Comcast's Tivo will be the target of Hollywood, just like Napster was the target of the RIAA, despite the alternatives.
The service will slowly degrade down to a pay-per-view or points system. You won't be able to use it to record shows that don't want to be recorded, and you won't be able to fast forward through commercials.... Despite the occasional driver-related crash, I'm very happy with my MythTV box, which, as long we have analog, can't be shut down.
I'd love it if you could, but ya can't get rid of the labels. Who's going to put up the up-front money for the band to get started? Who's going to record and mix the album? Who's going to promote the records?
The labels will always be here, in some sort or another. We gotta realize we're not like most people. Most of us/. geeks would probably love to hear a crappy-quality recording of an unknown band... but most "civilians" (non-geeks) need perfect-quality mixed recordings with backup singers, flashy effects, etc...
It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to get that kind of product put together. And, it takes a label with a lot of cash to take the risk and give a band that much money to produce their first album.
So, this system may be great for garage bands, but it won't replace the current system. And, once those garage bands get popular, then inevitably turn on the system and bitch that they don't want to sell their songs for so little anymore -- that they're "artists" and deserve more or somethin... listen to Lars whine for 5 minutes and you'll know what i'm saying. go back 20 years and he'd probably say he was all about the music and fans, and that he just wanted people to listen to his music...
Mr. Pearlman seems to understand economics pretty well, but not IT. Here's the breakdown of an ITunes purchase of $0.99:
Label(s): $0.55 Apple: $0.34 Artist(s): $0.10
Now, let's chop that down to $0.05 instead of $0.99. Let's break it down this way:
Label: $0.03 Apple: $0.02 Artist: $0.1
So, when a customer goes to ITunes, they'll surf through several (large)-database-driven webpages to find the songs they want. They'll make a purchase against their already-paid-for credit through ITunes (of probably $10 increments), then download the 5MB song.
So, Apple now has to run power-hungry servers with a large staff of IT guys making sure they're patched and running correctly. They gotta hit customers' credit cards and give probably 5-10% back to the credit card company.
All of this... for $0.02 per song?!?
His model makes sense, but maybe for $0.25 per song... there's no chance Apple would make money by giving up that much bandwidth.
AFAIK when you delete/overwrite a file on a multisession CDR, you're not reusing that space. New data is always written to a blank part of the disk, and the old data is ignored by the file allocation tables...
So, you'll be running out of space with every file that's stored to the disk. Every time you shutdown and burn to disk, your.bash_history will be taking up that much more space.
Still tho, _awesome_ implementation (haven't tried it yet).
You sound like a FUD-slinging, penguin-fearing, MS-troll.
How about looking at it as a group of people donating their time to the project which you get to use for free, with a lack of people voluntiering for the support teams.
So sure, in a corporation these developers wouldn't be doing customer interaction, but when they're voluntiering their time and there's nobody else to deal with the "customers" (btw, customer implies you paid for the product, which you didn't) - i say we should appreciate them rather than criticize them.
or, go back to using IE so you don't break another nail and make us listen to you whine about it.
i say kudos to those brave developers. it's not like dealing with "customers" is fun.
i think it's a real good post, it's a shame it got moderated that way..
you're 100% right, popo -- it's slight of hand... "SS is heading for disaster, it'll be bankrupt... let's go with private accounts"... no, it's fixed by cutting benefits and starting us off at 70+...
in 40 years, if dubya is around, he'll say "look at all the people we've helped with the SS plan i implemented!" rather than say "sure, it's still bankrupt and i knew that'd happen anyway..."
great post, popo. i like your bit about the "security" -- i'll use that when i'm explaining to my soundbite friends about this plan... and yes, it's also about artificially stimulating the economy... and throwing lots of money does wonders for us, doesn't it? look how well it did in 2000.
and, i cant wait to see what companies are going to do to get in on that list of allowed investments...
plus, i heard on NPR that while social security is only 70% funded in 2042, that's still better than the $0.68 the government pulls in for every $1.00 it spends... the rest of the government is actually in bigger financial shape than Social Security...
let's just accept that it's gonna pass -- he'll probably tie Social Security to terrorism so we'll have to support it. as the thinking people of the country, let's all opt OUT of the new plan, and laugh at the suckers that lost everything to the Enron of 2042 when we're retiring...
