I'm with you. I have only ever downloaded rare bootlegs that the RIAA doesn't make available anyway. If I can buy something, I'm not interested in wasting my precious 56k bandwidth, and even at faster speeds, I wouldn't care to pirate.
I remember sitting at the radio, headphones on, ready to tape the first ceramic press of Aerosmith's "Rocks", which fans all over America were eagerly anticipating. It was an open secret that tapers were "downloading" this fresh stuff. We still bought the damn albums, we just wanted to hear it now.
This isn't even about preserving a revenue stream, I fear! It's about the RIAA wielding power over our Congress. Their revenue stream isn't going anywhere, but it should. There are thousands of bands that are better than Metallica (well, maybe dozens, but thousands better than Matchbox 20 or Oasis).
It's time these folks pay for thier moral crimes of hypocrisy and greed.
I leave my sig the way it is so we can remember, and never forget whom we're dealing with.
That's a cool site, but it got me thinking: that "404 Not Found" shirt. It's like, what person hasn't seen that screen? I thought geekness had a certain veiled secrecy; that's why the 1337 stuff works so well, because not everyone gets it.
I assumed that prices would be lower because the traditional bricks-and-mortar structures are not necessary in the dot-com era. Whatever happened to the advantage that e-tailers would enjoy over say, a Wal-Mart, which has to pay for 3x the employees, lighting, heat, parking, etc?
That is, why could not a warehousing operation such as Amazon charge less than Wal-Mart for the same item, even with tax included, and find profitability that way, even as the consumer enjoyed the reduced price?
Sometimes I feel like I don't understand the concept of Free Market and Supply and Demand. Or am I just being too (deliberately) idealistic?
Yes, and I discovered that, when they (Cingular) switched me over to the 'new plan', they forgot to tell me that little detail.
Then I got bills in the hundreds of dollars - about twice what I was paying! Plus there were certain 'family talk' charges attached to my bill that, on inspection "really didn't belong there" (the reps words).
It really pisses me off that we don't have a strong enough consumer arm in the government that allows me protection from these scams. I told them that, since they broke our contract because they did not disclose the terms to me up front, I'd really rather break mine. I was informed that if I did that I would have to pay about $300 for the two phones they 'gave' me.
This, of course, after waiting the requisite twenty minutes to even speak to a human. I didn't even try to do that on my cell phone, since the reception is lousy in my area and the probability that I would get disconnected in those twenty minutes is about 0.9.
So, kids, spend twenty minutes each month scouring your phone bill - all 15 pages of it - to see if there are line items in there, overcharges, and general assault on your pocketbook.
It reminds me of the comic strip in which Dilbert dons a ninja outfit to comply with the terms of his ISP contract that specify that he must perform a commando raid on the company to cancel his service.
To their credit, the rep was very nice, sympathetic (I imagine she's thinking "God, I am such a troll for working here!"), and once we identified the mass of overcharges for the past 3 months, she dutifully credited my account. It only took half an hour.
Here is what we folks over at e-thepeople thought about this almost two years ago. Many of the arguments are good ones, and have a different flavour than the ones I am reading here. I encourage you to check it out, and also the follow-up article I submitted.
God love you guys. This reminds me of older days when I first joined./ and our eyes were still sparkling with the prospect of what the Internet Could Become, before the dot-coms promised to make all the script kiddies rich and then they pulled the rug out on all of you.
This is by no means terrorism, this is activism, and anyone with a brain would recognize it for what it is. Okay, it can be construed as terrorism because it does share one feature with terrorism: it is an example of a little guy, or a bunch of little guys, fighting back against a big guy when they feel they have no other avenue of recourse. That is, since the law does not work against an egregious transgressor of all principles American, we can exercise our rights to express a Valid Concern through the time-honored tradition of Civil Disobedience.
Yes, God Bless You, you little slashdotters. God Bless You All!
(please don't mod me up, by the way, it would look like all-too-obvious sucking up: but my sentiments are genuine)
This is a band my daughter introduced me to, for which I can find only one or two obscure references to on the web, and whom I simply love. How can I get more of their stuff? I think I would do a Google search on their name and then download all the material I could, if it were available.
That is my suggestion on how to make the internet work for you: give away all the songs for free and only charge for live performances. If your music is that good, you might make it! It is the essence of the Napster craze in any case: cut out the middle man, give away the recorded songs, and feed the artist by letting him sing for his supper.
If you want to get rich, don't do this, but if you believe in your creation, in your art, in the expression, you will see how great an alternative this can be!
