And you, in turn, are absolutely right, except for one wrinkle:
The current media giants might have more money and power to try and enforce their business model (in comparison to the buggy whip makers), BUT, ultimately that strategy can only fail in the marketplace. They'll eventually run out of bullying money, laws will be ignored, and copy-prevention technology will be bypassed. People know when they're being unfairly screwed, and they're sending a clear message about what the market is willing to bear, but no one's listening yet.
Like John Perry Barlow said, "Whenever there is such profound divergence between the law and social practice, it is not society that adapts."
Anyway, eventually a fair and happy medium between creators and viewers will be found; one without the prehistoric middleman used to skimming everything off the top, and one where people have a basic understanding of the cheap economics at work... (hm... "cheap economics"... those two words don't work so well together, but oh well).
You know, using toilet paper and H2O works just as well if you're willing to put a tiny bit more effort into the cleaning (and as a bonus, you'll appear less anal retentive at the same time)!:)
Fingerprints (the easiest biometric) can be faked too; those self-adhesive fingertip pads aren't necessarily a Hollywood fiction.
The system that would be validating "my" fingerprint against the one previously stored in their database would simply be checking for a close match between the two--it would not be performing an exhaustive search of the entire database to ensure it's unique. (And in the event that it did check for dup identies, well, that creates a new market for "designer fingerprints" that never existed naturally before...or ones that are simply bought off of poor 3rd world schmucks who have no need for an ID card.)
Er, the strict def of population density isn't what I meant (total peeps/total area). Maybe there's another term for discounting area where no one lives...
Here's the obligatory post to note that a major reason broadband is slowed up in the US is due to population density. It's far easier to rollout and maintain a network in Canada or South Korea because they live packed together like sardines relative to the urban sprawl of the US.
I don't see how personalization could be used to screw the dealhunters.
When looking for a good deal, you need only a few basic pieces of information, some of which simply can't be "personalized" out the equation without losing a sale completely:
Price: This is vital information. Granted, sometimes companies will try to hide the price, but then this works against them in my view. (e.g. "Call for pricing!" is an instant deal-breaker in my book--I'll go elsewhere.) Oh, and you can be sure that the first company to try dynamic pricing will get bitch slapped.
Specs: Again, this is vital. If I'm looking to get a deal on a new harddrive, an EvilCompany(tm) simply can't hide or misrepresent vital info (size,rpm,interface,etc) from a discriminating buyer without losing the sale completely.
Reviews: Real human feedback about some product/service is worth a million sales pitches. No company can filter outside sources like friends, magazines, Google, epinions, etc. And most people can spot a "personalized" shill a mile away.
Vendor slimyness: I buy books at fatbrain.com or bn.com because Amazon is slimier. No amount of personalization can change Amazon's policy (thought they could make the fineprint fontsize smaller:)
I don't know what I would do without price comparison search engines... and if an advertiser somehow knew I used such tools, they'd be better off showing me the real deals rather than trying to show me the overpriced crap that Mr. Ignorant eats up.
I am sooo glad computer translation sucks as bad as it does (I work as a translator...
Don't get too comfortable.:)
Your job will soon be made obsolete by advancing AI. Maybe you should consider writing movie reviews instead...we'll still need humans for that job for quite a while longer.
So basically, film is still better for highres posters and panaramic shots and such, unless you pay out the ass for a digital equiv. But 99.9% of the time... well... you know.
Your post was understandably very human and Earth centric, but us humans will "outgrow" both our limited organic brains & bodies, and our cradle Earth, way before the Sun runs out of juice.
A planet is an amazingly inefficient place to live in terms of habitable surface area, energy required to leave its gravity well, wasted resources beneath your feet, etc. In fact, the Earth -- after the other planets -- will most likely be "dismantled" by our future selves in order to reassemble its raw molecular material for more useful purposes (like landfill in the ringworld(s):)
Do you photography geeks still insist that traditional film is somehow better than digital?
(If you need to make your photo "grainy" or otherwise "shitty looking", photoshop can do that. Though there's some other lens artifacts, like bokeh(sp?), that are just best forgotten.)
I'll be your friend, troll--only because I remember you weren't such a troll on shugashack.:)
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Re:There is plenty of cost justification.
on
The Eyes Have It
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· Score: 2
It's psychology, stupid -- it's the rare person who thinks things through logically.
When death and destruction is concentrated in one big horrific event (like 9/11), it registers as a huge blip on a lot of radar screens; it becomes threat #1 because it's so visible. But when death and destruction is spread out over space and time (like auto accidents, liver disease, or falling down stairs), its easy to miss because it's so diluted and hence your risk SEEMS so much less.
So, the cost justification for useless "anti-terror" tools is in order to calm the irrational human beast down enough for business to continue as usual. NOT providing the illusion of security is the real risk here.
It seems to me that half of us may end up living in a Brave New World, and the other half in 1984. i.e., The Sheeple will no doubt be quite happy with their "secure" PC/entertainment devices, software subscriptions, Crippled-Consumer-Only-ISP's, etc., but The Free Thinkers will be writhing in fascist hell... screaming in vain for reform/revolution.
