Most RSS feeders *should* just download every hour from the time they start
That's also a problem, though, since most people start work at their computer desks on the hour, or very close to it. The better solution would be for the client (1) to check once at startup, then (2) pick a random number between one and sixty (or thirty or whatever) and (3) start checking the feed, hourly, after that many minutes. That's the only way to ensure a decently random distribution of hits.
Here's an idea. Don't charge per click but per sale generated.
Then you get a lot of conversations like: "Well, we didn't actually make any sales this quarter. No, that money is, um, investment returns. From stocks and bonds. Yeah, nobody bought anything. It's tragic, really, but I'll keep buying ads just in case."
Concerts. It's how artists make their real money anyway....
It's worth observing, however, that recorded music has nearly eliminated live performances except by the most popular acts. Once upon a time, a decent musician could get a job in an orchestra or band and expect to play fairly often, because that was the only way one could hear music at all.
At first, radio and recorded music were a boon to bands because it let them introduce their songs to a wider audience. Then two things happened: Deejays and amplifiers. With the latter, a large room could be played by a four-person band better than a twenty-person band. With the former, a large room could be played without any band at all.
Suddenly it was a LOT harder to get a job as a professional musician, and the industry had a kind of shakedown -- only the best could continue to sell music and perform live for a living.
Of course, these technologial and cultural innovations were pretty much inevitable. But it's worth remembering that, while it's still true that the majority of musicians make their real money performing live, it's a whole lot harder to perform live at all BECAUSE of recorded music.
Counting the number of dollars made is pointless, because (1) inflation isn't taken into account and (2) blockbusters cost more and more to make every year, mainly as a consequence of (1).
Even adjusting for inflation is a tricky business, though. The more important thing to consider, if you're the MPAA, is the number of tickets sold The number of people paying for movie tickets, regardless of how much they paid, gives you a clear idea of whether the movie industry is losing customers to the Internet or not.
Fortunately, the numbers still support the "not" conclusion. A review of yearly movie ticket sales shows that while ticket sales haven't increased every year for the past two decades, overall they've continued to climb -- even through the 80s when cable television was becoming massively widespread.
It was my first full-time job, and I was asked to install a desktop scanner on the Mac in the lab room. Easy enough, right? Just like plugging in a keyboard, hook the thing up and start installing software.......except that this was back when Macs still used SCSI and serial ports, and while you could plug-and-play serial hardware, SCSI was another matter. I didn't know until it was explained to me, afterward, that connecting or disconnecting SCSI peripherals while the computer is turned on could fry the motherboard. Which it did. Which had to be replaced, thankfully not at my expense.
Live (or be allowed to continue to live) and learn, I guess.
MP3 support isn't a problem, exactly -- the Register article says that Sony's connection software will convert MP3s to the ATRAC format, which has a smaller file size (and no royalties) and thus makes sense for Sony to use.
It's a shame that it won't play MP3s natively, though, because that would doubtless save a lot of time on converting a large library. Users and reviewers will decide for themselves if the sound quality is worth the price and package.
As for the Sony online store, a year ago it might not have made any difference -- Apple's iTunes was just getting off the ground and most people were using iPods to listen to their own CD collections, not music they bought online. Now that Apple's got iTunes Music Store working well under Windows, it's a real advantage for them -- but by no means an unconquerable one. However, IMO the iTMS is so darned easy-to-use -- and often enjoyable, with the improvements they've made over the past year-- it'll take some truly hard work to overtake it.
Apple doesn't have this market locked up by any means, but they know they have to keep pushing to stay ahead. Sony will catch them if given the chance.
...consumers will soon be able to download songs from the European Sony Connect online store - which appears to have entirely failed to launch in June, as promised.
Nice of them to promise it will fail to launch, I think. Saves us the trouble of griping and complaining about it after the fact.
The 30" monitor Apple announced the other day measures 2560x1600 pixels, which comes to 4.1 megapixel resolution -- although it does require a graphics card with two ports, so connecting two such monitors gives you an ultra-widescreen 8.2 MP display.
