It didn't work for Stephen King because he released chapters weeks apart, and kept upping the price. Most people I know that read King read the whole book in a week or two. How are you going to maintain interest in pulp like that if you have to wait that long? And end up paying $20 bucks and not even have paperback to put on your shelf?
You live in a town. That town has local bands. Some of them record new music on a regular basis. They are not 'signed'. They are not involved with the big music companies. Why not give them a try? If you ask they might just give you a CD, just because they're happy you want to listen to them. Not to mention that a CD made by the artist, with his or her own two hands will be closer to human expression than a polished and buffed corporate product.
Don't get me wrong, I've used Napster, but maybe we should all try a different approach to screwing over the big music companies. Don't consume their product, even if it's free.
Corporations exist to make a profit. Profit can not be achieved without the exploitation of a resource (animal, vegetable or mineral). If the resource was not exploited (paid 100% of the value of the work performed, for example) net profit would be zero.
So Corporations necessarily exploit something, be it it's workers, the environment, or what ever. Corporations ALWAYS take more than they give. This might not make them evil, but it definitely puts them on my 'bad' list.
I should think we'd be able to reproduce what we see (and our potential soultions) in a controlled laboratory. It's odd that we haven't been able to or haven't tried.
I'm not an expert in Chaos Theory, but I do believe that it's impossible to recreate the atmosphere of the earth in a lab.
If we can't predict if it will rain two days from now, how can we predict the results of pumping X amount of extra greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. We could never have enough data about the system.
Personally, I think the best solution is to stop polluting (which, incidentally, is what the article is about). I don't think we should try to fix the environment. Just stop fsckin' it up and let it sort itself out.
I don't think anybody really is trying to fix anything on any sort of grand scale. Most environmental effort these days is in prevention as far as I can tell.
It seems like only about 1 percent of posters actually read the article.
This is actually a cool idea.
hundredes of pages to flip
no backlight for easy reading
plus all your favorite books in one, easy to carry package
Think about it, even if this e-book with 200 pages of e-paper costs a couple hundred dollars. You only need to buy one. Then you just need to pay for content.
As the two people who actually read the article pointed out, the only part of the plan that is a bit iffy is how payment for content will be managed. Since it is so new, the publishing industry has a better chance then the music or video industries to build in copy protection schemes that will get us all up in arms. All the disadvantages that everyone is complaining about will be solved by the technology described in the article.
But really, I'd much rather carry one of these back and forth to work than all twelve O'Reilly books I like to keep handy.
Every visible major advance in science has met with incredibly vocal opposition, always on the grounds of "We don't understand this and we shouldn't mess with it." Well if we don't mess with it, we will never understand it. That's how we learn, by doing.
True. But that doesn't mean we should rush into things. There are lots of pitfalls with GE. The potential exists to destroy the species in question as well as species unrelated to the 'experiment'. The process and the results should be tested thoroughly on a small scale, over time. Then moved slowly into greater production.
Have you ever made a code change, then run a simple test instead of doing full regression testing? The code change introduced a bug, but it was already in production by the time you realized. The customer was pissed.
Now multiply that by the environment.
How would they stop genetic piracy? If they did produce apples that cured disease, how would they stop someone from planting the seeds or an off-cut to give to someone else?
The same way they do it now. The make the plants infertile. Seeds don't grow. Welcome to the wonderful world of Genetic Engineering.
It *is* for profit. If these companies cared about the starving people they would use their money to ensure a naturally ballanced diet for the worlds poor, instead of developing something that can sort of replace a naturally ballanced diet, but is pattentable.
$ finger #timmy
Re:Yes, but what about the goats?
on
Spidergoats
·
· Score: 1
From the article: Turner's goats may run dry if the spider silk hits it big. His expansion plan? Spidercows.
The goats are just for experimenting on. The cows will take the brunt of the abuse. But after all they're "just dumb animals" that "don't have feelings" and "can't feel pain."
The point of PDF files is to make the page RENDER the same on every platform. The point of HTML is to make the page render acceptably on every platform.
People talk about computer/game system gaming because it is relatively new. Anything new will have some people up in arms, while others will be singing its praises. Still others, most others probably, won't care.
I'm sure there were people that complained up a storm when 'Monopoly' came out.
We used Linux back in '96 at New Mexico Tech (holy crap batman, their site is looking awful these days). We were broken into three person teams. Our final project was to implement threads in Linux.
So the police having the ability to wiretap your phone is equivalent to broadcasting your life to the neighborhood? I don't think so.
