Re:The Germans figured it out a long time ago
on
Green Geek Beer
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· Score: 1
right, so chimay or other belgian strong ales that use candy sugar aren't beer? neither are saisons that use spices and dried lemon peels? Winter beers with spices aren't beer? Gruits and other ancient styles that use herbs instead of hops aren't beer?
adjuncts aren't necessarily bad. it's just the rice or corn syrup, like you mention, that really deteriorate the taste of mass-marketed beers. Germany only has a very few beer styles and not much innovation in taste thanks to their law. Adding other things to beer is a major creative outlet that has given belgium and now america many amazing beers.
just wait until stephen colbert gets ahold of this video and applies some "truthiness" to it. maybe he'll invite will wright on as a guest. now that would be some good tv.
this is not exactly true (at least the strict contract law part). depending on the court and jurisdiction, clauses in contracts can be read out of contracts for purposes of public policy etc. without destroying the whole contract. Some courts may strike the contract in its entirety, but the more modern approach is the "blue pencil rule" where a clause can either be read out, or more narrowly, if the objectionable part can be lined out, the remainder of the contract can be enforced.
I'm not clear which contract is actually being talked about here tho--the contract b/t apple and the end user or apple and the record industry. between apple and the end user it seems pretty reasonable that the term requiring DRM to be enforced could be read out without messing with the rest of the sale. Apple may have some problems with its agreement with the record industry because their contract may depend on the existence of DRM, and the record industry might argue this is the main purpose of the contract. But it would really depend on the exact words of the contract, because it sounds like Apple can still sell DRM music, it's just legal to break the DRM now. Depending on the terms in the contract with music companies, apple can just argue that they haven't changed a thing and are still within the terms of their contract with the studios.
This wikipedia entry on frustration of purpose might be informative. I don't think this French law makes DRM per se illegal so I doubt things would rise to the level of frustration of purpose. Even so, this would just be another defense apple could argue if the record industry sued them (the first being that the contract hasn't actually been breached). it doesn't automatically void the contract.
Of course non-DRM'd music would be great, but why does everyone think the hardware manufacturers don't want it too?
Maybe when the DRM debate first began they didn't want it, but now that's how Apple makes its money, and I'm sure Microsoft wants to play a similar game (locking people into the platform with Windows, Windows Media and.wma files rather than devices like the iPod). It's not about selling music (well, maybe for Napster it is, but that's not where the money really is).
DRM is good for hardware manufacturers because it provides lock-in that makes transaction costs too high for people interested in switching. While it's not good for consumers, do any of them really care? 1 Billion iTunes song sales says no.
this case will revolve around the communications decency act (wikipedia) and the phrase: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
like the article says, this really is still a murky area of the law--tho some decisions (like the Zeran one mentioned) seem to grant immunity, it's not clear whether this law really extends so far. recently there was a case involving eBay and a defamatory comment posted in feedback that went to the CA supreme court.
but, it seems like blogger=user of an interactive computer service (blog software/internet etc.) and post was by another, so you might conclude that the blogger shouldn't be treated as speaker, though it depends a good amount on the interpretation of the clause, since that is pretty broad. But the trade secret issue may tear down any protection from the law, if it's valid.
it seems more intelligent to go after the actual offender, not the host of the comment, but people generally want to go after the bigger fish, and it is often more difficult to track down the actual commenter.
as far as tivo getting involved, if tivo allowed you to watch nfl games in breach of the nfl's contract with cable companies, it could potentially be liable under tort law for intentional interference of economic relations and be liable for big big damages.
the economist is one of the best magazines out there, and for a geek it has a lot of tech/science/business coverage in every issue, plus a quarterly technology section that really looks hard at innovative (but actual) new technologies that are going to shape the world in years to come. The correspondants are almost as very smart and know what they are talking about. it's worth the price.
i also read and very much like wired. it's a bit more out there in terms of praticallity, but less than it used to be, and it's a lot of fun. good graphics and charts, some decent trend stories, and also good what-if and whoa that's awesome kind of stuff.
i wouldn't switch airports because of free wifi, but if i had to make a stop flying from chicago to LA or SF, which happens often enough, and one flight plan has a layover in Denver while the other is in Texas, or some other random place, I'd choose the Denver flight exactly because I know I can get free wifi there.
Also, I don't see why an enterprising airline doesn't push free wifi in its terminal. I might choose United over American if they offered free wifi in their terminals.
Maybe these arent perfect business reasons to install free wifi, but how much can it really cost to put some hotspots in?
