Unfortunately, many service providers cripple data transfer and other features. (esp. on their low-rent, subsidized phones) John Q Public is either just plain unable to get his home-made tones on to his phone, or isn't even aware that he has an alternative to purchasing them.
I bought one of the Motorola phones that has blue-tooth and a USB Data cable and a reasonable provider... I have no problems moving files to and from it. However, a lot of cell providers are seeing the data transfer as a cash cow. Take that video or photo with your phone, but the only way to transfer it is to use their photo share/data service, racking up charges?... PROFIT! Want a ring tone from a song you have on your PeeCee as mp3, wav, and acd? ohh, too bad your phone was crippled, but you can buy the ringtone for $2.49 and download instantly?? PROFIT!
Oh, by the way, a lot of providers don't let you transfer your purchased tones from one phone to another, or if your phone is lost/stolen, you have to PAY to download them AGAIN... You want to see how the future Music and Movie industries see the world, look into the happy and oh-so-open world of cell phone ring tones and data transfer.
I've been a fan since your first season, and in that time, you've covered quite a few of the big, classic myths and legends. Are you ever concerned that you'll "use up" all the best source material, sort of running out of steam as it were? or is the internet such a fertile ground for kooks and bad jokes that you figure you can go on indefinitely (or at least until you accidentally cause the spontaneous destruction of the universe while trying to prove a theory about the second gunman in the Grassy Knoll)
With all the MS bashing and whatnot, your comment was probably the most insightful and fair in this whole thread. People can say what they want about MicroSoft, but they do manage to give the consumers what they want.
One could argue that Word is already so bloated and full of creeping featurisms that it long ago stopped being a word processor, and became "MS Publisher Light". However, the truth is that consumers want new features, and any company who ignores that will lose mindshare and marketshare. MS is doing what they need to do. If they give the APPEARANCE of new features just by making the interface more intuitive to Joe Random User, then they are going to make Mr. Random happy, and keep making Mr. Gates richer.
I still really hope they put in a "use classic menu system" so that I don't have to figure out where the hell they moved this or that when I have to support my users.
Yeah - I hear you... I won't gripe and moan about the new interface as long as they wise up and put in a "classic menus" option. However, according to the article:
"The traditional Office top-line menu, with its drop-down File, Edit, View, and other items, is gone forever and not even available as an option."
Hopefully, that observation was just due to it being a beta.
I can't STAND the tendency toward making everything all puffy and round like its filled with air. Gives a whole new meaning to "bloatware":)
Well, if the RIAA had its way, you'd be legally and morally wrong if you got a tune stuck in your head and didn't pay royalties for every replay.:)
I think that's the crux of the issue. The DRM doesn't just stop people from distributing copies to others who haven't paid, it also stops (by design AND by side effect) conversion between formats and backing stuff up. It's not just about stopping copying, it's about the media publishers controlling when, where, and how you listen to their intellectual property. (and of course, making sure they grab a piece of the pie as often as possible)
Right or wrong, rip all my CDs and mostly listen to the resultant MP3s... so much more convenient than carting a big binder/folder around, plus the playlists are nice. If
My thought:: You should patent that storyline immediately so that if they pull it off in real life, you can sue them for everything they're worth for violating YOUR patent!
Come to think of it, what if life DOES imitate art, only in a particular case, there's a patent? Could this open doors for extra civil litigation.
The more I hear about this story and these plotpatent people, the more I think that the ONLY people who will win from this one in the long haul are the bloody lawyers!
I think that all the hullabaloo is that RFID chips make it feasable to provide a UNIQUE NUMBER for each chip as well as a UPC-type number for the product id.
I did in fact put "hacked" in quotes because I merely found and used tools that someone else created - something anyone could have done...
