You are right. We should remember we are talking about the company that blew up the chance to make a serious hardware platform to compete with the PC one. And it blew it by the simple expedient of making it closed as a nutshell. Every time I think we could be using now the descent of the M68000, instead of the descent of the */^%##* 80286, I get cold sweat. Have they lernt something since then? I have seen nothing to date, to uphold that notion.
So they have a nice wrap-around on a BSD. Good for them. They will make propietary expansions, and soon nothing developed for that platform will work on any other. If that's not already the case. Notwhithstanding the fact, already mentioned, that it will work only on a hardware platform. I could make a friendly Linux distribution if the hardware set were fixed and small.
Just more corporate hype.
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Re:And that's only with a little bit of filtering
on
Napster Traffic Drops
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· Score: 1
You are right of course. What I tried to highlight is the fact that a service like Napster is based on a virtuous circle. People connects because there is always many people to share, and many songs to download.
The reduction of availability or number of users for whatever reason will reduce the interest of the service. And so reduce even more the number of users. I think that 40% will be still smaller next week. That virtuous circle turned vicious.
So how could you convince anybody to pay for such an unreliable service? No way. What if you sign up and find only 20% of users did the same? Will you get a reduction? I mean you would need to offer some kind of guaranteed download service, not only P2P.
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And that's only with a little bit of filtering
on
Napster Traffic Drops
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· Score: 1
If they had tried to charge for the service, as they said, who wants to guess as to the drop?
The only problem is, there is no billion dollars, there was never one, and it's never going to happen. That was just a public relations stunt, and everybody involved (except perhaps the press) is aware of it.
In particular, I like the part about patents being distinguished by technique and not application, so you don't necessarily get a new patent just for writing down some existing art and pencilling "...but on a web page" on the end.
I fail to see what do you like about it. I was planning to patent a smart little idea I had. It consists of a piece of text or image, that when clicked upon, will load another web page in your browser, effectively redirecting you to that other page. I planned to name it superlink, or something of the kind, and make everybody (it might well be already in use although unpatented) pay through their noses. Now this pesky ruling is ruining my dreams. Um!
Hey, that should give the Hollywood guys a break!
on
Silicon LED
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· Score: 3
I mean, they really miss the old times when they could represent computers with lots of blinking red lights!
If someone gets going a transparent cube with lots of transparent chips blinking very fast in different colors... well, all I can say is they will get a lot of free coverage in the next major films.
I am law-abiding, except when I find the law was written to protect not the public good but the interests of the few. The fact that something is illegal doesn't make it bad. Its only illegal, perhaps the law is wrong.
If you are concerned about the pay of artists, and the possibility of music dissapearing, don't worry. I have it from most informed sources, that music was before the CD. It was before the LP, too, and even before radio. In fact, many little beautiful pieces have reached us from those times. The musicians are artists, and so they make music before they like making music, not for the odd buck. In fact, only a small minority of the musicians get to the CD-stage, and all will benefit from the Internet as a lower-cost distribution medium.
I find it funny that when I buy a CD somebody tells me what I can or what I cannot do with this CD. We are used to that situation, but that does not mean its natural al all. If you think that when not accepting the conditions I should not buy the CD, I can tell you that I am no longer doing it. Not since Napster arrived.
Slashdot Mirror
You are right. We should remember we are talking about the company that blew up the chance to make a serious hardware platform to compete with the PC one. And it blew it by the simple expedient of making it closed as a nutshell. Every time I think we could be using now the descent of the M68000, instead of the descent of the */^%##* 80286, I get cold sweat. Have they lernt something since then? I have seen nothing to date, to uphold that notion.
So they have a nice wrap-around on a BSD. Good for them. They will make propietary expansions, and soon nothing developed for that platform will work on any other. If that's not already the case. Notwhithstanding the fact, already mentioned, that it will work only on a hardware platform. I could make a friendly Linux distribution if the hardware set were fixed and small.
Just more corporate hype.
--
The reduction of availability or number of users for whatever reason will reduce the interest of the service. And so reduce even more the number of users. I think that 40% will be still smaller next week. That virtuous circle turned vicious.
So how could you convince anybody to pay for such an unreliable service? No way. What if you sign up and find only 20% of users did the same? Will you get a reduction? I mean you would need to offer some kind of guaranteed download service, not only P2P.
--
There goes that famous billion dollar.
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In particular, I like the part about patents being distinguished by technique and not application, so you don't necessarily get a new patent just for writing down some existing art and pencilling "...but on a web page" on the end.
I fail to see what do you like about it. I was planning to patent a smart little idea I had. It consists of a piece of text or image, that when clicked upon, will load another web page in your browser, effectively redirecting you to that other page. I planned to name it superlink, or something of the kind, and make everybody (it might well be already in use although unpatented) pay through their noses. Now this pesky ruling is ruining my dreams. Um!
I mean, they really miss the old times when they could represent computers with lots of blinking red lights!
If someone gets going a transparent cube with lots of transparent chips blinking very fast in different colors... well, all I can say is they will get a lot of free coverage in the next major films.
I am law-abiding, except when I find the law was written to protect not the public good but the interests of the few. The fact that something is illegal doesn't make it bad. Its only illegal, perhaps the law is wrong. If you are concerned about the pay of artists, and the possibility of music dissapearing, don't worry. I have it from most informed sources, that music was before the CD. It was before the LP, too, and even before radio. In fact, many little beautiful pieces have reached us from those times. The musicians are artists, and so they make music before they like making music, not for the odd buck. In fact, only a small minority of the musicians get to the CD-stage, and all will benefit from the Internet as a lower-cost distribution medium. I find it funny that when I buy a CD somebody tells me what I can or what I cannot do with this CD. We are used to that situation, but that does not mean its natural al all. If you think that when not accepting the conditions I should not buy the CD, I can tell you that I am no longer doing it. Not since Napster arrived.