Yes, insomuchas they will start removing it if sales start to hurt because of DRM. Think music sales from amazon and e-music.
No, insomuchas the oblivious in the board room still see it as due diligence. They don't get out much. Their collective finger can't find the pulse of their customers.
I downloaded the 52nd annual grammy awards show from usenet last week.
I was watching it last night and something ocurred to me that should have cut like a knife to those in attendance. Stephen Colbert was the introductory emcee for the show and during his monologue, he said something so poingant and pertinent that it bears repeating. He said, "... This year your industry was saved by a forty eight year old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes... Congratulations to her!" This rang so true that it made me think about the industry itself. They are giving out the major category grammy awards based upon what pre-teens spend their money on. I guess this is why the album of the year went to a teenager who can't sing on key without IEMs.
The industry executives are still out of touch with reality. You don't get a grammy for selling your own music via itunes or magnatune or something else. You also don't get a grammy for being a musical genius. The industry perpetuates their own woes. They wonder why they're not flourishing in new media.
The executives aren't harnessing new media properly. They're not selling a product people want to buy. You can't cram your product down people's throat and expect happy customers. The music industry has become so complacent that they are treating their product like a commodity. It's not. It's highly subject to market forces and cultural preferences.
Until they learn to adapt to new markets and sell a product which people like, I won't be spending a single dollar on music.
Not only are parents to blame, but teachers and their curriculum as well. My wife is a kindergarten teacher whose principal says "pacifically" instead of "specifically" and "axe" instead of "ask". Most of the teachers at her school can't even use proper grammar. Blame the web and cell phones too.
When you have to type on a number pad, you abbreviate everything. Students are rarely taught proper grammar by public schools because everyone thinks it's just not that important.
It was never about money for me. I had the money to buy it if I chose.
It was about what we lost in the process. This precedent allows the publisher to charge $59.99 for every game the publish in the future.
It also allows them to ignore customer complaints like they were selling a commodity.
We lost ground. If you don't think you're a part of that we, you're so sadly mistaken. You're a part whether you like it or not.
Our platform was traditionally the only one which allowed full control of the game. That is no more. There will be no further innovation by the community.
Since our gaming platform has been overwhelmed by the casual, uninformed player, we lose more and more ground. The PC used to be the game proving ground, now we get leftovers if we're lucky. We must settle for console ports a year after release.
So fuck you all! I hope your nintendo thumbs cramp up and provide you with intense unending pain!
If the job entailed cars or phones or newspapers, then yes, I would hope potential employers would choose to hire someone with an actual interest in the work rather than not.
If applying for IT and you give an AOL email address, you probably aren't very attuned to IT.
I have a client who is a mortgage broker and keeps using his aol email for business. I keep telling him to use his business email. He really can't afford to lose business over an email.
While this is both a good and a bad analogy, Mickey Mouse has become a cultural icon that is synonymous with the Disney conglomerate.
Mickey Mouse is almost a trademark in a way, that he will be rigorously defended and Disney companies will always win because there is no prior art or concept beyond the character's creation by the man whose legacy bears his name.
I regret hearing that you have decided not to activate service with us based on the pricing of our plans and services. I can certainly understand as well that you need to keep your wireless service as cost effective as possible.
Please note, Verizon Wireless is always looking for ways to enhance our products and services to better meet the needs of our customers. Your comments have been forwarded to our Management department for review and consideration. Your feedback provides us with the perfect opportunity to hear exactly what you think, and often leads to improvements you will see in the future.
I also called a couple of weeks ago and a phone rep told me (paraphrased) that I could keep my own service and deal with dropped calls all the time or pay more for better service.
So basically, Verizon thinks its service is worth more money despite providing the same level for more than any other carrier.
My t-mobile with 2 G1 phones comes with 1000 minutes, unlimited data, unlimited m2m and nights and weekends, 400 sms. My bill is an average of $130 a month.
Verizon's comparable plans would be $180 for less minutes.
All a fear detector detects is fear. Not intent or cause. Once they realize how many people are afraid in airports, they will quickly scrap this stupid idea.
That being said, am I, a simple user who occasionally needs to do graphics for my personal websites going to purchase photoshop?
No fucking way. Nor should I be required to do so. I have used photoshop since 1998 when it was version 4. I am a moderately skilled photoshop user. I am still learning a lot. There is more than half left to go.
If I want to get a job using my skills with photoshop, that business will have a licensed copy.
I say all software should be free for educational purposes. If you want to learn a new application, you should have to pay to do so. That's exclusionary. It's also already part of the DMCA. Copyright will not be infringed if using for instructional purposes. I am using it for instructional purposes.
