I'm waiting for that first new act to realize they can make a ton more money selling $7 CDs themselves over the internet than going through a label selling them for $20 and giving up their catalog to the man. As soon as the first band is succesful making it work, the floodgates are open!
What they should be doing is designing an MP3 player *insert* that's small enough to fit into the candy slot of existing dispensers. That way they could start selling dispensers again like ringtones or faceplates.
From the article: "6. Don't get locked into one online store. Have you ever been on the hunt for a particular song? Some obscure indie rock tune or rare jazz performance you heard on the radio? You might have to shop at more than one store before you find the song you're looking for."
Ok. I call bullstuff. Show me **ONE** radio station anymore that even aspymptotically approaches indie rock songs or rare jazz performances.
What did they call catch-22's before "Catch-22" was published? It just seems that this kind of thing happens so often, it should have occurred to someone to give it a name before 1961.
"...The article mainly discusses mobile phone usage, though."
Well, that's the thing, then, isn't it? In the US, dirt is pretty cheap and plentiful, so land lines and wires that require poles to by strung up everywhere have predominated where the relative scarcity of space in European and Japanese cities has forced a much higher adoption rate for mobile technologies.
If we aren't misinterpreting the scope of this law, it sounds like it was really poorly thought out. Why? Well, shouldn't it be E-BAY that has to secure the auctioneer's license and not me?
Think about it. If I had a dining room table and chairs that I wanted to get rid of at auction, I'd go out and hire a professional auctioneer to do it for me, right? Well, he's the one that needs to have a license, not me.
That's why we **HAVE** professional auctioneers in the first place, isn't it?
I'm just the dude getting rid of the stuff, and I'm paying him a fee to do it for me. That's the same relationship I have with Ebay - I don't run the auction, they do. I have to pay them for the service they provide in doing so.
The only thing this law would be good for is regulating the operators of auctioning web sites. Forcing me to get a license to sell off my dining room table at a local auction or online would be stupid and have no precedent. I mean, check me if I'm wrong, but
There's no reason why you hard-working UK citizens should have to put up with this crap. Unplug your telly/pc/whatever, drive it right on down to the Thames or whatever your nearest waterhole is and TOSS IT IN!
Let "the man" in parliament know you ain't gonna pay no taxes what you ain't got been done voted fer yet. No more.
Funny. I agree that he's wrong for a different version, but it's a different different reason.
Let's face it, nobody looks at Windows and says to themselves "wow, great driver support." [Note: maybe they should, because Win95 single-handedly forced hardware manufacturers to stop making up their own rules and actually design their hw/drivers around standardized specifications, but I digress...]
Plus, going forward, it's pretty clear that (until that NdisWrapper thingy makes it into the stock Linux kernel trunk -- if possible) hw vendors are going to have to start making a serious effort with *native* Linux support because - more and more - it's driving purchasing decisions, so I'm not real concerned about the future of driver support, just the legacy stuff.
Nope, instead, I figured that if Microsoft was going to make have a go with Linux, they'd focus on the one area where Linux has needed a little standardization - the desktop environment. I figure if MS gets involved at all, it'll be with a Windows DE running on a stock or optimized Linux kernel. Linux would provide the engine, Windows would provide the cockpit instrumentation and in-flight entertainment. (Plus, they'd still get to sell optimized versions of MS Office and their business CRM and accounting software - don't forget how important *that* is to them.)
Of course, that idea (which is now a couple of years old in my head) is probably outdated too, now, because the latest versions of Gnome and KDE are coming along *VERY* nicely, plus that whole Wine/Codeweavers Crossover*/XEN approach is probably going to the whole hardware and OS choice utterly irrelevant anyway as we just fire up emulators to do everything on thiry different native OSs in the future.
It should be fun watching MS try to stay relevant, eh? EXPECT WEIRDNESS!
No, really, I'm dead serious about being locked in a cell with nothing to do for a few hours or days worth of realtime. Maybe that means there's no point in logging on until Friday at 4PM when your character gets out; maybe it means you have to do community service in the game or must so many pounds of rocks into gravel with a sledgehammer; maybe you get sentenced by a crooked judge who hates you but can be bribed; maybe that gives you a reason to go after him later; maybe you commit a hard enough offense, and you get sent to the big house where you can meet and network with other hard-core underworld dudes; maybe the real risk of not being able to play the game forces you to moderate your approach to crime so you pick your battles a little more carefully.
A seedy, violent game like this absolutely *NEEDS* a moderating punative influence like jail time -- just think about it. If you hate campers now, just wait until the whole point of the game is to run around blowing up stuff and capping each other in the ass. Every half-assed n00b is going to show up busting caps and creating havoc for no reason. There won't be any stealth, there won't be any alliances, there won't be any betrayal.
