www.freeaudiobooks.com tried this with spoken word books in mp3 format. Free audiobooks, with ads embedded in the first 15 seconds or so.
Recently, they had to change their model to one of buying all but the lowest bitrate quality mp3's.
Maybe poor advertising, maybe poor ad sales, but I think in all the books I got from them (50-75?), I heard maybe one ad that was not 'internal.
People who can't vote CAN be drafted. Again...how do you figure? The voting age is 18. Sel Service registration age is also 18.
A war with PRK would NOT require a draft, unless it turns into a looong conflict. A multiyear, intensive battle. It takes quite a long time before a new inductee is ready for the battlefield, even in the least technical of jobs.
We had to draft during the last one, because of massive demobilization after WWII. Manpower levels were not up to the task. The current force levels and technology are sufficient to handle, if need be.
But the proof is not what they probably will do, or what they say they will do, but what they CAN do.
On that proviso, "they" can do anything. Which is patently false. It takes action by Congress AND the President to reinstate an actual draft. And I doubt the will is there to lower the draft age below 18. It would introduce far more problems than it solves. The military is not interested in just lots of warm bodies. These people must actually perform a function. If it ever comes to it (and it won't), the draft lottery would go out, and they'd take every ablebodied 18 and 19 year old. After ALL of those, then the draft age window would be adjusted up instead of down. But by then, any such conflict would be worldwide in scope. And the Allied forces would have a whole raft of volunteers.
People who can't drink CAN be drafted. Thats stupid and hypocritical.
You need to educate yourself a bit about the draft and how it works. It's not currently active. It can become active, which is to say they can send out notices, in less than 48 hours. Since it's not active, there's no "draft age" per se, but it has been in the past, and can be in the future, as low as 16 - at the whim of the President.
Well..FYI, I spent 20 yrs in the USAF (retired in 1997). So I am quite well cognizant of the hows and whys of military service, draft included.
The military does not want it. The all volunteer force is doing quite well, thank you.
The regular minimum age for enlistment is 18. You CAN enlist at age 17 with signed parental permission.
If we ever get into a conflict where the military needs to draft, then it may well be too late. Current force levels can handle things quite nicely. The era of WWII is long behind us. THere is no other fighting force comparable to the old USSR or Nazi Germany.
Lowering the 'draft' age to 16? Yeah, right. Never, ever, happen. Maybe in the Civil war it was 16. WWII, Korea, and Vietnam was 18.
Finally here's this from the Selective Service website www.sss.gov
"The Selective Service System remains in a standby, caretaker status. On Wednesday, September 18, 2002, in response to a question about the draft, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld indicated that there was "not a chance" of reinstituting the draft. According to Rumsfeld, the military is successful in attracting and retaining talented people in sufficient numbers."
Oh, and it takes Congress AND the President to reinstate it. He can't just wake up one morning and says "Let's draft some 16 year olds."
Go screw yourself on the draft, congress can reinitialise it any day.
Maybe so, but currently, there is no draft, nor any real push to have it reinstated. So you can take your previous statement about being drafted and insert it where most approporiate.
Oh and drunken riots, those don't seem to happen as often in countries with much lower drinking ages such as everywhere but here.
I agree. BUT, you'll have to convince the powers that be to lower it, and THEN see if things get better. Which comes first, a lower drinking age, or less foolishness?
The thing that pisses me off the most is that we'll draft people who can't vote.
And you happen to be in what country?
A. in the US, there is not 'draft'. Selective Service registration, yes, but no actual "Come down and take a physical" draft.
B. The Sel Service registration age is 18. Which also happens to be the age at which you can vote.
C. Running for public office is also generally allowed at age 18. OK...for President, you have to be 35. I don't think we're ready for a teenage pres yet.
D. Now...should the drinking age be lowered to 18? hmm...tough one. On one side, we have semiresponsible people. On the other side, we have drunken riots at many colleges across the country, and many late teens killed (or other victims) driving while drunk.
Tough call.
I should be allowed to stand on the steps of the White house and demand that I be given press conference time immediately following the President, just because I am a citizen.
You can "demand" anything you want. You can stomp your foot and yell until you are blue in the face.
Doesn't mean they have to give it to you.
Hell, in theory I could run nighttime bombing ops from a F-117 and probably make it back to the base in one piece if the simulators are even half-accurate.
