It's done all the time. Blockbuster's the biggest offender (in more ways than one). Really. Most all the movies there for rental are edited, in some it's subtle, some it's dramatic.
Which is why anyone who likes movies should be using www.netflix.com, or their local *real* video store.
Yeah -- they can rent edited movies, and do whatever they want... but there should damn well be a label on them. "This has been edited" etc.... most people don't realize that there're scenes | shots | lines | etc missing.
Funny thing... CA Senator Boxer proposed a law on this a while back, iirc, but withdrew it when the studios balked. Would have required space on the boxes for comments from the producers, directors, and _cinematographers_.... but the $$$$ from the major rental chains (Bbuster / H'wood) was apparently more copious than that from directors and film buffs.
Of course, we can have the "why is sex edited out, but violence fine" discussion some other time.
Maybe he doesn't want classical music, tho? Maybe he prefers guitars to violas?
Regardless, I bet your scheme would work (I wouldn't want to be the one to piss off Starbucks by changing their Carefully Chosen Corporate Atmosphere Music, however). et voila!
No question. Cerebral. Wayyyyy too much information to deal with completely at any one point. As physical as you want it to be (or not at all). "Always learning" - ya' can do it for 40 years and not master it. And you can get some *really* cool tools, toys, electronics and gadgets. How much more geek-appeal can ya' get?
Notice: "Crewing" not "owning" -- owning is a whole 'nother ball o' wax.
If you find the right boat, and crew not own, it's damn near free - and the right skipper brings the beer / sandwiches. : )
Yes, but... your examples (as well as others in this thread) all differ significantly from unrestricted Internet access: The threats they pose impact only the individual employee and/or his small work group. Spend all day making phone calls or flipping through a magazine, and you're only letting down your team, or helping your boss miss his deadlines -- that's a small problem.
If, on the other hand, someone decides that work is a good place to get all his MP3s, or check his personal email, or or or in the name of "taking a break," etc, he may represent a threat to the entire company's network, or, at least, impact to however slight a degree the company's shared Internet connection.
But, again, them's just my $0.02, and most certainly not worth even that.
Lemme see.... ya' didn't pay for the connection.... You aren't doing something work related... you might (and "might" is enough) introduce threats to the corporate network... you might (and "might" is definitely enough) open your company to drastic legal liabilities....
WHY should you get free use of the net at work? Remember, if you're "at work" you're getting paid for your time... so it ain't yours to do with as you please - it's the company's. Wanna surf porn / icq with someone pretending to be an 18yo cheerleader / look up your drug's interaction information / trade stocks / buy pez dispensers / etc? Get a computer at home, get a web connection and do it there!
(Unless, of course, your company is in the porn / 18yo masquerading / drug research / stock trading / pez buying business, that is. : ))
I once watched a UPS delivery person roll, yes, roll, a clearly-marked, OEM-boxed 24" monitor off the stack on their handcart. ~28" to the ground. They handed me their little tracking tablet to sign, then simply pushed, yes, pushed the top box off the pile, rolling it to the ground.
So casually did they push it that I *knew*, right then and there, that it had seen much MUCH worse in their warehouse. I was happy, tho, that it even got to me, after they lost 5+ other boxes.
Have never (ever) had a problem with FedEx. Of course, YMMV.
Shocked! No... Standard operating procedure...
on
XBox Delayed
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· Score: 1
I'm shocked! Shocked! There's a delay!
Wait. No I'm not.
This is par for the course -- announce vaporware to attempt to destroy preemptively the competition. "Why would a want I [game cube | PS2 | Go Tablet | etc] when Microsoft's gonna have one in a month or two?"
In this case, the competition didn't just evaporate -- much, I'm sure, to MS's chagrin.
I wouldn't be *terribly* surprised if the thing slipped into spring... then never launched at all.
Webvan's mistake? Marketing and PR
on
Webvan Out Of Gas
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· Score: 1
Webvan was wonderful. The food quality was phenomenal (better than any "super" market low-grade just-this-side-of-military "produce [or] meat"). The service was great (too great - took too long). The selection was great. For the entire time I used them, I did not set foot inside a Target, supermarket or drugstore. What a relief! No lines, no screaming children, no runnin' all over town on one of my few days off...
Now they're gone.
Why? Not foolish spending, poor planning or poor quality. Marketing and PR. Who did the execs piss off?? They couldn't catch a break.
I never, not once, saw a news report that said, "The food quality's great!" I saw "you can't pick it yourself." But who'd want to? You can pick my produce for me if the pool from which you select is orders of magnitude better than the garbage at the local market.
