Also, choice of vendor isn't that big of a deal when nearly all vendors have the same music. For example, Napster claims to have 1,000,000 tracks from 65,000 records online; Rhapsody claims 50,000 recordings. While I haven't checked them, my guess is that both have most of the same tracks. A customer isn't going to buy a few tracks from one site and a couple from another. The only choice you have is which service you sign up for initially.
The main difference between the services is supplemental content, functionality and ease of use. Format issues aside, Apple has done a good job providing some useful functions, including Celebrity Playlists, customer driven playlists and an essentials system. Also, Apple has been very good at offering exclusive tracks and tracks from smaller labels. While I haven't used Rhapsody, a co-worker does and she likes their custom station feature, where you can have Rhapsody create a custom station based on the music that you like. Once Rhapsody supports Janus, you should be able to listen to custom stations on a portable player.
Re:I hate college - university and autonomy
on
Defining Google
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The one thing that was both thrilling and frightening about college was the degree of autonomy. In grade school, if you don't go to class, the teacher notes it, the administration gets on your back and the school can even send law enforcement after you. In college, if you don't go to class, you just deal with the consequences - bad grades. And I saw a good number of people who couldn't handle that autonomy - they could make grades in high school with teachers and parents on their case; in college, they couldn't handle the lack of structure. In short, college teaches you to manage the priority of work and how to meet various deadlines. That becomes a big differentiation in the the workplace. Generally, college educated people can work unsupervised and get it it done by a deadline. This isn't just a matter of motivation, but is an actual skill that not everyone has.
While many people without college degrees can do organize their own work as well, they only pick it up over time. Many skilled trades such as plumbers and mechanics don't require that you prioritize work; most tradesmen just do one job (fix that sink, install that furnace), then move on to the next one. Even if they work without direct supervision, their priorities are short term and usually set by someone else - ie, go fix the sinks at these four addresses today.
That reality hit one of the managers in my area. He originally managed only IT people, but recently inherited a customer service call group as well. While he adjusted to it, one of the differences was that he couldn't just tell the customer service employees to do something. He had to tell them to do it, make sure they understood what they were told, and then have someone check up that they're in fact doing what you told them.
So, along with that tolerance for bullshit comes the motivation to deal with it without someone looking over your shoulder all the time.
If I had known about it in time, 10 of my friends could have called 10 of their friends, and we would have had 100 person-hours of calling. We could have notified hundreds of thousands of people, assuming a little cooperation from the people in the nations we were calling.
And assuming two other things -
That someone in your your circle for friends actually knows someone in Indonsia or Sri Lanka.
That anyone in the affected areas has a phone. For example, Sri Lanka has a population of 19 million with less than 2 million phones (mobile and land line combined). In comparison, Ireland has over 5 million phones and less than 4 million people.
After reading the fine print at the bottom of the page closely, I noticed the following -
The free version does not include access to any of the three expansion packs. Should you wish to upgrade to any of the expansion packs monthly subscription and client fees will be added.
So if you buy an expansion pack, you end up paying a monthly fee as well. This gives them a way to sell their remaining expansion packs without having to manufacture and distribute copies of the core game. In fact, the core game doesn't seem to be in stock anywhere.
The real question is, was the Declaration of Independence right or wrong?
Actually, in Canada, they did believe that the Declaration of Independence was wrong.
Now, put down the Air Styler and crack those civics books!
Re:Easy of Linux vs Complexity of Windows Updates
on
Point and Click Linux
·
· Score: 1
Updating Windows isn't hard, but nor does it help me accomplish the things that I desire with my computer. It doesn't entertain me, it doesn't manange my finances, it doesn't help me communicate with friends. If I have a PC with Windows XP, windows update takes fifteen to thirty minutes of my time in order to meet the computer's needs rather than having the computer do what I want it to do.
Apple has a similar update. However, I find that it involves less attention from me and also tends to interrupt me less in the middle of my regular computer use.
The Watchmen is a very complex comic, Here, here! What's great about the Watchmen isn't the core story. It's how the story is told. A great deal of its ingenuity lies in its variety of panel layouts, use of parallel story lines, flashbacks and recurrent visual themes. It's the rich interplay between those diverse elements that makes the comic so exceptional. Achieving a similar level of detail and interplay in a movie would be a prodigious feat of cinema.
