Anybody who is a threat to my safety on the road doesn't deserve to have privacy...
Draft the legislation...
"Any person possessing over the legal percentage limit of blood-alcohol must purchase and install a device to disable any automobile before operating it."
And I think you should have someone in your family killed by a drunk driver. I just want to make this entire post say F You to release some anger I've built up by reading your mindless post.
First off, I would say that you have a bit of a heavily slanted view on the subject, due to your experience. Cool down....
You're shooting yourself in the foot with this counterargument. The PP is saying that it's an ineffective solution, and giving reasons, and you're getting all mad because it's a solution, no matter how ineffective.
I, as well, think it's an ineffective idea. It's an inelegant solution, in my opinion, simply for the fact that from the driver's perspective, it's a completely dumb idea. Why would you pay for something that has no useful function aside from disabling your car? Anyone altruistic enough to want one of these would, if they were frugal, just buy a more versatile portable breathalyzer or test kit and tell themselves, "nope, I ain't drivin' tonight!" when it goes off.
Oh, and here in Canuk-ada, you can be arrested for intoxicated driving even if you pass electronic tests. The police do that "touch your nose" and "walk the line" thing too if they have reasonable suspicion of "alternative" or magically undetectable intoxication.
Although it's less legally defensible, it does make sense from a public safety standpoint, in that the real thing to determine is a person's fitness to drive.
Ebooks as a marketing tool... gives me an interesting idea. Give away an ebook for free in, say, PDF format.
Pages 1-20: Normal, easily-readable PDF Pages 20-..: Introduce some slight, worsening defect in the type that makes it difficult or eye-straining to read, but is unnoticable
People read the first 20 pages, but find themselves eye-strained after a while, supposedly from the problems inherent to reading on a screen, so they buy the dead-tree version of the book.
Okay, it's terribly evil-bastardic, but I wonder if it'd work.
That still won't make dialup any faster than 56kbps. It's the suck speed, not the blow speed, that's the issue.
Although, I know a few clients are integrating automated BT and Coral Cache downloading.
Re:On-demand is the future, today.
on
Television Reloaded
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The entire Internet is $40 a month via broadband. It's interactive, and offer infinite number of channels.
The problem with that statement, though, is that when content becomes popular, the problem inherent to Internet popularity (melty server) usually forces the popular site to become pay-based just to afford the hosting.
If content on par with premium cable were to go online in any significant way, it would doubtless be as a pay service, probably piecemeal to each provider, which would either be full of ads or other trade-offs, or would be a paid service above and beyond the regular Internet fees. Basically, it's apples and oranges.
It might need a different file format, though, for advertisers' sakes. One problem with non-streamed digital distribution is that the numbers are never quite sure on the difference between downloads and views. It's harder to convince sponsors to pay for x-number of eyeballs when there's no guarantee past "the bits were delivered".
For the anti-DRM/spyware crowd: how would you feel about a free-TV app that called home with per-view "hit" statistics when a tagged file was played?
Even if it's not more, the key is having enough people, which I imagine there may be, what with the email-only grandparents, the think-of-the-children moms, the what's-this-on-button-do people, and the large and profitable sector of people who do something else with their lives and can't be bothered to learn more than is necessary.
Add a name that's well known (for better or worse) for any-idiot-can GUIs, and there might still be some life left in AOL's ooh-shiny way of working, if they can get their targeting pegged right.
I could see AOL playing out like the old Packard Bell name, with someone buying AOL primarily for the name, then withering or reselling the original company's guts and trading some new product line on the goodwill of the old name.
Maybe not now, but it could be a possibility if AOL slides further into irrelevance.
It's not a player, it's strictly an automated downloader. Technically, a Podcast client can be set to download (by the RSS file you point it to) any type of file whatsoever. It's just taken off first as an audio mechanism, so it's mostly geared toward audio.
I'm not trying to "make you a believer" or anything, this is just my reason for being a podcast fan.
I listened to them at work... granted, I felt like the only one pushing for more on-computer frendliness to Podcasts and less iPod/Tunes centrism... but anyhow, I had a job that consisted of color-correcting, removing blemishes, and tweaking an entire image archive in Photoshop. The brain was flatlining, but the eyes were completely in use, so I couldn't do all the mindless web-surfing to keep a healthy, sane mind. Podcasting came as a real relief, because I could find content about the boring crap I found interesting (IT, scripting, web, RPGs... general geek fare) while still staying productive.
Really, I think the best audience is people who have something monotonous or primarily physical to do, such as exersize or work, but want something with more meat than music.
That's why you use a Podcasting client to download it late at night or during some other downtime. Granted, it means dialing up, but... well... if you're on 56k, you've got to know you're going to either have crappy media or have to jump through hoops for better-quality media.
And what I am suggesting is DEMOCRACY at work. Ain't it a bitch?
I suppose that if you got enough people on your side to create a direct vote to remove copyright protection it would be democratic. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be right.
What you do for a living? If you do anything which isn't directly involved in the production of hard, physical goods, I hope you'll come to see the hypocracy in your stance.
