I don't have the specific history in front of me, but I believe that the regulations came about to prevent a local market from losing advertising revenue to a remote market. That and the whole "Providing service to the local community" requirement that's part of every broadcaster's license.
I'll pick an extreme example - let's say you live in Napa, California. Napa has its own affiliate network stations who depend on local ad revenues. The stations wouldn't have to worry about losing business to stations from Chicago.
But if your satellite provider can't/won't/doesn't carry Napa local stations because there isn't enough of a market, but does provide San Francisco channels - it's kind of local news (weather, etc.), but the Napa stations lose ad revenues to San Francisco. Especially since reception in Napa is spotty because of the mountains, so most people go with Dish. (Purely hypothetical example, and probably not based in reality.)
This is most important for very small markets that are near a major market - small towns that are about 40 miles from a major city, for example.
The other thing that Echo is trying to do is get the FCC to tell them that they don't *have* to carry local programming because they don't have the bandwidth to do so for every market they serve. I see their point, but a lot of people are going to be upset if they can't easily get the farm report from their local channel because the nearest locals they can get from the satellite company is 60 miles away.
I'd like to have the option to watch local programming from other markets (places I've lived in the past, etc.), but I also want to make sure that most local markets are available... a difficult proposition, especially if they really don't have the bandwidth to carry them...
These are only semi-informed opinions, BTW... hopefully someone with more concrete knowledge will chime in.
As a producer, composer, and general content creator, I think that looking for quality entertainment is the critical concern. There's plenty of stuff out there, the trick is finding the good stuff. And with a few notable exceptions (Ani DiFranco, etc.) you aren't going to find it at your local Best Buy, and maybe not even at your local record store (if any of those still exist). For now, the web is where it's at.
While certainly not a litmus test for quality, you can at least trust that artists that use alternate distribution like CDBaby to provide distribution for self-produced/funded titles at least cared enough about their music to scrounge up the money to press a CD and arrange for distribution.
If you're willing to trudge through some crap (albeit interesting crap in many cases), the big music sites like IUMA, MP3.com, and Garageband provide more tracks than you'll be able to listen to.
One hint for the more commercial sites like MP3.com - skip the charts occasionally. The way the MP3.com charts work, you'll typically get a song at number 1 that stays at number 1 for a long time because everyone's listening to it because it's number 1. A self-perpetuating hit, if you will. Also, ever since Vivendi bought MP3.com out, there have been an awful lot of mainstream artists in the top charts. Still, if you're looking for mainstream, you can at least get a "legal" mp3 of a bunch of stuff there.
An additional hint, you'll find some real gems in the less-traveled genres like film music, darkwave, folk, comedy, etc.
Finally, there are lots of small independent labels/artist collectives like RTFM Records that have quality artists that either got tired of working in the mainstream entertainment business, or were smart enough to try and slog it out themselves. Supporting labels like these is a good way to encourage more of the same.
I don't have much advice for you on the movie side of things - I think with the advent of cheap digital camcorders and products like iMovie and Final Cut Pro, you'll see more of this kind of content hitting the web in the next year or two, though. Especially as more people get broadband, which is more or less required for visual stuff.
One site I can recommend if you're into fan-produced Star Wars stuff is theforce.net which has quite a few short films and trailers of varying quality. There's also an absolutely stunning short film set in the Star Wars universe called Duality that you just have to see to believe.
Finally, I'd like to put a plug in for a new benefit album created by a bunch of musicians from around the world in response to the WTC/Pentagon attacks. The album, September Rising, is now available. It was put together by a bunch of pros, most of whom have never met each other face to face. Complete information is available at septemberrising.org. It's some really great stuff, and unlike most of the benefit albums coming from the major entertainment conglomerates who only donated a percentage of sales, I believe that all proceeds from sales of this album go to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund.
Don't be so sure about that... maybe he hasn't gotten money yet... but if he pushes this bill through, I'll wager that the entertainment industry will be lining up to hand him checks.
"You know, congressman, it sure would be helpful to us (wink wink) if you could sponsor this legislation. It's for the good of the country! Think of the children! We owe it to our ancestors!"
Offtopic, I know, but I thought people might enjoy reading the full text of that Kentucky HR Resolution:
A RESOLUTION encouraging the purchase and vigorous use of the USS Louisville 688 VLS Class submarine.
