I completly agree. I am so sick of advertisements - be it on a web page, on the tv, before a movie, in a magazine, in a newspaper...
I would love to see the ad-revenue rotated into cost increases. So what if I pay $20/year for Wired magazine instead of $10? (although I like their ad's). I feel like no matter how hard I try, I am simply another pawn in the advertising game. If they grab my attention, they win. If they get me to talk about their product to other people, they win. If I actually buy their product, they have really won.
I want to be able to determine the value of a product from user/owner reviews, and not from advertising fluff. But this is hard to do considering how subliminal some of the advertising is.
Well, when they put a tax (as proposed in Canada) on CD-R's to compensate the RIAA/MPAA for the lost income of stolen music... It seems to me that I now have an obligation to steal music so that I don't feel ripped off for being honest, yet still paying the tax.
I don't know about Chicago, but in the Twin Cities, you need to make at least 40k to afford anything other than a crack-house. If you want a nicer house, or if you have a family with kids, or you want to make improvements to your house... It all adds up quickly.
The ability to save (at least for me), tends to come *after* I have things in reasonable shape. And in my case, that means replacing the fridge, the dryer, the 3rd owner couch, and making repairs on a 13 year old car and a few even on a 5 year old car.
Saving is not easy, and you tend to spend what you make.
I have a fellow contractor who's company slashed their employee's salary by 20% over night. They were given a 1-day notice of the change.
My company (also contract), has announced that there may be paycuts applied to individuals, but 4 months latter, I have yet to hear of the first cut. We have, though, been on a much shorter leash. No new training, goodies, and the company-sponsered events are just about non-existant now.
The fortune-100 client has also been making cuts, but instead of cutting salary, they cut people. We figure the ultimate goal is to cut their IT department by 1/2 of the size it was a year ago. Projects are much harder to come by.
Been using it for 1.5 years. I don't use contacts. I don't use glasses. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I like the screen space. At home, I am running 2 monitors side by side at maximum resolution.
Yes, he is getting free advertising, but then "established well-known" authors get too much advertising.
Each work should be given merit based on it's own quality. Just because well-known author has written good books does not mean he will continue to write good ones. And conversly, just because an author hasn't written any good ones doesn't mean the next one won't be good eiter.
"10% decrease in music sales in 2001 was caused mostly by Internet file swapping."
Right. And like anyone actually told Best Buy why they wern't purchasing CD's.
Personally, it isn't the EASE, CONVINENCE, or the COST that makes p2p downloading of mp3's desireable to me. I do it simply because the RIAA has made such an ass of themselves about the whole thing. I'd prefer a real CD to the haphazard collecting you get on the net. But leaving Bearshare open all day is my little way to protest against the RIAA.
what on earth is the trigger going to be for this "backlash" that I keep hearing about
There may be some backlash on mp3 and the restrictions of new music (ie CD's that crash music playing devices). But this will only happen a little at a time as the industry tries different ways to prevent mp3 sharing.
I think the big backlash will come about when the DMCA is used to keep books out of libraries -or used to shut the libraries down.
I've talked to people, and no one cares that you can't even link to a web page that might violate copyright. And they think that breaking security - any security, put out by any company for any reason, really isn't a bad law. After all, they tell me, that the security is there for a reason, and you shouldn't be "snooping".
So where does that leave us? I'm not sure. What I worry about is the slow speed that the laws are made. It gives people too much time to become complacent.
But my hope is with the libraries. Perhaps when "they" try to take the libraries away it will strike a nerve long enough to get the average citizen to care about their rights, about their future, and about making a difference.
TV / Movies: Pay-per-view (pro-rated so I can save $$ if the movie turns out to be crap)
Music: Pay-per-listen (with $ direct to artists, and _not_ the RIAA)
News (print/web/tv): Subsidized by advertising/government.
Books / Libraries: This really needs to stay free if we are to keep a decent democracy (thus government subsidized)
The thing to consider is what will keep us as an intelligent democracy? We need access to information for free. That is a must. We need to voice our opinion for free. But do we really need access to the hollywood perspective of our culture - for free? I don't think so.
