You know, I think you're right about it being Always on My Mind. I knew It's a Sin didn't sound right, but I knew I'd been surprised when I heard Elvis singing what was to me a Pet Shop Boys song.
And they credit Thompson, James, and Christopher, for those who are keeping track.
One thing that this article doesn't touch on is that early Hollywood (and radio) was filled with people copying each other's works, and in a lot of cases the result of copying and reworking old material resulted in a richer cultural landscape than would have otherwise occurred.
Look at how many classic songs of the 30s, 40s and 50s there are whose canonical popular version wasn't the original, or even created with the approval of the original artist. Similarly, what a loss to cinema it would have been if Stoker's estate had been able to crush Nosferatu with lawsuits... if nothing else, we would never have had Shadow of the Vampire. Most people don't listen to Fred Astaire's old singing, but everyone knows Taco. And the Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin" was originally an Elvis track. That's not saying that Taco and the Pet Shop Boys didn't get the rights first (I have no idea), but that it's that kind of thing that has resulted in a richer world.
Based on my experiences helping neophytes do web work, my guess is that 90% of the web-using public doesn't even notice the little key icon, and don't know what a security certificate is even when the dialog to accept one appears. All they usually look at is the web page itself... especially on a browser like Safari where the lock is a small icon in the title bar that escaped me the first time I went looking for it. It might be interesting to have some usability folks do an eye movement analysis to see if the average user's eye ever tracks to the lock icon during normal browsing.
Of course, this does make it more likely for people who hit that nasty stage of knowing just enough about online security to be dangerous to get caught...
This article is interesting, but rather than the commodification of software, it's more the commodification of data that's really being discussed. His examples and ideas really concern data format standardization and that standards are what allow data to become commodities.
In that sense, I agree completely... demand for "market" in distributable music spurs the popularization of a standard and an infrastructure for distribution (e.g. peer-to-peer networks). And I definitely agree that software should be written to take advantage of economies provided by using standardized data.
Of course, it's kind of obvious that demand precedes standardization, since standardization takes effort and some kind of demand must exist (even if it's just a, "Hey, wouldn't it been keen if...") before people will get off their duffs to figure out, formalize, and make available a standard.
I disagree strongly that government regulation mandating open-sourcing is the key to solving the issues related to SCO/Linux/Microsoft, and although I agree with the basic points about FUD being the primary weapon of SCO/Microsoft, as well as the potential benefits of open sourcing for large corporations, I find very little in his article to support his assertion that this sort of regulation is the right direction.
Frankly, if open sourcing is going to be key for economic viability in the marketplace, the correct capitalist response would be to let market pressure bury those companies that don't do it, not to impose regulation. I can see regulation protecting open-source companies from FUD assaults, which are inherantly detrimental to a free and open marketplace... but not regulating the production and distribution of software.
Utilities like water and power require regulation because they are infrastructural supplies that aren't optional, nor does there exist (or can there, really) much of a competitive market in them to control excesses. With software, this is not really the case. Even for fundamental software like word processors and database tools, there is a robust marketplace with tons of options.
Fundamentally, Marx's critique of unconstrained capitalism wasn't wholly off base. But America isn't unconstrained... consumer protection laws and so forth counter the excesses of capitalism here. The government's role here should be protection laws that preserve an open marketplace (no FUD attacks) and regulation where infrastructure is privatized.
He's right about the UN. They've been occupying an area of New York from 1st to FDR for more than fifty years! And now they're looking to take over even more space for their nefarious deeds.
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You know, I think you're right about it being Always on My Mind. I knew It's a Sin didn't sound right, but I knew I'd been surprised when I heard Elvis singing what was to me a Pet Shop Boys song.
And they credit Thompson, James, and Christopher, for those who are keeping track.
One thing that this article doesn't touch on is that early Hollywood (and radio) was filled with people copying each other's works, and in a lot of cases the result of copying and reworking old material resulted in a richer cultural landscape than would have otherwise occurred.
Look at how many classic songs of the 30s, 40s and 50s there are whose canonical popular version wasn't the original, or even created with the approval of the original artist. Similarly, what a loss to cinema it would have been if Stoker's estate had been able to crush Nosferatu with lawsuits... if nothing else, we would never have had Shadow of the Vampire. Most people don't listen to Fred Astaire's old singing, but everyone knows Taco. And the Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin" was originally an Elvis track. That's not saying that Taco and the Pet Shop Boys didn't get the rights first (I have no idea), but that it's that kind of thing that has resulted in a richer world.
Based on my experiences helping neophytes do web work, my guess is that 90% of the web-using public doesn't even notice the little key icon, and don't know what a security certificate is even when the dialog to accept one appears. All they usually look at is the web page itself... especially on a browser like Safari where the lock is a small icon in the title bar that escaped me the first time I went looking for it. It might be interesting to have some usability folks do an eye movement analysis to see if the average user's eye ever tracks to the lock icon during normal browsing.
Of course, this does make it more likely for people who hit that nasty stage of knowing just enough about online security to be dangerous to get caught...
Heh. That's funny, got my Snow Crash mixed up with my basic CompSci. Curse you, Mr. Stephenson, for infecting my brain with your faulty BIOS!
So it's a bit of a misnomer, isn't it, to say that you need no OS to access your multimedia components?
This article is interesting, but rather than the commodification of software, it's more the commodification of data that's really being discussed. His examples and ideas really concern data format standardization and that standards are what allow data to become commodities.
In that sense, I agree completely... demand for "market" in distributable music spurs the popularization of a standard and an infrastructure for distribution (e.g. peer-to-peer networks). And I definitely agree that software should be written to take advantage of economies provided by using standardized data.
Of course, it's kind of obvious that demand precedes standardization, since standardization takes effort and some kind of demand must exist (even if it's just a, "Hey, wouldn't it been keen if...") before people will get off their duffs to figure out, formalize, and make available a standard.
I disagree strongly that government regulation mandating open-sourcing is the key to solving the issues related to SCO/Linux/Microsoft, and although I agree with the basic points about FUD being the primary weapon of SCO/Microsoft, as well as the potential benefits of open sourcing for large corporations, I find very little in his article to support his assertion that this sort of regulation is the right direction.
Frankly, if open sourcing is going to be key for economic viability in the marketplace, the correct capitalist response would be to let market pressure bury those companies that don't do it, not to impose regulation. I can see regulation protecting open-source companies from FUD assaults, which are inherantly detrimental to a free and open marketplace... but not regulating the production and distribution of software.
Utilities like water and power require regulation because they are infrastructural supplies that aren't optional, nor does there exist (or can there, really) much of a competitive market in them to control excesses. With software, this is not really the case. Even for fundamental software like word processors and database tools, there is a robust marketplace with tons of options.
Fundamentally, Marx's critique of unconstrained capitalism wasn't wholly off base. But America isn't unconstrained... consumer protection laws and so forth counter the excesses of capitalism here. The government's role here should be protection laws that preserve an open marketplace (no FUD attacks) and regulation where infrastructure is privatized.
This is what I think, anyway.
He's right about the UN. They've been occupying an area of New York from 1st to FDR for more than fifty years! And now they're looking to take over even more space for their nefarious deeds.