I wonder if this is true for all Apple stores. Shoot, I finally bit the bullet and bought a 5 gig iPod from Fry's on Monday. Now I can get a 10gig for the same price with all those added features. Good thing they have a 30-day return policy. It's already crashed my computer once and it had to be reset which almost led me to returning it in the 1st place. So I have a valid reason for my return, although you usually don't need one there.
This maybe way too simple and cheap for the US government to consider and not nearly as cool as jeeps mounted with "laserbeams", but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be effective.
Open your eyes. Yes, we are the freest and the greatest on the planet I live on, Earth. What planet do you live on? I've been all over Europe and North America (the 1st world), and no one has it like we do. There's plenty of empirical data to back me up.
If you look at it from a green point of view, we aren't the worst. There are plenty of countries that pollute and consume disproportionately to what they produce. Why would the American people want treaty that automatically puts them at a disadvantage to the rest of the world? Our congress voted Kyoto down 99-0 because many American businesses would suffer. We respect individual prosperity and we're not going to sell out a few businesses out for the sake of world opinion. That WWF report is a joke. It completely disregards the very thing that sets us apart from other species which is technology. We will find ways to extend our resources and EVENTUALLY the growth of the population will be forced to stabilize. The free market will facilitate both.
BTW, the only harm SUVs are doing is depleting world's oil reserves ever-so-slightly faster than a normal car would. You should be happy we drive them because as soon as we run low and the price of oil goes up, we wont have to pick on all those reputable counries in the Middle East.
Our country may be run by children, but it is the groundwork laid by our founding fathers (businessmen) that continues to make this the freest, and therefore greatest, nation in the world. Regardless of who my leaders tend to favor, I can choose to not buy their products if they are bent on destorying the environment. It is in the best interest of our corporate masters to maintain their integrity and public image becuase if Joe Consumer is pissed off, they ultimately have to answer to Joe Stockholder or go out of business.
Besides, we are not driving the "plant to shit" any faster the the rest of the world. (see this post) We are continuing to meet demand both domesticaly and overseas, and until there's a fair treaty, one where the US isn't punished for its ability to create wealth, we will have to rely on consumer education to "save" the planet.
1984!? This has nothing to do with big brother. It has to do with respecting the right to own IP and protecting free enterprise. So, are you saying that since we live better than 98% of the people on this planet, it's alright to cheat each other? I used to think that way. Of course I still cheat and have 10 gigs of mp3's. So I'm a hypocrite. At least I don't go off on copyright law being outdated and "macroscopic social behaviour" to rationalize it and go around telling people to do it because life is unfair. I still buy CDs and pay way more than I should. But, I know a lot of people who haven't bought a single CD since college when they were first introduced to mp3's. The free rider problem isn't a small one.
I would use a system where I can keep using kazaa and pay $5/month. Of course, if I had to pay, I'd want others to pay too. I don't think the barriers would be too draconian. There are ways ISP's can limit what people do with their bandwidth just like the cable company controls what you get over _their_ wires. I was actually surprised when we ordered basic and they came all the way out to our house and screwed in a filter on our drop line that blocked out channels 24-73. They obviously don't like free riders. As for file sharing, all they would have to do is set up authorized download servers on specific ports an ip's, and allow unlimited bandwidth usage on those channels.
Getting back to my original argument, I just wanted one solid convincing reason why mass file-swapping and its inevitable harm to the industry wouldn't discourage music creation. If it hurts the guys on top, it also hurts on the bottom.
Of course music would be around if record companies went by the wayside. There just wouldn't be as much. Your original point was based on the hypothesis that files sharing does not discourage music creation. When the the vast majority has cd-burners and cable modems, the record _corporations_ will be forced to take measures to keep their profits up. Either the honest people will have to pay more or the cheaters will have to be stopped. If record sales fall, the entire industry will suffer. You said it yourself in your first post:
> Of course file sharing hurts sales.