Do you risk starving? Probably. But you will have given your life for something greater: eventual freedom of the artist from capitalist abusers, and more importantly, freedom of your art form. I'm not kidding. You have to be willing to do it for the art, not the money, first. The rest will follow.
For another alternative, check out disciplineglobalmobile and find out what Robert Fripp (King Crimson) did when he got sick of dealing with the corporate types.
I think I define entrepreneurship as the incentive a guy has to go invent something, put it on the internet (f'rinstance), and try to make a few bucks, or simply do it 'because it's there'; I am trying to not make the distinction between money-making and non-profit ventures. As an example, think of fansites, those labor-of-love websites dedicated to an actor or a rock band, or even a TV sitcom. To build one of those can be considered e-ship even though it is not profitable in the lucrative sense. Well, those days are over, folks, thanks to businesses cracking down on them. I recall when Paul Simon wrote the song "Kodachrome" he was almost sued by Kodak (who owned the phrase), but then they decided that it was good PR to let it ride.
But this incidence chills entrepreneurship because you cannot just put something up on a website, even a money-making venture without potentially opening yourself up to lawsuits and litigation. There is no goodwill among people who take these patents out so they can sue others who actually implement the idea... er, I dunno, some things need protection and some things don't, but from my perspective, the less lawyers in court arguing about the internet, the better for us all.
Kiddie porn, sure, but business methods? No way.
A possible solution: lawyers are never permitted to become judges or politicians. Pass the Bar exam and sign away those career options.
This kind of amazes me to some extent. Since I can't get into the minds of legislators and patent clerks, and for that matter, lawyers, I can't determine the answer to this question:
Do what degree do these people in charge grasp the technology?
The article says that 'business methods' were ruled to be patentable in 1995, a critical time because business methods were rapidly being transferred to the internet. It also says that the number of patents swelled after that ruling.
Thus, the holder of such obvious patents gets rich off the hard work of companies like eBay, because the patent was obscure and possibly unknown to the eBay founder when he launched his venture. I know, I read that they had correspondence, but it strikes me as insane that putting anything on the internet can be patentable.
The internet, which was supposed to break down the barriers to progress is instead chilling entrepreneurship!
This will sound dumb, but I just replaced my PII 400MHz with a PIV 2.4 GHz and boy, my internet performance has increased a whole hell of a lot! I always assumed ti was the throughput of my 56k modem, but - just like NetMedic was trying to tell me - it was CPU cycles that were limiting my gaming experience!
I am soo relieved! And now my son tells me he can win on the new computer, but not on the old computer as he can now cast spells in the heat of the battle.
I remember what my 4-year-old daughter said when we were watching the cartoon (Ralph Bakshi?) version of it, the one that was so overbudget it couldn't be finished (parts couldn't even be inked in toward the end there).
When Gandalf fell into the abyss with the Balrog she said: "Why can't we have that guy anymore?" Which we all thought was funny... er, at the time... if you were there, you would think so, too... really... eh.
My daughter is a deejay for KDVS college station in Davis, CA and she tells me that they are forbidden to play any commercial songs: Radiohead, Garbage, and Smashing Pumpkins, which I believe were to a good extent birthed on college campuses are now off limits to college stations. This is not to say its a bad thing, but even colleges have their skewed policies.
On another note, I am in a constant process of ridding my life of commercial interests and commercials. I have stopped listening to radio almost entirely on my daily commute, preferring my cassettes. And let me tell you, after listening to good rock or jazz instead of commercials with their jingles and subliminal messages and urging to consume or be left out, I feel much more relaxed, much less anxious. I have successfully reduced corporate influence in my life to a manageble level. It's just one example of 'think globally, act locally'. If all people did this, ClearChannel would die the death it really deserves. Now when I listen to the rock station I used to hear all the time, it's easy to spot the manipulative messages they are trying to put over on me, and when I realize how much of their time is spent inflating their self-importance, I can be smug about being the non-conformist. Of course, I get laid a lot less.
...but this is what I got when I tried to look at the site (and I'm a Fortran jockey, so this database stuff just bewilders me):
Warning: Too many connections in/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 29
Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Too many connections in/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 29
Warning: MySQL: A link to the server could not be established in/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 29
Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php:29) in/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/mainfile.php on line 39
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 231
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 231
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 231
It crashed Netscape, but IE held up. Still, you might want to stop watching your cool home video system and get back to programming again!:)
Excellent point, and one I wish our government would heed (oh, if it would only protect the consumers in this day and age of much-needed CFR!). This issue crops up all the time, whether you are talking about hidden stuff in Windows XP, opt-in versus opt-out issues, and even labeling of GM foods.
