The switch, eh? And when it breaks down and as an Apple tech I can confidently say when, you're going to have fun find Apple authorized repair techs. On a side note, considering 'the Switch' and all; Apple hasn't been exactly helpful in repairing their new Flat Panels and EMacs as of late. I can site three instances where the Mac was dead strait out of or days out of the box and Apple normally stonewalls the owners into sending it to us. Of course, I immedietly recommend if it's having problems strait out of the box, it should go strait back to apple, but normally the buyer buckles and the process just gets worse form there. I know, some of you have had your apple since 1904 and it hasn't once crapper out on you and admittedly, when Apple Care is good, it's really good. But when it's bad, it's super bad. have fun replacing, say, the motherboard outside of warrnety as well. They're pains. Let em go.
Micheal Keaton? Oh common. I thought he did a great job. Light years better than, say, George Clooney. But Keanu Reeves? He plays the naive clueless part pretty well, but beyond that is a bit of a stretch...
"...who believe Wi-Fi networks and the Internet access they offer should remain free."
Peace and free internet, man... Free, until I realize I can either make a killing off of it or can't pay the bills or can so inundate you with banner ads and pop-ups as to seriously dilute the meaning of the word "free". Sure, they all believe it should be free, but it normally doesn't stay that way for long... I'm sure yahoo started with the same principle in mind. Capitalist pigs ^__^
P2P is a search engine. They have no control over what people trade person to person. If they are actually serious about this, then they had better shut down every real search engine that finds sites with warez, mp3 archives, serials, etc... Which is every single one of them. There is no difference and it just makes it all the more obvious that the people behind the RIAA are hypocritical dumbasses. Thank you.
My first question... Why? Beyond the fact that it'd make our lives as consumers easier. It's like pleading with the 5 major ketchup makers in the US to sit down and brand one ketchup. I could use any number of products as an analogy, but I have to ask, why don't these great almighty 5 finacial firms just sit down and -gasp!- Pick one! Sure, it'd make our lives easier, but "they" generally don't care about you or me, so I ask: What is the real reason? What's going on behind the scenes? Offhand, I'm thinking one system would be easier for someone to control, level taxes against on, whatever. Speculation, but my spider sense is tingling... No, that's just heart burn. Nevermind.
And I think it's called Public Access, which probably has fewer viewers than the population per square mile of North Dakota. Not just a day late, but two dollars short. And I think this is something you might be interested in... !Link!. Yay. 3 channels. Editable. W00t. I'm just not seeing the light here...
Really! China wasn't trying to crush free speech, nor were they feeling the worlds glare upon their backs after blocking google... No, there's a perfectly rational explanation for the humanitarian people's republic... Um.. Uh... Maintanance, right? No? Err... Common, guys, help me out here... One thing I always get a kcik out of its the people who defend China... It brightens my day considerably to know their are still gullible, brainwashed people out there ^__^
Let's just pass over the comment that this particular idea hasn't been used to death and introduce you to the movie Millenium in which Humans from the future travel back in time and harvest people who history records as having died in airline crashes into the future... It bares a passing resemblance to Freejack starring Emilo and our ever lovable Sting. No UFOs in the latter movie, however. No, this idea hasn't been trodden, beat, raped and otherwise set aflame now, has it?
More and more players these days are MP3 and WMA compatible, like my Rio SP250 CD-MP3 player. With upgradeable firmware (like the SP250), it couldn't be that hard to add Ogg into the mix. I mean, nobody I know of uses WMA, but there it is. That would solve a good deal of your conversion issues right there. Simply don't. But until I see media devices go in that direction, you won't see me creating anything in Ogg anytime soon.
Oh, wait! Something bad about the BBC on Slashdot? That's damn near the closest thing I could hope for besides Slash's glowing praise of Microsoft on the scale of Earth Shattering events...
