The most popular movies are gating over $400 dollars in the US alone. (Star Wars, Spider-man, Fellowship of the Ring).
Those same movies will likely make killings in overseas markets.
And then, those movies will make even more on DVD sales around the world.
If Hollywood goes out of business, it'll only be caused by their own incompetence. Maybe Hollywood should drop the $30 million salaries and ridiculous special effects costs and concentrate on writing (or adapting) entertaining storylines for movies.
DVD's aren't going to kill Hollywood any more then VHS did. A big screen TV is not the same as a movie theater screen. However, I'd wager that the quality of movies is declining. For every gem like Fellowship of the Ring, there's 3 or 4 movies with the quality of "Kung Pow".
Opera already can zoom in and out of pages, it also automatically scales both text and images for you.
It's a drop down box on the right side of the address bar. Download Opera at Opera.com and check it out!
It's a neat feature.. useful when pages use an 8 point font and the text is hard to read or when you follow the "Awful Link of the Day" over at somethingawful and have to scale down the 48 point yellow font on an orange background..
I agree with #2 above, but for #1 it's going to depend on cost and quality. If Ozzy sounds better on the DVD-Audio, and it's not too much more expensive then CD's / CD Players, then I'd consider buying it.
But - to get me to buy a new player and a new library of music.. it's going to take an awful lot. Has anyone heard a DVD-Audio disc? Is the sound really that much better?
"It's like a Lexus we rented once; when you pushed a button, the driver's seat and mirrors all moved to accommodate my 5 foot 3 inches instead of his 6 feet."
She should have bought the Lexus, the TCO would have been less then Windows XP and Office XP.
To their credit, at least the woman *looks* smarter then that stoner chick Apple has. (*beep beep duh... like it beeped and then I was all like you know, worried about my paper dude.)
Steve Ballmer will leave Microsoft to join the circus sideshow, as the only man who can put his foot in his mouth while his head is still up his ass. The Circus will generate billions of revenue, while Microsoft will be forced to have Craig Mundie scream "I Love This Company!" at this years COMDEX.
There will be at least a dozen more Outlook Worms infecting the Internet. People's Inboxes will become so flooded with viruses, that millions will quit using email all together. With the loss of a huge potential market, companies selling weightless, pumpless penis enhancement devices will go out of business, and millions of dollars will still be tied up in Nigerian banks while the King's widow lives in poverty.
Hundreds of people will be arrested for printing paychecks on their computer and trying to cash them at a bank.
The RIAA will create another method to prevent people from copying CD's, this one will be defeatable by a common stapler.
The RIAA will reveal that Hilary Rosen has actually been dead for 5 years, that they've just been propping her up "Weekend at Bernie's" style.
Scott McNealy will release several press releases over the next year bashing Microsoft.
Probably for the same reason that there are numerous vacanies in the Federal Judiciary: Senate Democrats are not bringing any of Bush's appointments to a full Senate vote, choosing instead to kill off every nominee in committee.
Could it be that news.com is simply pointing out the obvious double standard given to "hacker" sites like 2600.com and "reputable news sites" like news.com?
Seriously, if CNN.com would have originally linked to DeCSS do you think it would have gotten sued? (I know, pretend for a moment that it wasn't part of the AOLTimeWarner conglomerate though, and you'll get my point.)
Hopefully, a court case WILL come of this, and maybe we'll get a Judge with a clue that realizes the DMCA restricts your First Amendment rights.
Nope, sorry, I hate to disappoint, but I'm not trolling, this is my honest opinion. I'm tired of my Inbox being flooded by a bunch or virus messages because morons are using Outlook and Outlook Express.
And the easy solution to these Outlook Worms is to QUIT USING OUTLOOK.
Unless your company forces you to connect to an Exchange Server, why would anyone purposely run Outlook or Outlook Express as their mail client? Especially when there's several free alternatives.
Eudora - http://www.Eudora.com
Opera Mail - http://www.opera.com
Mozilla - http://www.mozilla.org
Netscape - http://www.netscape.com
I hate to sound callous, but if you're on a standard PPP or SLIP internet connection at home, and you're running Outlook or Outlook Express, then you get what you deserve. If your company is running Exchange Server, then your company is getting what it deserves.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Except between Melissa, ILoveYou, Sircam, Klez, and now this, it's what, fool me a dozen times? Do people just enjoy getting kicked in the teeth repeatedly?
