Why not install some sort of churning device near the dam, to stir up the sediment so it ALWAYS flows through the dam, thus achieving something closer to the natural pattern year-round??
Exactly. I'm not a NIN fan, but for free I was willing to give him another try, what the hell. And I'm still not a NIN fan, but I don't feel the least bit cheated. Indeed, quite the reverse, and I will be cheerfully passing the info along to some NIN fans who probably haven't heard about the release.
I like industrial and darkwave, but I don't generally care for NIN, for pretty much the same reasons I don't care for Brian Eno (and I remember when Eno was New And Different and the quip was "If Fripp is God, Eno is Jesus") -- too much repetition and dissonance. Even so, I did d/l the freebie today and gave it a listen on General Principles -- okay, still sounds like NIN, not my thing, not going to buy it, but damn, that's a GOOD pricing model -- so I hope the whole business model catches on for other bands. Just because I'm not a NIN fan and don't buy NIN music doesn't mean I won't buy music from bands I like, if they offer something similar.
Looks like a good opportunity for some independent CD-pressing company in Europe to make a few bucks, save European buyers a ton of postage, and open up European sales than NIN might otherwise have to forego.
I didn't know he'd released stuff via TPB, but it makes sense if the object is increased visibility of the other options. Some random dude's rip isn't necessarily going to include the teasers for the other product options, whereas a legit NIN release on TPB naturally will include everything Trent wants included.
The point, I'd guess, is to catch the attention of those users who (as someone else here pointed out) use TPB as their default option, and aren't aware that other options exist.
And they're right about at the price point I'm willing to pay.
Free samples, always good. If I like 'em well enough, $5 for a much better sample, also good. If I decide I love 'em enough for the long term, $10 for a hardcopy backup in a re-rippable format, also good. And the option to purchase fancier models if I am, or become, a diehard fan.
So I get to choose my level of financial involvement, and the artist comes off ahead no matter what I choose.
I see all upsides to this for both the customer and the artist, and no downsides whatsoever (unless you're a 3rd party distributor like the RIAA cartel, being entirely cut out of the action).
I have a picky eye (I can see colours most people can't distinguish). I hate how even the slightest change of viewing angle screws up colour and brightness on an LCD. I've only seen one LCD that was good enough, compared even to a midrange CRT... and that LCD was priced at $2100 (about a year ago). And it wasn't perfect, just a whole lot better than most.
"I'm a civil-libertarian, social-liberal, fiscal-conservative, non-bible-thumper with no place to call my own. Every election I'm forced to choose between a bunch of spineless, undisciplined losers and a bunch of bible-thumping, war-mongering demagogues."
I have the exact same problem, except I'd add that I'm also forced to choose partly based on who will steal the least out of my pocket.
I don't see any good choices this year. I want a new country. This one has become senile.
I agree entirely. People just don't get it until it's suddenly THEIR lives being exposed to the world.
I went to the opentopia link and rooted around a bit. Came up with two webcams in university settings with clear enough closeups to ID passersby. In one case it was possible to see over someone's shoulder and observe what he was doing with his laptop computer. Yeah, it's a public setting, but clearly the people there did not know they had a camera watching over their shoulders.
(See my upstream post for further, uh, views on the subject)
...its most critical point is this (emphasis added):
The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1785. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the "sentiment of an invisible omniscience."
Bentham himself described the Panopticon as "a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."
What's important isn't that Google occasionally watches you. What matters is that you do not know when Google is watching you, and that just like a Panopticon prison inmate, you will change your behaviour to compensate for this unpredictable loss of privacy.
This would be more like the old personal property tax (NOT like property tax that applies to real estate). Example: I gather it's no longer enforced, but used to be in Montana there was an annual tax form where you had to declare the value of your furniture, clothing, appliances, etc., then pay a percentage of that value as tax. (It was perhaps the most hated of all taxes!)
So if the RIAA affiliate claim their IP has a value of X, they would have to pay some small percentage of X as an annual property tax, which would itself fluctuate with the owner-stated value of said IP.
Now, where this becomes interesting to P2P cases, is where some IP is no longer generating income, so they've assigned it an extrememly minimal or zero value, to minimize or eliminate the associated property tax. It'd be tough to convince a judge and jury that you deserve a $100k judgment if you've previously assigned that IP a taxable value of $10, or worse, of $0.
And those are indeed legit gripes about Ron Paulm which I've noted myself. His other policies gave me fewer hives than the competition, but the truth is I'm not thrilled with any of 'em:( I think his main merit right now would be pure obstructionism -- putting a halt to the proliferation of bad legislation that we've seen in recent years. Make Congress think twice about what they're doing, if only because they ain't gonna be ALLOWED to do it otherwise.
Thanks, I'd missed that one... (or maybe active polls are STILL not visible in lite/no-CSS mode)... considering the relative youth hereabouts, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that liberals outnumber conservatives over 2 to 1.
