Hmm... While I agree with your general sentiment, if another person feels that the convenience is worth paying for, then that's their choice to make. This in no way "corrupts" the markets. It just corrupts "your" market.
And all because ten years ago 3000 people died (that's an average of 300/year) and two buildings were taken down: tragic, but a very small one compared to the 30,000 people who die every year in automobile crashes in the US - and we don't see $500B/year being spent on that!
To run a little further with your OOYA statistics with some OOMA statistics of my own, I think the difference here is that the 30,000 people who die in car crashes is a *wee* bit different in the fact that the car crashes are usually (and by usually I mean 98%+) not intentional with motivation to cause mass murder.
Other than this, you're pretty much spot on, IMHO.
If I could, I'd rate both parent and grandparent +1 truthy.:)
To GP: 100% correct. This should be common knowledge by anyone working in anything related to a national defense position and, by proxy, anyone these people report to. I find it very hard to believe that the FBI is just now discovering that terrorists are just now discovering that we can be attacked by a technological vector. Seriously...
Hmm... the way I read that is that your *communications* are subject to monitoring. This shouldn't necessarily imply that if you aren't actively and consciously engaged in a communication that the Kinect can just start recording you of its own volition.
In other words, if I'm not actively communicating, then there is no right for the Kinect (or M$) to be monitoring or recording anything I say or do. Doing otherwise would make THEM in breach and susceptible to litigation.
Agreed. This works for businesses because, IME, people are lazy. I, personally, am not lazy (at least when it comes to gaming) and appreciate the sense of accomplishment associated with actually earning something.
Then again, I also tend to re-invent the wheel a lot just for the experience of having done so, so I expect I'm in a very small minority.
Hmm... does that mean I can get scholarships? Yay!:)
Hence the "unless you take advantage of some of the plugins and advanced macroing options" part of my comment.
I totally agree that Launchy has more functionality than the Win7 start menu, but you have to administrate it properly to take advantage of that, so I guess I was trying to say that it's beyond the attention span of most muggles.:)
Launchy is a great tool for XP machines that lack the functionality of the Win7 start menu. Launchy is pretty redundant in Win7 though unless you take advantage of some of the plugins and advanced macroing options.
Really? You think having to type in the name is an improvement? I've never been "lost in submenus."
Yes. Having grown up in a command-line environment, I can *usually* type much faster than I can point and click - especially if something is buried under several sub-menus.
If there was an obvious emergency, the guy *should* just switch his jammer off.
FTFY. I don't trust that someone with that level of a superiority complex would be that considerate of others. Sure there might be some that will, but there will also be those that won't and it's those people that cause me concern.
Besides, being annoying on a cell call is *not* a crime. Deciding what is law and what is not, passing judgement of guilt, then applying a sentence is not the job of one person alone. When did people start getting such thin skin? "OMG, this person is annoying/offending me - they must be silenced!". Seriously... people need to learn some toleration.
While I am not in favor of electing "idjuts" to any office, if we are to treat all as equals, then everyone has a right to their opinion. We no longer allow the (physically) strong to rule the weak, so why should we allow the (intellectually) strong to rule also? The phrase "too smart for one's own good" seems to come to my mind all too often when reading about the crap that politicians pull on a seemingly-daily basis.
IMHO (of which everyone is entitled), the higher offices should *not* be served by those with the highest intellect, but by those with the best morality. I, personally, would be more than happy with someone of middling intellect but of high moral standards and, more importantly, integrity being elected to congress or the presidency. (Note that I said "middling intellect" - as in, not a dullard or a moron)
No one is able to be an expert in everything and this should not be expected of anyone, including our leaders. With that being said, being able to choose the morally "right" option out of those presented is a much more valuable asset than being an expert in tax code. There are offices in the IRS for those with that level of expertise.