I didn't see "it comes right to your door, in just a day or two, sparing you the agony of shopping!" I saw, "you can't impulse buy!" So what? Keep a grocery list - let them keep it for you - and plan a day or two in advance. People buy nonrefundable airline tickets 4 weeks in advance to save $100 ferchryssake!
I never saw "what a great idea... here're the revolutionary ways they're trying to make it work." I saw, "grocery stores are a razor-thin profit margin operation. Webvan's gonna fail." Thanks for the self-fulfilling prophecy, y'all.
And let's not even talk about the advertising... great idea squandered by stooopid ads. God ferbid they learn a lesson from (gasp) Apple and launch a catchy, aggressive, interesting (like em or not) campaign.
It's a dark day indeed. Fortunately, I could stand to lose a few pounds (yes, "all the constant sitting and snacking") so the fast that now commences is ok... for a while... I ain't goin' back to [Safeway / albertsons / nobhill / wholefoods / whatever]... guess there's gonna be lots o' takeout.
Webvan, we hardly knew ye'. Hope someone comes to fill the void you left behind.
IIRC, and I may not, MTV is not bound by the rules that "prevent" payola (at least directly) to the radio stations.
No middleman.
Just good, direct, product-placement / advertising.
yes, yes, they don't play much music any more, but, in the sake of fairness + equalizing media assaults, I wonder why MTV+VH1+whatever haven't been mentioned or investigated?
Am I the only one who thinks "Spielberg" and "Kubric" shouldn't even be mentioned in the same _sentence_, unless it's something like, "Spielberg and Kubric shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence!"? Geez. Even if Kubric *did* hand over the materials to Spielberg (and who knows if there was some kind of deal involved), the only respectful thing would have been to let the movie die along with Kubrick.
Spielberg makes mass market crap. Kubrick, like him or not, made artistic movies, some of which even made ya' think - and even if they didn't, they were beautiful. Spielberg can only manage to pander to the "masses," and line his pockets with lowest-common-denominator crap.
Read a quote somewhere (paraphrasing horribly, I'm sure): "If you don't make The People think, they'll hate you. If you make The People think, they'll hate you. But if you make The People _think_ they're thinking, they'll love you." Thus, the love of Spielberg.
Besides, without Kubrick's rare and independent concepts and visions, does anyone think this won't just be a rehash of the most basic aspects of Bladerunner or the like?
I don't know... is this really the question to ask, or is there something more fundamentally-troubling going on right now:
"...safety, freedom, and quality of life..."
In some ways, I can't help but think that's like the old project-management axiom: "Projects can be cheap, fast, or right. Pick two."
There was probably a time (although it may be a myth of "the Good Old Times") when safety, freedom and quality of life (along with goodwill, common decency, self-respect and responsibility) were positively correlated, but that would seem to rely on a social consciousness in every individual, rather than today's US-pervasive, "Screw You! I [need/got/will get/lost] mine!"
OK... I used to take "commercial" notes, and also served as a managing editor back when in school. Just thought I'd through a couple thoughts in (in no particular order):
(1) The notes serve a purpose for two ends of the spectrum: the very dedicated and the slacker. The very dedicated bought and reviewed the notes to use in addition to their own. The slackers, well, never went to class so used the notes to stay on the pace.
(2) The notes themselves vary in quality, dramatically, from notetaker to notetaker, and service to service. Some are nearly transcripts, some are outlines, some are interpretive.... usually all are helpful!
Issues? Why should they be [legal/illegal]? Well, like everything else, it's gray, not black and white.
Certainly, a class with notes available from the service had more attendance problems ("why go to class? I'll just buy the notes."). Worse than just bummin' 'em from friends? Probably not, but the commercial availability was certainly an oversleeping-enabler.
The professors put a lot of time into their materials... what right does any service have to make (mucho!) bucks off that work? Composing a *good* lecture is not easy... especially 2-3 times / week for months! But... if the professors don't care about attendance and/or can see the argument that the notes help the students learn the material (the important part, right?), then there's reason to allow the service.
BUT... the University (and in many cases, the Government) pay for the time to develop and deliver those lectures (entirely private schools, with no federal funding (are there even any of those?) can skip this point). The Government (read: the _taxpayers_) pay for that information - why should some company get to make (mucho!) bucks off of it?
In every case, for our service, we received professor approval *first* -- no approval, no notes. I don't know if it works that way everywhere, but I certainly hope so.