The reason copyright protection exists is that creating content takes work, and while the physical nature of many other forms of creation (making physical goods, which cannot be duplicated without a similar expenditure of effort) leads to scarcity that drives a fair asking price, no such natural restrictions exist on content that may take just as much legitimate effort to create. Hence, another method to drive a fair asking price has been created.
Further down the same road, why pay for services? Those people serving you at the restaurant... they aren't really GIVING you anything, are they? The lawn care person, the teacher, the housecleaner... you don't HAVE anything that you didn't before employing their services. What's more, you don't have anything they can take back, so why not just refuse to pay?
You might say "Yes, but I'm just getting a copy of the work... the artist didn't do anything more for me specifically." This is true, but by that nature, you should be paying a few thousand dollars or so for every CD you DO buy. Copying and timeshifting makes something that costs loads of money to make and market available at a much lower cost.
I'm not saying that price is required, just that the rights of distribution being held by the creator is a good thing, since similarily arduous tasks have the same protection through physical laws. And, yes, enforcement is a bitch when you get slapped with the lawsuit, and I'll fight on the side of anyone who's unfairly punished, but in many cases, the rules of the game were laid out well in advance.
As for your "movement", you forgot to mention the option of disagreeing and being the fuck in the way... I'd say that's a valid option, non?
(I really should just save one of these sometime-- slashdot-copyright-rant.txt-- so I don't have to keep typing it out all the time.)
Not to mention the fact that you'd need some sort of 360-degree treadmill so you didn't run off somewhere.
Personally, I'm suprised no one's come up with a VR-headset type of sensory system using virtual maps that are analogous to a real space. Hell, you could even do some interesting things with laser-tag guns, no visual overlay, but headphones with overlaid gun/laser/environmental sounds.
You also have to take into account, though, that there are people who will (whether they admit it or not) learn to live with a small amount of hassle or downtime in return for cheaper hosting. I, for instance, go with a "bargain" shared host that has some downtime every so often (an admin script gone nuts, attack on another site, or some such issue) However, I still like them for their lower price, dependable technical support when things go wrong, and their flexibility.
As for companies not doing well with low-power servers, I can imagine that it might have been the "McLean Deluxe" marketing problem. Don't sell the server on "Less calories", sell it on "Tastes great... and, oh yeah, it's leaner, too".
Slashdot Mirror
This is where you, the people, form a business.
Or just get everyone to open up their APs and put them by the window...
Anybody who is a threat to my safety on the road doesn't deserve to have privacy...
Draft the legislation...
"Any person possessing over the legal percentage limit of blood-alcohol must purchase and install a device to disable any automobile before operating it."
Huh?
And I think you should have someone in your family killed by a drunk driver. I just want to make this entire post say F You to release some anger I've built up by reading your mindless post.
...
First off, I would say that you have a bit of a heavily slanted view on the subject, due to your experience. Cool down.
You're shooting yourself in the foot with this counterargument. The PP is saying that it's an ineffective solution, and giving reasons, and you're getting all mad because it's a solution, no matter how ineffective.
I, as well, think it's an ineffective idea. It's an inelegant solution, in my opinion, simply for the fact that from the driver's perspective, it's a completely dumb idea. Why would you pay for something that has no useful function aside from disabling your car? Anyone altruistic enough to want one of these would, if they were frugal, just buy a more versatile portable breathalyzer or test kit and tell themselves, "nope, I ain't drivin' tonight!" when it goes off.
You lost me somewhere between "10-12 time offenders" and "One DUI, lose the privelege for a year".
Oh, and here in Canuk-ada, you can be arrested for intoxicated driving even if you pass electronic tests. The police do that "touch your nose" and "walk the line" thing too if they have reasonable suspicion of "alternative" or magically undetectable intoxication.
Although it's less legally defensible, it does make sense from a public safety standpoint, in that the real thing to determine is a person's fitness to drive.
(And, yes, it's a bullshit argument... it was intended more... humorously?)
Hey, what gives? It's my URL field, I'll type in it if I want to!
Open-apple or closed-apple?
Ebooks as a marketing tool... gives me an interesting idea. Give away an ebook for free in, say, PDF format.
Pages 1-20: Normal, easily-readable PDF
Pages 20-..: Introduce some slight, worsening defect in the type that makes it difficult or eye-straining to read, but is unnoticable
People read the first 20 pages, but find themselves eye-strained after a while, supposedly from the problems inherent to reading on a screen, so they buy the dead-tree version of the book.
Okay, it's terribly evil-bastardic, but I wonder if it'd work.
It's an MP3 on a webserver. There's about as much vendor lock-in as any other website, so the "charge money" issue is pretty much moot.
That still won't make dialup any faster than 56kbps. It's the suck speed, not the blow speed, that's the issue.
Although, I know a few clients are integrating automated BT and Coral Cache downloading.
The entire Internet is $40 a month via broadband. It's interactive, and offer infinite number of channels.
The problem with that statement, though, is that when content becomes popular, the problem inherent to Internet popularity (melty server) usually forces the popular site to become pay-based just to afford the hosting.
If content on par with premium cable were to go online in any significant way, it would doubtless be as a pay service, probably piecemeal to each provider, which would either be full of ads or other trade-offs, or would be a paid service above and beyond the regular Internet fees. Basically, it's apples and oranges.
