I know that these are specially chosen pictures from bad angles/etc, and had considered commenting on that, but felt that leaving it as essentially hyperbole was just fine. My feeling is that they really don't look all that much better than many people you see on the street. Sure, they might be somewhat attractive, but I really don't feel that it's multi-million dollars a year attractive.
Err... that link was supposed to be here. I've been having problems copying link locations since upgrading Firefox to 1.5. It seem like it sometimes tries to get the url of the first tab that was opened, or something wierd like that. Also had wierd problems using the keyboard in certain fields at times... for instance sometimes I can't type letters, sometimes the arrow keys don't navigate around. Sometimes both. But minimizing and then restoring seems to help sometimes. I've only really seen it on Slashdot and Google, but then again those are pretty much the only webistes I regularly enter info into.
You know what's funny? Those hyper-hyped "hot" chicks really aren't that attractive, sometimes downright scary, without the professional makovers they get before any publicity spot. seriously. So that means you are left with... hyper-hyped, and that's it.
1)As you say, many of the iPod purchases are gifts which have not been opened yet.
2)Many of the iPod sales are to repeat customers who do not have to fill up their library again. I am sure a significant number of the people who are getting their first iPod also already have music purchased from the iTunes store.
3)There are more outlets to purchase music online now than there were before, so iTunes sales would suffer due to the competition. That's only natural.
4)The previous quarter was the beginning of the school year. I imagine many students would get new music at the beginning of the semester. They are too busy with papers and studying towards the end to shop around for music. And they are getting too tight on funds as student loans or summer job savings have been spent already.
5)Because the holidays are coming up, people are less likely to buy music for themselves, but they have been purchasing iTunes gift cards of which a significant portion will be redeemed shortly after christmas. I'm guessing this alone would account for at least 0.44% of last quarter's sales. I mean, it's not like you'd actually purchase music from the iTunes store to put it on someone elses iPod as a present... you'd just give them a gift certificate to do it themselves. Similar to 1) but not entirely the same. For instance they would probably be inside a card than have a card taped onto them.
This isn't the music labels whining this time. This was Napster complaining that you can't load Napster purchased song onto an Ipod. You think the Record labels would really complain if people were to "mostly fill up their players from their own CD collections." That means more CD sales.
Should it be up to the driver to decide how much alcohol is too much to drive home after? It has been shown in many studies that talking on a cell phone impairs driving more than driving drunk.
In fact, the original term was duck tape. The silver cloth tape was designed to seal ammunition boxes to keep them waterproof, like a duck. The name "duct tape" came about because it was misheard, and it seems like the tape would be good for ducts. However, it is actually very poor at sealing air ducts, and is often against building codes to use it for this purpose: metallic tape is almost universally specified, not cloth tape.
Apparantly that's one of the little details that hadn't been worked out, and terms agreed upon like in the end of my previous post:) So, I simply reiterated his position somewhere in there.
Than again, I guess most arguments I've seen have been a misunderstanding of some little detail like that.
If you look at the myths, the gods would not necessarilly need to ave advanced quantum technology, but technology at about our current level, give or take. Firebirds, flaming chariots, etc could just be a nontechnical explanation of a rocket or even a jet, similar to the misunderstandings inherint in cargo cults. There are people who have taken this, as well as a lot of other cultural phenomenon, as evidence of a previous culture which has often been indentified as Atlantis.
Some of the cultural phenomenon include the Hopi and Navajo border patters which are remarkably similar to the sine, square and saw waves which are well known in electronics. Proponents of the Atlantis civilization theories take this as native people watching an Atlantian trying to fix his aircraft or something, and watching the patterns that developed on the oscilloscope. Or perhaps the Atlanteans had attempted to teach the natives basic EE, and this is what survived of the attempt.
Zeus' lightning bolt could have been an advanced electrical weapon, or it could have been a taser or even regular firearm.
The supposed atronomic knowledge of the Dogon people could easilly be explained by an Atlantean society.