They're close, but according to some pilots on the Abe Lincoln, not close enough.
I don't understand how this is different from rhapsody from http://www.listen.com
From listen.com: 7. Can I burn CDs?
Yes. When you are subscribed to the RHAPSODY All Access subscription plan at $9.95 per month, you get unlimited listening to all the music in RHAPSODY's library plus the ability to burn tracks for an additional fee per track, on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Music you can burn to CD is marked with a red "burn icon" throughout the service. Tracks that don't have a burn icon next to them aren't available for CD burning yet. However, we are clearing rights and enabling new music for burning every day, so check back often!
and
9. Can I get downloads in RHAPSODY?
No. RHAPSODY is an on-demand streaming service. This means you don't have to wait for downloads to listen to CD-quality music. Once you've used it for a while, you may never want to download a music file again.
So...you can only burn while you are a paying customer. 3 years from now...the CD with the tracks that I paid for once(twice actually) already gets eaten. I cannot recover those tracks unless I am stil a paying customer.
The emusic.com model is sooo much better. $10/month, no restrictions, no extra burn fee, no limit, ALL tracks burnable.
Now, if their playlist was a little better...;)
Actually, only people who could provide value would survive in a world where UCE costs real $ - a good thing, IMHO.
I know you're speaking of unsolicited. But what about valid bulk mailers?
PTA, Scout troops, hobbyist groups, city soccer leagues, for example.
All run by volunteers. All send out 1000's of emails monthly. Should they pay as well? Not everything needs to be on a paying basis.
There are too many advantages to free email to start charging on a per email basis. Too many user groups and non profit groups that simply could not afford it.
And at whatever daily/monthly limit you set (100/day...1000/month) the spammers would find a way to get in just under the wire. Or simply move offshore to somewhere that has not signed on to this.
Again...who gets paid? Some central authority? I want THAT job!
Something needs to be done. But IMHO, charging for email isn't it.
...who? The ISP? Nice revenue stream. Some would actively solicit spammers for the increased revenue. And then some ISP's would simply put it on a flat rate. Or advertise "Send free emails!", and charge an extra dollar on the base price.
The recipient? hmmm.....there would end up being some kind of reciprocal agreement between spammers. "I pay you, you pay me."
The poor user whose box gets cracked and becomes the sender of a million emails is in for a fight getting his money back or account reinstated.
And then of course the valid bulk email senders would wither and die.
Who pays, and who gets 'paid'?
Sorry, but there are far too many loopholes and traps for paid email to actually work.
Were you forced to buy new computers to be able to run the newest bloatware put out by Linus?
New computers happen. They are cheap. When the old ones die, they get replaced. And are able to run the newest Office ver if necessary.
If you chose not to upgrade, would you find yourself unable to communicate with clients who had because their version of OpenOffice used a new proprietary format that your old version couldn't read?
With MSOffice, about the only truly incompatible tool is Access. Word2000 will save and read just about any previous version. All the way back to Word 2, Word95, Word for Mac 4, Works, WP5.0, and the general fall back,.rtf
. Excel is the same. Save back to dbase, Excel 95, Excel 2.0...
Generally, with less format problems than opening it in OpenOffice.org.
Don't automatically assume that the newest Office formats are the only thing Office can use.
So that last bit should read:
Ever yours,
The American Empire(tm) (A tiny little division of the British one)
Really? And who drafted Res 1441? France and the US.
And who adopted it? The Security Council.
And wasn't there something about a group of 8 countries specifically backing US/UN action if necessary? hmmm...Spain, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Chezch Republic, Great Britain come to mind.
Ok...I ammend my earlier statement.
To wit:
Ever Yours,
The Rest of the World (minus France, Germany, Russia)
We assisted you in defeating a common enemy. In the hopes that you would see the light, and become a productive member of the world community. This you have not done. You continued in your hopes of Middle Eastern domination, and were found guilty by the United Nations. You have repeatedly violated the terms of your parole, and are now being brought to task.
However, if you feel tough enough, try it. But do it as a man. Do not hide behind civilians, artifacts, or other non combatant entities. Bring your forces out to play openly. Don't hide your AAA in schoolyards. Don't park your tanks in suburban neighborhoods. You play nice, and we'll play nice. Come out of your bunker and lead your troops. It will make the whole process much easier on everyone involved, especially your people.