Yes, I understand about carrier lock-ins, it's actually called a subsidy lock - as in, "we subsidized your phone, so we are locking you in"
My points were two-fold:
1) that the subsidy lock (carrier lock or whatever you wish to call it) is hardly necessary since you're bound by the terms of the contract whether or not you switch your phone to another carrier or pop in an Orange Card while you're in the UK.
2) It IS necessary to use "hacking tools" to access certain areas of the phone's memory. The commercial dataPilot and other data transfer programs are deliberately hobbled in this regard. Among other things, the extra level of access allows you to delete the default ring tones (something you can't do with the phone or with commercial phone data programs) back up your purchased ringtones (something you CAN'T do on many phones as the providers are far too happy to charge you for the tones you've already bought if you change phones) change the default startup screens, remove and install JAMDAT games, etc.
So, I understand why you say it's not what the unlocking penalties are for, but My point is that they DO INDEED care about ringtones and MP3s. Cell Phones are a revenue gold mine for the carriers - ringtones and other downloadable content are a significant and profitable business around the world, not just in the US. My concern is the over-all trend of crippling the consumers abilities to use their hardware as they see fit, and using the DMCA as a club... with a nail in it... on fire.
I use a Motorola phone I got through Cingular. They sell the Motorola "World Phones" all unlocked.
Sure, the phone company subsidizes your phone hardware by locking you into a certain term length of contract... So, if you unlock your phone and use it with another provider, YOU'RE STILL STUCK WITH THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT. Therefore, what's the point of worrying about locking the customer out? A contract's a contract.
The REAL reason a lot of these cell companies worry about "unlocking" is the data transfer. I never paid for a single ringtone... I connect my data cable to my phone (or use my handheld with Bluetooth) and drop MP3s of my choice on the phone. I also "hacked" it (using a combination of the Programmer Service Tools and something called SIStorGSM) to remove the crap stock ringtones and images that I never used, thus freeing up more space for my own media. Great! Now, I'm a criminal?
This DRM stuff really pisses me off... I really do try to be a law-abiding person. I pay for my software, my movies, DVDs of TV series I love, even music CDs; all of which I COULD have pirated off the 'net... but the more DRM the Intellectual Property crowd puts in, the more they say to me "You're ALL guilty of being pirates" and the more I say "Well, if you're going to consider me guilty anyway, why do I care so much for trying to 'do the right thing'"
Just speculation, but maybe it has to do with the fact that the Internet was originally created in the US by the Department of Defense. It was supposed to be a fault-tolerant means of communication between various defense and research/educational institutions. Yes, it was opened up to international use. Yes, it was opened up to commercial use, but until all the defense and research stuff is fully moved to Internet2, I think the US has a reasonable argument for keeping control of the root servers.
The other question I have is: What exactly is it that the US is doing with the root servers that so bothers/enrages/scares the world??? Are we really doing something so badly that they feel the need to wrest control from us?
>> "Policy decisions could at a stroke... " >> "...could affect the availability of..."
Oh, I see, the big bad USA just MIGHT decide to impose policy or do something unfair.
France has such a strong voice in the EU, does that mean they get to apply their anti-nazi rules to the whole net? (I in no way condone racism or anti-semitism, but I seem to recall that France was all POed at eBay because someone in another country listed some WWII Nazi items which [some people collect without it causing them to foam at the mouth and salute] they find offensive)
China and North Korea seem to have some very strong ideas about what kind of information is double-plus-ungood for the people to see... China in particular seems to feel they should protect their citizens, (and probably the world) from criticisms of their government; but Spam for Penis Enlargement Pills are okayfine.
Ireland would probably want to shut off anyone who supports a woman's right to chose or who provides information about birth control... hmmm the Vatican would probably have something to say about that too.
Seems to me that even though the USA may be heading in some slightly scary directions over the last few years *cough* ~ Bush Presidency ~ *cough*, we're still more likely to stay out of the speech and idea regulation business.
>> Internet users around the world interact with them everyday, likely without knowing it.