ViewSonic's specs says theirs offers 3840x2400 pixels, quite a bit higher than Apple's -- but it's only 22.2" diagonal compared to Apple's 30". Whether higher resolution or larger workspace is more important depends on the individual, of course, but I personally would prefer fewer pixels in a larger screen -- that kind of ultra-high-density DPI isn't the sort of thing I can imagine needing if I were a graphics pro.
While I thought "Superman 2" was the best superhero movie ever until the latest generation of superhero movies started coming out (ironically, all based on Marvel characters)
It's not ironic; Warner Bros. (owner of DC Comics) has all but dropped out of the comic-book-movie business since the fourth "Batman" film, and if that was the best they could pull together I'm glad for it. On the other hand, Marvel doesn't have a big media company like WB owning it, so they're making up for the lack of comic book sales since the mid-90s by selling movie scripts (or, to look at it another way, cross-promoting their comic books to increase sales).
Now, Marvel knew going into the game that comic book movies have a terrible track record, so they spent a lot of time and effort getting good scripts and directors for the first X-Men and Spider-Man films, and it paid off. Hulk was a good film, IMO, although not a lot of people loved it. Punisher I never saw. Daredevil I did see, and I frankly regret it. That last movie alone proves that just because Marvel's spending a lot of effort on these films doesn't always mean they're succeeding.
I think Marvel's known all along exactly what you've stated: that good, believable, three-dimensional characters are what brings people back again and again. (Okay, so they probably forgot it for a while back in the 90s, but they're trying.) I'm as glad as you are that they've pushed hard to keep that aspect of their stories in the recent crop of films.
I wonder if Google takes some of the higher placed winners and offer them jobs?
I'm told that a previous World Puzzle Champion is an employee who was partially, if not primarily, responsible for pushing Google's association with this.
This is true; it isn't new news. However, this is the first time I've seen the space elevator concept in an AP newswire article. This same story made page 2 in my city's newspaper, which means it's the first time many Americans will have heard of it, let alone learned it's feasible. That means, with any luck, it's also more likely to reach the ears of the executive branch and receive favorable funding.
I don't word-process very much, but for Mac users there is one great option available for "I just want to write" types: Mellel. It's got tables, styles, footnotes/endnotes, and multilingual support -- all the power features "normal people" use in Word and none of the chrome. All for under thirty bucks, which is a darned good value and (I'm sure) an improvement on Word 5.1 by any measure.
I'm logging into my upgraded account for the first time using OS X Safari. Looks more or less the same, but lots of the text has these dark blue lines behind it (instead of solid shading) which I can't read over very well. Plus the form buttons and combo boxes no longer respond to my mouse clicks at all.
So sure, 100MB is great for nothing, but their redesign has rendered my favorite browser completely useless for reading my mail. Nice user testing, Yahoo.
AIM and iChat don't use the same videoconferencing systems -- AIM video chat allows Windows XP and iChat does not; AIM allows USB cameras while iChat requires a FireWire camera (or a special non-Apple driver). So I'm sure iChat users are safe.
And say that of all the file browsers I've ever used, the default OS X system (and its simplified iPod cousin) with multiple columns scrolling left and right is probably the most useful. It simultaneously tells me what files are in my current folder and leaves a breadcrumbs trail back to the root directory, with the added bonus of giving me detailed info on whatever file I've selected.
It's not perfect -- it's stuck on alphabetical order and always takes me to the top of a folder's contents instead of scrolling to wherever I last was -- but it gives me a lot of information in one window, which is just the sort of thing an info-geek like me loves.
Slashdot Mirror
It is clear that is scheme to "distribute" Ipods among Duke freshmen is nothing but a naked marketing move on Apple's part
I'm sorry, but what planet have you been living on where Apple needs a university's help to market iPods to well-financed eighteen-year-olds?
When the fox gaurds the henhouse
I thought it was well known that FOX mainly guarded the White House.
Most RSS feeders *should* just download every hour from the time they start
That's also a problem, though, since most people start work at their computer desks on the hour, or very close to it. The better solution would be for the client (1) to check once at startup, then (2) pick a random number between one and sixty (or thirty or whatever) and (3) start checking the feed, hourly, after that many minutes. That's the only way to ensure a decently random distribution of hits.
If you are afraid of something, learn about it.
