. ..the RIAA is merely a lobby group that represents the labels.
No it isn't. It is also the group responsible for enforcing certain rights. It is attorney to the labels.
In either case, the RIAA is a separate organization which is employed by the labels for tasks which have nothing whatsoever to do with the terms of the contract with Weird Al.
Blaming them for the goofy way this contract handles downloads makes about as much sence as blaming the company which the Sony execs order their Pizza from.
I've never heard anybody speak of the NRA voting for anything. You hear about the NRA opposing or supporting various laws, but in those situations, it is, in fact, the NRA, and not their members, who are doing it.
(In fact, the NRA has many members who vote exactly opposite of the positions the NRA supports. They bought the membership because the insurance plan is one which a lot of hunters like to have. You never know when Dick Cheney's going to shoot you in the face or something.)
Tell me again, what does Windows Vista do that Linux doesn't?
Five things Vista will do which Linux does not:
1. Run MS Office 2. Play WMV files 3. Cost $300 retail 4. Come pre-installed on almost every new computer 5. Lack proper security 6. Become infected by malware in a matter of hours
With that kind of attitude, you must despise the RIAA too. I'm trying to think of a reason why anyone really would care about whether we should single out one lousy record company or the whole lousy group of them.
What's so lousy? Wierd Al is making millions of dollars singing his songs. He renegotiated his contract, and he signed it, all in spite of this strange little loophole which appears to give him the shaft on digital downloads. Everybody is getting rich, except for Weird Al's customers, who are buying his music at a steep price, but one they are obviously willing to pay to hear him make fun of Emenem. Where's the harm?
Maybe he's making enough money on other parts of the deal that it seemed worth it to let that part slide.
I know if *I* was going to be paid millions of dollars to turn pop tunes into songs about food, I probably wouldn't give a shit how the downloads part of the contract was structured either.
Yeah. Poor Paul Allen was fucked over so badly, he cries and cries every time he flies across the country on his private jet with his very own NBA team.
It's a deliberately "wrong" plural, like "boxen." A common IT geek convention. The fact that more and more people have been whining about it on slashdot over the last couple years speaks volumes about how the site has slowly been taken over by Generation Y kids who probably have no idea what is so interesting about the number 2600.
I just had to point out to somebody that Bill Gates once wrote a port of Basic, for fuck's sake. The guy actually seemed to think that Gates was some MBA who became CEO of Microsoft because of his marketing savvy.
The RIAA is a cartel made up of a small group of companies
No, it's not, and that was the whole point of the nitpick.
The RIAA is a industrial trade group made up of a very large group of companies. It was originally formed in 1952 to standardize the eq device used for playback of phonograph records. They were later assigned the responsibility of certifying "gold" and "platinum" records, and also streamline the collection and administration licensing fees & royalties.
It is because of this last role that they have recently been the front face of anti-piracy lobbying.
This particular issue has nothing whatsoever to do with the RIAA. Al Yankovic chose to sign a record deal which shafts him on downloads. He probably did so because they fronted him an assload of cash and/or are paying him enough for CD sales that he decided it was worth it. He's certainly enough of a big-shot that he could have said "no" and found another label with a better deal if his people told him he was going to get screwed.
But let's all feel bad for how much iTunes is hurting Weird Al. The poor bastard might have to sell off one of his mansions or something.
If they panic or experience a sudden shift in perception, markets can easily collapse. See 1929 and 1987.
Black Tuesday was a bummer for anybody playing the short-term market on borrowed money in 1929, and it led to a banking collapse which was not easy to recover from... but the real damage done to the economy, especially the poor at that time in history, was the draught which drove millions of struggling farmers out of their homes. If America was a socialist paradise in 1929, the depression still would have happened.
LOL. I made a snide remark about somebody's favorite self-help-book-publishing guru, and now I've won my very own stalker. I suppose this means that 5 of my past comments will mysteriously be marked down as "overrated" the moment you get your hands on mod points, too. I'm shaking in the knees just thinking about the inevitable wrath.
