Well, yes they get divided equally based on a Byzantine formula ensuring that (a) the label won't have to pay anyone anything because of the tiny fractions and (b) that the administrative fees and other overhead accumulated in simply processing the payment, keeping track, etc. results in a small charge against each artist's account - deducted from royalties due.
Read the article, interesting take. Those crazy Finns and their free alternative operating systems and hitherto free music.
Okay, say you're in a carpool to and fro work. Everyone chips in for gas and whatnot while you listen to your latest mix CD, you're travelling for business - but not as a business. Probably, no - you won't pay. But what about a business trip?
But what if you're using a company car to go pick up Vinnie The Venture Capitalist at the airport and you play a mix of his favorite music. Do you have to pay then?
What about a birthday party for little Alex? Do I have to pay for playing his favorite mp3 playlist over my home stereo?
Good posting, except for mis-spelling the name of the Iliad
Good posting, except for the mis-spelling of the word Lotus.:)
Don't know that I'd classify The Iliad or The Odyssey as science fiction and you make a good point in questioning that. I suppose Icarus comes closest to Old World science fiction - at least in Western culture.
Overall, my eyes are dry. With the exception of Secret Of Vulcan Fury, all the other games were cancelled or died for good reason. I'd much rather have a cemetery full of unreleased poopy games than a shelf full of them.
First, "officially" Firefly is not being cancelled:
The current time slot occupant "Firefly" will go on hiatus. Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman stressed that "Firefly" has not been canceled. New episodes will continue to air throughout December and the network is considering a new time slot for the series.
Electronic Media (article link)
Call me a skeptic, but I've heard this before and it will certainly make a lot of people think twice before jettisoning Firefly out of the airlock if you join the campaign to save the show.
If you want to support what many (including me) consider to be the best show on television, join the campaign to support Firefly by voting to save it at SaveMyShow.com, by sending a postcard asking Fox to save the show to:
FOX BROADCASTING CO
ATTN: SANDY GRUSHOW, CHAIRMAN, FOX ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
10201 WEST PICO BLVD
LOS ANGELES CA 90035
Donate (via paypal) to Firefly: Immediate Assistance to support the campaign to save the show.
Put a banner, graphic, or link on your web site to support the show.
Our glorious leader will leverage these tools to usher in a new era of safety and prosperity, unfettered by the shackles of complicated and antiquated laws. Never fear, no terrorist will be able to hide behind the The Constitution.
Of course, we rely on your cooperation and your TIPS to ensure our enduring freedom.
Everything is warm and fuzzy. War is peace.
We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Sony supports screwing with their boxes. Certainly not with regard to piracy, but promoting by promoting dinking with the OS & generally giving folks a big thumbs-up with hobby-izing their platform. They want ubiquity, and they're gonna get it.
I own an X-Box and a smattering of PCs - one runs Windows XP/Linux the others Linux when they're not in various stages of disassembly/reassembly. My X-Box sits unmodded and unused. It was fun for a while. A PS2 is on the shopping list this X-Mas, mostly for Linux. It nice to have something for Free (as in Freedom) Play.
Oh my God, you're so right. I mean, what kind of clueless idiot would slog through the dregs of crap posted here on/. -
- much less post a rant about it.
If our existence and this blog's existence is so fucking meaningless...then how pathetic and useless is your contribution?
ID cards can be lost or stolen. Iris scanners take too bloody long (>10-15 seconds staring into one) and watching to see whether someone's going to grab an ID or a gun is tiresome.
Why not implant a chip in the forehead of everyone? A little stick and *bam* you're done. Serial number of chip keyed to your DNA/fingerprints/ass prints. Or you can simply use a barcode tatooed on the back of a hand in invisible ink that shows up under UV. A simple *bleep* with a barcode scanner and you've identified Citizen X or Criminal Y.
</sarcasm>
People have soundtracks: mp3 players, mix CDs, mix cassette tapes. We hire DJs to keep the music pumping at our parties. Folks make requests - of live performers, of radio spindoctors. Each person has different tastes and has a music mix for each occassion, even if it's just the music in their heads.
My point is that each person wants to control how they listen and what they hear. It's about expressing yourself through the music you play, even if it's just playing a CD track or listening to an mp3 (or ogg). You don't get more anti-freedom (totalitarian) than telling me what I must or cannot read/hear/watch/say or when I do so. Call me a "liberal" (gasp) "anti-capitalist" (the horror) consumer but when I buy books/movies/music/cableTV/satTV then I think that I have a right to read/watch/listen/touch it when, where, and how I want to.
