But if it became extinct in the last 100 or 150 years, chances are likely that it was humans. And it's doubtful that a whole lot of evolution would occur in that short of a timespan.
I don't think there is much wrong in correcting a past mistake.
With its absence of atmosphere, temperature extremes and such, it would be prohibitively expensive to develop the moon. Furthermore, to transport building materials roughly 250,000 miles has to be difficult.
For that matter, why don't we develop Antartica as well? At least it has an atmosphere, and in parts, some wildlife.
How are all the Net users going to be made aware of any votes? Will there be proxy ballots? What about all the AOL'ers that couldn't give a flying flap about IP addresses? I'd figure the "turnout rates" to be less than 1%.
And how do you define a "net user"? If you use e-mail addresses, one can "stuff the ballot box" by registering many different ones. And not every net user has their own IP address. Perhaps we could use Social Security numbers or whatever number each country's government issues to people.
You're suggesting to get rid of ICANN to initiate some geek-driven technocracy. Will it be any better than ICANN?
Record companies say they're being forced to pay independent promoters, so-called indies. The indies then pay the radio stations, buying access to get the songs heard. And it's all legal.
This is payola, with a middleman. Why did it take so many years to figure out that the end result is an illegal practice (payola), even though the means isn't?
And the end result are playlists so limited, even on "mix" or "variety" stations, that in an average workday (9AM-5PM), I can hear several songs played twice or thrice.
Some of the more significant changes, such as those allowing consumers and PC makers to override Microsoft's default products, are a direct response to the continuing antitrust case against the Redmond, Wash.-based company.
...they swore they were doing nothing wrong.
This service pack almost sounds like an admission of guilt to me. Are they doing this out of goodwill...or fear?
I always had the notion the copyright is a compromise between content providers and consumers. I do believe that creators should be compensated, but it seems to rein in piracy, our fair use rights should be removed. Why is it that we always lose our rights as a "preventive measure" to protect something that really isn't in much danger, in this case, IP? The movie and music industries continue to rake in the big bucks (suject to economic recessions, of course!) while our fair use right to time shift or format shift is taken away?
Shipping CD's from factory to warehouse Warehouse, in the form of storage fees Shipping CD's from warehouse to record stores And the record stores, being resellers need a cut, too
I'm not sure of the actual numbers, but I'm sure the RIAA still gets a decent cut of the action anyway.
They also see fewer than half the commercials they used to, compressing hourlong shows into 40 minutes
That's right. One-third of network television's airtime is dedicated to advertising. And they're wondering why people are getting fed-up with commercials. It seems to be a rising trend as well.
I used to tape the Tick on Fox back when it was first run. The earlier seasons had approximately one more minute of programming than later seasons.
Then they should have been bothered for years by such commercial-killers like the toilet or refrigerator. People have been using those for years to skip commercials.
Personally, I channel-surf when commercials are run during a favorite show.
I have debated this hot topic on the Napster Forum at great length, with people ranging from typical ranters to a small record label owner.
The biggest issue I have is with the duration of copyright. Originally set to last 14 to 28 years from date of creation, it now stands as 95 years from the death of the copyright owner. The latest lengthening (the Sonny Bono Act) might have to do with strong lobbying from Disney, as Mickey Mouse would have lost its copyright in 2004. And to extend it again, 20 years at a time only takes a mere act of Congress.
On one hand, I'd like to see creators get just rewards for their work. But I disagree with a near-eternal guarantee, that might stifle creation in the future because current creative minds can rest on their laurels. In other words, they can stop working and continue to enjoy a revenue stream, while I need to keep working to get my next paycheck.
Many Microsoft SQL administrators fail to set a strong password for the system account, which by default has a "null" or non-existent password, SecurityFocus warned yesterday in an alert to ARIS users.
It's almost unbelievable that sysadmins do not use strongpasswords for system accounts. In this era of rampant viruses and worms, you'dfigure they'd get the hint by now.
