What the hell does it have to do with anything? I'm talking about artists getting a cut of the money on albums they sell. If the market will buy, it means you created value, value which you should get.
But if the market won't buy, what does it mean ? That you didn't create value or that someone steals from you ?
Bullshit. If you knew anything about classical music...
I'm talking about the 1900' before the record industry went up. But yes if we go further back in time, we find composers (not musicians, musicians just had a regular salary when part of an orchestra or were itinerant artists if not) that are paid for commissioned work. A model that worked well enough to provide us with Mozart's and Bach's music. Why could this model not be used today ? Instead of some rich aristocrat, you would have donation from thousands or millions of people asking for new songs, et voila...
Well I only want to play video games and roleplay with friends, but I can't make money this way...
By the way, just record music, distribute music and ask donation to make another album. If people are unwilling to pay you for that, well, maybe it is better for you to stop. Or not. Not very long ago, most musicians did not expect to earn any money at all. Those surviving thanks to their art only had music-hall pays. Records were a new thing, that changed the landscape completely and now it changes again. Now even a novice artist can reach millions of people if he manages to make ONE good tune. But he lost the ability to win millions of dollars once he established a trademark.
Well pardon the pun as well, but maintenance will be possible remotely. If I remember correctly we have 4 times more solar power for the same area in orbit vs equatorial illumination. I am not sure the challenges of bringing a megawatt from the Sahara to Europe are smaller than bringing it from orbit.
Note as well that a kilogram of solar cells is a lot of surface, that micrometeorite and radiation damage are on par with desert storms and that a huge advantage of an orbit-based power plant is its ability to bring energy to even very remote locations. Anyway, I would be happy with a solar power plant in the Sahara as well, but if someone asks what can be cashed out while in orbit, I still answer "solar power". Right now, the Sahara is big enough for Earth's consumption, but if it is to grow one hundred fold (hey, China is coming and they are building electric cars) the Sahara will begin to be too small.
The equivalent of the US Supreme Court would be the European Court for Human Rights. EU still doesn't have a constitution and can't comment the constitutionality of national laws, but they can judge whether a practice (be it a law, an habit or a single case) is contrary to the declaration of rights every EU countries accepted.
The reason behind there not being any easy way to convert ingame currency into real money is that this would open a whole can of
legal worms for CCP. Tax departments, money laundring etc. etc. Not something a games company would want to deal with.
Well it would be about time that one handled this seriously. I'm sure that being the first virtual economy to open to real-world money transactions can be profitable. If everything fails, relocating the servers to a tax haven can be an interesting option...
We don't even know what went wrong in AF447. Right now inspectors suspect the plane was going too fast, possibly due to erroneous sensor speed (that could fool computers or humans), combined with a really heavy storm. Computer controls are not suspected, neither are pilots. And we don't know wether they were on automatic pilot or on manual override (yes, there is a manual override on airbus too)
You mean, something that would be caught even by the most simplistic testing procedure ? Or, failing that, by the "certification experts" that were supposed to test the machine before validating its use for elections ?
The probability of a software glitch not crashing the system, but causing a problem that changed the outcome of the election while still spouting out believable numbers is close to zero. You don't need software experts on this one, what you need is a criminal investigation.
Except it is not that big. Sure, it is a cheap bang for the buck but a kinetic bombardment doesn't get close to what a serious nuke can deliver. Both are far from what a 1000 tons meteor can do, however, but those have a speed that doesn't come just from Earth's gravitational speed.
I'm a grown up, the things I read, watch or play are my problem and my problem alone. If they were talking about banning games for kids, we could take another angle and argue over the influence of videogames. I'm an adult, I don't want to be considered like an irresponsible that will go on rampage because he watched Terminator or played Far Cry 2...
Wolfram Alpha may not be a direct competitor for Google, yet, this is their response.
Yes, I know, Wolfram takes info from reduced and trusted sources while Google does not. But the semantic database that they are building have the same structure.
Now that seems reasonable. Finally !
It is strange that these people still hold true the fiction that streaming and downloading are different things...
Well, a representative is not a CEO. It is not a boss, a chief that doesn't have time for your ramblings. It is the representatives' very job to articulate popular rants into concrete propositions. This form is made so that people can express easily, even ideas that are incomplete. It doesn't prevent anyone, however, to present a very well constructed proposition. I would however, remove one thing : the pseudo of the author of a proposition. This could turn too quickly into an ego competition.
Slashdot Mirror
What the hell does it have to do with anything? I'm talking about artists getting a cut of the money on albums they sell. If the market will buy, it means you created value, value which you should get.
But if the market won't buy, what does it mean ? That you didn't create value or that someone steals from you ?
Bullshit. If you knew anything about classical music...
I'm talking about the 1900' before the record industry went up. But yes if we go further back in time, we find composers (not musicians, musicians just had a regular salary when part of an orchestra or were itinerant artists if not) that are paid for commissioned work. A model that worked well enough to provide us with Mozart's and Bach's music. Why could this model not be used today ? Instead of some rich aristocrat, you would have donation from thousands or millions of people asking for new songs, et voila...