The similar time frames of the creation of pyramids in several places (Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, Central America and others) could be explained by an Atlantean society.
I'm not saying I believe that there was an island named Atlantis in the dawn of history which had a technology level similar to or greater than ours, but it does account for many religious and cultural similarities around the world. Or these could be explained by giving those cultures a little more credit than we generally do, and accepting that maybe they had intercontinental travel to a limited extent. Or perhaps many things come from prehistoric archetypes and myths passed down, in combination with a little luck and coincidence. But Atlantis does make for an interesting story.
The broken windows fallcy? This is Slashdot, you should know that Windows is broken.
But seriously, the Wilson & Kelling broken windows theory has been shown to hold fairly true albeit in fairly small study areas (An entire city even would simply have too many variables to account for) in that an already deteriorated area will be more likely to harbor crime. The straw-man that opponents hold up is that militant policing is not the only way to deter crime, but fixing up the streets can also be done by fairly vigilant anti-graffiti and litter teams (people actually fixing the problems, rather than going after the perps.) Also simply more eyes on the streets, better lighting, etc can reduce the amounts of these quality of life violations without actually having to prosecute anyone. In fact, providing for rewarding employment opportunities and satisfying outlets for creativity and entertainment would, in my mind, do more to the problems that are associated with the broken windows theory than strict policing would, but that doesn't mean I disagree with the theory, just the interpretation many politicans have taken on what to do about it.
Back to pirates: I really think it is quite reasonable that piracy will negatively affect the profits of IP holders on a microeconomics scale, as some people who would have paid for the software/music/whatever can now get it for free. I guess the big question is whether piracy negatively affects the economy as a whole, as the money that was previously earmarked towards that IP can now be used to gain additional goods or services, or even be invested. However I'm pretty sure that piracy helps the economy of developing countries, as the consumers can enjoy the IP and still have money to spend or invest in the local economy, rather than being drained out to businesses in one of a small number of developed countries. The fact that they do use this IP can mean the difference between a local business being able to start, or not being able to afford the software/etc to set up shop.
Now one would really have to question whether vigilant defense of IP actually helps the IP holder in the long term, as their vigilant defense means that they can no longer freely use ideas (business methods, software, etc etc etc) thought up by another company. I believe the prevalance of one click shopping patents and their ilk hinder rather than stimulate innovation, and therefore are detrimental to the economy and society as a whole. But it would be very difficult to disprove that vigilant enforcement of IP terms is more profitable to a company IN THE SHORT TERM.
So, I guess we kinda agree, but just haven't worked out the details on what we do and don't agree on yet?
It's called building hype over a demo. A demo to a game which the publishers think will get you to purchase the full game, which is actually pretty fun. Especially if you're at all mechanically inclined.
I just love how the article trys to make it sound like this is the beginning of a new process. I am not a geologist, but I did take a few college level classes in it. To me, this would sound like a simply extension of the creation of the African Rift Valley. I think what is exciting about this is that we caught the formation of a sub-rift, and so can better understand the process.
The nature of the fissure as well as the surrounding rock make up make the lakes of the rift valley (Lakes Tanganyika, Malawi, etc) extremely interesting to limnologists. And of course anybody who has hear of the Leakey's will have a passing knowledge of the rift valley. This is a very interesting area for natural sciences.
But if you can find the music that you actually like to listen to, you might buy music that's not RIAA approved.
Umm... tinfoil hat off. This isn't the RIAA, it's the MPA, which is a consortium of sheet music publishers. I would imagine that they paid the musicians or record companies money for the privilege of being able to publish the music, and the sheet music was probably double checked for accuracy by the IP holder.
One big problem with sheet music is that is has been mostly irrelevant since jazz came around. The subtleties of volume change, pitch bending and tempo swing which make most jazz and post jazz music alive are just not amenable to transcription. Basically you can't write down a groove or anything funky.