Your twisted sense of morality allows you to believe that stealing from a big faceless corporation is okay because paying to hear a measly song a few times in your life isn't worth it to you. It that's the case, don't listen to the music. Why should you pay a buck forty for a cup of coffee at startbucks if you might only benefit from it for a couple of hours? Only if there was a way you could get it for free. Hey, if it feels good do it. It's not hurting anybody. If more people thought like you, we all would be screwed.
But the idea of file sharing destroying the ability to make a living off being a musician is simply laughable.
1. Sorry for implying such a laughable idea, but I wanted to make the point that with reduced revenues caused by illegal file sharing, record companies will be forced to not sign and/or screw over more artists. If there are fewer record contracts floating around, fewer artists will be able to quit their dayjobs, and the music output, quality, and diversity will all decrease. The ability to make a living will definately still exist. It just won't be as rewarding for many artists.
2. It doesn't matter why/how copyrights came about. Not paying for music that people released with the expectation of recieving something in return is just not right. Not paying for music reduces the incentive for people to make music, and the people who promote it. Intellectual property is still property, no matter if it's something your great grandfather created. If you create or own something of value, you should be able to sell it or be compensated for value people are deriving from it.
Simple economics. Because of technology and the free market, an artist, if he's good enough, has the ability to reach millions of people through various forms of media. The market will decide how good it is. If it's good, he's a SUPERSTAR. Everyone is better off when that happens because we get to hear good music and it encourages others to create something just as good or better. Evidence: look at how many kids who want to 'be like Mike.'
Besides the satisfaction that derives from entertaining people, touring is used to promote music. And without the mass media giving us the opportunity to hear that artist, no one would know about the performer and his next concert. We need the record companies and the radio stations they control, as 'evil' as they may be, or else we wouldn't have any superstars.
The question everybody should have been asking all along is, "Does it hurt sales so badly that nobody will want to make music?" The answer seems to be an overwhelming NO, so if thats the case...
That's one BIG if. Record companies spend a lot of money to find new artists. If revenues fall to the point where it's ecomically infeasible for a particular record company to keep scouting for new artists, or it's too risky to sign them, then it will be much harder for artists to get discovered and eventually the supply will decrease. Now you might argue that people love to make music and it's not just to make money, but they still need food and shelter, and if it's not paying the bills, they'll put more into something that does.
That's why we have copyrights. It takes part of the risk out of creating and releasing something that could otherwise be stolen. That's why they should be protected. It would be nice if more than just 2 of the 18 dollars we pay for CDs ended up in the artist's pocket and not some filthy rich record exec's, but hey, that's capitalism.
Never seen such a flashy website to show off a product before. You'd think they could have afforded to use a model's hands instead of an engineer's in the specifications section. geesh!
C'mon, Spudley! As if nerds really drink the kind of beer that comes from hops and is served in bars. This invention can only be a bad thing because now anyone can quickly spot the geek asking the bartender if they have these things. Oh, boy, a smart-glass with 802.11b wireless conncectivity! Neato!
How can your oh-so-wonderful device tell the difference between you carrying it somewhere, or someone trying to rip it off?
It's a lock. Not a permanent fixture. How does your car alarm know you're not a burglar? If I know I'm going to be in a long meeting I'll put the damn thing on.
My point about your post was that it must have been modded up by someone who a) hadn't bothered read the product's website and/or b) hadn't read the other 15 posts about the device becoming useless once cut off.
The fact that someone is able to cut off the device does NOT make it useless. Once the band is cut, the device can communicate to the parents that something is wrong, its exact location in the world, and the exact time of the event. Don't you think that has value?
I just think it's a fairly safe bet that a $400 saftey device can still be of some value even when the bad guy, who's learned about the gps watch on slashdot, remembers to pack a pair of wire cutters the next time he decides to kidnap someone. And the only reason he thinks he has a chance is because he's only reading your uninformed, modded up, posts!
I have a motion-detecting laptop lock that will blast 70dB if the lock wire is cut. (Once it went off and I forgot the code, and some moron suggested cutting the lock, like that was going to silence the alarm.)
