>>>>An entrepreneur might take advantage of this situation and start offering VPN services. >> >> There's that invisible hand again. It requires regulations such as these.
"Damn free market. If only I could regulate it out of existence." - Dictator. - This gaming ban is just a case of a bunch of leaders who think it's their job to babysit the citizens (for their own good). This problem also exists in the EU and US, because the road to tyranny is often paved with good intentions.
>>>Not understanding what GP was saying is the part that's maybe just you.
No I understood perfectly anon. coward's point.
MY point was that corporations ALREADY have the power to turn off the web - at work. Productivity would likely double. It makes me wonder why they don't?
>>>better off playing Correspondence Chess via snail mail.
No-no. Direct dial over the phone line is much faster than snail mail. Heck I used to play Populous over a 2k modem. (No that's not a typo; it really was that slow.) 56k or encrypted TOR is like turbo in comparison and I'd be happy to play over it, if the ISPs go down.
(If you want to play Populous call me - 560-1750 - LOVE that game.)
>>>US companies wish they could do this to make their employees more productive
They could just turn-off Web access at work. Or maybe replace the blacklist with a whitelist, where only sites permitted by the business (like TI.com or microsoft.com) can be reached. Productivity would skyrocket!
A more-important factor than disposable is "small".
It's hard to squeeze all those functions in a notebook-sized chassis unless you use every millimeter of space. Modular designs like Desktop PCs or PC/104 waste precious space.
Here. an entire book's worth of citations where Companies or Individuals give stuff away for free, and then end-up making MORE money they they did previously (when they kept things locked up):
No not really. If a station has 2 or more channels, the MPEG2 bitrate is constantly varying as one channel demands more movement/bits than other channels. It's VBR.
Over in Europe and Japan, they use MPEG-4 as it can maintain the same quality as MPEG2, but at half the bitrate.
>>>the "good" guys being stainless, righteous, wonderful and adorable beings and the "bad" guys as loathsome bastards with no morals or regard for anyone but themselves
This happens in history too. The WW2 allies were hardly virtuous, what with fire-bombing of innocent civilians, blowing-up of dams that destroyed villagers, imprisonment of those who were anti-war (in violation of free speech rights), and throwing minority Americans into death camps for the crime of having german/japanese grandparents. In fact a lot of the Nazi propaganda was simply copied from the Allies' example during WW1.
Oh no. I'm about to be modded 'troll' for speaking the truth to power, and people don't want to hear the truth. (shrug)
>>>My idea is that copyright is supposed to serve society's interests.
Copyright isn't even a "right". In nature there's no right to keep your idea to yourself, and in fact the idea spreads freely from person-to-person without loss of usefulness. However society has decided to grant the *privilege* to the author of a temporary monopoly.
But like all monopolies it needs to be regulated, restrained, and eventually broken-up to restore freedom to the market. Comcast does not have a right to have a perpetual monopoly, and neither does Tolkien.
>>>If there was no copyright, then everyone could simply copy the works of authors and they may not end up being paid for their work.
They aren't paid now. Numerous authors have to sue RIAA or MPAA-affiliated companies, just to get paid. Example: The corporation that made Lord of the Rings claimed "we made no profit" and paid the director, scriptwriter, actors, and Tolkien's family nothing. Ditto Titanic and Avatar and Forrest Gump and.....
So explain again how copyright is "good"? These authors would be better off sticking a Paypal button in their books & asking for donations - they'd make more money than the lying asshat corporations pay them.
The argument against DST can be made more simply: We are now an 18 hour per day world, where people work from 6 am to midnight. The presence of the sun (or not) makes no impact on work schedules or energy usage. i.e. DST shifts do nothing.
You forgot about the TASM (Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile).
As for lasers I could easily imagine a missile equipped with a laser so, instead of blowing a hole with explosives, the missile would "pop up" 20 miles out and start melting through the hull.
And second: WebM is inferior. It's almost as bad as viewing MPEG2 and like downgrading from a 1080p TV to a 720p television. (i.e. The picture is worse.)
>>>H.264 cannot be the standard for HTML5 video because it is not royalty-free.
Statement of fact made. Too bad its untrue. There's no requirement that HTML5 codecs have to be royalty free. (At least not that I'm aware.)
As for H.264 it's already in use in billions of device from things as small as iPods, to home Televisions, to giant Movie and TV studios. It has become the defacto standard just like VHS, DVD, and Bluray.
I've read plenty of stories about artists and businesses that DO give away their content for free. i.e. Not copy-protected. They discovered that doing so earned them MORE money, not less, in the form of more sales.
This is kinda similar to how lowering taxes can actually create More government revenue in the long term. It's counter-intuitive but study-after-study has shown that giving stuff away creates awareness, and that awareness creates sales.
>>>Publishers WANT you to be able to view their content
Why the hell was he marked troll? This moderation really needs to be removed as an option. Leave the Offtopic or Overrated options, but remove the "troll" which is equivalent to calling someone a "retard" or "spic" or "nigger". (Yes I said those words - call the FBI and arrest me. I don't give a frak.) Insults should not be a part of Slashdot moderation.