You're missing Windows and Quicktime. I've had many plugins crash firefox in the past, although I seem to be getting less of it with 1.5. Or maybe I just haven't gone to the pages that crash firefox.
I work for an animal control facility, and i will give you three kudos points here.
1) Paying enough attention to your dog when it was outside to notice that it was attacking that cat.
2) Not letting your own cat outside.
3) Trying to find the cat's owner: very brave, very responsible action.
The only thing I think you did wrong was trying to get her off the cat (Well, assuming you tried physically stopping the dog, verbal commands would probably be allright, but I doubt the verbal commands would work in this instance unless the dog and trainer had been through a couple serious obedience courses with dedicated training practice outside of class.)
If more pet owners acted in the ways I gave kudos for, I would be happy to be out of a job.
They were multiple interviewers, one interviewee. The article states at least a half dozen people interview the potential hire: supervisors, potential coworkers, etc etc etc. I think it would work much better than having HR doing all the interviews, especially in technical areas. As an added bonus, it could help gauge how well the potential hire will get along with coworkers (Or "Fit Into the Corporate Environment" if you need an MBA term for it.) The interesting thing about this is Google claims that this interview process will lead to a positive feedback loop in employee quality, where having good employees means that future hires will also be good (whether or not this actually is true, I don't know. But coworkers probably know the best exactly what skillset is needed to get the job done.)
You won't be able to return a CD because iTunes won't rip it. In general, it is very difficult to return opened CDs, unless there is a physical defect that prevents you from playing the CD. You could claim that since the CD does not follow standard redbook format it is not technically a CD and so was falsely advertised. All that will get you is strange looks from the cashiers and managers; not your money back.
But a true artist might be willing to trade freedom and a percentage of album sales to get more people to listen to their music. The recording industry can be a very efficient marketing force, getting music played on the radio, getting CDs placed in stores, getting tours booked and so on and so on.
I really don't see integrity coming into play. Most musicians really don't care about DRM one way or another, or at the very least are ambivalent. For most people "integrity" means having a code of ethics that matches theirs.
From what I understand about physical security, it's impossible to make something impenetrable, so what you do is try to at least make it obvious that someone got in. Someone punching through the drywall or a window will make it obvious that there was a breakin.
Nope, they can't coexist (at least not function together.) This bacteria requires an anoxic environment, while the algae will release oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthysis.
That said, I really don't think we can think of chemotrophs (organisms that survive by converting one chemical to another) as a very good energy source. Recreating their environment and feedstocks on an industrial scale would be very energy intensive. In the case of the bacteria in the article, even gathering and purifying the carbon monoxide from emissions of hydrocarbon burning energy plants would be quite energy inefficient. You can probably just forget about collecting the carbon monoxide from a car's tailpipe; it would be a total waste of energy.
Those twenty things are shared by early birds and coelurosaurian dinosaurs are generally not found among other organisms. Other organisms may have a very small set of these features, but nowhere near all twenty. This is standard practice for taxonomy.
I've heard that the oddly shaped knees thing is related more to the unnatural position that shoes put our feet in. Then again I've heard a lot of crackpot theories before.
But it really wouldn't matter anyways, all evolution "strives to do" is ensure that you are fit enough that your offspring have offspring. If the knees are good enough to get you to, say, 30 years old, then you would probably have grandchildren if you are going to breed at all (not the case in modern society, but in primitive man I would guess that puberty is when we started to breed. Many other mammals often get pregnant in the first heat cycle.) I know of very few 30 year olds who have bad knees, unless they injured them in some way (Of my friends under 30 with bad knees, one had a skateboarding accident which involved pins being placed in his hips and various surgical repairs, one was stabbed in one knee and hurt the other in a mosh pit, while a third has muscular dystrophy.)