Still, you're being less creepy and aggressive than the Wii fanboys. Enjoy your hating.
Lack of support by third parties does not make it a closed format.
Neither "A" in "AAC" stands for "Apple." It's not Apple's format. It's the Audio layer of MPEG 4, and a current industry standard.
From Wikipedia:
AAC was declared an international standard by the MPEG group by the end of April 1997. It was developed with contributions by Dolby, Fraunhofer (FhG), AT&T, Sony and Nokia.
Every music player which is not using it should be, because it sounds better per bitrate than MP3 is not locked down like WMA, and requires less processor work (and therefore less drain on batteries) to decode than Ogg Vorbis.
I don't care for any lossy formats for home listening, but for a mobile player, AAC is clearly the best choice. Now if only Apple (or SOMEBODY) could finally make an AAC player capable of gapless playback, I'll be a happy camper.
I am frustrated to see them cavalierly drop the principles that got me to switch. It might be a different matter if they had already captured a 50 percent market share, or for that matter even a 20 percent market share, but their number are right where they always have been.
Why do you give a fuck about the market share of a computer company whose products you are no longer buying? Is your IRA tied up in APPL shares?
I use Macs all the time, and I don't give a rat's ass about their market share. As long as they are doing well enough to continue to exist, and as long as I prefer their OS and software, I'll keep buying them.
By the way, if I may ask... What (if anything) were you hoping to do with all that Kernel source which is currently unavailable for the x86 version of Darwin?
Imagine! The nerve of them, refusing to release their computer in a form factor that has never made anybody any money. After all the rumors sites saying they were making one, it's their obligation to you, personally, to make one! Shame on them!
I think you should hold your breath until you turn blue. That'll show 'em!!!
Nothing you've said about him makes him sound particularly unique or compelling. In fact, the more you try to tell me what a brilliant mind he is, the more he sounds like Yet Another Would-Be Joseph Campbell.
Thanks, but I don't need some Harvard prof to tell me how to live a happy life. I figured it out with nothing but an undergrad degree from a small State University in the midwest. If you are miserable and his book helps you, well than good for you. I'm glad you found something that makes you happy. You can stop assuming everybody else needs his thoughts and insights as badly as you do any time now.
You've got it exactly backwards. The Catholic Church was the only place you could get a liberal education back around 1300. If it weren't for those monks in Ireland (and a precious few other places) fanatically preserving classical knowledge (including the texts which they themselves considered somewhat afoul of their belief system), the Renaissance flat-out never would have happened, in spite of the sudden influx of arabic science and wisdom after the fall of Constantinople.
I find it hard to believe that I would find a lot of common ground with anything posted on zenhell.com, but I'll at least take a look, based on your recommendation...
Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy religions of the East...
So, the concept of a soul is bullshit, partly because Western science can't measure it, but mostly because the Hindu faith says so. Okay, I'm pretty much done with this guy.
I tend to subscribe to the theory that Hindu was a religion invented by foreign conquerers in order to keep their new subjects both preoccupied and malnourished. To this day, people starve in the streets as yummy cows stroll by. They get to call my faith in the human soul mere "hallucination" after, and only after, they find a less insane way to live.
Slashdot Mirror
. . .the RIAA is merely a lobby group that represents the labels.
No it isn't. It is also the group responsible for enforcing certain rights. It is attorney to the labels.
In either case, the RIAA is a separate organization which is employed by the labels for tasks which have nothing whatsoever to do with the terms of the contract with Weird Al.
Blaming them for the goofy way this contract handles downloads makes about as much sence as blaming the company which the Sony execs order their Pizza from.
For example, people talk about how the NRA votes.
No they don't. Not informed people, anyway.
I've never heard anybody speak of the NRA voting for anything. You hear about the NRA opposing or supporting various laws, but in those situations, it is, in fact, the NRA, and not their members, who are doing it.
