Note: persons who enjoy PA, a representation of the values of two people, are likely to hold similar values. Suggestions from a popular source are a form of free direct marketing; better than less-focused advertising. The key to a client base and market share via free popular suggestion is to have a quality product as percieved by a sizable group which has a experimental shepherd. As long as the shepherd maintains credibility by not taking bribes (or at least being honest about bribe-taking).
Did you just reproduce copyrighted material in an electronic format, so that it is now in a retrieval system, without the written permission of the copyright holder? Shame on you!
An example from one of my textbooks: "All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievl system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of ------ Press."
I guess no one should read it for (what is it, 75 years now? 100 for public domain? Fuck you, Disney!) because parts of the publication will necessarily be transmitted via photons and electrochemical reactions to the person's BRAIN, which is a retrival system that could be used to store the information. Then I could recite parts of it, transmitting copyrighted material via patterns of altered air pressure so that other people could store it in their biological retrieval systems!
There was an article in one of the Pittsburgh papers about this. More Carnegie Mellon University research stuff. The example was the porn site that required users to answer (Yahoo?) CAPTCHAs before seeing more porn.
Wow, this post is like a "me too" with a half-assed citation. I feel dirty.
It would be cool to combine the useful aspects of rats and robots while eliminating the parts that get in the way. I made an attempt to compete a trained rat against robots, and I would like to have had a rat whose senses could be turned off at different times, but who might retain whatever "intuition" its biological brain possessed.
Grunts is the only Mary Gentle book I've finished. It was clever and funny, but still showed the political/strategist side of war. I tried reading one of her more serious books and was very bored.
People talking about the weights of swords:
Maybe you've weighed them on scales or something and what I'm saying won't help, but some swords may SEEM like they weigh 30+ lbs if they are blade-heavy. My housemate has a handle-heavy claymore that seems light, and my ex-roommate had a (some type of Japanese sword) with a small wooden handle and a thick single-edged blade that made it seem very heavy because of the lever-arm from the grip to the center of balance.
Instant Crisis
"Kicking a kitten... a grown man punting a kitten who was looking the other way... it was the bravest thing I've ever seen." -- Torg (Sluggy Freelance)
Interesting how Lycos bought the game company with all that info on 4 million people. Lycos was founded and is heavily populated with Carnegie Mellon graduates. Carnegie Mellon had a major for information systems which was split in three last semester, one of the spawn being: Data Mining (I kid you not). Being in frequent contact with Data Mining students, I know that they will be incredibly effective at what they'll be doing, whether for the private sector or Big Brother. The information systems they develop have great potential to be used for good.
I wouldn't mind corporations having a lot of my information if it was passively used: I walk into a store and the things I would most likely buy are pointed out to me and put on sale (as proposed by National Cash Register/ JCPenny alliance), or as with webpages advertising especially for me. I'm going to be seeing ads anyway, right? They might as well be for something I want.
What I fear, though, is stigmatic stereotypes emerging from patterns in consumption habits. How would you like the government to think you're a Communist, or a homicidal maniac because you shop like they do? Or you try to get a job, but they think you're a pedophile because you ordered the Playboy channel and Cartoon Network (props to the Drew Carey show).
There are certainly things we will have to look out for, but I will not instantly condemn massive information gathering.
Instant Crisis
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." --Simpson
Oops, good point. Hmm, I could try to back myself up by saying that they are appointed by an elected person, but they're in for life or resignation, so that's pretty feeble.
I guess I'll stick to the "defend the constitution" part. Thanks for pointing that out.
Ah, a fellow CMU student. Well, Leejay, I do not say it's unjust that my CS BS buddies are getting big bucks because they are performing worthwhile services that help people. Now you say, " but music helps people by making them happy." and I say that although much music is good, Rap music keeps a decent chunk of the population in a subculture of female degradation, violence idolization, and crime-inducing materialization.
Also, because I don't think non-rap musicians deserve their loot either, if you think they deserve "as much as people are willing to pay them," then I say that the price for their music should be brought down to a level where more people have access and will pay. I'm not going to pay $20 for a CD, but I'd pay $5, and I bet I'm not alone. and if 5x as many people buy $5 CDs, then the music people make more money. They just don't believe that that could happen.
Another alternative would be encryption to prevent copying, as digital media replaces CDs, but they'd have to eliminate CDs to prevent copying from them, and that would wipe out a major market: people without computers, who, by the way, are also too poor to buy many $20 CDs, anyway.
I think we should think about everything's long term impact on society more than the immediate fiscal bottom line.
the government ruled that ISPs aren't responsible for email content. What was the alternative? Invade millions of people's privacy, tear up the first amendment, set precedent to go through everyone's mail? Piss off giant corporations like Time-Warner-AOL which has so much media control that it could single-handedly destroy a politician's campaign? They couldn't get reelected if they told media-controllers with lots of money that they had to start policing their users.
