Read what he's writing. If you walked up to the average 13-year old boy and asked him if he wanted to go to the opera, he probably say no, regardless that it's considered a more mature activity. He'd likewise probably say no to going to a museum of fine art, or writing a 5-10 page paper on logic as a voluntary act.
Now, go up to that same 13-year old boy and ask him if he would, right now, like to have sex with the Miss January 2005 from Playboy. The average (no, not you, the average) 13-year old boy would probably say yes. Scoring with a hot babe? Shit yes! You couldn't bring her into the room fast enough for him.
Most males over the age of 13, not 30, would have difficulty turning down sex with an attractive women. The 30-year old is more likely (note, more likely, not always going to happen) to consider the consequences.
When exactly did ICANN care about appearing impartial?
Why can't they just tell VeriSign something along the lines of "You fucked up. You thought you were all bad and shit. We're taking it away from you." and just let the other three companies mentioned bid for it and shut VeriSign out of the.net domain?
From what I know about DJ's "freedom" to pick songs, a certain number of songs played during their shift (typically four to six hours) must be from the approved playlist. Depending on the location of that station (and therefore how important the market is), they might have to play more of the "required" playlist or less. (I seriously doubt that the stations here in Columbia, SC are held to the same requirements as a much more competitive area like NYC.)
Usually, these requirements are structured so that a DJ can't play all of the "required" songs in the first hour or so of their shift and then play anything they want for the remaining 3-5 hours. (More's the shame.)
From what I can tell of the local stations, it seems to be about 75% of the songs they play are from the required list and the rest is up to the individual DJs.
No, actually, I just wouldn't shut up. I kept a running commentary going, basically MiSTing the movie... and I wish to God I could remember even 1/20th of what I said, as apparently, I was the entertainment for the entire theater. People came up to me after the movie was over and asked "Were you the guy who kept talking?", and when I said yes, thinking I was going to get my ass kicked, they thanked me for making the movie better. A few people said if it wasn't for me, they would have walked out, as the movie was that bad.
Um... I don't buy it twice, unless it's a really good movie. Case in point, for Christmas, I got Spider-Man 2. I never saw it when it was in theaters, and given the price of tickets in the area, between those and the snacks, I probably would have spent the same amount of money to see it once as I would have paid if I bought the DVD myself.
I don't go to movies any more, because we've gone from a point where it takes years for the movie to be released on VHS/DVD (how long was it between the theatrical release of E.T. and the VHS release?) to now, where a movie can be a summer hit, and available for sale before Thanksgiving.
Plus, like was said earlier, I don't have to deal with the annoying habits of other people when I watch the DVD. (And they don't have to deal with mine. I tend to talk during really bad movies... although I was told by several rows worth of people in the theater that I only improved Mystery Men.)
So, the choice, for me, is wait for the movie to come out on DVD and get it then. Avoid the theater, avoid the overpriced snacks, and be able to watch it as many times as I want. No piracy needed, thanks.
Hey, if the insanely rich want to blow large whacks of cash on something like this... let them. It only increases the chance that someone like Paris Hilton could be involved in a tragic sub-orbital accident.
Simple. The movie studio has copies of the "hit movie" on DVD available at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc. When a customer buys one of those legitimate copies, the store gets some money, the studio gets some money, and depending on the contracts involved, the actors get some money.
If, instead, that customer buys a cheapo rip of that DVD that was mass-produced/pirated in an Asian country (or any country for that matter, but a friend of mine was in China earlier this year and commented on how movies that were currently in theaters in the U.S. were already available as pirated DVDs in some places in China) then the movie studio doesn't get any money out of it, no store gets any money from that sale, etc.
It's not that they are necessarily losing the sale to an Asian customer. It's that they are losing the sale to a pirating ring that is mass producing these cheapo knockoffs.
Maybe, but I daresay that the studio probably loses more sales to cheapo Asian DVD knock-offs then little Johnny downloading a fucking bit-torrent.
Besides, if they were really concerned about their cash flow, they would just stop making movies that starred Jennifer Lopez (how much money did Gigli lose?) or stop making movies that "require" so many high profile stars (Ocean's 12) that it's much harder to turn a profit.
Furthermore, considering Hollywood's continuing skull-fuckery when it comes to saying when a movie breaks even, it's hard to say just how much piracy is actually hurting them. As a personal example, yes, I have downloaded movies in the past. Guess what? The quality of the DVD rip was so damn bad that I ended up getting the movies anyway.
The stars do not seem to be hurting. The movie companies are not going under. And the sets still look painted, and many stunts are still being done. (Actually, I can't recall the last CGI stunt I saw in a movie.)