The patent isn't easy reading, but if you plow through enough of it you get to an example in code
[0003] Class x [0004] Dim y As Integer [0005] End Class
[0006] Class x in this case is defined to contain a member of type "Integer", which is to say that if the item stored at memory location 252 is a variable of class x, the contents of memory location 252 will comprise an Integer. Suppose now that the following code is executed:
[0007] Dim a As x [0008] a=New x( )
[0009] The first line of code defines variable a to be of class x while the second line creates a new instance of x 254 on the heap, a pointer to which is stored in variable a 256.
It looks like their patenting using the Basic IsNot operator on object comparisons in Basic. It's a pretty limited patent.
On the other hand, I'm baffled that you can patent overriding a specific operator in a specific language. There's considerable prior art in overrding operatorsin general.
Of course, the problem with patent abuse by a few people is that it prompts others to do the same. Don't want someone to patent a piece of technology out from under you? Patent it first!
I'm wondering if there is a legal twist here - 1. Create software that can plug onto P2P technology to prevent free downloading of content. 2. Offer software for free to various P2P software projects. 3. When developers refuse, take them to court because they won't add the copy protection plug-in. 4. Sue anyone who's using a non-DRM client for said P2P software.
Stop trying to treat music like it's a tennis shoe, something to be branded. If the music industry wants to save money, they should take a look at some of their six-figure executive expense accounts. All those lawsuits can't be cheap, either. and Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator.
People who look at music as commerce don't understand that. They are talking about pieces of plastic they want to sell, packages of intellectual property.
I'm not interested in selling pieces of plastic.
I think people are disgusted at the RIAA (and the music industry in general) not only because they trod all over the rights of listeners, but because they don't serve the needs of artists either. Whether you're a musician, fan, retailer or broadcaster, the industy is out to screw you. Unfortunately, it's also a cartel that does everything it can to quash channels that are more favorable to musicians and their audience.
If you like Legos, this would be a good year to include Lego on your shoppng list. Sales for Lego have fallen over 25% in the last two years and the company is looking at a record setting loss for this year.
I'd advise kids today to learn a trade, I wish I had. The world will always need master carpenters, plumbers, electricians, masons, welders, etc...
There's always a demand for construction trades, however they're very tough jobs to make into careers. I have a friend who's a journeyman electrician and he gets paid a rather modest wage. He makes up for a low hourly rate by working long hours. It's very physically demanding work - as the smallest guy on his crew, he does a lot of crawling through attics and under buildings to draw cable. He's barely in his early 30's, but his back is already bothering him so much that he may not be able to work as in construction much longer.
According to him, the only way to make good money at electrician jobs is to own your own business. Interestingly, that's where many folks in the computer field find themselves - becoming independent contractors.
Later in the article, there's a discussion of "Sacrificing salary for stability". So if local workers have decided to lower their salary expectation to match or better those of overseas workers, will company do in-sourcing instead?
In Richmond VA, a couple of hours south on I-95 frm DC, it seems like most hiring is being done by contractors. Because Richmond salaries are generally lower than ones to the north or in the Research Triangle, it doesn't seem like off-shoring has taken off. I suspect that the higher cost of livings (and commensurate salaries) of markets like DC, New York and Silicon valley make them more lucrative targets for outsourcing. However, many of the opportunities in town are either for contractors or in IT management.
Even with the proliferation of contractor based jobs, there are many openings for experienced IT professionals. However, the emphasis in on experience; entry level jobs have pretty much disappeared. I hear about college kids getting IT degrees and the only two words that I have for them are "Good Luck".
The last couple of week's billboard charts are actually indicative of how out of sync radio play is with people's desires. Interpol's latest album Antics hit 13 for top sales the week of its release. Brian Wilson's release of Smile also hit the top 20. Neither hit the top 100 in related air play charts. So people like this music; at least they're passionate enough to buy it the week of release. But neither album fits into a commercial format. Also, both releases are on independent labels - no payola.
One thing is certain: evidence of a neurological difference between liberal and conservative brains would not be another instance of genetic determinism, since patterns of brain activity are shaped by experience as much as by genes. (Those who suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome also show unusual patterns of amygdala activity, but those patterns are almost inevitably the imprint of a specific event, and not the long arm of DNA.)
