A lot of times, the label is putting a fair chunk of change into promoting the tour, booking the appropriate venues, and getting things done in general. I could see a decent tour costing the same as producing a CD, if not more when they go multinational.
I don't think it's wholly inappropriate. I know we're paying more for CDs than we probably should, but the one has nothing to do with the other.
Similar things have been done already; MapQuest, for one, which allows (modest, year-old) satellite imaging as well. They made a nice attempt at turning it into shock value, but all sizzle no steak as they say.
I don't really know what he's driving at, anyway. This newest wave of technology is flashy, but we seem to have forgotten that recognizing and exploiting consumer attention is the key to
unlocking the door of success in this cutthroat business -- not simply coming up with bigger and better, but maximizing the potential of what
you've got.
Take the game industry for example; the earliest games functioned on single-sided single-density floppy disks, which didn't permit a great
deal of graphics or fanciful algorithms. Games, as a standard, were terse and text-based until a programmer came up with a method of doubling the graphical storage -- and ended up making games that outperformed the standards of those on technically superior systems.
Or go to the console wars, where the concept of making a dual-processor system (SNES) was outshone by the concept of vastly improving the storage
space (Playstation) on a technically inferior CPU.
Same deal with this mapping stuff. Just show me how to get from Point A to the mall and I'm set -- I don't need to know the infrastructure along the way.
Most people that have poo-poohed the stability of Microsoft's platform haven't:
Tried a professional or better version; there's a reason they cost more even if they don't run that CGA poker game you copied off of someone else in high school
Gone through the training necessary (i.e., read a book) to install and maintain Windows in a work or enterprise environment
Used the stable of tools designed to ease and enhance deployment of Windows technologies -- Windows Terminal Server, Norton Ghost, etc
The fact is, one can choose between the compatibility offered by many Free operating systems and the tuned performance of Windows much as one can choose between a SUV and a racecar -- but if you can't operate a racecar it's probably better to go with the SUV.
It takes insight to notice these things take time.
on
.Net:... 3 Years Later
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Very few of today's Internet standards were recognized even within three years as standards. Usenet took seven before it became ubiquitous, IRC took at least four (with DCC still not part of the spec), and even the WWW took six. Remember, it was fundamentally a revision of Gopher technologies, which in turn were an iteration of something else (Archie?)
Most of.NET was puffery, to be sure (I read a piece on MSDN more or less admitting this), but that's largely because it was a working title given to a number of next-generation technologies that may or may not pan out, many of which haven't been released. You can't really consider C# or Hailstorm to have been around and competing for three years, can you?
It's good to get Linux's opinions on the SCO suit. Too much attention has been given in the press to SCO's claims, which plays right into their hands. It's this type of thing that may bring Linux down, not technical issues.
It's interesting how the interviewers always seem to go into the same thread of what makes Linux great. Given the history one would never have expected it to do as well as it has; like chopsticks, which were actually invented by immigrant restaurant owners in America's mining communities in the 1800s, Linux has picked up a myth of its own that actually covers the more interesting fact that it was simply a hobby with momentum. It's a bit wierd to think that such a thing has evolved to contend with and possibly displace software actually engineered for the enterprise.
Well right, I mean implementation, but I haven't met an implementation yet that felt smooth.
What I'm getting at is that a little goes a long way with display updates. Having a 'silken mouse' under Windows NT+ meant that even under heavy load the interface felt smooth and responsive (well, until you tried to open a window or do something requiring CPU) -- with Win9X/ME the mouse would jerk around under even mediocre load. X-Windows also felt like it was sluggish until I discovered you could 'nice -n -10' it. On the AS/400, heavy priority is given to interactive applications but batch jobs (which only run in the background) and compiles are typically executed at a lower priority.
My point is that they need to optimize the speed with which displays and user interface updates are performed to achieve the effect where the user feels like the application is crisp -- even if it impacts performance in other areas. It's a subtle user interface trick that they've missed out on, although I'll admit that Java 2 is making things a little better.
You raise a good point (well, except for the hyperbole about combining the game industry.) During this time of massive layoffs and outsourcing, maybe the Open Source paradigm is actually shooting us in the foot.
I'm not saying that everybody needs to stop contributing their pet projects to the communal good, but maybe the deal doesn't need to be made sweeter for these scummy companies that are building cheap foreign and selling expensive domestic. I'm starting to think that (L)GPLv3 should involve a clause invokable by the author of a project so covered that it not be used in any commercial application whether source is included or not.
The biggest irony is when movie companies using Free Software turn around and lobby our government to harm users of Free Software. This free ride shit has got to stop, there.