In fact, the only reason I haven't gone to see that many movies this year is because I don't own a fucking car and there's no theater showing new releases anywhere nearby.
No kidding. I mean, for one thing, by the time the movie is in the theater, the painters and the stuntmen had best already have been paid. For another thing, with all the piracy that's been going on, if it was hurting the business so much that they couldn't pay the painters and the stuntmen, then there wouldn't be movies opening every week.
And yet, checking the local theater listings....
Yeah, piracy is bad. Not BAD, in all caps. Not Bad, with a capital B. But bad. But what the RIAA and MPAA are doing here is worse. It's sleazy, underhanded crap, and if a private citizen did shit like this, the hammer of the judicial system would get dropped on them in a heartbeat.
We lease computers from Dell, for one thing. For another, I work at a FedExKinko's, so we pretty much have to support floppy disks, ZIP disks, the USB thumb drives, CDs, compact flash cards, etc.
And how many of them ignored it every time they saw it? And how many of those Hotmail accounts were created and used solely as throw-away e-mail accounts for any other page that required an e-mail address? Or for a spam-bot? Or for any other reason to create and never actually sign in?
Do you even look at the advertisements that are put in your way on the way to whatever article is the reference in a Slashdot story? When was the last time you paid attention to a commercial on TV?
Yes, it wasn't trusted by people. Yes, it wasn't trusted by web-site based businesses. But even with SP2, XP still has security holes. And there are a number of problems with Word, Powerpoint, and every other Microsoft product. And yet people use and trust those products to do what they are supposed to. Because they were marketed correctly. Passport wasn't marketed correctly. It was barely marketed at all.
My point, though, is that it wasn't just that, like you, people didn't want to use it. It was that a lot of people didn't know it was there. They (Microsoft) never got the level of brand awareness or name recognition with Passport then with their other products.
I mean, I have customers who can't put put a floppy disk in the correct drive (they put it in the ZIP drive bay) but they know of MS Word.
It's about getting the depth of name recognition. They just never got it with Passport. And whether that is because not enough websites wanted to use it, or they advertised it poorly, or whatever, it just never got to the same customer base that uses Word or Powerpoint on a daily basis.
The problem lies with the fact that most DVDs (in their packaging) are so similar in weight that it renders a weight measure on them useless. So you can have the DVD of some new release at a high price weigh the same as a DVD of some 15 year old B movie, and the weight will not clue the system in that you're spoofing the UPC to shave the cost of the DVD.
The same with VHS tapes. The same with music cassettes. And the one pound generic chocolate bar weighs the same as the one pound name brand chocolate bar, so if you're spoofing the UPC, the weight means two things. Jack and shit.
You say they do it? Fine. But it's not a key field for item verification. About the only thing it's good for is if you buy fresh veggies or fruit, which is costed out by total weight.
Well, I see how that could keep you from, say, getting 2 pounds of apples for the price of 1 pound of apples, or other weight-related grocery items, but I just can't see them having the weights of every single purchasable item in the database.
Besides, even with the weight thing, it would still pretty much let you slide by with any price you wanted to code for DVDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes or CDs. I mean, Wally World pretty much has every DVD (save for box sets) packaged the same way... so you could have Jet Li's "Hero" ring up for whatever you wanted (say as one of the cheapo DVDs on sale, rather then the full price), and the weight probably wouldn't be off at all or by that much.
*shrug* I didn't see the pilot when it first came out (not having cable TV at that point), so when they started showing all the old episodes on Sci-Fi starting some time ago, they broke it up into two episodes. Frankly, I had no way of knowing if they did it that way when the pilot premiered, and it was in the second hour of the pilot, so I figured calling it in the first couple of episodes wouldn't be wrong.
Given that in one of the first couple episodes, they mentioned "MacGuyvering" the Stargate's control system and had Anderson glance at Tapping when that line was used, how long do you figure before there's the first Farscape reference in an episode?
Slashdot Mirror
Read what he's writing. If you walked up to the average 13-year old boy and asked him if he wanted to go to the opera, he probably say no, regardless that it's considered a more mature activity. He'd likewise probably say no to going to a museum of fine art, or writing a 5-10 page paper on logic as a voluntary act.
Now, go up to that same 13-year old boy and ask him if he would, right now, like to have sex with the Miss January 2005 from Playboy. The average (no, not you, the average) 13-year old boy would probably say yes. Scoring with a hot babe? Shit yes! You couldn't bring her into the room fast enough for him.
Most males over the age of 13, not 30, would have difficulty turning down sex with an attractive women. The 30-year old is more likely (note, more likely, not always going to happen) to consider the consequences.