A fact: In business, there are always more failures than success (80/20 rule). The dot-bust is simply a more spectacular example of that. It seems however, this article "about millionaires" seems to want to spin the Fortune story in the favor of the failures and not the success. Bezos comes to mind even though I love to poke fun at him (not to mention his employment practices are damn shady). Despite being ventured capitaled to the hilt he is still alive and kicking. There are others too. I know bitching and moaning about the dot-bust is popular, but even it's had it's moments.
Did you know Ogg Vorbis is the cure to cancer as well?! Sigh... Anything having to do with Ogg is getting to be like one of those 'beowolf cluster' jokes.
Ok, I know we all like the net and it really neato to download files from P2P, but lets all face it, a butt-load of people still get a lot of their music from the store, hear it on the radio (then download it), word of mouth, etc, etc. My suggestions, for what they are worth--
You say you perform live. Great! SELL CDs (if you don't already). Really, it's not hard to record and burn a master then copy 5,000 either through yourself (heh) or pay a third party to do it. Yeah, the latter option requires you to shell out some cash, but what you do sell, you pocket. I've seen street performers do this successfully.
Radio. Somehow, some way, get air time. Even if you have to buy it. I won't claim to be a marketing genius, but radio is the best way to reach a lot of people. Buy a commercial slot. Play a condensed minute-thirty version of your most popular song and where you'll be playing next. Heck, some DJs might even give you a free shot or two.
Find a way to slip it into the format of popular internet radio. Yes, I remeber what I said at the top, but that doesn't mean it isn't without use. Winamp is hella popular, as is WAR. Find the most popular channels and hook up with their directors, slip your song in with a blurb about you. A few of them are revenue starved. Pay them. They'll like you. A lot.
I know, most of my solutions revolve around fundage. I'm also assuming you have jobs other than the band. Unfortunately, it's a nessisary evil, especially if you don't want to sell out. That's the big trade-off. "The Man" provides you the capital and as such, has lots of influence over you. In your situation, it's the opposite. You don't want his influence, but you still want to reach as many ears as possible. Unless you catch some extrodinarily lucky breaks, money is part of that equation. I'd hope there are easier ways, but these are the best I can think of. Unlike a previous co-worker mine who had a band thinks, success rarily jumps out and bites you on the ass while you sit at home, unemployed and play at a bar twice a month. I wish you the best success.
At least somebody realizes that the one thing MS does and does well is play long term strategy. People tend to forget they are monopolistic empire for a reason and that reason generally isn't because they pump money into market sectors they believe they are going to outright fail in. I agree, Netscape has nothing on Sony. They are much tougher and have a loyal following in multiple industries. And unlike Netscape, all their eggs (and revenue) aren't in one basket. Sony can take hits for a few quarters and still have the stamina to keep trucking from other industry. Unlike Sega. And Nintendo. If I had to predict the next to fall (if), it'd be them. Remember the battle between Sega and Nintendo? Welcome to the 21st century; Sony versus MS. I still think MS needs roads in to Japan hardcore style to really take off, but there's not reason why it couldn't survive on domestic titles, provided gaming gains the popularity it has in Japan...
Save some for the commercial
on
XBox Linux HOWTOs
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Price of a New XBox: $300.oo Materials to mod the Xbox: $23.88 The look on his face when he realizes he just screwed up the soldering job and ruined the entire board: Priceless.
Two points, really. First, you could see this one coming miles away. Microsoft controls all the cards. They control the hardware you're getting, the software you're using and the network you're surfing. Given the fact that they created a closed box for a reason, it's no huge leap to imagine they'd use one or all of these paths to dissuade people from modding their box. And you won't see me minding too much either. One good thing that will make the X Box live a decent experience is conformity (yes, that evil, evil word). Knowing that the person who just fragged you has exactly the same hardware and connection. Sure, I might miss a multi region DVD mod or something, but not that much. Besides, I don't think anybody who mods for Linux is really worried about the games or X-Box Live. On that note, I can see MS being paranoid of Linux users trying to hack or otherwise use/abuse the Live network. I'd ban modded boxes too. A real, uncrippled OS is a dangerous tool in that environment. Too much temptation for you rabid, salivating Linux fan-boys. Finally, it's my opinion that Ps2 networking is probably going to blow because your going to have just as many surfing/playing problems as you did on your PC back in the Doom/Quake days... Y'know-- When that 56kb connection actually equalled out to 31.5kb if the planets were aligned and the wind was blowing south at 6kph? Maybe you'll get 42kb tommorow...