It's possible that these laws could be used maliciously. It's also possible that they'll be used only for the public good. Everybody on this site is so pessimistic. It sounds like the media frenzy over Y2k, only with different words.
Oh, the world's going to end. The government is coming for my baby. It's just like 1984.
You don't like the government? Don't trust them? Fix it. It's not 1984. You can still vote. You can run for office.
I'm not saying cryptography is bad, but it only helps the symptoms. Let's get off our lays asses and fix the problem.
I just downloaded and installed Opera 5 for windows. The UI is what microsloth would call MDI (multiple document interface) where there's an outside window with the menus that contains all of the browser windows. The ads go in the menu bar next to back, forward, etc. You can't put a browser window over the ads, so they are always on top. You can obscure the ads with winamp if you set it to always on top.
So far I've only seen one ad, the one for Opera 5 (So you're using Opera 5? Well check *this* out, it's Opera *5*). I'm interested to see if my advertisement settings (40 year old male from taiwan) scores me some fun foreign language ads.
Along with that $5/mo you'll be paying for record companies to control your selection. You won't be able to get songs from lables that don't have an agreement with Napster, to avoid any further copyright problems don't you know... This agreement will turn Napster into mp3now.com.
I think it'll be a lot harder for Local Band X to get their stuff distributed via Napster. I'll bet you a dollar that it will cost money to get songs into the Napster DB. None of the small local bands I know have money for stuff like that. Corporate Napster will be what free Napster was suposed to stand against.
First, they are a international corporation. You can say anything to them. You can insult their mothers and their religion. It won't matter if you still give them your money.
Second, yes, the guy was being a prick. But he has the right to be a prick. He has the right to tell the world his problems with Guinness Stout and the company that makes it. He doesn't have the right to tell people that he makes Guinness and you should give him money in exchange for beer; but he wasn't.
I work 12-16 hours a day, am on call nearly always and am expected to work from home and be on call on vacation.
Working long hours doesn't mean you're skilled. If you're working 12-16 hours a day and are on call all the time, you need to unionize. I mean really, that's not right.
The problem is that we measure success in terms of economics, not quality of life. While the economy booms, the quality of life has been going down (as measured by several standards). We're all making more money, but only because we work longer hours than any other industrialized nation.
If I could trade in my 40+ hour/week (only 45 hours a week? That's great!) job for some part time job I'd do it. But alas, I've fallen into the Debt Trap. I can't quit my job, even if I sell most of my stuff. This is true for most of the people I know too.
This money-centric mentality makes wage slaves of us all. I think we should do our best to not export this mind set.
This is something that Nader has actually written/spoken about. Check his views on his site.
But the *design* of that car is owned by the manufacturer. You can't make a part-by-part reconstruction of your car by making the parts yourself, unless you have permission from the manufacturer.
Slashdot Mirror
$ finger #timmy
King's failure was due to bad implementation.
$ finger #timmy
Neither did we.
$ finger #timmy
Don't get me wrong, I've used Napster, but maybe we should all try a different approach to screwing over the big music companies. Don't consume their product, even if it's free.
$ finger #timmy
So Corporations necessarily exploit something, be it it's workers, the environment, or what ever. Corporations ALWAYS take more than they give. This might not make them evil, but it definitely puts them on my 'bad' list.
$ finger #timmy
I'm not an expert in Chaos Theory, but I do believe that it's impossible to recreate the atmosphere of the earth in a lab. If we can't predict if it will rain two days from now, how can we predict the results of pumping X amount of extra greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. We could never have enough data about the system.
Personally, I think the best solution is to stop polluting (which, incidentally, is what the article is about). I don't think we should try to fix the environment. Just stop fsckin' it up and let it sort itself out.
I don't think anybody really is trying to fix anything on any sort of grand scale. Most environmental effort these days is in prevention as far as I can tell.
$ finger #timmy
This is actually a cool idea.
- hundredes of pages to flip
- no backlight for easy reading
- plus all your favorite books in one, easy to carry package
Think about it, even if this e-book with 200 pages of e-paper costs a couple hundred dollars. You only need to buy one. Then you just need to pay for content.As the two people who actually read the article pointed out, the only part of the plan that is a bit iffy is how payment for content will be managed. Since it is so new, the publishing industry has a better chance then the music or video industries to build in copy protection schemes that will get us all up in arms. All the disadvantages that everyone is complaining about will be solved by the technology described in the article.
But really, I'd much rather carry one of these back and forth to work than all twelve O'Reilly books I like to keep handy.