Kierthos
It's bad when it's used against us, and it's good when it's used for us (or someone we like or admire).
There will be a test later, so you better study if you hope to pass "Understanding Slashdot 101".
Kierthos
Well, if VeriSign doesn't get the winning bid, your customer service will almost certainly improve.
Kierthos
When exactly did ICANN care about appearing impartial?
.net domain?
Why can't they just tell VeriSign something along the lines of "You fucked up. You thought you were all bad and shit. We're taking it away from you." and just let the other three companies mentioned bid for it and shut VeriSign out of the
Kierthos
From what I know about DJ's "freedom" to pick songs, a certain number of songs played during their shift (typically four to six hours) must be from the approved playlist. Depending on the location of that station (and therefore how important the market is), they might have to play more of the "required" playlist or less. (I seriously doubt that the stations here in Columbia, SC are held to the same requirements as a much more competitive area like NYC.)
Usually, these requirements are structured so that a DJ can't play all of the "required" songs in the first hour or so of their shift and then play anything they want for the remaining 3-5 hours. (More's the shame.)
From what I can tell of the local stations, it seems to be about 75% of the songs they play are from the required list and the rest is up to the individual DJs.
Kierthos
No, actually, I just wouldn't shut up. I kept a running commentary going, basically MiSTing the movie... and I wish to God I could remember even 1/20th of what I said, as apparently, I was the entertainment for the entire theater. People came up to me after the movie was over and asked "Were you the guy who kept talking?", and when I said yes, thinking I was going to get my ass kicked, they thanked me for making the movie better. A few people said if it wasn't for me, they would have walked out, as the movie was that bad.
Kierthos
Um... I don't buy it twice, unless it's a really good movie. Case in point, for Christmas, I got Spider-Man 2. I never saw it when it was in theaters, and given the price of tickets in the area, between those and the snacks, I probably would have spent the same amount of money to see it once as I would have paid if I bought the DVD myself.
I don't go to movies any more, because we've gone from a point where it takes years for the movie to be released on VHS/DVD (how long was it between the theatrical release of E.T. and the VHS release?) to now, where a movie can be a summer hit, and available for sale before Thanksgiving.
Plus, like was said earlier, I don't have to deal with the annoying habits of other people when I watch the DVD. (And they don't have to deal with mine. I tend to talk during really bad movies... although I was told by several rows worth of people in the theater that I only improved Mystery Men.)
So, the choice, for me, is wait for the movie to come out on DVD and get it then. Avoid the theater, avoid the overpriced snacks, and be able to watch it as many times as I want. No piracy needed, thanks.
Kierthos
Hey, if the insanely rich want to blow large whacks of cash on something like this... let them. It only increases the chance that someone like Paris Hilton could be involved in a tragic sub-orbital accident.
Kierthos
Simple. The movie studio has copies of the "hit movie" on DVD available at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc. When a customer buys one of those legitimate copies, the store gets some money, the studio gets some money, and depending on the contracts involved, the actors get some money.
If, instead, that customer buys a cheapo rip of that DVD that was mass-produced/pirated in an Asian country (or any country for that matter, but a friend of mine was in China earlier this year and commented on how movies that were currently in theaters in the U.S. were already available as pirated DVDs in some places in China) then the movie studio doesn't get any money out of it, no store gets any money from that sale, etc.
It's not that they are necessarily losing the sale to an Asian customer. It's that they are losing the sale to a pirating ring that is mass producing these cheapo knockoffs.
Kierthos
Maybe, but I daresay that the studio probably loses more sales to cheapo Asian DVD knock-offs then little Johnny downloading a fucking bit-torrent.
Besides, if they were really concerned about their cash flow, they would just stop making movies that starred Jennifer Lopez (how much money did Gigli lose?) or stop making movies that "require" so many high profile stars (Ocean's 12) that it's much harder to turn a profit.
Furthermore, considering Hollywood's continuing skull-fuckery when it comes to saying when a movie breaks even, it's hard to say just how much piracy is actually hurting them. As a personal example, yes, I have downloaded movies in the past. Guess what? The quality of the DVD rip was so damn bad that I ended up getting the movies anyway.
The stars do not seem to be hurting. The movie companies are not going under. And the sets still look painted, and many stunts are still being done. (Actually, I can't recall the last CGI stunt I saw in a movie.)
In fact, the only reason I haven't gone to see that many movies this year is because I don't own a fucking car and there's no theater showing new releases anywhere nearby.
Kierthos
No kidding. I mean, for one thing, by the time the movie is in the theater, the painters and the stuntmen had best already have been paid. For another thing, with all the piracy that's been going on, if it was hurting the business so much that they couldn't pay the painters and the stuntmen, then there wouldn't be movies opening every week.