Actually, the more interesting quote is this one -
Seeing political identity as a reflection of common brain architecture helps explain another longstanding riddle: why do people vote against their immediate interests? Why do blue-collar Republicans and limousine liberals exist? The question becomes less puzzling if you assume that 1) people choose parties primarily because they desire the companionship of people who share their cognitive wiring, and 2) they desire that companionship so much they're willing to pay for the privilege
Living in the south, I'm always puzzled at folks who complain about layoffs at their job, terrible traffic from suburban sprawl, crappy schools and poor healthcare, then vote for anyone running for the GOP.
...or rapists, drug dealers, or pedophiles. Laws don't stop crimes; they simply provide negative consequences for individucals that commit criminal acts. It's why we have cops and jails.
However, once you outlaw a certain activity, few legitimate organizations that rely on protection under the law are likely to engage in that activity. A legitimate advertiser is less likely to sponsor back-door pop-ups if there's a chance for criminal charges, let alone conviction. By reducing the market for pop-up ad providers, the law should make them less prevalent. If there's fewer people willing to pay for backdoor pop-ups, then fewer people use them.
Isn't this the way B2B and B2C works with things like WSDL, EDI, and web services? In technological terms, yes. However, most typical B2B arrangements are far from open - management meet and hammer out a contract, tech meet and hammer out interfaces and connectivity, etc. Even if the arrangement is only one company providing data to another, there is considerable interaction between both organizatons before exchanging data with one party paying the other for data. In all cases, the two parties only interact by agreement - usually in the form of a specially arranged contract.
EBay and Amazon allow nearly anyone to connect to their services, Anyone can retrieve that data for free and use it to make themselves (as well as Amazon and Ebay) money. While there is a contractual arrangement between Amazon or EBay and the partner, it's generally a boilerplate contract that simply allows Amazon and EBay to prevent abuse.
The advantage for EBay and Amazon is that they don't have to come up with interesting uses for their data - they simply encourage partners' ideas and both parties make money.
My folks sent me to summer school *ugh* to take typing between 9th and 10th grade. It was short class that only ramped you up to 20 wpm (net after errors). I learned the home keys some basic form. After four weeks, I was free for the summer.
I knew others who took typing for a whole semester during the school year and hated it. In hindsight, I'm thankful that my parent's made me take typing outside of the regular school year. After typing papers as an English major in college then programming for the last six years, I'm up to around 50-60 wpm. Once I learned those home keys, I was able to crank.
Hold your horse there pardner. I know that there's arithmetic; I hear tell that my city cousin learned something called algebra. Just how many gol-durn maths are there?
Assuming that you're not a co-pilot on an airplane, there must be other individuals that deal with this person as well, including other direct reports. How do they deal with this person? Admittedly, some may be sucking up. However, others may know which of your boss's buttons to not push and what his expectations are. Find someone who seems to get along with your boss that you respect and simply ask them, "You seem to get along with our boss. How do you do it?" or "When our boss does X, it drives me crazy. It never seems to bother you, why?" Don't use it as an opportunity to criticize your boss or to get that person on your side of an issue. If a co-worker already gets along with your boss, he probably won't jeopardize that relationship to help you.
Books on the matter are good, but you'll generally find two overall pieces of advice in them:
You can't change other people's behavior.
You can change how you handle the situation.
Lastly, be aware that if you're the only person that seems to have a problem with this individual, the problem may be on your side.
Yep, Amazon has it. I had a good experience buying used CD's before on Amazon. I think you're out of luck as far as buying it new - it's probably gone out of print.
There is a huge amount of out of print recordings that aren't carried by online music stores. Most of the orignal tapes are still around. You would think that digitizing those recordings would be an easy way for the labels to make money. According to this article from back in May, Steve Jobs wants iTunes to have access to back-catalog material. However, it seems like he has a hard time getting the major labels to "think different".
Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract. Many of them will never Artists Get Ripped Off. even see this paltry share because they have to pay for producers and recording costs, both of which can be enormous. Until the musician "recoups" these costs, when you buy an iTunes song, the label gives them nothing.