But they try to hide it behind the cloak of freeing the media from the man or something. All ideas are open source. That sort of thing. Unlike music CDs, I have nor problem paying $15-$20 for a DVD on movies I like. But beyond that, do you actually want to watch what is probably another par excellent movie as a crappy.mpeg anyway? That alone is incentive enough to stay far, far away from it.
No. No kicks here. Just this is a site that actually wants people to subscribe to it but can't even run a semi-professional operation. It severely irks me. Yep, I saw the post on the Two Towers. Maybe i keep posting to think one day the system will actually work. Naive, I guess. But you're right. I'm about done here. I'm tired of reading about buffy, the Dance Dance Revolution and 2 year old rants on U571 as well as the massive biased against anything not open source. The site it busted and ran by ametures. But thanks for asking.
Why is Slashdot posting tripe like Buffy's New Season when it could be posting real news... Such as:
2002-09-02 05:11:18 LotR: The Two Towers hits net months before release (articles,movies) (rejected) In what has to be one of the startling security breaches in Hollywood to date, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has hit the net FOUR MONTHS ahead of it's intended release in theaters according to the Drudge Report, though there is still some question of what was actually obtained and how. If this can be confirmed or denied, it's here on Slashdot.
Or...
2002-09-02 05:20:54 RIAA site hit yet again by disgruntled hackers (articles,music) (rejected) The RIAA has been hit for a third time in a one month's span as file-sharing fans hacked the RIAA hompage and altered it's content over the holiday weekend. Previous attacks include a DoS assault and a similar alteration. The story and alterations can be found at the MP3 Newswire.
Sure, I'm a tiny bit chapped, but the main portion of my fustration has been replaced with the need to prove how big of hacks and chumps these editors are. Even that -1 I'll be getting doesn't make any difference. I'll tell you when my karma dips below Excellent, kay?
Ok, I'll skip right by the fact that Buffy just isn't news. At all. And it's taking me all my willpower to do just that. It was a 'B' movie to begin-- But I digress. I did want to mention something about Firefly, however. Without knowing much about it, it strikes me as unusually similar to Cowboy Beeboy and Outlaw Star... Again, it's just a passing glance, but it's got that deja'vu thing happening all over it.
Right... It's another case of a submitter passing off his opinion as fact. A bit annoying, personally. Of your choices, I'd definitely agree with Akira and Gundam, maybe Eva, but it has too much of that "Boy finds robot fights evil invaders for college credits" stuff for me. And Shinji just has to be the most hatable character alive in anime:p YMMV. Just to put things in perspective, I'm not a huge fan of Gundam either, but there's no denying it's giant robot influence on the genre. I guess GitS tries to be the Gibson of anime (which I suspect is why some hold it up as revolutionary), but it hardly redefines anything.
Ghost in the shell redefined animation? Hardly. Masamune Shiro's manga was better than the actual movie. Both Patlabor the second movie (which came out before, thus "redefining animation") and GitS were done by the same animator and both had the same plodding "trying to dive deep into philosophy" bit, ultimately doing themselves a disservice. Not to mention the manga has this funky 3-way lesbian scene... For something to redefine a genre, it has to change the way you look at it substantially so... I can't see GitS doing that, honestly.
