If that puts another nail into the MPAA's coffin, I'm all for it.
And when the MPAA (and its member companies) are dead and gone, who makes the next Spiderman or LoTR or AoTC or Matrix IV: Buffer Overflow ?
The extremes on either end of this spectrum (MPAA wins, nobody can do anything with any movie without ponying up $7 vs. "freedom" wins, no financial incentive for making $100M movies) benefit noone.
I find that when I water my plants, I get a nice cooling effect. Ceiling fans + watered plants + moderate to low humidity (Texas) work like a champ. Plus it makes the plants happy.
Never trust a computer proffesional that doesnt list computer as a hobby.
Count me in the disagree column. I actually find it refreshing to go home after a long day of making various computers jump through flaming hoops of death and just be a <shudder> user. I don't WANT to sit in my house all night long and tinker with a computer... that's what I do at work (well, when I'm not posting on/.) and I'm very good at it. Home is my reset button to boot me up for the next day.
Have I geeked at home? Sure. I've built servers from bits & pieces, spend many hours messing with computer-based recording (my main non-work pastime is as a songwriter & musician), designed databases, configured a pretty fly network... but its not a "hobby". If I need something, I do it. Is it a hobby when you repair your roof? No. Something needs to be done and you do it. That's the attitude I look for when I'm doing interviews.
The best software developers I've ever worked with have had very little to do with computers outside the workplace. I'm not talking about the code jockeys that come in and go for 5 straight days on a steady stream of Jolt and pizza. I'm talking about the people that can gather requirements, define the problem, design the solution, implement the design, and assure that everything works. THAT is what I call a computer proffesional.
First: I loathe spam. I've had a whole series of email addies rendered unusable by spam, and a couple more on the way. But something has always puzzled me....
When the RIAA goes after Napster, KaZaa, and other p2p providers, we all say "Hey, p2p is just a technology, you should really be targeting the users of the service that are breaking the rules".
However, when spam is concerned, we all say "Die! Spammer! Die!".
Why? The mass-e-marketers are just providing a service for paying customers. Some company pays Scelson and his ilk to send out all that mail. Scelson doesn't do it just for shits and giggles.
Why are we so eager to shut down the service providers (the spammers) in this case, when in the p2p case we defend them?
I want to see the Sims Online fighting popups on their PCs using a popular alternate browser and drowning in mountains of Sim-spam as their happiness plummets. Think of the possibilities....
Sims Online Linux (heh, the acronym for that one cracks me up).
DRM - Sims style: Your Sim buys a CD and then can't listen to it. Adios, happiness.
doh! Eisenhower is on some of the older dollar coins. The halfs have a variety of things on them.... Ben Franklin, President Kennedy, a variety of standing and seated versions of Lady Liberty...
We do. I think its got Eisenhower on it. Nobody uses it, though, because it won't fit into any vending machines and because most cashiers look at you like you're from mars if you try to spend one.
FWIW, we also have dollar coins, but the only time you see those is when you get change from the stamp vending machines at the post office. The dollar coins have the same drawbacks (rarity, vending machines, cashier ignorance) as the 50c pieces.
I often wonder if there is some secret cabal of penny, nickle, dime, and quarter makers that collude to suppress the other coin denominations.
I just had this thought: Yes, government use of an implantable tracking device has a lot of implications for infringing on my privacy. But it also has substantial non-infringing uses.
And then my head began to hurt. It has always fascinated me how some technologies are vilified BECAUSE of their potential for abuse, whereas others are idolized DESPITE their potential for abuse. Which is right? I don't have the answer, but I do know its fun to watch.
And no, I'm not suggesting that Big Brother watching my every move is in any way equivalent to me downloading the latest Britney Spears via p2p. Although if I'm listening to Ms. Spears, maybe someone SHOULD keep an eye on me...
Now, hook a wireless transmitter up to that videocam and let the reality-police shows abound! Think of the possibilities. Stream the video from selected cruisers live on the 'net. You get a UI to select the cruiser you wish to view, and voila! you are right there in the action.
Saw it last night, and I've had a chance to sleep on it and let my opinions settle a bit.
The love scene: At least Trinity didn't come running to Neo across a field of flowers ala Padme & Anakin.