MTV hasn't had a good, original show since Beavis and Butt-Head. Before that, the Idiot Box, and Liquid Television were both fun to watch.. what happened? Did we just get old or did MTV lose their touch? Still Alex Winter is a very funny guy, so this movie may not totally suck. Might be even funny if they CGI a sea hag to play Hitlery Rosen..
OT for a minute - LionHeartCJ - cool nick.. I'm guessing that stands for the Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah, the King of the World, your party host, your paragon of virtue, "Y2J" Chris (Raw is) Jericho. Am I right?
As a software developer, I'd like to see EULA's remain legal. I don't want to be sued because some idiot misused or ran a virus infected version of my executable and bad things happened to that PC. I don't want to be sued when the same idiot installs an older software application that overwrites a bunch of MFC and ATL DLL's and then complains that "it dunnit work no more - yee haw"
However, I'm completely opposed to the way EULA's are presented to people now... Most EULA's are presented as a step in the InstallShield installer, if you don't accept the terms you can't install the application. Problem is, if you don't accept the terms, you won't be able to take it back to the store. Best Buy, Fry's, Comp USA, etc., don't take returns on opened software, only exchanges.
What should happen is that companies are required to either print the EULA on the box (there is room, even on the new boxes, just print it on the large flap where there's just screenshots and marketing crap there anyways). Then, users can read the EULA before they've brought it home and started to install it, and if they don't like the terms of the EULA they can leave the box on the shelf and look at a competitor's product.
Making EULA's completely illegal as some people advocate is too extreme. Businesses and independent developers need some protection from the unwashed masses (like AOL users, har har).
I read the text of the bill, and I mostly agree with it. However, I'd like a change in this bill that says essentially the above - you want to use a EULA, fine, but the user had better be able to read it before they've purchased the software.
(And while we're suggesting changes, how about an across the board repeal of the DMCA?)
As I've said before on numerous occasions, for Linux to truly give MS a run for the money on Home user desktops, two things need to happen:
1. AOL client for Linux
2. Native game support
Now, as much as I tend to mock AOL users, being that AOL is not a convicted monopolist, they're the lesser of two evils by far. But now that #1 on my list looks like it's happening, MS better be very nervous. There's millions of AOL users who own a computer and do nothing but connect to AOL on it. There's now NO compelling reason for them to use Microsoft software.
This news has made my day. I'm being optimistic and hopeful here, but could this day signal the beginning of the end of Microsoft? (Especially since some games are coming out with native Linux support.. like Unreal Tournament 2003)
It's a shame 3dfx couldn't innovate and keep up, as I liked their products. The first 3d accelerator I bought was a Voodoo2 Banshee, followed by a Voodoo 3 and a Voodoo 5 5500 (bought 1 week before 3dfx collapsed). In all my time using Voodoo cards, I never once had a problem with them. They were fast for their time, and there drivers seemed to be rock solid stable.
It's too bad they couldn't keep up with nVidia and ATI, though I must admit I'm loving my shiny new Radeon 9700 Pro....
It's too late for Microsoft to stem the tide of Linux. Corporations left and right are realizing that if all you use your PC for is email, web browsing, and word processing / document editting, then there is simply no compelling reason to run Windows, due to getting essentially the same functionality under Linux.
Eventually, these same people that are using and are beginning to use Linux at work will want Linux at home, to be consistent with what they use at work. So that is part of the tide.
For Linux to finally put the screws to Windows, and to truly start the death toll for Microsoft, two things need to happen:
1. An AOL Client for Linux
2. Native Games for the hardcore gamers
(Unreal Tournament 2003 is a step in the right direction)
Unfortunately for Microsoft, it's not a matter of outsmarting Open Source Software, it's a matter of not being able to remain relevant. Microsoft has nothing coming in the pipeline outside of *ahem* "security" and Palladium. While users will clamor for security, no one outside of the RIAA and MPAA are really clamoring for DRM and Palladium, and people (and companies) are realizing that for security Linux is the better choice for your OS.
Granted, Windows will probably never go away, and I don't think it necessarily should, but the days of the Windows Monopoly are coming to an end, if you ask me.
I was going to ask the same question. Having a single sign on means that security has a single point of failure. Is this what consumers really want? Why is the Open Source community playing "catch-up" to Microsoft when I know we can come up with a better way to do it...
Look, I've been very disappointed in John Ashcroft as the Attorney General. I had hoped he wouldn't let Microsoft off as easy as he did, becasue Microsoft BROKE THE LAW!