I'd think the comfort and perceived benefit of free wifi for both casual and business travelers that could help build brand loyalty and make stressed-out travelers happier would outweigh the costs of installing the infrastructure.
ive seen online screenshots of xbox blue screens of death, and i know that KOTOR has frozen on me a bunch of times. dunno if that's a game problem or an xbox problem.
he gets 200 hours for hacking into a national laboratory, but will probably have to pay every last penny he owns to the RIAA and MPAA for having illegal copies of music. hrmm....
i dont really see why you would get the mini when for $50 more you get 11 more gigs of storage. ok the small form factor is cool and 4 gigs is plenty of music for a lot of people, but the price point doesnt seem quite right.
i guess itll drop $50 or $75 tho as the initial interest wears off, which would put it at a more interesting price point.
Even tho Lindows gets a lot of flack, Im impressed there's a CEO in this country that actually has personal beliefs and moral stakes that drive his ambition as much as business sense.
I just gotta wonder how long trying to be a good guy can last.
and it turned out pretty damn good. not perfect, but highly drinkable and super hoppy. yum.
i highly recommend it as a hobby-- there is something very rewarding about drinking beer you created, and the great thing about the hobby is that for n00bs its a relatively simple operation, but for those really into it, it gets rather technical and involved.
The point is that for people who enjoy games and especially MMORPGs, we should not let a slippery slope begin where every game is chock full of corporate sponsors. No one wants to have to pay to be advertised to, nor should they. People play to have fun and to be creative, and corporate sponsorship merely detracts from the asthetics of the game and cheapens the experience.
If people just don't buy the game the practice will continue and spread. Soon enough every game you play will have you making use of commercial products as a part of game play. And the worst part about it is that the company is still charging you $50 (or $30 maybe in the case of the Sims, plus monthly fee) for the game and is getting cash for product placements. This sort of advertising-as-content is much more insipid than tv ads (which pay for the programming) or even movie previews. If people nip it in the bud by making noise about it in-game, companies will realize that it's not something their users want.
Also, I hope they protest the Intel branding too. What if you want to use a Mac!?!
Exactly, people feel attached and entitled. I wonder if at some point there will be attempts at politicizing and revolutionizing in game.
It may be a bit out there, but I can see enough disaffected fans trying to rally for some sort of democratic input into a game. As people get more attached to these virtual environments they are going to want more of a stake in how its run. Or perhaps at some point an MMORPG will be made with this sort of self-governing built in as its own experiment.
I think there will be an evolution of MMORPGS towards metaverse type places. Sims online is already heading in that direction. People are going to discover that they want more control over things they are paying for, even if it is billed as entertainment (hello all the arguments about copyright, DMCA, **AA, Tivo etc. etc. Movies, TV, music etc. are all entertainment that many on slashdot believe they should have more control over how they interact and use them. Content companies of MMORPGs have total control now, but I don't think that will last.) It's going to get pretty damn interesting.
not if microsoft palladium and all sorts of other drm stuff comes out to try and stop it.
i just love how consumers are getting blamed for all of business' woes these days. business isn't so good? its not because their business model is bad or maybe the execs are practicing shady accounting, its just that us damn people dont respect commercials and love to steal music all day long, because the people who support all these companies are evil!
Gah is right. i swear in five years im going to end up a luddite.
What feeling do y'all have about the laptops. I really want an ibook (im poor), though I am concerned about it being only a G3 processor. Are the guts of the machine gonna last, or should i wait and see if a new design is on the horizon? if only they would stuff a g4 into those things.
i thought/. wasnt linking to sites with registration anymore. thats what was mentioned on new media musings
not that it bothers me all that much that/. links to these sites, because most of them i probably am already registered at anyway, but the process is annoying.
i know some of these sites have urls that allow you to get through without registering that they use when they want to distribute stories to people who may not necissarily be registered...
I interned for a state representative in California a summer ago, and if there is one thing I learned there, it's that they don't pay much attention to emails. In terms of time, the representatives are all over the place and almost never around, but a real letter, or second to that, a phone call, go a longer way in getting some kind of serious response.
It sucks that email is not as respected as other methods of communication, but they get so many quacks writing them that something more tangible usually works better. Nevertheless, even if you send an actual letter I'm not saying you will necessarily get a satisfactory response, I'm just saying its more likely. The system sure ain't perfect.
I was wondering if anyone has attended the promotional giveaways mentioned on the update to the article. I would dearly love to get my hands on a new motherboard and cpu for free 'cause I was going to upgrade anyway, but the 6:00 am time that AMD posted on their site puts a bit of a cramp in my styles.
Anybody go to the one in SF or whatever is next? (seattle?) Just wanted to see what the procedure was like, how many people showed up, what time the actual giveaway was, and whether it would be worth my time.