How'd the old quote go? (attrib. Churchill but may be older.) Something like: "If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain."
That's actually an interesting question -- how many of us here WOULD vote for Ron Paul?** I'm guessing no more than about half, since there are a fair number of left-wing liberals in the slashdot mix.
**I did, but I'm just one in, uh, a million and change...
But if B works, then C, accompanied by much media fanfare, geared toward intimidating other judges into NOT thwarting the RIAA's will. ("See? you don't want to be the next fool who gets forced to reconsider, or worse overturned, when you bucked us, do you??")
One can hope this will continue to backfire, as more judges become aware that the RIAA's cases are generally just so much horseshit.
This is a blow not only against the RIAA legal machine, but also against "thought crime" of all sorts (such as the argument that selling guns facilitates murder). So even as significant as it is by itself, it is a FAR more important decision than it appears.
...with you completely (in fact, I'm stealing your post to quote elsewhere:)
The concept of "hate crimes" is itself discriminatory, and IMO ultimately makes any existing issues with racism (ie. tribalism) worse. Indeed, I would posit that the longterm result is to make inverse crimes acceptable:
It's not okay if whites beat someone up because they're black.
But it has become socially "okay" if blacks beat someone up because they're white.**
And that creates racial resentment, EVEN IF IT DID NOT PREVIOUSLY EXIST.
Thus the concept of "hate crimes" may successfully target a certain negative behaviour in the short run, but it encourages it in the long run.
========
** Ask anyone who fled South Africa after the end of apartheid made S.A. more unsafe for whites than it ever was for blacks.
I've got a crank-fired LED flashlight -- it has 3 LEDs and is fairly bright as such things go. Exercise your forearm on the crank for a couple minutes and it's good for about 10 minutes of useful light.
As a bonus, the thing looks like a phaser, so you can use it to scare off invading aliens.;)
Another benefit is that scrap metal and rocks could be utilized as the weights -- IOW junk that's already "energy paid-for" rather than needing to be manufactured afresh, like spring steel.
As to the people whining about how it's too much work to move the weights... check your waistlines. 'Nuf said!!
Slashdot Mirror
Why not install some sort of churning device near the dam, to stir up the sediment so it ALWAYS flows through the dam, thus achieving something closer to the natural pattern year-round??
Exactly. I'm not a NIN fan, but for free I was willing to give him another try, what the hell. And I'm still not a NIN fan, but I don't feel the least bit cheated. Indeed, quite the reverse, and I will be cheerfully passing the info along to some NIN fans who probably haven't heard about the release.
I like industrial and darkwave, but I don't generally care for NIN, for pretty much the same reasons I don't care for Brian Eno (and I remember when Eno was New And Different and the quip was "If Fripp is God, Eno is Jesus") -- too much repetition and dissonance. Even so, I did d/l the freebie today and gave it a listen on General Principles -- okay, still sounds like NIN, not my thing, not going to buy it, but damn, that's a GOOD pricing model -- so I hope the whole business model catches on for other bands. Just because I'm not a NIN fan and don't buy NIN music doesn't mean I won't buy music from bands I like, if they offer something similar.
Looks like a good opportunity for some independent CD-pressing company in Europe to make a few bucks, save European buyers a ton of postage, and open up European sales than NIN might otherwise have to forego.
I didn't know he'd released stuff via TPB, but it makes sense if the object is increased visibility of the other options. Some random dude's rip isn't necessarily going to include the teasers for the other product options, whereas a legit NIN release on TPB naturally will include everything Trent wants included.
The point, I'd guess, is to catch the attention of those users who (as someone else here pointed out) use TPB as their default option, and aren't aware that other options exist.
And they're right about at the price point I'm willing to pay.
Free samples, always good. If I like 'em well enough, $5 for a much better sample, also good. If I decide I love 'em enough for the long term, $10 for a hardcopy backup in a re-rippable format, also good. And the option to purchase fancier models if I am, or become, a diehard fan.
So I get to choose my level of financial involvement, and the artist comes off ahead no matter what I choose.
I see all upsides to this for both the customer and the artist, and no downsides whatsoever (unless you're a 3rd party distributor like the RIAA cartel, being entirely cut out of the action).
I have a picky eye (I can see colours most people can't distinguish). I hate how even the slightest change of viewing angle screws up colour and brightness on an LCD. I've only seen one LCD that was good enough, compared even to a midrange CRT ... and that LCD was priced at $2100 (about a year ago). And it wasn't perfect, just a whole lot better than most.
"I'm a civil-libertarian, social-liberal, fiscal-conservative, non-bible-thumper with no place to call my own. Every election I'm forced to
choose between a bunch of spineless, undisciplined losers and a bunch of bible-thumping, war-mongering demagogues."