If OS software helps the military be more efficient, then the developers of such are helping save lives.
1. The inspection team lead, Hans Blix, has said that the small concessions to Resolution 1441 Iraq is making are due to the current show of force by the US/UK and others. If not for that, he would simply be continuing to blow the UN off. So, the feared war may not happen. Scare him into submission.
2. If it comes to war, a more efficient military would be able to win sooner, with fewer losses on either side.
3. A better trained and equipped fighting force will be able to hit the actual military targets better, will less collateral damage. Or would you prefer we revert to WWII-style carpet bombing with 100+ aircraft to hit a particular building?
4. Whether they use OS or proprietary, if the decision is made, they WILL go to war. "Oh no...we can't use ProjectX. The developer has said we can't use it for military purposes!" does not enter into the decision.
So, by the military using the best software for the task (open, closed, whatever works the best), they are better able to prosecute and finish combat action.
Coders...start your keyboards!
Re:is this really a privacy concern?
on
NYT on RFID Tags
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
There is absolutely *no* reason what so ever to put the rfid in the product itself!
Slashdot Mirror
Imagine sitting in the cube between two people having a phone discussion, and hearing it in stereo.
And both of them are on speakerphone. AAARRRGGGG!
Patient Evaluation Networked Information System
We had to shorten it to PEIS
www.fai.org lists the SR-71 as retaking the speed title from the MiG in 1976. And, this was with regular engines that could be used the next day..;)
The MiG (listed as the E-266) apparently still holds the altitude title at 37650 meters.
And the B-58 (1961!) still has a couple of records. 2000km course with 2000kg payload @ 1708kmh.
www.freeaudiobooks.com tried this with spoken word books in mp3 format.
Free audiobooks, with ads embedded in the first 15 seconds or so.
Recently, they had to change their model to one of buying all but the lowest bitrate quality mp3's.
Maybe poor advertising, maybe poor ad sales, but I think in all the books I got from them (50-75?), I heard maybe one ad that was not 'internal.
People who can't vote CAN be drafted.
Again...how do you figure? The voting age is 18. Sel Service registration age is also 18.
A war with PRK would NOT require a draft, unless it turns into a looong conflict. A multiyear, intensive battle. It takes quite a long time before a new inductee is ready for the battlefield, even in the least technical of jobs.
We had to draft during the last one, because of massive demobilization after WWII. Manpower levels were not up to the task. The current force levels and technology are sufficient to handle, if need be.
But the proof is not what they probably will do, or what they say they will do, but what they CAN do.
On that proviso, "they" can do anything. Which is patently false. It takes action by Congress AND the President to reinstate an actual draft.
And I doubt the will is there to lower the draft age below 18. It would introduce far more problems than it solves. The military is not interested in just lots of warm bodies. These people must actually perform a function. If it ever comes to it (and it won't), the draft lottery would go out, and they'd take every ablebodied 18 and 19 year old. After ALL of those, then the draft age window would be adjusted up instead of down. But by then, any such conflict would be worldwide in scope. And the Allied forces would have a whole raft of volunteers.
People who can't drink CAN be drafted. Thats stupid and hypocritical.
Yes, I agree.
You see they want more intelligent people in the millitary. So they may just draft us.
I've already done my military service. 20 yrs worth.
Have you?
You need to educate yourself a bit about the draft and how it works. It's not currently active. It can become active, which is to say they can send out notices, in less than 48 hours. Since it's not active, there's no "draft age" per se, but it has been in the past, and can be in the future, as low as 16 - at the whim of the President.
Well..FYI, I spent 20 yrs in the USAF (retired in 1997). So I am quite well cognizant of the hows and whys of military service, draft included.
The military does not want it. The all volunteer force is doing quite well, thank you.
The regular minimum age for enlistment is 18. You CAN enlist at age 17 with signed parental permission.
If we ever get into a conflict where the military needs to draft, then it may well be too late. Current force levels can handle things quite nicely. The era of WWII is long behind us. THere is no other fighting force comparable to the old USSR or Nazi Germany.
Lowering the 'draft' age to 16? Yeah, right. Never, ever, happen. Maybe in the Civil war it was 16. WWII, Korea, and Vietnam was 18.
