When I worked for An Airline that shall remain nameless this restriction was just coming about, and none of us engineers could get any explanation why from the Big Men Upstairs. Also at this time, supposably in response to passenger demand, GTE airphones were being installed in all business route equipement. Given that these phones cost anywhere from $2-$5 a miniute to use and the airline is getting a fair cut, it is very strange indeed that cell phones continue to be banned with no good reason. Pretty expensive to consult your tele-psychic from one of those babies...
We're really privaledged to be witnesses to the birth of a new industry - forged digital signitures! Signatures of the rich and famous! Soon we'll be keeping autograph books in our PDA's. Wow, Tom Cruise's dig-sig has sooo many zeros!
I have to say that we as a society have brought all the legal "mumbo jumbo" upon ourselves. Suppose the first EULA just said "This is software and its not perfect. Don't complain if it doesn't work well on your computer, and don't copy it and give the copies away." Simple. Then someone, say a pirate decides to violate the agreement. The publisher sues. Then the pirate starts making claims about how the license wasn't "specific" enough about exactly what could and could not be done, etc. So the publisher makes a more verbose and precise document. Someone contests that. The publisher tightens it up again. And the cycle continues, until you now have 30-page EULA agreements etc.
In fact, its gotten so boiler-plate that I'm surprised there isn't #include eula.h language on the distribution media. To wit: This software is protected by the USC EULA Software Act of 2001 and such.
Keep in mind that what Fuji was contesting was not the forum, but the use of copyrighted and trademarked materials. This is a common point of discussion on/.
The owner of the material has the right to protect its property/creation, however
A Wise owner would allow and encourage such fandom on a "fair use" basis to, if anything, further proliferate the use of the material.
Its interesting that you mention Star Trek(tm) because that is the best example of what is going on here:
NBC puts ST in a lousy time slot and it is canceled.
Fans won't let the idea of ST die, and continue it on long after the show is killed by the studio.
Suddenly, the studio wakes up and realizing there is a ready-made customer base fires off movies, spin-off series, and merchandise!
Now its suddenly illegal to mention Klingon(tm).
Paramount went to great lengths to squash all ST fan sites in favor of their paid site STARTREK.COM. Alas, it failed, see here.
Well, a director who is being paid by a studio to produce drek knows its drek and likely be in the mode of "as long as I'm paid." Keep in minds that we're not talking free speech here, we're talking the money machine of Holleywood giving the viewers what they want. Think of it as Coke Classic(tm). When Coca Cola decided to make new Coke(tm), the consumers screamed in agony. Did Coke go, "Tough dookie, this is free speech." No, they did the responsible thing and listened to their viewers to both their benefit and embarassment. Movies that are catered to public tastes are the cash cow of Hollywood. This would give them a way to fine-tune the product. Now its a hit or miss scenario.
Also consider what happened with that movie The Program a couple of years back. It showed a scene where football players would lie in the middle of a busy street to build nerve. Some real football players tried it and died. No free speech issue here - the studio yanked the scene at great expense to avoid lawsuits. In a digital world, they could have done it overnight.
As far as bland movies that say nothing, go read the nearest marquee.
Don't get free speech confused with the movie business. I'm talking about the Hollywood drek produced for mass consumption. Their business is to make money, not films that make important statements. You put out the film and the paying public hates it, you have the power to change it to their liking for very little expense (relatively.)
Not exactly off topic, but what comes to mind is back in the early 80's there as a series on TV called The Greatest American Hero whose "hero" was named Hinkley. Then Regan was shot by someone really named Hinkley. The studio scrambled to redub the series to change his name to Hinley - very funny to watch. In fact, it was funnier than the show was trying to be. Oh, well.
True there are technical and economic problems to solve. But when they are solved, this will be the way that mass entertainment (dare I say information) will be distributed. I would think that they would own their own networks for distributing the films, as the sheer bulk of them would necessitate this. The films themselves will most likely be encrypted vis-a-vis DVD, where only the theatres can descrypt them for showing. Man, what a way to shut a theatre down - just expire their decrypt codes!
Yes, all of the interesting problems have been solved - it's now up to grad students to optimize them. Things got interesting a few years back when parallel programming was getting started, but that soon distilled down to SMOP.
Things will continue to stagnate on the research front until new technology comes along, and then we'll probably be pulling out Knuth as a starting point.
One of the major production costs of distributing a movie is making the copy of the movie. Say, $2K a copy for 2000 theatres and you start talking about real money. Digitally transmitting the film directly to the theatre saves this cost, as well as other benefits. Can you imagine a film with an offensive scene being instantly edited and redistributed for the next day's showings?
Although I do agree that zoning can be a Good Thing, else everything gets overbuilt ala Los Angeles or Manhattan, I also agree that it should be done with rational and good urban planning.
On the property values note, these persons who drive up their own property values with zoning and stiffled competition are also driving up the values of their neighbors, who could be (and often are) retired persons who have lived there for 40 years suddenly finding their $30K town home valuated at $1.5M, and having to pay taxes on that with social security.
