I would think this kind of study would have very little chance of getitng robust results just because you are trying to establish not just a correlation, but a causal relationship between P2P and CD sales, two things which are somewhat related, but also depend on a lot of other variables.
I have not read the study that was the subject of the Ars story, but if I were doing this kind of study I would want to know:
The disposable income of the subjects, and how it changed over time
The longer you own a computer, do your CD purchases increase or decrease?
Do new computer owners slow their CD purchases, or were they never buying CDs int he first place?
Whether the behavior was affected by age and employment status (e.g. is it just a college thing?)
Overall CD sales trend over time vs a baseline from historical data
Do DVD sales (comparable media but not as acessible via P2P) show the same trend as CD sales?
Average CD price over the time period
Gross sales of used CDs over the time period
Average education level of computer users over the time period
Plus a lot of other things I might want to test in the data like parental income, gender, hair color, etc. Even with all of this data, you are still not going to be able to privide enough evidence to establish a causal relationship.
Interesting idea, but unlikely to work out. Generally, the IRS does not allow you to deduct the value of your "time or services", only cash or the market value of donated assets. Unless there is some precedent I am not aware of, I would think that CPU cyles would be considered "services" and not be deductible.
Of course, you would also need to be itemizing deductions, so if you don't have a mortgage it is unlikely you could see any tax benefit to a deduction for this anyway.
Hidden costs in-indeed. Don't forget the $2500 you're going to drop 6 months from now on a dual G5 after you're hooked on Mac OS X crack and need a box with some stones.
Assuming that being successful as a published novelist is at least as much about self-motivation, focus and hard work as it is about creative inspiration, what do you do or think about that makes you sit down and write every day? How do you maintain that drive over the length of time that it must have taken to write _The Baroque Cycle_?
A dock would restrict compatibility to one type or generation of iPod. With the cable, you can use either an original iPod or an iPod Mini and it leaves Apple able to redesign the iPod form factor in the future while still maintaining compatibility with this. You don't want to have to upgrade your car stereo every time you buy a new iPod model, do you? All Apple has to keep the same in future models is the connector.
Apple has a Security Technology Brief which is a somewhat simplified but comprehensive overview of the hardware and software security features of Macs and Mac OS X.
First of all, his songs were NOT deleted, they were still on his computer, he just couldn't reauthorize his computer using a Canadian address. This is international trade law, not Apple policy or DRM.
This also does NOT mean you can't play or even buy songs off of iTMS from outside the US. It means you must be a US resident and have a US credit card address, which this guy does not.
Public sector "job security" robots are cowards. They will never achieve anything worthwhile in life because all they want is for someone else to take care of them so they don't have to take care of themselves. That's why public sector agencies are chock full of flaky loser employees.
If you have any combination of motivation / ambition / competence you will never be satisfied working in the public sector. It will frustrate you to death.
Re:In a related story...
on
Want Freedom?
·
· Score: 1
You're half right. I could have said 50% fall below the _median_ [not mean] intelligence level.
However, strictly speaking, I said "nearly 50%", so I wasn't really in error.
All of this discussion is kind of spoiling the joke, though.
In a related story...
on
Want Freedom?
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Study finds that as many as 50% of Americans have below-average intelligence.
The more I look at it, the more I like the new.mac and I plan on paying for it. The combination of the calendar, webmail, address book, etc. all through web services means I can finally have true integration across my Mac at home and my PC at work. That's easily worth the $8 a month. And once the new iPods are out with contacts and calendars, I will be putting my Palm up for sale on eBay and saying goodbye to Palm Desktop for good.
Now all I need is a new iBook with built-in Bluetooth and I'm good to go.
I believe that Apple's defense of the charge is that it offsets the costs of the bandwith they are paying for to host the trailers. If 10 million people are downloading the Star Wars trailer off their site, that costs them something.
Whether that justifies the price they charge, I won't debate, but that is, at least in part, the reason for the charge. Hey, they're a business. There is no moral reason thay should not charge to provide you with something of value.
Re:Quartz Extreme
on
Jaguar Reviewed
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The requirements for QE are based on the video chip architecture, not the amount of VRAM on the card. 32MB is recommended the same way that OSX has 192 MB of installed RAM recommended. That's what you need for optimum performance under heavy loads, but it will work OK with half of that amount.
The graphics accelerators will still work on all Rage128 Macs, they just won't pipe the 2D, 3D, and video all through the chip like QE.
I would think something like "More Music from the Fast and the Furious" would have a sort of natural copy protection. Oh, and then there's that massive black market in pirated Charlie Pride albums.
Slashdot Mirror
"Sun went down. Never came up."
"Computer talks. I don't. Everyone happier."
"Something's moving in the file cabinet."
"Christmas comes just twice a year."
"I loved her. She punished me."
In a world of hostile yogurt, the lactose-intolerant man is king.
- The disposable income of the subjects, and how it changed over time
- The longer you own a computer, do your CD purchases increase or decrease?
- Do new computer owners slow their CD purchases, or were they never buying CDs int he first place?
- Whether the behavior was affected by age and employment status (e.g. is it just a college thing?)
- Overall CD sales trend over time vs a baseline from historical data
- Do DVD sales (comparable media but not as acessible via P2P) show the same trend as CD sales?
