"Our space isn't as vast as people think it is - like they used to say about dumping stuff in the ocean. So while we're not filling the skies with waste, it's still "polluting". "
Space is big. Really big. And dumping stuff in the ocean isn't so bad as long as you do it in a continental subduction zone.
Who knows, maybe they'll invent a satellite that cleans up space? That'd make you happy, wouldn't it?
Anyone know how much your average ASCAP member makes in a year? If it's anything like SAG, then 95% won't see more than $3000 a year. Those are only the union artists. There are tons more non-union artists.
I really don't see Napster and ilk really effecting the majority of artists out there. Most of them have day jobs and don't live in mansions. That's never going to change.
Forget it. I wrote out this huge reply. Then I got this image of the movie "Amadeus". When Salieri sees Mozart's sheet music, he hears the notes in his head. I think this is what you refer to. Even though the music was never played or heard by an audience, Salieri knew Mozart was a genious.
Just as a non-musician appreciates Mozart when it's played, can't a non-programmer appreciate a browser when he uses it?
After all, Milne didn't write Winnie-the-Poo for parents. It was written for mainly for the enjoyment of children.
Programmers usually don't write for other programmers. They write for users. Users are the ones who determine what programs are crap and what are good, even though they will never see the code.
"If they stopped things that were moving quickly, how the heck did bullets go through?"
The Dune movie shields were inertial fields. They used an object's own inertia against it. So, a "slow" bullet could get through the field. A fast bullet would be deflected.
Does anyone know what is more likely? A personal force-shield or a personal cloaking device? It seems having plasmas bend light around objects is easier than deflecting a moving mass.
"No, because a piece of code is merely a series of instructions for an algorithm, not something designed to evoke emotion and thought. People are saying that code is, of itself, a thing of beauty which is blatent rubbish. Similarly a musical score by itself does not evoke emotion, it is the finished product!!"
It seems true. A symphony is only beautiful when it is performed. A program is beautiful when it runs. Depending on the hardware or orchestra, the composer's score or programmer's code could be played beautifully or crappily.
I'd have to say that the SETI@home client is beautiful. The movement and colors and efficiency are something to behold.
"IMNSHO It is important to remember that copyright is not "We allow authors to do this, because they made their work and they deserve to own it" it is "We allow authors certain rights because we wish to encourage authorship for the good of society as a whole". Copyright comes from a desire for art, and a belief we , as a whole, win by temporarily giving up our rights to authors. It does NOT derive from the basic "right to property". "
I was wondering about that. Star Wars is owned by George Lucas. But since it came out, it has in many ways become a part of our society's mythos. I would argue that we all own Star Wars in a way. Especially those who paid a lot of money to Lucas because it resonates so well.
And "resonate" is the key word because Lucas himself said that the Star Wars story was derived and inspired from other stories on Western culture like "King Arthur". In a way, he borrowed from our stories and sold it back to us.
"Personally, I think it should be an open system. The artists/authors can encrypt as much as they want, and the users can decrypt as much as they want/are able. As long as they can prevent 80+% of the population from ripping them off, everyone should be okay (maybe...). We'll still have some l4m3r5 who feel they shouldn't have to pay for anything, but we're stuck with them till we can ship them to Mars. All we have to do is shoot the publishers to make this possible (they want 100% control...they won't settle for 80%)"
This is what happened with software, right? Nowadays, most closed software has some sort of copyright protection. Most people put in their keys, serial nums, and what not. Mr. and Mrs. Smith don't usually go on the net looking for the cracked copy on warez sites.
Van Gogh lived and died poor. That didn't stop him from painting. Any artist knows that lack of money is not a reason to keep yourself from doing what you want to do.
joel ps-and if you get tired of starving...there's always advertising.
"I figure that while 98% of the population continues to be oblivious to the problem, market droids will never stop exploiting customer information on the net. You can't make people care about issues, particularly when they're not informed about them."
Until perhaps some sort of privacy catastrophe were to happen. I don't know what that would be. Something where somebody were to maliciously abuse the personal info of thousands of people. Nobody is going to do a thing until something bad happens. That's the way our society works.
"Yup. Too many assholes like me buying computers that are too easy to use and too easy to look at. Computers are just too damn popular now days. Next thing you know, somebody's mom will want one."
Design is very important to people. That's also one of Sony's fortes. They make great products that also look and feel cool and are easy to use. If design weren't important, Martha Stewart wouldn't be a billionaire.
Geez. That's one of the reasons they wouldn't let blacks vote 50 years ago. They would give out reading tests for voters. They could carefully screen out poor, uneducated, BLACK voters.
Let me tell you this. Anybody who is effected by legislation should have a say on who gets put there. Not everybody knows about all the issues, but everybody at least is knowledgable about one or two of them.
Letting a minority of people getting votes. That's not really democracy. That's fascism.
Voting should not be restricted to people who own land or have college degrees. Geez. What are y'all thinking!!! joel
Slashdot Mirror
"Our space isn't as vast as people think it is - like they used to say about dumping stuff in the ocean. So while we're not filling the skies with waste, it's still "polluting". "
Space is big. Really big. And dumping stuff in the ocean isn't so bad as long as you do it in a continental subduction zone.
Who knows, maybe they'll invent a satellite that cleans up space? That'd make you happy, wouldn't it?
joel
Anyone know how much your average ASCAP member makes in a year? If it's anything like SAG, then 95% won't see more than $3000 a year. Those are only the union artists. There are tons more non-union artists.
I really don't see Napster and ilk really effecting the majority of artists out there. Most of them have day jobs and don't live in mansions. That's never going to change.
joel
"I believe that current sales are running at the 10-11% range for Apple hardware."
