Once you take the list of RIAA members and distill it down to a much smaller list where each major label interest is shown just once (Elektra, Sire Elektra, Qwest, Warner, and -- I think -- WEA are really all just AOL Time Warner, even if in some respects they may be operating independently of each other). Find the smaller labels that are left, and lobby them. Show them the areas in which RIAA policies go against their interests (this article comes to mind, but there's a lot more), and show them that it's in their interest to get these policies changed. Get them to break ranks, rock the boat, voice dissent.
Similarly, lobby artists. Lobby major-label shareholders. Lobby elected officials.
For that matter, remember that the RIAA doesn't represent all labels. Remind your elected officials that there are plenty of other labels and artists out there, labels and artists who are actually hurt when the RIAA is allowed to dictate public policy. Sure the major labels have money to buy politicians, but it's still the people who actually vote.
I agree w/ you here. I'm not convinced a more familiar gui's going to make alternative operating systems easier. Kids have certain advantages over those of us who are older: they're not going to be as prejudiced by past experiences. Guis, "desktop" models in particular, are -- among other things -- ways to make presumably abstract, alien computing ideas seem more familar through analogies with "real-world" systems and experiences. To kids, I could see a gui adding an additional level of abstraction, since I don't think they'll be starting from a point where a computer is any more alien than... pretty much anything else (including the "office" ideas endemic to the "desktop" analogy).
... and while you're in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, you should also be sure to check the nearby birthplace
of the "atomic age"
(location of the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction; "Where the End of the World Began!" [this last link'll have to do since I couldn't find a picture of the t-shirt I'm referring to]). It's not far at all.
Probably the key bit of new information, in answer to the "why now?" question:
It turns out that George Varga, a writer in San Diego, interviewed the bassist last
month and thought it would be funny to show him an article about some recent Stones reissues written by someone named Bill
Wyman.
Wirtz even lost his VCR in the deal, and Sylvania Township police debated confiscating his Xbox gaming console, but decided to leave it behind. The officers confiscated his legitimate CD copies of Windows Office and several operating systems, all of his burned CD's, and a security card writing machine instead.
Ah well, so much for the right not to be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
Don't know about the credit card side of things, but their online banking site works fine with Mozilla.
Must've been about 1999, though, they had one of the more amusing combinations of browser notices I've seen:
This site is optimized for use with Netscape 4.61 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 with 128-bit encryption. You may experience problems with other browers.
elsewhere, on the same page (when accessed with IE 5):
Internet Explorer 5.0 users: You may experience problems with this site.
For me, the Citibank site works a lot better with Mozilla (1.2b on Mac OS X and WinNT) than it does with Internet Explorer 6 (WinNT). Unlike in Mozilla, in IE, the fancy-scmancy javascript works great, but I frequenty get other major errors: like pages simply never loading.
Jim Oberg was interviewed yesterday on the BBC World Service (before the decision to cancel the book, and with zero indication that there had been any real criticism of the idea of publishing the book).
He basically said it was never intended to convince hard-core conspiracy theorists (he refused to be drawn into calling them nuts), but was rather intended for people, like school teachers, who might face related questions and needed to understand the issue to have answers. Apparently NASA routinely receives requests from teachers and others asking how to answer doubts.
'King James Version.... For example, '"Esther" is omitted (yes, I'm serious).'
Actually, Estherwas in the original King James Version of the Bible. The 14 books of the Apocrypha were officially removed in 1885. See, e.g., this google search.
In practice, this is the main reason that people want to bypass region coding--cheaper discs from other regions.
The main reason, perhaps, but there are other good reasons. I speak German, and am interested in watching German-language films and TV shows on DVD. A number of these things are released with region 2 encoding, which means I can't watch them without getting a second DVD player, or getting the one I've already got modified.
This state of affairs is bad for me, but it's also bad for German film: if there's never going to be a region 1 version produced, why lock out otherwise potential customers by limiting a release to region 2? Making these DVD's region-free could only increase sales and profits.
Not only that, but I'd think that -- before very long -- one of the two states would take the other to Court. I'm not sure the individual homeowner would be more than a witness...