- Average CD price over the time period
- Gross sales of used CDs over the time period
- Average education level of computer users over the time period
Plus a lot of other things I might want to test in the data like parental income, gender, hair color, etc. Even with all of this data, you are still not going to be able to privide enough evidence to establish a causal relationship.Interesting idea, but unlikely to work out. Generally, the IRS does not allow you to deduct the value of your "time or services", only cash or the market value of donated assets. Unless there is some precedent I am not aware of, I would think that CPU cyles would be considered "services" and not be deductible.
Of course, you would also need to be itemizing deductions, so if you don't have a mortgage it is unlikely you could see any tax benefit to a deduction for this anyway.
Maybe I'm missing some sublety of the Queen's English, but I thought the fourth in a series is the QUATERNARY and the fifth is the QUINARY.
Please enlighten me if I'm missing the joke or something. They do identify the previous phase as the TERTIARY.
Hidden costs in-indeed. Don't forget the $2500 you're going to drop 6 months from now on a dual G5 after you're hooked on Mac OS X crack and need a box with some stones.
I didn't think it sucked, Bob. Nice work.
Neal,
Let me say I appreciate your novels tremendously.
Assuming that being successful as a published novelist is at least as much about self-motivation, focus and hard work as it is about creative inspiration, what do you do or think about that makes you sit down and write every day? How do you maintain that drive over the length of time that it must have taken to write _The Baroque Cycle_?
I wonder what you have to do to win at Crap Booth...
It's a First Person Shitter.
A dock would restrict compatibility to one type or generation of iPod. With the cable, you can use either an original iPod or an iPod Mini and it leaves Apple able to redesign the iPod form factor in the future while still maintaining compatibility with this. You don't want to have to upgrade your car stereo every time you buy a new iPod model, do you? All Apple has to keep the same in future models is the connector.
As it turns out, this is the minimum recommended system configuration to run OS X 10.3 Panther.
Here's quite an interesting interview with the new CEO that reveals just what a bunch of crooks the former management were. Interesting read:
c le _id_var=241
http://macdiscussion.com/article_show.php3?arti
Apple has a Security Technology Brief which is a somewhat simplified but comprehensive overview of the hardware and software security features of Macs and Mac OS X.
a /w ww.apple.com/macosx/pdfs/Security_TB.pdf
http://a368.g.akamai.net/7/368/51/edcf434107944
First of all, his songs were NOT deleted, they were still on his computer, he just couldn't reauthorize his computer using a Canadian address. This is international trade law, not Apple policy or DRM.
This also does NOT mean you can't play or even buy songs off of iTMS from outside the US. It means you must be a US resident and have a US credit card address, which this guy does not.
Read, don't assume.
Just to get the jump on the Mac-bashers, here's the new list of allowed Mac complaints:
1. Stupid slow screens are a bottleneck. They don't refresh fast enough to keep up with the system. What were those morons at Apple thinking?
2. STILL no liquid helium cooling system?? Come on Apple, this isn't 1997!
3. Big deal. By 2008 you'll be able to get a comparable Dell box for half the price.
4. No floppy, no sale.
5. Still doesn't support my Chinese Xiondiangdong BKPDX-145 scanner.
6. Apple is dying.
7. I actually liked the Spinning Beach Ball of Death. I miss it.
8. It's so fast that I now have time to do other things. Then I discovered I don't have anything else to do.
Public sector "job security" robots are cowards. They will never achieve anything worthwhile in life because all they want is for someone else to take care of them so they don't have to take care of themselves. That's why public sector agencies are chock full of flaky loser employees.
If you have any combination of motivation / ambition / competence you will never be satisfied working in the public sector. It will frustrate you to death.
You're half right. I could have said 50% fall below the _median_ [not mean] intelligence level.
However, strictly speaking, I said "nearly 50%", so I wasn't really in error.
All of this discussion is kind of spoiling the joke, though.
Study finds that as many as 50% of Americans have below-average intelligence.
The more I look at it, the more I like the new .mac and I plan on paying for it. The combination of the calendar, webmail, address book, etc. all through web services means I can finally have true integration across my Mac at home and my PC at work. That's easily worth the $8 a month. And once the new iPods are out with contacts and calendars, I will be putting my Palm up for sale on eBay and saying goodbye to Palm Desktop for good.
Now all I need is a new iBook with built-in Bluetooth and I'm good to go.
I believe that Apple's defense of the charge is that it offsets the costs of the bandwith they are paying for to host the trailers. If 10 million people are downloading the Star Wars trailer off their site, that costs them something.
Whether that justifies the price they charge, I won't debate, but that is, at least in part, the reason for the charge. Hey, they're a business. There is no moral reason thay should not charge to provide you with something of value.
The requirements for QE are based on the video chip architecture, not the amount of VRAM on the card. 32MB is recommended the same way that OSX has 192 MB of installed RAM recommended. That's what you need for optimum performance under heavy loads, but it will work OK with half of that amount.
The graphics accelerators will still work on all Rage128 Macs, they just won't pipe the 2D, 3D, and video all through the chip like QE.
The Borg
They did. It's called the Cube. Did you miss it?
I would think something like "More Music from the Fast and the Furious" would have a sort of natural copy protection. Oh, and then there's that massive black market in pirated Charlie Pride albums.