Slashdot Mirror
I know that these are specially chosen pictures from bad angles/etc, and had considered commenting on that, but felt that leaving it as essentially hyperbole was just fine. My feeling is that they really don't look all that much better than many people you see on the street. Sure, they might be somewhat attractive, but I really don't feel that it's multi-million dollars a year attractive.
Err... that link was supposed to be here. I've been having problems copying link locations since upgrading Firefox to 1.5. It seem like it sometimes tries to get the url of the first tab that was opened, or something wierd like that. Also had wierd problems using the keyboard in certain fields at times... for instance sometimes I can't type letters, sometimes the arrow keys don't navigate around. Sometimes both. But minimizing and then restoring seems to help sometimes. I've only really seen it on Slashdot and Google, but then again those are pretty much the only webistes I regularly enter info into.
You know what's funny? Those hyper-hyped "hot" chicks really aren't that attractive, sometimes downright scary, without the professional makovers they get before any publicity spot. seriously. So that means you are left with... hyper-hyped, and that's it.
This article is a non-issue for several reasons:
1)As you say, many of the iPod purchases are gifts which have not been opened yet.
2)Many of the iPod sales are to repeat customers who do not have to fill up their library again. I am sure a significant number of the people who are getting their first iPod also already have music purchased from the iTunes store.
3)There are more outlets to purchase music online now than there were before, so iTunes sales would suffer due to the competition. That's only natural.
4)The previous quarter was the beginning of the school year. I imagine many students would get new music at the beginning of the semester. They are too busy with papers and studying towards the end to shop around for music. And they are getting too tight on funds as student loans or summer job savings have been spent already.
5)Because the holidays are coming up, people are less likely to buy music for themselves, but they have been purchasing iTunes gift cards of which a significant portion will be redeemed shortly after christmas. I'm guessing this alone would account for at least 0.44% of last quarter's sales. I mean, it's not like you'd actually purchase music from the iTunes store to put it on someone elses iPod as a present... you'd just give them a gift certificate to do it themselves. Similar to 1) but not entirely the same. For instance they would probably be inside a card than have a card taped onto them.
This isn't the music labels whining this time. This was Napster complaining that you can't load Napster purchased song onto an Ipod. You think the Record labels would really complain if people were to "mostly fill up their players from their own CD collections." That means more CD sales.
Should it be up to the driver to decide how much alcohol is too much to drive home after? It has been shown in many studies that talking on a cell phone impairs driving more than driving drunk.
There needs to be a 1-800 number to report people talking on the phone while driving.
In fact, the original term was duck tape. The silver cloth tape was designed to seal ammunition boxes to keep them waterproof, like a duck. The name "duct tape" came about because it was misheard, and it seems like the tape would be good for ducts. However, it is actually very poor at sealing air ducts, and is often against building codes to use it for this purpose: metallic tape is almost universally specified, not cloth tape.
Apparantly that's one of the little details that hadn't been worked out, and terms agreed upon like in the end of my previous post :) So, I simply reiterated his position somewhere in there.
Than again, I guess most arguments I've seen have been a misunderstanding of some little detail like that.
If you look at the myths, the gods would not necessarilly need to ave advanced quantum technology, but technology at about our current level, give or take. Firebirds, flaming chariots, etc could just be a nontechnical explanation of a rocket or even a jet, similar to the misunderstandings inherint in cargo cults. There are people who have taken this, as well as a lot of other cultural phenomenon, as evidence of a previous culture which has often been indentified as Atlantis.
Some of the cultural phenomenon include the Hopi and Navajo border patters which are remarkably similar to the sine, square and saw waves which are well known in electronics. Proponents of the Atlantis civilization theories take this as native people watching an Atlantian trying to fix his aircraft or something, and watching the patterns that developed on the oscilloscope. Or perhaps the Atlanteans had attempted to teach the natives basic EE, and this is what survived of the attempt.
Zeus' lightning bolt could have been an advanced electrical weapon, or it could have been a taser or even regular firearm.
The supposed atronomic knowledge of the Dogon people could easilly be explained by an Atlantean society.
