This is a good point. I generally could care less about the sales and marketing of a band though; the music speaks for itself. My favorite technique for finding new bands was to go to CDNow, find some of my favorite albums and click on all the links under "people who purchased this album also bought..." Or I read the reviews of albums I do like and see which other bands the reviewers mention. Or I see a band open for another band I like.
It seems like the major role of a record company is to find artists, promote their music, and produce and distribute albums. Advances in home studio technology and the increasing popularity and bandwidth of the Internet mean that it is possible for an artist to self produce and promote their music.
Do you think that it is likely that we will see a major artist go this route in the near future? And if this became a viable model what could record companies do to continue to add value to music?
The best reasons to tax the rich are that they can afford it and they receive the most benefit from government services.
The first item doesn't sound fair but it is a basic tenet of capitalism - what the market will bear. If I make $100,000 a year and spend 40% of that on taxes I am still gonna have a lot more money than someone who makes $40000 a year and only spends 20% on taxes.
Many people will claim that poor people cost more to society than rich people, but this is untrue. Poor people may incur more direct costs, like welfare, subsidized housing, medicare, etc. But this is just enough money to survive. Rich people need the services of the police to protect their numerous belongings. They need the fire department to keep their large homes and office buildings from burning down. They need a military to protect their foreign investments. They need special legislation to protect their business interests. They need bailouts after stealing from their own companies. The government provides these services, and they cost a lot.
Agreed that Nintendo is doing fine, but those profit numbers are deceptive. The profits that Playstation generates are offset by losses in other business units. If Sony Computer Entertainment ever spun off from the parent company I'm sure they would be massively profitable.
This is factually incorrect. The US (unsuccessfully) invaded Cuba in 1961. Much more recently we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Every successful empire needs to expand in order to keep the plebians from revolting, and the US is no exception.
Religious fundamentalists, Christian or otherwise, are very scary. They want to use the law to promote their morals, which come from books that are thousands of years old. If other people want to live by rules that were formulated by nomadic goatherds then more power to them. If they want me to live by those rules as well then there is a problem.
This is true; the copyrights on the songs themselves are generally owned by the artists and administered by ASCAP, BMI, or an equivalent organization. Many popular songwriters earn a decent living on the monthly royalties collected on their songwriting credits long after the recordings are no longer valuable.
My physics teacher in high school had a high voltage generator called "sparky". He could crank out 100,000 volts with that thing. Then he passed electrodes around and allowed us to experience 100,000 volts firsthand:) The reason this didn't kill anyone is that volts are not necessarily dangerous; amps do. The amount of current flowing through your body determines whether electricity is harmful.
Case in point: in the US power mains run at 120 volts. Yet this is enough to kill you. The reason is that there are tens of amps available at the wall.
Palm is a proprietary hardware design, and it seems to have a pretty healthy developer community. I think Symbian is doing well, and it also only runs on severely constricted hardware.
The XBox is an attractive platform because it is a reasonably powerful computer that costs $180. It has a hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and can be networked. And it plays games too:) I don't know if they are still losing money on the consoles, but I challenge you to put together a comparable system for less money.
Someone earlier mentioned the Via mini platforms. The C3 processor in conjunction with crappy onboard graphics makes this platform less powerful than an XBox. The Shuttle type barebones systems are much more powerful and also cost a lot more.
Judging by the results of the Independence Day poll it looks like most of the Slashdot readership lives inside the USA. This gives the DMCA relevance. And if you think your backwater of the globe will never have any similar laws, think again. The future of property is ideas, and the rich and powerful need laws like the DMCA to protect their property.
One other advantage of stored procedures is that they are easier to deploy in a production environment since a server restart is usually not required. However I dislike using stored procedures (in Oracle, anyway) for several practical reasons:
1. The syntax for stored procedures is awful. I always wondered where the hell they stole their syntax until I finally ran across some COBOL.
2. The compiler and runtime error checking are poor. The compiler generally stops at the first error it sees, and it doesn't always report the line number correctly. And you practically have to be a DBA to figure out some of the problems that can occur with procedures.
3. Code maintenance is a hassle. All of our other sources are easily compared to their deployments using basic file commands in the OS. However SQL commands must be used to verify the source in our Oracle DB. And Oracle reformats our procedures even if they compile properly, which means the source cannot be compared to the target anyway.