So, point? Well... seems like something that shouldn't be decided on a legislature level (except in that the legislature represents the people who paid for the IP getting resold!). Should be professor / school decision. However, I do think that some of the profits of the services should be returned to the departments for their own use (probably not directly to the professors since, again, the school paid for the development of the lectures).
Ok -- let's leave aside for a moment the relative merits of pollution issue. Coal power plant / nuke plant / solar plant / dam / wind / whatever vs. ICE. And, further, we might as well leave aside the socioeconomic classism involved (at least, if you drive a car, you're sh*tting in your own bed pollution-wise [so to speak] and not displacing it into the lives of anyone who can't afford to move away from the power plant).
But, let's not put aside safety! Do you really want to drive an electric/whatever car? The government mandates that apply to "normal" cars (crash tests, structural rigidity, etc) are, last I heard, *waived* for electric cars. How do you think the engineers are getting *any* range out of the things? Yup, make them small and light. No reinforcement, no crumple zone, thin construction, gawdawful tire/wheel combinations, etc etc etc.
Then, add to that -- the storage device. Take your pick 1000lbs of sulfuric acid? how about sulfuric acid at 900+ degrees? Or maybe a couple big tanks full of natural gas? Or, hey, Hydrogen! (think airships if you're curious about *that* solution). Gasoline, for better or worse, really *doesn't* explode like in the movies (usually).
Finally, entire safety infrastructures (fire, police, EMS) are going to be put at high risk (not to mention the need to retrain) because of these things.
Throw all that together and I'd much rather have a "normal" car... or a bike... or my feet.... or, hell, a *parachute* to commute.
What? And actually take responsibility for yourself??
Never gonna happen.
You're not overreacting. (or we both are) Blame the Boomers. "They" (ok, unfair generalization. Deal with it.) had their lives handed to them, with a booming economy and parents who Wanted The Best For Their Kids. Which became Give Them Whatever They Want, And A Healthy Dose of Entitlement.
Now they've grown up, and it's become... drug your kids, it's ADD not a lack of authority! Destroy the planet, you're "safe" in your SUV! Drive social security into the ground, then invest it in the market! - "If It Feels Good, Do It!" Screw responsibility.
And they're in control of our society.
No wonder no one takes responsibility for anything... and it's only gonna get worse.
Get a helmet.
Or don't. That should be our *own* individual choice. Now just let me make my own choices, dammit, and take responsibility for them - I don't want Society choosing for me because the majority is too chickenshit / coddled / terrified / whatever.
But that would imply everyone took responsibility for their own choices... and that is never gonna happen as long "blame someone else!" is the ruling cry of the day supported by the majority.
Sorry... I guess this was supposed to be about video games and ADD. But I got distracted. ; ) Too much time *reading* I guess, not enough time playing video games?
Iirc, there's no "night" for a radio-telescope, is there?
So... why waste precious dinner / club / MustSeeTV / whatever time with a webcam when you could be "contributing to scientific research" from work? : )
(Besides, it'd be more "webwaveanalyzer" than webcam, wouldn't it?)
Slashdot Mirror
It's done all the time. Blockbuster's the biggest offender (in more ways than one). Really. Most all the movies there for rental are edited, in some it's subtle, some it's dramatic.
Which is why anyone who likes movies should be using www.netflix.com, or their local *real* video store.
Yeah -- they can rent edited movies, and do whatever they want... but there should damn well be a label on them. "This has been edited" etc.... most people don't realize that there're scenes | shots | lines | etc missing.
Funny thing... CA Senator Boxer proposed a law on this a while back, iirc, but withdrew it when the studios balked. Would have required space on the boxes for comments from the producers, directors, and _cinematographers_.... but the $$$$ from the major rental chains (Bbuster / H'wood) was apparently more copious than that from directors and film buffs.
Of course, we can have the "why is sex edited out, but violence fine" discussion some other time.
Maybe he doesn't want classical music, tho? Maybe he prefers guitars to violas?
Regardless, I bet your scheme would work (I wouldn't want to be the one to piss off Starbucks by changing their Carefully Chosen Corporate Atmosphere Music, however).
et voila!
; )
No question. Cerebral. Wayyyyy too much information to deal with completely at any one point. As physical as you want it to be (or not at all). "Always learning" - ya' can do it for 40 years and not master it. And you can get some *really* cool tools, toys, electronics and gadgets. How much more geek-appeal can ya' get?
Notice: "Crewing" not "owning" -- owning is a whole 'nother ball o' wax.
