I don't see it becoming a wide spread use item in most of the US. In affluent, tech savvy populations...significantly more possible than in rural, less affluent areas. For the stores, this is primarily a cost-cutting measure, allowing them to reduce the number of workers on the floor, while shuffling the workload to the consumer without providing the consumer much benefit aside from the mimetic "time saving" of checkout.
For consumers, like the commenter above (and myself at times), who bring their own bags, and have a very zen packing method that means the tomatoes don't end up under the five pound bag of rice, this sort of thing would be a time saver for small trips, but I don't see it providing much benefit on those "stock up the pantry, feeding a house of teenager" shopping trips where you're lucky to get out with one cart.
In addition, I have never been in a store with self-checkout lanes that didn't have at least one very frustrated consumer trying to get the machine to work. I've seen those lines stand empty, while checkout lines with have 10+ carts lined up.
I've used these little cart checkout things in Europe, and they work fine. But the average American consumer is not the average big city European, any more than a farmer in Southern Italy is like a Manhattanite. To expect that technocracy and lack of personal service is going to make inroads in places like the Deep South or the Midwest is to fail to understand the demographic or the culture from which the demographic arises.
Re:Warning: Coffee contains DHMO
on
Death by Coffee?
·
· Score: 1
You know what cracks me up? The sheer volume of people that are still falling for this gag. Sometimes the stupidity of others just makes me giggle.:)
I just bought BI a month ago, and I got hit with Witty too...except I had no idea what was going on...I walked away from my system, and when I came back, it was virtually locked up, with 98% system resources allocated to blackd.exe.
I thought that was pretty weird, but didn't really think about it...and rebooted the machine. It booted back up, I restarted the processes I had going before the freeze, and walked away again...when I returned, same thing...system was virtually locked, and Blackd.exe was hogging all the resources.
I couldn't turn BI off at the task manager, or from the system tray...so, I rebooted. (I swear, my poor Alienware has been rebooted more times in the last 24 hours than it has in it's entire life.)
This time, it wouldn't boot. Well, wouldn't boot past the bios and hardware screen...then it would just reboot itself again...over and over.
I was able to boot from an Alienware recovery CD...and it appears that my files are all still intact...but somehow, I seem to have XP installed twice now. When I boot, I have a list of Windows installations to choose from.
If I choose the first one, it goes to a vanilla xp install...but you can still browse to the files and applications that were installed prior to the worm. If I choose the second option on the list, it boots to the windows install I had before...I have no idea what the heck I've done, to be completely honest.:)
I've mirrored all my data, on the assumption that I may have to fdisk and start again...but I'm just going to avoid doing that for as long as possible.
Actually, Lee is a friend of mine...and he used to be my editor at ChipCenter, before ChipCenter set all of us free. He did work at NASA, he swears the story is true, he's never lied to me before, ergo, I believe him.:)
I dunno, I've gotten so weary of commercial radio that I almost never listen to anything but CD's anyway. And remember when cable TV was introduced and the big motivation for paying for it was so that you got broadcasts without commercials? That didn't last too long...and now consumers can pay up to $100.00 a month for cable that consists of more advertising than is allowed by law on network channels.
So, I don't really believe the non-commercial aspect, at least not once they get a big enough subscriber base.
And reviewing the available channels, it seems to me that it would be easier and cheaper to just buy CD's. At $12.00 a pop for a new CD, you could buy 35 CD's of music you want to hear instead of constantly flipping through another 100 channels of crap.
And as a matter of fact, I was wrong. I misunderstood what an expert told me. He was using Deep Blue to illustrate a principle, when I thought he was saying that Deep Blue actually used those theories.
I have since been disabused of the concept that Deep Blue has any AI. It doesn't, it's a number cruncher, pure and simple. My mistake.
Yeah, finding the correct way to break down this vast field of info was tough. I considered symbolic vs non-symbolic, but got bogged down in cross-referencing. A true application vs technology division can't really be made (in a short article), just because of the sheer amount of Venn-ing between the fields.
For example, good data mining requires a good NL interface...but without defining each of those fields individually, the information becomes a morass of details.
The reason for the divisions that I chose, overlapping though they may be, is twofold. The first is that these are the areas that were deliniated by the first 6 people with PhD's I talked to. In other words, this is how the experts suggested that I approach my research. The second reason is that it seemed like the best way to illustrate the concepts and the various fields of study to an audience that may not be familiar with it at all, barring exposure to popular media.