The pen idea is nice, but is is just too slow of a data input device. Even speach recognition, with all of it's cool Star Trek appeal, is not practical on day-to-day tasks. As much as palm pilots and the like seem new and like a good idea (especially combined with cell phones), it just doesn't match the potential of a wearable computers when they mature. We have already have Nomad for the monitor, 3G for the network, a smaller and smaller computer, and the ability to make a keyboard out of any surface. Not to mention mind controled mice.
So tell me again why I should be excited about pen data entry?
Globalism is a Bad Thing. In my small and limited world view, I know that 3M and Target Corporation are both hiring "skilled" India workers to replace (and cut costs) of Corporate IT. As an IT contractor, the Indian wage of $25/hour is very hard to compete with.
It is really quite simple: The United States is full of "Haves", and the rest of the world is full of "Have-Nots". When globalization finishes balancing it all out, how much wealth is the United States really going to have left?
Globalization = Good for 3rd world countries.
Globalization = Bad for 1st world countries.
And if they find out all I do is read slashdot all day, what are they going to do?
Privacy certainly has it's points, but if they want to know that badly where I was surfing, I'd just as soon let them find out for that kind of effort.
This is a nice idea, but Apple's driving force is this whole "digital hub" thing. Hardware plays a very important role, and OS X is only a side line goodie (at best) to the overall vision.
I personally like SpamCop.Net. It has a dynamic black list based on ip. If people report spam from a specific ip address, it will (after a certain threshhold) get added to the black list. Once the spam stops being reported, the ip address becomes open again.
A national law will get you no where. Over 90% of the spam I receive doesn't originate in the United States. International law *might* get you a little somewhere, but it will never pass, and even if by some act of god did pass, it would never be enforced.
The correct technical solution is to filter your e-mail. No laws to sneak up and get us later, and we can improve the filter to our likeing at any point. I find www.spamcop.net to work wonders for my inbox. Not only does it block the unwanted mail very accuratly, but it simplifies the complain-to-the-system-admin's process.
My resume notes about 5 years worth of experience, but also claims "programming for 10 years". Both are true. They are not equal. They were not intended to be. That's just my slant.
Experience is a subjective term. I did, in fact, start programming at age 6 on a Commodore 64 and my resume states such, and may influence a prospective employer that I just might be the man for the job.
Just because it wasn't "professional" doesn't mean it isn't important.
I just did a quick calculation on the 4 months of spam I have saved. I get about 1530 pieces of spam a year. Even at that rate, I'm debating using the service by SpamCop.net. Although, you have to wonder if it is worth $50 per year just to get rid of those messages...
I have found this response to work. It is good for snail mail as well (although, not quite as effective).
I did find, however, that the law only protects you for a year. After that, they are free to call you again.
Slashdot Mirror
I would love to see the ad-revenue rotated into cost increases. So what if I pay $20/year for Wired magazine instead of $10? (although I like their ad's). I feel like no matter how hard I try, I am simply another pawn in the advertising game. If they grab my attention, they win. If they get me to talk about their product to other people, they win. If I actually buy their product, they have really won.
I want to be able to determine the value of a product from user/owner reviews, and not from advertising fluff. But this is hard to do considering how subliminal some of the advertising is.
Well, when they put a tax (as proposed in Canada) on CD-R's to compensate the RIAA/MPAA for the lost income of stolen music... It seems to me that I now have an obligation to steal music so that I don't feel ripped off for being honest, yet still paying the tax.
The ability to save (at least for me), tends to come *after* I have things in reasonable shape. And in my case, that means replacing the fridge, the dryer, the 3rd owner couch, and making repairs on a 13 year old car and a few even on a 5 year old car.
Saving is not easy, and you tend to spend what you make.
My company (also contract), has announced that there may be paycuts applied to individuals, but 4 months latter, I have yet to hear of the first cut. We have, though, been on a much shorter leash. No new training, goodies, and the company-sponsered events are just about non-existant now.