It's slow. This has been brought up before, but how many years have they had to get it right? Seven, eight? I'm using FurthurNet right now and while it seems like a good solid application the screen updates are flickery and the UI response is slow enough to be noticable and thus irritating.
C# compiled applications don't seem to have this problem. 99% of it is perception; make the user interface and screen updates crisp and the users won't notice if your application takes longer to execute than one that feels like it's operating under heavy load. Particularly given that Hermione dies in the latest novel, I feel that it is disappointing that this is the best Sun can come up with.
That's my 2 cents, anyway. No doubt there are areas that Java will excel, but in the end I think it's the acumen of the software on the desktop that drives any great technologies to market acceptance. If Sun wants to entrench themselves against.NET, they could hardly do worse than to make the users feel like the applications are extremely responsive (works for Apple, doesn't it?)
Like it or not, managers default to commercial
on
What is Open Source?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Which means that Open Source needs to be carefully pitched to them -- commercial, closed source software is how business has been done for thirty years, while free software is still kind of a wierd new hippiesh thing (although having big-time companies like IBM embracing it helps.)
It's like the saying goes; when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like it needs a pounding. Nobody ever got fired buying Microsoft, whereas Open Source seems like a gamble... even moreso now with the bogus SCO lawsuit. Calmly and rationally explaining to the people that make the procurement decisions at your company that free software is a valid alternative and explaining why is necessary, because by default they're going to want to go with what they've always went with.
That is a little wierd, although not wholly surprising. It's kind of a variant of the little man syndrome, where folks who adopt a platform not in the mainstream have to justify themselves either via inflated specs in some obscure area or, failing that, vitriol.
It seems to me that if somebody wanted to use an inferior product, the first thing they'd do is develop a thick skin and at a minimum ignore the criticism being lobbed at their platform of choice. That, or choose to adopt something that seems to work better for the majority so that they don't have to feel left out all the time; obviously when you get to the point of chewing out people who are trying to show you why your choice is flawed it's become a popularity contest for you already (competing, not computing).
It's ok as a sounding board, but not 100% reliable
on
NYT On Online Reputations
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Most people don't actually know what they want. If you look at how many people gripe about Blizzard or the RIAA, then compare it to their buying records, you figure out pretty quickly that in the end all the bitching doesn't directly add up to negative results.
I happily continue to buy movies, music, and Blizzard games to this day because in the end, when you get through all the griping, they're quality products. What's the alternative? But if you looked at the amount of complaints online you'd think these industries had been run into the ground by upset consumers.
I'd buy from the nice companies, but they've been run into the ground by pirates.
I've seen this argument a great deal, but it sounds much more plausible that the artists are mum about file trading because they don't want the backlash from P2Pers that 'metallicunt' suffered when they went on the offensive. I can't imagine that many of these artists that are getting screwed by the music industry are thrilled to find their songs being traded via P2P -- after all, when they actually collect royalties they aren't that hot, so every bit they miss out on hurts.
I agree that file trading increases exposure, and would not be surprised to discover that a great number of people who enjoy it actually increase their purchases of CDs (a net good for the industry). However, the music isn't there by the will of the artist and/or copyright holder. Silence doesn't always indicate acquiescence, and again if an artist is just scraping by they're probably not in a position to take risks on the goodwill of the file trading community.
There are artists that willingly allow taping/trading of concerts, and places online to download their stuff (with BitTorrent even). Why not give them a listen?
Most people I know using Windows 2000 just blow past their EULAs without reading them. What was so onerous? I didn't think it was out of the ordinary for Media Player to fetch new DRM information with codec updates if the old DRM was cracked, and really didn't care because I hardly use it (I prefer RealOne's encoding.)
My virus scanner updates itself without my knowledge, as does my weather bar and e-mail client. How do I know they aren't doing nefarious things? But in the end, they make for a more convenient product.
Not only that, but there is also the cash infusion via the (re?)licensing of Unix from SCO to consider. I don't think it's an unfair suppository to make at all that Microsoft is viewing this as a high-risk low-cost gamble on SCO winning this fight.
Kind of wierd when you think that Caldera (now SCO) acquired DR-DOS to do legal battle with Microsoft only two years ago, but I suppose that just illustrates the shifting loyalties on the intellectual property battlefield. IBM is good and all, but one wonders how long they'd back Linux if a better opportunity comes along.
Where it is the point in this matter nowadays? It really took talent to write malware in the old days, what with having to be able to get the virus in the executables and boot sectors of floppy disks, but now everything looks like a work of the VBScript cut-and-paste. Why is it so hard to find the author of these programs?