Given more space, I would liked to have explored a little more into both the theories and the applications. However, there's only so much you can do in 3000 words.:)
Wow. Either you're a troll or you're just bloody scary. People like you exist and are smart enough to find slashdot? Who knew. To quote Rush (the band...so I prolly owe royalties...) "Those who know what's best for us, must rise and save us from ourselves."
I'm pretty sure I can manage my own salvation. You can keep your narrow minded homophobic theology to yourself. You have the power to censor those things you don't want to hear by turning off your radio, TV, or other media babysitter. But you don't and shouldn't have the power to decide what I can see and hear.
Ok, so dig this: one company...Clear Channel now owns most radio stations and most music venues in the americas. They are the largest financial contributer to the RIAA legal slush fund. http://www.salon.com/business/feature/2000/07/25/s fx/index.html What does that tell us? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? What that tells us is that one very large company with it's eye on monopoly is able to use it's whore (RIAA) to force those companies who present a threat to it's capital growth to shut down. What options have we? Quit buying CD's. Any group who is signed by an agency with the RIAA, ie, sony, etc., just quit buying. Fuck em. Listen to the radio. If you have net access and can't live without new music, pick a station on broadcast.com, but quit giving the soul-suckers money. It's not about the music. The music pushed by ClearChannel and the RIAA is reprosessed pablum and nobody wants that anyway. Cool bands with thoughful lyrics and a guitar riff that exceeds C,C,D,A,C repeat, aren't going to get record deals anyway. Why? Cause they're not prefab boy bands or jailbait in a tank top with a puff daddy fetish. Quit buying music. It's the only way to show them we're serious. Vote with your dollars. Don't give it to the RIAA. See shows locally, trade tapes with friends, but dont, don't don't pay the RIAA whores. The morning after isn't worth the trip.
Well, the page on the LoC is the official speech he gave before the National Press Club. The other quotes attributed to him were responses to questions asked by members of the NPC.
Perhaps, instead of flaming everyone for not checking resources, you should should do some research on how the NPC works. The data is out there if you want to see how many journalists were there, what press associations they have and who filed the story.
If you believe that this article is false, libelous or wrong, and you can prove it, think of the innate personal satisfaction, plus, won't it be fun to gloat?:-)
Now, I agree this article is particularly inflammatory and doesn't have a byline, which makes it a little suspect. But I find it hard to believe that the techlaw journal would print something for which they don't have proof.
Re:Before y'all get your panties in a twist...
on
RIAA Sues MP3.com
·
· Score: 2
I think there are a couple of different things to consider. For example, radio stations and internet broadcasting companies do pay license fees for every instance in which copyrighted material is played. The RIAA has the right to inspect play lists if they believe a station is in arrears. Pirate radio operators have been prosecuted for not paying RIAA fees as well as FCC fees. Many of the really great early internet radio stations were taken down when the RIAA finally caught on and made it impossible for non-revenue producing stations to stay on the air.
On the other hand, there have been valid arguments for the theory of Intellectual Property Proxy. Which is to say, that if you can prove you own something in real space, then you automatically own it in data space. Bank transfers and stock transactions are good examples of existing intellectual property proxies. You can buy, sell, vote and hold stock without ever seeing or providing a stock certificate. You can make bank transfers online without touching cash. Those arguing this position state that the implied user license allows MP3 to broadcast music for which the user has already proven to have paid a license.
Mr.Attack has already provided valid reasons for why that argument is unlikely to hold up in court. A tertiary and possibly more damning argument for MP3 is that they are providing the material in a format different than the user has a license to use. It is virtually the equivalent of having a site connected to a laser disc player which reads your disk title, then sends you a VHS tape of the movie. Could you make a VHS copy legally? Absolutely. Can someone else send you a copy, based on the fact that you inserted a disk for less than 2 minutes? Nope. Read the innocuous FBI warning. Could you data warehouse the information, then request it in a different format? Probably, but even then there is probably some fee due to someone.
Since MP3.com is not acting as a data warehouse; i.e., the user is not uploading the CD for conversion or storage, then it would appear that they are indeed acting as a broadcaster. As such, according to the letter of the law, they are liable for broadcast license fees. And since MP3 is distributing the music in a different format and there is no data warehouse of the user's licensed material, it would appear as though MP3 may be violating copyright law with the new services.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't see it becoming a wide spread use item in most of the US. In affluent, tech savvy populations...significantly more possible than in rural, less affluent areas. For the stores, this is primarily a cost-cutting measure, allowing them to reduce the number of workers on the floor, while shuffling the workload to the consumer without providing the consumer much benefit aside from the mimetic "time saving" of checkout.