First, saying that steam is a money grab is as asinine as saying that physical media publishing is a money grab. Of course it is. It no more exploits small developers than 2K Games, Ubisoft, EA, or any other software publisher does. Which is to say, yes they all do. Attacking Valve specifically because Gabe and Doug had the foresight and vision to get a foothold in the digital distribution market before it became popular is just plain whiny. Valve's domination over the digital distribution realm is not due to anti-competitive behavior. It's due to a superior service which adapted to the market long before traditional publishers' white haired executives realized they were losing sales to steam. By then, the best option was to publish under steam. Does steam take a larger share than they should? Probably not, given the service they provide. Using physical media presented problems for consumers. Publishers, already wary of online piracy saw digital distribution as counter-intuitive. Valve presented steam as both an answer to piracy and a solution to issues with physical media. But for Valve it was much more than that. By publishing their own games, they effectively avoided issues with traditional publishers. Consumers wanted to get their games online. Traditional publishers wouldn't provide them. Blaming Valve for steam's popularity is both a compliment and ludicrous. The consumers wanted the service.
Second, there is plenty of competition out there for digital distribution. None of it provides quite the same value as steam. Traditional publishers tried their own flavor of digital distribution. Some were very difficult to use and offered only one download of the game. None offered the community features that steam did at the time. Steam continues to improve the service at no additional cost to either consumers or developers. Only Stardock is coming close to Valve. Stardock was offering community services long before their Impulse DD store launched. Other DD game stores are web-based and don't even come close to the services and value that steam provides. So forgive me if I don't share your disdain for steam.
I thought the idea was stupid when I first heard about steam in 2002. I didn't see the potential.
That being said, the only dangerous part is the faith we place in the service after investing thousands of dollars on games on steam. If steam shuts down or becomes defunct, our games go poof. Granted, we have the option to backup our games, though they only work if connecting to the steam service. So the dangerous part is also the most valuable part.
Slashdot Mirror
copyright infringement != piracy
Yes, insomuchas they will start removing it if sales start to hurt because of DRM. Think music sales from amazon and e-music.
No, insomuchas the oblivious in the board room still see it as due diligence. They don't get out much. Their collective finger can't find the pulse of their customers.
you're not buying anything.
you're playing the games remotely.
the games are running remotely. hehe. As if that will ever work.
You're paying to play them remotely. No word on if rentals will cost anything over your monthly fee.
Seems doomed to epic failure.
This is a load of horseshit.
They have this technology and I'm still being charged as if 12Mbps is a bleeding edge luxury.
Fuck you ISP.
WTF are you smoking?
You are apparently living in cheaterland, where you have no hand-eye coordination and you rely on software to play for you.
None of modern existance is automated. You are just trying to rationalize your cheating. Epic FAIL!
How is OO.O not taking a bite out of their profits?
I downloaded the 52nd annual grammy awards show from usenet last week.
I was watching it last night and something ocurred to me that should have cut like a knife to those in attendance. Stephen Colbert was the introductory emcee for the show and during his monologue, he said something so poingant and pertinent that it bears repeating. He said, "... This year your industry was saved by a forty eight year old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes... Congratulations to her!" This rang so true that it made me think about the industry itself. They are giving out the major category grammy awards based upon what pre-teens spend their money on. I guess this is why the album of the year went to a teenager who can't sing on key without IEMs.
The industry executives are still out of touch with reality. You don't get a grammy for selling your own music via itunes or magnatune or something else. You also don't get a grammy for being a musical genius. The industry perpetuates their own woes. They wonder why they're not flourishing in new media.
The executives aren't harnessing new media properly. They're not selling a product people want to buy. You can't cram your product down people's throat and expect happy customers. The music industry has become so complacent that they are treating their product like a commodity. It's not. It's highly subject to market forces and cultural preferences.
Until they learn to adapt to new markets and sell a product which people like, I won't be spending a single dollar on music.
Not only are parents to blame, but teachers and their curriculum as well. My wife is a kindergarten teacher whose principal says "pacifically" instead of "specifically" and "axe" instead of "ask". Most of the teachers at her school can't even use proper grammar. Blame the web and cell phones too.
When you have to type on a number pad, you abbreviate everything. Students are rarely taught proper grammar by public schools because everyone thinks it's just not that important.
how exactly does $5 a week for three months from 35 people equal $9000?
by my calculations, that's $2100 total.
why are they charging more than cover price for their crap website?
totally agreed.
faraday up the engine compartment. problem solved.
I'm more worried about the damn cops hitting my house by mistake and frying all my electronics.
This weapon should require rigorous certification and a college degree in physics to operate.
This is not something you put into the hands of badge-bearing knuckle-draggers.
It was never about money for me. I had the money to buy it if I chose.
It was about what we lost in the process. This precedent allows the publisher to charge $59.99 for every game the publish in the future.
It also allows them to ignore customer complaints like they were selling a commodity.
We lost ground. If you don't think you're a part of that we, you're so sadly mistaken. You're a part whether you like it or not.