We already have a tool for online gaming - the computer. Consoles are elegant in their simplicity; put in a disc (or cartridge, for you old-skoolers) and play away. No hassles, no logging on, just gaming, pure and simple.
What Microsoft is doing may be a good idea, but it's better IMHO to create a network for where they're already dominant, the PC market.
The "subsciption model" for software just won't work. There will be a lot of resistance to move from a "buy once" model to a scheme where licenses must be periodically renewed, or a "pay per use" model.
Microsoft is just trying to extract the extra buck from consumers, which is natural for most corporations. But when your software costs hundreds per copy, people will resist.
But a good start might be switching from MS Office to Star Office. At only $34.99 per copy, it's a whole lot cheaper than MS Office.
Re:They learned their methods ...
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I'v ehad little trouble closing credit card accounts in most cases. I started a collection during college, then decided a few years later it was too complicated managing all the accounts. (Mind you, I didn't get into any debt trouble, though! I pay my cards off every month.)
Usually I just tell them I'm reducing my credit exposure, and belive it or not, most CSR's fully understand, since they know most credit card companies give you more credit than you can afford.
I've cut my load down to five cards, and I'm looking to cut further.
Video games have come of age, with the modern ones looking almost like interactive movies. (Could even have its own awards show) Even the older games could be considered art, not only for the rudimentary graphics, but the "cover art" that went on the game cabinet. Anyone remember the original Galaga artwork?
The title of the bill implies that by giving movie companies what they want, they will give us this wonderful library of streamed films, and we will finally have a reason to sign up for and pay for broadband. Paradoxically, nothing sells broadband like peer-to-peer, which is exactly what it would try to stop.
Why does Hollywood think that people will sign up for broadband for movies? There are plenty of viable delivery systems for movies in place now.
Most people wish for broadband mostly for online gaming and even simply for faster web surfing in general. There are plenty of reasons right now to get broadband. The main problems for broadband are that not everyone is eligible for a connection, reliability issues, and cost.
Improving broadband service by improving reliability and ensuring ease of installation will help broadband more than movies ever will.
The video game wars usually seem to have only two combatants, though.
The original warriors were the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. There were others, including Colecovision and other Atari systems, but these two ruled the roost.
In the 8 bit times, the NES and Sega master System ruled.
In the 16-bit world, you had Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.
In the 32/64 bit arena, you had Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation. The Sega Saturn floundered and died an early death.
Now, we have/had four competitors, the two dominant being Nintendo Game Cube and Sony PS2. The Dreamcast crashed and burned and it looks like the XBOX might be heading in the same direction.
Yes, the people enjoy choice, but it's only big enough for two main systems.
I used to live in NYC. The urban heat island effect is most noticeable on summer nights. During heat waves the nighttime temperatures can be as high as 93 F at 1 AM and lows may reach only the upper 80's.
All this at almost 41 degrees north latitude!
NYC also gets substantially less snow for the same reason.
What I dislike about Lucas' approach is that he wants to change the entire world of film to suit his convenience.
I just do not understand Ebert's disdain for digital film, CGI, etc. If characters seem somewhat unrealistic using Lucasfilm methods, he forgets one thing: Star Wars is a fantasy. It's OK to stretch reality a little.
This reminds me of a similar debate of listening to music on CD's vs. vinyl records, where CD music sounds cold, lacking the richness of vinyl.
But then again, what's been the mosat popular music media until perhaps very lately? The CD.
Roger Ebert, please quit about the media and just give us the scoop on the content.
Slashdot Mirror
I found a mirror of a recent Newsday article:
Oil Fields' Free Refill
Grander said Microsoft is "examining further legal steps.
They used Graf's likeness without permission and they lost the case. When will they just quit already?
It's ironic that they got bitten by the same laws they so sternly uphold. It works both ways, y'know.