Hmm. 50/50 might be a little optimistic. 95/5 is more like it (judging by the number of people who don't give a shit about civil liberties anymore; just mention 'terrorism' to get quick kneejerk agreement).
Oh well... there's always assimilation. I wonder what blissful ignorance feels like -- It's been a while since I've been a kid.
Hey, is the Euro backed by precious metal or not? I thought the stories about these euro (and asian) countries hoarding gold/silver/platinum was just a rumor... but if it's not, that wouldn't show much confidence for currency backed soley by economic stability, like the dollar.
Again, I repeat: this is going to require a selfless super-rich "donor" who has grown past the need to make more money...
You don't get to be a millionaire by being selfless; you have to be a dick to get ahead in life, and that mentality just doesn't go away overnight. When said tycoon starts feeling the grim reaper approaching he's FAR more likely to simply cement his legacy with some "selfish" Foundation, instead of bothering to startup some low-margin "new-economy" biz.
Nope, it'll have to be business as usual (unless you want the government involved--ewwww).
What do you do if your cable company blocks all inbound traffic, and only allows you to use 80, 25, and 110 out? (Keep in mind that tunneling is not an option for the average user.)
Tunneling isn't an easy option for the average user only because it doesn't need to be yet. If a few big ISPs start silencing their users such that they can only consume data for which they initiated a connection, you can bet simpler solutions will spring up. Of course, if 99% of people end up stuck on these castrated consumer-class ISPs, the remaining 1% can't really support being the bottlenecked gateway...
Anyway, you can't refuse ALL incoming connections without killing a few killer apps too... like IM. And since they'd probably block incoming IM packets that didn't match their protocol, who's to say that you can't send IM messages that are automated queries for a file index, followed by a query to send one of them, etc.?
Bla bla... all worst case scenarios. Things can't get that bad - too many people would bitch about legitimate issues, and the cable company would be losing more money than they thought they'd be saving...
I host dozens of websites so I know that bandwidth doesn't grow on trees. I pay $2 per GB, which means my tier1 provider is paying even less for it, but I'll just assume $2.
Now, let me check my DUMeter to see how much of RoadRunner's bandwidth I've used since I last reset its counter 82 days ago on 10/4/2001: 81GB down / 39GB up. It's the limited and much more costly upstream that matters, and that comes to $78 for the period (at my $2/GB rate) or about one dollar a day, or ~$30/mo, which is half what I pay Time Warner for my cable access. I understand the rest goes to fuel their media empire, but I'm paying for pipe and pipe maintenance, not needless BS I didn't ask for.
(You make my skin crawl -- sorry, I just had to get that out of the way.)
In your original post, you clinically described how you crippled your network, instead of honestly raising flat prices to meet demand (or even considering to charge fairly for overages), and pocketed the screw-profit difference (minus the 33% "gift").
Then I infer from what you say next, that your ultra-Christian paymasters have a higher than usual 'moral obligation' to spy on their users; and you probably love every minute of it too... you closet-pederass control freak. I bet the Chinese network admins would love your job; they're probably getting bored of monitoring pro-freedom politcal speech in chatrooms.
Most ISPs state in their Terms and Conditions something like "...shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor all content..." In practice, they don't really care what their users are up to, and that's the way it should be. It's nosy goody-goody's like you who do the spying in the name of moral policing. Just provide the fucking pipe and stay out of the way.
Man... just imagine how boring your job would be if everyone had been running secure IP from the start.
I know... I know... you've got to eat, and you just work there, etc. And "you were just following orders", etc., etc.
Hmm. Maybe I should scrap this post--it turned out pretty mean spirited. Nah, post I must, so don't take it too personally. My present to you is some lost karma, so, Merry X-mas!... er... Christmas! (the Xmas abbreviation demeans the Christ in the Christ-mas brandname)!... Ack... I did it again.:-) Don't take it personally. Happy Generic Holidays!
Slashdot Mirror
(I didn't sense any sarcasm in your post.)
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And Explorers
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The current media giants might have more money and power to try and enforce their business model (in comparison to the buggy whip makers), BUT, ultimately that strategy can only fail in the marketplace. They'll eventually run out of bullying money, laws will be ignored, and copy-prevention technology will be bypassed. People know when they're being unfairly screwed, and they're sending a clear message about what the market is willing to bear, but no one's listening yet.
Like John Perry Barlow said, "Whenever there is such profound divergence between the law and social practice, it is not society that adapts."
Anyway, eventually a fair and happy medium between creators and viewers will be found; one without the prehistoric middleman used to skimming everything off the top, and one where people have a basic understanding of the cheap economics at work... (hm... "cheap economics"... those two words don't work so well together, but oh well).
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The system that would be validating "my" fingerprint against the one previously stored in their database would simply be checking for a close match between the two--it would not be performing an exhaustive search of the entire database to ensure it's unique. (And in the event that it did check for dup identies, well, that creates a new market for "designer fingerprints" that never existed naturally before...or ones that are simply bought off of poor 3rd world schmucks who have no need for an ID card.)