Well I only want to play video games and roleplay with friends, but I can't make money this way...
By the way, just record music, distribute music and ask donation to make another album. If people are unwilling to pay you for that, well, maybe it is better for you to stop. Or not. Not very long ago, most musicians did not expect to earn any money at all. Those surviving thanks to their art only had music-hall pays. Records were a new thing, that changed the landscape completely and now it changes again. Now even a novice artist can reach millions of people if he manages to make ONE good tune. But he lost the ability to win millions of dollars once he established a trademark.
Well pardon the pun as well, but maintenance will be possible remotely. If I remember correctly we have 4 times more solar power for the same area in orbit vs equatorial illumination. I am not sure the challenges of bringing a megawatt from the Sahara to Europe are smaller than bringing it from orbit.
Note as well that a kilogram of solar cells is a lot of surface, that micrometeorite and radiation damage are on par with desert storms and that a huge advantage of an orbit-based power plant is its ability to bring energy to even very remote locations. Anyway, I would be happy with a solar power plant in the Sahara as well, but if someone asks what can be cashed out while in orbit, I still answer "solar power". Right now, the Sahara is big enough for Earth's consumption, but if it is to grow one hundred fold (hey, China is coming and they are building electric cars) the Sahara will begin to be too small.
Space based solar power is, in my opinion, the valuable resource that is up there. Always on, no weather problems, no geopolitical troubles.
One hop :
http://www.infoworld.com/t/platforms/sco-strikes-gold-verizon-just-strikes-728
Microsoft bought $6 million of "licenses" to SCO in 2003.
The SF explanation : all the missing matter is made of Dyson spheres...
I have been thinking about it since I have read that comment on hackaday
The equivalent of the US Supreme Court would be the European Court for Human Rights. EU still doesn't have a constitution and can't comment the constitutionality of national laws, but they can judge whether a practice (be it a law, an habit or a single case) is contrary to the declaration of rights every EU countries accepted.
The reason behind there not being any easy way to convert ingame currency into real money is that this would open a whole can of legal worms for CCP. Tax departments, money laundring etc. etc. Not something a games company would want to deal with.
Well it would be about time that one handled this seriously. I'm sure that being the first virtual economy to open to real-world money transactions can be profitable. If everything fails, relocating the servers to a tax haven can be an interesting option...
We don't even know what went wrong in AF447. Right now inspectors suspect the plane was going too fast, possibly due to erroneous sensor speed (that could fool computers or humans), combined with a really heavy storm. Computer controls are not suspected, neither are pilots. And we don't know wether they were on automatic pilot or on manual override (yes, there is a manual override on airbus too)
[bad idea]We could use hydrogen instead...[/bad idea]
You mean, something that would be caught even by the most simplistic testing procedure ? Or, failing that, by the "certification experts" that were supposed to test the machine before validating its use for elections ?
The probability of a software glitch not crashing the system, but causing a problem that changed the outcome of the election while still spouting out believable numbers is close to zero. You don't need software experts on this one, what you need is a criminal investigation.
Randall Munroe, of XKCD's fame, considers that we should not settle for interstellar communication when we could have interstellar war !
Details here : http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/02/15/the-laser-elevator/
Except it is not that big. Sure, it is a cheap bang for the buck but a kinetic bombardment doesn't get close to what a serious nuke can deliver. Both are far from what a 1000 tons meteor can do, however, but those have a speed that doesn't come just from Earth's gravitational speed.
Actually, put in the mouth in the Obama administration, that could be one hell of a threat.
The problem is that he will be considered biased : ISPs are known to be on the side of "pirates" by politicians. They even make profit from them !
I'm a grown up, the things I read, watch or play are my problem and my problem alone. If they were talking about banning games for kids, we could take another angle and argue over the influence of videogames. I'm an adult, I don't want to be considered like an irresponsible that will go on rampage because he watched Terminator or played Far Cry 2...
They talk about "working with an employee", does it encompass fooling one of them ?
It tests their security, which was the point.
It was not tasteless, it tastes like veal !
And yet some people still want to protect Bletchley park and make it a museum...
Wolfram Alpha may not be a direct competitor for Google, yet, this is their response.
Yes, I know, Wolfram takes info from reduced and trusted sources while Google does not. But the semantic database that they are building have the same structure.
Now that seems reasonable. Finally !
It is strange that these people still hold true the fiction that streaming and downloading are different things...
Well, a representative is not a CEO. It is not a boss, a chief that doesn't have time for your ramblings. It is the representatives' very job to articulate popular rants into concrete propositions. This form is made so that people can express easily, even ideas that are incomplete. It doesn't prevent anyone, however, to present a very well constructed proposition. I would however, remove one thing : the pseudo of the author of a proposition. This could turn too quickly into an ego competition.