Well, that sounds good in theory, and I would like to support the artists, but if you don't buy the CD's the record labels ARE getting cheated. Remember that they spend money promoting the bands too. You might not get to hear some good bands because the record comanies did not "discover" them. Word of mouth and websites may work for some, but who has time to listen to every single artist. I'll admit that nowadays the record companies are not doing a very good job of selecting the cream of the crop, but you still need some process of selection.
"How do you get people to switch from one established, large IM provider such as AOL to a new protocol/provider?"
My guess would be by making it as feature rich as possible without slowing it down in any way. Put in the ability for voice, video, conferencing, etc (I use Yahoo Messenger, so that's what I have in mind), make it easy to use, and make it open source ala Mozilla. This way you might be able to convince one of the big companies, to make their own client based on that source (with ads or whatever), so as to reach the most platforms.
I mean, if we got rid of nuclear weapons, long range missiles, tanks, rifles, pistols, knives, spoons, tooth-picks, napkins... why, the world would surely be a safer place!
Just an exageration meant to show that your argument does not necessarily hold. You can get rid of some things for the greater good, without infringing on regular people's rights. You don't always have to go by precedent, you can judge actions on their own merit.
It's true that the News is also becoming comercialized. I've often heard the argument that if people want the news, they will watch from a channel that presents it for its newsworthiness, or that they will simply hop on the net. The problem is that you need money to be able to report the news in all its glory (or all its gorry as it has become recently). The stations that don't pander to advertisers or to the big Corporations (who want things about them kept quiet) will go under. The same thing goes for websites. Sure all the information is somewhere on the net, but how do you find it. Right now you can use Google News but will it always be as effective/free as it still a company trying to profit?? All the good sites eventually get a big enough following that they require money (e.g./.) and they might either go down or become corrupted in some way (/. hasn't yet in my opinion but what would happen if all its advertisers demanded change?).
One program that I am going to miss is Bill Maher'sPolitically Incorrect. PI was cancelled because it offended advertisers, not because its ratings were down. Now, even if the technologically savy can find the news on the internet, the masses will not, and it is the masses that decide what goes on in the country come election time. They will be influenced by these big corporations controlling the mass media and in turn will screw the rest of us. It's hard to make an informed opinion if you can't find an informative cable tv/network station anymore.
Ok, maybe this is also sensationalizing, and if it doesn't get this bad I will be happy, but I could really see it happening. It's not going to be done on purpose by anyone, it will just migrate in that direction because of the economical forces (in a sort of evolutionary way).
I'm really MAD at ABC...they go and spend a ton of cash for the greatest sporting event in the World, and event which happens only once in 4 years, and they don't even show the game live (at least in my city they didn't). To add insult to injury, they delay the re-airing and then don't even show the handing of the cup ceremony. Damn bastards, they ruined it for the those of us stuck in the US. They should have let ESPN(2) have all the games live.
Another thing to complain about, was the camera work. I don't know if ESPN(2)/ABC had their own crew filming in Korea and Japan, but the camera angles were just horrendous.
If one of these reputable sources did a whole series of articles (or a long article) on a group of Open Source applications/OS's. They could group OpenOfice.org, Mozilla, Linux distros, etc., and present it as a complete solution to Microsoft software.
I am sure I can prevent my computer from being infected just by using common sense (don't open unexpected attachments, download only from trustworthy sites, etc). Even if I did get infected, I could just re-ghost my drive and be done with it. Sure I have to make current ghost images, but I do that anyway and storage is cheap these days. On the up side, I don't have to take the performance hit of running AV software, and I don't have to deal with constant updates.
They should have to show in some way that you have opted in in the e-mail itself. Some sort of unique number that you gave them (or even an IP address, but this wouldn't be good enough). They would then have to have an e-mail AND some number to match up. There must also be a huge fine to back this up. This way, any business that sends an e-mail that says you opted in, can be automatically fined.