However, I can't see Dubya signing any legislation that would kill Open Source (like a lot of proposals Fritz Hollings, a liberal Democrat, has made.)
So, it's helped a bit, hurt a bit.
There was no way I would ever vote for Algore though. Sheesh. Ever read his book, "Earth in the Balance" - it's scary. He writes about a tree that may contain the cure for cancer. ANd then he comes out against using that tree because it would take 3 trees to save a human. HEY! ALGORE! Plant some more trees you moron! I mean really, if that tree had the cure for cancer, everybody would start farming them and cancer would be wiped out.
No, a free market is one where anyone can enter a market with their product, unrestricted, and products are winning / losing market share on their merits.
Microsoft, the Convicted Monopolist is anti-competitive, and thus is an anathema to a free market economy. Embracing and Extending to BREAK your competitor's products is wrong *cough*kerberos*cough*Java*cough*.
I'm not saying Microsoft should go away, I'm saying Microsoft, as it exists today, must go before it can stifle more innovation and competition then it has today.
Here's a catch though - Conservatives support law enforcement. Microsoft broke the law. The problem is still that Microsoft, by abusing it's monopoly status, is crushing innovation and competition, and those things are vital to a free market economy.
I don't think the Government should arbitraily force anyone to open up their source code, but in this specific case Microsft should be forced to either open up Windows's source, or get out of the Application business. (Which is why I favored the splitting of Microsoft).
To answer your question about what a liberal means to me, it means someone who thinks that Federal Government power is the answer to all of society's problems. Personally, I think Government should primarily exist to enforce the law and ensure National Security and Infrastructure. For example, I don't think the US Government should have an employee who's job is to taste imported tea and determine if it's "good enough" to import and put on the shelves (and this position exists, or at least it used to.) I'm opposed to a lot of "entitlements" that the Government does. Little-Dick Gephardt whining anout how his mother can't get a prescription drug is pathetic, especially when Gephardt has millions in the bank. Hey Dick, why don't YOU help your mother out instead of ripping off my income in the form of taxes to do it?
Anyways, in this case, Government action is needed, because Microsoft BROKE the law. In a utopia we wouldn't need anti-monopoly laws, because companies wouldn't abuse their monopoly state, but unfortunately that's not going to happen so there is a need for laws and consequences if you break those laws.
If Microsoft didn't abuse their monopoly status, and wasn't anti-competitive, then I'd be one of their biggest defenders in this case. You shouldn't ever punish achievement. If Microsoft has 95% market share in the OS market, because people are buying it, fine. But when MS twists the arms of OEM's mafia style to get them to ship PC's with Windows exclusively, then you have a problem, and that's why MS is in trouble. When MS changes the platform to give their browser a leg up on it's competition, there's a problem - it's anti-competitive.
If you have any more questions on my opinion, please feel free to email me. I tend to enjoy debating people who don't see things the way I do, it's a great way to test your core beliefs and see if they really are your core beliefs, or if you can be persuaded.
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The most popular movies are gating over $400 dollars in the US alone. (Star Wars, Spider-man, Fellowship of the Ring).
Those same movies will likely make killings in overseas markets.
And then, those movies will make even more on DVD sales around the world.
If Hollywood goes out of business, it'll only be caused by their own incompetence. Maybe Hollywood should drop the $30 million salaries and ridiculous special effects costs and concentrate on writing (or adapting) entertaining storylines for movies.
DVD's aren't going to kill Hollywood any more then VHS did. A big screen TV is not the same as a movie theater screen. However, I'd wager that the quality of movies is declining. For every gem like Fellowship of the Ring, there's 3 or 4 movies with the quality of "Kung Pow".
It's a drop down box on the right side of the address bar. Download Opera at Opera.com and check it out!
It's a neat feature.. useful when pages use an 8 point font and the text is hard to read or when you follow the "Awful Link of the Day" over at somethingawful and have to scale down the 48 point yellow font on an orange background..
But - to get me to buy a new player and a new library of music.. it's going to take an awful lot. Has anyone heard a DVD-Audio disc? Is the sound really that much better?
She should have bought the Lexus, the TCO would have been less then Windows XP and Office XP.
To their credit, at least the woman *looks* smarter then that stoner chick Apple has. (*beep beep duh... like it beeped and then I was all like you know, worried about my paper dude.)