If we moved to a direct popular vote and did away with the electoral college, I would imagine there would be quite a few "bad" politicians elected ("bad" as determined by the majority of the populace), but that should be a clear indication to everyone that they messed up and need to do better. I don't trust that everyone would actually get that message from the situation, but I feel that enough of them would for it to be mostly effective and the level of competence of our leaders would improve over time by necessity. Either that, or they'll become MUCH better at hiding their shady dealings.
Assuming no modifications to the file, I wonder how many people will run these tracks through some kind of auto-identification service (WMP, for example) to get track name, artist, etc. to auto-populate.
Additionally, I wonder how many of these mp3 identification services will be looking for requests with specific track length/CRC values, etc.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that these requests were/are being tracked and IPs logged, etc. While I wouldn't expect Sony to act outright against these people (although it wouldn't surprise me if they did), it might make a *very* interesting watch-list for themselves or for the RIAA.
I caution anyone against seeking these tracks out. Or, if you already have them, encrypt or otherwise alter them so they cannot be identified by software algorithms and don't advertise that you have them. Hopefully those that stole them (yes, *stole*) to begin with have already taken these precautions.
(On a completely different topic, why the hell do I have to insert BR tags into my comment to get decent whitespacing?)
Personally, I think they've already crossed that threshold and I've stopped buying music of any sort. As a gamer, I don't really have the time to listen to much music anyway, so I'm not really missing out on anything.
I don't know if the government/corporations/[insert whatever authoritative power you like] WANTS people to be taught logic or the ability to think for themselves. "Probably" not true, but it does certainly seem that way sometimes...
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm... While I agree with your general sentiment, if another person feels that the convenience is worth paying for, then that's their choice to make. This in no way "corrupts" the markets. It just corrupts "your" market.
And all because ten years ago 3000 people died (that's an average of 300/year) and two buildings were taken down: tragic, but a very small one compared to the 30,000 people who die every year in automobile crashes in the US - and we don't see $500B/year being spent on that!
To run a little further with your OOYA statistics with some OOMA statistics of my own, I think the difference here is that the 30,000 people who die in car crashes is a *wee* bit different in the fact that the car crashes are usually (and by usually I mean 98%+) not intentional with motivation to cause mass murder.
Other than this, you're pretty much spot on, IMHO.
If I could, I'd rate both parent and grandparent +1 truthy. :)
To GP: 100% correct. This should be common knowledge by anyone working in anything related to a national defense position and, by proxy, anyone these people report to. I find it very hard to believe that the FBI is just now discovering that terrorists are just now discovering that we can be attacked by a technological vector. Seriously...
Hmm... the way I read that is that your *communications* are subject to monitoring. This shouldn't necessarily imply that if you aren't actively and consciously engaged in a communication that the Kinect can just start recording you of its own volition.
In other words, if I'm not actively communicating, then there is no right for the Kinect (or M$) to be monitoring or recording anything I say or do. Doing otherwise would make THEM in breach and susceptible to litigation.
Agree? Disagree?
Anyone with mod points, please mod this parent up! :)
Agreed. This works for businesses because, IME, people are lazy. I, personally, am not lazy (at least when it comes to gaming) and appreciate the sense of accomplishment associated with actually earning something.
:)
Then again, I also tend to re-invent the wheel a lot just for the experience of having done so, so I expect I'm in a very small minority.
Hmm... does that mean I can get scholarships? Yay!
Hence the "unless you take advantage of some of the plugins and advanced macroing options" part of my comment.
:)
I totally agree that Launchy has more functionality than the Win7 start menu, but you have to administrate it properly to take advantage of that, so I guess I was trying to say that it's beyond the attention span of most muggles.
Just as an FYI, the location where an application/game is installed is chosen by the developer of the software, not Windows.
Win+R to bring up the run menu that you're looking for.
:)
Win by itself to do an app search.
Launchy is a great tool for XP machines that lack the functionality of the Win7 start menu. Launchy is pretty redundant in Win7 though unless you take advantage of some of the plugins and advanced macroing options.
Really? You think having to type in the name is an improvement? I've never been "lost in submenus."