(In fact, the NRA has many members who vote exactly opposite of the positions the NRA supports. They bought the membership because the insurance plan is one which a lot of hunters like to have. You never know when Dick Cheney's going to shoot you in the face or something.)
Tell me again, what does Windows Vista do that Linux doesn't?
Five things Vista will do which Linux does not:
1. Run MS Office
2. Play WMV files
3. Cost $300 retail
4. Come pre-installed on almost every new computer
5. Lack proper security
6. Become infected by malware in a matter of hours
With that kind of attitude, you must despise the RIAA too. I'm trying to think of a reason why anyone really would care about whether we should single out one lousy record company or the whole lousy group of them.
What's so lousy? Wierd Al is making millions of dollars singing his songs. He renegotiated his contract, and he signed it, all in spite of this strange little loophole which appears to give him the shaft on digital downloads. Everybody is getting rich, except for Weird Al's customers, who are buying his music at a steep price, but one they are obviously willing to pay to hear him make fun of Emenem. Where's the harm?
20 cents base fee, plus something in the 2-5% range depending on risk. That quickly adds up to 25c on a single dollar purchase.
Which is the case, if you only buy one song a month from iTunes.
Apple archives all of your purchases and bills them all monthly, so if you buy 20 songs, your card gets billed 19.80 at the end of the month.
Maybe he's making enough money on other parts of the deal that it seemed worth it to let that part slide.
I know if *I* was going to be paid millions of dollars to turn pop tunes into songs about food, I probably wouldn't give a shit how the downloads part of the contract was structured either.
Yeah. Poor Paul Allen was fucked over so badly, he cries and cries every time he flies across the country on his private jet with his very own NBA team.
It's a deliberately "wrong" plural, like "boxen." A common IT geek convention. The fact that more and more people have been whining about it on slashdot over the last couple years speaks volumes about how the site has slowly been taken over by Generation Y kids who probably have no idea what is so interesting about the number 2600.
I just had to point out to somebody that Bill Gates once wrote a port of Basic, for fuck's sake. The guy actually seemed to think that Gates was some MBA who became CEO of Microsoft because of his marketing savvy.
The RIAA is a cartel made up of a small group of companies
No, it's not, and that was the whole point of the nitpick.
The RIAA is a industrial trade group made up of a very large group of companies. It was originally formed in 1952 to standardize the eq device used for playback of phonograph records. They were later assigned the responsibility of certifying "gold" and "platinum" records, and also streamline the collection and administration licensing fees & royalties.
It is because of this last role that they have recently been the front face of anti-piracy lobbying.
This particular issue has nothing whatsoever to do with the RIAA. Al Yankovic chose to sign a record deal which shafts him on downloads. He probably did so because they fronted him an assload of cash and/or are paying him enough for CD sales that he decided it was worth it. He's certainly enough of a big-shot that he could have said "no" and found another label with a better deal if his people told him he was going to get screwed.
But let's all feel bad for how much iTunes is hurting Weird Al. The poor bastard might have to sell off one of his mansions or something.
The plural of virus in english is viruses.
He was probably confusing viruses with computer virii. An understandable mistake.
Bill Gates has not, nor has he ever been, a techie OR a nerd - but what he is, is a brilliant marketeer
That's some pretty damn impressive marketing skill he displayed when he ported BASIC to the Altair.
Shit, if you're going to rip the guy, and are that clueless, at least take the time to read the Wiki on him or something.
If they panic or experience a sudden shift in perception, markets can easily collapse. See 1929 and 1987.
Black Tuesday was a bummer for anybody playing the short-term market on borrowed money in 1929, and it led to a banking collapse which was not easy to recover from... but the real damage done to the economy, especially the poor at that time in history, was the draught which drove millions of struggling farmers out of their homes. If America was a socialist paradise in 1929, the depression still would have happened.
Rich people have simply manipulated the government to give them a lot more money than other people, primarily by exploiting family connections.
So that's how you get rich. And here I was thinking Bill Gates and Sam Walton got rich by selling shit to people!
Is it just me or do I detect a hint of bitterness in that response?