WHEREAS, in the past few years the scourge of the casino riverboat has been an increasingly significant presence on the Ohio River; and
WHEREAS, the Ohio River borders the Commonwealth of Kentucky; and
WHEREAS, the siren song of payola issuing from the discordant calliopes of these gambling vessels has led thousands of Kentucky citizens to vast disappointment and woe; and
WHEREAS, no good can come to the citizens of Kentucky hypnotized from the siren song issuing from these casino riverboats, the engines of which are fired by the hard-earned dollars lost from Kentucky citizens;
NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:
Section 1. The House of Representatives does hereby encourage the formation of the Kentucky Navy and subsequently immediately encourages the purchase and armament of one particularly effective submarine, namely, the USS Louisville 688 VLS Class Submarine, to patrol the portion of the Ohio River under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth to engage and destroy any casino riverboats that the submarine may encounter.
Section 2. The House of Representatives does hereby authorize the notification of the casino riverboat consulate of this Resolution and impending whoopin' so that they may remove their casino vessels to friendlier waters.
Thank god someone in government has a sense of humor!
Back in the dark ages when I was trying to convince my (then) employer that we needed to be online, the primary management objection was loss of productivity. I told them that yes, there would be a period where people got addicted to surfing and that there would be a temporary drop, but that it lost it's allure pretty quickly and that the overall benefits of quick access to information would outweigh the time lost to surfing.
They were also worried about their liability from employees downloading pr0n on company machines. I advised them to treat it like any other policy violation. Ultimately, they decided to wait.
Two years later I was talking to the CEO (I had already left the company) who told me they were finally getting everyone online and that what I told them had turned out to be accurate.
The web is like any cool toy - most people will get addicted to it for a brief period of time, then the attraction tapers off. The useful parts stay useful and, for most people, the fluff loses it's attraction. You can only watch Napster BAD! so many times...
Of course, here I am on Slashdot and it's workin' time.
Re:This is the Virtual Reality we heard about.
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The Future of MMORPGs
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· Score: 2
It's certainly overkill for a meeting where everyone's in the same building, but what about a meeting where you have people in different states or even on different continents?
This kind of technology seems like a good substitute for videoconferencing which takes up way more bandwidth and provides less functionality. Add some intuitive way to provide emotional cues when needed (smiling, laughing) or voice over IP technology, and I think this would be a pretty cool solution.
This is the Virtual Reality we heard about.
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The Future of MMORPGs
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· Score: 4, Insightful
When I first stepped into Everquest, it was magical. This was the first online game I had tried and it was simply amazing that there was an actual person on the other end of that halfling.
While the magic and novelty is largely gone, I can't help but think that these MMORPGs are destined for the business world. Five years ago all I heard about was the coming virtual reality - meetings in cyberspace... working from home with an avatar in a virtual meeting room.
Well, I've been playing in one of those for the last year or so. With some minor tweaks and feature enhancements, this technology is ripe for virtual/avatar-based meeting spaces. Instead of logging in to the goblin city, I'll enter a building. My conference is going to be in the third door on the left (the door will be pulsing softly and there will be arrows pointing the way from reception).
I'll enter the room and the people I'm going to meet with will be there also. I can look at the "screen" and see the presentation, whisper to the person next to me... or the person at the other end of the table for that matter, raise my hand, whatever. I might even be able to have my macro script take control and nod appropriately so I can nip off to the mall and do some shopping while it records the presentation for me.
Yes, this is years down the road, especially for it to become an accepted business practice... but it will start with someone convincing their boss that the next staff meeting should be held in the North Freeport tavern or the Inn of Rivervale. Once it does happen, it will do more to eliminate the need for employees to be in the same place as their employers...
Well... yeah... but aren't we kind of splitting hairs here? Our overwhelming military advantages are largely comprised of superior technology - intelligence gained from those nice satellites, GPS units carried by the grunts, cruise missles, even the technology used in the simulations we use to train our forces and command staff.
My point was that after Vietnam, it became a lot easier politically to spend money on technology and gadgets than to commit actual soldiers to a campaign. In a similar fashion it's much easier politically and financially for the CIA to launch a satellite that most Americans neither know nor care about, than it is to use live assets in Kerblechistan. There aren't any embarrasing spy scandals or grisly execution videos.
I think, however, that the CIA (and other intelligence agencies in other countries for that matter) know (and have known for a long time) that the information they get from satellites only goes so far. It's difficult to convince a politician who's trying to get reelected, or a senator that wants the money for some pork project back home, that we might have to get our hands a little bit dirty and spend some money to prevent some really nasty things from happening.
I think 9/11 opened a lot of peoples' eyes on the limitations of relying too much on technology and that will ultimately result in a change of direction from the politicians.
Ummmmm. Listen, I'm gonna need you to come in on Saturday, mmmkay? Yyyyeeeeeaaah.... we need to do some vocabulary work for the Justice Department. Big project. Soooooo, if you could be here at, ohhhhh, 8 am, that'd be great, mmmkay? Thanks!
