You've apparently never seen Titanic. We got more than a glimpse of Kate Winslet's ample assets, plus a none-to-subtle suggestion of what followed. Yet only PG-13.
Maybe it's the exception that makes the rule... or maybe the MPAA fell asleep for that bit.
That's already happening. That's a valuable service, and I'm perfectly comfortable paying for those services.
These guys are proposing we obfuscate the method, and inject themselves as middle-men who help navigate the obfuscated methods. Instead of going to Amazon.com and buying some amount of cloud computing... I would go to "Reseller.com" and pay them to go get me the same amount of cloud computing, which costs the Amazon price plus a few "service fees".
And on it's own... that could be useful. I don't think it will be, but the potential is there. But that's not where we stop. These middlemen aren't simply looking for a place from which they can siphon a bit of the money. They want to start gambling (because that's exactly what the stock market is) on the potential future worth of cloud computing. They want to be able to say "I own 3 teraflops of Amazon.com cloud," the same way people today say "I've got 100 shares of Google"
It boils down to a simple question : what's the benefit to the end user? The person shelling out money for cloud computing. What do they gain by this change? Are they better off simply buying the resources from Amazon (or whomever)? If so, are we going to block that avenue to force end users into this less-beneficial situation? Because that's exactly what I see proposed here.
It becomes parasitism when you disallow the direct buying and selling of these services. (either through legal or practical means)
The model works perfectly fine as is. These people are proposing we add more layers to the equation, so they can find a spot to hide and take their 5% off the top for the service of adding more layers.
People don't take drastic action from what they see in the news, they take action when they see it affect them directly and it impedes their ability to see a future for themselves. E.g. The Egypt situation
Maybe not from a single report... or a few isolated incidents. But given a steady drip feed of "the other side is the DEVIL" a propaganda machine disguised as a news network can absolutely cause people to take drastic action. Even worse, it can cause a severe disconnect between reality and your own delusions.
For example, Congress currently has an 11% approval rating and hasn't been above 40% in nearly a decade. During the last election, their approval rating was a staggering 14%, yet we saw a 90% incumbent victory rate.
This is dangerous. This is very very dangerous. We openly acknowledge that those in charge have been fucking it up royal. But the media circus has convinced everyone that "my guy isn't the problem... it's completely on the other side of the aisle." Add in a splash of gerrymandering, and we've got the makings of our very own banana republic.
They are a force multiplier, and act directly to keep the pain and suffering rolling.
The farcical news organizations drum up extreme hate and discontent among their target audience (be it left or right, young or old, etc) which serves only to prevent reasonable discourse and problem solving. The more bile they spew, and the longer they keep everyone's hackles up, the more they profit.
If this were actually true we would have seen a steady increase in the number of unemployed people over time during the past 20 years. Instead we had near record low unemployment until around 2008 when we had a banking (not technology) related financial crisis. Since then unemployment has been slowly but steadily falling back towards what passes for steady state norms. While it is true that people are not employed at the same companies they used to be, technology takes away some jobs and adds others. It also makes people more effective at the jobs they do.
How much of this is actually an increase in jobs, and how much is a redefinition of what constitutes a job? Jobs that used to be 40 hours a week, have now become 2 or 3 jobs at 15-20 hours a week. I've seen a glut of meaningless "middle management" jobs created and given out by nepotistic upper managers to near worthless friends and family members. Also don't forget about the fairly large segment of people who have given up on unemployment (or perhaps unemployment has given up on them). Sure, you can say that we've 'created jobs,' and reduced unemployment... but really, we're just obfuscating the truth.
And the truth is simple : the number of actual jobs is on the decline, while the number of people is climbing. We can keep plugging holes in that dam, but that will only make the eventual collapse worse.
Where TFS fails though, is pinning technology as a major culprit. Sure it's a factor, but everything should get easier over time. Even if we were still using the original assembly lines to build Fords, with human hands on every step of the equation, we would certainly have streamlined the process over the last 100 years. It would be much quicker and easier, requiring fewer people. Meanwhile the population is ever increasing... technology and automation just brings the problem to the fore sooner, rather than later.