Our platform was traditionally the only one which allowed full control of the game. That is no more. There will be no further innovation by the community.
Since our gaming platform has been overwhelmed by the casual, uninformed player, we lose more and more ground. The PC used to be the game proving ground, now we get leftovers if we're lucky. We must settle for console ports a year after release.
So fuck you all! I hope your nintendo thumbs cramp up and provide you with intense unending pain!
yet they were all found guilty of price fixing during the height of the CD era.
Nothing has changed. They should be fined doubly for continuing this behavior.
If the job entailed cars or phones or newspapers, then yes, I would hope potential employers would choose to hire someone with an actual interest in the work rather than not.
If applying for IT and you give an AOL email address, you probably aren't very attuned to IT.
I have a client who is a mortgage broker and keeps using his aol email for business. I keep telling him to use his business email. He really can't afford to lose business over an email.
While this is both a good and a bad analogy, Mickey Mouse has become a cultural icon that is synonymous with the Disney conglomerate.
Mickey Mouse is almost a trademark in a way, that he will be rigorously defended and Disney companies will always win because there is no prior art or concept beyond the character's creation by the man whose legacy bears his name.
there's already a google voice app in the market. I think you're asking if it will use google voice over IP.
If it allows GV via voip, w/ 3g we might all jump at the chance.
install a low power heating element over the lights to warm them up in the winter. you still save power because you don't need them in the summer.
sorry bud, that's not $10mln.
It's $10bln Billion with a B
just wait and see how they bend gamers over for bad company 2.
I received this response:
I also called a couple of weeks ago and a phone rep told me (paraphrased) that I could keep my own service and deal with dropped calls all the time or pay more for better service.
So basically, Verizon thinks its service is worth more money despite providing the same level for more than any other carrier.
My t-mobile with 2 G1 phones comes with 1000 minutes, unlimited data, unlimited m2m and nights and weekends, 400 sms. My bill is an average of $130 a month.
Verizon's comparable plans would be $180 for less minutes.
This is so true.
All a fear detector detects is fear. Not intent or cause. Once they realize how many people are afraid in airports, they will quickly scrap this stupid idea.
Why don't we count ourselves as crippled by broadband costs?
We are, compared to some of the developed nations of the world.
Remember that the B stands for Business.
That being said, am I, a simple user who occasionally needs to do graphics for my personal websites going to purchase photoshop?
No fucking way. Nor should I be required to do so. I have used photoshop since 1998 when it was version 4. I am a moderately skilled photoshop user. I am still learning a lot. There is more than half left to go.
If I want to get a job using my skills with photoshop, that business will have a licensed copy.
I say all software should be free for educational purposes. If you want to learn a new application, you should have to pay to do so. That's exclusionary. It's also already part of the DMCA. Copyright will not be infringed if using for instructional purposes. I am using it for instructional purposes.
I heard the same thing from an employee at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL
wait, did they just say theoretical?
granted, it's all a theory, but is it really theoretical if they've measured it?
First, saying that steam is a money grab is as asinine as saying that physical media publishing is a money grab. Of course it is. It no more exploits small developers than 2K Games, Ubisoft, EA, or any other software publisher does. Which is to say, yes they all do. Attacking Valve specifically because Gabe and Doug had the foresight and vision to get a foothold in the digital distribution market before it became popular is just plain whiny. Valve's domination over the digital distribution realm is not due to anti-competitive behavior. It's due to a superior service which adapted to the market long before traditional publishers' white haired executives realized they were losing sales to steam. By then, the best option was to publish under steam. Does steam take a larger share than they should? Probably not, given the service they provide. Using physical media presented problems for consumers. Publishers, already wary of online piracy saw digital distribution as counter-intuitive. Valve presented steam as both an answer to piracy and a solution to issues with physical media. But for Valve it was much more than that. By publishing their own games, they effectively avoided issues with traditional publishers. Consumers wanted to get their games online. Traditional publishers wouldn't provide them. Blaming Valve for steam's popularity is both a compliment and ludicrous. The consumers wanted the service.
Second, there is plenty of competition out there for digital distribution. None of it provides quite the same value as steam. Traditional publishers tried their own flavor of digital distribution. Some were very difficult to use and offered only one download of the game. None offered the community features that steam did at the time. Steam continues to improve the service at no additional cost to either consumers or developers. Only Stardock is coming close to Valve. Stardock was offering community services long before their Impulse DD store launched. Other DD game stores are web-based and don't even come close to the services and value that steam provides. So forgive me if I don't share your disdain for steam.
I thought the idea was stupid when I first heard about steam in 2002. I didn't see the potential.
That being said, the only dangerous part is the faith we place in the service after investing thousands of dollars on games on steam. If steam shuts down or becomes defunct, our games go poof. Granted, we have the option to backup our games, though they only work if connecting to the steam service. So the dangerous part is also the most valuable part.