Yes. Having grown up in a command-line environment, I can *usually* type much faster than I can point and click - especially if something is buried under several sub-menus.
If there was an obvious emergency, the guy *should* just switch his jammer off.
FTFY. I don't trust that someone with that level of a superiority complex would be that considerate of others. Sure there might be some that will, but there will also be those that won't and it's those people that cause me concern.
/rant off
Besides, being annoying on a cell call is *not* a crime. Deciding what is law and what is not, passing judgement of guilt, then applying a sentence is not the job of one person alone. When did people start getting such thin skin? "OMG, this person is annoying/offending me - they must be silenced!". Seriously... people need to learn some toleration.
I don't think that all 50k tracks were MJ. Some were other artists, I'm sure...
This is, IMHO, as it should be.
:)
While I am not in favor of electing "idjuts" to any office, if we are to treat all as equals, then everyone has a right to their opinion. We no longer allow the (physically) strong to rule the weak, so why should we allow the (intellectually) strong to rule also? The phrase "too smart for one's own good" seems to come to my mind all too often when reading about the crap that politicians pull on a seemingly-daily basis.
IMHO (of which everyone is entitled), the higher offices should *not* be served by those with the highest intellect, but by those with the best morality. I, personally, would be more than happy with someone of middling intellect but of high moral standards and, more importantly, integrity being elected to congress or the presidency. (Note that I said "middling intellect" - as in, not a dullard or a moron)
No one is able to be an expert in everything and this should not be expected of anyone, including our leaders. With that being said, being able to choose the morally "right" option out of those presented is a much more valuable asset than being an expert in tax code. There are offices in the IRS for those with that level of expertise.
If we moved to a direct popular vote and did away with the electoral college, I would imagine there would be quite a few "bad" politicians elected ("bad" as determined by the majority of the populace), but that should be a clear indication to everyone that they messed up and need to do better. I don't trust that everyone would actually get that message from the situation, but I feel that enough of them would for it to be mostly effective and the level of competence of our leaders would improve over time by necessity. Either that, or they'll become MUCH better at hiding their shady dealings.
Just my $0.02, take it as you will.
...our democracy...
What is this "our democracy" you speak of??
I would presume that all officially released tracks are listed in an official discography. Probably on wikipedia as well... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_albums_discography
It shouldn't be difficult to discover which ones weren't in the list.
Assuming no modifications to the file, I wonder how many people will run these tracks through some kind of auto-identification service (WMP, for example) to get track name, artist, etc. to auto-populate.
Additionally, I wonder how many of these mp3 identification services will be looking for requests with specific track length/CRC values, etc.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that these requests were/are being tracked and IPs logged, etc. While I wouldn't expect Sony to act outright against these people (although it wouldn't surprise me if they did), it might make a *very* interesting watch-list for themselves or for the RIAA.
I caution anyone against seeking these tracks out. Or, if you already have them, encrypt or otherwise alter them so they cannot be identified by software algorithms and don't advertise that you have them. Hopefully those that stole them (yes, *stole*) to begin with have already taken these precautions.
(On a completely different topic, why the hell do I have to insert BR tags into my comment to get decent whitespacing?)
Be careful what you wish for... especially if you're wishing for that!
I'm CodeHxr and I approve this message.
Personally, I think they've already crossed that threshold and I've stopped buying music of any sort. As a gamer, I don't really have the time to listen to much music anyway, so I'm not really missing out on anything.
depend upon YOURSELF to filter out the bias, depend on no source to do that for you
Take out the word "media", and this is true across the board.
That's a bicycle company. Probably not ready to produce laptops, phones, etc.
What does their manufacturing output have to do with anything?
As an American, I agree 100%.
I don't know if the government/corporations/[insert whatever authoritative power you like] WANTS people to be taught logic or the ability to think for themselves. "Probably" not true, but it does certainly seem that way sometimes...
But, didn't you know? Corporations are "actual people", too!