What's funny is if a car company had 10-11% marketshare, they would not be called a niche.
joel
Forget it. I wrote out this huge reply. Then I got this image of the movie "Amadeus". When Salieri sees Mozart's sheet music, he hears the notes in his head. I think this is what you refer to. Even though the music was never played or heard by an audience, Salieri knew Mozart was a genious.
Just as a non-musician appreciates Mozart when it's played, can't a non-programmer appreciate a browser when he uses it?
After all, Milne didn't write Winnie-the-Poo for parents. It was written for mainly for the enjoyment of children.
Programmers usually don't write for other programmers. They write for users. Users are the ones who determine what programs are crap and what are good, even though they will never see the code.
joel
"How does anyone make the leap from "we struck a plasma in a desktop device" to "we got force fields"?"
All matter has force fields. It's a property of matter. We all have force fields. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to hold a coffee mug.
joel
"No one seriously thinks all Texans are idiots,"
id soft is in Texas, isn't it? But, then again, so is Ion Storm.
joel
"If they stopped things that were moving quickly, how the heck did bullets go through?"
The Dune movie shields were inertial fields. They used an object's own inertia against it. So, a "slow" bullet could get through the field. A fast bullet would be deflected.
joel
Does anyone know what is more likely? A personal force-shield or a personal cloaking device? It seems having plasmas bend light around objects is easier than deflecting a moving mass.
joel
"To get rice just right, so it's fluffy and not sticky, you have to cook all of the water out, and you can't stir it while it's cooking."
I know you Americans have such strange ways with food. If your rice isn't sticky, how do pick it up with chopsticks? One grain at a time?
joel
"Arts and SCience are basically the same."
Art and Science are the same because they both describe worlds that are invisible in ordinary life.
joel
"No, because a piece of code is merely a series of instructions for an algorithm, not something designed to evoke emotion and thought. People are saying that code is, of itself, a thing of beauty which is blatent rubbish. Similarly a musical score by itself does not evoke emotion, it is the finished product!!"
It seems true. A symphony is only beautiful when it is performed. A program is beautiful when it runs. Depending on the hardware or orchestra, the composer's score or programmer's code could be played beautifully or crappily.
I'd have to say that the SETI@home client is beautiful. The movement and colors and efficiency are something to behold.
joel
"IMNSHO It is important to remember that copyright is not "We allow authors to do this, because they made their work and they deserve to own it" it is "We allow authors certain rights because we wish to encourage authorship for the good of society as a whole". Copyright comes from a desire for art, and a belief we , as a whole, win by temporarily giving up our rights to authors. It does NOT derive from the basic "right to property". "
I was wondering about that. Star Wars is owned by George Lucas. But since it came out, it has in many ways become a part of our society's mythos. I would argue that we all own Star Wars in a way. Especially those who paid a lot of money to Lucas because it resonates so well.
And "resonate" is the key word because Lucas himself said that the Star Wars story was derived and inspired from other stories on Western culture like "King Arthur". In a way, he borrowed from our stories and sold it back to us.
joel
"Personally, I think it should be an open system. The artists/authors can encrypt as much as they want, and the users can decrypt as much as they want/are able. As long as they can prevent 80+% of the population from ripping them off, everyone should be okay (maybe...). We'll still have some l4m3r5 who feel they shouldn't have to pay for anything, but we're stuck with them till we can ship them to Mars. All we have to do is shoot the publishers to make this possible (they want 100% control...they won't settle for 80%)"
This is what happened with software, right? Nowadays, most closed software has some sort of copyright protection. Most people put in their keys, serial nums, and what not. Mr. and Mrs. Smith don't usually go on the net looking for the cracked copy on warez sites.
joel
And you can do sysadminning with combo attacks and magic spells.
I could replicate other people's DNA and plant it all over crime scenes! Imagine how much fun that would be!
joel
"a) what OS this will run and "
The OS will be Final Fantasy. The cursor is just a character that runs around a map to different towns(directories) and enters shops(programs).
That's all I can think of for now.
joel
Van Gogh lived and died poor. That didn't stop him from painting. Any artist knows that lack of money is not a reason to keep yourself from doing what you want to do.
joel
ps-and if you get tired of starving...there's always advertising.
I'm wondering why steer at all. Would this work on a train? Perhaps if it could be kept up to speed on a track of some kind? Maglev underwater?
joel
"And where big corps go to court... the biggest wallet always wins."
Maybe Erin Brockovich could win it for us?
joel
computer generated images, dude.
joel
"I figure that while 98% of the population continues to be oblivious to the problem, market droids will never stop exploiting customer information on the net. You can't make people care about issues, particularly when they're not informed about them."
Until perhaps some sort of privacy catastrophe were to happen. I don't know what that would be. Something where somebody were to maliciously abuse the personal info of thousands of people. Nobody is going to do a thing until something bad happens. That's the way our society works.
joel
"Yup. Too many assholes like me buying computers that are too easy to use and too easy to look at. Computers are just too damn popular now days. Next thing you know, somebody's mom will want one."
Design is very important to people. That's also one of Sony's fortes. They make great products that also look and feel cool and are easy to use. If design weren't important, Martha Stewart wouldn't be a billionaire.
joel
Vive La Liberte! joel
"Only people who are knowledgable should vote."
Geez. That's one of the reasons they wouldn't let blacks vote 50 years ago. They would give out reading tests for voters. They could carefully screen out poor, uneducated, BLACK voters.
Let me tell you this. Anybody who is effected by legislation should have a say on who gets put there. Not everybody knows about all the issues, but everybody at least is knowledgable about one or two of them.
Letting a minority of people getting votes. That's not really democracy. That's fascism.
Voting should not be restricted to people who own land or have college degrees. Geez. What are y'all thinking!!! joel