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right, so chimay or other belgian strong ales that use candy sugar aren't beer? neither are saisons that use spices and dried lemon peels? Winter beers with spices aren't beer? Gruits and other ancient styles that use herbs instead of hops aren't beer?
adjuncts aren't necessarily bad. it's just the rice or corn syrup, like you mention, that really deteriorate the taste of mass-marketed beers. Germany only has a very few beer styles and not much innovation in taste thanks to their law. Adding other things to beer is a major creative outlet that has given belgium and now america many amazing beers.
just wait until stephen colbert gets ahold of this video and applies some "truthiness" to it. maybe he'll invite will wright on as a guest. now that would be some good tv.
this is not exactly true (at least the strict contract law part). depending on the court and jurisdiction, clauses in contracts can be read out of contracts for purposes of public policy etc. without destroying the whole contract. Some courts may strike the contract in its entirety, but the more modern approach is the "blue pencil rule" where a clause can either be read out, or more narrowly, if the objectionable part can be lined out, the remainder of the contract can be enforced.
I'm not clear which contract is actually being talked about here tho--the contract b/t apple and the end user or apple and the record industry. between apple and the end user it seems pretty reasonable that the term requiring DRM to be enforced could be read out without messing with the rest of the sale. Apple may have some problems with its agreement with the record industry because their contract may depend on the existence of DRM, and the record industry might argue this is the main purpose of the contract. But it would really depend on the exact words of the contract, because it sounds like Apple can still sell DRM music, it's just legal to break the DRM now. Depending on the terms in the contract with music companies, apple can just argue that they haven't changed a thing and are still within the terms of their contract with the studios.
This wikipedia entry on frustration of purpose might be informative. I don't think this French law makes DRM per se illegal so I doubt things would rise to the level of frustration of purpose. Even so, this would just be another defense apple could argue if the record industry sued them (the first being that the contract hasn't actually been breached). it doesn't automatically void the contract.
Of course non-DRM'd music would be great, but why does everyone think the hardware manufacturers don't want it too?
.wma files rather than devices like the iPod). It's not about selling music (well, maybe for Napster it is, but that's not where the money really is).
Maybe when the DRM debate first began they didn't want it, but now that's how Apple makes its money, and I'm sure Microsoft wants to play a similar game (locking people into the platform with Windows, Windows Media and
DRM is good for hardware manufacturers because it provides lock-in that makes transaction costs too high for people interested in switching. While it's not good for consumers, do any of them really care? 1 Billion iTunes song sales says no.
this case will revolve around the communications decency act (wikipedia) and the phrase: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
like the article says, this really is still a murky area of the law--tho some decisions (like the Zeran one mentioned) seem to grant immunity, it's not clear whether this law really extends so far. recently there was a case involving eBay and a defamatory comment posted in feedback that went to the CA supreme court.
but, it seems like blogger=user of an interactive computer service (blog software/internet etc.) and post was by another, so you might conclude that the blogger shouldn't be treated as speaker, though it depends a good amount on the interpretation of the clause, since that is pretty broad. But the trade secret issue may tear down any protection from the law, if it's valid.
it seems more intelligent to go after the actual offender, not the host of the comment, but people generally want to go after the bigger fish, and it is often more difficult to track down the actual commenter.
as far as tivo getting involved, if tivo allowed you to watch nfl games in breach of the nfl's contract with cable companies, it could potentially be liable under tort law for intentional interference of economic relations and be liable for big big damages.
it sucks.
IAOALS (i am only a law student)
the economist is one of the best magazines out there, and for a geek it has a lot of tech/science/business coverage in every issue, plus a quarterly technology section that really looks hard at innovative (but actual) new technologies that are going to shape the world in years to come. The correspondants are almost as very smart and know what they are talking about. it's worth the price.
i also read and very much like wired. it's a bit more out there in terms of praticallity, but less than it used to be, and it's a lot of fun. good graphics and charts, some decent trend stories, and also good what-if and whoa that's awesome kind of stuff.
Also, I don't see why an enterprising airline doesn't push free wifi in its terminal. I might choose United over American if they offered free wifi in their terminals.
Maybe these arent perfect business reasons to install free wifi, but how much can it really cost to put some hotspots in?
I'd think the comfort and perceived benefit of free wifi for both casual and business travelers that could help build brand loyalty and make stressed-out travelers happier would outweigh the costs of installing the infrastructure.
ive seen online screenshots of xbox blue screens of death, and i know that KOTOR has frozen on me a bunch of times. dunno if that's a game problem or an xbox problem.
designing games based on the G5 chip architecture? could this somehow mean more gaming love for the apple crowd?
you are right. how about their british counterpart. im sure america puts the pressure on anyway.
he gets 200 hours for hacking into a national laboratory, but will probably have to pay every last penny he owns to the RIAA and MPAA for having illegal copies of music. hrmm....
i dont really see why you would get the mini when for $50 more you get 11 more gigs of storage. ok the small form factor is cool and 4 gigs is plenty of music for a lot of people, but the price point doesnt seem quite right.
i guess itll drop $50 or $75 tho as the initial interest wears off, which would put it at a more interesting price point.
