All-you-can-eat is much more popular for "meterable" services - there's a good article in The Industry Standard about this:
Demonstrably inefficient and irrational, it has nonetheless left the realm of old-economy dinosaurs like the U.S. Postal Service and become the billing method of choice for most Internet service providers.
Well, you may have noticed in the Reinventing page that you linked to, there was ample discussion of what surely would be considered 1-Click Ordering by Amazon.com:
".. for small amounts, the process should be as simple as a single click."
So do we have a patent problem here?
Also, on a different topic: people make these kinds of donations now. Look at FuckedCompany's Edgewater victims fund: over $16K in just a couple of weeks, using PayPal. So perhaps we're not as far away as you think.
Makes sense. Would you devise a filesystem that would simply encrypt everything before it gets written on the HD? That would certainly confuse the copy-protection-watching code in the hardware. I'm wondering also if there are other ways to do this that don't involve replacing your whole filesystem.
he same kind of regulation that Theodore Roosevelt initiated 100 years ago to check the spiral of the United States into a nation where the rich were served by a laboring class that had no right or reason to expect reasonable working hours or standards, decent food, drugs or housing, or even remotely honest politicians.
Yeah, and technology is creating "a laboring class" who somehow are suddenly poorer than they used to be, starving, etc. because - what? We read slashdot? Kids surf for porn? Give me a fscking break.
This guy needs to get out more. What he doesn't like on the web... he doesn't have to read! And I for one don't want the likes of him interfering with my RIGHT to communicate.
Sure! And the taxpayers can vote to do whatever they want with them, subject to normal limits on behavior (e.g. they shouldn't be able to use them to send mountains of spam). Which is what they have done.
At the risk of (-1, Redundancy) I would think this is definitely Stuff that Matters. If I had a lost 2.4-megaton H-bomb in my backyard, I'd sure like to know about it! It falls into the Nerds category because it's a good example of the dark side of technology.
if the state owns the computers, it has the right to do whatever it wants with them. That includes installing filters, updating Windows, deleting games, installing AOL, smashing them to bits with sledgehammers, whatever. It's too bad that they have chosen to restrict their users in this way, but anyone feeling bothered by being so restricted should buy his/her own PC and get internet access at home.
Wouldn't it make it substantially more difficult to design and run media software? Rights management == high overhead, more bugs, lower reliability, dissatisfied customers, etc. MS like anyone else would want to avoid it at all costs.
You can buy region-free DVD players in the US. MPAA member Sony, for example, sells one through DVD City. Of course, the MPAA is trying to counter this, but my guess is that the cat-and-mouse game will be won by the hardware makers (and consumers).
to forget all about digital tv. why would I every buy one? yes, I know, it's supposed to replace analog & shit... but if nobody buys it, as has happened thus far with hdtv, do you really think they'll turn off the analog channels?
Admittedly not so many people have 802.11 today - but this will surely help kick-start it. The convenience of not having to plug into anything is significant - users can just get on the net with no intervention, and therefore no (or fewer) techsupport complaints to the guys making mochas behind the bar.
I have a Starbucks near my home that, if it had this service, would certainly have my patronage more often. Now if their coffee were just a bit better...
Definitely. When I was a pretty active kid (as kids SHOULD be, damn it!) I suddently found myself playing soccer most days, which was strenuous enough to keep me and the other kids calm. I wasn't that good at it, but landing in the mud while struggling for the ball sure was fun.
If/when I have kids I'll make sure they have ample opportunities to play sports. This will keep the Ritalin away - and it's healthy too!
(By the way: you can play soccer and be a geek at the same time. Not difficult. On topic: does the subject of the interview, by chance?)
A good teacher knows how to deal with those sorts of kids (like me) and give them stuff to do so they aren't bored off their asses!
Correct. And that's exactly what the better teachers started doing with me - which is why I got an excellent education, particularly in the earlier grades. The teachers who didn't get it were the ones who ended up with a bored, cranky kid; those who did made all the difference (and had more fun too).