So, in other words, "It's currently working so well that it's completely transparent to the vast majority of web users".. Seems to me that this is the best possible reason to support the US position
Not every single person who comes out with a cd can make a million dollars. Period.
Actually, many very successful artists don't make a million dollars either. The music industry is one of the greediest, most shady bunch of sociopaths ever to walk the earth. Faust got a way better deal than most bands get from record contracts. I mean, "Hey, we wanna sign you, here's a $20,000 advance and a 7 album contract... now, you subtract the FEES that we charge for doing the recording and engineering, and once your CD makes another $500,000, you'll actually be out of debt to us, and can start collecting royalties."
The root of the problem is this:
The whole music industry is geared around scarcity of resources. It costs hundreds of thousands to millions to build a first-class recording/post-production studio. It USED TO BE that this was the only way to get a retail-quality final product... but with multi-track digital hard disk recorders and computers, retail-quality recording and editing and post-production can be done for a fraction of the cost.
Distribution of a CD to radio stations (via the payola system), and to retail outlets is very costly and requires a great deal of connections and resources. That USED TO BE the only way to get your product to the mass-market of consumers. With the internet, you can reach fans, market physical CDs as well as offer instant-downloads of MP3s and the like... again, this can be done for a fraction of the cost of the old brick-and-mortar ways.
My point is that bands are getting to the point where they don't NEED the big music publishers. Their (the publishers) greed is making it worth the artist's time and investment to seek other means of production and marketing. Current technology empowers the little guys. The music industry realizes this... that their entire livelihood revolves around this scarcity of production, distribution, and promotion resources, but instead of trying to adapt and figure out how to provide a product that meets the consumers needs and make a reasonable profit, they want to litigate and lobby to artificially prop up their doomed business model.
Yes, the ease at which you can pirate a CD or a single song for free means that the record label and the artist "loses" potential sales, but if consumers are given an option for paying a reasonable amount for a quality DRM-free product, there is plenty of potential revenue for the ARTISTS... This can and does work. The record industry is pretty much a middle-man with decreasing value in our technological society. How many really great musicians have we never heard of because they didn't have "the look" or they didn't sound like the crap-du-jour?
</rant>
Re:Hey game retailers! How about just selling AO?
on
Hot Coffee Cooling Off
·
· Score: 1
The problem (as I understand it) is that many movie theatres are contractually forced by their leases or by their parent companies that they will not show any movies not rated by the MPAA and that they won't show any movies rated above ${INSERT_VALUE_HERE}.
I wonder if there is a similar thing (or if it's on the way) with Video Games, DVDS, and so-on.
It says the current scheme doesn't work on the MAC?? Gee, I guess that means that holding the SHIFT key or disabling AutoRun is now a violation of DMCA...
(Just figuring that it must be using an autorun to install or execute some kind of rights management / nag-ware program.)
Yes, by all means... The BBC TV production has been one of my all-time favorite videos/DVDs. I always loved the quirky BBC special effects and the actors who played them.
I'll be in the cinema on the first 29th to watch the movie, and I'll probably buy the DVD, but I doubt it will supplant the Cheezy, low-budget 1980's BBC production I've come to know and love.
The Guide sequences in the miniseries were perfection itself, and I really do wonder how they'll improve upon them.
Also, Also, Keep in mind that the HHGTTG was a BBC radio show first (1978 & 1980), then a Novel (1979), and then a TV series (1981). Throughout the three, Adams was fairly Consistent with most of the story... The Second Radio Series actually went off in quite a different direction than the books did, but it all fits together somewhere into a single big timeline somewhere in my brain.
Also, Also, Also, In my poking around, I noticed that BBC Radio 4 is currently doing a THIRD radio series. Must...find...way...to...acquire...
Ya know? I've been hearing the same kind of commercials on the radio in Connecticut. Basically, it's an ad by SBC urging the populace to demand that the state update its outdated telecom laws.
