Considering CD-R's bought in bulk cost ~50 cents, and ZIP disks cost, IIRC, on the order of 10 bucks for 1/6 the storage space, I'd find it hard to imagine how they could NOT be losing business. It's no exaggeration to say that after the day I got my CD burner three years ago, I never touched my ZIP drive again except to take it out.
Of course, another thing we should consider is that as more people get broadband (or just upgrade their modems to 56k), sticking the files on an FTP site or emailing them to yourself are sometimes better options than ANY removable medium.
That was Culture Club, not George Michael! Culture Club's lead singer is Boy George, who is, like George Michael, British and gay, so the mistake is understandable.
"Name one government program you can't live without", to which most people couldn't respond.
I can name four. My dad's state university job, my mom's federally-funded education job, my state university education, and my federally-funded research job.
Would the country be better off without these? Don't tell my parents or my bosses here, but yes. These programs probably unemploy more people than they employ. But the people they unemploy are affected gradually and indirectly, whereas if the programs were cut, I'd be affected immediately and directly.
I'd like to think I'd support reducing the scope of government even if it meant losing my job and my parents' losing theirs, but I'm only human.
No, that's when the black market in modchipped VCR's starts booming. It'll be just like using CD-R's in the Playstation. Everyone who wanted it bad enough was able to get it done.
Hell, if just one country keeps recording legal, I won't be surprised if mainstream American electronics companies start building functional VCR's to sell in that country, where they'll be exported to the USA and anywhere else that wants them.
One bit sure as hell isn't going to stop the people who created DeCSS.
I agree with you 100% on the 16th and 17th Amendments - they've got to go. However, I can't possibly imagine 3/4 of the states going for that now.... or even 1/4. Everyone is somehow dependent on the federal government for one thing or another, and it's hard to give up the one program that benefits you directly to get rid of the million other programs that hurt you indirectly. (Milton and Rose Friedman's The Tyranny of the Status Quo deals with this paradox in depth.)
Also, I take issue with this:
Personally, I'd say that any person who has attained the age of maturity (there should only be one - for military service, voting, drinking, driving or flying without restrictions, etc)
If you're concerned with the rights of individual states, why would you want one age of consent for everything in the country? Aren't some of those things in the realm of state policy and others not?
The FCC is an executive agency. It should not be making policy, especially policy of this scope. Haven't you been paying attention to the disastrous results of FCC policy changes in the 1990s? Consolidation of.... etc.
Most of that deregulation was brought about by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which, whether or not one approves of it, was passed by Congress and signed into law by Bill Clinton.
I admit near-total ignorance of AI as a whole, but it seems to me that tasks like those don't fall into the realm of most AI research. They seem to be concerned with replicating the human mind with computers, rather than with accomplishing household chores.
That said, I've often wondered about how hard it would be to build a robot to do certain simple tasks. My main idea was one that would roam around at night killing insects. Then I moved out of the roach-infested city and that job didn't seem as pressing anymore.:)
you are pretty narrow minded to think the crawlers haven't learned to look for *AT*DOT*
That brings up one of the questions I've been pondering lately in regard to spam.
Spammers always seem to be coming up with newer and better ways to thwart our attempts to avoid them. But do the people who go to such lengths to avoid spam EVER buy anything from spammers? EVER?
I always hear "Spam works because people like your grandmother buy stuff from them, and if they get one sale, that makes it worthwhile." To which I respond, "My grandmother's alive?!" But crawling for *AT*DOT* isn't going to catch such un-tech-savvy people. Those people are going to leave their addresses unencrypted.
So let me pose this question: has spam become less a means of advertising than an all-out war, with nothing at stake other than showing that you can beat the other side?
it uses numbers for accounts instead of screen names so you don't have people called Some_Guy__456574
Given the choice between being Some_Guy__456574 and being 456574456574, I'll take the former. With a little creativity (or just a foreign language dictionary) you can get an AIM name with no numbers in it. 16 characters can go a long way.