Neo vs. Smith, Smith, Smith, and Smith: uh... c'mon. CG is good, but it just looks video gamey. Some of the moves were WAY cool, though, but nothing that beats an old Jackie Chan flick.
Car chase: I would have enjoyed it much more played at full speed all the way through, instead of constant interruptions by slo-mo segments. The editing seemed kind of brute force in that respect: "Hey, something cool is happening here so pay attention, we're gonna slow down so you don't miss it."
Zion, the city: hey, I liked Zion the underground CG city. I've read several reviews bashing Zion for being goofy looking, but it looks just like every other metropolis buried at the center of the earth that I'VE been to.
Dialog: hit-or-miss. Nothing made me cringe, after all this is a sci-fi adventure movie, not a Woody Allen film. Although now I'm picturing The Matrix: Reloaded as directed by Woody Allen.... 100 neurotic Agent Smith clones attacking Neo with their endless self-doubt and witty criticism... hheheeheheh....
The ending, to all who express dismay at the cliffhanger-ness of it all: were you people not paying attention? It was SUPPOSED to be a big time cliffhanger. geez.
Overall: please see it on a big screen! Some of the action sequences just won't hold up on your 19" TV. And see it in a decent setting, with good sound.
I give it a 6 out of 10. For reference, I'd give the first Matrix an 8. AoTC was a 2.
[I'm sure some expert(s) will flesh out the details, but the gist of it for US songwriters is...]
What is a song? My understanding is that a "composition" as considered by US copyright law is a combination of lyrics + melody. If you ONLY write the lyrics, or if you ONLY write the melody using someone else's lyrics, you ONLY write half a song.
You write a song. Assume you wrote all the lyrics and the melody.
The song is protected by copyright from the moment it is "fixed in permanent form". For lyrics, that means from the first time you write them down with a crayon on the back of a napkin. For a melody, that means the first time you sing it into a cruddy tape recorder.
The song is assigned to a publisher, who pushes it to various artists for recording. In reality, the "publisher" might be you, and the only artist that will be interested in recording it might also be you. If you sign to a major label, the "publisher" will most likely be a subsidiary of that label, and all your publishing rights are belong to them.
A CD is released containing a recording of that song, either by you or someone else. Doesn't matter for the purposes of songwriter royalties.
Copies of the CD are produced and distributed. People buy it, because hey its a good song or you wouldn't have written it:-)
The songwriter and publisher of each song on the CD get a tiny bit of money for each copy distributed. I think its in the neighborhood of 9 cents per copy. If you are both songwriter and publisher, you get to double dip.
The songwriter/publicher get their pennies for each song they are responsible for on the CD. So if you write 10 songs on a CD, and it is released, you are owed 90c per copy of the CD, just for being the songwriter. Of course, if you record/produce/release the CD yourself, its kind of moot, because you get ALL the proceeds. I think 10 songs is the limit; if you write 20 songs on a CD you will only get paid for 10 or something like that. Or maybe that's just a typical shitty publishing/recording contract trick... but i digress.
These are different from the royalties you get for the sale of the CD itself, which are usually talked about in terms of a percentage of the sale price. Those come to the recording artist, if the record label doesn't find a way to sponge them all up first.
Songwriting/publishing royalties are not adminstered by the record companies, and don't flow through the record companies. The vast majority of US songwriter royalties flow through the Harry Fox Agency (for mechanical royalties, which are what I've described above). If a recording of your song is played on the radio or broadcast on TV, there are other royalties that are paid through the performing rights societies (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC). Again, those go directly to the songwriter/publisher, and not to the record company.
I know from personal experience, the experiences of friends, and from many postings around/. and the net, many artists, even those signed to major label contracts, make most if not all their money from songwriting royalties. Since the record company is out of the songwriter royalty loop, they don't get a chance to siphon off the money. But they try.
Clear as mud now? There are LOTS of books out there about this whole process. Go to Google/Amazon/etc and search for books on music law or copyright. My personal fave is This Business of Music, although most ppl I know consider it fairly dry and boring.