How is it not obvious to people that products such as these do not get dime one of VC funding without first addressing concerns like these?
That video was really lame, but the dad demonstrated one of the greatest applications of portable computing: Internet porn in the bathroom. hmmm... the Times or playboy.com?
The other cool thing they demonstrated was it's use while watching TV, which, I guess, is the target market for Mira; sort of a WebTV replacemnet. A searchable tv guide that doesn't require you to press a hundred buttons only using your thumb sounds really appealing to me.
Give us your tired and your poor, so I can sit on my ass all day and collect unemployment while I make a website that badmouths my government officials. If comedy was a goal for that Terrorist warning generator thing, maybe try reading an original Mad-libs first. What a total waste of time!
Sysadmins have some long nights ahead of them...
on
Security Hole In SNMP
·
· Score: 1
It's times like this when I'm really glad I ditched the sysadmin life. Not that I ever worked with SNMP, but I imagine if you were using it that you would have to patch all sorts of devices and OS's. Man, sucks to be those guys.
Flash prices have been falling a lot faster than Microdrives. $235 for generic 512mb CompactFlash (CF type 1!!) from this merchant I found on pricewatch vs. $257 for the cheapest 512mb Microdrive I could find on buy.com
The thickness of these cards is a major factor since it limits which cameras, pdas, and mp3 players you can buy to use it with. I purchased the 340mb microdrive a year ago and now it's collecting dust since I sold my Canon s20 digital camera in order to get the s110 digital elph wich only supports type 1 cf. Maybe I'll just stick it in a new Cassiopia e200. Man, this stuff just keeps getting more and more expensive!
The microdrive was invented for impatient people like me who didn't want to wait for flash prices to fall...
A multi-billion dollar industry was created by enemies of the US... What rational weapons manufacturer would want to get rid of them? Saddam will be around until there's some other dictator to fill his spot. That's why World Peace is a joke just as much as flawless code is. The same goes for the gov't -- why would any bureaucrat want to acheive an optimal level of spending? In these cases it's always going to be a 70% solution for the simple reason that these people want to be important tomorrow and will take extra precautions to guarantee that (i.e. job security). The point is that evil and stupidity are alive and well in this world and they'll be around for a long time, but at the very least, you can steer your children away from them (or use birth control if you're incapable of that). Fight the power!
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder if this is true for all Apple stores. Shoot, I finally bit the bullet and bought a 5 gig iPod from Fry's on Monday. Now I can get a 10gig for the same price with all those added features. Good thing they have a 30-day return policy. It's already crashed my computer once and it had to be reset which almost led me to returning it in the 1st place. So I have a valid reason for my return, although you usually don't need one there.
Bill Wattenburg's Helicopter-pulled Chain Matrix. Check out: his site (requires RealVideo) and a letter he wrote to the SF Chronicle
This maybe way too simple and cheap for the US government to consider and not nearly as cool as jeeps mounted with "laserbeams", but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be effective.
If you look at it from a green point of view, we aren't the worst. There are plenty of countries that pollute and consume disproportionately to what they produce. Why would the American people want treaty that automatically puts them at a disadvantage to the rest of the world? Our congress voted Kyoto down 99-0 because many American businesses would suffer. We respect individual prosperity and we're not going to sell out a few businesses out for the sake of world opinion. That WWF report is a joke. It completely disregards the very thing that sets us apart from other species which is technology. We will find ways to extend our resources and EVENTUALLY the growth of the population will be forced to stabilize. The free market will facilitate both.
BTW, the only harm SUVs are doing is depleting world's oil reserves ever-so-slightly faster than a normal car would. You should be happy we drive them because as soon as we run low and the price of oil goes up, we wont have to pick on all those reputable counries in the Middle East.
Besides, we are not driving the "plant to shit" any faster the the rest of the world. (see this post) We are continuing to meet demand both domesticaly and overseas, and until there's a fair treaty, one where the US isn't punished for its ability to create wealth, we will have to rely on consumer education to "save" the planet.