For consumers, like the commenter above (and myself at times), who bring their own bags, and have a very zen packing method that means the tomatoes don't end up under the five pound bag of rice, this sort of thing would be a time saver for small trips, but I don't see it providing much benefit on those "stock up the pantry, feeding a house of teenager" shopping trips where you're lucky to get out with one cart.
In addition, I have never been in a store with self-checkout lanes that didn't have at least one very frustrated consumer trying to get the machine to work. I've seen those lines stand empty, while checkout lines with have 10+ carts lined up.
I've used these little cart checkout things in Europe, and they work fine. But the average American consumer is not the average big city European, any more than a farmer in Southern Italy is like a Manhattanite. To expect that technocracy and lack of personal service is going to make inroads in places like the Deep South or the Midwest is to fail to understand the demographic or the culture from which the demographic arises.
You know what cracks me up? The sheer volume of people that are still falling for this gag. Sometimes the stupidity of others just makes me giggle. :)
I just bought BI a month ago, and I got hit with Witty too...except I had no idea what was going on...I walked away from my system, and when I came back, it was virtually locked up, with 98% system resources allocated to blackd.exe.
:)
I thought that was pretty weird, but didn't really think about it...and rebooted the machine. It booted back up, I restarted the processes I had going before the freeze, and walked away again...when I returned, same thing...system was virtually locked, and Blackd.exe was hogging all the resources.
I couldn't turn BI off at the task manager, or from the system tray...so, I rebooted. (I swear, my poor Alienware has been rebooted more times in the last 24 hours than it has in it's entire life.)
This time, it wouldn't boot. Well, wouldn't boot past the bios and hardware screen...then it would just reboot itself again...over and over.
I was able to boot from an Alienware recovery CD...and it appears that my files are all still intact...but somehow, I seem to have XP installed twice now. When I boot, I have a list of Windows installations to choose from.
If I choose the first one, it goes to a vanilla xp install...but you can still browse to the files and applications that were installed prior to the worm. If I choose the second option on the list, it boots to the windows install I had before...I have no idea what the heck I've done, to be completely honest.
I've mirrored all my data, on the assumption that I may have to fdisk and start again...but I'm just going to avoid doing that for as long as possible.
Actually, Lee is a friend of mine...and he used to be my editor at ChipCenter, before ChipCenter set all of us free. He did work at NASA, he swears the story is true, he's never lied to me before, ergo, I believe him. :)
I dunno, I've gotten so weary of commercial radio that I almost never listen to anything but CD's anyway. And remember when cable TV was introduced and the big motivation for paying for it was so that you got broadcasts without commercials? That didn't last too long...and now consumers can pay up to $100.00 a month for cable that consists of more advertising than is allowed by law on network channels.
So, I don't really believe the non-commercial aspect, at least not once they get a big enough subscriber base.
And reviewing the available channels, it seems to me that it would be easier and cheaper to just buy CD's. At $12.00 a pop for a new CD, you could buy 35 CD's of music you want to hear instead of constantly flipping through another 100 channels of crap.
And as a matter of fact, I was wrong. I misunderstood what an expert told me. He was using Deep Blue to illustrate a principle, when I thought he was saying that Deep Blue actually used those theories.
I have since been disabused of the concept that Deep Blue has any AI. It doesn't, it's a number cruncher, pure and simple. My mistake.
Yeah, finding the correct way to break down this vast field of info was tough. I considered symbolic vs non-symbolic, but got bogged down in cross-referencing. A true application vs technology division can't really be made (in a short article), just because of the sheer amount of Venn-ing between the fields.
:)
For example, good data mining requires a good NL interface...but without defining each of those fields individually, the information becomes a morass of details.
The reason for the divisions that I chose, overlapping though they may be, is twofold. The first is that these are the areas that were deliniated by the first 6 people with PhD's I talked to. In other words, this is how the experts suggested that I approach my research. The second reason is that it seemed like the best way to illustrate the concepts and the various fields of study to an audience that may not be familiar with it at all, barring exposure to popular media.