I found the part-time contracting bits through my still-employed friends. One of the benefits of working so long in the same market is that you meet a LOT of people (I've been in the Dallas/Ft Worth, TX area for 15+ years now). And in the time I've known them, some of them have moved up the ranks into hiring-decision positions. [Hmm.. wonder why I haven't done that? I'll worry about that later]
My last job ended late last fall when the company went under. 2nd time that happened to me in two years. The first time, I slid right into the new job with no gap in employement. Yes, I know I was very lucky. This past fall, I thought I'd take the rest of the year off, relax, catch up on my life, de-stress, and job hunt. Aaahhhhh, peace.
I made it 3 days.
After 3 days, I was going absolutely batty. Without having the regular schedule of work to frame my day, I just drifted along getting absolutely nothing accomplished. I'd never been one to do much work from home, so I wasn't really set up to do any programming or technical things. I tried catching up on my techie mags, reading some programming books... without having the ability to try out the things I was trying to learn none of it stuck. Also tried to catch up on music (I'm a songwriter), but it turned out without work to piss me off I didn't have as much to write about:-)
So I took part time contracting type work to keep myself occupied, and found my current job (working as a contract employee, programming) which started Jan 1.
The "subway" was hella-convenient getting into downtown at crowded times, hot or cold. It was free, it ran right into the heart of downtown, and the only two stops it made were in the basement of the Tandy Center building and in the remote parking lot. Seems like I recall it (the subway) held the record for the shortest subway line in the world when it was active. I doubt it was even a mile long, but sometimes that could be the longest mile.
Lots of Ft Worth residents were sad to see it go. Progress, schmogress.
Slashdot Mirror
If that puts another nail into the MPAA's coffin, I'm all for it.
And when the MPAA (and its member companies) are dead and gone, who makes the next Spiderman or LoTR or AoTC or Matrix IV: Buffer Overflow ?
The extremes on either end of this spectrum (MPAA wins, nobody can do anything with any movie without ponying up $7 vs. "freedom" wins, no financial incentive for making $100M movies) benefit noone.
I find that when I water my plants, I get a nice cooling effect. Ceiling fans + watered plants + moderate to low humidity (Texas) work like a champ. Plus it makes the plants happy.
.. our eyes met.
We spent the evening circling each other, tension building.
At last! We are alone!
Our hands touch. There is a spark.
I wake up the next day in the hospital.
Whoa. What a rush.
Never trust a computer proffesional that doesnt list computer as a hobby.
... that's what I do at work (well, when I'm not posting on /.) and I'm very good at it. Home is my reset button to boot me up for the next day.
... but its not a "hobby". If I need something, I do it. Is it a hobby when you repair your roof? No. Something needs to be done and you do it. That's the attitude I look for when I'm doing interviews.
Count me in the disagree column. I actually find it refreshing to go home after a long day of making various computers jump through flaming hoops of death and just be a <shudder> user. I don't WANT to sit in my house all night long and tinker with a computer
Have I geeked at home? Sure. I've built servers from bits & pieces, spend many hours messing with computer-based recording (my main non-work pastime is as a songwriter & musician), designed databases, configured a pretty fly network
The best software developers I've ever worked with have had very little to do with computers outside the workplace. I'm not talking about the code jockeys that come in and go for 5 straight days on a steady stream of Jolt and pizza. I'm talking about the people that can gather requirements, define the problem, design the solution, implement the design, and assure that everything works. THAT is what I call a computer proffesional.
First: I loathe spam. I've had a whole series of email addies rendered unusable by spam, and a couple more on the way. But something has always puzzled me....
When the RIAA goes after Napster, KaZaa, and other p2p providers, we all say "Hey, p2p is just a technology, you should really be targeting the users of the service that are breaking the rules".
However, when spam is concerned, we all say "Die! Spammer! Die!".
Why? The mass-e-marketers are just providing a service for paying customers. Some company pays Scelson and his ilk to send out all that mail. Scelson doesn't do it just for shits and giggles.
Why are we so eager to shut down the service providers (the spammers) in this case, when in the p2p case we defend them?
Whom did they intend to use it against if congress hadn't stopped them?
Runaway Texas Democratic legistators
when characters on The Sims Online use their PCs
I want to see the Sims Online fighting popups on their PCs using a popular alternate browser and drowning in mountains of Sim-spam as their happiness plummets. Think of the possibilities....