Um, that's probably the reason the reviewer bought the book.
It seems that developers are headbangers, ...against their keyboards, usually muttering things like "@#$% this compiler"....
...assume that whatever's popular is the bandwagon they should jump on....
...on the mistaken assumption that it will increase their IQs subliminally....
...knowing full well that lyrics, like marketing, is highly overrated....
...because typically, it is.
Microsoft certified pros are Britney fans,
and management goes for Mozart.
Linux users tend toward Electronica,
and Security goes for The Dead.
Here's an idea. Don't charge per click but per sale generated.
Then you get a lot of conversations like: "Well, we didn't actually make any sales this quarter. No, that money is, um, investment returns. From stocks and bonds. Yeah, nobody bought anything. It's tragic, really, but I'll keep buying ads just in case."
so that would explain the 26,000 patents that MS has been busy filing to lock down everything in the world
What, you thought they were going to donate them to the Vatican or something?
Concerts. It's how artists make their real money anyway....
It's worth observing, however, that recorded music has nearly eliminated live performances except by the most popular acts. Once upon a time, a decent musician could get a job in an orchestra or band and expect to play fairly often, because that was the only way one could hear music at all.
At first, radio and recorded music were a boon to bands because it let them introduce their songs to a wider audience. Then two things happened: Deejays and amplifiers. With the latter, a large room could be played by a four-person band better than a twenty-person band. With the former, a large room could be played without any band at all.
Suddenly it was a LOT harder to get a job as a professional musician, and the industry had a kind of shakedown -- only the best could continue to sell music and perform live for a living.
Of course, these technologial and cultural innovations were pretty much inevitable. But it's worth remembering that, while it's still true that the majority of musicians make their real money performing live, it's a whole lot harder to perform live at all BECAUSE of recorded music.
But it supports OGG! I thought that was all we were supposed to care about!
I would think it would be interesting to do a slashdot interview with the Wikipedia folks...
What, all of them!?
Counting the number of dollars made is pointless, because (1) inflation isn't taken into account and (2) blockbusters cost more and more to make every year, mainly as a consequence of (1).
Even adjusting for inflation is a tricky business, though. The more important thing to consider, if you're the MPAA, is the number of tickets sold The number of people paying for movie tickets, regardless of how much they paid, gives you a clear idea of whether the movie industry is losing customers to the Internet or not.
Fortunately, the numbers still support the "not" conclusion. A review of yearly movie ticket sales shows that while ticket sales haven't increased every year for the past two decades, overall they've continued to climb -- even through the 80s when cable television was becoming massively widespread.
It was my first full-time job, and I was asked to install a desktop scanner on the Mac in the lab room. Easy enough, right? Just like plugging in a keyboard, hook the thing up and start installing software.... ...except that this was back when Macs still used SCSI and serial ports, and while you could plug-and-play serial hardware, SCSI was another matter. I didn't know until it was explained to me, afterward, that connecting or disconnecting SCSI peripherals while the computer is turned on could fry the motherboard. Which it did. Which had to be replaced, thankfully not at my expense.
Live (or be allowed to continue to live) and learn, I guess.
Windows CE - The Pontiac of Operating Systems
It's a curious coincidence that that acronym "P.O.S." stands for something else Windows CE is often called.
MP3 support isn't a problem, exactly -- the Register article says that Sony's connection software will convert MP3s to the ATRAC format, which has a smaller file size (and no royalties) and thus makes sense for Sony to use.
It's a shame that it won't play MP3s natively, though, because that would doubtless save a lot of time on converting a large library. Users and reviewers will decide for themselves if the sound quality is worth the price and package.
As for the Sony online store, a year ago it might not have made any difference -- Apple's iTunes was just getting off the ground and most people were using iPods to listen to their own CD collections, not music they bought online. Now that Apple's got iTunes Music Store working well under Windows, it's a real advantage for them -- but by no means an unconquerable one. However, IMO the iTMS is so darned easy-to-use -- and often enjoyable, with the improvements they've made over the past year-- it'll take some truly hard work to overtake it.
Apple doesn't have this market locked up by any means, but they know they have to keep pushing to stay ahead. Sony will catch them if given the chance.