The other weakness in the tire analogy is that tires are more or less interchangeable components. While an auto manufacturer may have an exclusive deal with Goodyear, if Goodyear starts misbehaving, the auto manufacturer can switch to a different brand and the car will still work just fine.
Now if you could only use Goodyear tires on 90% of the roads in the country, that would be a different story, and the auto manufacturer would be in a tighter place.
I agree with other posters that PC manufacturers brought this situation upon themselves by agreeing to exclusive deals back when Microsoft didn't really have the muscle to force its own terms. MS made them a great short-term deal, and now they're learning the hazards of short-term profit over long-term strategy.
Compound this with other OS providers showing similar lack of vision (Apple, IBM), and we Microsoft telling us where we'd like to go today.
Re:with things like this happening
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Spy v. Spy
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· Score: 3, Interesting
This reminds me of the old computer program "Core Wars." My ancient history is horribly rusty, but this whole concept goes back to one of the East Coast heavyweights (MIT? Harvard?) where the programmers would write self-replicating code fragments and set them loose overnight. The code was designed to multiply itself and destroy any other code it found. The winner was the one with the most code at the end of the run.
I'm sure someone who knows the real history will provide it.
Same concept here... only now the vendors are using our computers for their fights...
Too bad I don't have one of Gibson's Hosaka decks yet... I'd love to jack in and watch the fights.
The only way I can see Gateway surviving without Windows in the current market would be for them to partner or merge with another OS provider (Redhat, etc.) and become the ultimate source for that particular OS.
Their market would definitely shrink, and they might not (probably wouldn't) ever recover. There would be, however, the potential for growth should that OS start taking off because all of a sudden there was actually a PC manufacturer offering it and hyping and supporting it instead of it being a geek/cult thing. Most non-geeks I know wouldn't dream of running a Linux box because "oh, that's unix and it must be hard." And for most of them, they're absolutely right.
And Apple has survived because of a couple of factors:
They're really a hardware company with nice margins
Apple has its own OS
They have a very loyal customer base
They were firmly entrenched in education before Microsoft got rolling
They kept investing money in R&D so they could stay one step ahead
There are other reasons but the point is that Gateway can't do any of those things because it doesn't have its own OS to offer. Gateway runs on a low-margin business model and would have to survive a reorg to go in a different direction. Given their current financial situation, I don't know if that's possible.
I am pretty sure that MS could withstand any sort of PC maker 'blockade' far longer than the low margin hardware industry.
An excellent point. In fact, if an OEM association popped up, I'd be really surprised if we didn't see some $699 Korean-made, Microsoft-branded PCs at your local Best Buy and Circuit City within a couple of months.
Of course, if that were to happen, then Microsoft would be responsible for providing their own tech support and would be out of business within the year.
It's not racketeering because MS isn't technically committing a crime in order to commit other crimes. Well... sort of... antitrust law is a pretty freaky place and I don't like to think about it too much. =-)
However, from The American Heritage Dictionary via dictionary.com:
racketeer: n. A person who commits crimes such as extortion, loansharking, bribery, and obstruction of justice in furtherance of illegal business activities.
I suppose one could say that MS has engaged in extortion of sorts, but since the extortion is in the form of a voluntary license agreement , and not backed up with threat of physical violence (the OEMs always have the "choice" of not licensing Windows), it becomes much harder to prove. That's where the antitrust things come in...
The real problem with this whole issue is that the OEMs have been stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they have Microsoft playing both good cop and bad cop: unconscionable licensing terms along with a sweet discount on the OS. On the other hand, they have consumers who are, for whatever reason, convinced that if they don't get Windows on their computer, their computer won't actually work.
I don't know what the solution is. If I did, I'd be a highly paid consultant for several states' attorneys general. Perhaps if Microsoft were just prohibited from connecting their licensing terms or agreements to any other OS (i.e. no penalties to the OEMs for offering another OS...) that it might be a start. Probably not enough, but a start.
Or perhaps if the OEMs were to create an association to negotiate with Microsoft for licensing terms things would improve. They really need a single voice, because MS is too good at divide and conquer. The real problem, however, is that MS is also too good at convincing consumers that they really need Windows because "there's nothing else available."
In this case, Microsoft's goons are the consumers demanding Windows on their PC.
Agreed, but isn't this largely due to the Vietnam backlash and media focus? It's now much safer politically to spend billions on a satellite program that most people never hear or think about rather than "risk the life of one American soldier." The fact that we've had some very successful military actions in the last 20 years, largely due to an overwhelming technical advantage, only makes new tech that much more attractive to the pols.