Slashdot Mirror
The switch, eh? And when it breaks down and as an Apple tech I can confidently say when, you're going to have fun find Apple authorized repair techs. On a side note, considering 'the Switch' and all; Apple hasn't been exactly helpful in repairing their new Flat Panels and EMacs as of late. I can site three instances where the Mac was dead strait out of or days out of the box and Apple normally stonewalls the owners into sending it to us. Of course, I immedietly recommend if it's having problems strait out of the box, it should go strait back to apple, but normally the buyer buckles and the process just gets worse form there. I know, some of you have had your apple since 1904 and it hasn't once crapper out on you and admittedly, when Apple Care is good, it's really good. But when it's bad, it's super bad. have fun replacing, say, the motherboard outside of warrnety as well. They're pains. Let em go.
Micheal Keaton? Oh common. I thought he did a great job. Light years better than, say, George Clooney. But Keanu Reeves? He plays the naive clueless part pretty well, but beyond that is a bit of a stretch...
Where's the foot icon? This has to be one of those irrelevant funny-ha-ha posts...
Oooooh...Damn. that hurt, and right you are. My Bad. I get em mixed up from time to time. There's a joke here, I'm sure of it, but I'll pass for now.
"...who believe Wi-Fi networks and the Internet access they offer should remain free."
Peace and free internet, man... Free, until I realize I can either make a killing off of it or can't pay the bills or can so inundate you with banner ads and pop-ups as to seriously dilute the meaning of the word "free". Sure, they all believe it should be free, but it normally doesn't stay that way for long... I'm sure yahoo started with the same principle in mind. Capitalist pigs ^__^
P2P is a search engine. They have no control over what people trade person to person. If they are actually serious about this, then they had better shut down every real search engine that finds sites with warez, mp3 archives, serials, etc... Which is every single one of them. There is no difference and it just makes it all the more obvious that the people behind the RIAA are hypocritical dumbasses. Thank you.
My first question... Why? Beyond the fact that it'd make our lives as consumers easier. It's like pleading with the 5 major ketchup makers in the US to sit down and brand one ketchup. I could use any number of products as an analogy, but I have to ask, why don't these great almighty 5 finacial firms just sit down and -gasp!- Pick one! Sure, it'd make our lives easier, but "they" generally don't care about you or me, so I ask: What is the real reason? What's going on behind the scenes? Offhand, I'm thinking one system would be easier for someone to control, level taxes against on, whatever. Speculation, but my spider sense is tingling... No, that's just heart burn. Nevermind.
And I think it's called Public Access, which probably has fewer viewers than the population per square mile of North Dakota. Not just a day late, but two dollars short. And I think this is something you might be interested in... !Link!. Yay. 3 channels. Editable. W00t. I'm just not seeing the light here...
Really! China wasn't trying to crush free speech, nor were they feeling the worlds glare upon their backs after blocking google... No, there's a perfectly rational explanation for the humanitarian people's republic... Um.. Uh... Maintanance, right? No? Err... Common, guys, help me out here... One thing I always get a kcik out of its the people who defend China... It brightens my day considerably to know their are still gullible, brainwashed people out there ^__^
Let's just pass over the comment that this particular idea hasn't been used to death and introduce you to the movie Millenium in which Humans from the future travel back in time and harvest people who history records as having died in airline crashes into the future... It bares a passing resemblance to Freejack starring Emilo and our ever lovable Sting. No UFOs in the latter movie, however. No, this idea hasn't been trodden, beat, raped and otherwise set aflame now, has it?
More and more players these days are MP3 and WMA compatible, like my Rio SP250 CD-MP3 player. With upgradeable firmware (like the SP250), it couldn't be that hard to add Ogg into the mix. I mean, nobody I know of uses WMA, but there it is. That would solve a good deal of your conversion issues right there. Simply don't. But until I see media devices go in that direction, you won't see me creating anything in Ogg anytime soon.
No, we should bomb your house and let Britain help us.