Of course, I was immediately suspicious. As far as I can tell, it's very rare that government makes a new law that is beneficial to the public, and increases our liberties and choices. It's been my sad experience that every time they pass a new law, we lose a little more freedom.
Glad to hear that others are alarmed by the situation, but at the same time, I now see it as a giant global conspiracy... keep an eye out for the black helicopters. *grin*
I use Netcaptor which is really just a better user interface that sits on top of IE. The biggest benefit for me is that I can turn off javaScript by going to SECURITY | Scripting Disable and can turn off ActiveX by going to SECURITY | ActiveX Disable.
I browse with both turned off. No popups, no popunders, no flash, slide-ins, and mostly no b.s.
If I run into a site with flash or other scripted content that I want, I will temporarily turn on the scripting, and turn it all back off when I'm done. It's very impractical to do that in IE, and I will admit to ignorance in the Opera/Mozilla/FireFox arena...
My point is that YES, IE has security issues, and as the article suggests, just using another browser is no guarantee. The real problem is client-side scripting and plugins. The internet is not the safe, friendly place it used to be. The bullies are kicking their ways out of the sandboxes.
I've been a Don Quixote on this issue for a long time. It's been my biggest pet peeve about web sites: I really hate when they force you to install some plug in or require some client-side script to view/use the site. Sure, JoeCartoon or StrongBad or Foamy the Squirrel need flash or shockwave or whatever, but when I go to my local movie theatre site to check screentimes, do they really need a big ol' flash front end with bells and whistles? no, but I go there, allow scripting so I can find out when my movie is on, forget to turn it back off, and next site I hit - Pop.. pa pa popup... pop... popup. How tiring.
Since I have no way of watching the BBC, and BBC America will probably never air it, and all my local PBS stations took it off the air years ago, my normal (personal) dislike of filesharing (I chose not to do it, but if others want to, I'm not going to bitch and moan) I'm hoping and praying that they snap to it on DVD releases.
Doctor Who has a worldwide market if the Beeb is smart enough to capitalize on it. I've got region free players, so I'll be happy to order the series direct from the UK the second it's available.
That being said, I would jump at the chance to watch even a crappy quality pre-production version just to whet my appetite. No amount of access to shared files will stop me from purchasing the DVDs from a legal source as soon as it's available. I don't think I'm the only one.
"Can someone point out why Stripe Snoop is better than my solution?"
Not just because it's cheaper, but the author of Stripe Snoop is showing people how to build their own from parts (encouraging an interest in Electronics) as well as providing Open Source software that not only reads from the hardware he built, but also will deal with data from your reader, and provides added functionality (as the article compares) sort of like a CDDB that will help you figure out what some of the data means... Software you can take apart and put back together again in your own way to maybe learn something and create something new by building on his work.
The site's/.ed, but I remember seeing the video... our company Mac Dweeb (Hey, I liked him and called him that to his face, so no flamebaiting is going on... really) played that for me sometime in 1999 or 2000.
So, add one more to the list of people who swear this is not quite a "first time ever"
Justice Department officials said they do not suspect terrorism in any of the cases, but said Banach's arrest shows how seriously they take the matter.
Back on 9/11, one of my biggest fears was not that terrorists would somehow feel that I was worth picking out of a crowd, but that my government would joyously tear up what remained of the Bill of Rights in an overzealous, misguided attempt to appear to be "doin' sumthin' about terrorism".
I am very sad to see myself proved right.. almost on a daily basis.
Did anyone else get the impression that the mystery technology the Ballamer was talking about was just a small cubicle farm of people going through things???
Maybe we could take all those monkeys with typewriters and teach them to filter spam instead of letting them continue to think that Romeo and Juliet was their idea.
Uh, actually, they have extremely harsh gun control lawas in Australia. The Knee-jerk response of wanting to ban guns is just as silly and unproductive as the knee-jerk reaction of blaming violent video games.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately, many service providers cripple data transfer and other features. (esp. on their low-rent, subsidized phones) John Q Public is either just plain unable to get his home-made tones on to his phone, or isn't even aware that he has an alternative to purchasing them.