For all the post-9/11 punditing and talking heads agreeing that we need actual agents in the region, I think many people don't realize how far off that might be. Not only do we have to have a shift in departmental philosophy, changes to a series of executive orders, and the willingness of the public to accept that we might be doing some "unclean" things, we're also going to have to recruit, train, and insert agents into foreign societies that we don't completely understand.
And Bob Smith from Peoria isn't going to fit in all that well.
I think the severity of 9/11 will go a long way toward making the U.S. public accept some previously unpalatable actions. Not just in the more rapid erosion of our own civil liberties, but in what we'll tolerate from our intelligence agencies.
I don't have a problem with the use of this technology as long as it doesn't get to the point where its use is required by some local law, and as long as the jamming is limited to that one particular place.
I would choose to frequent a movie theater the implemented a jammer, just as I choose to frequent restaurants that have a no-smoking policy over those that just stick me in the non-smoking section (which is separated from the smoking section by a 3' high wall with some plants).
I do think that any location using the jamming solutions should be required to notify people that it's in use, though.
I remember reading a psych article (around the time of the Challenger explosion) discussing how unique the American culture was for its use of dark humor when dealing with national tragedies. The article discussed how other cultures/countries often had difficulty understanding how we could joke about such horrible things.
The author went on to theorize that one could somewhat measure the significance/severity of an event to the amount of time it took for related jokes to start circulating.
Perhaps we're in more of an age of sensitivity than we were when the Challenger blew up, but I remember hearing jokes about that one within a week. Groaners to be sure, but they were there nonetheless. Hopefully we've reached the end of the deep mourning phase and can start moving on.
As far as LOTR's next installment, I doubt they'll change the name. The WTC was unoficially known as the twin towers, not the two towers. The only hitch I can see will be that the ad campaign will likely be starting up within a month of the one year anniversary... I suspect that they'll keep the name low key for the first few weeks and focus on "The Lord of the Rings."
For the last 2 months I've been receiving similar mail from Interland (a Verisign partner) for a domain that doesn't expire until late May. I have two sites hosted on Interland and they're sending me renewal notices for a Verisign-registered domain that I parked on Interland servers (no live site).
Initially I was keeping all of my registrations with Verisign/Internic because I felt they provided me with the best service. That's still true as long as I don't need them to do anything like send me a registration report or help me change a contact because the record got munged.
I also felt a bit more secure with Verisign because they don't seem to be going anywhere and domain registrations are long-term investments for me.
These new tactics may be the final straw. The trouble is, I don't know how reliable any of the other companies are. Any recommendations?
Given that the physical specs for the drives are all pretty much the same, I'd bet that this is possible.
That being said, however, the thought of opening up my iPod scares the bejeebus out of me. I normally laugh in the face of voiding a warranty, but this is one that I think I'll wait out. I also think I'll wait until some soul braver than I does it and posts a how-to with pictures on their site.
Of course, the warranty isn't that long on an iPod.
Just three weeks ago, an MS sales rep and her techie-in-tow told me (along with our enterprise group), "Yes, Microsoft Sharepoint and Content Management System is a fully cross-platform solution for document management and will work seamlessly with Macintosh and Unix clients."
We know that it doesn't, we just wanted to see what they'd say when we asked.
Call me a cynic, but my guess is that "wholly inferior" means that the copied discs allow the user to actually skip the coming attractions segment, the 5 minutes of studio logo trailers or the MPAA rating screen.
Just imagine - letting the consumer see the parts of the disc that he wants to see when he wants to see it! What shoddy craftsmanship. I bet these pirates don't even have a marketing department or conduct focus groups!
This strikes me as really being just a matter of practice and conditioning. As has been pointed out in many of the posts above, a musician has not only learned what to press/move to come up with certain notes, they've developed a certain "muscle-memory" that allows them to hit notes without really thinking about it.
Same thing applies to any twitch-type game - the player learns the right keypress combinations through highly repetitive actions. Eventually, they don't think "Left, Left, A, C, A, B, Up" but rather they think "I need to use a whirling dragon kick here."
I'm a touch typist and the same thing applies...
One other example of what Reuters would incorrectly call mutation that I haven't seen here would involve the ability of those born without arms to use their feet almost as well as many of us use our hands. I remember seeing a show about that many years ago and was fascinated by it. I decided that if they could use their feet, then I could certainly teach myself to write with my left hand. It didn't work too well, though.
My parents are very intimidated by their computer and are constantly calling me for tech support... I got a Vic 20 when I was 12 and never learned that fear... just a different kind of muscle memory I suppose. They don't want to experiment because they're still unfamiliar with the computer and don't know what will and won't cause problems. I think it's just practice...
