only from Pixar, which will now be flush with cash and little creative restrictions, as well as Disney. They need all the help they can get.
Good, I was hoping I could speak out somewhere about this. HBO's forums were not accessible. I need to release my opinion on this, as not doing so would create some sort of cancerous growth within me. That and I just had my third double espresso...
I never pre-ordered Halo 2. I just think the idea of pre-ordering a game is ridiculous, as real shortages almost never appear. So I sat here counting down the time last night all the time while being accosted. "Oh, I bet you can't wait for the nerd convention!" "Hug the first guy dressed as Master Chief!" My local video game retailer (Rhymes with "GameStop") was opening at "12:01" to sell the game. Now, I'm sort of in the middle of nowhere, so I didn't expect a lot of crowds as there were other ritzier stores also selling the game probably with like chips and soda and balloons. But this store was about half a mile away so I could deal with not having the fanfare. At about 11:30 I decided I would swing by the parking lot to see if there was a line, and, if not, get some groceries from the supermarket.
Well, there's a line. There were about 100-150 people all single-file, wrapping around the corner of the shopping center. What surprised me is that they were almost all kids. I'm not saying "kids" like how old people say it (i.e. 'under 40'), I'm talking about 18 and under boys, many not accompanied by their parents but rather a hoodie and a pack of Camels trying to stay warm in the November cold. From talking with others in the line I find out most of the crowd got there by 8pm, with a few bringing chairs and camping out at 5:30pm earlier. They had been sitting there for six HOURS. Purely unnecessary, as you will soon find out.
At about 11:40 one of the frightened employees came out and told us to form two lines. One would go to the right and was reserved for "VIPs" -- that is, people who had pre-ordered and paid in full. Anyone that did not order or pay in full can form a new line to the left.
Well, the line on the left was me and about 4 other guys. By 11:45 I was leaning against the window of the store, about a yard away from the entrace. One of the VIPs who had been there since 5:30 as it turns out, was a Mom from Maryland (next state over, lots of people coming from Maryland) who was there with her children and apparently all her children's friends. She was talking about Halo 2 and Marathon and a bunch of games you don't hear outside of Penny Arcade's front page, in general. Then she handed out Mountain Dews. (Now, as "cool" as this "cool mom" is, I still don't understand why so many schoolkids were out here so late -- at best I can hope there was a strict 1/2am curfew for them. I really hope none of them got a "sick day" the next day).
At 12:02 or so, the doors opened, they let in about 20 VIPs who formed a line to the right of the store. The line on the left, my line, further split itself into two -- partial preorders and no preorders. I was now 2nd in line. Apprently, I wasn't the only one having no pre-orders because the credit card systems were incredibly slow. I can imagine there were thousands and thousands of requests suddenly coming in to the processing centers here in Delaware (Hello, MBNA/BankOne/Chase cardholders!). At 12:06, I had the "Limited Edition" version in hand ($5 for a neat-looking case and a DVD with filler isn't highway robbery). By 12:10 I was home. I dusted off my Xbox and played for the next three hours.
Like any true geek, the first thing I did was configure my player and options.
Disclaimers: Mild game-quality, non-plot spoilers ahead!
And here I ask the question, were Bungie's QA testers on Quaaludes??? For serious. I saw more build/clipping/texture errors in the first 10 minutes of Halo 2 than I ever saw building levels on UnrealEd. Models popping in and out of focus (What's this, the N64 version?). Brushes/BSP errors. Textures "flickering" to and from the background. Textures switching from "hi" to "medium" quality (mipmapping, I believ
While it's not an opinion given directly by CBS, it is appearing on their website, which means they either (1) approve it or (2) think it important to be discussed. The fact that (2) is wildly skewed towards CBS basically means that CBS approved the message.
To take it to an extreme, imagine that the opinion piece said "Jews Cost Kerry the Election!" CBS couldn't say, "Hey! That's not our viewpoint." because they put in on their website (this is not the same as CNN not realizing someone renamed a Bush picture file a--hole.jpg). Whether or not the opinion came from CBS (and at this point we're talking semantics, as CBS is an entity and can never be a single person), CBS is still responsible for it.
Perhaps a more accurate headline would've been "CBS's Engberg Sees No Journalism in Blogs"
My guess is their intention is not to have 4 units so each can regain profitability (which would be nice) but to maybe funnel some of the expenses towards one or two units.*
What expenses? I don't know, the half a billion dollar legal defense fund they've set up. Which as an aside, is kind of a fucking stupid idea. It's like walking into a Mercedes dealer with a check for $150,000 and saying "What can I get?" ("Why, sir, this luxury edition E-class has so much more eagle. It saddens me to think of you missing out."). I predict the lawyer's fees will be around $500m. Bravo, smartasses.