Steve Ballmer will leave Microsoft to join the circus sideshow, as the only man who can put his foot in his mouth while his head is still up his ass. The Circus will generate billions of revenue, while Microsoft will be forced to have Craig Mundie scream "I Love This Company!" at this years COMDEX.
There will be at least a dozen more Outlook Worms infecting the Internet. People's Inboxes will become so flooded with viruses, that millions will quit using email all together. With the loss of a huge potential market, companies selling weightless, pumpless penis enhancement devices will go out of business, and millions of dollars will still be tied up in Nigerian banks while the King's widow lives in poverty.
Hundreds of people will be arrested for printing paychecks on their computer and trying to cash them at a bank.
The RIAA will create another method to prevent people from copying CD's, this one will be defeatable by a common stapler.
The RIAA will reveal that Hilary Rosen has actually been dead for 5 years, that they've just been propping her up "Weekend at Bernie's" style.
Scott McNealy will release several press releases over the next year bashing Microsoft.
Probably for the same reason that there are numerous vacanies in the Federal Judiciary: Senate Democrats are not bringing any of Bush's appointments to a full Senate vote, choosing instead to kill off every nominee in committee.
Seriously, if CNN.com would have originally linked to DeCSS do you think it would have gotten sued? (I know, pretend for a moment that it wasn't part of the AOLTimeWarner conglomerate though, and you'll get my point.)
Hopefully, a court case WILL come of this, and maybe we'll get a Judge with a clue that realizes the DMCA restricts your First Amendment rights.
That would be another nice feature for Mozilla. Once again, any volunteers?
And the easy solution to these Outlook Worms is to QUIT USING OUTLOOK.
OK folks, any volunteers to add SPA support to Mozilla Mail? Let's free the MSN users from the shackles of Outlook.
Eudora - http://www.Eudora.com
Opera Mail - http://www.opera.com
Mozilla - http://www.mozilla.org
Netscape - http://www.netscape.com
I hate to sound callous, but if you're on a standard PPP or SLIP internet connection at home, and you're running Outlook or Outlook Express, then you get what you deserve. If your company is running Exchange Server, then your company is getting what it deserves.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Except between Melissa, ILoveYou, Sircam, Klez, and now this, it's what, fool me a dozen times? Do people just enjoy getting kicked in the teeth repeatedly?
MTV hasn't had a good, original show since Beavis and Butt-Head. Before that, the Idiot Box, and Liquid Television were both fun to watch.. what happened? Did we just get old or did MTV lose their touch? Still Alex Winter is a very funny guy, so this movie may not totally suck. Might be even funny if they CGI a sea hag to play Hitlery Rosen.. OT for a minute - LionHeartCJ - cool nick.. I'm guessing that stands for the Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah, the King of the World, your party host, your paragon of virtue, "Y2J" Chris (Raw is) Jericho. Am I right?
As a software developer, I'd like to see EULA's remain legal. I don't want to be sued because some idiot misused or ran a virus infected version of my executable and bad things happened to that PC. I don't want to be sued when the same idiot installs an older software application that overwrites a bunch of MFC and ATL DLL's and then complains that "it dunnit work no more - yee haw"
However, I'm completely opposed to the way EULA's are presented to people now... Most EULA's are presented as a step in the InstallShield installer, if you don't accept the terms you can't install the application. Problem is, if you don't accept the terms, you won't be able to take it back to the store. Best Buy, Fry's, Comp USA, etc., don't take returns on opened software, only exchanges.
What should happen is that companies are required to either print the EULA on the box (there is room, even on the new boxes, just print it on the large flap where there's just screenshots and marketing crap there anyways). Then, users can read the EULA before they've brought it home and started to install it, and if they don't like the terms of the EULA they can leave the box on the shelf and look at a competitor's product.
Making EULA's completely illegal as some people advocate is too extreme. Businesses and independent developers need some protection from the unwashed masses (like AOL users, har har).
I read the text of the bill, and I mostly agree with it. However, I'd like a change in this bill that says essentially the above - you want to use a EULA, fine, but the user had better be able to read it before they've purchased the software.
(And while we're suggesting changes, how about an across the board repeal of the DMCA?)
(For those of you who don't get the joke..)
http://www.somethingawful.com/jeffk
So, to select text to copy / paste, do it the same way you always have.
And you conclude wrong, unless you were looking for Snoop Doggy Dogg..