Sims Online Linux (heh, the acronym for that one cracks me up).
DRM - Sims style: Your Sim buys a CD and then can't listen to it. Adios, happiness.
doh! Eisenhower is on some of the older dollar coins. The halfs have a variety of things on them.... Ben Franklin, President Kennedy, a variety of standing and seated versions of Lady Liberty ...
Also, you don't have a 1/2 dollar coin. Why not?
We do. I think its got Eisenhower on it. Nobody uses it, though, because it won't fit into any vending machines and because most cashiers look at you like you're from mars if you try to spend one.
FWIW, we also have dollar coins, but the only time you see those is when you get change from the stamp vending machines at the post office. The dollar coins have the same drawbacks (rarity, vending machines, cashier ignorance) as the 50c pieces.
I often wonder if there is some secret cabal of penny, nickle, dime, and quarter makers that collude to suppress the other coin denominations.
I just had this thought: Yes, government use of an implantable tracking device has a lot of implications for infringing on my privacy. But it also has substantial non-infringing uses.
...
And then my head began to hurt. It has always fascinated me how some technologies are vilified BECAUSE of their potential for abuse, whereas others are idolized DESPITE their potential for abuse. Which is right? I don't have the answer, but I do know its fun to watch.
And no, I'm not suggesting that Big Brother watching my every move is in any way equivalent to me downloading the latest Britney Spears via p2p. Although if I'm listening to Ms. Spears, maybe someone SHOULD keep an eye on me
The more I think about it, the more I wish I could Reload my $7.50 into my wallet.
(yeah, i know, replying to myself, how lame)
Now, hook a wireless transmitter up to that videocam and let the reality-police shows abound! Think of the possibilities. Stream the video from selected cruisers live on the 'net. You get a UI to select the cruiser you wish to view, and voila! you are right there in the action.
Saw it last night, and I've had a chance to sleep on it and let my opinions settle a bit.
... c'mon. CG is good, but it just looks video gamey. Some of the moves were WAY cool, though, but nothing that beats an old Jackie Chan flick.
.... 100 neurotic Agent Smith clones attacking Neo with their endless self-doubt and witty criticism ... hheheeheheh ....
The love scene: At least Trinity didn't come running to Neo across a field of flowers ala Padme & Anakin.
Neo vs. Smith, Smith, Smith, and Smith: uh
Car chase: I would have enjoyed it much more played at full speed all the way through, instead of constant interruptions by slo-mo segments. The editing seemed kind of brute force in that respect: "Hey, something cool is happening here so pay attention, we're gonna slow down so you don't miss it."
Zion, the city: hey, I liked Zion the underground CG city. I've read several reviews bashing Zion for being goofy looking, but it looks just like every other metropolis buried at the center of the earth that I'VE been to.
Dialog: hit-or-miss. Nothing made me cringe, after all this is a sci-fi adventure movie, not a Woody Allen film. Although now I'm picturing The Matrix: Reloaded as directed by Woody Allen
The ending, to all who express dismay at the cliffhanger-ness of it all: were you people not paying attention? It was SUPPOSED to be a big time cliffhanger. geez.
Overall: please see it on a big screen! Some of the action sequences just won't hold up on your 19" TV. And see it in a decent setting, with good sound.
I give it a 6 out of 10. For reference, I'd give the first Matrix an 8. AoTC was a 2.
Was his last name Bezos?
Now your grapes can have bugs ... and bugs ...
Except you'll only need to search for 'go'
Back when I was a DJ at WVBR ...
WVBR!?! Get with it! WOGG is MUCH higher fidelity station !!!
Someone patent searching for '*' and '%', which between them will cover all other searches! ...
3. Profit!
[I'm sure some expert(s) will flesh out the details, but the gist of it for US songwriters is ...]
:-)
... but i digress.
/. and the net, many artists, even those signed to major label contracts, make most if not all their money from songwriting royalties. Since the record company is out of the songwriter royalty loop, they don't get a chance to siphon off the money. But they try.
What is a song? My understanding is that a "composition" as considered by US copyright law is a combination of lyrics + melody. If you ONLY write the lyrics, or if you ONLY write the melody using someone else's lyrics, you ONLY write half a song.
