The vast majority of Sony customers not only don't give a fuck about removing Linux from a PS3, including rootkits on CDs, or anything about MiniDisc, they don't even know what those things are in the first place.
You're a goddamned idiot if you think any of these things has the least bit to do with Sony's financial troubles. Their troubles are caused by a combination of the general, prolonged downturn in the economy and selling expensive devices (primarily TVs) that have features (3D) to which most customers are at best indifferent. Most people who want one have bought an HDTV in the last 4-5 years and Sony isn't giving them any incentive to upgrade and giving them many, many disincentives with the price.
Avatar also doesn't deserve an Oscar for Best Picture; it's a fine enough film, but nothing brilliant. What it is, particularly in 3D IMAX, is a visual spectacle of spectacles like nothing else ever produced. The Oscars have special affects awards for films such as this, which Avatar swept if my memory serves.
It really depends on where you live. While I supposed there's some value in rating the different carriers by overall national performance, it doesn't really make sense to make your provider decisions based on national results since they may vary drastically in your local market.
For anyone knocking "Jersey Shore" this show is a pioneer! It's the first show to actually have "negative product placement". The cast is so douchy that A&F actually paid them not to wear their brand of clothing.
I can hear it now "M$ IS JUST TRYING TO SQUEEZE MORE MONEY OUT OF PEOPLE. There is no reason to upgrade because Windows XP works fine and this upgrade isn't big enough to matter."
Fixed that for you. You were giving those idiots entirely too much credit.
Sort of, but isn't it really like selling those 5,000 tickets and then kicking everyone out after they've seen 1/5 of the show so that the other customers also get to see an equal portion of the whole thing they paid to see?
For someone who feels the need to point out when they're using quotation marks you're remarkably poor at reading the meaning behind their use by others.
Since you're the second person to reply from Europe with, what I find to be, a distorted understanding of what defines a "western" muslim, perhaps we should examine what that means to you.
When I read "western muslim" I think of the ones I meet here (and there are a lot in this part of the United States) who were largely born in America or have essentially grown up here. I don't think it's accurate to describe those recently immigrated to "western" countries (often from extremely backward theocratic states) as "western."
The point that I was making, which is extremely true of the group that can be accurately described as "western muslims" (and thus for most members of that group), is that they are really just like other members of their society. Now, that does mean they have don't have insane beliefs (they're religious, after all), but that they're generally not outside the mainstream of their greater "western" society and certainly not any more so than members of other groups within that society with similar crazy beliefs.
As someone who knows quite a few "western" muslims I can tell you that no, I'm not "horrified" by what they would say regarding this case. Neither would anyone else be, unless they agree that authoritarian states should murder people for tweeting mild insults to fictionalized religious figures.
You don't know many "western" muslims, do you? Believe it or not, they're just like "regular" people. I'd even say on average they're a lot more "normal" than most of the christians.
Unfortunately we have many such judges here in the united states. However, I shall continue to whisper of this dream you speak of and hope that it comes true.
In this context "selling the right to make copies" and "licensing" are synonymous. When you sell the right to make copies you are licensing something, regardless of whether or not licensing something necessarily means selling the right to make copies.
This should be obvious and you should adjust your trolling behavior to either not try so hard or try harder.
I doubt they'd need to do anything. At $600 the majority or iPhone owners will switch to something they can more readily afford. Because despite the protests of Apple and their fanboys the appeal of iPhone is its perceived style, not its functionality. Without the subsidy most of those customers are buying white versions of Virgin Mobile's line.
Considering that you don't have a clue I reckon that your expectations won't amount to much in the real world. A year of Prime costs $80, a Kindle device costs $80, so far each borrowed book has earned less than $2, each Prime member with a Kindle gets one book a month. Only a moron or a clueless twat looking for free hits from Slashdot would think that's a profitable "game" to play.
Which would require that people waste their one monthly borrow on that garbage content, which is unlikely. You may also wish to note that in order for this type of content to be included in KDP Select two things would have to happen 1) the "publisher" would have to fail to check the "public domain" box when publishing (a violation of Amazon's terms of service for KDP) and 2) Amazon would have to fail to catch this inappropriately published content.