It might need a different file format, though, for advertisers' sakes. One problem with non-streamed digital distribution is that the numbers are never quite sure on the difference between downloads and views. It's harder to convince sponsors to pay for x-number of eyeballs when there's no guarantee past "the bits were delivered".
For the anti-DRM/spyware crowd: how would you feel about a free-TV app that called home with per-view "hit" statistics when a tagged file was played?
What, so he's just been a pessimist all his life. Can ya' blame 'im?
Even if it's not more, the key is having enough people, which I imagine there may be, what with the email-only grandparents, the think-of-the-children moms, the what's-this-on-button-do people, and the large and profitable sector of people who do something else with their lives and can't be bothered to learn more than is necessary.
Add a name that's well known (for better or worse) for any-idiot-can GUIs, and there might still be some life left in AOL's ooh-shiny way of working, if they can get their targeting pegged right.
I could see AOL playing out like the old Packard Bell name, with someone buying AOL primarily for the name, then withering or reselling the original company's guts and trading some new product line on the goodwill of the old name.
Maybe not now, but it could be a possibility if AOL slides further into irrelevance.
It's not a player, it's strictly an automated downloader. Technically, a Podcast client can be set to download (by the RSS file you point it to) any type of file whatsoever. It's just taken off first as an audio mechanism, so it's mostly geared toward audio.
I'm not trying to "make you a believer" or anything, this is just my reason for being a podcast fan.
I listened to them at work... granted, I felt like the only one pushing for more on-computer frendliness to Podcasts and less iPod/Tunes centrism... but anyhow, I had a job that consisted of color-correcting, removing blemishes, and tweaking an entire image archive in Photoshop. The brain was flatlining, but the eyes were completely in use, so I couldn't do all the mindless web-surfing to keep a healthy, sane mind. Podcasting came as a real relief, because I could find content about the boring crap I found interesting (IT, scripting, web, RPGs... general geek fare) while still staying productive.
Really, I think the best audience is people who have something monotonous or primarily physical to do, such as exersize or work, but want something with more meat than music.
That's why you use a Podcasting client to download it late at night or during some other downtime. Granted, it means dialing up, but... well... if you're on 56k, you've got to know you're going to either have crappy media or have to jump through hoops for better-quality media.
Be happy it's not streaming.
How about just some fingerprint dust near the computer and a Jell-O finger?
This is gonna get reeeeal recursive reeeeal fast...
And what I am suggesting is DEMOCRACY at work. Ain't it a bitch?
I suppose that if you got enough people on your side to create a direct vote to remove copyright protection it would be democratic. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be right.
What you do for a living? If you do anything which isn't directly involved in the production of hard, physical goods, I hope you'll come to see the hypocracy in your stance.
The reason copyright protection exists is that creating content takes work, and while the physical nature of many other forms of creation (making physical goods, which cannot be duplicated without a similar expenditure of effort) leads to scarcity that drives a fair asking price, no such natural restrictions exist on content that may take just as much legitimate effort to create. Hence, another method to drive a fair asking price has been created.
Further down the same road, why pay for services? Those people serving you at the restaurant... they aren't really GIVING you anything, are they? The lawn care person, the teacher, the housecleaner... you don't HAVE anything that you didn't before employing their services. What's more, you don't have anything they can take back, so why not just refuse to pay?
You might say "Yes, but I'm just getting a copy of the work... the artist didn't do anything more for me specifically." This is true, but by that nature, you should be paying a few thousand dollars or so for every CD you DO buy. Copying and timeshifting makes something that costs loads of money to make and market available at a much lower cost.
I'm not saying that price is required, just that the rights of distribution being held by the creator is a good thing, since similarily arduous tasks have the same protection through physical laws. And, yes, enforcement is a bitch when you get slapped with the lawsuit, and I'll fight on the side of anyone who's unfairly punished, but in many cases, the rules of the game were laid out well in advance.
As for your "movement", you forgot to mention the option of disagreeing and being the fuck in the way... I'd say that's a valid option, non?
(I really should just save one of these sometime-- slashdot-copyright-rant.txt-- so I don't have to keep typing it out all the time.)
Unless you just want to use, without extending.
Not to mention the fact that you'd need some sort of 360-degree treadmill so you didn't run off somewhere.
Personally, I'm suprised no one's come up with a VR-headset type of sensory system using virtual maps that are analogous to a real space. Hell, you could even do some interesting things with laser-tag guns, no visual overlay, but headphones with overlaid gun/laser/environmental sounds.
Or has it been done?
You also have to take into account, though, that there are people who will (whether they admit it or not) learn to live with a small amount of hassle or downtime in return for cheaper hosting. I, for instance, go with a "bargain" shared host that has some downtime every so often (an admin script gone nuts, attack on another site, or some such issue) However, I still like them for their lower price, dependable technical support when things go wrong, and their flexibility.
As for companies not doing well with low-power servers, I can imagine that it might have been the "McLean Deluxe" marketing problem. Don't sell the server on "Less calories", sell it on "Tastes great... and, oh yeah, it's leaner, too".