But, introduce the fear of not being able to play and maybe you take things a little more seriously. Once a camper n00b gets fined a few times and takes a trip to the slammer for a day or two, and they'll freakin' learn to pick their targets a little better.
Heck, I think it would be a good idea for most MMORPGs to punish wrongdoers with something like jail time.
1) Higher-level players have the ability to create and define missions for other (lower-level) players to complete. You could order hits on enemies (or friends), pay other people to take the rap for your dirty work, etc.
1) Cops need to be playable characters. (You could even become a dirty cops!)
2) Jail time has to COUNT. When you get caught by the police, the game has to turn into you sitting in the crossbar hotel sitting on a cot for 48 hours (or so) of realtime.
Does the EU even *have* a government? This is so confusing! Motions that can be executed with no vote, organizational groups that do what they want regardless of the vote? What gives? It's like the thing was designed *by*, bureucrats *for* bureaucrats, and voting is just a technicality.
Can somebody help to make me less ignorant and point me at an online EU-civics 101 tutorial that outlines how the EU government is organized, what are the responsibilities of the major components and a general overview of the rules?
Actually, you don't want free milk in the jug your friend gave you, you want to *pay* for the milk, you just don't want to pay for the jug.
I think the solution to all of this stupidity is for the bozon game companies to stop charging an up-front purchase price for games that require a subscription.
Why don't they also charge a "disposal fee" when you cancel for crying out loud.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but this was old news a year ago, maybe even two.
That said, here's another Google trick that's new to me. Put in the word "movies" followed by your ZIP code.
They also take UPC codes and (if I recall correctly) ISBNs.
Now we can fix the hacking problem by cutting the bandwidth on the network line that connects them to us down to 56K.
While we're at it, let's do the same thing to China and get rid of the spam problem, too.
Q.E.D.
F5....
F5....
F5....
Come on! Post a new article already!
F5....
F5....
F5....
F5....
I'm waiting for that first new act to realize they can make a ton more money selling $7 CDs themselves over the internet than going through a label selling them for $20 and giving up their catalog to the man. As soon as the first band is succesful making it work, the floodgates are open!
What they should be doing is designing an MP3 player *insert* that's small enough to fit into the candy slot of existing dispensers. That way they could start selling dispensers again like ringtones or faceplates.
From the article: "6. Don't get locked into one online store. Have you ever been on the hunt for a particular song? Some obscure indie rock tune or rare jazz performance you heard on the radio? You might have to shop at more than one store before you find the song you're looking for."
Ok. I call bullstuff. Show me **ONE** radio station anymore that even aspymptotically approaches indie rock songs or rare jazz performances.
Lame.
National Public Radio is awesome: Smart, diverse, interesting. They could use your financial help, too.
What did they call catch-22's before "Catch-22" was published? It just seems that this kind of thing happens so often, it should have occurred to someone to give it a name before 1961.
"...The article mainly discusses mobile phone usage, though."
Well, that's the thing, then, isn't it? In the US, dirt is pretty cheap and plentiful, so land lines and wires that require poles to by strung up everywhere have predominated where the relative scarcity of space in European and Japanese cities has forced a much higher adoption rate for mobile technologies.
Tell me if I'm wrong, eh?
Azureus updates itself using a torrent.
If we aren't misinterpreting the scope of this law, it sounds like it was really poorly thought out. Why? Well, shouldn't it be E-BAY that has to secure the auctioneer's license and not me?
Think about it. If I had a dining room table and chairs that I wanted to get rid of at auction, I'd go out and hire a professional auctioneer to do it for me, right? Well, he's the one that needs to have a license, not me.
That's why we **HAVE** professional auctioneers in the first place, isn't it?
I'm just the dude getting rid of the stuff, and I'm paying him a fee to do it for me. That's the same relationship I have with Ebay - I don't run the auction, they do. I have to pay them for the service they provide in doing so.
The only thing this law would be good for is regulating the operators of auctioning web sites. Forcing me to get a license to sell off my dining room table at a local auction or online would be stupid and have no precedent. I mean, check me if I'm wrong, but
There's no reason why you hard-working UK citizens should have to put up with this crap. Unplug your telly/pc/whatever, drive it right on down to the Thames or whatever your nearest waterhole is and TOSS IT IN!
Let "the man" in parliament know you ain't gonna pay no taxes what you ain't got been done voted fer yet. No more.
Hey, it worked for us!
Sincerely,
USA
I wonder how this works with their Dockable Toolbar Patent? That one hasn't been overturned yet, has it?
We... are... so... retarded.
