The flip-side is that, on some issues, it is quite common to refuse to accept any explanation that _isn't_ grounded in science - a religions explanation isn't scientific, ergo it's wrong. I (largely) agree with what you seem to be saying, but the follow-on reasoning from that of many is decidedly suspect IMO.
They think they're not aiming at me, but I'm still on their radar. It's absurd that I should have to buy an expensive 'professional' model to achieve something the cheap model would be quite capable of doing were it not given an artificial restriction - assuming this is even offered as an option. Buying laptops with XP Pro rather than Home got difficult enough and I don't want to end up having to jump through fifteen hoops to achieve something that should be perfectly normal.
Linux returns of netbooks have been far higher than Windows, from what I've seen. People have got used to running lots at once and, if they're suddenly told they can't, I'd expect Windows returns to suddenly climb as well.
(Assuming of course that the netbook market doesn't go the way of the PDA market. I _love_ having proper portable computers again - I was an old-style Psion user and having that sort of thing at my fingertips is just brilliant. Kinda worried that we might have an overhyped market that promptly dies because it can't sustain the hype though...)
That's about it, really (though I've written quite a lot of code in a freezing office on the weekend - huge motivation boosts productivity for obvious reasons).
What kills productivity? Colleagues interrupting my train of thought, either by requesting my input or simply by doing something that inherently distracts. Sharing an office with sales staff can be a killer, simply because they're so often on the phone or running round assembling information. Music can help with the happy place but isn't even always on at home (and I love music, have far too many albums at my fingertips:-)) - its benefit for work is partly comfort but mostly for me in providing a background noise I can predict and so tune out. It might as well be a white noise generator in some ways.
I've been in offices where you shivered all morning, or where every last movement caused sweat to drip off you - neither was very productive. I can type just as easily on a laptop (heck, I've written a fair bit of code on a 9" netbook) but accept I'm unusual in that way:-) - but a machine that gets in your way is never ideal.
What can be the biggest killer though? Motivation. You tell me you code as efficiently when presented with a task which will achieve almost nothing of benefit if it ever goes live and involves large-scale maintenance on a poorly-built legacy codebase. We do our best work when there's a reward of pride, and when we know that our best work is still only polishing a turd, it's far harder to summon the energy.
Yes, but this surely presupposes that there are no observable phenomena with unobservable causes?
I confess I'm not remotely an expert in the field, but my interested observer perception is of a bootstrap problem in pretty much all scenarios. If we believe all matter was formed in a Big Bang of which we detect traces that match current hypothesese, what was the cause of the Big Bang event? I love and value science, but am deeply uncomfortable with the quasi-religious assertions from some that if it can't be measured then it isn't real. We've learnt to measure a great many things which we previously couldn't.
In all honesty though, if you wish to oppose intelligent design, let it be taught. The underground, opposed, rebel argument that They don't want you to hear will always have power - if you honestly believe it's rubbish, teach its tenets and then teach why you believe they don't match the data. If you're a good teacher with good information and the students are intellectually up to the argument, they'll likely agree and the rest weren't likely to have their minds changed either way in any case.
I've got a netbook, which gets used heavily as an ultraportable machine. As long as you're sensible, it's fine. It's far from unusual for it to be running: * Visual Studio * OpenOffice showing some documentation or notes * Web browser * DB program of some description, usually SQLite Admin....and I'm already over the limit while very plausibly doing a single task (albeit not a typical one for a netbook, but one that is surprisingly usable from experience). I'm working on some graphics software at present - perhaps I'm checking something in Paintshop Pro or similar. I use the Windows calculator a lot (lazy I know:-) - that would suddenly become unviable.
Why, why, why? Anyway, as has been pointed out, plenty of apps seem to have already found ways round this. Annoy your customers in their day-to-day use and they'll find ways to stop the annoyance - if that means you're creating a group motivated to hack your security, that's just a terrible idea.
Stay out of your users' way and let them work the way they want to. If I'm daft enough to want to try to host a commercial website or want to do serious software development on a netbook, that's my problem.
(Disclaimer - I don't know the patent in detail, I haven't read it, only the summaries here.)
I worked for a small UK-based LMS vendor between October 2000 and March 2006. We deployed a huge number of bespoke and off-the-shelf LMSs to customers, mostly in the UK but a few overseas. For the first year, I was their sole developer, and was responsible for maintenance of what was already in the wild. I'm not saying who they are here just in case Blackboard's lawyers are bored;-)
Not one of these systems prohibited administrators from running courses, and I can't think of any reason why we would have done - I met near enough all our clients in the early stages of their projects and I don't remember any ever querying this. It'd have been more work to reduce functionality and (through likely user habits) security. Admins had all the normal tools you'd expect, could do any monitoring, mentoring etc, and could also run courses.
