My first Experience with DRM was many years ago. I bought 4 books from a web site that sold them as protected acrobat files. Which is great for me to read them. However since then I have changed my computer and the files can no longer be opened, becasue they where licenced to my old computer. I can not redownload the licence for my new computer, because the company is now out of business.
So the books I bought, are no longer usable, even though I have purchased the rights to be able to view them on my computer. If they had been significantly cheaper than the paper versions, I would just ignore it, and move on. However, they where not, and becasue of the experience I pretty much avoid all DRM protected content. Think about the response you would have, if apple closed tomorrow, and took everything with it, so that all that music on your ipod is good until your ipod dies and then it is all gone.
Snow Crash was one of the first times I have seen a description of virtual worlds described. One of the realizations of those virtual words for me have been the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Games) and I would like to know if you have had any experiences with them and what those experiences have been like.
Post signs saying you property is protected by a security system. Having one isn't as usefull as posting you have one.
The basic prinicple is to appear to either be to much trouble, or to not worth the effort.
James
The telling of a story is a thing of wonder and joy. The medium is irrelevant. Or I should say, a story matched to it medium is a work of art to behold.
The author of this article is making some massive assumptions. Manga is down played like it isn't literature. I will admit that much of it is like mass-market paperbacks in the scifi and romance genre. However throwing it out as a whole is doing the entire section a disservice. It is like saying all books published as paperbacks are not literature, because paperbacks are romance or scifi hack novels with no literary merit.
The graphic novel is an up and coming medium for telling a story. It is halfway between a movie and a book. And as such it will take a place on the stage of history.
You can talk about the small number of total sales, and the size of the base who read the books, and if you think it is shrinking, I think you need to step back and take a look. It isn't that the readership base is shrinking; so much as the competition to provide quality books is increasing much faster than the base of customers.
In an industry that had a few major competitors, and is now packed with tons of publishers. Not to mention the huge invasion of Manga into the market.
I have been reading these books since around 1994 or so, and I have consistently seen the availability of quality stories continuously increase. The variety of appeal has been widening, and growing. I can see the graphic novel stepping in to the literature market, and I think I will see it in my lifetime.
It will definitely hit the main stream in my lifetime, because the biggest problem with industry is disappearing. That is the belief that comics are only for children. It was once believed that animation is only for children, and slowly over time it is changing. Comics will go the same way. Because it is the story which is important, not the medium.
I found the Beta Bright protocol manual on line in about 2 minutes just from the links in the article. It is apparently free to download now.
As for the Pro Lite, I have not found any info about it, but I will take your word that the protocol is available.
The plain Jane phones will remain so long as they are cheaper than the fancier ones. A more feature filled phone will make someone who wants a plane jane phone happy, while a plain jane one won't make someone who wants more features happy.
Becasue of economies of scale, it becomes more eefective for companies to just make the one with more features and sell it. This occurs at the point where they can sell the fancier phone for the same price as the plain phone.
I my poit is. Would you pay more for a splain jane phone. If not, then they will probably get pushed out of the market someday.
I work in a fairly techincal field as a software developer.
The job usually winds up being about 1/8 programing, 1/4 theory, 1/8 hardware, and 1/2 communication. That is communicating with other people. Either getting specifications nailed down, status reports, obtaining resources, Coordinating integration, training, documentation, etc.
Most of my job is just talking with people about what needs to be done, and how it is going to get done, and how to use it once it is done. Not to mention the routine communication of building relationships with the people you work with.
Actually, on a car it would be better to compare it to the car's stero.
You can ask the dealer to remove the stero from the package. And expect a reduction in the cost. My understanding is that this is a fairly common request. This is what it sounds like to me. Same thing. You are asking that you not be sold a part of the car that you either don't need, or plan on using an after market replacement and have no use for. Happens all the time in auto industry.
Re:Will they reair it?
on
Spielberg's Taken
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Yes. They will reair episode 1 on the follwing days and times:
I might be mistaken, but I am assuming that this information is in the public domain, or DOE got the rights to distribute the information. Couldn't a Non-profit organization be set up to do the same thing? Then it would be harder for it to be shutdown. Since its not government run then.