But if it became extinct in the last 100 or 150 years, chances are likely that it was humans. And it's doubtful that a whole lot of evolution would occur in that short of a timespan.
I don't think there is much wrong in correcting a past mistake.
With its absence of atmosphere, temperature extremes and such, it would be prohibitively expensive to develop the moon. Furthermore, to transport building materials roughly 250,000 miles has to be difficult.
For that matter, why don't we develop Antartica as well? At least it has an atmosphere, and in parts, some wildlife.
Nice idea, but hardly a good in in practice.
How are all the Net users going to be made aware of any votes? Will there be proxy ballots? What about all the AOL'ers that couldn't give a flying flap about IP addresses? I'd figure the "turnout rates" to be less than 1%.
And how do you define a "net user"? If you use e-mail addresses, one can "stuff the ballot box" by registering many different ones. And not every net user has their own IP address. Perhaps we could use Social Security numbers or whatever number each country's government issues to people.
You're suggesting to get rid of ICANN to initiate some geek-driven technocracy. Will it be any better than ICANN?
Record companies say they're being forced to pay independent promoters, so-called indies. The indies then pay the radio stations, buying access to get the songs heard. And it's all legal.
This is payola, with a middleman. Why did it take so many years to figure out that the end result is an illegal practice (payola), even though the means isn't?
And the end result are playlists so limited, even on "mix" or "variety" stations, that in an average workday (9AM-5PM), I can hear several songs played twice or thrice.
Yes, you can see them in South Africa.
Some of the more significant changes, such as those allowing consumers and PC makers to override Microsoft's default products, are a direct response to the continuing antitrust case against the Redmond, Wash.-based company.
...they swore they were doing nothing wrong.
This service pack almost sounds like an admission of guilt to me. Are they doing this out of goodwill...or fear?
I always had the notion the copyright is a compromise between content providers and consumers. I do believe that creators should be compensated, but it seems to rein in piracy, our fair use rights should be removed. Why is it that we always lose our rights as a "preventive measure" to protect something that really isn't in much danger, in this case, IP? The movie and music industries continue to rake in the big bucks (suject to economic recessions, of course!) while our fair use right to time shift or format shift is taken away?
Part of that $20 goes to:
Shipping CD's from factory to warehouse
Warehouse, in the form of storage fees
Shipping CD's from warehouse to record stores
And the record stores, being resellers need a cut, too
I'm not sure of the actual numbers, but I'm sure the RIAA still gets a decent cut of the action anyway.
They also see fewer than half the commercials they used to, compressing hourlong shows into 40 minutes
That's right. One-third of network television's airtime is dedicated to advertising. And they're wondering why people are getting fed-up with commercials. It seems to be a rising trend as well.
I used to tape the Tick on Fox back when it was first run. The earlier seasons had approximately one more minute of programming than later seasons.
Stop bombarding us already!
Then they should have been bothered for years by such commercial-killers like the toilet or refrigerator. People have been using those for years to skip commercials.
Personally, I channel-surf when commercials are run during a favorite show.
...the potentially costly consequences of weak or non-existant passwords.
There is a reason that passwords exist. It's for security and yes, privacy. The same privacy that most people complain about being invaded.
Think about your privacy when coming up with your next password.
I have debated this hot topic on the Napster Forum at great length, with people ranging from typical ranters to a small record label owner.
The biggest issue I have is with the duration of copyright. Originally set to last 14 to 28 years from date of creation, it now stands as 95 years from the death of the copyright owner. The latest lengthening (the Sonny Bono Act) might have to do with strong lobbying from Disney, as Mickey Mouse would have lost its copyright in 2004. And to extend it again, 20 years at a time only takes a mere act of Congress.
On one hand, I'd like to see creators get just rewards for their work. But I disagree with a near-eternal guarantee, that might stifle creation in the future because current creative minds can rest on their laurels. In other words, they can stop working and continue to enjoy a revenue stream, while I need to keep working to get my next paycheck.