The idea that a jury of my peers could consider my _not_ doing something stupid to be an amazing innovation is frankly horrifying. Something has gone horribly wrong here.
Mac DD disks used CLV not CAV motors, rather like early CD-ROMs. This meant you got bettter disk capacity but you needed a very special controller / drive to read it.
They dropped this for HD in the interests of compatibility.
* Windows Media Player * Windows Movie Maker * CD burning wizard * Zip files wizard * Outlook Express (you try explaining why it's needed on a server OS, or removing it...) * MSN * Windows Messenger
US car companies do well in Europe with locally designed vehicles though.
GM? Vauxhall / Opel and 'Chevrolet' (Daewoo), completely different model range. Ford? Still Ford, but the only shared lines is the Ranger. Chrysler? Tiny player over here. Jeeps sell but that's about it.
US cars emphatically do _not_ sell well in Europe. Few particularly bother even trying.
At a former employer, we had a standard technical test. If an interviewee passed the interview, we got them to submit a very simple web app. A few hundred lines of code, a few database tables - the sort of thing any competent dev could turn out in an hour or two max.
(As an aside - we considered rejecting one guy for turning in a solution that was so large and complex we didn't believe he'd written in in the time we'd asked no matter how brilliant, and another for writing it on Christmas morning in spite of having young children. Two who were hired in desperation included one who unexpectedly turned up to take the test in person then submitted IE-only interface code with a major bug in its database code, or a chap who did the test in the wrong language and was politely asked to try again in the right language this time...)
Anyway, this chap looked OK, interviewed well and showed some good looking examples of his work. So test him.
The test came back and worked well enough - but as soon as we opened the database, he was history. The core of the data was in around 100 fields of one row of one table with no key - almost impossible to upgrade or scale, and frankly a pretty longwinded way to build it. He'd demonstrated no understanding at all of relational databases or how to design them, which was a prerequisite, so we fished out some basic references on relational databases for him.
They've twice been sued under anti-trust laws by the US Government. They've twice been convicted, and twice had sanctions applied to them as a consequence.
They're still under investigation in the EU but have had sanctions on some of the issues.
Whether the sanctions have been effective or not is another matter - but there's no way they've won every time. And frankly, if the PC manufacturers had better lawyers and bigger balls, going back to the courts to say 'This company you convicted of monopolistic practices is doing this to us' would likely get results.
They'll go down eventually. I hate their present level of domination - but it can't last forever. Eventually people will realise that OpenOffice and other such packages are just fine, eventually people will get an alternative OS like Linux up to realistic end-user standards, and MS' present illegally gained and maintained monopoly will no longer be able to find heir less successful activities. At which point, Microsoft dies.
And I for one will happily play any non-Xbox dancing game on their company's grave.
I'm a member of the Liberal Democrat party, the third party over here.
If you have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democrats#Ele ctoral_results and note that there's 650ish seats in the UK House of Commons, you'll see that third parties with quite a lot more votes than that can still fail to secure electoral reform.
Of course you're a kook with a chip on his shoulder, so you didn't actually RTFA before flinging uninformed accusations of substandard journalism. Facts, who needs em? If Slashdot says the Reg says something, then that's what the Reg damn well says, right?
Hmm, play the man not the ball....
Actually, I did read the article. It said that, while nothing was compulsory, pubs were being leant on to basically say 'if you don't do this, we'll give you very difficult license renewal conditions', and certainly implied it was being evaluated for a national rollout.
Bluntly, The Register has a reputation for over-sensationalist stories of dubious sourcing, and its rumours proving unfounded. They've here published a story that, if true as they'd presented it, would most likely be all over the papers. Except no-one else seems to be carrying it...
They've then published it at close of business for the week. Not a very likely time for them having received a press release and then written it up, so it does smack a bit of publishing when they knew it'd go all weekend without anything to knock it off the top or for others to correct it.
If I see this story elsewhere, I will believe it. While it's only The Register carrying it, it's too sensational for me to believe.
Named quotes or not, this story is high enough on the giggle scale for me to want a stronger source than The Register. I'd say the same if it was the Daily Express or Daily Mail carrying it.