If you find the right boat, and crew not own, it's damn near free - and the right skipper brings the beer / sandwiches. : )
Yes, but... your examples (as well as others in this thread) all differ significantly from unrestricted Internet access: The threats they pose impact only the individual employee and/or his small work group. Spend all day making phone calls or flipping through a magazine, and you're only letting down your team, or helping your boss miss his deadlines -- that's a small problem.
If, on the other hand, someone decides that work is a good place to get all his MP3s, or check his personal email, or or or in the name of "taking a break," etc, he may represent a threat to the entire company's network, or, at least, impact to however slight a degree the company's shared Internet connection.
But, again, them's just my $0.02, and most certainly not worth even that.
Lemme see.... ya' didn't pay for the connection.... You aren't doing something work related... you might (and "might" is enough) introduce threats to the corporate network... you might (and "might" is definitely enough) open your company to drastic legal liabilities....
WHY should you get free use of the net at work? Remember, if you're "at work" you're getting paid for your time... so it ain't yours to do with as you please - it's the company's. Wanna surf porn / icq with someone pretending to be an 18yo cheerleader / look up your drug's interaction information / trade stocks / buy pez dispensers / etc? Get a computer at home, get a web connection and do it there!
(Unless, of course, your company is in the porn / 18yo masquerading / drug research / stock trading / pez buying business, that is. : ))
Only the truly jigoist, naive, or stupid would believe the US is not guilty of similar development.
So casually did they push it that I *knew*, right then and there, that it had seen much MUCH worse in their warehouse. I was happy, tho, that it even got to me, after they lost 5+ other boxes.
Have never (ever) had a problem with FedEx. Of course, YMMV.
Wait. No I'm not.
This is par for the course -- announce vaporware to attempt to destroy preemptively the competition. "Why would a want I [game cube | PS2 | Go Tablet | etc] when Microsoft's gonna have one in a month or two?"
In this case, the competition didn't just evaporate -- much, I'm sure, to MS's chagrin.
I wouldn't be *terribly* surprised if the thing slipped into spring... then never launched at all.
Now they're gone.
Why? Not foolish spending, poor planning or poor quality. Marketing and PR. Who did the execs piss off?? They couldn't catch a break.
I never, not once, saw a news report that said, "The food quality's great!" I saw "you can't pick it yourself." But who'd want to? You can pick my produce for me if the pool from which you select is orders of magnitude better than the garbage at the local market.
I didn't see "it comes right to your door, in just a day or two, sparing you the agony of shopping!" I saw, "you can't impulse buy!" So what? Keep a grocery list - let them keep it for you - and plan a day or two in advance. People buy nonrefundable airline tickets 4 weeks in advance to save $100 ferchryssake!
I never saw "what a great idea... here're the revolutionary ways they're trying to make it work." I saw, "grocery stores are a razor-thin profit margin operation. Webvan's gonna fail." Thanks for the self-fulfilling prophecy, y'all.
And let's not even talk about the advertising... great idea squandered by stooopid ads. God ferbid they learn a lesson from (gasp) Apple and launch a catchy, aggressive, interesting (like em or not) campaign.
It's a dark day indeed. Fortunately, I could stand to lose a few pounds (yes, "all the constant sitting and snacking") so the fast that now commences is ok... for a while... I ain't goin' back to [Safeway / albertsons / nobhill / wholefoods / whatever]... guess there's gonna be lots o' takeout.
Webvan, we hardly knew ye'. Hope someone comes to fill the void you left behind.
(Currently backordered at Amazon, unfortunately.)
Great book. Well worth the (quick) read... funny... interesting... inspiring... touching...
No middleman.
Just good, direct, product-placement / advertising.
yes, yes, they don't play much music any more, but, in the sake of fairness + equalizing media assaults, I wonder why MTV+VH1+whatever haven't been mentioned or investigated?
And it's even more expecially good to know that those in glass houses are still huckin' stones! :)
Or maybe it's the Metric System? : )
Spielberg makes mass market crap. Kubrick, like him or not, made artistic movies, some of which even made ya' think - and even if they didn't, they were beautiful. Spielberg can only manage to pander to the "masses," and line his pockets with lowest-common-denominator crap.
Read a quote somewhere (paraphrasing horribly, I'm sure): "If you don't make The People think, they'll hate you. If you make The People think, they'll hate you. But if you make The People _think_ they're thinking, they'll love you." Thus, the love of Spielberg.
Besides, without Kubrick's rare and independent concepts and visions, does anyone think this won't just be a rehash of the most basic aspects of Bladerunner or the like?
Surely they didn't move to cardboard boxes, or some ol' generic office park.
If they threw this away.... the scary aspect is _what_did_they_move_into_?