Making it more difficult for me to enjoy new movies/music/books/whatever how and where I want to won't entice me to buy more. If a music CD/movie won't play on my computer - where I spend 80% of my waking time - or in my car (where I spend 15+ hours a week) or on my mp3 player at the gym (where I spend <.00000001% of my time) then I just won't bother with it. And neither will a zillion other people. It's not worth the trouble.
I'm glad they're pushing the envelope, with 100Gbpsi densities and 7200rpm notebooks we'll see notebook drives in the 100GB range that will bring disk subsystem performance to within desktop range. Wonder how long it will take for RAID 0/1 to be integrated into the MOBO?
I wouldn't fret too much about battery time, though. Fuel cells are just around the corner and will realize a 4-5x boost in battery power in the near term with the potential to go to 10x+ range. Near-instant recharge, half-weight in same volume.
That said, it's rant time:
<rant>
IMHO, IBM's track record with desktop drives sucks ass. I'm one of those unfortunate souls who got hit hard with failing GXP series drives. IBM dropped the ball big time and their behaviour during the whole debacle put them on my blacklist. Before I get hit with objections, let me say that it wasn't the fact that their drives failed (got them from different runs, different dates) that torqued me off. It happens; happened to Maxtor in '96-'97.
No, what gives me the red ass is their poor product replacement (after 4 replacements I still had bad drives; drives from Maxtor/WD worked fine - still working, in fact), shipping me DOA refurbs, and giving me the run around the whole time. That was the first (and last time) I've gotten bad customer service from IBM. I won't do business with a company that leaves me swinging in the breeze. </rant>
Man, did everyone just go to Amazon and order this? Read BN was out, now Amazon - I was lucky enough to get one for ~$14; seems like every time I added to my cart a book was gone a few seconds later. Damn, this is the first time I've seen inventory slashdotted.:)
I'm sure others have observed this, but this sort of behaviour and licensing scheme only pushes people toward Linux, BSD, and other open source solutions on the server end.
CIO:We should pass on this acquisition; they run Windows on everything.
CEO:What? So?
CIO:Well, we'll have to buy licenses for all the servers, client access licenses for every connection, and licenses for all the other software they have installed when we acquire them. We're talking several millon dollars.
CEO:Can't we just go to Linux?
CIO:Sure, but it'll take months to migrate, we'll have to port and test our applications, and we'll still have to pay the licensing fees if we acquire them before the migration is complete...
When something like this happens, it's little more than an embarassing public relations problem. If the news can't be completely supressed through advertising, perhaps it can be kept off the evening news and relegated to the back pages. It requires a well-coordinated PR firm, but hey that's what they're around for.
Sure, a few independent news agencies might pick it up and make a big deal about it - until someone goes whaling or starts cutting down redwoods. Few people pay much attention to the independent media anyway. Joe Sixpack doesn't subscribe to The Progressive.
On the local front, shut down the plant, and evacuate your American/European workers. Split them up and transfer them around. If someone makes noise, force them to sign an NDA for their severance packages. Spread liberal bribes on the local front, write the whole venture off, and wait for the hubbub to die down. If you want to stay in the region and resume operations, do so under the umbrella of a subsidiary. If it's too risky, simply relocate to another third-world region. It's not like there's a limited supply.
Unless you stay in the region, you really don't have to worry much about the local population. They're too poor to pursue legal action or be a security threat.
Besides, it's not as if they're white Christians, is it?
</sarcasm>
Talk about disappointment! I got Pac-Man (at $40+ according to my Dad) with my Atari 2600 back in 1982. Sucked ass!
But Adventure was tres cool; I spent many an hour playing that game. Combat was a favourite, but the coolest was Defender - the first game I flipped a million on. For the console, of course.
I'd love to mod you up; you're right and your post is damned insightful. When someone does a review of a product they're *supposed* to bitch about all the warts and blemishes of the product and point out the gee-whiz stuff too. Eugenia does just that.
When someone criticizes a product, most folks think they're bashing it. It's not like you ever hear how Nokia's phones suck on a CNN segment, but you sure do hear how cool they are. That's true with most "reviews". We should hail Eugenia for her thoroughness, not bash her for unvarnished opinion.
You may do well to check out the Peace Corps - especially with your language skills. *NOW* is the time for you to travel about and see the world; if you put it off you probably won't get around to it until retirement.
Drives fail, yes. But when a company has known manufacturing defects, lie about it for months, and still insists on endless RMAs with *more defective drives* instead of working products refunds then I'll never do business with them again.