I've looked, and I can't find one. I have to say I'm suspicious of it going out at 17:45 on Friday too - corroboration or denial can't be quick under those circumstances.
How, exactly, would this work anyway? Are they proposing even longer queues to get into pubs, and mandatory security personnel at the doors of all licensed premesis? How would they determine if you've crept in (say, via the beer garden, many of which couldn't easily have access controlled without fundamental modification) without fingerprinting? If you went in to the garden, would you need to be rechecked every time you went back in? Maybe they'd need to fingerprint all customers as part of the sale, and reject if it didn't match one of their live entries - I can see that being popular with staff...
This seems to have enough problems to make it either unworkable or ineffective (and possibly both), and would be the dream of every right-wing media commentator for attacking 'Blair's Nanny State' (not a viewpoint I subscribe to) even more than they do already.
So - until I personally see a fingerprinting station in a pub, or hear about it from a news source with a better reputation for reliability than The Register, I'm not buying this one.
Agreed. Evenly weighted (or biased according to preferences) shuffle is far more useful than random.
In my last job, I listened to MP3s all day while working. I'd got RoboDJ feeding in the playlist, and Audioscrobbler logging the results.
Which turned out - that, remarkably consistently, Iron Maiden, Placebo and System Of A Down (typically 'Aerials' from Toxicity) got played more than their weightings justified, while Deep Purple measurably less than theirs. Including compensating for number of tracks held.
It may have been random, it may have been provable that each run had even distribution, but in the runs I was doing there it would have been far more useful if the computer had logged what it had already played, and tried to keep a track from getting too far outside its stated range. Less random, yes - less what I asked the computer for, definitely not.
I don't play a great wide range at the moment, but have done this in the past. So, over the years (and in no particular order or care for numbers):
Sinclair Spectrum: * 3D Deathchase
Amiga: * The Chaos Engine * Zeewolf * Skidmarks * Dieser Zug * Speedball II
Wintel: * Battlezone * Transport Tycoon * TIE Fighter * GTA1 * Quake 1
PS2: * GT4 * Stock Car Speedway (if you've not tried it and see it, get it! Normally cheap, and racing on dirt short ovals is such great fun!) * Simpsons Hit & Run * Super Monkey Ball * WRC3 * IndyCar / Nascar 06 (either, they're interchangeable for this for me)
Over here, some of the best investigative journalism about government and corporate failings I've ever seen was on the Mark Thomas Comedy Product - http://www.mtcp.co.uk/.
As with others, I think this is definitely a bad idea, as it stands. But...
I would _love_ to see the extensible race game that this is indirectly proposing. I want to see manufacturers releasing models of their new models that we could download and start playing with. I want to be able to pick up new tracks just like FPS players can download new maps. How about racing IndyCars round Brooklands, or WRC cars on the Targa Florio or TT Mountain Course? How about Clermont Ferrand, or the Gross Glockner hillclimb course?
GT4 showed what's possible, but didn't go far enough. THe full extensible race game, when it hopefully appears, will have some marvellous possibilities for the anorak.
There are limitations to phone conversations due to wiretapping rules, but when you send me nude pics of your beautiful 300 lb naked self, you have no right to tell me what to do with them.
I like an album that's constructed as a musical whole rather than just a collection of songs as much as anyone, but...
(from Wikipedia)
The term "record album" originated from the fact that 78 RPM Phonograph disc records were kept together in a book resembling a photo album.
Albums, since day one, have been playable in small chunks in the order you choose.
The major problem here does seem to be record label contracts, but what's new there?
(New bands - don't sign the major label deals. Go with the independents like CD Baby, retain more control and more money per sale. If enough good new bands go this way, it won't take long for the major labels to realise all that's left is the rubbish and start being a bit more sensible. Music fans - use services like Last.FM, and pick up on the bands you'd never otherwise hear but would like anyway.)
Had a problem last week that I'd never seen before...
I had to reinstall XP Pro at home, so duly provided my license key during installation. Much to my displeasure, I was then required to go through the whole WGA problem to get some critical security updates.
It flagged my license as a dud, and put my code on screen for me to see and sort out.
Except that it didn't put in my code - the one I'd set when I installed Windows - but a completely different code...
Slashdot Mirror
The flip-side is that, on some issues, it is quite common to refuse to accept any explanation that _isn't_ grounded in science - a religions explanation isn't scientific, ergo it's wrong. I (largely) agree with what you seem to be saying, but the follow-on reasoning from that of many is decidedly suspect IMO.