The problem with the Dreamcast was that it was an inferior offering, particularly outside of Japan. There were something like two decent RPGs made for the system, a couple of platformers, but no blockbuster title that gamers would rally around -- it was the final in a line of consoles that weren't properly backed with a decent stable of games, and while the hardware was technically decent people held off because of Sega's lack of commitment to their hardware for a reasonable length of time.
Piracy's not a good thing, but I doubt piracy was among the leading factors in the demise of the Dreamcast. I think the investment in developing a title was more substantial than its chief competition (PS) and developers weren't convinced it was worth the effort.
It doesn't sound like they're going to do anything about searches in the location bar being sent to Netscape before being passed on to Google. Mozilla doesn't do this, but I noticed this behavior in Netscape 6 when I was trying to load it as a more stable alternative. Apparently others have noticed this, but nothing's been made of it.
So now I use Internet Explorer, which ironically is more stable and respecting of privacy, not to mention that it seems to work with many more web sites.
How the hell can't you be a little suspicious of somebody offering you a Class C for $500 on the condition that you only use a small part of it? What, did it fall off a truck?
The thing is, I think a lot of the dumbing down of televised content could be reversed if consumers were able to pick and choose their content. What bothers me is as technology opens doors towards this concept, by lowering the technical cost of entry and increasing the capacity of cable carriers (the next step will be taking advantage of these newer Internet technologies, if they're ever deployed), even more doors are shut by bureaucracy and the machinations of the big players.
How many diagnoses of ADD (or ADHD or whatever) are we seeing nowadays? Our problem as a nation is that we don't know when the fuck to say when, whether it's with food, or TV, or computers. I'll admit I was pushing the troll button with the "ban Doom" comment, because I still chuckle when I see these talking heads on TV using that as their strawman for society's ills, but the reason why Johnny can't handwrite is because society could care less about Johnny unless he's a consumer.
Learning for its own sake is frowned upon in this country, as is picking up an Asimov novel or respecting your neighbor. Thinking for oneself has gone out the fucking window because there's no money or self-gratification in it. Our American idols are cookie-cutter pop singers. Our schoolbooks are being revised to be gender/race/creed neutral, and to hell with history. We're so uptight about Johnny forgetting cursive when the phrase "Founding Fathers" is being redacted.
Our next generation is going to be (in aggregate, there are of course a few bright bulbs) our stupidest ever. Mark my words. A diet of intellectual sugar is just as damaging in the long run as swilling soft drinks and cramming super-sized fast food daily. In moderation it's all good, but there's no money in moderation.
I think it's time to seriously encourage mandatory restrictions on the recreational use of computers and video games. Today's generation is growing up without the benefit of reading or writing and is instead sating themselves with violent sugar-coated media such as Grand Theft Auto, Doom, and Jackass.
The ability to hold a pencil isn't the only casuality; Johnny can barely hold a thought nowadays. It's not about ADD or sugar -- it's about never having to sit down and think. That's why bans on violent video games, while proposed for stupid reasons, may actually have an unintended beneficial effect. Now if we could only clean up the TV to the point that Johnny will sit down and become literate if for no other reason than to relieve the boredom.
I'm not big on taxes in general, and thought we were well on our way to reform what with the recent income tax rollback. But the cable modem tax makes sense -- in many ways, this is just bringing us up to the standard of the other Internet communication technologies, and helps make them available to the less fortunate.
Which, if you think about it, means a greater usage of broadband and an incentive to unroll ever greater bandwidth.
I know that after starting to use broadband I'd never think about going back. It's almost required on the Internet nowadays. Anything that brings it to more people is a good thing.
I've tried out FreeBSD a few times, having heard a great deal about its middle-of-the-road approach to things (freest license, OK server, workable desktop), and thought it was alright but in a lot of ways it seemed to be cursed in the same way as all BSDs in assuming it knew better than I did how I wanted my own system to run.
Ports worked out well until they broke during an upgrade. Switching terminals was just plain wierd, coming from the more logical Linux perspective, and I only had four of them (five with X-Windows when I could get it running.) I suspect I would have had a better time of it if I had gone scavenger hunting for that magical bit of hardware that wasn't too old or too new to work, but in the end I figured screw it -- just about any distribution of Linux seemed to install properly and run efficiently, so why torture myself?
So basically I've been running with Gentoo for the last couple of years. Has FreeBSD gotten any friendlier lately?
I'm a bit curious... how does the FSF avoid issues with EULA agreements when performing an investigation? They seem to forbid the types of operations I would think necessary to determine if code is being misappropriated, as some degree of disassembly or analysis of EULA'd software would seem to be necessary for a comparison.
