When Marilyn Manson's "Holy Wood" was released I had the resources available to download, for free, every song from the CD in a high-quality digital format from a number of sources. I did actually download one of the songs, and after listening to it I purchased the CD.
This is *not* uncommon. MP3 and digital music doesn't give the full experience that we (anyone 18 or over) are used to with an album. You don't get graphics and it's damn near impossible to hear an album as a performance (like Dark Side of the Moon).
I've read that the 18 and younger croud no longer see the album graphics as part of the full package, and lord knows that we don't see concept albums anymore... so maybe this is going to change.
So.. at least for us, MP3 has the same attributes as the radio. We might get a couple of tracks, but when it comes down too it we want the whole package. Maybe when digital music can mimick this (and not sell single tracks for $2) it will be a little more appealing.
25% does not seem low to me at all, it actually might be a bit high. In your case, it's probably a sampling difference. You're probably dealing with people that are a little brighter and pay a little more attention.
For me, I'd say about 10% of the people I know listen to mp3s. The group of people that I work with aren't very curious... hell, only a couple of them even use I.M.s, and I had been using ICQ for different business uses since 1997 or so...
I don't think you read the story. This is, in fact, old news. Idiots like Matt Drudge railed against this months ago.
The problem is that the DMCA has made "normal" media totally different than "analog" media, and given people a lever to get more money. The stations had to bail because they were going to be bled for cash. The DMCA says that commercial actors should get different rates of residuals for over-the-air work and "online" work.
There should be no difference between broadcasting on TCP/IP and over the air, but it is the DMCA and the law which has caused the difference, not the station programmers.
The stations are on their way back right now. A company associated with Broadcast (or is it yahoo?) has come up with ways to remove "over the air" spots and put in properly licensed "online" spots.
So don't blame the broadcasters... they only did what they were forced to do.
Along these lines, CNN reported about a study that shows a "flat future" for digital music. The story is at http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/08/30/digi ta l.music/index.html. It was done by Gartner technology research.
The study was of 4000 Internet-using adults. One half of the people surveyed use their PCs to play CDs, but only one quarter have played downloadable music. Only 6 percent, during a study period during the spring, purchased music online (and this seems to be a high figure to me, IMHO).
The study shows that the record company services are a bust, and that people are not likely to pay for services like Napster since they are used to getting it for free.
It looks like, for now, the record companies are successful at killing an entire new industry and business model through lawsuits and other DMCA stupidity. I personally don't think its dead forever, but it certainly is on a downhill trail.
I didn't write the message to your Grandma.. I wrote it for other Slashdot readers.
As far as my needs, as well as others on slashdot, a cheap Mac would probably fit them just fine. As a matter of fact, a telnet (or SSH) client would be a primary factor in whether or not to buy the thing. I haven't looked at a lot of devices for just this reason. Most of them don't even have any Java, so you can't even use that for telent.
For a person with a personal Linux box at the center of the house computing, Telnet/SSH would be a most important need...
M$ considers the X-Box an internet appliance. They sent someone to a SIGGRAPH panel on the future of internet appliance. I talk about it below in another post...
It's also important to note that the X-Box appliance strategy is the same as everything else: get everyone to pay for service every month.
This isn't going to work with X-Box or anything else IMHO... not unless they take over EVERYTHING.
eVilla was featured in the Internet appliance panel at SIGGRAPH. It was considered one of the products of the future... doesn't look like that now. It's cost was amazing high and never had a chance to get to a level where a normal guy could get one.
Of course, it looked like a big old Mac classic. If you want a quick terminal in your kitchen, but a Mac Classic from your local University surplus auction, put Open Transport and NSCA Telnet on it, and you can get your e-mail. There are other small computers you can get to do the same thing without the HUGE cost.
Anyway... just a highlight of some of the problems here: the Microsoft guy on this SIGGRAPH panel said something that caused me to have to walk outside and laugh: "The PC has spoiled consumers... we must get them used to paying on a subscription basis and paying more." That's just great. This guy was on the XBox team... same M$ strategy on every device!!
Also.. this panel didn't mention Linux once... interesting since it's such a major player. Maybe they'll choose a linux appliance over something that they have to subscribe to every month...