Apple has been better than most other online stores to include independent labels. Merge, Sub-pop, Matador, Kill Rock Stars, and Thrill Jockey (to name a few) all have recordings on iTunes. If indepents' contacts for digital music are comparable to their other contracts, then the artists should do considerably better.
However, I think your answer points out a big problem with the major labels - they have a hard time complaining about being ripped off from file trading, when they're actively ripping off artists. The problem with file trading is that it still hurts the musician - they certainly have less of a chance of paying off their advances if people are trading their music. Personally, I would like it if online music sales allowed musicians to bypass the recording industry. I agree that iTunes isn't quite there, but frankly, it's closer than most of the competition.
FWIW, there's always this article on the pitfalls of signing to a major label. Yes, I know, it's 11 years old. Yes, it's been posted to hell. But it's a good reminder.
Imagine high school students re-writing their essays... Actually, anything that would encourage students to re-write their papers and improve their writing would be pretty amazing. Most students jot something down, run a spell checker and turn in their work. If they could pre-grade their work, they might be better motivated to put out more effort and improve their writing.
Fortunately, when people graduate from high school and enter the workforce they become motivated to always make their best effort.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, choice of vendor isn't that big of a deal when nearly all vendors have the same music. For example, Napster claims to have 1,000,000 tracks from 65,000 records online; Rhapsody claims 50,000 recordings. While I haven't checked them, my guess is that both have most of the same tracks. A customer isn't going to buy a few tracks from one site and a couple from another. The only choice you have is which service you sign up for initially.
The main difference between the services is supplemental content, functionality and ease of use. Format issues aside, Apple has done a good job providing some useful functions, including Celebrity Playlists, customer driven playlists and an essentials system. Also, Apple has been very good at offering exclusive tracks and tracks from smaller labels. While I haven't used Rhapsody, a co-worker does and she likes their custom station feature, where you can have Rhapsody create a custom station based on the music that you like. Once Rhapsody supports Janus, you should be able to listen to custom stations on a portable player.
The one thing that was both thrilling and frightening about college was the degree of autonomy. In grade school, if you don't go to class, the teacher notes it, the administration gets on your back and the school can even send law enforcement after you. In college, if you don't go to class, you just deal with the consequences - bad grades. And I saw a good number of people who couldn't handle that autonomy - they could make grades in high school with teachers and parents on their case; in college, they couldn't handle the lack of structure. In short, college teaches you to manage the priority of work and how to meet various deadlines. That becomes a big differentiation in the the workplace. Generally, college educated people can work unsupervised and get it it done by a deadline. This isn't just a matter of motivation, but is an actual skill that not everyone has.
While many people without college degrees can do organize their own work as well, they only pick it up over time. Many skilled trades such as plumbers and mechanics don't require that you prioritize work; most tradesmen just do one job (fix that sink, install that furnace), then move on to the next one. Even if they work without direct supervision, their priorities are short term and usually set by someone else - ie, go fix the sinks at these four addresses today.
That reality hit one of the managers in my area. He originally managed only IT people, but recently inherited a customer service call group as well. While he adjusted to it, one of the differences was that he couldn't just tell the customer service employees to do something. He had to tell them to do it, make sure they understood what they were told, and then have someone check up that they're in fact doing what you told them.
So, along with that tolerance for bullshit comes the motivation to deal with it without someone looking over your shoulder all the time.
And assuming two other things -
The real question is, was the Declaration of Independence right or wrong?
Actually, in Canada, they did believe that the Declaration of Independence was wrong.
Now, put down the Air Styler and crack those civics books!
Updating Windows isn't hard, but nor does it help me accomplish the things that I desire with my computer. It doesn't entertain me, it doesn't manange my finances, it doesn't help me communicate with friends. If I have a PC with Windows XP, windows update takes fifteen to thirty minutes of my time in order to meet the computer's needs rather than having the computer do what I want it to do.
Apple has a similar update. However, I find that it involves less attention from me and also tends to interrupt me less in the middle of my regular computer use.
The Watchmen is a very complex comic,
Here, here! What's great about the Watchmen isn't the core story. It's how the story is told. A great deal of its ingenuity lies in its variety of panel layouts, use of parallel story lines, flashbacks and recurrent visual themes. It's the rich interplay between those diverse elements that makes the comic so exceptional. Achieving a similar level of detail and interplay in a movie would be a prodigious feat of cinema.