The marketplace, bottom line, is no longer free. It has been usurped by those who would fund their congresscritter to keep the playing field non-level.
Thus Slashdot becomes one of the few last bastions of Freedom in this day and age. Serious. Of course,./ is turning into just another 'toy review' website, I'm afraid, because 'everyone has to make a buck', and you apparently cannot 'buck' consumerism as the be-all and end-all arbitator of Truth and Trend.
99, pardon me, but you just do this for sport, don't you?
I don't know why I bother, but your flippant remarks hardly serve as rebuttal. Now please tell me why MS should be absolved of the charges, why you really believe that they aren't guilty - based on this example alone! - and I'll listen.
But mindless banter like yours is more an indication of your immature attitude than any enlightenment whatsoever.
The Internet is not yours to do as you see fit. If you post something on there, be aware that you have essentially put it into Public Domain to be used as anyone sees fit.
To me its the only approach that makes any sense at all. To hell with these agenda-minded people who want the benefits of the Internet without accepting the price!
It's not your Internet and you can't make any portion of it yours. You can take your ball and go home if you want, but you can't come on MY ballfield and tell me how to play MY game.
That's my attitude and I stand by it until the Internet dies its red death via spam and pop-up ads...
The CueCat was a device that a company made that was used in a way not intended by the manufacturer and they tried to sue people who were monkeying with it. Perform a search in here on the word "CueCat" for more info (see bottom left corner of this page for search window).
Basically, corps are trying to legislate our behavior to preserve their revenue streams. It's very inefficient: Don't try to teach a pig to sing; it's a waste of your time and it annoys the pig...
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, my sig totally dates me.
I thought they said they wouldn't be evil? Google... they said that...
...not much more to say, really. An Unforgettable Experience...
William Rivers Pitt gets some questions answered.
I'm with you. I have only ever downloaded rare bootlegs that the RIAA doesn't make available anyway. If I can buy something, I'm not interested in wasting my precious 56k bandwidth, and even at faster speeds, I wouldn't care to pirate.
I remember sitting at the radio, headphones on, ready to tape the first ceramic press of Aerosmith's "Rocks", which fans all over America were eagerly anticipating. It was an open secret that tapers were "downloading" this fresh stuff. We still bought the damn albums, we just wanted to hear it now.
This isn't even about preserving a revenue stream, I fear! It's about the RIAA wielding power over our Congress. Their revenue stream isn't going anywhere, but it should. There are thousands of bands that are better than Metallica (well, maybe dozens, but thousands better than Matchbox 20 or Oasis).
It's time these folks pay for thier moral crimes of hypocrisy and greed.
I leave my sig the way it is so we can remember, and never forget whom we're dealing with.
That's a cool site, but it got me thinking: that "404 Not Found" shirt. It's like, what person hasn't seen that screen? I thought geekness had a certain veiled secrecy; that's why the 1337 stuff works so well, because not everyone gets it.
;/
Of course it's possible that I don't get it...
Wow, on that level, it's pure genius!
It's more like 20 movies. See what epinions has to say about them.
I assumed that prices would be lower because the traditional bricks-and-mortar structures are not necessary in the dot-com era. Whatever happened to the advantage that e-tailers would enjoy over say, a Wal-Mart, which has to pay for 3x the employees, lighting, heat, parking, etc?
That is, why could not a warehousing operation such as Amazon charge less than Wal-Mart for the same item, even with tax included, and find profitability that way, even as the consumer enjoyed the reduced price?
Sometimes I feel like I don't understand the concept of Free Market and Supply and Demand. Or am I just being too (deliberately) idealistic?
Yes, and I discovered that, when they (Cingular) switched me over to the 'new plan', they forgot to tell me that little detail.
Then I got bills in the hundreds of dollars - about twice what I was paying! Plus there were certain 'family talk' charges attached to my bill that, on inspection "really didn't belong there" (the reps words).
It really pisses me off that we don't have a strong enough consumer arm in the government that allows me protection from these scams. I told them that, since they broke our contract because they did not disclose the terms to me up front, I'd really rather break mine. I was informed that if I did that I would have to pay about $300 for the two phones they 'gave' me.
This, of course, after waiting the requisite twenty minutes to even speak to a human. I didn't even try to do that on my cell phone, since the reception is lousy in my area and the probability that I would get disconnected in those twenty minutes is about 0.9.