;)
Yes. It's just you.
Well... then again, written text always tends to "sound" a lot more deliberate and serious than speaking. It's how flame-wars get started.
So, no. Maybe it's not just you after all. But no, I'm not bitter either.
From one of his earlier posts: ...
LOL. I made a snide remark about somebody's favorite self-help-book-publishing guru, and now I've won my very own stalker. I suppose this means that 5 of my past comments will mysteriously be marked down as "overrated" the moment you get your hands on mod points, too. I'm shaking in the knees just thinking about the inevitable wrath.
Still, you're being less creepy and aggressive than the Wii fanboys. Enjoy your hating.
Relax, chief. It's just a little sarcasm. I was having fun with the fact that you sounded all wounded about the lack of an Apple-branded tablet.
IIRC, the PSP already has it, too.
Neither "A" in "AAC" stands for "Apple." It's not Apple's format. It's the Audio layer of MPEG 4, and a current industry standard.
From Wikipedia:
Every music player which is not using it should be, because it sounds better per bitrate than MP3 is not locked down like WMA, and requires less processor work (and therefore less drain on batteries) to decode than Ogg Vorbis.
I don't care for any lossy formats for home listening, but for a mobile player, AAC is clearly the best choice. Now if only Apple (or SOMEBODY) could finally make an AAC player capable of gapless playback, I'll be a happy camper.
I am frustrated to see them cavalierly drop the principles that got me to switch. It might be a different matter if they had already captured a 50 percent market share, or for that matter even a 20 percent market share, but their number are right where they always have been.
Why do you give a fuck about the market share of a computer company whose products you are no longer buying? Is your IRA tied up in APPL shares?
I use Macs all the time, and I don't give a rat's ass about their market share. As long as they are doing well enough to continue to exist, and as long as I prefer their OS and software, I'll keep buying them.
By the way, if I may ask... What (if anything) were you hoping to do with all that Kernel source which is currently unavailable for the x86 version of Darwin?
and continuing to refuse to make a tablet
Imagine! The nerve of them, refusing to release their computer in a form factor that has never made anybody any money. After all the rumors sites saying they were making one, it's their obligation to you, personally, to make one! Shame on them!
I think you should hold your breath until you turn blue. That'll show 'em!!!
As you pointed out, some DO "put their money in pillow cases" or IOW in very conservative investments.
The most important two words of your entire post there:
"their money."
Don't like it? Get rich yourself and be nicer. Let me know when your doing that, so I know who to ask for the check.
Nothing you've said about him makes him sound particularly unique or compelling. In fact, the more you try to tell me what a brilliant mind he is, the more he sounds like Yet Another Would-Be Joseph Campbell.
Thanks, but I don't need some Harvard prof to tell me how to live a happy life. I figured it out with nothing but an undergrad degree from a small State University in the midwest. If you are miserable and his book helps you, well than good for you. I'm glad you found something that makes you happy. You can stop assuming everybody else needs his thoughts and insights as badly as you do any time now.
Cheers!
You've got it exactly backwards. The Catholic Church was the only place you could get a liberal education back around 1300. If it weren't for those monks in Ireland (and a precious few other places) fanatically preserving classical knowledge (including the texts which they themselves considered somewhat afoul of their belief system), the Renaissance flat-out never would have happened, in spite of the sudden influx of arabic science and wisdom after the fall of Constantinople.
I find it hard to believe that I would find a lot of common ground with anything posted on zenhell.com, but I'll at least take a look, based on your recommendation...
Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy religions of the East...
So, the concept of a soul is bullshit, partly because Western science can't measure it, but mostly because the Hindu faith says so. Okay, I'm pretty much done with this guy.
I tend to subscribe to the theory that Hindu was a religion invented by foreign conquerers in order to keep their new subjects both preoccupied and malnourished. To this day, people starve in the streets as yummy cows stroll by. They get to call my faith in the human soul mere "hallucination" after, and only after, they find a less insane way to live.
Only to the extent that you let it.