The fortune-100 client has also been making cuts, but instead of cutting salary, they cut people. We figure the ultimate goal is to cut their IT department by 1/2 of the size it was a year ago. Projects are much harder to come by.
Been using it for 1.5 years. I don't use contacts. I don't use glasses. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I like the screen space. At home, I am running 2 monitors side by side at maximum resolution.
Call me moni-mutant-or.
Each work should be given merit based on it's own quality. Just because well-known author has written good books does not mean he will continue to write good ones. And conversly, just because an author hasn't written any good ones doesn't mean the next one won't be good eiter.
Right. And like anyone actually told Best Buy why they wern't purchasing CD's.
Personally, it isn't the EASE, CONVINENCE, or the COST that makes p2p downloading of mp3's desireable to me. I do it simply because the RIAA has made such an ass of themselves about the whole thing. I'd prefer a real CD to the haphazard collecting you get on the net. But leaving Bearshare open all day is my little way to protest against the RIAA.
There may be some backlash on mp3 and the restrictions of new music (ie CD's that crash music playing devices). But this will only happen a little at a time as the industry tries different ways to prevent mp3 sharing.
I think the big backlash will come about when the DMCA is used to keep books out of libraries -or used to shut the libraries down.
I've talked to people, and no one cares that you can't even link to a web page that might violate copyright. And they think that breaking security - any security, put out by any company for any reason, really isn't a bad law. After all, they tell me, that the security is there for a reason, and you shouldn't be "snooping".
So where does that leave us? I'm not sure. What I worry about is the slow speed that the laws are made. It gives people too much time to become complacent.
But my hope is with the libraries. Perhaps when "they" try to take the libraries away it will strike a nerve long enough to get the average citizen to care about their rights, about their future, and about making a difference.
TV / Movies: Pay-per-view (pro-rated so I can save $$ if the movie turns out to be crap)
Music: Pay-per-listen (with $ direct to artists, and _not_ the RIAA)
News (print/web/tv): Subsidized by advertising/government.
Books / Libraries: This really needs to stay free if we are to keep a decent democracy (thus government subsidized)
The thing to consider is what will keep us as an intelligent democracy? We need access to information for free. That is a must. We need to voice our opinion for free. But do we really need access to the hollywood perspective of our culture - for free? I don't think so.
So tell me again why I should be excited about pen data entry?
It is really quite simple: The United States is full of "Haves", and the rest of the world is full of "Have-Nots". When globalization finishes balancing it all out, how much wealth is the United States really going to have left?
Globalization = Good for 3rd world countries.
Globalization = Bad for 1st world countries.
Privacy certainly has it's points, but if they want to know that badly where I was surfing, I'd just as soon let them find out for that kind of effort.
This is a nice idea, but Apple's driving force is this whole "digital hub" thing. Hardware plays a very important role, and OS X is only a side line goodie (at best) to the overall vision.
I personally like SpamCop.Net. It has a dynamic black list based on ip. If people report spam from a specific ip address, it will (after a certain threshhold) get added to the black list. Once the spam stops being reported, the ip address becomes open again.
Who needs a PocketPC or Palm when you can just take your whole computer with you?
The correct technical solution is to filter your e-mail. No laws to sneak up and get us later, and we can improve the filter to our likeing at any point. I find www.spamcop.net to work wonders for my inbox. Not only does it block the unwanted mail very accuratly, but it simplifies the complain-to-the-system-admin's process.
My resume notes about 5 years worth of experience, but also claims "programming for 10 years". Both are true. They are not equal. They were not intended to be. That's just my slant.
Experience is a subjective term. I did, in fact, start programming at age 6 on a Commodore 64 and my resume states such, and may influence a prospective employer that I just might be the man for the job.
Just because it wasn't "professional" doesn't mean it isn't important.
I just did a quick calculation on the 4 months of spam I have saved. I get about 1530 pieces of spam a year. Even at that rate, I'm debating using the service by SpamCop.net. Although, you have to wonder if it is worth $50 per year just to get rid of those messages...
I have found this response to work. It is good for snail mail as well (although, not quite as effective). I did find, however, that the law only protects you for a year. After that, they are free to call you again.