Oh, wait! Something bad about the BBC on Slashdot? That's damn near the closest thing I could hope for besides Slash's glowing praise of Microsoft on the scale of Earth Shattering events...
A fact: In business, there are always more failures than success (80/20 rule). The dot-bust is simply a more spectacular example of that. It seems however, this article "about millionaires" seems to want to spin the Fortune story in the favor of the failures and not the success. Bezos comes to mind even though I love to poke fun at him (not to mention his employment practices are damn shady). Despite being ventured capitaled to the hilt he is still alive and kicking. There are others too. I know bitching and moaning about the dot-bust is popular, but even it's had it's moments.
Did you know Ogg Vorbis is the cure to cancer as well?! Sigh... Anything having to do with Ogg is getting to be like one of those 'beowolf cluster' jokes.
Ok, I know we all like the net and it really neato to download files from P2P, but lets all face it, a butt-load of people still get a lot of their music from the store, hear it on the radio (then download it), word of mouth, etc, etc. My suggestions, for what they are worth--
You say you perform live. Great! SELL CDs (if you don't already). Really, it's not hard to record and burn a master then copy 5,000 either through yourself (heh) or pay a third party to do it. Yeah, the latter option requires you to shell out some cash, but what you do sell, you pocket. I've seen street performers do this successfully.
Radio. Somehow, some way, get air time. Even if you have to buy it. I won't claim to be a marketing genius, but radio is the best way to reach a lot of people. Buy a commercial slot. Play a condensed minute-thirty version of your most popular song and where you'll be playing next. Heck, some DJs might even give you a free shot or two.
Find a way to slip it into the format of popular internet radio. Yes, I remeber what I said at the top, but that doesn't mean it isn't without use. Winamp is hella popular, as is WAR. Find the most popular channels and hook up with their directors, slip your song in with a blurb about you. A few of them are revenue starved. Pay them. They'll like you. A lot.
I know, most of my solutions revolve around fundage. I'm also assuming you have jobs other than the band. Unfortunately, it's a nessisary evil, especially if you don't want to sell out. That's the big trade-off. "The Man" provides you the capital and as such, has lots of influence over you. In your situation, it's the opposite. You don't want his influence, but you still want to reach as many ears as possible. Unless you catch some extrodinarily lucky breaks, money is part of that equation. I'd hope there are easier ways, but these are the best I can think of. Unlike a previous co-worker mine who had a band thinks, success rarily jumps out and bites you on the ass while you sit at home, unemployed and play at a bar twice a month. I wish you the best success.
At least somebody realizes that the one thing MS does and does well is play long term strategy. People tend to forget they are monopolistic empire for a reason and that reason generally isn't because they pump money into market sectors they believe they are going to outright fail in. I agree, Netscape has nothing on Sony. They are much tougher and have a loyal following in multiple industries. And unlike Netscape, all their eggs (and revenue) aren't in one basket. Sony can take hits for a few quarters and still have the stamina to keep trucking from other industry. Unlike Sega. And Nintendo. If I had to predict the next to fall (if), it'd be them. Remember the battle between Sega and Nintendo? Welcome to the 21st century; Sony versus MS. I still think MS needs roads in to Japan hardcore style to really take off, but there's not reason why it couldn't survive on domestic titles, provided gaming gains the popularity it has in Japan...
Price of a New XBox: $300.oo
Materials to mod the Xbox: $23.88
The look on his face when he realizes he just screwed up the soldering job and ruined the entire board: Priceless.