Thank heavens they didn't have Ritalin when I was a kid. I was one of those smart but disruptive ones in first and second grade - often got nasty notes to my parents saying I was mouthing off in class - and had they put me on Ritalin I am sure I would have learned much less.
Once I buy the book, it's mine. I can sell it to whoever I want to, and sell it via whatever tools (including Amazon.com) I want to. The author has already collected his or her royalties. If I want to reduce wasted paper by reusing the book, that is my prerogative.
Slashdot Mirror
Demonstrably inefficient and irrational, it has nonetheless left the realm of old-economy dinosaurs like the U.S. Postal Service and become the billing method of choice for most Internet service providers.
".. for small amounts, the process should be as simple as a single click."
So do we have a patent problem here?
Also, on a different topic: people make these kinds of donations now. Look at FuckedCompany's Edgewater victims fund: over $16K in just a couple of weeks, using PayPal. So perhaps we're not as far away as you think.
Makes sense. Would you devise a filesystem that would simply encrypt everything before it gets written on the HD? That would certainly confuse the copy-protection-watching code in the hardware. I'm wondering also if there are other ways to do this that don't involve replacing your whole filesystem.
this should be filed under censorship
Yeah, and technology is creating "a laboring class" who somehow are suddenly poorer than they used to be, starving, etc. because - what? We read slashdot? Kids surf for porn? Give me a fscking break.
This guy needs to get out more. What he doesn't like on the web ... he doesn't have to read! And I for one don't want the likes of him interfering with my RIGHT to communicate.
Sorry.
Sure! And the taxpayers can vote to do whatever they want with them, subject to normal limits on behavior (e.g. they shouldn't be able to use them to send mountains of spam). Which is what they have done.
At the risk of (-1, Redundancy) I would think this is definitely Stuff that Matters. If I had a lost 2.4-megaton H-bomb in my backyard, I'd sure like to know about it! It falls into the Nerds category because it's a good example of the dark side of technology.
Virginia isn't for lovers anymore?
Nothing to see here, move along.
Wouldn't it make it substantially more difficult to design and run media software? Rights management == high overhead, more bugs, lower reliability, dissatisfied customers, etc. MS like anyone else would want to avoid it at all costs.
If this is forced through the industry, how would one write a DeCSS-like tool to defeat it? Is it in some way bypassable in software?
All the ads are for Safeweb. They'll either run out of cash or start charging soon, like Anonymizer did.
The dept.-name had a very short half-life.
I can think of some much faster ways to achieve it... none legal, of course!
41'N, 119'W is not too far from Black Rock City, NV. Maybe Spencer Tunick could do a photo there next year?
a few $m per person, and $Bs to the lawyers. Participants in class actions almost never get the kind of payoff the lawyers get.
You can buy region-free DVD players in the US. MPAA member Sony, for example, sells one through DVD City. Of course, the MPAA is trying to counter this, but my guess is that the cat-and-mouse game will be won by the hardware makers (and consumers).
to forget all about digital tv. why would I every buy one? yes, I know, it's supposed to replace analog & shit ... but if nobody buys it, as has happened thus far with hdtv, do you really think they'll turn off the analog channels?
I have a Starbucks near my home that, if it had this service, would certainly have my patronage more often. Now if their coffee were just a bit better...
Actual Picture
Didn't Microsoft buy them out a few years ago?
If/when I have kids I'll make sure they have ample opportunities to play sports. This will keep the Ritalin away - and it's healthy too!
(By the way: you can play soccer and be a geek at the same time. Not difficult. On topic: does the subject of the interview, by chance?)
Correct. And that's exactly what the better teachers started doing with me - which is why I got an excellent education, particularly in the earlier grades. The teachers who didn't get it were the ones who ended up with a bored, cranky kid; those who did made all the difference (and had more fun too).
Thank heavens they didn't have Ritalin when I was a kid. I was one of those smart but disruptive ones in first and second grade - often got nasty notes to my parents saying I was mouthing off in class - and had they put me on Ritalin I am sure I would have learned much less.
Those who don't like this shouldn't sell books.