I don't see how this would work. It makes the argument that if a CA were under the authority of a government (e.g. China) then it could redirect you to a fake Gmail site but you would think it was actually Gmail. Wouldn't this also require the DNS to be controlled by a government? And even if they did redirect you to a fake site... you'd know it was a fake site because your email wouldn't be there, because you weren't accessing Gmail but a different server. The most they could get you to do (possibly) is divulge your password, right?
Who's being monopolistic? Windows Media Player will play its format and MP3. iTunes will play its format and MP3. Unfortunately all of my stuff is in Windows Media Player format. iTunes won't SAVE downloaded files in MP3 format, so I can't play iTunes in WMP (or RealOne, as far as I know, though I don't use that format). Basically we have two siblings who won't talk to each other -- they'll only talk to a third party (i.e. mp3). I should have scanned everything in MP3... but I don't want to go back and rescan. If iTunes is going to make it hard for me to convert (by making me rescan my whole library) then I won't convert at all. Which is my point. If they raise a barrier that requires me to spend my time - which I have a very limited quantity of - to switch from one system to another, then its not worth it to me... especially when, to my ears, iTunes doesn't play music any better or worse. I'd rather buy the same tracks from Napster, for the same price, but be able to play them in WMP. (Napster has roughly the same number of the kinds of tracks that I'm looking for, anyway.)
I dislike iTunes immensely because it forces you to use its format... I have thousands of tracks (legally obtained, mind you, from years of collecting CD's) scanned into Windows Media Player. Converting from the iTunes format to anything else requires WORK... work that I don't want to do. So I dropped iTunes. The biggest problem with these services, too, is the "smaller" artists aren't in there. I have mostly Christian/gospel music. Try finding the complete works of Ginny Owens or such. You'd probably find the same problem with small-market secular artists, too.
Good guys were out to steal the microwave weapon from the bad guys (in this case Chinese) before it could be used as an assassination weapon...?? it could cause heart attacks, tissue damage, etc...
Heh. That's funny. No, for it to work the ratings would have to be voluntary from within the community. And it can't be a forced system, it has to be a recommendation. So if you and I indicated we liked the same kinds of music, but you had something you liked that I didn't have in my database, the system would suggest it to me. There would be a sacrifice of a certain amount of privacy. However, my original point was that as a file-sharing system, Napster couldn't (IMHO) make any money. But as ONE alternative, a file-recommendation service, it might be able to.
Re:How is it going to be profitable?
on
Napster Clawing Back
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Possibly user-added ratings of some kind...? User commentary, something that would create a real community around the music. Or, some kind of mechanism for recommending music that you would like. For example, I like a particular style of Irish music. If Napster could come up with a way of RECOMMENDING music to me based on one particular song or set of songs, or perhaps based on the fact that I share certain likes with other people, that would be a worthwhile service. Then napster wouldn't be a file-sharing system... it would be a file-recommendation system... and with millions of files out there, a recommendation system would be worth its weight in gold. Its value would increase with every additional person in the system, too...
How is it going to be profitable?
on
Napster Clawing Back
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Who will pay for a subscription to Napster when there are a multitude of other free services around - like Gnutella, for example? Unless and until Napster either (a) has unique content which cannot be obtained anywhere else, (b) has some kind of value-added service that adds value to content readily available elsewhere, or (c) other services are shut down, won't a subscription-based service be a losing proposition?
Now it is impossible to download Morpheus from Download.com. Do we need to begin having mirrored distribution of the software that distributes widely-desired titles?
I used to work for a company that had a mixed environment of Macs and PCs. The one thing we discovered was that some applications (notably Foxpro, etc.) worked far slower on the Macs. I'm not sure but I was guessing that this was an optimization issue... So is there a noticeable speed difference still between apps optimized on the PC and not for the Mac, and vice versa? In our office right now we mostly use PCs but have a couple of Macs for graphic design and audio work.
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I don't see how this would work. It makes the argument that if a CA were under the authority of a government (e.g. China) then it could redirect you to a fake Gmail site but you would think it was actually Gmail. Wouldn't this also require the DNS to be controlled by a government? And even if they did redirect you to a fake site... you'd know it was a fake site because your email wouldn't be there, because you weren't accessing Gmail but a different server. The most they could get you to do (possibly) is divulge your password, right?
Who's being monopolistic? Windows Media Player will play its format and MP3. iTunes will play its format and MP3. Unfortunately all of my stuff is in Windows Media Player format. iTunes won't SAVE downloaded files in MP3 format, so I can't play iTunes in WMP (or RealOne, as far as I know, though I don't use that format). Basically we have two siblings who won't talk to each other -- they'll only talk to a third party (i.e. mp3). I should have scanned everything in MP3... but I don't want to go back and rescan. If iTunes is going to make it hard for me to convert (by making me rescan my whole library) then I won't convert at all. Which is my point. If they raise a barrier that requires me to spend my time - which I have a very limited quantity of - to switch from one system to another, then its not worth it to me... especially when, to my ears, iTunes doesn't play music any better or worse. I'd rather buy the same tracks from Napster, for the same price, but be able to play them in WMP. (Napster has roughly the same number of the kinds of tracks that I'm looking for, anyway.)
I dislike iTunes immensely because it forces you to use its format... I have thousands of tracks (legally obtained, mind you, from years of collecting CD's) scanned into Windows Media Player. Converting from the iTunes format to anything else requires WORK... work that I don't want to do. So I dropped iTunes. The biggest problem with these services, too, is the "smaller" artists aren't in there. I have mostly Christian/gospel music. Try finding the complete works of Ginny Owens or such. You'd probably find the same problem with small-market secular artists, too.
Good guys were out to steal the microwave weapon from the bad guys (in this case Chinese) before it could be used as an assassination weapon...?? it could cause heart attacks, tissue damage, etc...
Heh. That's funny. No, for it to work the ratings would have to be voluntary from within the community. And it can't be a forced system, it has to be a recommendation. So if you and I indicated we liked the same kinds of music, but you had something you liked that I didn't have in my database, the system would suggest it to me. There would be a sacrifice of a certain amount of privacy. However, my original point was that as a file-sharing system, Napster couldn't (IMHO) make any money. But as ONE alternative, a file-recommendation service, it might be able to.
Possibly user-added ratings of some kind...? User commentary, something that would create a real community around the music. Or, some kind of mechanism for recommending music that you would like. For example, I like a particular style of Irish music. If Napster could come up with a way of RECOMMENDING music to me based on one particular song or set of songs, or perhaps based on the fact that I share certain likes with other people, that would be a worthwhile service. Then napster wouldn't be a file-sharing system... it would be a file-recommendation system... and with millions of files out there, a recommendation system would be worth its weight in gold. Its value would increase with every additional person in the system, too...
Who will pay for a subscription to Napster when there are a multitude of other free services around - like Gnutella, for example? Unless and until Napster either (a) has unique content which cannot be obtained anywhere else, (b) has some kind of value-added service that adds value to content readily available elsewhere, or (c) other services are shut down, won't a subscription-based service be a losing proposition?
Now it is impossible to download Morpheus from Download.com. Do we need to begin having mirrored distribution of the software that distributes widely-desired titles?
I used to work for a company that had a mixed environment of Macs and PCs. The one thing we discovered was that some applications (notably Foxpro, etc.) worked far slower on the Macs. I'm not sure but I was guessing that this was an optimization issue... So is there a noticeable speed difference still between apps optimized on the PC and not for the Mac, and vice versa? In our office right now we mostly use PCs but have a couple of Macs for graphic design and audio work.