I have the exact same problem, except I'd add that I'm also forced to choose partly based on who will steal the least out of my pocket.
I don't see any good choices this year.
I want a new country. This one has become senile.
Not anymore. Since Google reported the fact to the world, the animal rights goons have come and taken them away.
I agree entirely. People just don't get it until it's suddenly THEIR lives being exposed to the world.
I went to the opentopia link and rooted around a bit. Came up with two webcams in university settings with clear enough closeups to ID passersby. In one case it was possible to see over someone's shoulder and observe what he was doing with his laptop computer. Yeah, it's a public setting, but clearly the people there did not know they had a camera watching over their shoulders.
(See my upstream post for further, uh, views on the subject)
What's important isn't that Google occasionally watches you. What matters is that you do not know when Google is watching you, and that just like a Panopticon prison inmate, you will change your behaviour to compensate for this unpredictable loss of privacy.
This would be more like the old personal property tax (NOT like property tax that applies to real estate). Example: I gather it's no longer enforced, but used to be in Montana there was an annual tax form where you had to declare the value of your furniture, clothing, appliances, etc., then pay a percentage of that value as tax. (It was perhaps the most hated of all taxes!)
So if the RIAA affiliate claim their IP has a value of X, they would have to pay some small percentage of X as an annual property tax, which would itself fluctuate with the owner-stated value of said IP.
Now, where this becomes interesting to P2P cases, is where some IP is no longer generating income, so they've assigned it an extrememly minimal or zero value, to minimize or eliminate the associated property tax. It'd be tough to convince a judge and jury that you deserve a $100k judgment if you've previously assigned that IP a taxable value of $10, or worse, of $0.
And those are indeed legit gripes about Ron Paulm which I've noted myself. His other policies gave me fewer hives than the competition, but the truth is I'm not thrilled with any of 'em :( I think his main merit right now would be pure obstructionism -- putting a halt to the proliferation of bad legislation that we've seen in recent years. Make Congress think twice about what they're doing, if only because they ain't gonna be ALLOWED to do it otherwise.
You're wearing a miniskirt, how much more available can you get?
(Ie. "you're online, so you must be making files available!")
Haha, yeah, that one's just as true :)
Never heard that variant, but it's just as true -- in every sense of the words!
Thanks, I'd missed that one... (or maybe active polls are STILL not visible in lite/no-CSS mode) ... considering the relative youth hereabouts, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that liberals outnumber conservatives over 2 to 1.
How'd the old quote go? (attrib. Churchill but may be older.) Something like: "If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain."
Perzac'ly... whereas the RIAA was contending that "You have a vagina; therefore you are a hooker. Hands over your head!!"
That's actually an interesting question -- how many of us here WOULD vote for Ron Paul?** I'm guessing no more than about half, since there are a fair number of left-wing liberals in the slashdot mix.
**I did, but I'm just one in, uh, a million and change...
First B, then if B fails, A.
But if B works, then C, accompanied by much media fanfare, geared toward intimidating other judges into NOT thwarting the RIAA's will. ("See? you don't want to be the next fool who gets forced to reconsider, or worse overturned, when you bucked us, do you??")
One can hope this will continue to backfire, as more judges become aware that the RIAA's cases are generally just so much horseshit.
This is a blow not only against the RIAA legal machine, but also against "thought crime" of all sorts (such as the argument that selling guns facilitates murder). So even as significant as it is by itself, it is a FAR more important decision than it appears.
...with you completely (in fact, I'm stealing your post to quote elsewhere :)
The concept of "hate crimes" is itself discriminatory, and IMO ultimately makes any existing issues with racism (ie. tribalism) worse. Indeed, I would posit that the longterm result is to make inverse crimes acceptable:
It's not okay if whites beat someone up because they're black.
But it has become socially "okay" if blacks beat someone up because they're white.**
And that creates racial resentment, EVEN IF IT DID NOT PREVIOUSLY EXIST.
Thus the concept of "hate crimes" may successfully target a certain negative behaviour in the short run, but it encourages it in the long run.
========
** Ask anyone who fled South Africa after the end of apartheid made S.A. more unsafe for whites than it ever was for blacks.
I've got a crank-fired LED flashlight -- it has 3 LEDs and is fairly bright as such things go. Exercise your forearm on the crank for a couple minutes and it's good for about 10 minutes of useful light.
;)
As a bonus, the thing looks like a phaser, so you can use it to scare off invading aliens.
Another benefit is that scrap metal and rocks could be utilized as the weights -- IOW junk that's already "energy paid-for" rather than needing to be manufactured afresh, like spring steel.
As to the people whining about how it's too much work to move the weights... check your waistlines. 'Nuf said!!
Why not just find some coloured cellophane and wrap it in that? Better yet, make that an option with the lamp -- cello in the shades of your choice.