Not that such an argument would matter much if they were indeed found to be misusing GPLed code, of course.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think it's wholly inappropriate. I know we're paying more for CDs than we probably should, but the one has nothing to do with the other.
I don't really know what he's driving at, anyway. This newest wave of technology is flashy, but we seem to have forgotten that recognizing and exploiting consumer attention is the key to unlocking the door of success in this cutthroat business -- not simply coming up with bigger and better, but maximizing the potential of what you've got.
Take the game industry for example; the earliest games functioned on single-sided single-density floppy disks, which didn't permit a great deal of graphics or fanciful algorithms. Games, as a standard, were terse and text-based until a programmer came up with a method of doubling the graphical storage -- and ended up making games that outperformed the standards of those on technically superior systems. Or go to the console wars, where the concept of making a dual-processor system (SNES) was outshone by the concept of vastly improving the storage space (Playstation) on a technically inferior CPU.
Same deal with this mapping stuff. Just show me how to get from Point A to the mall and I'm set -- I don't need to know the infrastructure along the way.
- Tried a professional or better version; there's a reason they cost more even if they don't run that CGA poker game you copied off of someone else in high school
- Gone through the training necessary (i.e., read a book) to install and maintain Windows in a work or enterprise environment
- Used the stable of tools designed to ease and enhance deployment of Windows technologies -- Windows Terminal Server, Norton Ghost, etc
The fact is, one can choose between the compatibility offered by many Free operating systems and the tuned performance of Windows much as one can choose between a SUV and a racecar -- but if you can't operate a racecar it's probably better to go with the SUV.Most of .NET was puffery, to be sure (I read a piece on MSDN more or less admitting this), but that's largely because it was a working title given to a number of next-generation technologies that may or may not pan out, many of which haven't been released. You can't really consider C# or Hailstorm to have been around and competing for three years, can you?
It's interesting how the interviewers always seem to go into the same thread of what makes Linux great. Given the history one would never have expected it to do as well as it has; like chopsticks, which were actually invented by immigrant restaurant owners in America's mining communities in the 1800s, Linux has picked up a myth of its own that actually covers the more interesting fact that it was simply a hobby with momentum. It's a bit wierd to think that such a thing has evolved to contend with and possibly displace software actually engineered for the enterprise.
Can't wait for 2.6.
What I'm getting at is that a little goes a long way with display updates. Having a 'silken mouse' under Windows NT+ meant that even under heavy load the interface felt smooth and responsive (well, until you tried to open a window or do something requiring CPU) -- with Win9X/ME the mouse would jerk around under even mediocre load. X-Windows also felt like it was sluggish until I discovered you could 'nice -n -10' it. On the AS/400, heavy priority is given to interactive applications but batch jobs (which only run in the background) and compiles are typically executed at a lower priority.
My point is that they need to optimize the speed with which displays and user interface updates are performed to achieve the effect where the user feels like the application is crisp -- even if it impacts performance in other areas. It's a subtle user interface trick that they've missed out on, although I'll admit that Java 2 is making things a little better.
I'm not saying that everybody needs to stop contributing their pet projects to the communal good, but maybe the deal doesn't need to be made sweeter for these scummy companies that are building cheap foreign and selling expensive domestic. I'm starting to think that (L)GPLv3 should involve a clause invokable by the author of a project so covered that it not be used in any commercial application whether source is included or not.
The biggest irony is when movie companies using Free Software turn around and lobby our government to harm users of Free Software. This free ride shit has got to stop, there.
C# compiled applications don't seem to have this problem. 99% of it is perception; make the user interface and screen updates crisp and the users won't notice if your application takes longer to execute than one that feels like it's operating under heavy load. Particularly given that Hermione dies in the latest novel, I feel that it is disappointing that this is the best Sun can come up with.
That's my 2 cents, anyway. No doubt there are areas that Java will excel, but in the end I think it's the acumen of the software on the desktop that drives any great technologies to market acceptance. If Sun wants to entrench themselves against .NET, they could hardly do worse than to make the users feel like the applications are extremely responsive (works for Apple, doesn't it?)
It's like the saying goes; when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like it needs a pounding. Nobody ever got fired buying Microsoft, whereas Open Source seems like a gamble... even moreso now with the bogus SCO lawsuit. Calmly and rationally explaining to the people that make the procurement decisions at your company that free software is a valid alternative and explaining why is necessary, because by default they're going to want to go with what they've always went with.