I just read the document, and it says you can't use the trademark in a defamatory context, or a negative context, else you lose the license.
big deal.
I don't think this can be extended to include reviews which would, of course, say that Apogee(tm) Duke Nukem(tm) Sucks Big Time and that Games By Apogee(tm) are Dated and Lame and other Truths.
Oops! I guess I can't play that crappy "game" Duke Nukem anymore. I think I'll go off myself.
Even when demand exceeds supply, a merchant can't price themselves out of the market where they will have no buyers. There is a breaking point, that is, what the market will bear. The reason real estate is so expensive is not that there are many people bidding for few properties, its that there are many rich people bidding for few properties, which has the effect of pricing everyone else out of the market. Lose. Lose.
120 miles in the valley is more like four hours. It takes me (on average) one hour to travel the from San Jose to SFO in traffic. An accident can really ruin your day.
On that note, I recently heard an NPR story on the high cost of valley living, people with lower incomes are being pushed inland, with multi-hour commutes. They stated that "affordable" housing was 100 miles inland - but not for long as the valley cancers its way across the countryside.
On my soapbox, this is just plain wrong. This is where capitalism fails - where the market will bear mentality breaks down by causing innocent people real grief. It is evil to charge $1.5M for a single family dwelling just because you can get it. Things have a "rational" cost and that is what should be charged. Case and point, some software/hardware is grossly overpriced (300%-1000%) just because Corporate doesn't know what things are worth.
Being Republican with a Liberatarian bent, I think this is one place where unca sam should step in to arrest this down-slide before people get hurt.
Another problem - if you roll back housing prices, how do you compensate the mortgage holders for all the money they've already invested?
Many other areas of the us are cashing in on the valley inflation - chicago, raleigh nc, washington dc, austin, new jersey (!), and manhattan (and others) are using the same salary, lower COL carrot to turn engineers' heads from the west.
Having just gone through a recent job search, I found that the salary requirement in the valley was just too rediculous to persue. I mean, I would have to bring down $200K to break even with what I do now, and most of that would go to taxes and housing - the gub'ment would cash in big time and I would be left with little. Not worth the trip.
A dictatorship can only survive in a society where the government controls information. 451 is an excellent example of how this could still come about - and its ideas are still very applicable to today.
Interestingly enough, we in the US continue to be misled by the notion that we have a free press, when in reality we have a capitalist press that caters to the wills of the advertisers and the viewers. In essence, they create the informaiton that we demand to see. Case and point, all the "reality" shows on the tube these days.
Bradbury has a point in that, perhaps, some ideas are too dangerous for the masses. The question is, are we as a society willing to pay the price?
Well, to cite Sam Kinison, "Get out of the desert! Go to where the food is!"
Unfortunately, if you really want one of those kinds of jobs, you're gonna have to go to where the job is. But - and this is a heavy but - if you're really good at writing drivers, daemons, and kernal hacks then setup a web page, put some of your work on it, and send emails to head hunters referencing your web page. Many geek-kind make a killing from their house in the Dakotas. If you have a good reputation, then the work will come to you.
Oh, gentle supplicant, your question was: "What is a programmer to do?"
And thus spake the Oracle:
[resisting temptation to cite numerous references from Douglas Adams]
As with all things in life, you should strive for that which gives you the most joy. As you probably have bills to pay, this may not always be the case. But if you enjoy programming, then have we got a deal for you!
You should strive for that area that most appeals to you, and (more importantly) yields the biggest paycheck. Save your money. Invest wisely. Then when you are freaking rich you won't have to work, and you can do what you really want.
Slashdot Mirror
but they didn't.
just grist for the conspiracy mill...
Oh, crap.
We're really privaledged to be witnesses to the birth of a new industry - forged digital signitures! Signatures of the rich and famous! Soon we'll be keeping autograph books in our PDA's. Wow, Tom Cruise's dig-sig has sooo many zeros!
In fact, its gotten so boiler-plate that I'm surprised there isn't #include eula.h language on the distribution media. To wit: This software is protected by the USC EULA Software Act of 2001 and such.
Oh, wait, I forgot about UCITA...
Check this out.
The owner of the material has the right to protect its property/creation, however
A Wise owner would allow and encourage such fandom on a "fair use" basis to, if anything, further proliferate the use of the material.
Its interesting that you mention Star Trek(tm) because that is the best example of what is going on here:
NBC puts ST in a lousy time slot and it is canceled.
Fans won't let the idea of ST die, and continue it on long after the show is killed by the studio.
Suddenly, the studio wakes up and realizing there is a ready-made customer base fires off movies, spin-off series, and merchandise!
Now its suddenly illegal to mention Klingon(tm).
Paramount went to great lengths to squash all ST fan sites in favor of their paid site STARTREK.COM. Alas, it failed, see here.
Ah, greed in the American society.