So for now, we'll keep hiring Quality Assurance personnel to inspect the automated assembly line, and more inspectors to inspect the inspectors, and several managers for both groups, and secretaries for the managers, and a director or two, and again secretaries for the directors, and now we need a big IT contract to purchase desktops, laptops and blackberries (are those still a thing?) and an IT support crew... all for basically 1 job.
If nothing else, it has given us a basic understanding of life in space. If we ever want to send manned missions to Mars or beyond, there will likely be a pit-stop at L2
There's plenty to be learned about human physiology (and plants) in a zero-g environment, before we move on to bigger challenges.
Meatspace freedom of speech is balanced against lack of anonymity.
Being a troll out in public will get you ignored at very least, or punched in the face if you're aggravating enough. And once you've been ignored, punched or otherwise labeled as a troll, you can't just change your name and start back up again.
That's not to say the the Internet should lose its anonymity. Just that it has to be balanced somehow. The moderation system here seems to work pretty well, though it's hardly the only potential solution.
It isn't being used for law enforcement... that you know of.
A few months ago, the NSA wasn't secretly monitoring everyone's phone records either.
How easy would it be for cops to cross reference an outstanding tickets database with the EZPass location? Or use it to track "20 minute parking" violators. The cops wouldn't have to admit the EZPass use in court. Just say that they were walking around and noticed.
Thus it is newsworthy when politicians stray into the former group.
They saw a stupid thing, and got involved to fix the stupid thing. Including the guy who created the stupid thing.
We could use more of that in politics. A new policy/tax is created, implemented, and then looked at objectively. "Is this working as intended? Are the people loving it?"
I have a feeling that "couch multiplayer" will be directly tied to the success of Steambox.
Right now, squeezing three extra people around my 24" monitor is a bit tricky (despite it actually having much better resolution than my 1080 TV... but I digress) Getting 4 controllers wired up (wireless) and working is another hurdle. I hear XBox controllers can be made to work, but I'm currently using those for my XBox. All in all, it's more trouble than it's worth, and not very high in demand.
If Steambox supports multiple controllers natively, then the hurdles are gone, and the demand will rise. I've seen a few old arcade games (Dungeons and Dragons, Golden Axe, etc) that would be perfect for this. Time will tell.
So, you call GP wrong, and then say the exact same thing.
Steambox is a PC designed to hook up to a TV instead of a monitor, with the primary intent of playing games. Valve was the first company to really start pushing this concept, and are currently working on creating a mass produced unit themselves... hence the name is based on their Steam platform. Whether you build it yourself, or buy a pre-built unit from Valve or their partners is immaterial. Whether you limit yourself to Steam games or the other potential vendors (per your list) is also immaterial.
Best part is, GGP was most likely a sarcastic remark. A tongue in cheek reference to the fact that valve has talked about a mass-produced Steambox for years now, yet nothing has hit the market.
If you think that none of your problems require a solution that exceeds 6 or 7 on a 10 point difficulty scale, then you simply lack anyone able to see a 10-point solution.
There are always solutions that are more elegant, more intuitive for end users, require less effort, etc. The fact that you can't see them doesn't mean you shouldn't hire someone who can.
Well for people who are good at what they do an know it, will tend to have a bit of an ego about it. As well as it comes easy to them, having people who struggle at the work gets frustrating.
I have been considered as one of those Rockstar developers. And it is a constant challenge to make sure I am not talking down to people, or seeming to snotty.
That basically means "Whoever has the most money gets make the rules. Hey look, I have the most money, so I made a rule that says I don't have to pay taxes. And I made a rule that says you have to buy from my company... hehe this is fun."
Slashdot Mirror
Even better, put the files on this.
You've apparently never seen Titanic. We got more than a glimpse of Kate Winslet's ample assets, plus a none-to-subtle suggestion of what followed. Yet only PG-13.
Maybe it's the exception that makes the rule... or maybe the MPAA fell asleep for that bit.
We're talking about incest, bestiality and rape porn turning up when kids search for books with 'daddy' or 'doggy' in the title.
So ... their search function is broken, thus we burn the mother fucking site to the ground?
Seems a rational response to me.