This lengthly article brings up many valid points. The music industry cannot police the entire internet, and, as with the lyrics website, would have problems with some other countries like Russia. Also, besides large MP3 providers like MP3.com, or the Napster service, there will always be groups of interstate friends in which only one person will need to pay for the music for everyone to benefit. I agree with the article's claim that the best way for the industry to maximize its profits would be to lower its prices. 10 songs should not cost $20, or even $10.
How much money to the artists deserve for some music? Oh, darn, the rappers made less than a zillion dollars this year. I guess they won't be buying all the useless, expensive cars and jewelry that inspire their songs about how many cars and pieces of jewelry they own bling bling.
"I'm about to drop the hammer and dispense some indescriminate justice!"
Ah, indescriminate justice. No more biases getting in the way. Damned judges enforcing their opinions on everyone. We need STANDARDIZATION! Standardization is the key.
Okay, perhaps my zealous reaction to the country of common American distaste was uncalled-for.
Standardization is good. Easy and open, sanctioned sharing of information is good. I even believe that socialism can be a better government system than ours if it's executed properly. It's nice to see that France is using its powers for good instead of evil. This will make learning and competing (as much as is possible under socialism) much easier. Maybe this experiment in policy will set a good precedent for other nations.
I asked some masters students at Carnegie Mellon when physical improvements with current techniques would stop being possible and speed would be determined by efficient code. They said something like: without quantum, we've got about 20 years before everything is as small as it's going to get, and running a bunch of chips parallel will slow it down a lot because of communication time.
I figure that once companies realize the limit, they'll collude and only release faster processors in small increments in "competition" with each other to leech as much money as they can. The alternative is that the first one to reach the limit sells to everyone to get the money before the other guy (Intel vs AMD), but then everyone is out of business because the market is satisfied until freaky quantum or holographic or whatever technology is developed.
I noticed a few things while reading the essay: The sample type (Intro students at a midwest university) is not remotely representative of the population. The questions on attitude were presented immediately after game play, while the participant is still aroused, which decreases evidence for correlation between games and long-term attitudes/behaviors. The researchers were making a connection between video game violence and resolution of conflicts, though the violence in the games they used was both self-defencive and patriotic. Maybe if they had used Grand Theft Auto or Postal could they make their claim. The researchers clearly had no familiarity with Doom at all. The researchers downplayed the possibility that persons make aggressive and desensitized by television (Bandura, 1965; Baron & Kempner, 1970; Liebert & Baron, 1972) are just more likely to play violent video games.
In a first-person action game, like Doom, the player is not synonymous with the character and does not choose to kill entities, but is forced to kill to stay in the game. If there were ways to sneak around enemies or get out of situations less violently (Thief) the players would have a choice, and it is often much easier (or required) to take the non-murdering path to the goal. Also, the references to the Columbine incident are evidence that the whole biased experiment was a grab for attention/funding.
I could go on, but I've spent enough time on this already and I don't think many people are even going to be reading this far down the topic.
It's about time. I was a Neilson rater about 4 years back and told them in the comments section that they should bring back the D&D Cartoon, Thundercats, and Voltron. Thundercats and Voltron were picked up by Cartoon Network the next year, but D&D remained absent.
Slashdot Mirror
Note: persons who enjoy PA, a representation of the values of two people, are likely to hold similar values. Suggestions from a popular source are a form of free direct marketing; better than less-focused advertising. The key to a client base and market share via free popular suggestion is to have a quality product as percieved by a sizable group which has a experimental shepherd. As long as the shepherd maintains credibility by not taking bribes (or at least being honest about bribe-taking).
InstantCrisis
I hope no one reads this.
Did you just reproduce copyrighted material in an electronic format, so that it is now in a retrieval system, without the written permission of the copyright holder? Shame on you!
An example from one of my textbooks:
"All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievl system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of ------ Press."
I guess no one should read it for (what is it, 75 years now? 100 for public domain? Fuck you, Disney!) because parts of the publication will necessarily be transmitted via photons and electrochemical reactions to the person's BRAIN, which is a retrival system that could be used to store the information. Then I could recite parts of it, transmitting copyrighted material via patterns of altered air pressure so that other people could store it in their biological retrieval systems!
InstantCrisis
"in any form, or by any means"
There was an article in one of the Pittsburgh papers about this. More Carnegie Mellon University research stuff. The example was the porn site that required users to answer (Yahoo?) CAPTCHAs before seeing more porn.
Wow, this post is like a "me too" with a half-assed citation. I feel dirty.
Rat vs Mobot: The John Henry Project
I'm looking forward to 2045 when I can replace my aging body with cybernetics. Painless, modular, strong.
I like my news from people who understand that of which they write.
InstantCrisis
People talking about the weights of swords:
Maybe you've weighed them on scales or something and what I'm saying won't help, but some swords may SEEM like they weigh 30+ lbs if they are blade-heavy. My housemate has a handle-heavy claymore that seems light, and my ex-roommate had a (some type of Japanese sword) with a small wooden handle and a thick single-edged blade that made it seem very heavy because of the lever-arm from the grip to the center of balance.