Given more space, I would liked to have explored a little more into both the theories and the applications. However, there's only so much you can do in 3000 words.
Totally my bad, dude. I don't know how I missed that. :)
Wow. Either you're a troll or you're just bloody scary. People like you exist and are smart enough to find slashdot? Who knew. To quote Rush (the band...so I prolly owe royalties...) "Those who know what's best for us, must rise and save us from ourselves."
I'm pretty sure I can manage my own salvation. You can keep your narrow minded homophobic theology to yourself. You have the power to censor those things you don't want to hear by turning off your radio, TV, or other media babysitter. But you don't and shouldn't have the power to decide what I can see and hear.
Ok, so dig this: one company...Clear Channel now owns most radio stations and most music venues in the americas. They are the largest financial contributer to the RIAA legal slush fund. http://www.salon.com/business/feature/2000/07/25/s fx/index.html What does that tell us? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? What that tells us is that one very large company with it's eye on monopoly is able to use it's whore (RIAA) to force those companies who present a threat to it's capital growth to shut down. What options have we? Quit buying CD's. Any group who is signed by an agency with the RIAA, ie, sony, etc., just quit buying. Fuck em. Listen to the radio. If you have net access and can't live without new music, pick a station on broadcast.com, but quit giving the soul-suckers money. It's not about the music. The music pushed by ClearChannel and the RIAA is reprosessed pablum and nobody wants that anyway. Cool bands with thoughful lyrics and a guitar riff that exceeds C,C,D,A,C repeat, aren't going to get record deals anyway. Why? Cause they're not prefab boy bands or jailbait in a tank top with a puff daddy fetish. Quit buying music. It's the only way to show them we're serious. Vote with your dollars. Don't give it to the RIAA. See shows locally, trade tapes with friends, but dont, don't don't pay the RIAA whores. The morning after isn't worth the trip.
Well, the page on the LoC is the official speech he gave before the National Press Club. The other quotes attributed to him were responses to questions asked by members of the NPC.
Perhaps, instead of flaming everyone for not checking resources, you should should do some research on how the NPC works. The data is out there if you want to see how many journalists were there, what press associations they have and who filed the story.
If you believe that this article is false, libelous or wrong, and you can prove it, think of the innate personal satisfaction, plus, won't it be fun to gloat? :-)
Now, I agree this article is particularly inflammatory and doesn't have a byline, which makes it a little suspect. But I find it hard to believe that the techlaw journal would print something for which they don't have proof.
I think there are a couple of different things to consider. For example, radio stations and internet broadcasting companies do pay license fees for every instance in which copyrighted material is played. The RIAA has the right to inspect play lists if they believe a station is in arrears. Pirate radio operators have been prosecuted for not paying RIAA fees as well as FCC fees. Many of the really great early internet radio stations were taken down when the RIAA finally caught on and made it impossible for non-revenue producing stations to stay on the air.
On the other hand, there have been valid arguments for the theory of Intellectual Property Proxy. Which is to say, that if you can prove you own something in real space, then you automatically own it in data space. Bank transfers and stock transactions are good examples of existing intellectual property proxies. You can buy, sell, vote and hold stock without ever seeing or providing a stock certificate. You can make bank transfers online without touching cash. Those arguing this position state that the implied user license allows MP3 to broadcast music for which the user has already proven to have paid a license.
Mr.Attack has already provided valid reasons for why that argument is unlikely to hold up in court. A tertiary and possibly more damning argument for MP3 is that they are providing the material in a format different than the user has a license to use. It is virtually the equivalent of having a site connected to a laser disc player which reads your disk title, then sends you a VHS tape of the movie. Could you make a VHS copy legally? Absolutely. Can someone else send you a copy, based on the fact that you inserted a disk for less than 2 minutes? Nope. Read the innocuous FBI warning. Could you data warehouse the information, then request it in a different format? Probably, but even then there is probably some fee due to someone.
Since MP3.com is not acting as a data warehouse; i.e., the user is not uploading the CD for conversion or storage, then it would appear that they are indeed acting as a broadcaster. As such, according to the letter of the law, they are liable for broadcast license fees. And since MP3 is distributing the music in a different format and there is no data warehouse of the user's licensed material, it would appear as though MP3 may be violating copyright law with the new services.
Ah, well then it truly would be a "gag" gift....
The scent of damp hundred dollar bills rolled in sticky potpourri.