Another part of me** thinks that all they're doing is separating these units so they can be separated into companies to not only avoid any anti-trust legislation but also to sell said company after, oh, inflating profits and reaping a tidy sum for AOLTW share-holders. Basically, let someone else worry about it. I will leave the charting of "???" and "Profit!" to somebody else.
* IANSGAAP.****
** The part filled with the creamy nougat filling of reckless greed.
*** See above Times Online link.
**** I Am Not Sure of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
I, for one, welcome our new 97X, bam! The future of rock 'n' roll! overlords.
In Soviet Russia, overlords welcomed you on January 12, 1965. Very snowy that day. 12.2 inches of snow that day.
Considering that about 12-13 million people are regularly tuning in every week to see pointless pastiche like "Two and a Half Men" and "Survivor! VANUATU!!!" I'd say that lowest common denominator media has a long way to go before it's dead. Also, it's great that things like these will give voice to bright new talent, but that's the thing, it has to be bright new talent. Just because you've got an XL2 and a working knowledge of Premiere doesn't mean you're going to make anything I'd like to see.
However, I am a very strong believer that porn is the quickest adopter of anything in media. Considering that the adult industry's monopoly is headed by a few big players (Vivid Video, Hustler as well, I presume), there's still a lot, a lot, and I mean, A LOT of adult amateur* content on the web. Still, the monopolies exist. However, the cheap barrier to entry (a digital camera, $1000, and some desperate women {PG-13 work safe}) has created interesting new developments that "old media" probably couldn't have thought of, i.e. BangBus and all the other gimmicky gonzo websites.
So my guess is we'll be seeing a lot of this coming up.
* Literally.
I really really really want the word "blog" to die very soon. All that it has done is let people express their opinion, and, by capturing 0.000000002% to 0.0000004% of the world's attention (that is 15 to 3000 people), they think they're some sort of vanguard. No, I'm not interested in your "regional bands" or the fact that your condo is falling apart. I could care less what the "blogosphere" thinks. All this is doing is increasing the signal:noise ratio.
/. Friends should check out: My Amigos which is just a list of all the recent journal entries on any of your /. Friends.
That being said, I do not have, nor ever want, a blog. The closest I can come to accepting a blog is the occasional Penny Arcade post, but that's not really similar to a blog at all.
I also break out in hives whenever anyone uses the word "blogosphere" -- as if all the world's idiocy could be contained in an area of (4/3 pi r^3).
Now, for those of you who just love blogs, and have a fair number of
Sigh.
9. Price
Firefox is free! Free to download, free to share. It is being provided by a not-for-profit organization.
This sounds interesting until you realize you can replace your words with any of the following:
- market / supermarket
- Sears & Roebuck catalogue
- QVC
- Amazon.com
- Caldor
You're describing the retail cycle. It's been going on for the past couple of hundred years. Don't mean to troll, but there will never be "one" way to sell something.
This happened to me. When the Xbox version of GTA came out they had games reserved in the back for people who bought an Xbox and accessories and the warranty, "Hey, you know, I think we might have a copy or two of that hot new game out."
This was with GTA being heavily advertised in their circular.
Luckily I have a cadre of associates I know who work at Best Buy so they were not only able to get that for me, but they had also held a Dreamcast for me ($49!) and they accepted a "misprice" on a DVD rack that basically gave me $50 off.
I remember my first experience with being asked to get an extended warranty at (now defunct) American Appliance. I went in before college to get a 13" Sharp TV/VCR combo for the very aggreeable price of $139. I remember this very clearly...
As I carry the little guy to the register:
Salesman: "Is that all for you today?"
Me: "Yup."
Salesman: "Have you heard about our extended warranty which will cover product failure?"
Me: "Nope."
Salesman: "Well, when the product breaks, this warranty-"
Me: "Oh nevermind, I don't want this TV if it's going to break on me suddenly. I thought I could buy a quality product here."
Salesman: "Oh no, it's quality product. See, if the remote breaks, that's $79 right there! We'd replace it if you lose it. The warranty is only $50 so it pays for itself."
Me: "Can I get the TV without the remote just for $60?"
Salesman: "Uhh, no."
Me: "But I can get a generic remote for $9 from one of your competitors, and that's still cheaper..."
Salesman: "Ok sir that will be $139."
At some point during one of my many moves the TV stopped working*. Technically, it would continually go up in channels regardless of what you instructed it to do. Having no extended warranty at this point, I wasn't bummed. (American Appliance had since gone out of business and was being liquidated. Some company was selling their computer inventory at a 10% discount from 1993 prices. We're talking $199 *Quad-Speed* CD-ROM drives on "sale"). I took a $3.99 toe nail clipper and wedged it into the TV through one of the front buttons. Being impervious to death by electrocution, I suffered no harm and automagically repaired my TV. The next time I moved, when I took the toe nail clipper out, it no longer switched channels by itself anymore. I was disappointed, as I had been looking forward to my monthly toe clipping time, by which I could channel surf without needing to do anything.
I didn't know you made that much money working at Taco Bell.