So, kids, spend twenty minutes each month scouring your phone bill - all 15 pages of it - to see if there are line items in there, overcharges, and general assault on your pocketbook.
It reminds me of the comic strip in which Dilbert dons a ninja outfit to comply with the terms of his ISP contract that specify that he must perform a commando raid on the company to cancel his service.
To their credit, the rep was very nice, sympathetic (I imagine she's thinking "God, I am such a troll for working here!"), and once we identified the mass of overcharges for the past 3 months, she dutifully credited my account. It only took half an hour.
God love you guys. This reminds me of older days when I first joined ./ and our eyes were still sparkling with the prospect of what the Internet Could Become, before the dot-coms promised to make all the script kiddies rich and then they pulled the rug out on all of you.
This is by no means terrorism, this is activism, and anyone with a brain would recognize it for what it is. Okay, it can be construed as terrorism because it does share one feature with terrorism: it is an example of a little guy, or a bunch of little guys, fighting back against a big guy when they feel they have no other avenue of recourse. That is, since the law does not work against an egregious transgressor of all principles American, we can exercise our rights to express a Valid Concern through the time-honored tradition of Civil Disobedience.
Yes, God Bless You, you little slashdotters. God Bless You All!
(please don't mod me up, by the way, it would look like all-too-obvious sucking up: but my sentiments are genuine)
This is a band my daughter introduced me to, for which I can find only one or two obscure references to on the web, and whom I simply love. How can I get more of their stuff? I think I would do a Google search on their name and then download all the material I could, if it were available.
That is my suggestion on how to make the internet work for you: give away all the songs for free and only charge for live performances. If your music is that good, you might make it! It is the essence of the Napster craze in any case: cut out the middle man, give away the recorded songs, and feed the artist by letting him sing for his supper.
If you want to get rich, don't do this, but if you believe in your creation, in your art, in the expression, you will see how great an alternative this can be!
Do you risk starving? Probably. But you will have given your life for something greater: eventual freedom of the artist from capitalist abusers, and more importantly, freedom of your art form. I'm not kidding. You have to be willing to do it for the art, not the money, first. The rest will follow.
For another alternative, check out disciplineglobalmobile and find out what Robert Fripp (King Crimson) did when he got sick of dealing with the corporate types.
I think I define entrepreneurship as the incentive a guy has to go invent something, put it on the internet (f'rinstance), and try to make a few bucks, or simply do it 'because it's there'; I am trying to not make the distinction between money-making and non-profit ventures. As an example, think of fansites, those labor-of-love websites dedicated to an actor or a rock band, or even a TV sitcom. To build one of those can be considered e-ship even though it is not profitable in the lucrative sense. Well, those days are over, folks, thanks to businesses cracking down on them. I recall when Paul Simon wrote the song "Kodachrome" he was almost sued by Kodak (who owned the phrase), but then they decided that it was good PR to let it ride.
But this incidence chills entrepreneurship because you cannot just put something up on a website, even a money-making venture without potentially opening yourself up to lawsuits and litigation. There is no goodwill among people who take these patents out so they can sue others who actually implement the idea... er, I dunno, some things need protection and some things don't, but from my perspective, the less lawyers in court arguing about the internet, the better for us all.
Kiddie porn, sure, but business methods? No way.
A possible solution: lawyers are never permitted to become judges or politicians. Pass the Bar exam and sign away those career options.
This kind of amazes me to some extent. Since I can't get into the minds of legislators and patent clerks, and for that matter, lawyers, I can't determine the answer to this question:
Do what degree do these people in charge grasp the technology?
The article says that 'business methods' were ruled to be patentable in 1995, a critical time because business methods were rapidly being transferred to the internet. It also says that the number of patents swelled after that ruling.
Thus, the holder of such obvious patents gets rich off the hard work of companies like eBay, because the patent was obscure and possibly unknown to the eBay founder when he launched his venture. I know, I read that they had correspondence, but it strikes me as insane that putting anything on the internet can be patentable.
The internet, which was supposed to break down the barriers to progress is instead chilling entrepreneurship!
This will sound dumb, but I just replaced my PII 400MHz with a PIV 2.4 GHz and boy, my internet performance has increased a whole hell of a lot! I always assumed ti was the throughput of my 56k modem, but - just like NetMedic was trying to tell me - it was CPU cycles that were limiting my gaming experience!