Okay.. I am going to ask for general advice here...
I severely want to get wireless e-mail. I am going to Germany in about a month until the end of the year, and I am putting it off until January as I don't want to buy something and instantly put it aside.
Slowly, my main form of communication has become I.M.s and e-mail. I have both wireless already on a PCS, but as we know the interface SUCKS BAD!! I need a solution so that I can IMAP or POP into my central e-mail and see what is going on and not type 3 several times to see a "C".
Here are the contenders so far, in order of what I like best:
1) Blackberry. Small, limited, and has a small keyboard built in. I don't know the capabilities in terms of using IMAP or POP or anything of the sort... I see some weird comment about "syncing with Outlook..." ew...
2) Any of the Motorolla 2-way pagers. Essentially a wireless e-mail device. Again, has a keyboard. Also, don't know about POP/IMAP.
3) Palm. My least favorite solution because I never have liked stylus interfaces. I don't like the idea of carting an external keyboard around in my pocket, no matter what the size. Big plus is that there is probably a mail program to do ANYTHING I want...
Any other solutions that we have now or that we will have in January? What does everyone think?
I am currently going out with a girl that just went through Basic Training. She says they actually used Saving Private Ryan in many of the classes she took. They used it to emphasize certain points of battle, but you can be sure the issue of desensitization part of the choice too.
I'll have to ask about Quake. I didn't hear anything about that, though it is fairly common knowledge the Quake engine has been used to train military personell in certain situations.
... and kids are bringing guns to school because they are being mentally tortured, not because of Movies. Even this girl I go out with, who has at least been made to "not cringe" at violence, doesn't carry a side arm or threaten to kill in every day life. Something has to be there to cause violence, whether it be torture or your country telling you "that's the bad guy" (and the bad guy firing back).
Is this tech being mis-labeled as "peer to peer" when it is actually more about load balancing and resourse sharing?
I see how asset sharing might be a peer to peer issue, but virtual environments that need a lot of processing power seem to be more in the rhelm of distributed processing rather than any "P2P" setup. Could someone explain?
It's still wrong. Mandating every department of a huge government to use the same software, Microsoft of OSS, is the wrong thing to do.
I hate Microsoft products, but sometimes the best solution to a particular problem might be best solved on a Windows program. Ellimating any tool from the toolbox, whether it be MacOS, Windows, BeOS, or whatever, is the wrong thing to do.
It also is anti-free competiton. If OSS doesn't have competition and a reason to make things better, it will produce bad software just like the Wintel monopoly.
OSS and governments should take a many problems/many solution approach, not a monolithic "we're best for everything" approach like Microsoft.
Okay.. with the Dmitry case and the French Nazi memorabilia case and now this case, I think it's time to make a big push for a new international treaty, akin to a geneva convention or time zone agreement. Everyone needs to get together and decide how and if certain laws apply in Internet situations. This is getting just plane out of hand. If we keep going in this direction, the Talliban is going to indict people because they write about premarital sex on their web pages or people will start getting arrested in China because they have written something anti-communist in the past.
I don't understand why the "we're a sovereign nation" crowd, headed by lead blowhard Jesse Helms, isn't up in arms about this. This seems to the be ultimate internationalization of law...
I just wonder why reporters have to do this all the time. Sometimes a reporter just saying "boy, things are going badly for this company" is enough to start a company on a downward spiral. If others jump on the bandwagon, it means certain disaster. Sometimes, I am sure, articles like this are done because the reporter has a grudge of some sort. A lot of time it's just because that particular reporter has no background to write about their subject (did YOU see the interview done by the Los Vegas TV station? see it for a great example).
You know.. everyone is doing badly now, so a lot of products are having some problems. A good amount of the blame for this is because of media "experts" saying "the bubble is going to burst in the next three months!" Look back... I think they said this every month for 3 years until it eventually came true!
Just because a toy or any product isn't following in the current mold doesn't mean they are going to disappear forever. There are always comapanies and people the jump the current trend and continue.
