I miss Jon Katz. (sniff)
on
High Score
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· Score: 2
I used to enjoy making fun of his posts. Now, we have people actually reviewing books rather than spewing out vaguely related streams of grandiose yet fundimentally meaningless statements.
...and when Gannoc realized what had happened, we wept, for there was no more Katz to conquer.
Isn't this just old-fashioned stealing? You are LITERALLY trying to give money to a charity via your purchase, and they steal it. This is a direct criminal act, not some vague "internet ethics" thing.
I _could_ download the Sopranos off the internet. I could have my friends tape it for me, or Replay it over to a VCD, but I don't, because HBO is easily available to me at a reasonable price.
Charge me $40-$60/month (which is more than i'm paying for CD every month these days), give me access to every song I want, and you'll make a killing.
Its a new era, you need a new billing scheme. Look at cable companies. Does anyone think that stealing cable is justified? They don't charge by the show, and conversely, nobody says "I'm not really stealing cable, because there's no way i'd watch 200 channels anyway." or "Yeah, i'll watch Showtime because I can, but if I couldn't get it for free, I wouldn't watch it."
It'll never happen though. They'll charge $18.99 for a highly restrictive format download of a shitty CD, then moan that nobody is buying it because of piracy.
Yes, piracy is a problem. This isn't about piracy, this is about control.
They're concerned about people stealing music, but they know as much as we do that some college kid downloading 5 CDs doesn't equal $100 in lost revenue.
Digital music frightens them because they lose control. Once you have that music, you own it FOREVER in whatever format you want!
That means that all of their great ideas about having people pay for music that "expires" after 30 days, and all their other reoccuring revenue plans can't happen.
They WANT you to get sick of music. If you can listen to any one of your 6000+ songs at the touch of an iPod, thats less of a motivation to buy new music than if you're getting tired of listening to the same 6 CDs that you've had in your car the past month.
This isn't even touching on the whole business of buying and selling physical CDs. There is a huge business in printing, selling, distributing, and marketing the CDs that you buy at the mall. If music was totally electronic, that revenue would be GONE.
I tried e-mailing a friend who goes by the name of Jamal Bin-Laden...I was only asking him to bring back some tiny M&M's from London...I had to cancel my post-grad plans to study in New York after all my Arab friends there came back.
Hey, in all fairness:
Bin-Laden:
When you return from your journey, bring many of the "tiny green M&Ms" on your plane flight back. I am aborting my "post-graduation" plans in New York. Repeat: I am aborting my "post-graduation" plans in New York.
Yes. It will be the bill that makes it illegal for computer owners to bypass intellectial property protection software on their computer. This includes, but is not limited to, installing Linux.
You're the guy with no family that shows up at 11:00-11:30am and codes all evening.
Who made the estimates on your little project, you? Did the sessions go like this:
"Ok, this part is so easy, so very easy. You just need to do blah blah blah blah. Get it?" "Umm, yeah." "Ok, how long will this take?" "I'm not sure." "Lets say 2 days." "Ok."
Lo and behold, they don't have it done in two days.
The very fact that your idea of an easy solution is just to code it yourself says loads about you.
You say that its very obvious that they understand what to do, because you've had "discussions". There's
a little thing that we real engineers (Yes, thats engineers or developers, not "coders") like to do. We write "specifications". If you had written specs, or had them write specs, these problems would have come up early.
No, I know you very well. You had lots of "discussions" where you basically came up with a clever system
all on your own, using terminology and technology you were familiar with. Then you disappeared for two weeks into your
cube, eating potato chips and rocking to mp3s on your noise cancelling headphones. Then you popped out, and were shocked that nobody had coded
the design in your head as well as you had.
Thats what cable was supposed to be. I'm quite sure that if we had a license fee in the US, we'd pay the fee and also have heavy commericals+product placement.
The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Monday to create a new punishment of life imprisonment for malicious computer hackers
Read the penalties section of the bill. Its life imprisonment for people who attempt to cause death through hacking. That is, if I hack into a control tower and try to make planes crash, I might be sentenced to life in prison.
Currently, that would be a weak case of attempted murder. We have crimes in the country that say "If you commit a crime, there's a penalty. If you commit a crime with a weapon, thats a more serious penalty." Well, when using computers as a weapon, its a weapon.
Of COURSE, if you cut down on the 10% most expensive customers, you'll make more money. You could do that in ANY business or organization.
Its just in most businesses, you can't tell who's doing that, or kicking off customers would cost you additional ones. Schools can't kick out the 10% of students that need the most help. Technical support can't say "You're so dumb, you're in the top 10% of time we waste per-customer. Never call back."
Here, they were brilliant. Start with "news" articles explaining how those people are costing YOU money!!! What a crock of shit. Stores will charge as MUCH AS THEY CAN, AT ALL TIMES. Call them gluttons, hogs, hackers, theives.