They think they're not aiming at me, but I'm still on their radar. It's absurd that I should have to buy an expensive 'professional' model to achieve something the cheap model would be quite capable of doing were it not given an artificial restriction - assuming this is even offered as an option. Buying laptops with XP Pro rather than Home got difficult enough and I don't want to end up having to jump through fifteen hoops to achieve something that should be perfectly normal.
Linux returns of netbooks have been far higher than Windows, from what I've seen. People have got used to running lots at once and, if they're suddenly told they can't, I'd expect Windows returns to suddenly climb as well.
(Assuming of course that the netbook market doesn't go the way of the PDA market. I _love_ having proper portable computers again - I was an old-style Psion user and having that sort of thing at my fingertips is just brilliant. Kinda worried that we might have an overhyped market that promptly dies because it can't sustain the hype though...)
That's about it, really (though I've written quite a lot of code in a freezing office on the weekend - huge motivation boosts productivity for obvious reasons).
What kills productivity? Colleagues interrupting my train of thought, either by requesting my input or simply by doing something that inherently distracts. Sharing an office with sales staff can be a killer, simply because they're so often on the phone or running round assembling information. Music can help with the happy place but isn't even always on at home (and I love music, have far too many albums at my fingertips :-)) - its benefit for work is partly comfort but mostly for me in providing a background noise I can predict and so tune out. It might as well be a white noise generator in some ways.
I've been in offices where you shivered all morning, or where every last movement caused sweat to drip off you - neither was very productive. I can type just as easily on a laptop (heck, I've written a fair bit of code on a 9" netbook) but accept I'm unusual in that way :-) - but a machine that gets in your way is never ideal.
What can be the biggest killer though? Motivation. You tell me you code as efficiently when presented with a task which will achieve almost nothing of benefit if it ever goes live and involves large-scale maintenance on a poorly-built legacy codebase. We do our best work when there's a reward of pride, and when we know that our best work is still only polishing a turd, it's far harder to summon the energy.
Yes, but this surely presupposes that there are no observable phenomena with unobservable causes?
I confess I'm not remotely an expert in the field, but my interested observer perception is of a bootstrap problem in pretty much all scenarios. If we believe all matter was formed in a Big Bang of which we detect traces that match current hypothesese, what was the cause of the Big Bang event? I love and value science, but am deeply uncomfortable with the quasi-religious assertions from some that if it can't be measured then it isn't real. We've learnt to measure a great many things which we previously couldn't.
In all honesty though, if you wish to oppose intelligent design, let it be taught. The underground, opposed, rebel argument that They don't want you to hear will always have power - if you honestly believe it's rubbish, teach its tenets and then teach why you believe they don't match the data. If you're a good teacher with good information and the students are intellectually up to the argument, they'll likely agree and the rest weren't likely to have their minds changed either way in any case.
I've got a netbook, which gets used heavily as an ultraportable machine. As long as you're sensible, it's fine. It's far from unusual for it to be running: ...and I'm already over the limit while very plausibly doing a single task (albeit not a typical one for a netbook, but one that is surprisingly usable from experience). I'm working on some graphics software at present - perhaps I'm checking something in Paintshop Pro or similar. I use the Windows calculator a lot (lazy I know :-) - that would suddenly become unviable.
* Visual Studio
* OpenOffice showing some documentation or notes
* Web browser
* DB program of some description, usually SQLite Admin.
Why, why, why? Anyway, as has been pointed out, plenty of apps seem to have already found ways round this. Annoy your customers in their day-to-day use and they'll find ways to stop the annoyance - if that means you're creating a group motivated to hack your security, that's just a terrible idea.
Stay out of your users' way and let them work the way they want to. If I'm daft enough to want to try to host a commercial website or want to do serious software development on a netbook, that's my problem.
(Disclaimer - I don't know the patent in detail, I haven't read it, only the summaries here.)
;-)
I worked for a small UK-based LMS vendor between October 2000 and March 2006. We deployed a huge number of bespoke and off-the-shelf LMSs to customers, mostly in the UK but a few overseas. For the first year, I was their sole developer, and was responsible for maintenance of what was already in the wild. I'm not saying who they are here just in case Blackboard's lawyers are bored
Not one of these systems prohibited administrators from running courses, and I can't think of any reason why we would have done - I met near enough all our clients in the early stages of their projects and I don't remember any ever querying this. It'd have been more work to reduce functionality and (through likely user habits) security. Admins had all the normal tools you'd expect, could do any monitoring, mentoring etc, and could also run courses.