...consumers will soon be able to download songs from the European Sony Connect online store - which appears to have entirely failed to launch in June, as promised.
Nice of them to promise it will fail to launch, I think. Saves us the trouble of griping and complaining about it after the fact.
The 30" monitor Apple announced the other day measures 2560x1600 pixels, which comes to 4.1 megapixel resolution -- although it does require a graphics card with two ports, so connecting two such monitors gives you an ultra-widescreen 8.2 MP display.
ViewSonic's specs says theirs offers 3840x2400 pixels, quite a bit higher than Apple's -- but it's only 22.2" diagonal compared to Apple's 30". Whether higher resolution or larger workspace is more important depends on the individual, of course, but I personally would prefer fewer pixels in a larger screen -- that kind of ultra-high-density DPI isn't the sort of thing I can imagine needing if I were a graphics pro.
While I thought "Superman 2" was the best superhero movie ever until the latest generation of superhero movies started coming out (ironically, all based on Marvel characters)
It's not ironic; Warner Bros. (owner of DC Comics) has all but dropped out of the comic-book-movie business since the fourth "Batman" film, and if that was the best they could pull together I'm glad for it. On the other hand, Marvel doesn't have a big media company like WB owning it, so they're making up for the lack of comic book sales since the mid-90s by selling movie scripts (or, to look at it another way, cross-promoting their comic books to increase sales).
Now, Marvel knew going into the game that comic book movies have a terrible track record, so they spent a lot of time and effort getting good scripts and directors for the first X-Men and Spider-Man films, and it paid off. Hulk was a good film, IMO, although not a lot of people loved it. Punisher I never saw. Daredevil I did see, and I frankly regret it. That last movie alone proves that just because Marvel's spending a lot of effort on these films doesn't always mean they're succeeding.
I think Marvel's known all along exactly what you've stated: that good, believable, three-dimensional characters are what brings people back again and again. (Okay, so they probably forgot it for a while back in the 90s, but they're trying.) I'm as glad as you are that they've pushed hard to keep that aspect of their stories in the recent crop of films.
I wonder if Google takes some of the higher placed winners and offer them jobs?
I'm told that a previous World Puzzle Champion is an employee who was partially, if not primarily, responsible for pushing Google's association with this.
This is true; it isn't new news. However, this is the first time I've seen the space elevator concept in an AP newswire article. This same story made page 2 in my city's newspaper, which means it's the first time many Americans will have heard of it, let alone learned it's feasible. That means, with any luck, it's also more likely to reach the ears of the executive branch and receive favorable funding.
I don't word-process very much, but for Mac users there is one great option available for "I just want to write" types: Mellel. It's got tables, styles, footnotes/endnotes, and multilingual support -- all the power features "normal people" use in Word and none of the chrome. All for under thirty bucks, which is a darned good value and (I'm sure) an improvement on Word 5.1 by any measure.
I'm logging into my upgraded account for the first time using OS X Safari. Looks more or less the same, but lots of the text has these dark blue lines behind it (instead of solid shading) which I can't read over very well. Plus the form buttons and combo boxes no longer respond to my mouse clicks at all.
So sure, 100MB is great for nothing, but their redesign has rendered my favorite browser completely useless for reading my mail. Nice user testing, Yahoo.
...I'd be the first to bid for all that Japanese hardware, but my television only speaks English.
AIM and iChat don't use the same videoconferencing systems -- AIM video chat allows Windows XP and iChat does not; AIM allows USB cameras while iChat requires a FireWire camera (or a special non-Apple driver). So I'm sure iChat users are safe.
Don't worry, I hear Voyager gets through and makes contact with an intelligent race of machines...
You mean Capt. Janeway, right?
And say that of all the file browsers I've ever used, the default OS X system (and its simplified iPod cousin) with multiple columns scrolling left and right is probably the most useful. It simultaneously tells me what files are in my current folder and leaves a breadcrumbs trail back to the root directory, with the added bonus of giving me detailed info on whatever file I've selected.
It's not perfect -- it's stuck on alphabetical order and always takes me to the top of a folder's contents instead of scrolling to wherever I last was -- but it gives me a lot of information in one window, which is just the sort of thing an info-geek like me loves.