Guess we'll know in 20 years....
"...safety, freedom, and quality of life..."
In some ways, I can't help but think that's like the old project-management axiom: "Projects can be cheap, fast, or right. Pick two."
There was probably a time (although it may be a myth of "the Good Old Times") when safety, freedom and quality of life (along with goodwill, common decency, self-respect and responsibility) were positively correlated, but that would seem to rely on a social consciousness in every individual, rather than today's US-pervasive, "Screw You! I [need/got/will get/lost] mine!"
But maybe that's just me?
(1) The notes serve a purpose for two ends of the spectrum: the very dedicated and the slacker. The very dedicated bought and reviewed the notes to use in addition to their own. The slackers, well, never went to class so used the notes to stay on the pace.
(2) The notes themselves vary in quality, dramatically, from notetaker to notetaker, and service to service. Some are nearly transcripts, some are outlines, some are interpretive.... usually all are helpful!
Issues? Why should they be [legal/illegal]? Well, like everything else, it's gray, not black and white.
Certainly, a class with notes available from the service had more attendance problems ("why go to class? I'll just buy the notes."). Worse than just bummin' 'em from friends? Probably not, but the commercial availability was certainly an oversleeping-enabler.
The professors put a lot of time into their materials... what right does any service have to make (mucho!) bucks off that work? Composing a *good* lecture is not easy... especially 2-3 times / week for months! But... if the professors don't care about attendance and/or can see the argument that the notes help the students learn the material (the important part, right?), then there's reason to allow the service.
BUT... the University (and in many cases, the Government) pay for the time to develop and deliver those lectures (entirely private schools, with no federal funding (are there even any of those?) can skip this point). The Government (read: the _taxpayers_) pay for that information - why should some company get to make (mucho!) bucks off of it?
In every case, for our service, we received professor approval *first* -- no approval, no notes. I don't know if it works that way everywhere, but I certainly hope so.
So, point? Well... seems like something that shouldn't be decided on a legislature level (except in that the legislature represents the people who paid for the IP getting resold!). Should be professor / school decision. However, I do think that some of the profits of the services should be returned to the departments for their own use (probably not directly to the professors since, again, the school paid for the development of the lectures).
Anyway... just a few thoughts to fuel the fires.
But, let's not put aside safety! Do you really want to drive an electric/whatever car? The government mandates that apply to "normal" cars (crash tests, structural rigidity, etc) are, last I heard, *waived* for electric cars. How do you think the engineers are getting *any* range out of the things? Yup, make them small and light. No reinforcement, no crumple zone, thin construction, gawdawful tire/wheel combinations, etc etc etc.
Then, add to that -- the storage device. Take your pick 1000lbs of sulfuric acid? how about sulfuric acid at 900+ degrees? Or maybe a couple big tanks full of natural gas? Or, hey, Hydrogen! (think airships if you're curious about *that* solution). Gasoline, for better or worse, really *doesn't* explode like in the movies (usually).
Finally, entire safety infrastructures (fire, police, EMS) are going to be put at high risk (not to mention the need to retrain) because of these things.
Throw all that together and I'd much rather have a "normal" car... or a bike... or my feet.... or, hell, a *parachute* to commute.
What? And actually take responsibility for yourself??
Never gonna happen.
You're not overreacting. (or we both are) Blame the Boomers. "They" (ok, unfair generalization. Deal with it.) had their lives handed to them, with a booming economy and parents who Wanted The Best For Their Kids. Which became Give Them Whatever They Want, And A Healthy Dose of Entitlement.
Now they've grown up, and it's become... drug your kids, it's ADD not a lack of authority! Destroy the planet, you're "safe" in your SUV! Drive social security into the ground, then invest it in the market! - "If It Feels Good, Do It!" Screw responsibility.
And they're in control of our society.
No wonder no one takes responsibility for anything... and it's only gonna get worse.
Get a helmet.
Or don't. That should be our *own* individual choice. Now just let me make my own choices, dammit, and take responsibility for them - I don't want Society choosing for me because the majority is too chickenshit / coddled / terrified / whatever.
But that would imply everyone took responsibility for their own choices... and that is never gonna happen as long "blame someone else!" is the ruling cry of the day supported by the majority.
Sorry... I guess this was supposed to be about video games and ADD. But I got distracted. ; ) Too much time *reading* I guess, not enough time playing video games?
So... why waste precious dinner / club / MustSeeTV / whatever time with a webcam when you could be "contributing to scientific research" from work? : )
(Besides, it'd be more "webwaveanalyzer" than webcam, wouldn't it?)