... PROFIT! Want a ring tone from a song you have on your PeeCee as mp3, wav, and acd? ohh, too bad your phone was crippled, but you can buy the ringtone for $2.49 and download instantly?? PROFIT!
I bought one of the Motorola phones that has blue-tooth and a USB Data cable and a reasonable provider... I have no problems moving files to and from it. However, a lot of cell providers are seeing the data transfer as a cash cow. Take that video or photo with your phone, but the only way to transfer it is to use their photo share/data service, racking up charges?
Oh, by the way, a lot of providers don't let you transfer your purchased tones from one phone to another, or if your phone is lost/stolen, you have to PAY to download them AGAIN... You want to see how the future Music and Movie industries see the world, look into the happy and oh-so-open world of cell phone ring tones and data transfer.
I've been a fan since your first season, and in that time, you've covered quite a few of the big, classic myths and legends. Are you ever concerned that you'll "use up" all the best source material, sort of running out of steam as it were? or is the internet such a fertile ground for kooks and bad jokes that you figure you can go on indefinitely (or at least until you accidentally cause the spontaneous destruction of the universe while trying to prove a theory about the second gunman in the Grassy Knoll)
I'm supposed to take the author's opinion seriously when he can't even get his techspeak right??
"But the rise in the signal-to-noise ratio among the Alt groups has made combing through the chatter a tedious process."
If there is a RISE in the signal to noise ratio, that means the SIGNAL is getting STRONGER compared to the noise.
~sigh~
With all the MS bashing and whatnot, your comment was probably the most insightful and fair in this whole thread. People can say what they want about MicroSoft, but they do manage to give the consumers what they want.
One could argue that Word is already so bloated and full of creeping featurisms that it long ago stopped being a word processor, and became "MS Publisher Light". However, the truth is that consumers want new features, and any company who ignores that will lose mindshare and marketshare. MS is doing what they need to do. If they give the APPEARANCE of new features just by making the interface more intuitive to Joe Random User, then they are going to make Mr. Random happy, and keep making Mr. Gates richer.
I still really hope they put in a "use classic menu system" so that I don't have to figure out where the hell they moved this or that when I have to support my users.
Yeah - I hear you... I won't gripe and moan about the new interface as long as they wise up and put in a "classic menus" option. However, according to the article:
:)
"The traditional Office top-line menu, with its drop-down File, Edit, View, and other items, is gone forever and not even available as an option."
Hopefully, that observation was just due to it being a beta.
I can't STAND the tendency toward making everything all puffy and round like its filled with air. Gives a whole new meaning to "bloatware"
Well, if the RIAA had its way, you'd be legally and morally wrong if you got a tune stuck in your head and didn't pay royalties for every replay. :)
I think that's the crux of the issue. The DRM doesn't just stop people from distributing copies to others who haven't paid, it also stops (by design AND by side effect) conversion between formats and backing stuff up. It's not just about stopping copying, it's about the media publishers controlling when, where, and how you listen to their intellectual property. (and of course, making sure they grab a piece of the pie as often as possible)
Right or wrong, rip all my CDs and mostly listen to the resultant MP3s... so much more convenient than carting a big binder/folder around, plus the playlists are nice. If
Dude! That's a brilliant analysis.
My thought:: You should patent that storyline immediately so that if they pull it off in real life, you can sue them for everything they're worth for violating YOUR patent!
Come to think of it, what if life DOES imitate art, only in a particular case, there's a patent? Could this open doors for extra civil litigation.
The more I hear about this story and these plotpatent people, the more I think that the ONLY people who will win from this one in the long haul are the bloody lawyers!
I think that all the hullabaloo is that RFID chips make it feasable to provide a UNIQUE NUMBER for each chip as well as a UPC-type number for the product id.