I would also bet that if you got it going, you could convince the DOE to sell you their old site as the starting point for building the site.
Then you set up some revenue/dontaion steams to fund it. And whala, a reincarnated site.
Basically a Same Place, New Management deal.
And TV conglomerates will have taken over the world. Ratings will be everything. You will vote through your TV. Court Cases will be tried based on TV viewer ship. Not having a Federal ID will be a crime. Hmmm, this sounds familiar.
What we have are two groups of people. As someone said earlier, the inovators and the turn the crank people. Both are called engineers, but their functions are different. You CAN NOT have good engineering with out both groups. Someone has to identify the opportunity, while others pick it up and grind it out. The problem is relizing that you are one of the grinders who may never gain any public recongition. Who are often treated as replacable commodities. Why? Because they are. People look at the "famous" engineers and scientists, like Edison, yet how many people remember any of Edison's staff? The people who sat hunched over desks cranking out the documents, and checking the work? Do you honestly think Edision came up with everything on his own? Including doing all the testing, write ups, pattents, etc? I mean really people.
Not every engineer is an Edision. It doesn't mean they aren't important to the process.
Computers are a tool. Does anyone think that the printing press will replace engineers? Even though it made it possible for many more people gain the knowledge to be engineers and scientists.
Computers just make it easier for your average person to become effective in the engineering process.
I started Atkins right around the time that article was published. I will tell you the following about it. It does work. I have no doubts on that. It does have its draw backs. The two biggies for me were leg cramps and constipation.
Now for the other side. I am eating healthier on the diet than I did before the diet. No question in my mind on that. For those doubters out there, I say read the book. You will notice that even in the earliest stages of the diet, you must eat 20 grams of carbs a day. Almost all of that in Vegitables. I had never eaten so many greens in one day in my life. Potatoes, yes. Corn, yes. Salad Greens, no. I am eating almost exactly the same amount of meat today, as I was eating before the diet. You may ask how is that possible. You try eating 3+ cups of salad greens a day, and lets see how much more you can eat beyond that.
I have no sugar in my diet, and very little processed wheat flour. I drink only water.
I am now up to eating a couple of handfulls of unsalted peanuts, and some small berries. That is beyond the basic, meat, chesse and sald greens.
The diet has allowed me to rework my eating habits.
That alone was worth starting the diet.
If you just want to loose 20lbs, but aren't really after changeing your eating habits. I would advise against this diet. I strongly suggest that you take the philosophy: If I want to permenatly be X weight, then I will have to permanently change my eating habits.
The most current book (Atkins new diet revolution) gives some good advice to apply to any diet. I think his 4 stages for dieting are an excelent plan, even if you dont agree with what he asks you to eat.
The most effective thing I have found for hiting the programming zone is to just a have a well defined objective in my programming. If one isn't avialible I work on creating one first.
Interuptions are rarely a problem. I just put them on hold till I finish my block of code.
It isn't very hard to tell someone, can you wait a moment till I get this block finished. When I do finish the block; I turn and look at the person. I have found that trying to talk and code don't mix. Do one or the other. Not both.
2) In regards to the comment about there not being complex life, I suggest the book "Non-Zero" which talks about the concept that once life comes around, it will ALWAYS progress towards more complex lifeforms. (barring cataclysmic events) This is simple darwinism, the first lifeform to innovate will prosper until its prey catches up, ad infinium.
I would just like to point out that the organisims that prey on human beings right now are viruses and single celled organisims. Are you saying these are more complex than humans? How about insects?
The war isn't over, nor do I think it will ever be over. Just another battle lost. It takes time for things to change. Just because it isn't happening a quickly as you might like, does not mean you give up the fight.
James
It all depends. If their plan is to raise my current bill to $200+ then no, I will not want to pay my cable bill. I seriously doubt that is their plan.
It is more likely they are going to add more functionality to your cable and charge you more appropriately. I just hope I have the option of not taking it. I am waiting for them to start including a Tivo like device in the cable box. HD TV service would be cool to have also. I am willing to pay more for these things. And if that price is $200+ a month then I will have to consider it. This really isn't that large of a jump. Their current max is around $130. Another $30 for HD TV and $4 for the new box, plus 10 Video on Demand movies at 4$ a piece and wow, you are now at $204.