Now please stay tuned for a word from our sponsors ...
That's already happening. That's a valuable service, and I'm perfectly comfortable paying for those services.
These guys are proposing we obfuscate the method, and inject themselves as middle-men who help navigate the obfuscated methods. Instead of going to Amazon.com and buying some amount of cloud computing ... I would go to "Reseller.com" and pay them to go get me the same amount of cloud computing, which costs the Amazon price plus a few "service fees".
And on it's own ... that could be useful. I don't think it will be, but the potential is there. But that's not where we stop. These middlemen aren't simply looking for a place from which they can siphon a bit of the money. They want to start gambling (because that's exactly what the stock market is) on the potential future worth of cloud computing. They want to be able to say "I own 3 teraflops of Amazon.com cloud," the same way people today say "I've got 100 shares of Google"
It boils down to a simple question : what's the benefit to the end user? The person shelling out money for cloud computing. What do they gain by this change? Are they better off simply buying the resources from Amazon (or whomever)? If so, are we going to block that avenue to force end users into this less-beneficial situation? Because that's exactly what I see proposed here.
It becomes parasitism when you disallow the direct buying and selling of these services. (either through legal or practical means)
The model works perfectly fine as is. These people are proposing we add more layers to the equation, so they can find a spot to hide and take their 5% off the top for the service of adding more layers.
Sanitation is important in brewing for taste moreso than safety.
A little something extra might make your brew a bit funky... but it's still significantly safer than the water, pre-beerification.
People don't take drastic action from what they see in the news, they take action when they see it affect them directly and it impedes their ability to see a future for themselves. E.g. The Egypt situation
Maybe not from a single report... or a few isolated incidents. But given a steady drip feed of "the other side is the DEVIL" a propaganda machine disguised as a news network can absolutely cause people to take drastic action. Even worse, it can cause a severe disconnect between reality and your own delusions.
For example, Congress currently has an 11% approval rating and hasn't been above 40% in nearly a decade. During the last election, their approval rating was a staggering 14%, yet we saw a 90% incumbent victory rate.
This is dangerous. This is very very dangerous. We openly acknowledge that those in charge have been fucking it up royal. But the media circus has convinced everyone that "my guy isn't the problem... it's completely on the other side of the aisle." Add in a splash of gerrymandering, and we've got the makings of our very own banana republic.
As compared to the spin-off : IPCU : Canada. Same thing, but the emails are very polite and apologize for any inconvenience.
The initial cause? No.
They are a force multiplier, and act directly to keep the pain and suffering rolling.
The farcical news organizations drum up extreme hate and discontent among their target audience (be it left or right, young or old, etc) which serves only to prevent reasonable discourse and problem solving. The more bile they spew, and the longer they keep everyone's hackles up, the more they profit.
If this were actually true we would have seen a steady increase in the number of unemployed people over time during the past 20 years. Instead we had near record low unemployment until around 2008 when we had a banking (not technology) related financial crisis. Since then unemployment has been slowly but steadily falling back towards what passes for steady state norms. While it is true that people are not employed at the same companies they used to be, technology takes away some jobs and adds others. It also makes people more effective at the jobs they do.
How much of this is actually an increase in jobs, and how much is a redefinition of what constitutes a job? Jobs that used to be 40 hours a week, have now become 2 or 3 jobs at 15-20 hours a week. I've seen a glut of meaningless "middle management" jobs created and given out by nepotistic upper managers to near worthless friends and family members. Also don't forget about the fairly large segment of people who have given up on unemployment (or perhaps unemployment has given up on them). Sure, you can say that we've 'created jobs,' and reduced unemployment... but really, we're just obfuscating the truth.
And the truth is simple : the number of actual jobs is on the decline, while the number of people is climbing. We can keep plugging holes in that dam, but that will only make the eventual collapse worse.
Where TFS fails though, is pinning technology as a major culprit. Sure it's a factor, but everything should get easier over time. Even if we were still using the original assembly lines to build Fords, with human hands on every step of the equation, we would certainly have streamlined the process over the last 100 years. It would be much quicker and easier, requiring fewer people. Meanwhile the population is ever increasing... technology and automation just brings the problem to the fore sooner, rather than later.