Re:You just don't know where to put it...
on
Dior iPod case
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· Score: 1
Heh heh. Yeah, but I have to wear the iPod to balance the weight from the cell phone, two-way pager, gps, leatherman, palm pilot and package of teriyaki flavor Pemmican Beef Jerky that I have with me at all times.
"Sir... please step away from the Pronto universal remote belt-clip adapter."
You just don't know where to put it...
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Dior iPod case
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· Score: 2, Funny
"I love my iPod, but you just don't know where to put it," he said. "So I had no other choice than designing the case."
This is funny enough that I don't feel I really need to make a comment. I will say, however, that I really like the Pod Protector I bought from Other World Computing (OWC).
Fits like a glove, has a nice swivel belt clip, and it's only $30. It's no fashion accessory, but then I'm normally using my iPod at the gym and shiny black designer leather doesn't go so well with a profusely sweating, rich, yuppie elitist.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't have the specific history in front of me, but I believe that the regulations came about to prevent a local market from losing advertising revenue to a remote market. That and the whole "Providing service to the local community" requirement that's part of every broadcaster's license.
I'll pick an extreme example - let's say you live in Napa, California. Napa has its own affiliate network stations who depend on local ad revenues. The stations wouldn't have to worry about losing business to stations from Chicago.
But if your satellite provider can't/won't/doesn't carry Napa local stations because there isn't enough of a market, but does provide San Francisco channels - it's kind of local news (weather, etc.), but the Napa stations lose ad revenues to San Francisco. Especially since reception in Napa is spotty because of the mountains, so most people go with Dish. (Purely hypothetical example, and probably not based in reality.)
This is most important for very small markets that are near a major market - small towns that are about 40 miles from a major city, for example.
The other thing that Echo is trying to do is get the FCC to tell them that they don't *have* to carry local programming because they don't have the bandwidth to do so for every market they serve. I see their point, but a lot of people are going to be upset if they can't easily get the farm report from their local channel because the nearest locals they can get from the satellite company is 60 miles away.
I'd like to have the option to watch local programming from other markets (places I've lived in the past, etc.), but I also want to make sure that most local markets are available... a difficult proposition, especially if they really don't have the bandwidth to carry them...
These are only semi-informed opinions, BTW... hopefully someone with more concrete knowledge will chime in.
UPDATE: Whoops... look like garageband.com has bitten the electronic dust, at least for the time being.
As a producer, composer, and general content creator, I think that looking for quality entertainment is the critical concern. There's plenty of stuff out there, the trick is finding the good stuff. And with a few notable exceptions (Ani DiFranco, etc.) you aren't going to find it at your local Best Buy, and maybe not even at your local record store (if any of those still exist). For now, the web is where it's at.
While certainly not a litmus test for quality, you can at least trust that artists that use alternate distribution like CDBaby to provide distribution for self-produced/funded titles at least cared enough about their music to scrounge up the money to press a CD and arrange for distribution.
If you're willing to trudge through some crap (albeit interesting crap in many cases), the big music sites like IUMA, MP3.com, and Garageband provide more tracks than you'll be able to listen to.
One hint for the more commercial sites like MP3.com - skip the charts occasionally. The way the MP3.com charts work, you'll typically get a song at number 1 that stays at number 1 for a long time because everyone's listening to it because it's number 1. A self-perpetuating hit, if you will. Also, ever since Vivendi bought MP3.com out, there have been an awful lot of mainstream artists in the top charts. Still, if you're looking for mainstream, you can at least get a "legal" mp3 of a bunch of stuff there.
An additional hint, you'll find some real gems in the less-traveled genres like film music, darkwave, folk, comedy, etc.
Finally, there are lots of small independent labels/artist collectives like RTFM Records that have quality artists that either got tired of working in the mainstream entertainment business, or were smart enough to try and slog it out themselves. Supporting labels like these is a good way to encourage more of the same.
I don't have much advice for you on the movie side of things - I think with the advent of cheap digital camcorders and products like iMovie and Final Cut Pro, you'll see more of this kind of content hitting the web in the next year or two, though. Especially as more people get broadband, which is more or less required for visual stuff.
One site I can recommend if you're into fan-produced Star Wars stuff is theforce.net which has quite a few short films and trailers of varying quality. There's also an absolutely stunning short film set in the Star Wars universe called Duality that you just have to see to believe.
Finally, I'd like to put a plug in for a new benefit album created by a bunch of musicians from around the world in response to the WTC/Pentagon attacks. The album, September Rising, is now available. It was put together by a bunch of pros, most of whom have never met each other face to face. Complete information is available at septemberrising.org. It's some really great stuff, and unlike most of the benefit albums coming from the major entertainment conglomerates who only donated a percentage of sales, I believe that all proceeds from sales of this album go to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund.