If both states are claiming the right to tax the same property, it would have to be settled in the Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction to decide in cases of Controversies between two or more States.*quot; (Article III, sec 2 of the U.S. Constitution)
The big change that might actually convince me the flat-panel iMacs are worth buying would be support for dual display mode, i.e. the ability to extend the desktop across multiple monitors. Then the current 15" wouldn't be too small, since I could just go out and buy myself a flat-panel lcd display of whatever size I choose to go with it. My PowerBook G3 currently supports this, but the current flat-panel iMacs only support video mirroring on external monitors.
The clerics issued a fatwa (holy edict) against piracy, saying it is "the worst type of theft and prohibited by Islam." What's next? The Pope denouncing mp3's as mortal sins?
The rhetorical question is clearly facetious, but let me point out that there's no equivalence: from the article, the fatwa appears to condemn theft of intellectual property, not all copying, e.g. fair use. So maybe it would be more like the Pope condemning sales of pirated CDs...
The CBS broadcast inserted a virtual sign into Times Square.
The sign contained the CBS television logo, and it covered up a similar sign for competitor NBC, as well as a sign for "Budweiser," both of which were physically present in Times Square.
(I swear this was reported on slashdot at the time, but can't find the link.)
This quietly manipulated reality and does seem like a big deal. Manupulating a fictional Times Square, though, for use in a work of fiction, doesn't seem like a big deal at all. Hell, in the original Planet of the Apes they manipulated the whole city of New York by burying it completely (except for the statue of Liberty).
Your computer must be at least a Pentium III 600 (or equivalent), with 128 MB RAM or more.
Your computer must have a mouse, 400 MB of available hard drive space, a 4X CD-ROM or faster, a 32 MB 3D accelerator card with Direct3D support, a DirectX compatible 16 bit sound card, a 28.8 modem (or better) with Internet connectivity, and DirectX 8.1.
You must be running Windows 98, 98SE, 2000 (running with local Administrator privileges), ME, or XP to play the Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos(TM) beta on your system.
Your Internet connection must be capable of running 32-bit Windows socket applications (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer).
You must have a valid e-mail address.
As a Mac OS X user, I was hoping my less popular operating system would give me an advangtage in getting in as a beta tester. Wonder if they'll do a separate Mac beta test later? Their site still says they expect to ship the Mac "as close as possible" to the Windows ship date.
Yep -- you have to give money to the RIAA labels even if all you're doing is making your own music and distributing it on CD-R -- as an alternative to RIAA music.
The blank-media taxes are downright anti-competitive.
There's a Forbes commentary online, which raises the question, "isn't the very idea and place of the debate so very wrong?"
A particularly good paragraph, that sums up the problems:
But who is Judge Motz to preside over what looks like an educational policy debate? If the lawyers suing Microsoft have a claim, any damages flowing from it should go to their clients. If those clients want to turn around and give those damages to poor kids, more power to them. If Microsoft wants to donate computers to schools, there is nothing stopping them. If the schools need computers, shouldn't the decision of which computers to buy be left to educators, parents and taxpayers?
I would like to know if these CDs can be played in the Xbox?
According to another article about this, the CD won't play on the Xbox. Or on a Mac. Or in some DVD players.
Oh, well. Guess they don't even want me as a potential customer. My current "CD player" is a PowerBook, and if I ever get a stand-alone unit, it'd be a DVD player.
Slashdot Mirror
Similarly, lobby artists. Lobby major-label shareholders. Lobby elected officials.
For that matter, remember that the RIAA doesn't represent all labels. Remind your elected officials that there are plenty of other labels and artists out there, labels and artists who are actually hurt when the RIAA is allowed to dictate public policy. Sure the major labels have money to buy politicians, but it's still the people who actually vote.
I agree w/ you here. I'm not convinced a more familiar gui's going to make alternative operating systems easier. Kids have certain advantages over those of us who are older: they're not going to be as prejudiced by past experiences. Guis, "desktop" models in particular, are -- among other things -- ways to make presumably abstract, alien computing ideas seem more familar through analogies with "real-world" systems and experiences. To kids, I could see a gui adding an additional level of abstraction, since I don't think they'll be starting from a point where a computer is any more alien than ... pretty much anything else (including the "office" ideas endemic to the "desktop" analogy).