Instant Crisis
"Kicking a kitten... a grown man punting a kitten who was looking the other way... it was the bravest thing I've ever seen." -- Torg (Sluggy Freelance)
I wouldn't mind corporations having a lot of my information if it was passively used: I walk into a store and the things I would most likely buy are pointed out to me and put on sale (as proposed by National Cash Register/ JCPenny alliance), or as with webpages advertising especially for me. I'm going to be seeing ads anyway, right? They might as well be for something I want.
What I fear, though, is stigmatic stereotypes emerging from patterns in consumption habits. How would you like the government to think you're a Communist, or a homicidal maniac because you shop like they do? Or you try to get a job, but they think you're a pedophile because you ordered the Playboy channel and Cartoon Network (props to the Drew Carey show).
There are certainly things we will have to look out for, but I will not instantly condemn massive information gathering.
Instant Crisis
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." --Simpson
Hmm, I could try to back myself up by saying that they are appointed by an elected person, but they're in for life or resignation, so that's pretty feeble.
I guess I'll stick to the "defend the constitution" part.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Instant Crisis
Also, because I don't think non-rap musicians deserve their loot either, if you think they deserve "as much as people are willing to pay them," then I say that the price for their music should be brought down to a level where more people have access and will pay. I'm not going to pay $20 for a CD, but I'd pay $5, and I bet I'm not alone. and if 5x as many people buy $5 CDs, then the music people make more money. They just don't believe that that could happen.
Another alternative would be encryption to prevent copying, as digital media replaces CDs, but they'd have to eliminate CDs to prevent copying from them, and that would wipe out a major market: people without computers, who, by the way, are also too poor to buy many $20 CDs, anyway.
I think we should think about everything's long term impact on society more than the immediate fiscal bottom line.
Instant Crisis
Psych junior, Carnegie Mellon
It's all about the Benjamins.
Instant Crisis
The music industry cannot police the entire internet, and, as with the lyrics website, would have problems with some other countries like Russia.
Also, besides large MP3 providers like MP3.com, or the Napster service, there will always be groups of interstate friends in which only one person will need to pay for the music for everyone to benefit.
I agree with the article's claim that the best way for the industry to maximize its profits would be to lower its prices. 10 songs should not cost $20, or even $10.
How much money to the artists deserve for some music? Oh, darn, the rappers made less than a zillion dollars this year. I guess they won't be buying all the useless, expensive cars and jewelry that inspire their songs about how many cars and pieces of jewelry they own bling bling.
Instant Crisis
Ah, indescriminate justice. No more biases getting in the way. Damned judges enforcing their opinions on everyone. We need STANDARDIZATION! Standardization is the key.
Instant Crisis
Standardization is good. Easy and open, sanctioned sharing of information is good. I even believe that socialism can be a better government system than ours if it's executed properly. It's nice to see that France is using its powers for good instead of evil. This will make learning and competing (as much as is possible under socialism) much easier. Maybe this experiment in policy will set a good precedent for other nations.
Instant Crisis
I figure that once companies realize the limit, they'll collude and only release faster processors in small increments in "competition" with each other to leech as much money as they can. The alternative is that the first one to reach the limit sells to everyone to get the money before the other guy (Intel vs AMD), but then everyone is out of business because the market is satisfied until freaky quantum or holographic or whatever technology is developed.
How close is anyone to that stuff?
Instant Crisis
The sample type (Intro students at a midwest university) is not remotely representative of the population.
The questions on attitude were presented immediately after game play, while the participant is still aroused, which decreases evidence for correlation between games and long-term attitudes/behaviors.
The researchers were making a connection between video game violence and resolution of conflicts, though the violence in the games they used was both self-defencive and patriotic. Maybe if they had used Grand Theft Auto or Postal could they make their claim.
The researchers clearly had no familiarity with Doom at all.
The researchers downplayed the possibility that persons make aggressive and desensitized by television (Bandura, 1965; Baron & Kempner, 1970; Liebert & Baron, 1972) are just more likely to play violent video games.
In a first-person action game, like Doom, the player is not synonymous with the character and does not choose to kill entities, but is forced to kill to stay in the game. If there were ways to sneak around enemies or get out of situations less violently (Thief) the players would have a choice, and it is often much easier (or required) to take the non-murdering path to the goal.
Also, the references to the Columbine incident are evidence that the whole biased experiment was a grab for attention/funding.
I could go on, but I've spent enough time on this already and I don't think many people are even going to be reading this far down the topic.
Instant Crisis
It's about time. I was a Neilson rater about 4 years back and told them in the comments section that they should bring back the D&D Cartoon, Thundercats, and Voltron. Thundercats and Voltron were picked up by Cartoon Network the next year, but D&D remained absent.