Many Microsoft SQL administrators fail to set a strong password for the system account, which by default has a "null" or non-existent password, SecurityFocus warned yesterday in an alert to ARIS users.
It's almost unbelievable that sysadmins do not use strong passwords for system accounts. In this era of rampant viruses and worms, you'dfigure they'd get the hint by now.
We already have a tool for online gaming - the computer. Consoles are elegant in their simplicity; put in a disc (or cartridge, for you old-skoolers) and play away. No hassles, no logging on, just gaming, pure and simple.
What Microsoft is doing may be a good idea, but it's better IMHO to create a network for where they're already dominant, the PC market.
The "subsciption model" for software just won't work. There will be a lot of resistance to move from a "buy once" model to a scheme where licenses must be periodically renewed, or a "pay per use" model.
Microsoft is just trying to extract the extra buck from consumers, which is natural for most corporations. But when your software costs hundreds per copy, people will resist.
But a good start might be switching from MS Office to Star Office. At only $34.99 per copy, it's a whole lot cheaper than MS Office.
I'v ehad little trouble closing credit card accounts in most cases. I started a collection during college, then decided a few years later it was too complicated managing all the accounts. (Mind you, I didn't get into any debt trouble, though! I pay my cards off every month.)
Usually I just tell them I'm reducing my credit exposure, and belive it or not, most CSR's fully understand, since they know most credit card companies give you more credit than you can afford.
I've cut my load down to five cards, and I'm looking to cut further.
Ironically enough, several of the CG chars outshine their human counterparts.
Now the CG actors will demand higher pay and representino in Screen Actors Guild.
Video games have come of age, with the modern ones looking almost like interactive movies. (Could even have its own awards show) Even the older games could be considered art, not only for the rudimentary graphics, but the "cover art" that went on the game cabinet. Anyone remember the original Galaga artwork?
The title of the bill implies that by giving movie companies what they want, they will give us this wonderful library of streamed films, and we will finally have a reason to sign up for and pay for broadband. Paradoxically, nothing sells broadband like peer-to-peer, which is exactly what it would try to stop.
Why does Hollywood think that people will sign up for broadband for movies? There are plenty of viable delivery systems for movies in place now.
Most people wish for broadband mostly for online gaming and even simply for faster web surfing in general. There are plenty of reasons right now to get broadband. The main problems for broadband are that not everyone is eligible for a connection, reliability issues, and cost.
Improving broadband service by improving reliability and ensuring ease of installation will help broadband more than movies ever will.
The video game wars usually seem to have only two combatants, though.
The original warriors were the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. There were others, including Colecovision and other Atari systems, but these two ruled the roost.
In the 8 bit times, the NES and Sega master System ruled.
In the 16-bit world, you had Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.
In the 32/64 bit arena, you had Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation. The Sega Saturn floundered and died an early death.
Now, we have/had four competitors, the two dominant being Nintendo Game Cube and Sony PS2. The Dreamcast crashed and burned and it looks like the XBOX might be heading in the same direction.
Yes, the people enjoy choice, but it's only big enough for two main systems.
I used to live in NYC. The urban heat island effect is most noticeable on summer nights. During heat waves the nighttime temperatures can be as high as 93 F at 1 AM and lows may reach only the upper 80's.
All this at almost 41 degrees north latitude!
NYC also gets substantially less snow for the same reason.
What I dislike about Lucas' approach is that he wants to change the entire world of film to suit his convenience.
I just do not understand Ebert's disdain for digital film, CGI, etc. If characters seem somewhat unrealistic using Lucasfilm methods, he forgets one thing: Star Wars is a fantasy. It's OK to stretch reality a little.
This reminds me of a similar debate of listening to music on CD's vs. vinyl records, where CD music sounds cold, lacking the richness of vinyl.
But then again, what's been the mosat popular music media until perhaps very lately? The CD.
Roger Ebert, please quit about the media and just give us the scoop on the content.