... and while you're in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, you should also be sure to check the nearby birthplace of the "atomic age" (location of the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction; "Where the End of the World Began!" [this last link'll have to do since I couldn't find a picture of the t-shirt I'm referring to]). It's not far at all.
Probably the key bit of new information, in answer to the "why now?" question:
Ah well, so much for the right not to be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
Seriously...
Must've been about 1999, though, they had one of the more amusing combinations of browser notices I've seen:
elsewhere, on the same page (when accessed with IE 5):
For me, the Citibank site works a lot better with Mozilla (1.2b on Mac OS X and WinNT) than it does with Internet Explorer 6 (WinNT). Unlike in Mozilla, in IE, the fancy-scmancy javascript works great, but I frequenty get other major errors: like pages simply never loading.
He basically said it was never intended to convince hard-core conspiracy theorists (he refused to be drawn into calling them nuts), but was rather intended for people, like school teachers, who might face related questions and needed to understand the issue to have answers. Apparently NASA routinely receives requests from teachers and others asking how to answer doubts.
Correct you are. All I can think was I was thinking Esdras and got thrown off by what I was responding to... yeah, that's the ticket...
'King James Version .... For example, '"Esther" is omitted (yes, I'm serious).'
Actually, Esther was in the original King James Version of the Bible. The 14 books of the Apocrypha were officially removed in 1885. See, e.g., this google search.
Punk Backstreet Boys?! Wait; I thought the original Back Street Boys were the punk Back Street Boys, and the new Backstreet Boys were the boyband Backstreet Boys.
As in song on Wire's Pink Flag? Another 25th anniversary coming up -- in December!
The main reason, perhaps, but there are other good reasons. I speak German, and am interested in watching German-language films and TV shows on DVD. A number of these things are released with region 2 encoding, which means I can't watch them without getting a second DVD player, or getting the one I've already got modified.
This state of affairs is bad for me, but it's also bad for German film: if there's never going to be a region 1 version produced, why lock out otherwise potential customers by limiting a release to region 2? Making these DVD's region-free could only increase sales and profits.
Not only that, but I'd think that -- before very long -- one of the two states would take the other to Court. I'm not sure the individual homeowner would be more than a witness...
If both states are claiming the right to tax the same property, it would have to be settled in the Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction to decide in cases of Controversies between two or more States.*quot; (Article III, sec 2 of the U.S. Constitution)
The big change that might actually convince me the flat-panel iMacs are worth buying would be support for dual display mode, i.e. the ability to extend the desktop across multiple monitors. Then the current 15" wouldn't be too small, since I could just go out and buy myself a flat-panel lcd display of whatever size I choose to go with it. My PowerBook G3 currently supports this, but the current flat-panel iMacs only support video mirroring on external monitors.
The rhetorical question is clearly facetious, but let me point out that there's no equivalence: from the article, the fatwa appears to condemn theft of intellectual property, not all copying, e.g. fair use. So maybe it would be more like the Pope condemning sales of pirated CDs...
(I swear this was reported on slashdot at the time, but can't find the link.)
This quietly manipulated reality and does seem like a big deal. Manupulating a fictional Times Square, though, for use in a work of fiction, doesn't seem like a big deal at all. Hell, in the original Planet of the Apes they manipulated the whole city of New York by burying it completely (except for the statue of Liberty).
Hmmm -- exactly what I was wondering when I arrive d at the Tribune web site.
Don't tell them that! Otherwise they might come after me for redistributing copyrighted material from my antenna to my VCR and television.
As a Mac OS X user, I was hoping my less popular operating system would give me an advangtage in getting in as a beta tester. Wonder if they'll do a separate Mac beta test later? Their site still says they expect to ship the Mac "as close as possible" to the Windows ship date.
The blank-media taxes are downright anti-competitive.
Yeah -- is this question even allowed?
Interesting to me was a pre-alt.religion.kibology kibo post.
A particularly good paragraph, that sums up the problems:
According to another article about this, the CD won't play on the Xbox. Or on a Mac. Or in some DVD players.
Oh, well. Guess they don't even want me as a potential customer. My current "CD player" is a PowerBook, and if I ever get a stand-alone unit, it'd be a DVD player.