The similar time frames of the creation of pyramids in several places (Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, Central America and others) could be explained by an Atlantean society.
I'm not saying I believe that there was an island named Atlantis in the dawn of history which had a technology level similar to or greater than ours, but it does account for many religious and cultural similarities around the world. Or these could be explained by giving those cultures a little more credit than we generally do, and accepting that maybe they had intercontinental travel to a limited extent. Or perhaps many things come from prehistoric archetypes and myths passed down, in combination with a little luck and coincidence. But Atlantis does make for an interesting story.
And the one million dollar question is... how much of that 80% would have purchased the goods had they not been able to pirate them.
The broken windows fallcy? This is Slashdot, you should know that Windows is broken.
But seriously, the Wilson & Kelling broken windows theory has been shown to hold fairly true albeit in fairly small study areas (An entire city even would simply have too many variables to account for) in that an already deteriorated area will be more likely to harbor crime. The straw-man that opponents hold up is that militant policing is not the only way to deter crime, but fixing up the streets can also be done by fairly vigilant anti-graffiti and litter teams (people actually fixing the problems, rather than going after the perps.) Also simply more eyes on the streets, better lighting, etc can reduce the amounts of these quality of life violations without actually having to prosecute anyone. In fact, providing for rewarding employment opportunities and satisfying outlets for creativity and entertainment would, in my mind, do more to the problems that are associated with the broken windows theory than strict policing would, but that doesn't mean I disagree with the theory, just the interpretation many politicans have taken on what to do about it.
Back to pirates: I really think it is quite reasonable that piracy will negatively affect the profits of IP holders on a microeconomics scale, as some people who would have paid for the software/music/whatever can now get it for free. I guess the big question is whether piracy negatively affects the economy as a whole, as the money that was previously earmarked towards that IP can now be used to gain additional goods or services, or even be invested. However I'm pretty sure that piracy helps the economy of developing countries, as the consumers can enjoy the IP and still have money to spend or invest in the local economy, rather than being drained out to businesses in one of a small number of developed countries. The fact that they do use this IP can mean the difference between a local business being able to start, or not being able to afford the software/etc to set up shop.
Now one would really have to question whether vigilant defense of IP actually helps the IP holder in the long term, as their vigilant defense means that they can no longer freely use ideas (business methods, software, etc etc etc) thought up by another company. I believe the prevalance of one click shopping patents and their ilk hinder rather than stimulate innovation, and therefore are detrimental to the economy and society as a whole. But it would be very difficult to disprove that vigilant enforcement of IP terms is more profitable to a company IN THE SHORT TERM.
So, I guess we kinda agree, but just haven't worked out the details on what we do and don't agree on yet?
It's called building hype over a demo. A demo to a game which the publishers think will get you to purchase the full game, which is actually pretty fun. Especially if you're at all mechanically inclined.
I just love how the article trys to make it sound like this is the beginning of a new process. I am not a geologist, but I did take a few college level classes in it. To me, this would sound like a simply extension of the creation of the African Rift Valley. I think what is exciting about this is that we caught the formation of a sub-rift, and so can better understand the process.
The nature of the fissure as well as the surrounding rock make up make the lakes of the rift valley (Lakes Tanganyika, Malawi, etc) extremely interesting to limnologists. And of course anybody who has hear of the Leakey's will have a passing knowledge of the rift valley. This is a very interesting area for natural sciences.
But if you can find the music that you actually like to listen to, you might buy music that's not RIAA approved.
Umm... tinfoil hat off. This isn't the RIAA, it's the MPA, which is a consortium of sheet music publishers. I would imagine that they paid the musicians or record companies money for the privilege of being able to publish the music, and the sheet music was probably double checked for accuracy by the IP holder.
One big problem with sheet music is that is has been mostly irrelevant since jazz came around. The subtleties of volume change, pitch bending and tempo swing which make most jazz and post jazz music alive are just not amenable to transcription. Basically you can't write down a groove or anything funky.