BTW Roflkoptr you're flat wrong. DRM has interfered with users for *decades* now. Games: Can't make backups because the copy protection won't let you. Or worse: It damages the drive. Music/movies - ditto. Sometimes you can even hear weird noises in your songs, or flashing lines in your VHS/DVD videos.
Digital Radio Mondiale (worldwide) Digital Restrictions Management Damn Record and Movie tyrants. (Same guys who claim Avatar and LOTR made no money, therefore they owe nothing to the director, scriptwriter, actors, or original author)
>>>H.264... is extremely unfriendly to open source.
So then - how do open source programs like WinAmp, MP Classic, Miro, and VLC Player get away with using it? If they can do it, Chrome and Firefox should be able to do it too. (And Opera - since they are not open source at all.)
More importantly, how do I get the WebM video I just downloaded to work in my iPod? Or my TV? They only do Apple and MPEG codecs.
Well - you're wrong. Court cases can not overrule the U.S. Constitution. For example a judge can not arbitrarily declare, "Congress has the power to abolish all state legislatures." He can certainly issue that ruling, but it would be nullified by the Constitution's own law (the tenth amend.).
>>>the Icarus planet was filled with naquadria. However in SG:Atlantis they did blow up a planet from using too much geothermal.
I don't remember SGA's geothermal planet? It seems geothermal would COOL the planet into a cold rock like Pluto, rather than make it go boom. (shrug)
But I do remember is SGU's first episode where the Stargate pulled so much energy dialing across ~1000 galaxies that it went "boom". That's a hell of a distance. The closest galaxy is ~2 million lightyears, so hopping 1000 galaxies would be ~2000 million LYs. In Star Trek terms, at top warp speed, that's 2,000,000 years of travel time to reach SGU's current position. Damn. (The Ancients, being bright persons, did it in only one-one hundredth of the time.)
It's kinda sad that Reality imposes a 1 LY/year limit. Any intelligent race would be lucky just to reach the next star cluster - forget about visiting other galaxies.
Slashdot Mirror
>>>>An entrepreneur might take advantage of this situation and start offering VPN services.
>>
>> There's that invisible hand again. It requires regulations such as these.
"Damn free market. If only I could regulate it out of existence." - Dictator. - This gaming ban is just a case of a bunch of leaders who think it's their job to babysit the citizens (for their own good). This problem also exists in the EU and US, because the road to tyranny is often paved with good intentions.
>>>Not understanding what GP was saying is the part that's maybe just you.
No I understood perfectly anon. coward's point.
MY point was that corporations ALREADY have the power to turn off the web - at work. Productivity would likely double. It makes me wonder why they don't?
>>>better off playing Correspondence Chess via snail mail.
No-no. Direct dial over the phone line is much faster than snail mail. Heck I used to play Populous over a 2k modem. (No that's not a typo; it really was that slow.) 56k or encrypted TOR is like turbo in comparison and I'd be happy to play over it, if the ISPs go down.
(If you want to play Populous call me - 560-1750 - LOVE that game.)
>>>US companies wish they could do this to make their employees more productive
They could just turn-off Web access at work. Or maybe replace the blacklist with a whitelist, where only sites permitted by the business (like TI.com or microsoft.com) can be reached. Productivity would skyrocket!
Or maybe that's just me. ;-)
>>>Do you save-to-disk every YouTube video you watch?
Yes.
It's called buffering.
Else I'd not be able to watch youtube on Dialup or cellphone.
>>>What's the use of this high speed
Uncompressed video which requires ~3 Gbit/s to stream 60fps 1080p.
A more-important factor than disposable is "small".
It's hard to squeeze all those functions in a notebook-sized chassis unless you use every millimeter of space. Modular designs like Desktop PCs or PC/104 waste precious space.
Here. an entire book's worth of citations where Companies or Individuals give stuff away for free, and then end-up making MORE money they they did previously (when they kept things locked up):
http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B002V5CUHI - Listen to it while at work - it's very enlightening.
They support Flash.
Flash has H.264.
Therefore 40% of internet users ARE using h.264
>>>MPEG-2 on DTV is constant bitrate
No not really. If a station has 2 or more channels, the MPEG2 bitrate is constantly varying as one channel demands more movement/bits than other channels. It's VBR.
Over in Europe and Japan, they use MPEG-4 as it can maintain the same quality as MPEG2, but at half the bitrate.
>>>the "good" guys being stainless, righteous, wonderful and adorable beings and the "bad" guys as loathsome bastards with no morals or regard for anyone but themselves
This happens in history too.
The WW2 allies were hardly virtuous, what with fire-bombing of innocent civilians, blowing-up of dams that destroyed villagers, imprisonment of those who were anti-war (in violation of free speech rights), and throwing minority Americans into death camps for the crime of having german/japanese grandparents. In fact a lot of the Nazi propaganda was simply copied from the Allies' example during WW1.
Oh no.
I'm about to be modded 'troll' for speaking the truth to power, and people don't want to hear the truth. (shrug)
>>>My idea is that copyright is supposed to serve society's interests.