The idea that a jury of my peers could consider my _not_ doing something stupid to be an amazing innovation is frankly horrifying. Something has gone horribly wrong here.
Let them be pissed. I've lived in towns with a bigger population :-)
Mac DD disks used CLV not CAV motors, rather like early CD-ROMs. This meant you got bettter disk capacity but you needed a very special controller / drive to read it.
They dropped this for HD in the interests of compatibility.
'... all the assorted crap OEMs load...'
Hmm.
* Windows Media Player
* Windows Movie Maker
* CD burning wizard
* Zip files wizard
* Outlook Express (you try explaining why it's needed on a server OS, or removing it...)
* MSN
* Windows Messenger
I'm sure I've missed something, please feel free to enlighten me.
US car companies do well in Europe with locally designed vehicles though.
GM? Vauxhall / Opel and 'Chevrolet' (Daewoo), completely different model range.
Ford? Still Ford, but the only shared lines is the Ranger.
Chrysler? Tiny player over here. Jeeps sell but that's about it.
US cars emphatically do _not_ sell well in Europe. Few particularly bother even trying.
At a former employer, we had a standard technical test. If an interviewee passed the interview, we got them to submit a very simple web app. A few hundred lines of code, a few database tables - the sort of thing any competent dev could turn out in an hour or two max.
(As an aside - we considered rejecting one guy for turning in a solution that was so large and complex we didn't believe he'd written in in the time we'd asked no matter how brilliant, and another for writing it on Christmas morning in spite of having young children. Two who were hired in desperation included one who unexpectedly turned up to take the test in person then submitted IE-only interface code with a major bug in its database code, or a chap who did the test in the wrong language and was politely asked to try again in the right language this time...)
Anyway, this chap looked OK, interviewed well and showed some good looking examples of his work. So test him.
The test came back and worked well enough - but as soon as we opened the database, he was history. The core of the data was in around 100 fields of one row of one table with no key - almost impossible to upgrade or scale, and frankly a pretty longwinded way to build it. He'd demonstrated no understanding at all of relational databases or how to design them, which was a prerequisite, so we fished out some basic references on relational databases for him.
Hang on a mo...
They've twice been sued under anti-trust laws by the US Government. They've twice been convicted, and twice had sanctions applied to them as a consequence.
They're still under investigation in the EU but have had sanctions on some of the issues.
Whether the sanctions have been effective or not is another matter - but there's no way they've won every time. And frankly, if the PC manufacturers had better lawyers and bigger balls, going back to the courts to say 'This company you convicted of monopolistic practices is doing this to us' would likely get results.
They'll go down eventually. I hate their present level of domination - but it can't last forever. Eventually people will realise that OpenOffice and other such packages are just fine, eventually people will get an alternative OS like Linux up to realistic end-user standards, and MS' present illegally gained and maintained monopoly will no longer be able to find heir less successful activities. At which point, Microsoft dies.
And I for one will happily play any non-Xbox dancing game on their company's grave.
(UK reader here)
I paid GBP99 for my PS2, but that was late in its life.
I'm really pretty sure that it debuted at GBP299, as did the X-Box and the original PlayStation. I think the Saturn debuted at GBP399.
299.00 GBP = 570.145 USD (From XE.com)
Now, I'm aware that we tend to get pretty badly screwed on new electronics, but still...
(And also, this does rather suggest there is a market for this sort of thing at that cost level.)
I'm a Brit.
e ctoral_results and note that there's 650ish seats in the UK House of Commons, you'll see that third parties with quite a lot more votes than that can still fail to secure electoral reform.
I'm a member of the Liberal Democrat party, the third party over here.
If you have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democrats#El
Hmm, play the man not the ball....
Actually, I did read the article. It said that, while nothing was compulsory, pubs were being leant on to basically say 'if you don't do this, we'll give you very difficult license renewal conditions', and certainly implied it was being evaluated for a national rollout.
Bluntly, The Register has a reputation for over-sensationalist stories of dubious sourcing, and its rumours proving unfounded. They've here published a story that, if true as they'd presented it, would most likely be all over the papers. Except no-one else seems to be carrying it...
They've then published it at close of business for the week. Not a very likely time for them having received a press release and then written it up, so it does smack a bit of publishing when they knew it'd go all weekend without anything to knock it off the top or for others to correct it.
If I see this story elsewhere, I will believe it. While it's only The Register carrying it, it's too sensational for me to believe.
Named quotes or not, this story is high enough on the giggle scale for me to want a stronger source than The Register. I'd say the same if it was the Daily Express or Daily Mail carrying it.