Slashdot Mirror
"What a terrific audience"
Well, that sounds good in theory, and I would like to support the artists, but if you don't buy the CD's the record labels ARE getting cheated. Remember that they spend money promoting the bands too. You might not get to hear some good bands because the record comanies did not "discover" them. Word of mouth and websites may work for some, but who has time to listen to every single artist. I'll admit that nowadays the record companies are not doing a very good job of selecting the cream of the crop, but you still need some process of selection.
My PC is finger-licking good!
They're going to need all the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, et al, to sign up for trips to the space station before they can afford that
Can I take a crack at it?
Just an exageration meant to show that your argument does not necessarily hold. You can get rid of some things for the greater good, without infringing on regular people's rights. You don't always have to go by precedent, you can judge actions on their own merit.
I wonder how this compared to the cygwin tools...
I can imagine: http://www.bitstorm.org/gates/
It's true that the News is also becoming comercialized. I've often heard the argument that if people want the news, they will watch from a channel that presents it for its newsworthiness, or that they will simply hop on the net. The problem is that you need money to be able to report the news in all its glory (or all its gorry as it has become recently). The stations that don't pander to advertisers or to the big Corporations (who want things about them kept quiet) will go under. The same thing goes for websites. Sure all the information is somewhere on the net, but how do you find it. Right now you can use Google News but will it always be as effective/free as it still a company trying to profit?? All the good sites eventually get a big enough following that they require money (e.g. /.) and they might either go down or become corrupted in some way (/. hasn't yet in my opinion but what would happen if all its advertisers demanded change?).
One program that I am going to miss is Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect. PI was cancelled because it offended advertisers, not because its ratings were down. Now, even if the technologically savy can find the news on the internet, the masses will not, and it is the masses that decide what goes on in the country come election time. They will be influenced by these big corporations controlling the mass media and in turn will screw the rest of us. It's hard to make an informed opinion if you can't find an informative cable tv/network station anymore.
Ok, maybe this is also sensationalizing, and if it doesn't get this bad I will be happy, but I could really see it happening. It's not going to be done on purpose by anyone, it will just migrate in that direction because of the economical forces (in a sort of evolutionary way).
Wow, Ted Nudget reads /.
:)
I'm really MAD at ABC...they go and spend a ton of cash for the greatest sporting event in the World, and event which happens only once in 4 years, and they don't even show the game live (at least in my city they didn't). To add insult to injury, they delay the re-airing and then don't even show the handing of the cup ceremony. Damn bastards, they ruined it for the those of us stuck in the US. They should have let ESPN(2) have all the games live.
Another thing to complain about, was the camera work. I don't know if ESPN(2)/ABC had their own crew filming in Korea and Japan, but the camera angles were just horrendous.
Ha, you're both wrong, the real number is 912
:-)
"And Moby, you can get stomped by Obie"
If one of these reputable sources did a whole series of articles (or a long article) on a group of Open Source applications/OS's. They could group OpenOfice.org, Mozilla, Linux distros, etc., and present it as a complete solution to Microsoft software.
Nah, they'll just want beer...it's fuel to them
I am sure I can prevent my computer from being infected just by using common sense (don't open unexpected attachments, download only from trustworthy sites, etc). Even if I did get infected, I could just re-ghost my drive and be done with it. Sure I have to make current ghost images, but I do that anyway and storage is cheap these days. On the up side, I don't have to take the performance hit of running AV software, and I don't have to deal with constant updates.
They should have to show in some way that you have opted in in the e-mail itself. Some sort of unique number that you gave them (or even an IP address, but this wouldn't be good enough). They would then have to have an e-mail AND some number to match up. There must also be a huge fine to back this up. This way, any business that sends an e-mail that says you opted in, can be automatically fined.
I might skip watching the SW's movies...they've gotten "lazy" in the creativity department anyway.
Gotta be more careful with those rm -rf 's
hehe...in ALbanian , mire translates to well or good, so I got a good chuckle out of that .sig.
That was horrible...I got about a hundred JavaScript error messages...the Slashdotting sure can be brutal
If I feel better at typing on an ergonomic keyboard, it is effective for me.
We are making feeble attempts at jokes...what you expect quality this late at night??
Who's calling John Ashcroft?