Copyright isn't even a "right". In nature there's no right to keep your idea to yourself, and in fact the idea spreads freely from person-to-person without loss of usefulness. However society has decided to grant the *privilege* to the author of a temporary monopoly.
But like all monopolies it needs to be regulated, restrained, and eventually broken-up to restore freedom to the market. Comcast does not have a right to have a perpetual monopoly, and neither does Tolkien.
>>>If there was no copyright, then everyone could simply copy the works of authors and they may not end up being paid for their work.
They aren't paid now.
Numerous authors have to sue RIAA or MPAA-affiliated companies, just to get paid. Example: The corporation that made Lord of the Rings claimed "we made no profit" and paid the director, scriptwriter, actors, and Tolkien's family nothing. Ditto Titanic and Avatar and Forrest Gump and.....
So explain again how copyright is "good"? These authors would be better off sticking a Paypal button in their books & asking for donations - they'd make more money than the lying asshat corporations pay them.
Your analysis is good but overcomplicated.
The argument against DST can be made more simply: We are now an 18 hour per day world, where people work from 6 am to midnight. The presence of the sun (or not) makes no impact on work schedules or energy usage. i.e. DST shifts do nothing.
You forgot about the TASM (Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile).
As for lasers I could easily imagine a missile equipped with a laser so, instead of blowing a hole with explosives, the missile would "pop up" 20 miles out and start melting through the hull.
>>>More importantly, how do I get the WebM video
And second:
WebM is inferior. It's almost as bad as viewing MPEG2 and like downgrading from a 1080p TV to a 720p television. (i.e. The picture is worse.)
>>>Google...have to respect these patents.
Google could just PAY the royalty to use MPEG4 between now and 2020 (when it becomes open). They certainly have the money.
>>>H.264 cannot be the standard for HTML5 video because it is not royalty-free.
Statement of fact made.
Too bad its untrue. There's no requirement that HTML5 codecs have to be royalty free. (At least not that I'm aware.)
As for H.264 it's already in use in billions of device from things as small as iPods, to home Televisions, to giant Movie and TV studios. It has become the defacto standard just like VHS, DVD, and Bluray.
>>>NO business in their right mind would agree
I've read plenty of stories about artists and businesses that DO give away their content for free. i.e. Not copy-protected. They discovered that doing so earned them MORE money, not less, in the form of more sales.
This is kinda similar to how lowering taxes can actually create More government revenue in the long term. It's counter-intuitive but study-after-study has shown that giving stuff away creates awareness, and that awareness creates sales.
>>>Publishers WANT you to be able to view their content
Why the hell was he marked troll? This moderation really needs to be removed as an option. Leave the Offtopic or Overrated options, but remove the "troll" which is equivalent to calling someone a "retard" or "spic" or "nigger". (Yes I said those words - call the FBI and arrest me. I don't give a frak.) Insults should not be a part of Slashdot moderation.
BTW Roflkoptr you're flat wrong.
DRM has interfered with users for *decades* now.
Games: Can't make backups because the copy protection won't let you. Or worse: It damages the drive. Music/movies - ditto. Sometimes you can even hear weird noises in your songs, or flashing lines in your VHS/DVD videos.
>>>DRM
Digital Radio Mondiale (worldwide)
Digital Restrictions Management
Damn Record and Movie tyrants. (Same guys who claim Avatar and LOTR made no money, therefore they owe nothing to the director, scriptwriter, actors, or original author)
>>>H.264... is extremely unfriendly to open source.
So then - how do open source programs like WinAmp, MP Classic, Miro, and VLC Player get away with using it? If they can do it, Chrome and Firefox should be able to do it too. (And Opera - since they are not open source at all.)
More importantly, how do I get the WebM video I just downloaded to work in my iPod? Or my TV? They only do Apple and MPEG codecs.
>>>25 years of law/case law
Well - you're wrong. Court cases can not overrule the U.S. Constitution. For example a judge can not arbitrarily declare, "Congress has the power to abolish all state legislatures." He can certainly issue that ruling, but it would be nullified by the Constitution's own law (the tenth amend.).
This menu is not graphical? Hell it's even animated!
http://www.qlinklives.org/
>>>the Icarus planet was filled with naquadria. However in SG:Atlantis they did blow up a planet from using too much geothermal.
I don't remember SGA's geothermal planet? It seems geothermal would COOL the planet into a cold rock like Pluto, rather than make it go boom. (shrug)
But I do remember is SGU's first episode where the Stargate pulled so much energy dialing across ~1000 galaxies that it went "boom". That's a hell of a distance. The closest galaxy is ~2 million lightyears, so hopping 1000 galaxies would be ~2000 million LYs. In Star Trek terms, at top warp speed, that's 2,000,000 years of travel time to reach SGU's current position. Damn. (The Ancients, being bright persons, did it in only one-one hundredth of the time.)
It's kinda sad that Reality imposes a 1 LY/year limit. Any intelligent race would be lucky just to reach the next star cluster - forget about visiting other galaxies.