I ordered 4 drives, only 1 of which lived beyond 10 days (and still runs) and each time I RMAed them, I kept having to send at least 1 drive back because it too was defective. Different machines, so the o'erclocking flame doesn't apply.
Drives fail, that's life. You RMA, replace, restore data, and move on. But IBM - in my opinion - defrauded me and a whole bunch of other people. They can rot in hell; I'll never buy from them again.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, yes they get divided equally based on a Byzantine formula ensuring that (a) the label won't have to pay anyone anything because of the tiny fractions and (b) that the administrative fees and other overhead accumulated in simply processing the payment, keeping track, etc. results in a small charge against each artist's account - deducted from royalties due.
Okay, say you're in a carpool to and fro work. Everyone chips in for gas and whatnot while you listen to your latest mix CD, you're travelling for business - but not as a business. Probably, no - you won't pay. But what about a business trip?
But what if you're using a company car to go pick up Vinnie The Venture Capitalist at the airport and you play a mix of his favorite music. Do you have to pay then?
What about a birthday party for little Alex? Do I have to pay for playing his favorite mp3 playlist over my home stereo?
Good posting, except for the mis-spelling of the word Lotus. :)
Don't know that I'd classify The Iliad or The Odyssey as science fiction and you make a good point in questioning that. I suppose Icarus comes closest to Old World science fiction - at least in Western culture.
My fave, though, remains Herbert's Dune.
Overall, my eyes are dry. With the exception of Secret Of Vulcan Fury, all the other games were cancelled or died for good reason. I'd much rather have a cemetery full of unreleased poopy games than a shelf full of them.
Call me a skeptic, but I've heard this before and it will certainly make a lot of people think twice before jettisoning Firefly out of the airlock if you join the campaign to save the show.
If you want to support what many (including me) consider to be the best show on television, join the campaign to support Firefly by voting to save it at SaveMyShow.com, by sending a postcard asking Fox to save the show to:
FOX BROADCASTING CO
ATTN: SANDY GRUSHOW, CHAIRMAN, FOX ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
10201 WEST PICO BLVD
LOS ANGELES CA 90035
Donate (via paypal) to Firefly: Immediate Assistance to support the campaign to save the show.
Put a banner, graphic, or link on your web site to support the show.
Total Information Awareness will be used for the security of all American citizens, watching over you with the compassion and leadership of a big broth---er, uh - a favorite uncle.
Our glorious leader will leverage these tools to usher in a new era of safety and prosperity, unfettered by the shackles of complicated and antiquated laws. Never fear, no terrorist will be able to hide behind the The Constitution.
Of course, we rely on your cooperation and your TIPS to ensure our enduring freedom.
Everything is warm and fuzzy. War is peace.
We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
I bought one of these t-shirts based on that theory and found the number of people who asked me about their computers actually increased. Doh. :(
I'm actually gonna stick it on ebay - bundled w/my games and extras. Figure WFT, might as well fund my foray into PS2.
I own an X-Box and a smattering of PCs - one runs Windows XP/Linux the others Linux when they're not in various stages of disassembly/reassembly. My X-Box sits unmodded and unused. It was fun for a while. A PS2 is on the shopping list this X-Mas, mostly for Linux. It nice to have something for Free (as in Freedom) Play.
Oh my God, you're so right. I mean, what kind of clueless idiot would slog through the dregs of crap posted here on /. -
- much less post a rant about it.
If our existence and this blog's existence is so fucking meaningless...then how pathetic and useless is your contribution?
Twas sarcasm, as I was promoting it as a good idea(TM) & making a religious reference that was probably a little too mundane now that I think on it.
ID cards can be lost or stolen. Iris scanners take too bloody long (>10-15 seconds staring into one) and watching to see whether someone's going to grab an ID or a gun is tiresome.
Why not implant a chip in the forehead of everyone? A little stick and *bam* you're done. Serial number of chip keyed to your DNA/fingerprints/ass prints. Or you can simply use a barcode tatooed on the back of a hand in invisible ink that shows up under UV. A simple *bleep* with a barcode scanner and you've identified Citizen X or Criminal Y.
</sarcasm>
...but I don't have time.
My point is that each person wants to control how they listen and what they hear. It's about expressing yourself through the music you play, even if it's just playing a CD track or listening to an mp3 (or ogg). You don't get more anti-freedom (totalitarian) than telling me what I must or cannot read/hear/watch/say or when I do so. Call me a "liberal" (gasp) "anti-capitalist" (the horror) consumer but when I buy books/movies/music/cableTV/satTV then I think that I have a right to read/watch/listen/touch it when, where, and how I want to.