I am soo relieved! And now my son tells me he can win on the new computer, but not on the old computer as he can now cast spells in the heat of the battle.
I learn something new every day, generally...
I remember what my 4-year-old daughter said when we were watching the cartoon (Ralph Bakshi?) version of it, the one that was so overbudget it couldn't be finished (parts couldn't even be inked in toward the end there).
When Gandalf fell into the abyss with the Balrog she said: "Why can't we have that guy anymore?" Which we all thought was funny... er, at the time... if you were there, you would think so, too... really... eh.
My daughter is a deejay for KDVS college station in Davis, CA and she tells me that they are forbidden to play any commercial songs: Radiohead, Garbage, and Smashing Pumpkins, which I believe were to a good extent birthed on college campuses are now off limits to college stations. This is not to say its a bad thing, but even colleges have their skewed policies.
On another note, I am in a constant process of ridding my life of commercial interests and commercials. I have stopped listening to radio almost entirely on my daily commute, preferring my cassettes. And let me tell you, after listening to good rock or jazz instead of commercials with their jingles and subliminal messages and urging to consume or be left out, I feel much more relaxed, much less anxious. I have successfully reduced corporate influence in my life to a manageble level. It's just one example of 'think globally, act locally'. If all people did this, ClearChannel would die the death it really deserves. Now when I listen to the rock station I used to hear all the time, it's easy to spot the manipulative messages they are trying to put over on me, and when I realize how much of their time is spent inflating their self-importance, I can be smug about being the non-conformist. Of course, I get laid a lot less.
...but this is what I got when I tried to look at the site (and I'm a Fortran jockey, so this database stuff just bewilders me):
/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 29
/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 29
/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 29
/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php:29) in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/mainfile.php on line 39
/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 231
/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 231
/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/designtechnica.com/h ttpdocs/includes/sql_layer.php on line 231
:)
Warning: Too many connections in
Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Too many connections in
Warning: MySQL: A link to the server could not be established in
Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in
It crashed Netscape, but IE held up. Still, you might want to stop watching your cool home video system and get back to programming again!
I once had a pw scheme that used the first letters of a song, then when I had to change it, I'd just use the next stanza. Here goes:
... that way when I was prompted to update it (every 30 days) I'd have one ready, and not forget too too soon. It worked.
:)
jsrbayhat
atoaft
tsotti
atts
tmwamsm
tsbat
fpsstd
oa3hta3ht
like that
But I still wrote it down and put it in my top drawer.
(Hint: the tour length? Three hours. Until the weather started getting rough...)
When Yoda started doing all those flips and dips and yips, everybody in the theatre I was at started spontaneously laughing and giggling.
Excellent point, and one I wish our government would heed (oh, if it would only protect the consumers in this day and age of much-needed CFR!). This issue crops up all the time, whether you are talking about hidden stuff in Windows XP, opt-in versus opt-out issues, and even labeling of GM foods.
./ is turning into just another 'toy review' website, I'm afraid, because 'everyone has to make a buck', and you apparently cannot 'buck' consumerism as the be-all and end-all arbitator of Truth and Trend.
The marketplace, bottom line, is no longer free. It has been usurped by those who would fund their congresscritter to keep the playing field non-level.
Thus Slashdot becomes one of the few last bastions of Freedom in this day and age. Serious. Of course,
99, pardon me, but you just do this for sport, don't you?
I don't know why I bother, but your flippant remarks hardly serve as rebuttal. Now please tell me why MS should be absolved of the charges, why you really believe that they aren't guilty - based on this example alone! - and I'll listen.
But mindless banter like yours is more an indication of your immature attitude than any enlightenment whatsoever.
Okay, I'm going to do this again...
The Internet is not yours to do as you see fit. If you post something on there, be aware that you have essentially put it into Public Domain to be used as anyone sees fit.
To me its the only approach that makes any sense at all. To hell with these agenda-minded people who want the benefits of the Internet without accepting the price!
It's not your Internet and you can't make any portion of it yours. You can take your ball and go home if you want, but you can't come on MY ballfield and tell me how to play MY game.
That's my attitude and I stand by it until the Internet dies its red death via spam and pop-up ads...
The CueCat was a device that a company made that was used in a way not intended by the manufacturer and they tried to sue people who were monkeying with it. Perform a search in here on the word "CueCat" for more info (see bottom left corner of this page for search window).
Basically, corps are trying to legislate our behavior to preserve their revenue streams. It's very inefficient: Don't try to teach a pig to sing; it's a waste of your time and it annoys the pig...