I doubt Lego is going anywhere soon. If I ever have kids (yuk) it will be on my toy list, because they're still one of the best creative toys ever. They're still one of the basic toys you think of when you think about childhood. They will always be around in some form. Look at the other classic lo-tek toys still around: the Etch-a-Sketch, dolls, bikes, roller skates, yo-yos, hobby horses, matchbox cars, etc.. etc... Lo-tek != bad.
Well.. all I can say about this is that we think that financial people are idiots... that is until they adopt our software, and then they're smart, savy business people.
I think they're still idiots, but they've made a lucky choice or a good choice through council.
Hey.. these are the same guys that judge the entire Internet based on Pets.com and Webvan.com...
Hey.. sue the German government again. They are the ones that came up with audio tape and started the road to this mess. We get 'em for gold and everything else... why wouldn't this work?
I'm so sick of law suits I can't even tell if I was kidding....
Hey, there are law firms in your are recruiting! Remember, these infringement ideas only seemed idiotic until some tried them, you could make a lot of money!
And if one of these suits comes up, you should sue them for copyright infringement. Remember, you own your own comments!
Did you hear the new lawsuit that came out today on the gun front? This group is filing a class action against the steel industry because they allowed it to be made into guns which were made into guns that were used in robberies!
Oh yeah... there is another new one... there is a new class action against the tobacco farmers and paper companies, because they allow their products to be made into toxic products.
It doesn't matter that we use paper to write on and tobacco can be used in medicines and such, or that steel provides the shells of our buildings and cars. Their products have at least on illegal or harmful use! Sue EM ALL!
Slashdot Mirror
When Marilyn Manson's "Holy Wood" was released I had the resources available to download, for free, every song from the CD in a high-quality digital format from a number of sources. I did actually download one of the songs, and after listening to it I purchased the CD.
This is *not* uncommon. MP3 and digital music doesn't give the full experience that we (anyone 18 or over) are used to with an album. You don't get graphics and it's damn near impossible to hear an album as a performance (like Dark Side of the Moon).
I've read that the 18 and younger croud no longer see the album graphics as part of the full package, and lord knows that we don't see concept albums anymore... so maybe this is going to change.
So.. at least for us, MP3 has the same attributes as the radio. We might get a couple of tracks, but when it comes down too it we want the whole package. Maybe when digital music can mimick this (and not sell single tracks for $2) it will be a little more appealing.
25% does not seem low to me at all, it actually might be a bit high. In your case, it's probably a sampling difference. You're probably dealing with people that are a little brighter and pay a little more attention.
For me, I'd say about 10% of the people I know listen to mp3s. The group of people that I work with aren't very curious... hell, only a couple of them even use I.M.s, and I had been using ICQ for different business uses since 1997 or so...
I don't think you read the story. This is, in fact, old news. Idiots like Matt Drudge railed against this months ago.
The problem is that the DMCA has made "normal" media totally different than "analog" media, and given people a lever to get more money. The stations had to bail because they were going to be bled for cash. The DMCA says that commercial actors should get different rates of residuals for over-the-air work and "online" work.
There should be no difference between broadcasting on TCP/IP and over the air, but it is the DMCA and the law which has caused the difference, not the station programmers.
The stations are on their way back right now. A company associated with Broadcast (or is it yahoo?) has come up with ways to remove "over the air" spots and put in properly licensed "online" spots.
So don't blame the broadcasters... they only did what they were forced to do.
Along these lines, CNN reported about a study that shows a "flat future" for digital music. The story is ati ta l.music/index.html. It was done by Gartner technology research.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/08/30/dig
The study was of 4000 Internet-using adults. One half of the people surveyed use their PCs to play CDs, but only one quarter have played downloadable music. Only 6 percent, during a study period during the spring, purchased music online (and this seems to be a high figure to me, IMHO).
The study shows that the record company services are a bust, and that people are not likely to pay for services like Napster since they are used to getting it for free.
It looks like, for now, the record companies are successful at killing an entire new industry and business model through lawsuits and other DMCA stupidity. I personally don't think its dead forever, but it certainly is on a downhill trail.
I didn't write the message to your Grandma.. I wrote it for other Slashdot readers.