Then, kick 'em off or charge them a LOT more!
Of course, once you've set that precident, now you can start on the NEXT 10%. Then the NEXT 10%. Then the NEXT 10%. Soon, you have a wonderful pay-per-byte system in place, and people only using it sparingly because they can't afford it. Of course, thats great for you, because:
-You still make your $50/month -Since internet advertising didn't really work out, there's no longer any financial motivation for the ISPs who can really suck out of people when they use the internet anyway
think Linux could gain by creating a kind of unofficial management structure to better co-ordinate some of the projects.
I hear that often, but its just not true:
Management Guy: "When is your part going to be done?"
Programmer Guy: "I don't know, i'm playing Warcraft 3 this week. Whenever I get free time."
Manager Guy: "Well everyone, we're going to have to move the schedule up a few days because of the Programmer Guy. Lets all try to remember we're on a team here." (clicks a few spots in MS Project)
Programmer Guy: "Kiss my ass! Do it yourself."
Volunteers == no firings/compensation == no enforceable deadlines == no reliable planning == no management possible.
Remember Pong...They embody a value system, mind-boggling inspiration, common language and experience.
Yes, Pong's value systems have influenced an entire generation of youth. Whenever i'm faced with a really tough problem in my life, I sit down and think "What would Pong do?"
Then, I pick up something and throw it as hard as I can. Sometimes I angle it off the wall. My problem tends to be solved one way or the other.
Christ Katz, can't you ever have a SMALL point? Can't you ever just say "This is a pretty good book about video games, I recommend it."?
No, with you it has to be "Video games have had more effect on the evolution of mankind than oxygen. This book is so good, that if you hold it and make a wish, it will come true. Columbine."
Slashdot thinks its a fantastic idea, and that it should be implemented using SourceForge.
SourceForge: Its just like Star Wars, except its a change control system.
Oh wait, you mean the READERS of slashdot. We think it would be pretty shitty. We also think that it would take approximately 45 seconds after release for someone to edit out the advertisements, thank God for the GPL.
This is what they should have done in the first place- go after the people who are actually doing it instead of making P2P seemingly illegal.
Actually, since they'll never succeed in stopping P2P networks, i'd much rather have them trying to do that. If they actually stop the people distributing them, I won't be able to continue to steal their music.
No doubt this means that the more childish among us will make us all look bad. Sigh.
Isn't that usually you? Seriously, nothing personal, thats what the site is about, but your comments after most story submissions tend to represent the worst elitist, one sided opinions of the community.
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't this just old-fashioned stealing? You are LITERALLY trying to give money to a charity via your purchase, and they steal it. This is a direct criminal act, not some vague "internet ethics" thing.
I _could_ download the Sopranos off the internet. I could have my friends tape it for me, or Replay it over to a VCD, but I don't, because HBO is easily available to me at a reasonable price.
Charge me $40-$60/month (which is more than i'm paying for CD every month these days), give me access to every song I want, and you'll make a killing.
Its a new era, you need a new billing scheme. Look at cable companies. Does anyone think that stealing cable is justified? They don't charge by the show, and conversely, nobody says "I'm not really stealing cable, because there's no way i'd watch 200 channels anyway." or "Yeah, i'll watch Showtime because I can, but if I couldn't get it for free, I wouldn't watch it."
It'll never happen though. They'll charge $18.99 for a highly restrictive format download of a shitty CD, then moan that nobody is buying it because of piracy.
They're concerned about people stealing music, but they know as much as we do that some college kid downloading 5 CDs doesn't equal $100 in lost revenue.
Digital music frightens them because they lose control. Once you have that music, you own it FOREVER in whatever format you want!
That means that all of their great ideas about having people pay for music that "expires" after 30 days, and all their other reoccuring revenue plans can't happen.
They WANT you to get sick of music. If you can listen to any one of your 6000+ songs at the touch of an iPod, thats less of a motivation to buy new music than if you're getting tired of listening to the same 6 CDs that you've had in your car the past month.
This isn't even touching on the whole business of buying and selling physical CDs. There is a huge business in printing, selling, distributing, and marketing the CDs that you buy at the mall. If music was totally electronic, that revenue would be GONE.
Umm, if you went and tried to sell drugs on a corner that another gang was handling, you'd be given the "death penalty" too.
They made it illegal so they could control it.
Hey, in all fairness:
Bin-Laden:
When you return from your journey, bring many of the "tiny green M&Ms" on your plane flight back. I am aborting my "post-graduation" plans in New York. Repeat: I am aborting my "post-graduation" plans in New York.
Good luck.
-Ehsan #4232875)
I mean, its not as high tech, but its a lot cheaper.
I thi
Yeah, because otherwise, this place would never discuss a next-generation video game system.