No wonder the aliens haven't contacted us yet - I doubt there would be much point.
obMontyPython: "On second thought, let's not go to Earth... 'Tis a silly place."
Funny. I agree that he's wrong for a different version, but it's a different different reason.
Let's face it, nobody looks at Windows and says to themselves "wow, great driver support." [Note: maybe they should, because Win95 single-handedly forced hardware manufacturers to stop making up their own rules and actually design their hw/drivers around standardized specifications, but I digress...]
Plus, going forward, it's pretty clear that (until that NdisWrapper thingy makes it into the stock Linux kernel trunk -- if possible) hw vendors are going to have to start making a serious effort with *native* Linux support because - more and more - it's driving purchasing decisions, so I'm not real concerned about the future of driver support, just the legacy stuff.
Nope, instead, I figured that if Microsoft was going to make have a go with Linux, they'd focus on the one area where Linux has needed a little standardization - the desktop environment. I figure if MS gets involved at all, it'll be with a Windows DE running on a stock or optimized Linux kernel. Linux would provide the engine, Windows would provide the cockpit instrumentation and in-flight entertainment. (Plus, they'd still get to sell optimized versions of MS Office and their business CRM and accounting software - don't forget how important *that* is to them.)
Of course, that idea (which is now a couple of years old in my head) is probably outdated too, now, because the latest versions of Gnome and KDE are coming along *VERY* nicely, plus that whole Wine/Codeweavers Crossover*/XEN approach is probably going to the whole hardware and OS choice utterly irrelevant anyway as we just fire up emulators to do everything on thiry different native OSs in the future.
It should be fun watching MS try to stay relevant, eh? EXPECT WEIRDNESS!
But then, couldn't someone just come out with "6 minute abs"?
I love that movie.
Mozilla, Opera and Apple are allied? I don't even have to know what it's about to know which side I'm on.
Oh, it's not a company, it's a *UNIVERSITY* (The University of Southampton, to be exact) -- that explains why they didn't get the memo.
Furthermore, I thought the 2001 tech bubble taught all the companies not to use the word "imagine" in their press releases.
I guess some people learn harder than others.
Color me "annoyed by pretentious marketese".
No, really, I'm dead serious about being locked in a cell with nothing to do for a few hours or days worth of realtime. Maybe that means there's no point in logging on until Friday at 4PM when your character gets out; maybe it means you have to do community service in the game or must so many pounds of rocks into gravel with a sledgehammer; maybe you get sentenced by a crooked judge who hates you but can be bribed; maybe that gives you a reason to go after him later; maybe you commit a hard enough offense, and you get sent to the big house where you can meet and network with other hard-core underworld dudes; maybe the real risk of not being able to play the game forces you to moderate your approach to crime so you pick your battles a little more carefully.
A seedy, violent game like this absolutely *NEEDS* a moderating punative influence like jail time -- just think about it. If you hate campers now, just wait until the whole point of the game is to run around blowing up stuff and capping each other in the ass. Every half-assed n00b is going to show up busting caps and creating havoc for no reason. There won't be any stealth, there won't be any alliances, there won't be any betrayal.
But, introduce the fear of not being able to play and maybe you take things a little more seriously. Once a camper n00b gets fined a few times and takes a trip to the slammer for a day or two, and they'll freakin' learn to pick their targets a little better.
Heck, I think it would be a good idea for most MMORPGs to punish wrongdoers with something like jail time.
Mmmm... Panera.... [droool]....
Best. Shortbread. Cookies. Ever.
Three things need to be possible, though:
1) Higher-level players have the ability to create and define missions for other (lower-level) players to complete. You could order hits on enemies (or friends), pay other people to take the rap for your dirty work, etc.
1) Cops need to be playable characters. (You could even become a dirty cops!)
2) Jail time has to COUNT. When you get caught by the police, the game has to turn into you sitting in the crossbar hotel sitting on a cot for 48 hours (or so) of realtime.
Does the EU even *have* a government? This is so confusing! Motions that can be executed with no vote, organizational groups that do what they want regardless of the vote? What gives? It's like the thing was designed *by*, bureucrats *for* bureaucrats, and voting is just a technicality.
Can somebody help to make me less ignorant and point me at an online EU-civics 101 tutorial that outlines how the EU government is organized, what are the responsibilities of the major components and a general overview of the rules?
Please?
Actually, you don't want free milk in the jug your friend gave you, you want to *pay* for the milk, you just don't want to pay for the jug.
I think the solution to all of this stupidity is for the bozon game companies to stop charging an up-front purchase price for games that require a subscription.
Why don't they also charge a "disposal fee" when you cancel for crying out loud.