Even tho Lindows gets a lot of flack, Im impressed there's a CEO in this country that actually has personal beliefs and moral stakes that drive his ambition as much as business sense.
I just gotta wonder how long trying to be a good guy can last.
and it turned out pretty damn good. not perfect, but highly drinkable and super hoppy. yum.
i highly recommend it as a hobby-- there is something very rewarding about drinking beer you created, and the great thing about the hobby is that for n00bs its a relatively simple operation, but for those really into it, it gets rather technical and involved.
beer is good. homebrew is better.
No, there is a point to protesting in-game.
The point is that for people who enjoy games and especially MMORPGs, we should not let a slippery slope begin where every game is chock full of corporate sponsors. No one wants to have to pay to be advertised to, nor should they. People play to have fun and to be creative, and corporate sponsorship merely detracts from the asthetics of the game and cheapens the experience.
If people just don't buy the game the practice will continue and spread. Soon enough every game you play will have you making use of commercial products as a part of game play. And the worst part about it is that the company is still charging you $50 (or $30 maybe in the case of the Sims, plus monthly fee) for the game and is getting cash for product placements. This sort of advertising-as-content is much more insipid than tv ads (which pay for the programming) or even movie previews. If people nip it in the bud by making noise about it in-game, companies will realize that it's not something their users want.
Also, I hope they protest the Intel branding too. What if you want to use a Mac!?!
Exactly, people feel attached and entitled. I wonder if at some point there will be attempts at politicizing and revolutionizing in game.
It may be a bit out there, but I can see enough disaffected fans trying to rally for some sort of democratic input into a game. As people get more attached to these virtual environments they are going to want more of a stake in how its run. Or perhaps at some point an MMORPG will be made with this sort of self-governing built in as its own experiment.
I think there will be an evolution of MMORPGS towards metaverse type places. Sims online is already heading in that direction. People are going to discover that they want more control over things they are paying for, even if it is billed as entertainment (hello all the arguments about copyright, DMCA, **AA, Tivo etc. etc. Movies, TV, music etc. are all entertainment that many on slashdot believe they should have more control over how they interact and use them. Content companies of MMORPGs have total control now, but I don't think that will last.) It's going to get pretty damn interesting.
1 frame a second... imagine the crazy strobe-light effect.
It would be a 24/7 dance party.
With the headache that thing would give you, maybe you'd rather not see.
We've been taping movies off the tv (and renting them and going to see them in the theater by the millions) for years now.
Are we going to stop going to movies and renting dvds just because we can now make "perfect copies?"
Absolutely not. This is just one more industry attempting to hijack the consumer and keep us all financially indentured to them.
not if microsoft palladium and all sorts of other drm stuff comes out to try and stop it.
i just love how consumers are getting blamed for all of business' woes these days. business isn't so good? its not because their business model is bad or maybe the execs are practicing shady accounting, its just that us damn people dont respect commercials and love to steal music all day long, because the people who support all these companies are evil!
Gah is right. i swear in five years im going to end up a luddite.
maybe apple would port os X to the x86 platform and give us an os alternative. or we could all just buy macs. wouldnt be so bad.
What feeling do y'all have about the laptops. I really want an ibook (im poor), though I am concerned about it being only a G3 processor. Are the guts of the machine gonna last, or should i wait and see if a new design is on the horizon? if only they would stuff a g4 into those things.
not that it bothers me all that much that /. links to these sites, because most of them i probably am already registered at anyway, but the process is annoying.
i know some of these sites have urls that allow you to get through without registering that they use when they want to distribute stories to people who may not necissarily be registered...
I interned for a state representative in California a summer ago, and if there is one thing I learned there, it's that they don't pay much attention to emails. In terms of time, the representatives are all over the place and almost never around, but a real letter, or second to that, a phone call, go a longer way in getting some kind of serious response.
It sucks that email is not as respected as other methods of communication, but they get so many quacks writing them that something more tangible usually works better. Nevertheless, even if you send an actual letter I'm not saying you will necessarily get a satisfactory response, I'm just saying its more likely. The system sure ain't perfect.
I was wondering if anyone has attended the promotional giveaways mentioned on the update to the article. I would dearly love to get my hands on a new motherboard and cpu for free 'cause I was going to upgrade anyway, but the 6:00 am time that AMD posted on their site puts a bit of a cramp in my styles.
Anybody go to the one in SF or whatever is next? (seattle?) Just wanted to see what the procedure was like, how many people showed up, what time the actual giveaway was, and whether it would be worth my time.