Don't be so sure about that... maybe he hasn't gotten money yet... but if he pushes this bill through, I'll wager that the entertainment industry will be lining up to hand him checks.
"You know, congressman, it sure would be helpful to us (wink wink) if you could sponsor this legislation. It's for the good of the country! Think of the children! We owe it to our ancestors!"
Offtopic, I know, but I thought people might enjoy reading the full text of that Kentucky HR Resolution:
Thank god someone in government has a sense of humor!
Umm... it is humor, right???
Back in the dark ages when I was trying to convince my (then) employer that we needed to be online, the primary management objection was loss of productivity. I told them that yes, there would be a period where people got addicted to surfing and that there would be a temporary drop, but that it lost it's allure pretty quickly and that the overall benefits of quick access to information would outweigh the time lost to surfing.
They were also worried about their liability from employees downloading pr0n on company machines. I advised them to treat it like any other policy violation. Ultimately, they decided to wait.
Two years later I was talking to the CEO (I had already left the company) who told me they were finally getting everyone online and that what I told them had turned out to be accurate.
The web is like any cool toy - most people will get addicted to it for a brief period of time, then the attraction tapers off. The useful parts stay useful and, for most people, the fluff loses it's attraction. You can only watch Napster BAD! so many times...
Of course, here I am on Slashdot and it's workin' time.
It's certainly overkill for a meeting where everyone's in the same building, but what about a meeting where you have people in different states or even on different continents?
This kind of technology seems like a good substitute for videoconferencing which takes up way more bandwidth and provides less functionality. Add some intuitive way to provide emotional cues when needed (smiling, laughing) or voice over IP technology, and I think this would be a pretty cool solution.
When I first stepped into Everquest, it was magical. This was the first online game I had tried and it was simply amazing that there was an actual person on the other end of that halfling.
While the magic and novelty is largely gone, I can't help but think that these MMORPGs are destined for the business world. Five years ago all I heard about was the coming virtual reality - meetings in cyberspace... working from home with an avatar in a virtual meeting room.
Well, I've been playing in one of those for the last year or so. With some minor tweaks and feature enhancements, this technology is ripe for virtual/avatar-based meeting spaces. Instead of logging in to the goblin city, I'll enter a building. My conference is going to be in the third door on the left (the door will be pulsing softly and there will be arrows pointing the way from reception).
I'll enter the room and the people I'm going to meet with will be there also. I can look at the "screen" and see the presentation, whisper to the person next to me... or the person at the other end of the table for that matter, raise my hand, whatever. I might even be able to have my macro script take control and nod appropriately so I can nip off to the mall and do some shopping while it records the presentation for me.
Yes, this is years down the road, especially for it to become an accepted business practice... but it will start with someone convincing their boss that the next staff meeting should be held in the North Freeport tavern or the Inn of Rivervale. Once it does happen, it will do more to eliminate the need for employees to be in the same place as their employers...
And that will be pretty cool.
Well... yeah... but aren't we kind of splitting hairs here? Our overwhelming military advantages are largely comprised of superior technology - intelligence gained from those nice satellites, GPS units carried by the grunts, cruise missles, even the technology used in the simulations we use to train our forces and command staff.
My point was that after Vietnam, it became a lot easier politically to spend money on technology and gadgets than to commit actual soldiers to a campaign. In a similar fashion it's much easier politically and financially for the CIA to launch a satellite that most Americans neither know nor care about, than it is to use live assets in Kerblechistan. There aren't any embarrasing spy scandals or grisly execution videos.
I think, however, that the CIA (and other intelligence agencies in other countries for that matter) know (and have known for a long time) that the information they get from satellites only goes so far. It's difficult to convince a politician who's trying to get reelected, or a senator that wants the money for some pork project back home, that we might have to get our hands a little bit dirty and spend some money to prevent some really nasty things from happening.
I think 9/11 opened a lot of peoples' eyes on the limitations of relying too much on technology and that will ultimately result in a change of direction from the politicians.
YYyeeeeaaaaah. Grreeeaaat.
Ummmmm. Listen, I'm gonna need you to come in on Saturday, mmmkay? Yyyyeeeeeaaah.... we need to do some vocabulary work for the Justice Department. Big project. Soooooo, if you could be here at, ohhhhh, 8 am, that'd be great, mmmkay? Thanks!
The other weakness in the tire analogy is that tires are more or less interchangeable components. While an auto manufacturer may have an exclusive deal with Goodyear, if Goodyear starts misbehaving, the auto manufacturer can switch to a different brand and the car will still work just fine.