My guess is anyone who actually develops any code for Linux CE will be classified as a "Special Supporting Member". If all you want to do is bitch and whine about the specs then you will have to shell out some cash.
If I want to see a movie with thought provoking themes, interesting dialog, and fully realized characters then I will go rent it and enjoy it from the comfort of my couch.
If I am going to drive to a theater, shell out $9, watch stupid commercials and listen to bland pop for half an hour waiting for the movie to start then I want to watch a movie that knocks my socks off. I want assloads of special effects and bass that goes down to the brown note. Otherwise I can get a better movie watching experience in my own home.
Or maybe the cable pirates are buying boats AND drugs and then using the boats to smuggle the drugs into the country! They are probably selling drugs to your kids right now! Let's round up all the pirates and shoot them before they get a chance to turn our god-fearing nation into a slavering den of depravity!
Why make it random? The cops can hang around car dealerships and nail everyone that drives out with a car that can do more than 70mph, because obviously with that kind of power the person must be planning on speeding.
Our space program has always been about multitasking. Each mission involves a number of scientific or practical objectives, like launching or fixing satellites and performing experiments. The other major goal is learning how humans can live and work in space. The first goal may seem more practical, but the second one is the reason we bother spending billions of dollars.
As long as we have these two objectives why not multitask each mission? It may not be more efficient to use astronauts to perform critical mission functions but we learn something about manned space flight each time. And the ultimate goal is to travel to the stars, not just observe them.
The problem with 16 bit code is not the size of the integers; it is the fact that an x86 processor switches into crash-easily mode whenever it executes 16 bit instructions.
Windows 98 is basically a minor version update of Windows 95. Same with Win XP and Win 2000. The difference between M$ and some other companies is that they make you pay for patches and betas. They aren't the only ones that do this, but they sure make a lot of money that way.
They didn't exactly highlight this information either. The "Featured Sites" font color is light and you have to click twice to get the featured sites definition.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a good point. I generally could care less about the sales and marketing of a band though; the music speaks for itself. My favorite technique for finding new bands was to go to CDNow, find some of my favorite albums and click on all the links under "people who purchased this album also bought..." Or I read the reviews of albums I do like and see which other bands the reviewers mention. Or I see a band open for another band I like.
It seems like the major role of a record company is to find artists, promote their music, and produce and distribute albums. Advances in home studio technology and the increasing popularity and bandwidth of the Internet mean that it is possible for an artist to self produce and promote their music.
Do you think that it is likely that we will see a major artist go this route in the near future? And if this became a viable model what could record companies do to continue to add value to music?
The best reasons to tax the rich are that they can afford it and they receive the most benefit from government services.
The first item doesn't sound fair but it is a basic tenet of capitalism - what the market will bear. If I make $100,000 a year and spend 40% of that on taxes I am still gonna have a lot more money than someone who makes $40000 a year and only spends 20% on taxes.
Many people will claim that poor people cost more to society than rich people, but this is untrue. Poor people may incur more direct costs, like welfare, subsidized housing, medicare, etc. But this is just enough money to survive. Rich people need the services of the police to protect their numerous belongings. They need the fire department to keep their large homes and office buildings from burning down. They need a military to protect their foreign investments. They need special legislation to protect their business interests. They need bailouts after stealing from their own companies. The government provides these services, and they cost a lot.
Agreed that Nintendo is doing fine, but those profit numbers are deceptive. The profits that Playstation generates are offset by losses in other business units. If Sony Computer Entertainment ever spun off from the parent company I'm sure they would be massively profitable.
This is factually incorrect. The US (unsuccessfully) invaded Cuba in 1961. Much more recently we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Every successful empire needs to expand in order to keep the plebians from revolting, and the US is no exception.
Everyone here who didn't get into computers partly because of video games say "I suck"...
Religious fundamentalists, Christian or otherwise, are very scary. They want to use the law to promote their morals, which come from books that are thousands of years old. If other people want to live by rules that were formulated by nomadic goatherds then more power to them. If they want me to live by those rules as well then there is a problem.
This is true; the copyrights on the songs themselves are generally owned by the artists and administered by ASCAP, BMI, or an equivalent organization. Many popular songwriters earn a decent living on the monthly royalties collected on their songwriting credits long after the recordings are no longer valuable.