The patent isn't easy reading, but if you plow through enough of it you get to an example in code
It looks like their patenting using the Basic IsNot operator on object comparisons in Basic. It's a pretty limited patent.
On the other hand, I'm baffled that you can patent overriding a specific operator in a specific language. There's considerable prior art in overrding operatorsin general.
Of course, the problem with patent abuse by a few people is that it prompts others to do the same. Don't want someone to patent a piece of technology out from under you? Patent it first!
I'm wondering if there is a legal twist here -
1. Create software that can plug onto P2P technology to prevent free downloading of content.
2. Offer software for free to various P2P software projects.
3. When developers refuse, take them to court because they won't add the copy protection plug-in.
4. Sue anyone who's using a non-DRM client for said P2P software.
Stop trying to treat music like it's a tennis shoe, something to be branded. If the music industry wants to save money, they should take a look at some of their six-figure executive expense accounts. All those lawsuits can't be cheap, either.
and
Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator.
People who look at music as commerce don't understand that. They are talking about pieces of plastic they want to sell, packages of intellectual property.
I'm not interested in selling pieces of plastic.
I think people are disgusted at the RIAA (and the music industry in general) not only because they trod all over the rights of listeners, but because they don't serve the needs of artists either. Whether you're a musician, fan, retailer or broadcaster, the industy is out to screw you. Unfortunately, it's also a cartel that does everything it can to quash channels that are more favorable to musicians and their audience.
If you like Legos, this would be a good year to include Lego on your shoppng list. Sales for Lego have fallen over 25% in the last two years and the company is looking at a record setting loss for this year.
I'd advise kids today to learn a trade, I wish I had. The world will always need master carpenters, plumbers, electricians, masons, welders, etc...
There's always a demand for construction trades, however they're very tough jobs to make into careers. I have a friend who's a journeyman electrician and he gets paid a rather modest wage. He makes up for a low hourly rate by working long hours. It's very physically demanding work - as the smallest guy on his crew, he does a lot of crawling through attics and under buildings to draw cable. He's barely in his early 30's, but his back is already bothering him so much that he may not be able to work as in construction much longer.
According to him, the only way to make good money at electrician jobs is to own your own business. Interestingly, that's where many folks in the computer field find themselves - becoming independent contractors.
Later in the article, there's a discussion of "Sacrificing salary for stability". So if local workers have decided to lower their salary expectation to match or better those of overseas workers, will company do in-sourcing instead?
In Richmond VA, a couple of hours south on I-95 frm DC, it seems like most hiring is being done by contractors. Because Richmond salaries are generally lower than ones to the north or in the Research Triangle, it doesn't seem like off-shoring has taken off. I suspect that the higher cost of livings (and commensurate salaries) of markets like DC, New York and Silicon valley make them more lucrative targets for outsourcing. However, many of the opportunities in town are either for contractors or in IT management.
Even with the proliferation of contractor based jobs, there are many openings for experienced IT professionals. However, the emphasis in on experience; entry level jobs have pretty much disappeared. I hear about college kids getting IT degrees and the only two words that I have for them are "Good Luck".
The last couple of week's billboard charts are actually indicative of how out of sync radio play is with people's desires. Interpol's latest album Antics hit 13 for top sales the week of its release. Brian Wilson's release of Smile also hit the top 20. Neither hit the top 100 in related air play charts. So people like this music; at least they're passionate enough to buy it the week of release. But neither album fits into a commercial format. Also, both releases are on independent labels - no payola.
Actually, the results could have immediate implications for treating serious burns. From the article -
the discovery could lead to better skin grafts for burn victims, since grafts now can't grow hair or sebaceous glands.
I guess the researchers decided to treat bald mice, since burning the mice would be rather cruel.
Cool, a device that fits in my pocket, plays music, organizes my day AND gets infected by spyware and viruses.
I can see it now - I'm listening to the Minutemen and a popup loads on my MSPod asking me if I'd like to hear a track by Good Charlotte.