Its arguements like this that let OJ go free. ;)
Yes. It will be the bill that makes it illegal for computer owners to bypass intellectial property protection software on their computer. This includes, but is not limited to, installing Linux.
Who made the estimates on your little project, you? Did the sessions go like this:
"Ok, this part is so easy, so very easy. You just need to do blah blah blah blah. Get it?"
"Umm, yeah."
"Ok, how long will this take?"
"I'm not sure."
"Lets say 2 days."
"Ok."
Lo and behold, they don't have it done in two days.
The very fact that your idea of an easy solution is just to code it yourself says loads about you.
You say that its very obvious that they understand what to do, because you've had "discussions". There's a little thing that we real engineers (Yes, thats engineers or developers, not "coders") like to do. We write "specifications". If you had written specs, or had them write specs, these problems would have come up early.
No, I know you very well. You had lots of "discussions" where you basically came up with a clever system all on your own, using terminology and technology you were familiar with. Then you disappeared for two weeks into your cube, eating potato chips and rocking to mp3s on your noise cancelling headphones. Then you popped out, and were shocked that nobody had coded the design in your head as well as you had.
Over 50% of any issues I have at work involve the sysadmins being asses. You're not heroes, you're not special, you just have a job.
Because stupid kids can't figure it out and smarter kids are the ones kicking your ass in WC3.
Ha.
Thats what cable was supposed to be. I'm quite sure that if we had a license fee in the US, we'd pay the fee and also have heavy commericals+product placement.
Read the penalties section of the bill. Its life imprisonment for people who attempt to cause death through hacking. That is, if I hack into a control tower and try to make planes crash, I might be sentenced to life in prison.
Currently, that would be a weak case of attempted murder. We have crimes in the country that say "If you commit a crime, there's a penalty. If you commit a crime with a weapon, thats a more serious penalty." Well, when using computers as a weapon, its a weapon.
Of COURSE, if you cut down on the 10% most expensive customers, you'll make more money. You could do that in ANY business or organization.
Its just in most businesses, you can't tell who's doing that, or kicking off customers would cost you additional ones. Schools can't kick out the 10% of students that need the most help. Technical support can't say "You're so dumb, you're in the top 10% of time we waste per-customer. Never call back."
Here, they were brilliant. Start with "news" articles explaining how those people are costing YOU money!!! What a crock of shit. Stores will charge as MUCH AS THEY CAN, AT ALL TIMES. Call them gluttons, hogs, hackers, theives.
Then, kick 'em off or charge them a LOT more!
Of course, once you've set that precident, now you can start on the NEXT 10%. Then the NEXT 10%. Then the NEXT 10%. Soon, you have a wonderful pay-per-byte system in place, and people only using it sparingly because they can't afford it. Of course, thats great for you, because:
-You still make your $50/month
-Since internet advertising didn't really work out, there's no longer any financial motivation for the ISPs who can really suck out of people when they use the internet anyway
Life insurance won't accept a claim in a case of suicide.
"Dead Man Walking! We have a Dead Man Walking here! Dead Man Walking!"
Oh man, if I had a nickel for every wacky tenor sax story I have.... woooo-eeeeee.
I hear that often, but its just not true:
Management Guy: "When is your part going to be done?"
Programmer Guy: "I don't know, i'm playing Warcraft 3 this week. Whenever I get free time."
Manager Guy: "Well everyone, we're going to have to move the schedule up a few days because of the Programmer Guy. Lets all try to remember we're on a team here." (clicks a few spots in MS Project)
Programmer Guy: "Kiss my ass! Do it yourself."
Volunteers == no firings/compensation == no enforceable deadlines == no reliable planning == no management possible.
Yes, Pong's value systems have influenced an entire generation of youth. Whenever i'm faced with a really tough problem in my life, I sit down and think "What would Pong do?"
Then, I pick up something and throw it as hard as I can. Sometimes I angle it off the wall. My problem tends to be solved one way or the other.
Christ Katz, can't you ever have a SMALL point? Can't you ever just say "This is a pretty good book about video games, I recommend it."?
No, with you it has to be "Video games have had more effect on the evolution of mankind than oxygen. This book is so good, that if you hold it and make a wish, it will come true. Columbine."
Bah.
Slashdot thinks its a fantastic idea, and that it should be implemented using SourceForge.
SourceForge: Its just like Star Wars, except its a change control system.
Oh wait, you mean the READERS of slashdot. We think it would be pretty shitty. We also think that it would take approximately 45 seconds after release for someone to edit out the advertisements, thank God for the GPL.
Actually, since they'll never succeed in stopping P2P networks, i'd much rather have them trying to do that. If they actually stop the people distributing them, I won't be able to continue to steal their music.
Isn't that usually you? Seriously, nothing personal, thats what the site is about, but your comments after most story submissions tend to represent the worst elitist, one sided opinions of the community.