I also heard almost the exact same words about the Smart vs. Patterson covered on NPR a few days ago. Almost sounds like plagiarism.
And I saw almost the exact same thing on Fox News (yes, the same evil rich right-wing corporate Fox News that wants to eat you!!!!) , where they interviewed Alexis Patterson's mother and stepfather on the lack of coverage. Maybe next week JonKatz can do a story on how the debate over the kidnapping coverage is being overhyped by the media.
If the mainstream media were anything like JonKatz's articles, I'd be really worried.
In my experience, Orbitz only lets you know what's available from the airlines. So I surf around Orbitz figuring out the fastest/cheapest route, and then I hit the airlines' own web pages and book the tickets - minus Orbitz's fee.
Your experience could have been different - were you flying on multiple airlines?
Secret Service used to show Porn movies in their break room at the White House during the night shift
Uh, during which administration? I would think that during Clinton's term, just doing their job would be tantamount to watching pr0n. That Starr report....
If DRM with micro-payments is succesfully introduced (read legislated)
Slow down. Those are two entirely different things. If the recording industry wants to make CD's harder to copy, and suffer the possible consequences of lost sales and flaws in the system, that's one thing. If Congress makes it illegal to exploit those flaws, or mandates that every CD has to have DRM, that's something entirely different. The first situation is based on free enterprise, the second on coercion.
What's the Annotated Wizard of Oz? I've read pretty much every Oz book Baum wrote (never got to the ones others did after he died) and I think they're some of the best juvenile literature ever. Is the annotated version focused on the perceived political statements?
I hear you. I'm as liberal as the next guy about openness towards sex, but what worries me (judging from good and bad reviews of the book) is the action they want to take. Instead of saying, "Yo, parents, quit repressing your kids!" they want to use the public school system to force sexual knowledge on young peope. It seems to me that the true "liberal" position is to SUGGEST openness, but not impose it.
I'd take it a step further to look at all ISP's together. You've got your dialups, who (some of them) are cheap, reliable, and compatible with any old computer. Their weakness is their speed, but they're still great for news, email, and instant messaging. Then you've got your cable modem provider - fast and always on, but expensive as hell.
So even if there's only one broadband provider in your area, it's not a monopoly at all as long as there are other people offering you access to the Internet. If people want to yell at the government about lack of competition, they should complain about handouts of huge chunks of spectrum to broadcast networks for HDTV while there's no decent wireless ISP.
What would have happened if every auto maker had to build their own highways?
Our national rail infrastructure wouldn't have been destroyed. Hazardous materials could be shipped more safely. There would be far less pollution. And all our base wouldn't be belong to the oil companies and the countries that drill for it.
I have a dream. I dream that someday I will drive around these United States with my laptop in the shotgun seat or in the back, listening to Internet radio. (MLB radio, if we're being totally honest.) So in fact, there are people who DO go outside and need permanent connections.
It drives me crazy that there are any number of companies providing cheap digital voice and text messaging services, but they can't do a simple TCP/IP link.
There's one problem I see. If I'm talking on my Cingular phone, and I drive out of Cingular's coverage area and into Cellular One's, they're smart enough to start routing my calls that way. However, if I were using an IP address owned by Cingular, is Windows smart enough to let Cellular One tell it I have a new IP address now?
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, another thing we should consider is that as more people get broadband (or just upgrade their modems to 56k), sticking the files on an FTP site or emailing them to yourself are sometimes better options than ANY removable medium.
That was Culture Club, not George Michael! Culture Club's lead singer is Boy George, who is, like George Michael, British and gay, so the mistake is understandable.
Or, even better, when screwing over taxpayers?
Would the country be better off without these? Don't tell my parents or my bosses here, but yes. These programs probably unemploy more people than they employ. But the people they unemploy are affected gradually and indirectly, whereas if the programs were cut, I'd be affected immediately and directly.
I'd like to think I'd support reducing the scope of government even if it meant losing my job and my parents' losing theirs, but I'm only human.
