I thought it was pretty neat when our senior manager negotiated a better deal at a health club for us. W****C** didn't offer to pay for it, but at least the manager was trying to look out for us.
It's entirely possible that what you say will happen will, in fact, happen. The odds of it happening are quite good. I'm not denying that.
But it doesn't have to be that way. If I can think of a way to make it work, Napster sure as hell can. Right now they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. They're facing Congress and the courts and it looks like they're going to get a reaming any way they turn. They could stick it out and take the moral high ground, but the MaCarthy era showed us the wisdom of that approach. So they're taking the only path that seems open to them in an effort to preserve themselves.
It sucks. I freely accept that. But it doesn't mean they can't find a way to turn it around for something better, if they play it right. However, if you want to be completely antagonistic and uncompromising, you don't have to play along. If enough people like you decide that any compromise is too much compromise, then whatever good can come out of this will fail and the whole thing will go belly up.
Sounds just as bad, to me. You can't win every battle. Sometimes you have to take what you get and work with it, to keep trying to work toward something better. I say Napster is doing this, if they have the foresight to do so rather than just crawl into a hole and die. Time will tell.
Your powerful and informative response pulled me out of the darkness of logic and into the pure white light of emotional reaction.
Look, there's got to be some sort of compromise. I'm all for free trade of information and art. My webpage is devoted to what I consider my part, and I don't charge a dime for it. But if I could get paid, I'd be all over that. The fact that I don't depend on my art for a paycheck means I'm willing to make that compromise.
Pittance or not, fair or not, some artists are depending on the record companies to get paid. Some of them are quite happy and prosperous with the fraction of money that comes to them. Some of them are not. But what everyone is now aware of is that there is an alternative. Alternatives are not easy, and they are certainly not appreciated by people who always do things the way they've always been done. Namely, the RIAA.
Now that Napster has made this deal, I agree they're selling their souls to the devil. But if they play it smart, they'll keep some very important rights. Particularly, who they can partner with to provide this service. Record companies can't keep contracts with artists forever, as people like Prince have demonstrated to them. But if Prince can go to Napster (now that Napster is practically a name brand) and sell his music directly through them, he gets a far larger percentage of his profits, having only to share with the mass distributor.
If Napster isn't that smart, perhaps someone else will be. But Napster has the market and public recognition to make this work big, and to angle it so individual artists can survive without the RIAA. If that happens, I say this compromise was worth the price.
I agree with the hard-to-find song list rather than a corporate-sponsored catalogue. If I wanted that I'd go to MediaPlay.
The monthly subscription rate would work for me, if they keep the price reasonable. I'd also like to see some sort of table demonstrating how much of those fees to go the artists being downloaded, rather than just to the record company. I can envision a future in which Napster allows individual artists (like the big names who are currently under contract) to partner with Napster for direct sales. If they set up the service correctly, this can happen, and I for one would support it whole-heartedly.
The only part of this that really worries me is if they try to enforce some sort of "expiration date" on downloaded songs. The RIAA already charges me for the same song every time I have to replace the CD. I have absolutely no desire to keep feeding them money to keep MP3 files I've already paid for.
The whole thing is a big "If" for me. If they set up the service fairly, I'll support it. If not, there are a lot of OpenSource alternatives out there.
As opposed to you spouting off some insults in a juvenile attempt to make yourself feel superior?
I care about Napster and MP3s, and I'm quite comfortable with my interests. I respect that you don't care about it, but I do not respect your flamebait against those who don't share your ubermensch mentality.
Hmm...how would a GPF error sound on an MP3 player?
We regret that your system has performed an illegal operation. Your position has been marked via GPS and the police have been notified. Error code 194.
PostScript: yes, I'm assuming the parent post was written tongue-in-cheek. I can't contemplate a naitivity so incredible that wasn't accompanied by brain-death.
Just to be perverse, I've been using the same floppy for the past two years without a single lost byte or nibble. Seriously.
On the other hand, I don't tend to leave it in the car or by the window. I don't take exceptional care of it, but maybe it's the manufacturer? I don't know. Imation seems to make some pretty solid floppy disks.
Well, the last intentional crash of a probe was the Lunar Prospector, which was a wildly successful mission. NASA achieved all their goals including more accurate mapping of the moon than ever before, and once the mission was over the Prospector would have become so much space junk.