While they clearly don't do a perfect (or maybe even good) job of catching content that is improperly published in this manner, they've definitely improved greatly in the last year given how much public domain content has been purged from their catalog.
While there's some chance that may happen in some degree with KDP Select, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that it will happen here because it happened with MP3.com. The main reasons being:
1) Customers must be Prime subscribers with Amazon Kindle devices to participate. 2) Each customer can only "borrow" one title a month. 3) Only the first time a customer "borrows" a title does it count toward the bounty.
Considering that the one copy of my book that was borrowed in December only netted me $1.70, I can't really see how it'd be profitable to game that system considering the minimum price of entry is $160 ($80/year for Prime, plus $79.99 for lowest end Kindle device).
They don't pay out based on the retail price of the "borrowed" book so the pool isn't going to "run out." The payout is your percentage of "borrowed" books times the monthly fund amount, like this:
Amazon has stated that the program will receive at least $12 million in funding for 2012. Whether that means that they'll provide at least $500,000/month or if they'll dip lower (considering they're up to $1.3 million already) later has yet to be seen.
One point that the original article seems to be missing is that KDP Select titles can only be borrowed by people who a) are Amazon Prime subscribers and b) own Amazon Kindle devices. While this doesn't completely inoculate the service from the sort of "gaming" that he refers to on MP3.com, that's a much higher barrier to entry than signing up for an account and downloading a file for free. Additionally, each account can only borrow one book a month and only the first borrow for each title from an account counts toward the bounty.
Slashdot Mirror
Homeonomics...LOL
FTFY
Me too! I drink water ALL the time.
The vast majority of Sony customers not only don't give a fuck about removing Linux from a PS3, including rootkits on CDs, or anything about MiniDisc, they don't even know what those things are in the first place.
You're a goddamned idiot if you think any of these things has the least bit to do with Sony's financial troubles. Their troubles are caused by a combination of the general, prolonged downturn in the economy and selling expensive devices (primarily TVs) that have features (3D) to which most customers are at best indifferent. Most people who want one have bought an HDTV in the last 4-5 years and Sony isn't giving them any incentive to upgrade and giving them many, many disincentives with the price.
Five. Maybe a bit more if they've got an extra arm or two. Depends on how well they can use the added appendages, I suppose.
Avatar also doesn't deserve an Oscar for Best Picture; it's a fine enough film, but nothing brilliant. What it is, particularly in 3D IMAX, is a visual spectacle of spectacles like nothing else ever produced. The Oscars have special affects awards for films such as this, which Avatar swept if my memory serves.
It really depends on where you live. While I supposed there's some value in rating the different carriers by overall national performance, it doesn't really make sense to make your provider decisions based on national results since they may vary drastically in your local market.
Oreos are vegan...
So what kind of dessert is a Facebook? Does a Google contain dairy? I'm allergic, you insensitive clod!
Perhaps if you've only used one web browser on one computer since 2006. Otherwise, probably not.
For anyone knocking "Jersey Shore" this show is a pioneer! It's the first show to actually have "negative product placement". The cast is so douchy that A&F actually paid them not to wear their brand of clothing.
This is an amazingly insightful point.
RMS is wrong. He's also a dickbag.
I don't think he wants to provide examples. It's probably all porn sites.
I can hear it now "M$ IS JUST TRYING TO SQUEEZE MORE MONEY OUT OF PEOPLE. There is no reason to upgrade because Windows XP works fine and this upgrade isn't big enough to matter."
Fixed that for you. You were giving those idiots entirely too much credit.
Sort of, but isn't it really like selling those 5,000 tickets and then kicking everyone out after they've seen 1/5 of the show so that the other customers also get to see an equal portion of the whole thing they paid to see?
For someone who feels the need to point out when they're using quotation marks you're remarkably poor at reading the meaning behind their use by others.
Since you're the second person to reply from Europe with, what I find to be, a distorted understanding of what defines a "western" muslim, perhaps we should examine what that means to you.