Hell, if just one country keeps recording legal, I won't be surprised if mainstream American electronics companies start building functional VCR's to sell in that country, where they'll be exported to the USA and anywhere else that wants them.
One bit sure as hell isn't going to stop the people who created DeCSS.
I admit near-total ignorance of AI as a whole, but it seems to me that tasks like those don't fall into the realm of most AI research. They seem to be concerned with replicating the human mind with computers, rather than with accomplishing household chores.
:)
That said, I've often wondered about how hard it would be to build a robot to do certain simple tasks. My main idea was one that would roam around at night killing insects. Then I moved out of the roach-infested city and that job didn't seem as pressing anymore.
Spammers always seem to be coming up with newer and better ways to thwart our attempts to avoid them. But do the people who go to such lengths to avoid spam EVER buy anything from spammers? EVER?
I always hear "Spam works because people like your grandmother buy stuff from them, and if they get one sale, that makes it worthwhile." To which I respond, "My grandmother's alive?!" But crawling for *AT*DOT* isn't going to catch such un-tech-savvy people. Those people are going to leave their addresses unencrypted.
So let me pose this question: has spam become less a means of advertising than an all-out war, with nothing at stake other than showing that you can beat the other side?
If the mainstream media were anything like JonKatz's articles, I'd be really worried.
In my experience, Orbitz only lets you know what's available from the airlines. So I surf around Orbitz figuring out the fastest/cheapest route, and then I hit the airlines' own web pages and book the tickets - minus Orbitz's fee.
Your experience could have been different - were you flying on multiple airlines?
So which one am I? Donnie Wahlberg?
Or else he's a member of the Slashdot faction that scorns all academic degrees in favor of real-world experience.
What's the Annotated Wizard of Oz? I've read pretty much every Oz book Baum wrote (never got to the ones others did after he died) and I think they're some of the best juvenile literature ever. Is the annotated version focused on the perceived political statements?
I hear you. I'm as liberal as the next guy about openness towards sex, but what worries me (judging from good and bad reviews of the book) is the action they want to take. Instead of saying, "Yo, parents, quit repressing your kids!" they want to use the public school system to force sexual knowledge on young peope. It seems to me that the true "liberal" position is to SUGGEST openness, but not impose it.
I'd take it a step further to look at all ISP's together. You've got your dialups, who (some of them) are cheap, reliable, and compatible with any old computer. Their weakness is their speed, but they're still great for news, email, and instant messaging. Then you've got your cable modem provider - fast and always on, but expensive as hell.
So even if there's only one broadband provider in your area, it's not a monopoly at all as long as there are other people offering you access to the Internet. If people want to yell at the government about lack of competition, they should complain about handouts of huge chunks of spectrum to broadcast networks for HDTV while there's no decent wireless ISP.
Uh, Amendment 10 is exactly what PROHIBITS the federal government from getting involved in this arena....
What would have happened if every auto maker had to build their own highways?
Our national rail infrastructure wouldn't have been destroyed. Hazardous materials could be shipped more safely. There would be far less pollution. And all our base wouldn't be belong to the oil companies and the countries that drill for it.
Doesn't sound too bad to me.
Local gov'ts generally give cable companies monopoly rights, rights to tear up streets, etc.
Well that's your problem right there. You're looking for a government regulation to fix a problem created by another government regulation.
I have a dream. I dream that someday I will drive around these United States with my laptop in the shotgun seat or in the back, listening to Internet radio. (MLB radio, if we're being totally honest.) So in fact, there are people who DO go outside and need permanent connections.
It drives me crazy that there are any number of companies providing cheap digital voice and text messaging services, but they can't do a simple TCP/IP link.
There's one problem I see. If I'm talking on my Cingular phone, and I drive out of Cingular's coverage area and into Cellular One's, they're smart enough to start routing my calls that way. However, if I were using an IP address owned by Cingular, is Windows smart enough to let Cellular One tell it I have a new IP address now?