Except there's been a speculation about the moon that's lasted since we first began studying it in earnest. Does the moon have any water, even in crystaline form? They decided to sacrifice a sentimental piece of space junk to observe the impact and do a spectral analysis of the resulting shower of debris. Unfortunately, the results were negative. No water on the moon, at least in the region they hit.
What if they had? Well, water is a fundamental requirement for life, as well as one of the ingredients they use for propellant in outer space. So if they'd found ice on the moon it would have increased the chances of a lunar base by a large percentage, meaning we'd have a relatively convenient launching base for the exploration of the rest of the solar system. So don't knock it: there was a point to it.
As for the unintentional crashes, all I can say is that when you mix up your math you get all sorts of problems. NASA got too cocky and skimped on their error-checking in their haste to get projects out the door. They're paying for that, but I still support them. In times of peace, the kind of technological breakthroughs we've experience can at least in part be due to the push for space exploration. That air conditioning unit you can't live without? Space exploration. Minaturization of technology? Space exploration. Don't think that just because we're putting money into a project that doesn't provide immediate gratification (except for those astronomy buffs among us), we're not also researching a better way of life for everyone. If they figure out efficient waste recycling, it'll have benefits for the entire world.
"It's a culture that somewhere along the line, we've begun to disrespect life, where a child can walk in and can have their heart turned dark as a result of being on the Internet, and walk in and decide to take somebody else's life."
It's hard to take this out of context. He's talking about culture. He's talking about kids walking into school with a gun and taking the lives from the people around them. But the part that really gets us is "as a result of being on the Internet."
You can talk about context and hidden meanings, misunderstandings or whatever you like. THIS IS WHAT THE MAN SAID. If he can't speak intelligently enough to avoid the obvious misunderstandings, then why should the man be trusted to sit at the head of our Executive Branch? I, for one, won't be voting for someone who needs an interpreter on hand to explain to us what he really meant by that.
Myself, I'm voting for Nader. For me, it's about the same as voting for "none of the above."
Amen to that. I managed two years of school, but finances and circumstances dictated that I drop out and look for work. Four years later, I finally break into the computer field and start saving up money to go back to school. Bearing in mind that a political science degree doesn't count for squat in computers, this means I get to start all over again.
Or should I just take my high-paying tech job and run with it? It's not like I actually want to go into middle management.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought it was pretty neat when our senior manager negotiated a better deal at a health club for us. W****C** didn't offer to pay for it, but at least the manager was trying to look out for us.
Absolute and insufficient.
It's entirely possible that what you say will happen will, in fact, happen. The odds of it happening are quite good. I'm not denying that.
But it doesn't have to be that way. If I can think of a way to make it work, Napster sure as hell can. Right now they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. They're facing Congress and the courts and it looks like they're going to get a reaming any way they turn. They could stick it out and take the moral high ground, but the MaCarthy era showed us the wisdom of that approach. So they're taking the only path that seems open to them in an effort to preserve themselves.
It sucks. I freely accept that. But it doesn't mean they can't find a way to turn it around for something better, if they play it right. However, if you want to be completely antagonistic and uncompromising, you don't have to play along. If enough people like you decide that any compromise is too much compromise, then whatever good can come out of this will fail and the whole thing will go belly up.
Sounds just as bad, to me. You can't win every battle. Sometimes you have to take what you get and work with it, to keep trying to work toward something better. I say Napster is doing this, if they have the foresight to do so rather than just crawl into a hole and die. Time will tell.
Well, that certainly convinced me.
Your powerful and informative response pulled me out of the darkness of logic and into the pure white light of emotional reaction.
Look, there's got to be some sort of compromise. I'm all for free trade of information and art. My webpage is devoted to what I consider my part, and I don't charge a dime for it. But if I could get paid, I'd be all over that. The fact that I don't depend on my art for a paycheck means I'm willing to make that compromise.
Pittance or not, fair or not, some artists are depending on the record companies to get paid. Some of them are quite happy and prosperous with the fraction of money that comes to them. Some of them are not. But what everyone is now aware of is that there is an alternative. Alternatives are not easy, and they are certainly not appreciated by people who always do things the way they've always been done. Namely, the RIAA.
Now that Napster has made this deal, I agree they're selling their souls to the devil. But if they play it smart, they'll keep some very important rights. Particularly, who they can partner with to provide this service. Record companies can't keep contracts with artists forever, as people like Prince have demonstrated to them. But if Prince can go to Napster (now that Napster is practically a name brand) and sell his music directly through them, he gets a far larger percentage of his profits, having only to share with the mass distributor.