So for now, we'll keep hiring Quality Assurance personnel to inspect the automated assembly line, and more inspectors to inspect the inspectors, and several managers for both groups, and secretaries for the managers, and a director or two, and again secretaries for the directors, and now we need a big IT contract to purchase desktops, laptops and blackberries (are those still a thing?) and an IT support crew ... all for basically 1 job.
If nothing else, it has given us a basic understanding of life in space. If we ever want to send manned missions to Mars or beyond, there will likely be a pit-stop at L2
There's plenty to be learned about human physiology (and plants) in a zero-g environment, before we move on to bigger challenges.
Time to trade in your fly swatter for a freaking boat oar...
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of CDs cruising down the freeway.
k
Meatspace freedom of speech is balanced against lack of anonymity.
Being a troll out in public will get you ignored at very least, or punched in the face if you're aggravating enough. And once you've been ignored, punched or otherwise labeled as a troll, you can't just change your name and start back up again.
That's not to say the the Internet should lose its anonymity. Just that it has to be balanced somehow. The moderation system here seems to work pretty well, though it's hardly the only potential solution.
It isn't being used for law enforcement ... that you know of.
A few months ago, the NSA wasn't secretly monitoring everyone's phone records either.
How easy would it be for cops to cross reference an outstanding tickets database with the EZPass location? Or use it to track "20 minute parking" violators. The cops wouldn't have to admit the EZPass use in court. Just say that they were walking around and noticed.
I would guess additive. If only to make a better headline.
Given your example, they could call it a 3.5 or 5% increase and be factually accurate. Why not opt for the better-sounding one?
Thus it is newsworthy when politicians stray into the former group.
They saw a stupid thing, and got involved to fix the stupid thing. Including the guy who created the stupid thing.
We could use more of that in politics. A new policy/tax is created, implemented, and then looked at objectively. "Is this working as intended? Are the people loving it?"
Ahhh but water, much like the atom, will completely lose power when split.
That 6 oz. water container is hazardous and must be banned, but if split into 2 3oz bottles, the danger is gone.
I have a feeling that "couch multiplayer" will be directly tied to the success of Steambox.
Right now, squeezing three extra people around my 24" monitor is a bit tricky (despite it actually having much better resolution than my 1080 TV ... but I digress) Getting 4 controllers wired up (wireless) and working is another hurdle. I hear XBox controllers can be made to work, but I'm currently using those for my XBox. All in all, it's more trouble than it's worth, and not very high in demand.
If Steambox supports multiple controllers natively, then the hurdles are gone, and the demand will rise. I've seen a few old arcade games (Dungeons and Dragons, Golden Axe, etc) that would be perfect for this. Time will tell.
So, you call GP wrong, and then say the exact same thing.
Steambox is a PC designed to hook up to a TV instead of a monitor, with the primary intent of playing games. Valve was the first company to really start pushing this concept, and are currently working on creating a mass produced unit themselves... hence the name is based on their Steam platform. Whether you build it yourself, or buy a pre-built unit from Valve or their partners is immaterial. Whether you limit yourself to Steam games or the other potential vendors (per your list) is also immaterial.
Best part is, GGP was most likely a sarcastic remark. A tongue in cheek reference to the fact that valve has talked about a mass-produced Steambox for years now, yet nothing has hit the market.
If you think that none of your problems require a solution that exceeds 6 or 7 on a 10 point difficulty scale, then you simply lack anyone able to see a 10-point solution.
There are always solutions that are more elegant, more intuitive for end users, require less effort, etc. The fact that you can't see them doesn't mean you shouldn't hire someone who can.
Well for people who are good at what they do an know it, will tend to have a bit of an ego about it. As well as it comes easy to them, having people who struggle at the work gets frustrating.
I have been considered as one of those Rockstar developers. And it is a constant challenge to make sure I am not talking down to people, or seeming to snotty.
I know what you mean
Plutocrats, mostly.
That basically means "Whoever has the most money gets make the rules. Hey look, I have the most money, so I made a rule that says I don't have to pay taxes. And I made a rule that says you have to buy from my company ... hehe this is fun."