But it wouldn't be a sporting event without those cloying human-interest stories! "How the Mauler team overcame satanic child abuse while growing up homeless in the South Bronx to finally stand up and defeat the overwhelming favorite," played in slow-motion to the Chariots of Fire soundtrack, and so on...
I agree: karma is a nice thing to have around. I'm a relatively new user (note my just-under-200K luser id) and I have found that increasing karma is a good incentive to both read and contribute to/. discussions. As a result I've learned quite a bit. Without Karma I might have just clicked pretty widgets to kill time, or gone somewhere else.
Of course after a certain point everyone gets capped at 50 these days, so it loses its meaning. But so what? After you get to 50, you're probably already hooked. If you aren't, then you probably won't be.
But the Music Clip got terrible reviews, and I don't know a soul who uses it! People may be uninformed, but when they can't use their MP3s without all sorts of stupid-ass authentication protocols, they'll return the Clip and get a Rio.
You're right with your rant about the DMCA and so on. But the consumer still has a voice. After all, DIVX died, and other crappy techs like Minidisc never took off.
Nobody would buy an SDMI player when an ordinary MP3 player delivers more functionality for less money. So this strategy would fail even if the technology worked. Sorry, RIAA!
But as I recall you could link directly to the files made available for cryptanalysis. So if someone GOT the files but DID NOT agree to the NDA, could not that person, if a cryptographer, distribute independently the results? And if such a person were an AC on/., would not the results be pretty much untraceable?
Just a thought, for all you SDMI h4x0rs out there.
As for me, I wasn't going to buy it anyway, so fuck 'em.
Best article in weeks. If we had article moderation this would get a 10. Amazing, really: real facts to counter the crap coming out of the politicians...
Clearly. It's the "proprietary at all costs" vendors who don't see this, because their VCs believe that controlling some proprietary standard will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams. The actual experience of real users doesn't reflect this (after all, even Micros~1 wouldn't exist without its developers) but somehow the PHBs and PHLs (pointy headed lawyers) fail to understand it.
But in the interest of consumer protection, and in the absence of rational corporate behavior, we really do need a Reverse Engineering Protection Act. Bad engineering and the like cause much more harm (privacy loss, for one thing) than reverse engineering ever has. Who'll support this??
They were really the classic Fucked Company - the Edsel of e-tail. But why to bring them back - to sell shit to geeks who still have money and a sense of irony? Or just to
"reposition" a memorable name? Or to give us some well-needed Late Nineties nostalgia?
Wow. They must have had at least 50 of them. Even at a steep discount, we're talking between $0.5-$1M in plasma displays! No wonder it costs so much to fly to Dallas.
it's because the edges have all the connectors required to power the millions of individual pixels. When I've seen LCDs naked, they're surrounded on all sides by circuitry. Hard to get rid of that.
Well, if TW is denying it, at least there's some chance that they're considering the possibility of playing fair. Still...
To demand "approval control over the ISP's home page" and free advertising flies in the face of everything ISPs are about. ISPs provide access to everything on the internet, and they also provide their own content if they so desire; I'm an ISP and would NEVER accept terms like these.
If TW & AOL are committed to open access, they should publish their term sheet. That way we'd know for sure.
As anyone who's been to Comdex knows, the buffets at all the casinos suck big time. They're designed for low, low cost per attendee, and they make their money (or break even: remember that cheap buffets bring in the gamblers) by making college dorm-quality grub in huge volume. Not so great for the gourmet.
But ISP service is fundamentally different. Buffets offer a wide variety of food, and can charge a flat rate (and offer very skimpy table service) because they can average it all over a large number of fairly predictable users. ISPs, on the other hand, offer one thing: internet access. It's more like a cafe where you get free refills, and they know that most users don't get the refill; they can afford to accommodate the few all-day coffee drinkers, who also buy more donuts (think email accounts, listservs, that sort of thing). It all works out.
Isn't the CRTC trying to promote competition in DSL? Aren't there other ISPs that can connect to DSL networks, or is Canada all tied up by the local monopolies?
Slashdot Mirror
Now that would really be something...
But it wouldn't be a sporting event without those cloying human-interest stories! "How the Mauler team overcame satanic child abuse while growing up homeless in the South Bronx to finally stand up and defeat the overwhelming favorite," played in slow-motion to the Chariots of Fire soundtrack, and so on...
Of course after a certain point everyone gets capped at 50 these days, so it loses its meaning. But so what? After you get to 50, you're probably already hooked. If you aren't, then you probably won't be.
You're right with your rant about the DMCA and so on. But the consumer still has a voice. After all, DIVX died, and other crappy techs like Minidisc never took off.
Looks like a mid 90s vintage ThinkPad coated in masking tape. I'm with Taco on this one.
Nobody would buy an SDMI player when an ordinary MP3 player delivers more functionality for less money. So this strategy would fail even if the technology worked. Sorry, RIAA!
Just a thought, for all you SDMI h4x0rs out there.
As for me, I wasn't going to buy it anyway, so fuck 'em.
Best article in weeks. If we had article moderation this would get a 10. Amazing, really: real facts to counter the crap coming out of the politicians...
Yes, but isn't that P3P?
But in the interest of consumer protection, and in the absence of rational corporate behavior, we really do need a Reverse Engineering Protection Act. Bad engineering and the like cause much more harm (privacy loss, for one thing) than reverse engineering ever has. Who'll support this??
Weird.
Someone should make one of these anyway and get ThinkGeek to sell 'em! I'd gladly wear one to Comdex, for example.
Post it to Stupid Patent Tricks!
Hardly! It's the last day to vote, and I for one still haven't - now where the ($*#@($*@#$ did I put that damn PIN?
Well, the way AT&T has done lately, they'll both have a nice deductible capital loss!
H. Rosen: So users buy and sell content using Mojo Nation, right?
Developer: No, ummmm, well, they don't buy content, they buy, ummm, the right to download content!
Judge: Piracy! AHRA does not apply! Shut it down! SO ORDERED.
Tell me how this won't happen.
Wow. They must have had at least 50 of them. Even at a steep discount, we're talking between $0.5-$1M in plasma displays! No wonder it costs so much to fly to Dallas.
yes. I also got lost trying to get out of it .. very poor directions to the freeways.
it's because the edges have all the connectors required to power the millions of individual pixels. When I've seen LCDs naked, they're surrounded on all sides by circuitry. Hard to get rid of that.
Anyone travel to Dallas often enough to get the brand names?
http://www.wa shi ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28372-2000Oct6.html
To demand "approval control over the ISP's home page" and free advertising flies in the face of everything ISPs are about. ISPs provide access to everything on the internet, and they also provide their own content if they so desire; I'm an ISP and would NEVER accept terms like these.
If TW & AOL are committed to open access, they should publish their term sheet. That way we'd know for sure.
But ISP service is fundamentally different. Buffets offer a wide variety of food, and can charge a flat rate (and offer very skimpy table service) because they can average it all over a large number of fairly predictable users. ISPs, on the other hand, offer one thing: internet access. It's more like a cafe where you get free refills, and they know that most users don't get the refill; they can afford to accommodate the few all-day coffee drinkers, who also buy more donuts (think email accounts, listservs, that sort of thing). It all works out.
True story. The majors sued, though, and I think they were forced to drop it.
Yucko.