If Napster isn't that smart, perhaps someone else will be. But Napster has the market and public recognition to make this work big, and to angle it so individual artists can survive without the RIAA. If that happens, I say this compromise was worth the price.
I agree with the hard-to-find song list rather than a corporate-sponsored catalogue. If I wanted that I'd go to MediaPlay.
The monthly subscription rate would work for me, if they keep the price reasonable. I'd also like to see some sort of table demonstrating how much of those fees to go the artists being downloaded, rather than just to the record company. I can envision a future in which Napster allows individual artists (like the big names who are currently under contract) to partner with Napster for direct sales. If they set up the service correctly, this can happen, and I for one would support it whole-heartedly.
The only part of this that really worries me is if they try to enforce some sort of "expiration date" on downloaded songs. The RIAA already charges me for the same song every time I have to replace the CD. I have absolutely no desire to keep feeding them money to keep MP3 files I've already paid for.
The whole thing is a big "If" for me. If they set up the service fairly, I'll support it. If not, there are a lot of OpenSource alternatives out there.
As opposed to you spouting off some insults in a juvenile attempt to make yourself feel superior?
I care about Napster and MP3s, and I'm quite comfortable with my interests. I respect that you don't care about it, but I do not respect your flamebait against those who don't share your ubermensch mentality.
Hmm...how would a GPF error sound on an MP3 player?
PostScript: yes, I'm assuming the parent post was written tongue-in-cheek. I can't contemplate a naitivity so incredible that wasn't accompanied by brain-death.
Just to be perverse, I've been using the same floppy for the past two years without a single lost byte or nibble. Seriously.
On the other hand, I don't tend to leave it in the car or by the window. I don't take exceptional care of it, but maybe it's the manufacturer? I don't know. Imation seems to make some pretty solid floppy disks.
Well, the last intentional crash of a probe was the Lunar Prospector, which was a wildly successful mission. NASA achieved all their goals including more accurate mapping of the moon than ever before, and once the mission was over the Prospector would have become so much space junk.
Except there's been a speculation about the moon that's lasted since we first began studying it in earnest. Does the moon have any water, even in crystaline form? They decided to sacrifice a sentimental piece of space junk to observe the impact and do a spectral analysis of the resulting shower of debris. Unfortunately, the results were negative. No water on the moon, at least in the region they hit.
What if they had? Well, water is a fundamental requirement for life, as well as one of the ingredients they use for propellant in outer space. So if they'd found ice on the moon it would have increased the chances of a lunar base by a large percentage, meaning we'd have a relatively convenient launching base for the exploration of the rest of the solar system. So don't knock it: there was a point to it.
As for the unintentional crashes, all I can say is that when you mix up your math you get all sorts of problems. NASA got too cocky and skimped on their error-checking in their haste to get projects out the door. They're paying for that, but I still support them. In times of peace, the kind of technological breakthroughs we've experience can at least in part be due to the push for space exploration. That air conditioning unit you can't live without? Space exploration. Minaturization of technology? Space exploration. Don't think that just because we're putting money into a project that doesn't provide immediate gratification (except for those astronomy buffs among us), we're not also researching a better way of life for everyone. If they figure out efficient waste recycling, it'll have benefits for the entire world.
Last I knew, most spreadsheets allow you to convert data into a world-readable format, like tab-delineated.
To quote from your quote:
It's hard to take this out of context. He's talking about culture. He's talking about kids walking into school with a gun and taking the lives from the people around them. But the part that really gets us is "as a result of being on the Internet."
You can talk about context and hidden meanings, misunderstandings or whatever you like. THIS IS WHAT THE MAN SAID. If he can't speak intelligently enough to avoid the obvious misunderstandings, then why should the man be trusted to sit at the head of our Executive Branch? I, for one, won't be voting for someone who needs an interpreter on hand to explain to us what he really meant by that.
Myself, I'm voting for Nader. For me, it's about the same as voting for "none of the above."
Michael...
Amen to that. I managed two years of school, but finances and circumstances dictated that I drop out and look for work. Four years later, I finally break into the computer field and start saving up money to go back to school. Bearing in mind that a political science degree doesn't count for squat in computers, this means I get to start all over again.
Or should I just take my high-paying tech job and run with it? It's not like I actually want to go into middle management.