Actually, the more interesting quote is this one -
Living in the south, I'm always puzzled at folks who complain about layoffs at their job, terrible traffic from suburban sprawl, crappy schools and poor healthcare, then vote for anyone running for the GOP.
...or rapists, drug dealers, or pedophiles. Laws don't stop crimes; they simply provide negative consequences for individucals that commit criminal acts. It's why we have cops and jails.
However, once you outlaw a certain activity, few legitimate organizations that rely on protection under the law are likely to engage in that activity. A legitimate advertiser is less likely to sponsor back-door pop-ups if there's a chance for criminal charges, let alone conviction. By reducing the market for pop-up ad providers, the law should make them less prevalent. If there's fewer people willing to pay for backdoor pop-ups, then fewer people use them.
Isn't this the way B2B and B2C works with things like WSDL, EDI, and web services?
In technological terms, yes. However, most typical B2B arrangements are far from open - management meet and hammer out a contract, tech meet and hammer out interfaces and connectivity, etc. Even if the arrangement is only one company providing data to another, there is considerable interaction between both organizatons before exchanging data with one party paying the other for data. In all cases, the two parties only interact by agreement - usually in the form of a specially arranged contract.
EBay and Amazon allow nearly anyone to connect to their services, Anyone can retrieve that data for free and use it to make themselves (as well as Amazon and Ebay) money. While there is a contractual arrangement between Amazon or EBay and the partner, it's generally a boilerplate contract that simply allows Amazon and EBay to prevent abuse.
The advantage for EBay and Amazon is that they don't have to come up with interesting uses for their data - they simply encourage partners' ideas and both parties make money.
My folks sent me to summer school *ugh* to take typing between 9th and 10th grade. It was short class that only ramped you up to 20 wpm (net after errors). I learned the home keys some basic form. After four weeks, I was free for the summer.
I knew others who took typing for a whole semester during the school year and hated it. In hindsight, I'm thankful that my parent's made me take typing outside of the regular school year. After typing papers as an English major in college then programming for the last six years, I'm up to around 50-60 wpm. Once I learned those home keys, I was able to crank.
Hold your horse there pardner. I know that there's arithmetic; I hear tell that my city cousin learned something called algebra. Just how many gol-durn maths are there?
Books on the matter are good, but you'll generally find two overall pieces of advice in them:
- You can't change other people's behavior.
- You can change how you handle the situation.
Lastly, be aware that if you're the only person that seems to have a problem with this individual, the problem may be on your side.Yep, Amazon has it. I had a good experience buying used CD's before on Amazon. I think you're out of luck as far as buying it new - it's probably gone out of print.
There is a huge amount of out of print recordings that aren't carried by online music stores. Most of the orignal tapes are still around. You would think that digitizing those recordings would be an easy way for the labels to make money. According to this article from back in May, Steve Jobs wants iTunes to have access to back-catalog material. However, it seems like he has a hard time getting the major labels to "think different".
Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract. Many of them will never Artists Get Ripped Off. even see this paltry share because they have to pay for producers and recording costs, both of which can be enormous. Until the musician "recoups" these costs, when you buy an iTunes song, the label gives them nothing.
Apple has been better than most other online stores to include independent labels. Merge, Sub-pop, Matador, Kill Rock Stars, and Thrill Jockey (to name a few) all have recordings on iTunes. If indepents' contacts for digital music are comparable to their other contracts, then the artists should do considerably better.
However, I think your answer points out a big problem with the major labels - they have a hard time complaining about being ripped off from file trading, when they're actively ripping off artists. The problem with file trading is that it still hurts the musician - they certainly have less of a chance of paying off their advances if people are trading their music. Personally, I would like it if online music sales allowed musicians to bypass the recording industry. I agree that iTunes isn't quite there, but frankly, it's closer than most of the competition.
FWIW, there's always this article on the pitfalls of signing to a major label. Yes, I know, it's 11 years old. Yes, it's been posted to hell. But it's a good reminder.
Imagine high school students re-writing their essays ...
Actually, anything that would encourage students to re-write their papers and improve their writing would be pretty amazing. Most students jot something down, run a spell checker and turn in their work. If they could pre-grade their work, they might be better motivated to put out more effort and improve their writing.
Fortunately, when people graduate from high school and enter the workforce they become motivated to always make their best effort.