$ finger #timmy
True. But that doesn't mean we should rush into things. There are lots of pitfalls with GE. The potential exists to destroy the species in question as well as species unrelated to the 'experiment'. The process and the results should be tested thoroughly on a small scale, over time. Then moved slowly into greater production.
Have you ever made a code change, then run a simple test instead of doing full regression testing? The code change introduced a bug, but it was already in production by the time you realized. The customer was pissed.
Now multiply that by the environment.
$ finger #timmy
The same way they do it now. The make the plants infertile. Seeds don't grow. Welcome to the wonderful world of Genetic Engineering.
$ finger #timmy
Right, instead we get another excuse to torture living, thinking, feeling animals. Hurah! That'll really help the average global karma.
$ finger #timmy
$ finger #timmy
Turner's goats may run dry if the spider silk hits it big. His expansion plan? Spidercows.
The goats are just for experimenting on. The cows will take the brunt of the abuse. But after all they're "just dumb animals" that "don't have feelings" and "can't feel pain."
$ finger #timmy
$ finger #timmy
As you wow people with your K-Rad flat screen you can sneak in a healthy dose of planned obsolescence while you're at it.
$ finger #timmy
People talk about computer/game system gaming because it is relatively new. Anything new will have some people up in arms, while others will be singing its praises. Still others, most others probably, won't care.
I'm sure there were people that complained up a storm when 'Monopoly' came out.
We used Linux back in '96 at New Mexico Tech (holy crap batman, their site is looking awful these days). We were broken into three person teams. Our final project was to implement threads in Linux.
So the police having the ability to wiretap your phone is equivalent to broadcasting your life to the neighborhood? I don't think so.
It's possible that these laws could be used maliciously. It's also possible that they'll be used only for the public good. Everybody on this site is so pessimistic. It sounds like the media frenzy over Y2k, only with different words.
Oh, the world's going to end. The government is coming for my baby. It's just like 1984.
You don't like the government? Don't trust them? Fix it. It's not 1984. You can still vote. You can run for office.
I'm not saying cryptography is bad, but it only helps the symptoms. Let's get off our lays asses and fix the problem.
So do you also own a bunch of guns since criminals do?
I mean really, does this post need to be encrypted?
I just downloaded and installed Opera 5 for windows. The UI is what microsloth would call MDI (multiple document interface) where there's an outside window with the menus that contains all of the browser windows. The ads go in the menu bar next to back, forward, etc. You can't put a browser window over the ads, so they are always on top. You can obscure the ads with winamp if you set it to always on top.
So far I've only seen one ad, the one for Opera 5 (So you're using Opera 5? Well check *this* out, it's Opera *5*). I'm interested to see if my advertisement settings (40 year old male from taiwan) scores me some fun foreign language ads.
Along with that $5/mo you'll be paying for record companies to control your selection. You won't be able to get songs from lables that don't have an agreement with Napster, to avoid any further copyright problems don't you know... This agreement will turn Napster into mp3now.com.
I think it'll be a lot harder for Local Band X to get their stuff distributed via Napster. I'll bet you a dollar that it will cost money to get songs into the Napster DB. None of the small local bands I know have money for stuff like that. Corporate Napster will be what free Napster was suposed to stand against.
If you look in the right places you can find Tetley's, McEwans, etc.
But if you want something that's really hard to drink try Sam Adams Triple Bock. Ugh.
First, they are a international corporation. You can say anything to them. You can insult their mothers and their religion. It won't matter if you still give them your money.
Second, yes, the guy was being a prick. But he has the right to be a prick. He has the right to tell the world his problems with Guinness Stout and the company that makes it. He doesn't have the right to tell people that he makes Guinness and you should give him money in exchange for beer; but he wasn't.
Working long hours doesn't mean you're skilled. If you're working 12-16 hours a day and are on call all the time, you need to unionize. I mean really, that's not right.
The problem is that we measure success in terms of economics, not quality of life. While the economy booms, the quality of life has been going down (as measured by several standards). We're all making more money, but only because we work longer hours than any other industrialized nation.
If I could trade in my 40+ hour/week (only 45 hours a week? That's great!) job for some part time job I'd do it. But alas, I've fallen into the Debt Trap. I can't quit my job, even if I sell most of my stuff. This is true for most of the people I know too.
This money-centric mentality makes wage slaves of us all. I think we should do our best to not export this mind set.
This is something that Nader has actually written/spoken about. Check his views on his site.
But the *design* of that car is owned by the manufacturer. You can't make a part-by-part reconstruction of your car by making the parts yourself, unless you have permission from the manufacturer.
You can, you just can't sell it to anybody.