You write a song. Assume you wrote all the lyrics and the melody.
The song is protected by copyright from the moment it is "fixed in permanent form". For lyrics, that means from the first time you write them down with a crayon on the back of a napkin. For a melody, that means the first time you sing it into a cruddy tape recorder.
The song is assigned to a publisher, who pushes it to various artists for recording. In reality, the "publisher" might be you, and the only artist that will be interested in recording it might also be you. If you sign to a major label, the "publisher" will most likely be a subsidiary of that label, and all your publishing rights are belong to them.
A CD is released containing a recording of that song, either by you or someone else. Doesn't matter for the purposes of songwriter royalties.
Copies of the CD are produced and distributed. People buy it, because hey its a good song or you wouldn't have written it
The songwriter and publisher of each song on the CD get a tiny bit of money for each copy distributed. I think its in the neighborhood of 9 cents per copy. If you are both songwriter and publisher, you get to double dip.
The songwriter/publicher get their pennies for each song they are responsible for on the CD. So if you write 10 songs on a CD, and it is released, you are owed 90c per copy of the CD, just for being the songwriter. Of course, if you record/produce/release the CD yourself, its kind of moot, because you get ALL the proceeds. I think 10 songs is the limit; if you write 20 songs on a CD you will only get paid for 10 or something like that. Or maybe that's just a typical shitty publishing/recording contract trick
These are different from the royalties you get for the sale of the CD itself, which are usually talked about in terms of a percentage of the sale price. Those come to the recording artist, if the record label doesn't find a way to sponge them all up first.
Songwriting/publishing royalties are not adminstered by the record companies, and don't flow through the record companies. The vast majority of US songwriter royalties flow through the Harry Fox Agency (for mechanical royalties, which are what I've described above). If a recording of your song is played on the radio or broadcast on TV, there are other royalties that are paid through the performing rights societies (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC). Again, those go directly to the songwriter/publisher, and not to the record company.
I know from personal experience, the experiences of friends, and from many postings around
Clear as mud now? There are LOTS of books out there about this whole process. Go to Google/Amazon/etc and search for books on music law or copyright. My personal fave is This Business of Music, although most ppl I know consider it fairly dry and boring.
I found the part-time contracting bits through my still-employed friends. One of the benefits of working so long in the same market is that you meet a LOT of people (I've been in the Dallas/Ft Worth, TX area for 15+ years now). And in the time I've known them, some of them have moved up the ranks into hiring-decision positions. [Hmm .. wonder why I haven't done that? I'll worry about that later]
my $0.02:
... without having the ability to try out the things I was trying to learn none of it stuck. Also tried to catch up on music (I'm a songwriter), but it turned out without work to piss me off I didn't have as much to write about :-)
My last job ended late last fall when the company went under. 2nd time that happened to me in two years. The first time, I slid right into the new job with no gap in employement. Yes, I know I was very lucky. This past fall, I thought I'd take the rest of the year off, relax, catch up on my life, de-stress, and job hunt. Aaahhhhh, peace.
I made it 3 days.
After 3 days, I was going absolutely batty. Without having the regular schedule of work to frame my day, I just drifted along getting absolutely nothing accomplished. I'd never been one to do much work from home, so I wasn't really set up to do any programming or technical things. I tried catching up on my techie mags, reading some programming books
So I took part time contracting type work to keep myself occupied, and found my current job (working as a contract employee, programming) which started Jan 1.
I blame all this on my parents, of course.
I think rather the project was cancelled and a cover story concocted when the shit hit the fan.
Back then, shows were real. Now we've got Artifical T.V. ... my wife says that Jenna won.
Yeah, same here. Nowadays those Saturday cartoons pale in comparison to Jenna.
[IAAFWR: I Am A Ft Worth Resident]
The "subway" was hella-convenient getting into downtown at crowded times, hot or cold. It was free, it ran right into the heart of downtown, and the only two stops it made were in the basement of the Tandy Center building and in the remote parking lot. Seems like I recall it (the subway) held the record for the shortest subway line in the world when it was active. I doubt it was even a mile long, but sometimes that could be the longest mile.
Lots of Ft Worth residents were sad to see it go. Progress, schmogress.
Actualy I think that was the same cow.
Deja-moo.