Finally here's this from the Selective Service website www.sss.gov
"The Selective Service System remains in a standby, caretaker status. On Wednesday, September 18, 2002, in response to a question about the draft, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld indicated that there was "not a chance" of reinstituting the draft. According to Rumsfeld, the military is successful in attracting and retaining talented people in sufficient numbers."
Oh, and it takes Congress AND the President to reinstate it. He can't just wake up one morning and says "Let's draft some 16 year olds."
actually just to be on city council you have to be 21
Depends on where you are and what you are running for.
Tualatin City Council Member, Chris Bergstrom, was elected at age 18 and the current Mayor of Monmouth, Paul Evans, was also first elected to council at age 18.
Go screw yourself on the draft, congress can reinitialise it any day.
Maybe so, but currently, there is no draft , nor any real push to have it reinstated. So you can take your previous statement about being drafted and insert it where most approporiate.
Oh and drunken riots, those don't seem to happen as often in countries with much lower drinking ages such as everywhere but here.
I agree. BUT, you'll have to convince the powers that be to lower it, and THEN see if things get better. Which comes first, a lower drinking age, or less foolishness?
The thing that pisses me off the most is that we'll draft people who can't vote.
And you happen to be in what country?
A. in the US, there is not 'draft'. Selective Service registration, yes, but no actual "Come down and take a physical" draft.
B. The Sel Service registration age is 18. Which also happens to be the age at which you can vote.
C. Running for public office is also generally allowed at age 18. OK...for President, you have to be 35. I don't think we're ready for a teenage pres yet.
D. Now...should the drinking age be lowered to 18? hmm...tough one. On one side, we have semiresponsible people. On the other side, we have drunken riots at many colleges across the country, and many late teens killed (or other victims) driving while drunk.
Tough call.
I should be allowed to stand on the steps of the White house and demand that I be given press conference time immediately following the President, just because I am a citizen.
You can "demand" anything you want. You can stomp your foot and yell until you are blue in the face.
Doesn't mean they have to give it to you.
Hell, in theory I could run nighttime bombing ops from a F-117 and probably make it back to the base in one piece if the simulators are even half-accurate.
They're close, but according to some pilots on the Abe Lincoln, not close enough.
I don't understand how this is different from rhapsody from http://www.listen.com
From listen.com:
7. Can I burn CDs?
Yes. When you are subscribed to the RHAPSODY All Access subscription plan at $9.95 per month, you get unlimited listening to all the music in RHAPSODY's library plus the ability to burn tracks for an additional fee per track, on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Music you can burn to CD is marked with a red "burn icon" throughout the service. Tracks that don't have a burn icon next to them aren't available for CD burning yet. However, we are clearing rights and enabling new music for burning every day, so check back often!
and
9. Can I get downloads in RHAPSODY?
No. RHAPSODY is an on-demand streaming service. This means you don't have to wait for downloads to listen to CD-quality music. Once you've used it for a while, you may never want to download a music file again.
So...you can only burn while you are a paying customer. 3 years from now...the CD with the tracks that I paid for once(twice actually) already gets eaten. I cannot recover those tracks unless I am stil a paying customer.
The emusic.com model is sooo much better. $10/month, no restrictions, no extra burn fee, no limit, ALL tracks burnable.
Now, if their playlist was a little better...;)
Highly doubtful though that two persons with the same name would share the same meter in the same complex is it not?
Fred J. Bloggs and (grandson) Fred J. Bloggs.
John Smith and (no relation) John Smith.
One more step on the way to all of us becoming R.U.R's.
Do operators of pr0n websites really make money from banner ads?
The husband of a former coworker of mine ran 3 porn sites.
Maybe not a LOT of money, but enough to keep them in extras.
Actually, only people who could provide value would survive in a world where UCE costs real $ - a good thing, IMHO.
I know you're speaking of unsolicited. But what about valid bulk mailers?
PTA, Scout troops, hobbyist groups, city soccer leagues, for example.
All run by volunteers. All send out 1000's of emails monthly. Should they pay as well? Not everything needs to be on a paying basis.
There are too many advantages to free email to start charging on a per email basis. Too many user groups and non profit groups that simply could not afford it.