1984!? This has nothing to do with big brother. It has to do with respecting the right to own IP and protecting free enterprise. So, are you saying that since we live better than 98% of the people on this planet, it's alright to cheat each other? I used to think that way. Of course I still cheat and have 10 gigs of mp3's. So I'm a hypocrite. At least I don't go off on copyright law being outdated and "macroscopic social behaviour" to rationalize it and go around telling people to do it because life is unfair. I still buy CDs and pay way more than I should. But, I know a lot of people who haven't bought a single CD since college when they were first introduced to mp3's. The free rider problem isn't a small one.
I would use a system where I can keep using kazaa and pay $5/month. Of course, if I had to pay, I'd want others to pay too. I don't think the barriers would be too draconian. There are ways ISP's can limit what people do with their bandwidth just like the cable company controls what you get over _their_ wires. I was actually surprised when we ordered basic and they came all the way out to our house and screwed in a filter on our drop line that blocked out channels 24-73. They obviously don't like free riders. As for file sharing, all they would have to do is set up authorized download servers on specific ports an ip's, and allow unlimited bandwidth usage on those channels.
Getting back to my original argument, I just wanted one solid convincing reason why mass file-swapping and its inevitable harm to the industry wouldn't discourage music creation. If it hurts the guys on top, it also hurts on the bottom.
Of course music would be around if record companies went by the wayside. There just wouldn't be as much. Your original point was based on the hypothesis that files sharing does not discourage music creation. When the the vast majority has cd-burners and cable modems, the record _corporations_ will be forced to take measures to keep their profits up. Either the honest people will have to pay more or the cheaters will have to be stopped. If record sales fall, the entire industry will suffer. You said it yourself in your first post:
> Of course file sharing hurts sales.
Your twisted sense of morality allows you to believe that stealing from a big faceless corporation is okay because paying to hear a measly song a few times in your life isn't worth it to you. It that's the case, don't listen to the music. Why should you pay a buck forty for a cup of coffee at startbucks if you might only benefit from it for a couple of hours? Only if there was a way you could get it for free. Hey, if it feels good do it. It's not hurting anybody. If more people thought like you, we all would be screwed.
But the idea of file sharing destroying the ability to make a living off being a musician is simply laughable.
1. Sorry for implying such a laughable idea, but I wanted to make the point that with reduced revenues caused by illegal file sharing, record companies will be forced to not sign and/or screw over more artists. If there are fewer record contracts floating around, fewer artists will be able to quit their dayjobs, and the music output, quality, and diversity will all decrease. The ability to make a living will definately still exist. It just won't be as rewarding for many artists.
2. It doesn't matter why/how copyrights came about. Not paying for music that people released with the expectation of recieving something in return is just not right. Not paying for music reduces the incentive for people to make music, and the people who promote it. Intellectual property is still property, no matter if it's something your great grandfather created. If you create or own something of value, you should be able to sell it or be compensated for value people are deriving from it.
Simple economics. Because of technology and the free market, an artist, if he's good enough, has the ability to reach millions of people through various forms of media. The market will decide how good it is. If it's good, he's a SUPERSTAR. Everyone is better off when that happens because we get to hear good music and it encourages others to create something just as good or better. Evidence: look at how many kids who want to 'be like Mike.'
Besides the satisfaction that derives from entertaining people, touring is used to promote music. And without the mass media giving us the opportunity to hear that artist, no one would know about the performer and his next concert. We need the record companies and the radio stations they control, as 'evil' as they may be, or else we wouldn't have any superstars.
The question everybody should have been asking all along is, "Does it hurt sales so badly that nobody will want to make music?" The answer seems to be an overwhelming NO, so if thats the case...