wait - actually from what i heard of the plan (aka Social Security Vaporware) is that it's turned into an annuity, so they dont hand you $50k, they pay you a little bit spread out as thin as think you'll live (plus some for just-in-case). people think they're getting their money back, but they're not -- some of it goes back to government...
in fact, i heard you gotta make more than 3% over inflation to make out at all -- and inflation is 3.1%... 6% isn't granted in the stock market..
this plan is risky -- that is, if there really is a plan...
actually, pay attention, the plan hasn't been described yet.
you're either a soundbite whore, or a dubya whore... either way you're mindless if you support a plan you don't have the details for...
i'll bet if we had such a super "it's my money let me invest it" social security plan back in 1929, thousands of americans would have done very well in retirement... get ready, cause there's another crash coming someday... i'll bet you'd rather have the guaranteed money than to stake your retirement in the stock market...
if we're talking about information that's shown on the web, then at the least, the php/asp/java code that displays it knows how to pull it out of the database... so if the server is compromised, a cracker that's capable enough to get in will be capable enough of getting to that script...
plus, the other hacked-in data warehouse was hacked by people posing to have valid accounts... that data they were given access to would have been decrypted at that point anyway..
everyone thinks encrypting things is the way to go -- if the door's locked, go after the guy sitting there next to it with the key...
Slashdot Mirror
it'd be nice if slashdot was at all useful today. like, if they had an option of "no jokes" mode...
ugh, this is so frustrating.
ya, this is 14/\/\3
how in the h311 did this make /.?
he has several books. they're not all free for download. Free Culture is: http://www.free-culture.cc/
i know, how pathetic?
hehe. funny, but fyi - leeches are actually used in science now :)
okay, i'll engage the troll...
you're dumb. why should business application programmers have to worry about string buffer overflows and null pointer issues?
that's why we have these dumbed down languages. nobody _ever_ claimed that VB was ready or even intended for control systems.
moron.
a question then()
{
if(it's such a great language)
{
where's the semicolons;
and curly brackets?;
}
}
Java's an open standard. if sun stopped working on their JVM then we could all use a different implementation. Same with .Net.
however, I don't believe that VB is an open standard
Comcast's Tivo will be the target of Hollywood, just like Napster was the target of the RIAA, despite the alternatives.
... Despite the occasional driver-related crash, I'm very happy with my MythTV box, which, as long we have analog, can't be shut down.
The service will slowly degrade down to a pay-per-view or points system. You won't be able to use it to record shows that don't want to be recorded, and you won't be able to fast forward through commercials.
no i didn't. it's in my post. i estimated 5-10% processing fee, figuring you wouldn't be charged per song, but per 1000 songs or so.
OMG, that's funny stuff...
:)
sorry about that, i was trying to get my comment out early enough that people would actually respond to it
thanks all, yes, i'm braindead.
I'd love it if you could, but ya can't get rid of the labels. Who's going to put up the up-front money for the band to get started? Who's going to record and mix the album? Who's going to promote the records?
/. geeks would probably love to hear a crappy-quality recording of an unknown band... but most "civilians" (non-geeks) need perfect-quality mixed recordings with backup singers, flashy effects, etc...
:)
The labels will always be here, in some sort or another. We gotta realize we're not like most people. Most of us
It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to get that kind of product put together. And, it takes a label with a lot of cash to take the risk and give a band that much money to produce their first album.
So, this system may be great for garage bands, but it won't replace the current system. And, once those garage bands get popular, then inevitably turn on the system and bitch that they don't want to sell their songs for so little anymore -- that they're "artists" and deserve more or somethin... listen to Lars whine for 5 minutes and you'll know what i'm saying. go back 20 years and he'd probably say he was all about the music and fans, and that he just wanted people to listen to his music...
bleh.
music industry will always own this country
Mr. Pearlman seems to understand economics pretty well, but not IT. Here's the breakdown of an ITunes purchase of $0.99:
Label(s): $0.55
Apple: $0.34
Artist(s): $0.10
Now, let's chop that down to $0.05 instead of $0.99. Let's break it down this way:
Label: $0.03
Apple: $0.02
Artist: $0.1
So, when a customer goes to ITunes, they'll surf through several (large)-database-driven webpages to find the songs they want. They'll make a purchase against their already-paid-for credit through ITunes (of probably $10 increments), then download the 5MB song.