You're missing Windows and Quicktime. I've had many plugins crash firefox in the past, although I seem to be getting less of it with 1.5. Or maybe I just haven't gone to the pages that crash firefox.
Who knows... maybe your boss was a little envious of you having the courage to be able to stand up and say "I've had enough."
I work for an animal control facility, and i will give you three kudos points here.
1) Paying enough attention to your dog when it was outside to notice that it was attacking that cat.
2) Not letting your own cat outside.
3) Trying to find the cat's owner: very brave, very responsible action.
The only thing I think you did wrong was trying to get her off the cat (Well, assuming you tried physically stopping the dog, verbal commands would probably be allright, but I doubt the verbal commands would work in this instance unless the dog and trainer had been through a couple serious obedience courses with dedicated training practice outside of class.)
If more pet owners acted in the ways I gave kudos for, I would be happy to be out of a job.
They were multiple interviewers, one interviewee. The article states at least a half dozen people interview the potential hire: supervisors, potential coworkers, etc etc etc. I think it would work much better than having HR doing all the interviews, especially in technical areas. As an added bonus, it could help gauge how well the potential hire will get along with coworkers (Or "Fit Into the Corporate Environment" if you need an MBA term for it.) The interesting thing about this is Google claims that this interview process will lead to a positive feedback loop in employee quality, where having good employees means that future hires will also be good (whether or not this actually is true, I don't know. But coworkers probably know the best exactly what skillset is needed to get the job done.)
You won't be able to return a CD because iTunes won't rip it. In general, it is very difficult to return opened CDs, unless there is a physical defect that prevents you from playing the CD. You could claim that since the CD does not follow standard redbook format it is not technically a CD and so was falsely advertised. All that will get you is strange looks from the cashiers and managers; not your money back.
But a true artist might be willing to trade freedom and a percentage of album sales to get more people to listen to their music. The recording industry can be a very efficient marketing force, getting music played on the radio, getting CDs placed in stores, getting tours booked and so on and so on.
I really don't see integrity coming into play. Most musicians really don't care about DRM one way or another, or at the very least are ambivalent. For most people "integrity" means having a code of ethics that matches theirs.
From what I understand about physical security, it's impossible to make something impenetrable, so what you do is try to at least make it obvious that someone got in. Someone punching through the drywall or a window will make it obvious that there was a breakin.
Nope, they can't coexist (at least not function together.) This bacteria requires an anoxic environment, while the algae will release oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthysis.
That said, I really don't think we can think of chemotrophs (organisms that survive by converting one chemical to another) as a very good energy source. Recreating their environment and feedstocks on an industrial scale would be very energy intensive. In the case of the bacteria in the article, even gathering and purifying the carbon monoxide from emissions of hydrocarbon burning energy plants would be quite energy inefficient. You can probably just forget about collecting the carbon monoxide from a car's tailpipe; it would be a total waste of energy.
Those twenty things are shared by early birds and coelurosaurian dinosaurs are generally not found among other organisms. Other organisms may have a very small set of these features, but nowhere near all twenty. This is standard practice for taxonomy.
I've heard that the oddly shaped knees thing is related more to the unnatural position that shoes put our feet in. Then again I've heard a lot of crackpot theories before.
But it really wouldn't matter anyways, all evolution "strives to do" is ensure that you are fit enough that your offspring have offspring. If the knees are good enough to get you to, say, 30 years old, then you would probably have grandchildren if you are going to breed at all (not the case in modern society, but in primitive man I would guess that puberty is when we started to breed. Many other mammals often get pregnant in the first heat cycle.) I know of very few 30 year olds who have bad knees, unless they injured them in some way (Of my friends under 30 with bad knees, one had a skateboarding accident which involved pins being placed in his hips and various surgical repairs, one was stabbed in one knee and hurt the other in a mosh pit, while a third has muscular dystrophy.)