That's one BIG if. Record companies spend a lot of money to find new artists. If revenues fall to the point where it's ecomically infeasible for a particular record company to keep scouting for new artists, or it's too risky to sign them, then it will be much harder for artists to get discovered and eventually the supply will decrease. Now you might argue that people love to make music and it's not just to make money, but they still need food and shelter, and if it's not paying the bills, they'll put more into something that does.
That's why we have copyrights. It takes part of the risk out of creating and releasing something that could otherwise be stolen. That's why they should be protected. It would be nice if more than just 2 of the 18 dollars we pay for CDs ended up in the artist's pocket and not some filthy rich record exec's, but hey, that's capitalism.
Never seen such a flashy website to show off a product before. You'd think they could have afforded to use a model's hands instead of an engineer's in the specifications section. geesh!
C'mon, Spudley! As if nerds really drink the kind of beer that comes from hops and is served in bars. This invention can only be a bad thing because now anyone can quickly spot the geek asking the bartender if they have these things. Oh, boy, a smart-glass with 802.11b wireless conncectivity! Neato!
It's a lock. Not a permanent fixture. How does your car alarm know you're not a burglar? If I know I'm going to be in a long meeting I'll put the damn thing on.
My point about your post was that it must have been modded up by someone who a) hadn't bothered read the product's website and/or b) hadn't read the other 15 posts about the device becoming useless once cut off.
The fact that someone is able to cut off the device does NOT make it useless. Once the band is cut, the device can communicate to the parents that something is wrong, its exact location in the world, and the exact time of the event. Don't you think that has value?
I just think it's a fairly safe bet that a $400 saftey device can still be of some value even when the bad guy, who's learned about the gps watch on slashdot, remembers to pack a pair of wire cutters the next time he decides to kidnap someone. And the only reason he thinks he has a chance is because he's only reading your uninformed, modded up, posts!
Amazing. Only if I could moderate...
I have a motion-detecting laptop lock that will blast 70dB if the lock wire is cut. (Once it went off and I forgot the code, and some moron suggested cutting the lock, like that was going to silence the alarm.)
How is it not obvious to people that products such as these do not get dime one of VC funding without first addressing concerns like these?
That video was really lame, but the dad demonstrated one of the greatest applications of portable computing: Internet porn in the bathroom. hmmm... the Times or playboy.com?
The other cool thing they demonstrated was it's use while watching TV, which, I guess, is the target market for Mira; sort of a WebTV replacemnet. A searchable tv guide that doesn't require you to press a hundred buttons only using your thumb sounds really appealing to me.
Give us your tired and your poor, so I can sit on my ass all day and collect unemployment while I make a website that badmouths my government officials. If comedy was a goal for that Terrorist warning generator thing, maybe try reading an original Mad-libs first. What a total waste of time!
It's times like this when I'm really glad I ditched the sysadmin life. Not that I ever worked with SNMP, but I imagine if you were using it that you would have to patch all sorts of devices and OS's. Man, sucks to be those guys.
terrorists? wait just a second... will somebody please think of the children?!!!
The thickness of these cards is a major factor since it limits which cameras, pdas, and mp3 players you can buy to use it with. I purchased the 340mb microdrive a year ago and now it's collecting dust since I sold my Canon s20 digital camera in order to get the s110 digital elph wich only supports type 1 cf. Maybe I'll just stick it in a new Cassiopia e200. Man, this stuff just keeps getting more and more expensive!
The microdrive was invented for impatient people like me who didn't want to wait for flash prices to fall...
A multi-billion dollar industry was created by enemies of the US... What rational weapons manufacturer would want to get rid of them? Saddam will be around until there's some other dictator to fill his spot. That's why World Peace is a joke just as much as flawless code is. The same goes for the gov't -- why would any bureaucrat want to acheive an optimal level of spending? In these cases it's always going to be a 70% solution for the simple reason that these people want to be important tomorrow and will take extra precautions to guarantee that (i.e. job security). The point is that evil and stupidity are alive and well in this world and they'll be around for a long time, but at the very least, you can steer your children away from them (or use birth control if you're incapable of that). Fight the power!