And yet, checking the local theater listings....
Yeah, piracy is bad. Not BAD, in all caps. Not Bad, with a capital B. But bad. But what the RIAA and MPAA are doing here is worse. It's sleazy, underhanded crap, and if a private citizen did shit like this, the hammer of the judicial system would get dropped on them in a heartbeat.
Kierthos
We lease computers from Dell, for one thing. For another, I work at a FedExKinko's, so we pretty much have to support floppy disks, ZIP disks, the USB thumb drives, CDs, compact flash cards, etc.
Several of our customers only use ZIP disks.
Kierthos
And how many of them ignored it every time they saw it? And how many of those Hotmail accounts were created and used solely as throw-away e-mail accounts for any other page that required an e-mail address? Or for a spam-bot? Or for any other reason to create and never actually sign in?
Do you even look at the advertisements that are put in your way on the way to whatever article is the reference in a Slashdot story? When was the last time you paid attention to a commercial on TV?
Yes, it wasn't trusted by people. Yes, it wasn't trusted by web-site based businesses. But even with SP2, XP still has security holes. And there are a number of problems with Word, Powerpoint, and every other Microsoft product. And yet people use and trust those products to do what they are supposed to. Because they were marketed correctly. Passport wasn't marketed correctly. It was barely marketed at all.
Kierthos
My point, though, is that it wasn't just that, like you, people didn't want to use it. It was that a lot of people didn't know it was there. They (Microsoft) never got the level of brand awareness or name recognition with Passport then with their other products.
I mean, I have customers who can't put put a floppy disk in the correct drive (they put it in the ZIP drive bay) but they know of MS Word.
It's about getting the depth of name recognition. They just never got it with Passport. And whether that is because not enough websites wanted to use it, or they advertised it poorly, or whatever, it just never got to the same customer base that uses Word or Powerpoint on a daily basis.
Kierthos
I would tend to think that "Consumers didn't know it was there" would also be a major part of it. You can't "embrace" what you don't know about.
Kierthos
The problem lies with the fact that most DVDs (in their packaging) are so similar in weight that it renders a weight measure on them useless. So you can have the DVD of some new release at a high price weigh the same as a DVD of some 15 year old B movie, and the weight will not clue the system in that you're spoofing the UPC to shave the cost of the DVD.
The same with VHS tapes. The same with music cassettes. And the one pound generic chocolate bar weighs the same as the one pound name brand chocolate bar, so if you're spoofing the UPC, the weight means two things. Jack and shit.
You say they do it? Fine. But it's not a key field for item verification. About the only thing it's good for is if you buy fresh veggies or fruit, which is costed out by total weight.
Kierthos
Well, I see how that could keep you from, say, getting 2 pounds of apples for the price of 1 pound of apples, or other weight-related grocery items, but I just can't see them having the weights of every single purchasable item in the database.
Besides, even with the weight thing, it would still pretty much let you slide by with any price you wanted to code for DVDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes or CDs. I mean, Wally World pretty much has every DVD (save for box sets) packaged the same way... so you could have Jet Li's "Hero" ring up for whatever you wanted (say as one of the cheapo DVDs on sale, rather then the full price), and the weight probably wouldn't be off at all or by that much.
Kierthos
*shrug* I didn't see the pilot when it first came out (not having cable TV at that point), so when they started showing all the old episodes on Sci-Fi starting some time ago, they broke it up into two episodes. Frankly, I had no way of knowing if they did it that way when the pilot premiered, and it was in the second hour of the pilot, so I figured calling it in the first couple of episodes wouldn't be wrong.
Kierthos
Gee, could that be because B5 wasn't planned to go beyound five seasons?
Nahhhhh.....
Kierthos
Given that in one of the first couple episodes, they mentioned "MacGuyvering" the Stargate's control system and had Anderson glance at Tapping when that line was used, how long do you figure before there's the first Farscape reference in an episode?
Kierthos
What? You mean all those horny housewives really aren't glad to see me?
*sniff* I'm going to die alone and unloved. (Oh, wait, I'm a Slashdot poster. That was already a given...)
Kierthos
I believe you mean the Hundred Years War (which is generally considered to have lasted 116 years).
A Hundred Century war would be one that lasted 10,000 years, and that would predate the forming of England and France by oh, about 9000 years?
Kierthos
Well the big one would be the firewall settings not sucking liquid monkey ass through a straw.
Kierthos
I'll let you know in a couple of months, when I actually download and install it. I'm waiting for a few more of the "issues" to be worked out.
Kierthos
Yes, but by then, you'll be playing Half-Life 7, not Half-Life 2.
Kierthos