When I read "western muslim" I think of the ones I meet here (and there are a lot in this part of the United States) who were largely born in America or have essentially grown up here. I don't think it's accurate to describe those recently immigrated to "western" countries (often from extremely backward theocratic states) as "western."
The point that I was making, which is extremely true of the group that can be accurately described as "western muslims" (and thus for most members of that group), is that they are really just like other members of their society. Now, that does mean they have don't have insane beliefs (they're religious, after all), but that they're generally not outside the mainstream of their greater "western" society and certainly not any more so than members of other groups within that society with similar crazy beliefs.
As someone who knows quite a few "western" muslims I can tell you that no, I'm not "horrified" by what they would say regarding this case. Neither would anyone else be, unless they agree that authoritarian states should murder people for tweeting mild insults to fictionalized religious figures.
That's not setting a very high bar for them.
Certainly not. But it's asking a lot to expect any group to reach a high bar when their membership is defined by subscription to a religion.
You don't know many "western" muslims, do you? Believe it or not, they're just like "regular" people. I'd even say on average they're a lot more "normal" than most of the christians.
Unfortunately we have many such judges here in the united states. However, I shall continue to whisper of this dream you speak of and hope that it comes true.
In this context "selling the right to make copies" and "licensing" are synonymous. When you sell the right to make copies you are licensing something, regardless of whether or not licensing something necessarily means selling the right to make copies.
This should be obvious and you should adjust your trolling behavior to either not try so hard or try harder.
Five. The answer is five.
I doubt they'd need to do anything. At $600 the majority or iPhone owners will switch to something they can more readily afford. Because despite the protests of Apple and their fanboys the appeal of iPhone is its perceived style, not its functionality. Without the subsidy most of those customers are buying white versions of Virgin Mobile's line.
Considering that you don't have a clue I reckon that your expectations won't amount to much in the real world. A year of Prime costs $80, a Kindle device costs $80, so far each borrowed book has earned less than $2, each Prime member with a Kindle gets one book a month. Only a moron or a clueless twat looking for free hits from Slashdot would think that's a profitable "game" to play.
Which would require that people waste their one monthly borrow on that garbage content, which is unlikely. You may also wish to note that in order for this type of content to be included in KDP Select two things would have to happen 1) the "publisher" would have to fail to check the "public domain" box when publishing (a violation of Amazon's terms of service for KDP) and 2) Amazon would have to fail to catch this inappropriately published content.
While they clearly don't do a perfect (or maybe even good) job of catching content that is improperly published in this manner, they've definitely improved greatly in the last year given how much public domain content has been purged from their catalog.
While there's some chance that may happen in some degree with KDP Select, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that it will happen here because it happened with MP3.com. The main reasons being:
1) Customers must be Prime subscribers with Amazon Kindle devices to participate.
2) Each customer can only "borrow" one title a month.
3) Only the first time a customer "borrows" a title does it count toward the bounty.
Considering that the one copy of my book that was borrowed in December only netted me $1.70, I can't really see how it'd be profitable to game that system considering the minimum price of entry is $160 ($80/year for Prime, plus $79.99 for lowest end Kindle device).
They don't pay out based on the retail price of the "borrowed" book so the pool isn't going to "run out." The payout is your percentage of "borrowed" books times the monthly fund amount, like this:
[your borrowed books] / [total borrowed books] * [monthly fund]
Amazon has stated that the program will receive at least $12 million in funding for 2012. Whether that means that they'll provide at least $500,000/month or if they'll dip lower (considering they're up to $1.3 million already) later has yet to be seen.
One point that the original article seems to be missing is that KDP Select titles can only be borrowed by people who a) are Amazon Prime subscribers and b) own Amazon Kindle devices. While this doesn't completely inoculate the service from the sort of "gaming" that he refers to on MP3.com, that's a much higher barrier to entry than signing up for an account and downloading a file for free. Additionally, each account can only borrow one book a month and only the first borrow for each title from an account counts toward the bounty.