I did in fact put "hacked" in quotes because I merely found and used tools that someone else created - something anyone could have done...
Yes, I understand about carrier lock-ins, it's actually called a subsidy lock - as in, "we subsidized your phone, so we are locking you in"
My points were two-fold:
1) that the subsidy lock (carrier lock or whatever you wish to call it) is hardly necessary since you're bound by the terms of the contract whether or not you switch your phone to another carrier or pop in an Orange Card while you're in the UK.
2) It IS necessary to use "hacking tools" to access certain areas of the phone's memory. The commercial dataPilot and other data transfer programs are deliberately hobbled in this regard. Among other things, the extra level of access allows you to delete the default ring tones (something you can't do with the phone or with commercial phone data programs) back up your purchased ringtones (something you CAN'T do on many phones as the providers are far too happy to charge you for the tones you've already bought if you change phones) change the default startup screens, remove and install JAMDAT games, etc.
So, I understand why you say it's not what the unlocking penalties are for, but My point is that they DO INDEED care about ringtones and MP3s. Cell Phones are a revenue gold mine for the carriers - ringtones and other downloadable content are a significant and profitable business around the world, not just in the US. My concern is the over-all trend of crippling the consumers abilities to use their hardware as they see fit, and using the DMCA as a club... with a nail in it... on fire.
I use a Motorola phone I got through Cingular. They sell the Motorola "World Phones" all unlocked.
Sure, the phone company subsidizes your phone hardware by locking you into a certain term length of contract... So, if you unlock your phone and use it with another provider, YOU'RE STILL STUCK WITH THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT. Therefore, what's the point of worrying about locking the customer out? A contract's a contract.
The REAL reason a lot of these cell companies worry about "unlocking" is the data transfer. I never paid for a single ringtone... I connect my data cable to my phone (or use my handheld with Bluetooth) and drop MP3s of my choice on the phone. I also "hacked" it (using a combination of the Programmer Service Tools and something called SIStorGSM) to remove the crap stock ringtones and images that I never used, thus freeing up more space for my own media. Great! Now, I'm a criminal?
This DRM stuff really pisses me off... I really do try to be a law-abiding person. I pay for my software, my movies, DVDs of TV series I love, even music CDs; all of which I COULD have pirated off the 'net... but the more DRM the Intellectual Property crowd puts in, the more they say to me "You're ALL guilty of being pirates" and the more I say "Well, if you're going to consider me guilty anyway, why do I care so much for trying to 'do the right thing'"
Just speculation, but maybe it has to do with the fact that the Internet was originally created in the US by the Department of Defense. It was supposed to be a fault-tolerant means of communication between various defense and research /educational institutions. Yes, it was opened up to international use. Yes, it was opened up to commercial use, but until all the defense and research stuff is fully moved to Internet2, I think the US has a reasonable argument for keeping control of the root servers.
.. Seems to me that this is the best possible reason to support the US position
The other question I have is: What exactly is it that the US is doing with the root servers that so bothers/enrages/scares the world??? Are we really doing something so badly that they feel the need to wrest control from us?
>> "Policy decisions could at a stroke... "
>> "...could affect the availability of..."
Oh, I see, the big bad USA just MIGHT decide to impose policy or do something unfair.
France has such a strong voice in the EU, does that mean they get to apply their anti-nazi rules to the whole net? (I in no way condone racism or anti-semitism, but I seem to recall that France was all POed at eBay because someone in another country listed some WWII Nazi items which [some people collect without it causing them to foam at the mouth and salute] they find offensive)
China and North Korea seem to have some very strong ideas about what kind of information is double-plus-ungood for the people to see... China in particular seems to feel they should protect their citizens, (and probably the world) from criticisms of their government; but Spam for Penis Enlargement Pills are okayfine.
Ireland would probably want to shut off anyone who supports a woman's right to chose or who provides information about birth control... hmmm the Vatican would probably have something to say about that too.