Two points, really. First, you could see this one coming miles away. Microsoft controls all the cards. They control the hardware you're getting, the software you're using and the network you're surfing. Given the fact that they created a closed box for a reason, it's no huge leap to imagine they'd use one or all of these paths to dissuade people from modding their box. And you won't see me minding too much either. One good thing that will make the X Box live a decent experience is conformity (yes, that evil, evil word). Knowing that the person who just fragged you has exactly the same hardware and connection. Sure, I might miss a multi region DVD mod or something, but not that much. Besides, I don't think anybody who mods for Linux is really worried about the games or X-Box Live. On that note, I can see MS being paranoid of Linux users trying to hack or otherwise use/abuse the Live network. I'd ban modded boxes too. A real, uncrippled OS is a dangerous tool in that environment. Too much temptation for you rabid, salivating Linux fan-boys. Finally, it's my opinion that Ps2 networking is probably going to blow because your going to have just as many surfing/playing problems as you did on your PC back in the Doom/Quake days... Y'know-- When that 56kb connection actually equalled out to 31.5kb if the planets were aligned and the wind was blowing south at 6kph? Maybe you'll get 42kb tommorow...
But they try to hide it behind the cloak of freeing the media from the man or something. All ideas are open source. That sort of thing. Unlike music CDs, I have nor problem paying $15-$20 for a DVD on movies I like. But beyond that, do you actually want to watch what is probably another par excellent movie as a crappy .mpeg anyway? That alone is incentive enough to stay far, far away from it.
No. No kicks here. Just this is a site that actually wants people to subscribe to it but can't even run a semi-professional operation. It severely irks me. Yep, I saw the post on the Two Towers. Maybe i keep posting to think one day the system will actually work. Naive, I guess. But you're right. I'm about done here. I'm tired of reading about buffy, the Dance Dance Revolution and 2 year old rants on U571 as well as the massive biased against anything not open source. The site it busted and ran by ametures. But thanks for asking.
Why is Slashdot posting tripe like Buffy's New Season when it could be posting real news... Such as:
2002-09-02 05:11:18 LotR: The Two Towers hits net months before release (articles,movies) (rejected)
In what has to be one of the startling security breaches in Hollywood to date, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has hit the net FOUR MONTHS ahead of it's intended release in theaters according to the Drudge Report, though there is still some question of what was actually obtained and how. If this can be confirmed or denied, it's here on Slashdot.
Or...
2002-09-02 05:20:54 RIAA site hit yet again by disgruntled hackers (articles,music) (rejected)
The RIAA has been hit for a third time in a one month's span as file-sharing fans hacked the RIAA hompage and altered it's content over the holiday weekend. Previous attacks include a DoS assault and a similar alteration. The story and alterations can be found at the MP3 Newswire.
Sure, I'm a tiny bit chapped, but the main portion of my fustration has been replaced with the need to prove how big of hacks and chumps these editors are. Even that -1 I'll be getting doesn't make any difference. I'll tell you when my karma dips below Excellent, kay?
Ok, I'll skip right by the fact that Buffy just isn't news. At all. And it's taking me all my willpower to do just that. It was a 'B' movie to begin-- But I digress. I did want to mention something about Firefly, however. Without knowing much about it, it strikes me as unusually similar to Cowboy Beeboy and Outlaw Star... Again, it's just a passing glance, but it's got that deja'vu thing happening all over it.
Right... It's another case of a submitter passing off his opinion as fact. A bit annoying, personally. Of your choices, I'd definitely agree with Akira and Gundam, maybe Eva, but it has too much of that "Boy finds robot fights evil invaders for college credits" stuff for me. And Shinji just has to be the most hatable character alive in anime :p YMMV. Just to put things in perspective, I'm not a huge fan of Gundam either, but there's no denying it's giant robot influence on the genre. I guess GitS tries to be the Gibson of anime (which I suspect is why some hold it up as revolutionary), but it hardly redefines anything.
Ghost in the shell redefined animation? Hardly. Masamune Shiro's manga was better than the actual movie. Both Patlabor the second movie (which came out before, thus "redefining animation") and GitS were done by the same animator and both had the same plodding "trying to dive deep into philosophy" bit, ultimately doing themselves a disservice. Not to mention the manga has this funky 3-way lesbian scene... For something to redefine a genre, it has to change the way you look at it substantially so... I can't see GitS doing that, honestly.