So, Apple now has to run power-hungry servers with a large staff of IT guys making sure they're patched and running correctly. They gotta hit customers' credit cards and give probably 5-10% back to the credit card company.
All of this... for $0.02 per song?!?
His model makes sense, but maybe for $0.25 per song... there's no chance Apple would make money by giving up that much bandwidth.
just my $0.02.
AFAIK when you delete/overwrite a file on a multisession CDR, you're not reusing that space. New data is always written to a blank part of the disk, and the old data is ignored by the file allocation tables...
.bash_history will be taking up that much more space.
So, you'll be running out of space with every file that's stored to the disk. Every time you shutdown and burn to disk, your
Still tho, _awesome_ implementation (haven't tried it yet).
that's WEAK! take a look at the primary definition.
try again.... and quit whining.
btw, drop the signature.. TROLL :)
You sound like a FUD-slinging, penguin-fearing, MS-troll.
How about looking at it as a group of people donating their time to the project which you get to use for free, with a lack of people voluntiering for the support teams.
So sure, in a corporation these developers wouldn't be doing customer interaction, but when they're voluntiering their time and there's nobody else to deal with the "customers" (btw, customer implies you paid for the product, which you didn't) - i say we should appreciate them rather than criticize them.
or, go back to using IE so you don't break another nail and make us listen to you whine about it.
i say kudos to those brave developers. it's not like dealing with "customers" is fun.
err.. i meant "worse financial shape", not "bigger financial shape"
THIS ISN'T FLAMEBAIT.
i think it's a real good post, it's a shame it got moderated that way..
you're 100% right, popo -- it's slight of hand... "SS is heading for disaster, it'll be bankrupt... let's go with private accounts"... no, it's fixed by cutting benefits and starting us off at 70+...
in 40 years, if dubya is around, he'll say "look at all the people we've helped with the SS plan i implemented!" rather than say "sure, it's still bankrupt and i knew that'd happen anyway..."
great post, popo. i like your bit about the "security" -- i'll use that when i'm explaining to my soundbite friends about this plan... and yes, it's also about artificially stimulating the economy... and throwing lots of money does wonders for us, doesn't it? look how well it did in 2000.
and, i cant wait to see what companies are going to do to get in on that list of allowed investments...
plus, i heard on NPR that while social security is only 70% funded in 2042, that's still better than the $0.68 the government pulls in for every $1.00 it spends... the rest of the government is actually in bigger financial shape than Social Security...
let's just accept that it's gonna pass -- he'll probably tie Social Security to terrorism so we'll have to support it. as the thinking people of the country, let's all opt OUT of the new plan, and laugh at the suckers that lost everything to the Enron of 2042 when we're retiring...
nice!
wait - actually from what i heard of the plan (aka Social Security Vaporware) is that it's turned into an annuity, so they dont hand you $50k, they pay you a little bit spread out as thin as think you'll live (plus some for just-in-case). people think they're getting their money back, but they're not -- some of it goes back to government...
in fact, i heard you gotta make more than 3% over inflation to make out at all -- and inflation is 3.1%... 6% isn't granted in the stock market..
this plan is risky -- that is, if there really is a plan...
actually, pay attention, the plan hasn't been described yet.
you're either a soundbite whore, or a dubya whore... either way you're mindless if you support a plan you don't have the details for...
i'll bet if we had such a super "it's my money let me invest it" social security plan back in 1929, thousands of americans would have done very well in retirement... get ready, cause there's another crash coming someday... i'll bet you'd rather have the guaranteed money than to stake your retirement in the stock market...
well... i disagree...
now the homeless guy i walk past on the way to work will know that i really can afford to give him a quarter!!
nope -- false sense of security...
if we're talking about information that's shown on the web, then at the least, the php/asp/java code that displays it knows how to pull it out of the database... so if the server is compromised, a cracker that's capable enough to get in will be capable enough of getting to that script...
plus, the other hacked-in data warehouse was hacked by people posing to have valid accounts... that data they were given access to would have been decrypted at that point anyway..
everyone thinks encrypting things is the way to go -- if the door's locked, go after the guy sitting there next to it with the key...