My physics teacher in high school had a high voltage generator called "sparky". He could crank out 100,000 volts with that thing. Then he passed electrodes around and allowed us to experience 100,000 volts firsthand :) The reason this didn't kill anyone is that volts are not necessarily dangerous; amps do. The amount of current flowing through your body determines whether electricity is harmful.
Case in point: in the US power mains run at 120 volts. Yet this is enough to kill you. The reason is that there are tens of amps available at the wall.
Palm is a proprietary hardware design, and it seems to have a pretty healthy developer community. I think Symbian is doing well, and it also only runs on severely constricted hardware.
:) I don't know if they are still losing money on the consoles, but I challenge you to put together a comparable system for less money.
The XBox is an attractive platform because it is a reasonably powerful computer that costs $180. It has a hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and can be networked. And it plays games too
Someone earlier mentioned the Via mini platforms. The C3 processor in conjunction with crappy onboard graphics makes this platform less powerful than an XBox. The Shuttle type barebones systems are much more powerful and also cost a lot more.
Judging by the results of the Independence Day poll it looks like most of the Slashdot readership lives inside the USA. This gives the DMCA relevance. And if you think your backwater of the globe will never have any similar laws, think again. The future of property is ideas, and the rich and powerful need laws like the DMCA to protect their property.
One other advantage of stored procedures is that they are easier to deploy in a production environment since a server restart is usually not required. However I dislike using stored procedures (in Oracle, anyway) for several practical reasons:
1. The syntax for stored procedures is awful. I always wondered where the hell they stole their syntax until I finally ran across some COBOL.
2. The compiler and runtime error checking are poor. The compiler generally stops at the first error it sees, and it doesn't always report the line number correctly. And you practically have to be a DBA to figure out some of the problems that can occur with procedures.
3. Code maintenance is a hassle. All of our other sources are easily compared to their deployments using basic file commands in the OS. However SQL commands must be used to verify the source in our Oracle DB. And Oracle reformats our procedures even if they compile properly, which means the source cannot be compared to the target anyway.
Name one giant American consumer electronics company.
My guess is anyone who actually develops any code for Linux CE will be classified as a "Special Supporting Member". If all you want to do is bitch and whine about the specs then you will have to shell out some cash.
Imagine how much Harrison Ford could make if he finally cut a deal with the Viagra people.
If I want to see a movie with thought provoking themes, interesting dialog, and fully realized characters then I will go rent it and enjoy it from the comfort of my couch.
If I am going to drive to a theater, shell out $9, watch stupid commercials and listen to bland pop for half an hour waiting for the movie to start then I want to watch a movie that knocks my socks off. I want assloads of special effects and bass that goes down to the brown note. Otherwise I can get a better movie watching experience in my own home.
Lastly, why don't slashdot editors do some sort of background checking. What are they being paid for?
This one is easy: they find the dozen or so best trolls to post as articles every day. That kind of heavy trolling can take a lot out of you.
Pull that silver spoon out of your ass. $500 a month is a lot of money for all but the richest people in the world.
Is McDonalds coffee fit for human consumption at any temperature?
Or maybe the cable pirates are buying boats AND drugs and then using the boats to smuggle the drugs into the country! They are probably selling drugs to your kids right now! Let's round up all the pirates and shoot them before they get a chance to turn our god-fearing nation into a slavering den of depravity!
Why make it random? The cops can hang around car dealerships and nail everyone that drives out with a car that can do more than 70mph, because obviously with that kind of power the person must be planning on speeding.
Our space program has always been about multitasking. Each mission involves a number of scientific or practical objectives, like launching or fixing satellites and performing experiments. The other major goal is learning how humans can live and work in space. The first goal may seem more practical, but the second one is the reason we bother spending billions of dollars.
As long as we have these two objectives why not multitask each mission? It may not be more efficient to use astronauts to perform critical mission functions but we learn something about manned space flight each time. And the ultimate goal is to travel to the stars, not just observe them.
The problem with 16 bit code is not the size of the integers; it is the fact that an x86 processor switches into crash-easily mode whenever it executes 16 bit instructions.
Windows 98 is basically a minor version update of Windows 95. Same with Win XP and Win 2000. The difference between M$ and some other companies is that they make you pay for patches and betas. They aren't the only ones that do this, but they sure make a lot of money that way.
They didn't exactly highlight this information either. The "Featured Sites" font color is light and you have to click twice to get the featured sites definition.