However, I do think this could be the beginning of the end of Microsoft as it exisits today, an illegal monopoly with 95+% market share.
1. AOL client for Linux
2. Native game support
Now, as much as I tend to mock AOL users, being that AOL is not a convicted monopolist, they're the lesser of two evils by far. But now that #1 on my list looks like it's happening, MS better be very nervous. There's millions of AOL users who own a computer and do nothing but connect to AOL on it. There's now NO compelling reason for them to use Microsoft software.
This news has made my day. I'm being optimistic and hopeful here, but could this day signal the beginning of the end of Microsoft? (Especially since some games are coming out with native Linux support.. like Unreal Tournament 2003)
It might not be as fast as the other p2p networks, but Gnucleus is free, open source, and not subject to any malware like Kazaa is...
It's too bad they couldn't keep up with nVidia and ATI, though I must admit I'm loving my shiny new Radeon 9700 Pro....
Eventually, these same people that are using and are beginning to use Linux at work will want Linux at home, to be consistent with what they use at work. So that is part of the tide.
For Linux to finally put the screws to Windows, and to truly start the death toll for Microsoft, two things need to happen:
1. An AOL Client for Linux
2. Native Games for the hardcore gamers
(Unreal Tournament 2003 is a step in the right direction)
Unfortunately for Microsoft, it's not a matter of outsmarting Open Source Software, it's a matter of not being able to remain relevant. Microsoft has nothing coming in the pipeline outside of *ahem* "security" and Palladium. While users will clamor for security, no one outside of the RIAA and MPAA are really clamoring for DRM and Palladium, and people (and companies) are realizing that for security Linux is the better choice for your OS.
Granted, Windows will probably never go away, and I don't think it necessarily should, but the days of the Windows Monopoly are coming to an end, if you ask me.
However, I can't see Dubya signing any legislation that would kill Open Source (like a lot of proposals Fritz Hollings, a liberal Democrat, has made.)
So, it's helped a bit, hurt a bit.
There was no way I would ever vote for Algore though. Sheesh. Ever read his book, "Earth in the Balance" - it's scary. He writes about a tree that may contain the cure for cancer. ANd then he comes out against using that tree because it would take 3 trees to save a human. HEY! ALGORE! Plant some more trees you moron! I mean really, if that tree had the cure for cancer, everybody would start farming them and cancer would be wiped out.
Microsoft, the Convicted Monopolist is anti-competitive, and thus is an anathema to a free market economy. Embracing and Extending to BREAK your competitor's products is wrong *cough*kerberos*cough*Java*cough*.
I'm not saying Microsoft should go away, I'm saying Microsoft, as it exists today, must go before it can stifle more innovation and competition then it has today.
I don't think the Government should arbitraily force anyone to open up their source code, but in this specific case Microsft should be forced to either open up Windows's source, or get out of the Application business. (Which is why I favored the splitting of Microsoft).
To answer your question about what a liberal means to me, it means someone who thinks that Federal Government power is the answer to all of society's problems. Personally, I think Government should primarily exist to enforce the law and ensure National Security and Infrastructure. For example, I don't think the US Government should have an employee who's job is to taste imported tea and determine if it's "good enough" to import and put on the shelves (and this position exists, or at least it used to.) I'm opposed to a lot of "entitlements" that the Government does. Little-Dick Gephardt whining anout how his mother can't get a prescription drug is pathetic, especially when Gephardt has millions in the bank. Hey Dick, why don't YOU help your mother out instead of ripping off my income in the form of taxes to do it?
Anyways, in this case, Government action is needed, because Microsoft BROKE the law. In a utopia we wouldn't need anti-monopoly laws, because companies wouldn't abuse their monopoly state, but unfortunately that's not going to happen so there is a need for laws and consequences if you break those laws.
If Microsoft didn't abuse their monopoly status, and wasn't anti-competitive, then I'd be one of their biggest defenders in this case. You shouldn't ever punish achievement. If Microsoft has 95% market share in the OS market, because people are buying it, fine. But when MS twists the arms of OEM's mafia style to get them to ship PC's with Windows exclusively, then you have a problem, and that's why MS is in trouble. When MS changes the platform to give their browser a leg up on it's competition, there's a problem - it's anti-competitive.
If you have any more questions on my opinion, please feel free to email me. I tend to enjoy debating people who don't see things the way I do, it's a great way to test your core beliefs and see if they really are your core beliefs, or if you can be persuaded.