As far as my needs, as well as others on slashdot, a cheap Mac would probably fit them just fine. As a matter of fact, a telnet (or SSH) client would be a primary factor in whether or not to buy the thing. I haven't looked at a lot of devices for just this reason. Most of them don't even have any Java, so you can't even use that for telent.
For a person with a personal Linux box at the center of the house computing, Telnet/SSH would be a most important need...
Dr. Clayton Forester bought 10 of the devices just because of the name.
"I'm EVIL!" says Clay. "I would love to live in an EVILla some day!"
This post is *not* insightful... he just as read Nick Negroponte's books or heard him speak. This is his ideas almost word for word....
M$ considers the X-Box an internet appliance. They sent someone to a SIGGRAPH panel on the future of internet appliance. I talk about it below in another post...
It's also important to note that the X-Box appliance strategy is the same as everything else: get everyone to pay for service every month.
This isn't going to work with X-Box or anything else IMHO... not unless they take over EVERYTHING.
eVilla was featured in the Internet appliance panel at SIGGRAPH. It was considered one of the products of the future... doesn't look like that now. It's cost was amazing high and never had a chance to get to a level where a normal guy could get one.
Of course, it looked like a big old Mac classic. If you want a quick terminal in your kitchen, but a Mac Classic from your local University surplus auction, put Open Transport and NSCA Telnet on it, and you can get your e-mail. There are other small computers you can get to do the same thing without the HUGE cost.
Anyway... just a highlight of some of the problems here: the Microsoft guy on this SIGGRAPH panel said something that caused me to have to walk outside and laugh: "The PC has spoiled consumers... we must get them used to paying on a subscription basis and paying more." That's just great. This guy was on the XBox team... same M$ strategy on every device!!
Also.. this panel didn't mention Linux once... interesting since it's such a major player. Maybe they'll choose a linux appliance over something that they have to subscribe to every month...
Okay.. I am going to ask for general advice here...
I severely want to get wireless e-mail. I am going to Germany in about a month until the end of the year, and I am putting it off until January as I don't want to buy something and instantly put it aside.
Slowly, my main form of communication has become I.M.s and e-mail. I have both wireless already on a PCS, but as we know the interface SUCKS BAD!! I need a solution so that I can IMAP or POP into my central e-mail and see what is going on and not type 3 several times to see a "C".
Here are the contenders so far, in order of what I like best:
1) Blackberry. Small, limited, and has a small keyboard built in. I don't know the capabilities in terms of using IMAP or POP or anything of the sort... I see some weird comment about "syncing with Outlook..." ew...
2) Any of the Motorolla 2-way pagers. Essentially a wireless e-mail device. Again, has a keyboard. Also, don't know about POP/IMAP.
3) Palm. My least favorite solution because I never have liked stylus interfaces. I don't like the idea of carting an external keyboard around in my pocket, no matter what the size. Big plus is that there is probably a mail program to do ANYTHING I want...
Any other solutions that we have now or that we will have in January? What does everyone think?
Slashdot readers aren't Linux whores; they're more like Linux groupies.
Yeah.. they both like to screw, but one of them gives it away for free!
IMHO, people feel a lot worse these days about the death of fictional characters than the death of real people.
"50 people got killed in the explosion" doesn't even cause a new anchor to bat an eye, but kill off Zena in that final episode and people get PISSED!
I am currently going out with a girl that just went through Basic Training. She says they actually used Saving Private Ryan in many of the classes she took. They used it to emphasize certain points of battle, but you can be sure the issue of desensitization part of the choice too.
I'll have to ask about Quake. I didn't hear anything about that, though it is fairly common knowledge the Quake engine has been used to train military personell in certain situations.
... and kids are bringing guns to school because they are being mentally tortured, not because of Movies. Even this girl I go out with, who has at least been made to "not cringe" at violence, doesn't carry a side arm or threaten to kill in every day life. Something has to be there to cause violence, whether it be torture or your country telling you "that's the bad guy" (and the bad guy firing back).
Is this tech being mis-labeled as "peer to peer" when it is actually more about load balancing and resourse sharing?
I see how asset sharing might be a peer to peer issue, but virtual environments that need a lot of processing power seem to be more in the rhelm of distributed processing rather than any "P2P" setup. Could someone explain?