Making it more difficult for me to enjoy new movies/music/books/whatever how and where I want to won't entice me to buy more. If a music CD/movie won't play on my computer - where I spend 80% of my waking time - or in my car (where I spend 15+ hours a week) or on my mp3 player at the gym (where I spend <.00000001% of my time) then I just won't bother with it. And neither will a zillion other people. It's not worth the trouble.
And that's the problem.
I'm going back to coding and watching V: The Original Miniseries on DVD.
Daughter: Jesus Christ, just forget the whole programming thing. [Starts SIMS Online]
...and I say tomatoe. ;-)
http://www.linksys.com/download/
I wouldn't fret too much about battery time, though. Fuel cells are just around the corner and will realize a 4-5x boost in battery power in the near term with the potential to go to 10x+ range. Near-instant recharge, half-weight in same volume.
That said, it's rant time:
<rant>
IMHO, IBM's track record with desktop drives sucks ass. I'm one of those unfortunate souls who got hit hard with failing GXP series drives. IBM dropped the ball big time and their behaviour during the whole debacle put them on my blacklist. Before I get hit with objections, let me say that it wasn't the fact that their drives failed (got them from different runs, different dates) that torqued me off. It happens; happened to Maxtor in '96-'97.
No, what gives me the red ass is their poor product replacement (after 4 replacements I still had bad drives; drives from Maxtor/WD worked fine - still working, in fact), shipping me DOA refurbs, and giving me the run around the whole time. That was the first (and last time) I've gotten bad customer service from IBM. I won't do business with a company that leaves me swinging in the breeze.
</rant>
Man, did everyone just go to Amazon and order this? Read BN was out, now Amazon - I was lucky enough to get one for ~$14; seems like every time I added to my cart a book was gone a few seconds later. Damn, this is the first time I've seen inventory slashdotted. :)
CIO:We should pass on this acquisition; they run Windows on everything.
CEO:What? So?
CIO:Well, we'll have to buy licenses for all the servers, client access licenses for every connection, and licenses for all the other software they have installed when we acquire them. We're talking several millon dollars.
CEO:Can't we just go to Linux?
CIO:Sure, but it'll take months to migrate, we'll have to port and test our applications, and we'll still have to pay the licensing fees if we acquire them before the migration is complete...
When something like this happens, it's little more than an embarassing public relations problem. If the news can't be completely supressed through advertising, perhaps it can be kept off the evening news and relegated to the back pages. It requires a well-coordinated PR firm, but hey that's what they're around for.
Sure, a few independent news agencies might pick it up and make a big deal about it - until someone goes whaling or starts cutting down redwoods. Few people pay much attention to the independent media anyway. Joe Sixpack doesn't subscribe to The Progressive.
On the local front, shut down the plant, and evacuate your American/European workers. Split them up and transfer them around. If someone makes noise, force them to sign an NDA for their severance packages. Spread liberal bribes on the local front, write the whole venture off, and wait for the hubbub to die down. If you want to stay in the region and resume operations, do so under the umbrella of a subsidiary. If it's too risky, simply relocate to another third-world region. It's not like there's a limited supply.
Unless you stay in the region, you really don't have to worry much about the local population. They're too poor to pursue legal action or be a security threat.
Besides, it's not as if they're white Christians, is it?
</sarcasm>
But Adventure was tres cool; I spent many an hour playing that game. Combat was a favourite, but the coolest was Defender - the first game I flipped a million on. For the console, of course.
When someone criticizes a product, most folks think they're bashing it. It's not like you ever hear how Nokia's phones suck on a CNN segment, but you sure do hear how cool they are. That's true with most "reviews". We should hail Eugenia for her thoroughness, not bash her for unvarnished opinion.
You may do well to check out the Peace Corps - especially with your language skills. *NOW* is the time for you to travel about and see the world; if you put it off you probably won't get around to it until retirement.
Drives fail, yes. But when a company has known manufacturing defects, lie about it for months, and still insists on endless RMAs with *more defective drives* instead of working products refunds then I'll never do business with them again.
I ordered 4 drives, only 1 of which lived beyond 10 days (and still runs) and each time I RMAed them, I kept having to send at least 1 drive back because it too was defective. Different machines, so the o'erclocking flame doesn't apply.
Drives fail, that's life. You RMA, replace, restore data, and move on. But IBM - in my opinion - defrauded me and a whole bunch of other people. They can rot in hell; I'll never buy from them again.