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When looking for a good deal, you need only a few basic pieces of information, some of which simply can't be "personalized" out the equation without losing a sale completely:
I don't know what I would do without price comparison search engines... and if an advertiser somehow knew I used such tools, they'd be better off showing me the real deals rather than trying to show me the overpriced crap that Mr. Ignorant eats up.
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Don't get too comfortable. :)
Your job will soon be made obsolete by advancing AI. Maybe you should consider writing movie reviews instead...we'll still need humans for that job for quite a while longer.
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Think before you drool! :)
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So basically, film is still better for highres posters and panaramic shots and such, unless you pay out the ass for a digital equiv. But 99.9% of the time... well... you know.
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A planet is an amazingly inefficient place to live in terms of habitable surface area, energy required to leave its gravity well, wasted resources beneath your feet, etc. In fact, the Earth -- after the other planets -- will most likely be "dismantled" by our future selves in order to reassemble its raw molecular material for more useful purposes (like landfill in the ringworld(s) :)
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(If you need to make your photo "grainy" or otherwise "shitty looking", photoshop can do that. Though there's some other lens artifacts, like bokeh(sp?), that are just best forgotten.)
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When death and destruction is concentrated in one big horrific event (like 9/11), it registers as a huge blip on a lot of radar screens; it becomes threat #1 because it's so visible. But when death and destruction is spread out over space and time (like auto accidents, liver disease, or falling down stairs), its easy to miss because it's so diluted and hence your risk SEEMS so much less.
So, the cost justification for useless "anti-terror" tools is in order to calm the irrational human beast down enough for business to continue as usual. NOT providing the illusion of security is the real risk here.
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Hmm. 50/50 might be a little optimistic. 95/5 is more like it (judging by the number of people who don't give a shit about civil liberties anymore; just mention 'terrorism' to get quick kneejerk agreement).
Oh well... there's always assimilation. I wonder what blissful ignorance feels like -- It's been a while since I've been a kid.
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You don't get to be a millionaire by being selfless; you have to be a dick to get ahead in life, and that mentality just doesn't go away overnight. When said tycoon starts feeling the grim reaper approaching he's FAR more likely to simply cement his legacy with some "selfish" Foundation, instead of bothering to startup some low-margin "new-economy" biz.
Nope, it'll have to be business as usual (unless you want the government involved--ewwww).
btw, Paypal sucks my left nut quite nicely.
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Tunneling isn't an easy option for the average user only because it doesn't need to be yet. If a few big ISPs start silencing their users such that they can only consume data for which they initiated a connection, you can bet simpler solutions will spring up. Of course, if 99% of people end up stuck on these castrated consumer-class ISPs, the remaining 1% can't really support being the bottlenecked gateway...
Anyway, you can't refuse ALL incoming connections without killing a few killer apps too... like IM. And since they'd probably block incoming IM packets that didn't match their protocol, who's to say that you can't send IM messages that are automated queries for a file index, followed by a query to send one of them, etc.?
Bla bla... all worst case scenarios. Things can't get that bad - too many people would bitch about legitimate issues, and the cable company would be losing more money than they thought they'd be saving...
--
I host dozens of websites so I know that bandwidth doesn't grow on trees. I pay $2 per GB, which means my tier1 provider is paying even less for it, but I'll just assume $2.
Now, let me check my DUMeter to see how much of RoadRunner's bandwidth I've used since I last reset its counter 82 days ago on 10/4/2001: 81GB down / 39GB up. It's the limited and much more costly upstream that matters, and that comes to $78 for the period (at my $2/GB rate) or about one dollar a day, or ~$30/mo, which is half what I pay Time Warner for my cable access. I understand the rest goes to fuel their media empire, but I'm paying for pipe and pipe maintenance, not needless BS I didn't ask for.
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In your original post, you clinically described how you crippled your network, instead of honestly raising flat prices to meet demand (or even considering to charge fairly for overages), and pocketed the screw-profit difference (minus the 33% "gift").
Then I infer from what you say next, that your ultra-Christian paymasters have a higher than usual 'moral obligation' to spy on their users; and you probably love every minute of it too... you closet-pederass control freak. I bet the Chinese network admins would love your job; they're probably getting bored of monitoring pro-freedom politcal speech in chatrooms.
Most ISPs state in their Terms and Conditions something like "...shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor all content..." In practice, they don't really care what their users are up to, and that's the way it should be. It's nosy goody-goody's like you who do the spying in the name of moral policing. Just provide the fucking pipe and stay out of the way.
Man... just imagine how boring your job would be if everyone had been running secure IP from the start.
I know... I know... you've got to eat, and you just work there, etc. And "you were just following orders", etc., etc.
Hmm. Maybe I should scrap this post--it turned out pretty mean spirited. Nah, post I must, so don't take it too personally. My present to you is some lost karma, so, Merry X-mas!... er... Christmas! (the Xmas abbreviation demeans the Christ in the Christ-mas brandname)! ... Ack... I did it again. :-) Don't take it personally. Happy Generic Holidays!
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