Amazing how fast it all adds up.
Slashdot Mirror
My first Experience with DRM was many years ago. I bought 4 books from a web site that sold them as protected acrobat files. Which is great for me to read them. However since then I have changed my computer and the files can no longer be opened, becasue they where licenced to my old computer. I can not redownload the licence for my new computer, because the company is now out of business. So the books I bought, are no longer usable, even though I have purchased the rights to be able to view them on my computer. If they had been significantly cheaper than the paper versions, I would just ignore it, and move on. However, they where not, and becasue of the experience I pretty much avoid all DRM protected content. Think about the response you would have, if apple closed tomorrow, and took everything with it, so that all that music on your ipod is good until your ipod dies and then it is all gone.
Snow Crash was one of the first times I have seen a description of virtual worlds described. One of the realizations of those virtual words for me have been the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Games) and I would like to know if you have had any experiences with them and what those experiences have been like.
Post signs saying you property is protected by a security system. Having one isn't as usefull as posting you have one. The basic prinicple is to appear to either be to much trouble, or to not worth the effort. James
The telling of a story is a thing of wonder and joy. The medium is irrelevant. Or I should say, a story matched to it medium is a work of art to behold. The author of this article is making some massive assumptions. Manga is down played like it isn't literature. I will admit that much of it is like mass-market paperbacks in the scifi and romance genre. However throwing it out as a whole is doing the entire section a disservice. It is like saying all books published as paperbacks are not literature, because paperbacks are romance or scifi hack novels with no literary merit. The graphic novel is an up and coming medium for telling a story. It is halfway between a movie and a book. And as such it will take a place on the stage of history. You can talk about the small number of total sales, and the size of the base who read the books, and if you think it is shrinking, I think you need to step back and take a look. It isn't that the readership base is shrinking; so much as the competition to provide quality books is increasing much faster than the base of customers. In an industry that had a few major competitors, and is now packed with tons of publishers. Not to mention the huge invasion of Manga into the market. I have been reading these books since around 1994 or so, and I have consistently seen the availability of quality stories continuously increase. The variety of appeal has been widening, and growing. I can see the graphic novel stepping in to the literature market, and I think I will see it in my lifetime. It will definitely hit the main stream in my lifetime, because the biggest problem with industry is disappearing. That is the belief that comics are only for children. It was once believed that animation is only for children, and slowly over time it is changing. Comics will go the same way. Because it is the story which is important, not the medium.
I found the Beta Bright protocol manual on line in about 2 minutes just from the links in the article. It is apparently free to download now. As for the Pro Lite, I have not found any info about it, but I will take your word that the protocol is available.
The plain Jane phones will remain so long as they are cheaper than the fancier ones. A more feature filled phone will make someone who wants a plane jane phone happy, while a plain jane one won't make someone who wants more features happy. Becasue of economies of scale, it becomes more eefective for companies to just make the one with more features and sell it. This occurs at the point where they can sell the fancier phone for the same price as the plain phone. I my poit is. Would you pay more for a splain jane phone. If not, then they will probably get pushed out of the market someday.
Hmmm, I disagree.
I work in a fairly techincal field as a software developer.
The job usually winds up being about 1/8 programing, 1/4 theory, 1/8 hardware, and 1/2 communication. That is communicating with other people. Either getting specifications nailed down, status reports, obtaining resources, Coordinating integration, training, documentation, etc.
Most of my job is just talking with people about what needs to be done, and how it is going to get done, and how to use it once it is done. Not to mention the routine communication of building relationships with the people you work with.
Actually, on a car it would be better to compare it to the car's stero. You can ask the dealer to remove the stero from the package. And expect a reduction in the cost. My understanding is that this is a fairly common request. This is what it sounds like to me. Same thing. You are asking that you not be sold a part of the car that you either don't need, or plan on using an after market replacement and have no use for. Happens all the time in auto industry.
Yes. They will reair episode 1 on the follwing days and times:
SciFi EAST: All time in EST
03-DEC-02 7:00PM
08-DEC-02 11:00AM
14-DEC-02 11:00AM
More complet chart of airings.