Seems to me that even though the USA may be heading in some slightly scary directions over the last few years *cough* ~ Bush Presidency ~ *cough*, we're still more likely to stay out of the speech and idea regulation business.
>> Internet users around the world interact with them everyday, likely without knowing it.
So, in other words, "It's currently working so well that it's completely transparent to the vast majority of web users"
Actually, many very successful artists don't make a million dollars either. The music industry is one of the greediest, most shady bunch of sociopaths ever to walk the earth. Faust got a way better deal than most bands get from record contracts. I mean, "Hey, we wanna sign you, here's a $20,000 advance and a 7 album contract... now, you subtract the FEES that we charge for doing the recording and engineering, and once your CD makes another $500,000, you'll actually be out of debt to us, and can start collecting royalties."
The root of the problem is this: The whole music industry is geared around scarcity of resources. It costs hundreds of thousands to millions to build a first-class recording/post-production studio. It USED TO BE that this was the only way to get a retail-quality final product... but with multi-track digital hard disk recorders and computers, retail-quality recording and editing and post-production can be done for a fraction of the cost.
Distribution of a CD to radio stations (via the payola system), and to retail outlets is very costly and requires a great deal of connections and resources. That USED TO BE the only way to get your product to the mass-market of consumers. With the internet, you can reach fans, market physical CDs as well as offer instant-downloads of MP3s and the like... again, this can be done for a fraction of the cost of the old brick-and-mortar ways.
My point is that bands are getting to the point where they don't NEED the big music publishers. Their (the publishers) greed is making it worth the artist's time and investment to seek other means of production and marketing. Current technology empowers the little guys. The music industry realizes this... that their entire livelihood revolves around this scarcity of production, distribution, and promotion resources, but instead of trying to adapt and figure out how to provide a product that meets the consumers needs and make a reasonable profit, they want to litigate and lobby to artificially prop up their doomed business model.
Yes, the ease at which you can pirate a CD or a single song for free means that the record label and the artist "loses" potential sales, but if consumers are given an option for paying a reasonable amount for a quality DRM-free product, there is plenty of potential revenue for the ARTISTS... This can and does work. The record industry is pretty much a middle-man with decreasing value in our technological society. How many really great musicians have we never heard of because they didn't have "the look" or they didn't sound like the crap-du-jour?
</rant>
The problem (as I understand it) is that many movie theatres are contractually forced by their leases or by their parent companies that they will not show any movies not rated by the MPAA and that they won't show any movies rated above ${INSERT_VALUE_HERE}.
I wonder if there is a similar thing (or if it's on the way) with Video Games, DVDS, and so-on.
It says the current scheme doesn't work on the MAC?? Gee, I guess that means that holding the SHIFT key or disabling AutoRun is now a violation of DMCA...
(Just figuring that it must be using an autorun to install or execute some kind of rights management / nag-ware program.)
Yes, by all means... The BBC TV production has been one of my all-time favorite videos/DVDs. I always loved the quirky BBC special effects and the actors who played them.
Douglas Adams actually Created the Arthur Dent role with Simon Jones in mind... He played Arthur in the 1981 miniseries and in both of the BBC Radio Series'
Also, Peter Jones (the voice of the book), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod) and Stephen Moore (Marvin) were all in both the Miniseries and the two Radio Series'.
I'll be in the cinema on the first 29th to watch the movie, and I'll probably buy the DVD, but I doubt it will supplant the Cheezy, low-budget 1980's BBC production I've come to know and love.
The Guide sequences in the miniseries were perfection itself, and I really do wonder how they'll improve upon them.
Also, Also, Keep in mind that the HHGTTG was a BBC radio show first (1978 & 1980), then a Novel (1979), and then a TV series (1981). Throughout the three, Adams was fairly Consistent with most of the story... The Second Radio Series actually went off in quite a different direction than the books did, but it all fits together somewhere into a single big timeline somewhere in my brain.