And at whatever daily/monthly limit you set (100/day...1000/month) the spammers would find a way to get in just under the wire. Or simply move offshore to somewhere that has not signed on to this.
Again...who gets paid? Some central authority? I want THAT job!
Something needs to be done. But IMHO, charging for email isn't it.
...who? The ISP? Nice revenue stream. Some would actively solicit spammers for the increased revenue.
And then some ISP's would simply put it on a flat rate. Or advertise "Send free emails!", and charge an extra dollar on the base price.
The recipient? hmmm.....there would end up being some kind of reciprocal agreement between spammers. "I pay you, you pay me."
The poor user whose box gets cracked and becomes the sender of a million emails is in for a fight getting his money back or account reinstated.
And then of course the valid bulk email senders would wither and die.
Who pays, and who gets 'paid'?
Sorry, but there are far too many loopholes and traps for paid email to actually work.
And it would be quite easy for Lexmark to program the chip with a counter.
Cart to printer, cart to printer... "Hey...I've printed 500 sheets. I'm done."
And no amount of new ink would reset that counter.
Repeated are the demands here that MS open up its source code.
And when they do (somewhat), you guys bitch about it.
Obviously, nothing that MS does is good enough.
You're just pissed that it's not *you* who is getting the code.
And it works both ways.
See Turkey. "Pay us $30B, and we will allow you to station ground troops in our country."
Were you forced to buy new computers to be able to run the newest bloatware put out by Linus?
.rtf
. Excel is the same. Save back to dbase, Excel 95, Excel 2.0...
New computers happen. They are cheap. When the old ones die, they get replaced. And are able to run the newest Office ver if necessary.
If you chose not to upgrade, would you find yourself unable to communicate with clients who had because their version of OpenOffice used a new proprietary format that your old version couldn't read?
With MSOffice, about the only truly incompatible tool is Access. Word2000 will save and read just about any previous version. All the way back to Word 2, Word95, Word for Mac 4, Works, WP5.0, and the general fall back,
Generally, with less format problems than opening it in OpenOffice.org.
Don't automatically assume that the newest Office formats are the only thing Office can use.
So that last bit should read:
Ever yours, The American Empire(tm) (A tiny little division of the British one)
Really? And who drafted Res 1441? France and the US.
And who adopted it? The Security Council.
And wasn't there something about a group of 8 countries specifically backing US/UN action if necessary? hmmm...Spain, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Chezch Republic, Great Britain come to mind.
Ok...I ammend my earlier statement.
To wit:
Ever Yours,
The Rest of the World (minus France, Germany, Russia)
Dear Saddam,
We assisted you in defeating a common enemy. In the hopes that you would see the light, and become a productive member of the world community. This you have not done. You continued in your hopes of Middle Eastern domination, and were found guilty by the United Nations. You have repeatedly violated the terms of your parole, and are now being brought to task.
However, if you feel tough enough, try it. But do it as a man. Do not hide behind civilians, artifacts, or other non combatant entities. Bring your forces out to play openly. Don't hide your AAA in schoolyards. Don't park your tanks in suburban neighborhoods. You play nice, and we'll play nice.
Come out of your bunker and lead your troops. It will make the whole process much easier on everyone involved, especially your people.
Ever yours,
The Rest of the World.
If OS software helps the military be more efficient, then the developers of such are helping save lives.
1. The inspection team lead, Hans Blix, has said that the small concessions to Resolution 1441 Iraq is making are due to the current show of force by the US/UK and others. If not for that, he would simply be continuing to blow the UN off. So, the feared war may not happen. Scare him into submission.
2. If it comes to war, a more efficient military would be able to win sooner, with fewer losses on either side.
3. A better trained and equipped fighting force will be able to hit the actual military targets better, will less collateral damage. Or would you prefer we revert to WWII-style carpet bombing with 100+ aircraft to hit a particular building?
4. Whether they use OS or proprietary, if the decision is made, they WILL go to war. "Oh no...we can't use ProjectX. The developer has said we can't use it for military purposes!" does not enter into the decision.
So, by the military using the best software for the task (open, closed, whatever works the best), they are better able to prosecute and finish combat action.
Coders...start your keyboards!
There is absolutely *no* reason what so ever to put the rfid in the product itself!
No reason for *us*. Plenty of reasons for them.