I think I am going to call my TI 99 4/a in storage to a "TI 4000" and then sell it on Ebay.
YOU'RE A FUCKWAD
STICK IT UP YOUR ASS, fp not guy
ALL YOUR ANAL BASE BELONG TO CMDR TACO
It's still wrong. Mandating every department of a huge government to use the same software, Microsoft of OSS, is the wrong thing to do.
I hate Microsoft products, but sometimes the best solution to a particular problem might be best solved on a Windows program. Ellimating any tool from the toolbox, whether it be MacOS, Windows, BeOS, or whatever, is the wrong thing to do.
It also is anti-free competiton. If OSS doesn't have competition and a reason to make things better, it will produce bad software just like the Wintel monopoly.
OSS and governments should take a many problems/many solution approach, not a monolithic "we're best for everything" approach like Microsoft.
The Free Software movement?
That is Free as in "you're forced to use our software by our free and open government"?
Come on, it's not free if there is a law that says you have to do it. Being forced to use Open Source over M$ smacks of the Floyd song "Sheep":
"Have you heard the news?
The dogs are dead!
You better stay home
And do as you're told
Get out of the road if you want to grow old."
Okay.. with the Dmitry case and the French Nazi memorabilia case and now this case, I think it's time to make a big push for a new international treaty, akin to a geneva convention or time zone agreement. Everyone needs to get together and decide how and if certain laws apply in Internet situations. This is getting just plane out of hand. If we keep going in this direction, the Talliban is going to indict people because they write about premarital sex on their web pages or people will start getting arrested in China because they have written something anti-communist in the past.
I don't understand why the "we're a sovereign nation" crowd, headed by lead blowhard Jesse Helms, isn't up in arms about this. This seems to the be ultimate internationalization of law...
I just wonder why reporters have to do this all the time. Sometimes a reporter just saying "boy, things are going badly for this company" is enough to start a company on a downward spiral. If others jump on the bandwagon, it means certain disaster. Sometimes, I am sure, articles like this are done because the reporter has a grudge of some sort. A lot of time it's just because that particular reporter has no background to write about their subject (did YOU see the interview done by the Los Vegas TV station? see it for a great example).
You know.. everyone is doing badly now, so a lot of products are having some problems. A good amount of the blame for this is because of media "experts" saying "the bubble is going to burst in the next three months!" Look back... I think they said this every month for 3 years until it eventually came true!
Just because a toy or any product isn't following in the current mold doesn't mean they are going to disappear forever. There are always comapanies and people the jump the current trend and continue.
I doubt Lego is going anywhere soon. If I ever have kids (yuk) it will be on my toy list, because they're still one of the best creative toys ever. They're still one of the basic toys you think of when you think about childhood. They will always be around in some form. Look at the other classic lo-tek toys still around: the Etch-a-Sketch, dolls, bikes, roller skates, yo-yos, hobby horses, matchbox cars, etc.. etc... Lo-tek != bad.
Well.. all I can say about this is that we think that financial people are idiots... that is until they adopt our software, and then they're smart, savy business people.
I think they're still idiots, but they've made a lucky choice or a good choice through council.
Hey.. these are the same guys that judge the entire Internet based on Pets.com and Webvan.com...
Plea bargan for Dmitry? Maybe according to AP.
AP Article.
Hey.. sue the German government again. They are the ones that came up with audio tape and started the road to this mess. We get 'em for gold and everything else... why wouldn't this work?
Hey, there are law firms in your are recruiting! Remember, these infringement ideas only seemed idiotic until some tried them, you could make a lot of money!
And if one of these suits comes up, you should sue them for copyright infringement. Remember, you own your own comments!
Did you hear the new lawsuit that came out today on the gun front? This group is filing a class action against the steel industry because they allowed it to be made into guns which were made into guns that were used in robberies!
Oh yeah... there is another new one... there is a new class action against the tobacco farmers and paper companies, because they allow their products to be made into toxic products.
It doesn't matter that we use paper to write on and tobacco can be used in medicines and such, or that steel provides the shells of our buildings and cars. Their products have at least on illegal or harmful use! Sue EM ALL!