I've looked, and I can't find one. I have to say I'm suspicious of it going out at 17:45 on Friday too - corroboration or denial can't be quick under those circumstances.
How, exactly, would this work anyway? Are they proposing even longer queues to get into pubs, and mandatory security personnel at the doors of all licensed premesis? How would they determine if you've crept in (say, via the beer garden, many of which couldn't easily have access controlled without fundamental modification) without fingerprinting? If you went in to the garden, would you need to be rechecked every time you went back in? Maybe they'd need to fingerprint all customers as part of the sale, and reject if it didn't match one of their live entries - I can see that being popular with staff...
This seems to have enough problems to make it either unworkable or ineffective (and possibly both), and would be the dream of every right-wing media commentator for attacking 'Blair's Nanny State' (not a viewpoint I subscribe to) even more than they do already.
So - until I personally see a fingerprinting station in a pub, or hear about it from a news source with a better reputation for reliability than The Register, I'm not buying this one.
Agreed. Evenly weighted (or biased according to preferences) shuffle is far more useful than random.
In my last job, I listened to MP3s all day while working. I'd got RoboDJ feeding in the playlist, and Audioscrobbler logging the results.
Which turned out - that, remarkably consistently, Iron Maiden, Placebo and System Of A Down (typically 'Aerials' from Toxicity) got played more than their weightings justified, while Deep Purple measurably less than theirs. Including compensating for number of tracks held.
It may have been random, it may have been provable that each run had even distribution, but in the runs I was doing there it would have been far more useful if the computer had logged what it had already played, and tried to keep a track from getting too far outside its stated range. Less random, yes - less what I asked the computer for, definitely not.
I don't play a great wide range at the moment, but have done this in the past. So, over the years (and in no particular order or care for numbers):
Sinclair Spectrum:
* 3D Deathchase
Amiga:
* The Chaos Engine
* Zeewolf
* Skidmarks
* Dieser Zug
* Speedball II
Wintel:
* Battlezone
* Transport Tycoon
* TIE Fighter
* GTA1
* Quake 1
PS2:
* GT4
* Stock Car Speedway (if you've not tried it and see it, get it! Normally cheap, and racing on dirt short ovals is such great fun!)
* Simpsons Hit & Run
* Super Monkey Ball
* WRC3
* IndyCar / Nascar 06 (either, they're interchangeable for this for me)
Agreed.
Over here, some of the best investigative journalism about government and corporate failings I've ever seen was on the Mark Thomas Comedy Product - http://www.mtcp.co.uk/.
As with others, I think this is definitely a bad idea, as it stands. But...
I would _love_ to see the extensible race game that this is indirectly proposing. I want to see manufacturers releasing models of their new models that we could download and start playing with. I want to be able to pick up new tracks just like FPS players can download new maps. How about racing IndyCars round Brooklands, or WRC cars on the Targa Florio or TT Mountain Course? How about Clermont Ferrand, or the Gross Glockner hillclimb course?
GT4 showed what's possible, but didn't go far enough. THe full extensible race game, when it hopefully appears, will have some marvellous possibilities for the anorak.
Not true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_release
Many rich people are rich _because_ they've managed to reduce the negotiable costs below everyone else's level, and hold them there.
I like an album that's constructed as a musical whole rather than just a collection of songs as much as anyone, but...
(from Wikipedia)
The term "record album" originated from the fact that 78 RPM Phonograph disc records were kept together in a book resembling a photo album.
Albums, since day one, have been playable in small chunks in the order you choose.
The major problem here does seem to be record label contracts, but what's new there?
(New bands - don't sign the major label deals. Go with the independents like CD Baby, retain more control and more money per sale. If enough good new bands go this way, it won't take long for the major labels to realise all that's left is the rubbish and start being a bit more sensible. Music fans - use services like Last.FM, and pick up on the bands you'd never otherwise hear but would like anyway.)
Agreed. A friend works in parts dispatch for a major car company, on the admin side.
Their pickers have, in the past, folded bumpers (fenders) and windscreens to make them fit onto the trucks...
Hi all
Had a problem last week that I'd never seen before...
I had to reinstall XP Pro at home, so duly provided my license key during installation. Much to my displeasure, I was then required to go through the whole WGA problem to get some critical security updates.
It flagged my license as a dud, and put my code on screen for me to see and sort out.
Except that it didn't put in my code - the one I'd set when I installed Windows - but a completely different code...