It seems to me that if somebody wanted to use an inferior product, the first thing they'd do is develop a thick skin and at a minimum ignore the criticism being lobbed at their platform of choice. That, or choose to adopt something that seems to work better for the majority so that they don't have to feel left out all the time; obviously when you get to the point of chewing out people who are trying to show you why your choice is flawed it's become a popularity contest for you already (competing, not computing).
I happily continue to buy movies, music, and Blizzard games to this day because in the end, when you get through all the griping, they're quality products. What's the alternative? But if you looked at the amount of complaints online you'd think these industries had been run into the ground by upset consumers.
I'd buy from the nice companies, but they've been run into the ground by pirates.
I agree that file trading increases exposure, and would not be surprised to discover that a great number of people who enjoy it actually increase their purchases of CDs (a net good for the industry). However, the music isn't there by the will of the artist and/or copyright holder. Silence doesn't always indicate acquiescence, and again if an artist is just scraping by they're probably not in a position to take risks on the goodwill of the file trading community.
There are artists that willingly allow taping/trading of concerts, and places online to download their stuff (with BitTorrent even). Why not give them a listen?
My virus scanner updates itself without my knowledge, as does my weather bar and e-mail client. How do I know they aren't doing nefarious things? But in the end, they make for a more convenient product.
Kind of wierd when you think that Caldera (now SCO) acquired DR-DOS to do legal battle with Microsoft only two years ago, but I suppose that just illustrates the shifting loyalties on the intellectual property battlefield. IBM is good and all, but one wonders how long they'd back Linux if a better opportunity comes along.
Where it is the point in this matter nowadays? It really took talent to write malware in the old days, what with having to be able to get the virus in the executables and boot sectors of floppy disks, but now everything looks like a work of the VBScript cut-and-paste. Why is it so hard to find the author of these programs?
Piracy's not a good thing, but I doubt piracy was among the leading factors in the demise of the Dreamcast. I think the investment in developing a title was more substantial than its chief competition (PS) and developers weren't convinced it was worth the effort.
So now I use Internet Explorer, which ironically is more stable and respecting of privacy, not to mention that it seems to work with many more web sites.
How the hell can't you be a little suspicious of somebody offering you a Class C for $500 on the condition that you only use a small part of it? What, did it fall off a truck?
How many diagnoses of ADD (or ADHD or whatever) are we seeing nowadays? Our problem as a nation is that we don't know when the fuck to say when, whether it's with food, or TV, or computers. I'll admit I was pushing the troll button with the "ban Doom" comment, because I still chuckle when I see these talking heads on TV using that as their strawman for society's ills, but the reason why Johnny can't handwrite is because society could care less about Johnny unless he's a consumer.
Learning for its own sake is frowned upon in this country, as is picking up an Asimov novel or respecting your neighbor. Thinking for oneself has gone out the fucking window because there's no money or self-gratification in it. Our American idols are cookie-cutter pop singers. Our schoolbooks are being revised to be gender/race/creed neutral, and to hell with history. We're so uptight about Johnny forgetting cursive when the phrase "Founding Fathers" is being redacted.
Our next generation is going to be (in aggregate, there are of course a few bright bulbs) our stupidest ever. Mark my words. A diet of intellectual sugar is just as damaging in the long run as swilling soft drinks and cramming super-sized fast food daily. In moderation it's all good, but there's no money in moderation.
The ability to hold a pencil isn't the only casuality; Johnny can barely hold a thought nowadays. It's not about ADD or sugar -- it's about never having to sit down and think. That's why bans on violent video games, while proposed for stupid reasons, may actually have an unintended beneficial effect. Now if we could only clean up the TV to the point that Johnny will sit down and become literate if for no other reason than to relieve the boredom.
Which, if you think about it, means a greater usage of broadband and an incentive to unroll ever greater bandwidth.
I know that after starting to use broadband I'd never think about going back. It's almost required on the Internet nowadays. Anything that brings it to more people is a good thing.
100 times faster than dialup*
* Assuming said dialup is done with a 150-baud modem with acoustic coupler
Probably VMWare if you've got it. Failing that, bochs is likely to work but very slowly (OK for trying things out though.)
Ports worked out well until they broke during an upgrade. Switching terminals was just plain wierd, coming from the more logical Linux perspective, and I only had four of them (five with X-Windows when I could get it running.) I suspect I would have had a better time of it if I had gone scavenger hunting for that magical bit of hardware that wasn't too old or too new to work, but in the end I figured screw it -- just about any distribution of Linux seemed to install properly and run efficiently, so why torture myself?
So basically I've been running with Gentoo for the last couple of years. Has FreeBSD gotten any friendlier lately?
Not that such an argument would matter much if they were indeed found to be misusing GPLed code, of course.