Also consider what happened with that movie The Program a couple of years back. It showed a scene where football players would lie in the middle of a busy street to build nerve. Some real football players tried it and died. No free speech issue here - the studio yanked the scene at great expense to avoid lawsuits. In a digital world, they could have done it overnight.
As far as bland movies that say nothing, go read the nearest marquee.
Also, I think there may be a slander issue here as well. I don't think IBM appreciates being associated with porn spam.
this too shall pass.
See my comments here.
Not exactly off topic, but what comes to mind is back in the early 80's there as a series on TV called The Greatest American Hero whose "hero" was named Hinkley. Then Regan was shot by someone really named Hinkley. The studio scrambled to redub the series to change his name to Hinley - very funny to watch. In fact, it was funnier than the show was trying to be. Oh, well.
True there are technical and economic problems to solve. But when they are solved, this will be the way that mass entertainment (dare I say information) will be distributed. I would think that they would own their own networks for distributing the films, as the sheer bulk of them would necessitate this. The films themselves will most likely be encrypted vis-a-vis DVD, where only the theatres can descrypt them for showing. Man, what a way to shut a theatre down - just expire their decrypt codes!
Things will continue to stagnate on the research front until new technology comes along, and then we'll probably be pulling out Knuth as a starting point.
One of the major production costs of distributing a movie is making the copy of the movie. Say, $2K a copy for 2000 theatres and you start talking about real money. Digitally transmitting the film directly to the theatre saves this cost, as well as other benefits. Can you imagine a film with an offensive scene being instantly edited and redistributed for the next day's showings?
Mobile Suit Gundham - long, but cool battles
Vampire Hunter
Star Blazers (Space Cruiser Yamato) - cheesy at times, but noble story.
Akira - not for the kiddies
Guyver - be sure to avoid the Mark Hammel blech live-action remake.
Project Ako - great action and cheesecake.
Macross anything - but Macross Plus if you must choose.
Robotech the Movie - avoid, avoid.
Robot Carnival
On the property values note, these persons who drive up their own property values with zoning and stiffled competition are also driving up the values of their neighbors, who could be (and often are) retired persons who have lived there for 40 years suddenly finding their $30K town home valuated at $1.5M, and having to pay taxes on that with social security.
Again, I say, lose lose.
big deal.
I don't think this can be extended to include reviews which would, of course, say that Apogee(tm) Duke Nukem(tm) Sucks Big Time and that Games By Apogee(tm) are Dated and Lame and other Truths.
Oops! I guess I can't play that crappy "game" Duke Nukem anymore. I think I'll go off myself.
Even when demand exceeds supply, a merchant can't price themselves out of the market where they will have no buyers. There is a breaking point, that is, what the market will bear. The reason real estate is so expensive is not that there are many people bidding for few properties, its that there are many rich people bidding for few properties, which has the effect of pricing everyone else out of the market. Lose. Lose.
On that note, I recently heard an NPR story on the high cost of valley living, people with lower incomes are being pushed inland, with multi-hour commutes. They stated that "affordable" housing was 100 miles inland - but not for long as the valley cancers its way across the countryside.
On my soapbox, this is just plain wrong. This is where capitalism fails - where the market will bear mentality breaks down by causing innocent people real grief. It is evil to charge $1.5M for a single family dwelling just because you can get it. Things have a "rational" cost and that is what should be charged. Case and point, some software/hardware is grossly overpriced (300%-1000%) just because Corporate doesn't know what things are worth.
Being Republican with a Liberatarian bent, I think this is one place where unca sam should step in to arrest this down-slide before people get hurt.
Another problem - if you roll back housing prices, how do you compensate the mortgage holders for all the money they've already invested?
Having just gone through a recent job search, I found that the salary requirement in the valley was just too rediculous to persue. I mean, I would have to bring down $200K to break even with what I do now, and most of that would go to taxes and housing - the gub'ment would cash in big time and I would be left with little. Not worth the trip.
Interestingly enough, we in the US continue to be misled by the notion that we have a free press, when in reality we have a capitalist press that caters to the wills of the advertisers and the viewers. In essence, they create the informaiton that we demand to see. Case and point, all the "reality" shows on the tube these days.
Bradbury has a point in that, perhaps, some ideas are too dangerous for the masses. The question is, are we as a society willing to pay the price?
Unfortunately, if you really want one of those kinds of jobs, you're gonna have to go to where the job is. But - and this is a heavy but - if you're really good at writing drivers, daemons, and kernal hacks then setup a web page, put some of your work on it, and send emails to head hunters referencing your web page. Many geek-kind make a killing from their house in the Dakotas. If you have a good reputation, then the work will come to you.
And thus spake the Oracle:
[resisting temptation to cite numerous references from Douglas Adams]
As with all things in life, you should strive for that which gives you the most joy. As you probably have bills to pay, this may not always be the case. But if you enjoy programming, then have we got a deal for you!
You should strive for that area that most appeals to you, and (more importantly) yields the biggest paycheck. Save your money. Invest wisely. Then when you are freaking rich you won't have to work, and you can do what you really want.