Also, Also, Also, In my poking around, I noticed that BBC Radio 4 is currently doing a THIRD radio series. Must...find...way...to...acquire...
Wow, glad our human race originally came from a lot of useless loonies including a large number of Telephone Sanitizers.
Ya know? I've been hearing the same kind of commercials on the radio in Connecticut. Basically, it's an ad by SBC urging the populace to demand that the state update its outdated telecom laws.
Of course, I was immediately suspicious. As far as I can tell, it's very rare that government makes a new law that is beneficial to the public, and increases our liberties and choices. It's been my sad experience that every time they pass a new law, we lose a little more freedom.
Glad to hear that others are alarmed by the situation, but at the same time, I now see it as a giant global conspiracy... keep an eye out for the black helicopters. *grin*
I use Netcaptor which is really just a better user interface that sits on top of IE. The biggest benefit for me is that I can turn off javaScript by going to SECURITY | Scripting Disable and can turn off ActiveX by going to SECURITY | ActiveX Disable.
... popup. How tiring.
I browse with both turned off. No popups, no popunders, no flash, slide-ins, and mostly no b.s.
If I run into a site with flash or other scripted content that I want, I will temporarily turn on the scripting, and turn it all back off when I'm done. It's very impractical to do that in IE, and I will admit to ignorance in the Opera/Mozilla/FireFox arena...
My point is that YES, IE has security issues, and as the article suggests, just using another browser is no guarantee. The real problem is client-side scripting and plugins. The internet is not the safe, friendly place it used to be. The bullies are kicking their ways out of the sandboxes.
I've been a Don Quixote on this issue for a long time. It's been my biggest pet peeve about web sites: I really hate when they force you to install some plug in or require some client-side script to view/use the site. Sure, JoeCartoon or StrongBad or Foamy the Squirrel need flash or shockwave or whatever, but when I go to my local movie theatre site to check screentimes, do they really need a big ol' flash front end with bells and whistles? no, but I go there, allow scripting so I can find out when my movie is on, forget to turn it back off, and next site I hit - Pop.. pa pa popup... pop
Since I have no way of watching the BBC, and BBC America will probably never air it, and all my local PBS stations took it off the air years ago, my normal (personal) dislike of filesharing (I chose not to do it, but if others want to, I'm not going to bitch and moan) I'm hoping and praying that they snap to it on DVD releases.
Doctor Who has a worldwide market if the Beeb is smart enough to capitalize on it. I've got region free players, so I'll be happy to order the series direct from the UK the second it's available.
That being said, I would jump at the chance to watch even a crappy quality pre-production version just to whet my appetite. No amount of access to shared files will stop me from purchasing the DVDs from a legal source as soon as it's available. I don't think I'm the only one.
The site's /.ed, but I remember seeing the video... our company Mac Dweeb (Hey, I liked him and called him that to his face, so no flamebaiting is going on... really) played that for me sometime in 1999 or 2000.
So, add one more to the list of people who swear this is not quite a "first time ever"
As I understand it, green lasers tend to show the path of their beam without needing smoke in the air... It actually makes some kind of sense.
This says it all::
Back on 9/11, one of my biggest fears was not that terrorists would somehow feel that I was worth picking out of a crowd, but that my government would joyously tear up what remained of the Bill of Rights in an overzealous, misguided attempt to appear to be "doin' sumthin' about terrorism".
I am very sad to see myself proved right.. almost on a daily basis.
Did anyone else get the impression that the mystery technology the Ballamer was talking about was just a small cubicle farm of people going through things???
Maybe we could take all those monkeys with typewriters and teach them to filter spam instead of letting them continue to think that Romeo and Juliet was their idea.
Uh, actually, they have extremely harsh gun control lawas in Australia. The Knee-jerk response of wanting to ban guns is just as silly and unproductive as the knee-jerk reaction of blaming violent video games.