Now if you could only use Goodyear tires on 90% of the roads in the country, that would be a different story, and the auto manufacturer would be in a tighter place.
I agree with other posters that PC manufacturers brought this situation upon themselves by agreeing to exclusive deals back when Microsoft didn't really have the muscle to force its own terms. MS made them a great short-term deal, and now they're learning the hazards of short-term profit over long-term strategy.
Compound this with other OS providers showing similar lack of vision (Apple, IBM), and we Microsoft telling us where we'd like to go today.
This reminds me of the old computer program "Core Wars." My ancient history is horribly rusty, but this whole concept goes back to one of the East Coast heavyweights (MIT? Harvard?) where the programmers would write self-replicating code fragments and set them loose overnight. The code was designed to multiply itself and destroy any other code it found. The winner was the one with the most code at the end of the run.
I'm sure someone who knows the real history will provide it.
Same concept here... only now the vendors are using our computers for their fights...
Too bad I don't have one of Gibson's Hosaka decks yet... I'd love to jack in and watch the fights.
The only way I can see Gateway surviving without Windows in the current market would be for them to partner or merge with another OS provider (Redhat, etc.) and become the ultimate source for that particular OS.
Their market would definitely shrink, and they might not (probably wouldn't) ever recover. There would be, however, the potential for growth should that OS start taking off because all of a sudden there was actually a PC manufacturer offering it and hyping and supporting it instead of it being a geek/cult thing. Most non-geeks I know wouldn't dream of running a Linux box because "oh, that's unix and it must be hard." And for most of them, they're absolutely right.
And Apple has survived because of a couple of factors:
There are other reasons but the point is that Gateway can't do any of those things because it doesn't have its own OS to offer. Gateway runs on a low-margin business model and would have to survive a reorg to go in a different direction. Given their current financial situation, I don't know if that's possible.
An excellent point. In fact, if an OEM association popped up, I'd be really surprised if we didn't see some $699 Korean-made, Microsoft-branded PCs at your local Best Buy and Circuit City within a couple of months.
Of course, if that were to happen, then Microsoft would be responsible for providing their own tech support and would be out of business within the year.
It's not racketeering because MS isn't technically committing a crime in order to commit other crimes. Well... sort of... antitrust law is a pretty freaky place and I don't like to think about it too much. =-)
However, from The American Heritage Dictionary via dictionary.com:
I suppose one could say that MS has engaged in extortion of sorts, but since the extortion is in the form of a voluntary license agreement , and not backed up with threat of physical violence (the OEMs always have the "choice" of not licensing Windows), it becomes much harder to prove. That's where the antitrust things come in...
The real problem with this whole issue is that the OEMs have been stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they have Microsoft playing both good cop and bad cop: unconscionable licensing terms along with a sweet discount on the OS. On the other hand, they have consumers who are, for whatever reason, convinced that if they don't get Windows on their computer, their computer won't actually work.
I don't know what the solution is. If I did, I'd be a highly paid consultant for several states' attorneys general. Perhaps if Microsoft were just prohibited from connecting their licensing terms or agreements to any other OS (i.e. no penalties to the OEMs for offering another OS...) that it might be a start. Probably not enough, but a start.
Or perhaps if the OEMs were to create an association to negotiate with Microsoft for licensing terms things would improve. They really need a single voice, because MS is too good at divide and conquer. The real problem, however, is that MS is also too good at convincing consumers that they really need Windows because "there's nothing else available."
In this case, Microsoft's goons are the consumers demanding Windows on their PC.
Agreed, but isn't this largely due to the Vietnam backlash and media focus? It's now much safer politically to spend billions on a satellite program that most people never hear or think about rather than "risk the life of one American soldier." The fact that we've had some very successful military actions in the last 20 years, largely due to an overwhelming technical advantage, only makes new tech that much more attractive to the pols.
For all the post-9/11 punditing and talking heads agreeing that we need actual agents in the region, I think many people don't realize how far off that might be. Not only do we have to have a shift in departmental philosophy, changes to a series of executive orders, and the willingness of the public to accept that we might be doing some "unclean" things, we're also going to have to recruit, train, and insert agents into foreign societies that we don't completely understand.
And Bob Smith from Peoria isn't going to fit in all that well.
I think the severity of 9/11 will go a long way toward making the U.S. public accept some previously unpalatable actions. Not just in the more rapid erosion of our own civil liberties, but in what we'll tolerate from our intelligence agencies.
I don't have a problem with the use of this technology as long as it doesn't get to the point where its use is required by some local law, and as long as the jamming is limited to that one particular place.