Date 7pm 9pm 11pm
02-DEC-02 -- 1 1
03-DEC-02 1 2 2
04-DEC-02 2 3 3
05-DEC-02 3 4 4
06-DEC-02 4 5 5
09-DEC-02 5 6 6
10-DEC-02 6 7 7
11-DEC-02 7 8 8
12-DEC-02 8 9 9
13-DEC-02 9 10 10
Also Note on:
07-DEC-02 and 08-DEC-02 and 14-DEC-02 they will be showing episodes 1-5 in order from 11am to 9pm
on 15-DEC-02 they will show episodes 6-10 in order from 11am to 9pm.
I hope this helps answer the airing question.
I might be mistaken, but I am assuming that this information is in the public domain, or DOE got the rights to distribute the information. Couldn't a Non-profit organization be set up to do the same thing? Then it would be harder for it to be shutdown. Since its not government run then. I would also bet that if you got it going, you could convince the DOE to sell you their old site as the starting point for building the site. Then you set up some revenue/dontaion steams to fund it. And whala, a reincarnated site. Basically a Same Place, New Management deal.
And TV conglomerates will have taken over the world. Ratings will be everything. You will vote through your TV. Court Cases will be tried based on TV viewer ship. Not having a Federal ID will be a crime. Hmmm, this sounds familiar.
Not every engineer is an Edision. It doesn't mean they aren't important to the process.
Computers are a tool. Does anyone think that the printing press will replace engineers? Even though it made it possible for many more people gain the knowledge to be engineers and scientists. Computers just make it easier for your average person to become effective in the engineering process.
I started Atkins right around the time that article was published. I will tell you the following about it. It does work. I have no doubts on that. It does have its draw backs. The two biggies for me were leg cramps and constipation.
Now for the other side. I am eating healthier on the diet than I did before the diet. No question in my mind on that. For those doubters out there, I say read the book. You will notice that even in the earliest stages of the diet, you must eat 20 grams of carbs a day. Almost all of that in Vegitables. I had never eaten so many greens in one day in my life. Potatoes, yes. Corn, yes. Salad Greens, no. I am eating almost exactly the same amount of meat today, as I was eating before the diet. You may ask how is that possible. You try eating 3+ cups of salad greens a day, and lets see how much more you can eat beyond that.
I have no sugar in my diet, and very little processed wheat flour. I drink only water.
I am now up to eating a couple of handfulls of unsalted peanuts, and some small berries. That is beyond the basic, meat, chesse and sald greens.
The diet has allowed me to rework my eating habits.
That alone was worth starting the diet.
If you just want to loose 20lbs, but aren't really after changeing your eating habits. I would advise against this diet. I strongly suggest that you take the philosophy: If I want to permenatly be X weight, then I will have to permanently change my eating habits.
The most current book (Atkins new diet revolution) gives some good advice to apply to any diet. I think his 4 stages for dieting are an excelent plan, even if you dont agree with what he asks you to eat.
The most effective thing I have found for hiting the programming zone is to just a have a well defined objective in my programming. If one isn't avialible I work on creating one first.
Interuptions are rarely a problem. I just put them on hold till I finish my block of code.
It isn't very hard to tell someone, can you wait a moment till I get this block finished. When I do finish the block; I turn and look at the person. I have found that trying to talk and code don't mix. Do one or the other. Not both.
James
I would just like to point out that the organisims that prey on human beings right now are viruses and single celled organisims. Are you saying these are more complex than humans? How about insects?
The war isn't over, nor do I think it will ever be over. Just another battle lost. It takes time for things to change. Just because it isn't happening a quickly as you might like, does not mean you give up the fight. James
It all depends. If their plan is to raise my current bill to $200+ then no, I will not want to pay my cable bill. I seriously doubt that is their plan. It is more likely they are going to add more functionality to your cable and charge you more appropriately. I just hope I have the option of not taking it. I am waiting for them to start including a Tivo like device in the cable box. HD TV service would be cool to have also. I am willing to pay more for these things. And if that price is $200+ a month then I will have to consider it. This really isn't that large of a jump. Their current max is around $130. Another $30 for HD TV and $4 for the new box, plus 10 Video on Demand movies at 4$ a piece and wow, you are now at $204. Amazing how fast it all adds up.