I would choose to frequent a movie theater the implemented a jammer, just as I choose to frequent restaurants that have a no-smoking policy over those that just stick me in the non-smoking section (which is separated from the smoking section by a 3' high wall with some plants).
I do think that any location using the jamming solutions should be required to notify people that it's in use, though.
I remember reading a psych article (around the time of the Challenger explosion) discussing how unique the American culture was for its use of dark humor when dealing with national tragedies. The article discussed how other cultures/countries often had difficulty understanding how we could joke about such horrible things.
The author went on to theorize that one could somewhat measure the significance/severity of an event to the amount of time it took for related jokes to start circulating.
Perhaps we're in more of an age of sensitivity than we were when the Challenger blew up, but I remember hearing jokes about that one within a week. Groaners to be sure, but they were there nonetheless. Hopefully we've reached the end of the deep mourning phase and can start moving on.
As far as LOTR's next installment, I doubt they'll change the name. The WTC was unoficially known as the twin towers, not the two towers. The only hitch I can see will be that the ad campaign will likely be starting up within a month of the one year anniversary... I suspect that they'll keep the name low key for the first few weeks and focus on "The Lord of the Rings."
For the last 2 months I've been receiving similar mail from Interland (a Verisign partner) for a domain that doesn't expire until late May. I have two sites hosted on Interland and they're sending me renewal notices for a Verisign-registered domain that I parked on Interland servers (no live site).
Initially I was keeping all of my registrations with Verisign/Internic because I felt they provided me with the best service. That's still true as long as I don't need them to do anything like send me a registration report or help me change a contact because the record got munged.
I also felt a bit more secure with Verisign because they don't seem to be going anywhere and domain registrations are long-term investments for me.
These new tactics may be the final straw. The trouble is, I don't know how reliable any of the other companies are. Any recommendations?
Given that the physical specs for the drives are all pretty much the same, I'd bet that this is possible.
That being said, however, the thought of opening up my iPod scares the bejeebus out of me. I normally laugh in the face of voiding a warranty, but this is one that I think I'll wait out. I also think I'll wait until some soul braver than I does it and posts a how-to with pictures on their site.
Of course, the warranty isn't that long on an iPod.
Just three weeks ago, an MS sales rep and her techie-in-tow told me (along with our enterprise group), "Yes, Microsoft Sharepoint and Content Management System is a fully cross-platform solution for document management and will work seamlessly with Macintosh and Unix clients."
We know that it doesn't, we just wanted to see what they'd say when we asked.
Call me a cynic, but my guess is that "wholly inferior" means that the copied discs allow the user to actually skip the coming attractions segment, the 5 minutes of studio logo trailers or the MPAA rating screen.
Just imagine - letting the consumer see the parts of the disc that he wants to see when he wants to see it! What shoddy craftsmanship. I bet these pirates don't even have a marketing department or conduct focus groups!
This strikes me as really being just a matter of practice and conditioning. As has been pointed out in many of the posts above, a musician has not only learned what to press/move to come up with certain notes, they've developed a certain "muscle-memory" that allows them to hit notes without really thinking about it.
Same thing applies to any twitch-type game - the player learns the right keypress combinations through highly repetitive actions. Eventually, they don't think "Left, Left, A, C, A, B, Up" but rather they think "I need to use a whirling dragon kick here."
I'm a touch typist and the same thing applies...
One other example of what Reuters would incorrectly call mutation that I haven't seen here would involve the ability of those born without arms to use their feet almost as well as many of us use our hands. I remember seeing a show about that many years ago and was fascinated by it. I decided that if they could use their feet, then I could certainly teach myself to write with my left hand. It didn't work too well, though.
My parents are very intimidated by their computer and are constantly calling me for tech support... I got a Vic 20 when I was 12 and never learned that fear... just a different kind of muscle memory I suppose. They don't want to experiment because they're still unfamiliar with the computer and don't know what will and won't cause problems. I think it's just practice...
Heh heh. Yeah, but I have to wear the iPod to balance the weight from the cell phone, two-way pager, gps, leatherman, palm pilot and package of teriyaki flavor Pemmican Beef Jerky that I have with me at all times.
"Sir... please step away from the Pronto universal remote belt-clip adapter."
This is funny enough that I don't feel I really need to make a comment. I will say, however, that I really like the Pod Protector I bought from Other World Computing (OWC).
Fits like a glove, has a nice swivel belt clip, and it's only $30. It's no fashion accessory, but then I'm normally using my iPod at the gym and shiny black designer leather doesn't go so well with a profusely sweating, rich, yuppie elitist.
Oh wait... maybe it does.