I was, by chance, listening to BBC World Service the other night and heard an advert for a series of programmes they're running on the Music Industry. It mentioned something about the nasty contracts they make up for artists.
The programmes start on the 18th of January, dunno what time, I think it depends on your locale. Here's the schedule page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/worldservice/psims/ ScheduleSDT.cgi
"Exclude yourself from the Settlement Group and then keep on pirating!"
They get royalties on blank media, to make up for non-authorised copied music, therefore they're being paid royalties for bootlegged MP3s [especially when you consider that a lot of blank media is used for software, pictures, legally owned music and other data that the RIAA has no claim for a royalty on.]
And still they bitch and moan and whine and scream.
They get re-imbursed for bootlegging. So, feel free. No?
In that case it seems pretty cut and dried, that Google decided that they felt that SearchKings's incestuous linking scheme, for want of a less accurate term, distorted said pages' relevance to a querie [SearchKing's whole scheme is based upon inflating page ranks by link manipulation, rather than some relevance-based criteria.]
Google tweaked PageRank, to take this attack against Google-users' relevance requirements, and SearchKing is whining it's whiny little arse off about it, to the man in the big chair, when they're obviously the ones in the wrong.
I think there's a trend, and has been for some time, where a bunch of idiots decide that they're going to write little "laws" which are quite silly, and give to themselves god-like powers.
I think they're called politicians... b'dum tsshhh!
No, but seriously, all these agreements and contracts you see, especially on the web. It seems like there's these 18 year old's with no clue about the real world, or the law, who get put in charge of writing up these terms of service agreements, EULAs, and the like.
All their feudalistic, "I'm the king of the castle, and you're the dirty rascals" ego-trips come out.
And then the reeeaaaly stupid ones actually believe their own nonsense enough to take their head-up-their-own-arse opinions to court and start wasting everyone's time [and money]...[including their own.]
This is probably a bit late to be read by anyone, but, I just wrote to Lexmark saying that if this action isn't dropped I will cease to use their products in future, as I don't wish to do business with a company which, in my opinion, is behaving unethically.
Well, I don't know how mod_throttle works exactly, [cursory glance at details] but what about some sort of page a requester could arrive at, if a site was getting slashdotted, triggered by the throttle, where they saw a "Due to the large number of requests for this page, you are number n in a queue... continue browsing in a new window, and the page will load when ready."
And then, the server serves up the pages on a first come first served basis, and nothing melts? Is that possible? It would seem a sensible alternative to either no page loading, it taking a long time without any known reason or time when the page will be available.
My point, was that it's pretty sad to have people so scared of being misunderstood; so fearful of losing some "karma" that they have to end every joke with a "For the hard of understanding, and humour impared: that was a joke," addendum.
So, AC.... too scared of being called a Troll,to say what you think without anonymity? I suppose that's why they call you guys Anonymous Cowards.
Only yesterday, I was thinking of making a post saying, "Y'know, one of these days, someone's going to post the meaning of life, the certain way to happiness, and fulfilment, on Slashdot, and it's going to get moderated -1 Offtopic; and no one is going to see it."
Well, obviously a few people.
"Why does everyone assume that the only alternative to capitalism is communism? (Why does everyone assume that because I'm not a Republican I'm a Democrat?)"
Because people still think politically [not to mention in other areas] in a dualistic sense.
If Mickey Mouse is a trademark, Disney have failed to aggressively defend it.
There's at least two instances where Mad Magazine have parodied Mickey Mouse (Mickey Rodent) using exact copies of his, and Donald's, Goofy's and Pluto's image, for the purposes of parody, which isn't allowed under Trademark Law, I believe.
The cartoons went unchallenged, and were created in the early 50's, so their Trademark could be argued to have lapsed. [IANAL etc.]
I wonder if we can call the act of copyright cartels and corporations trying to prevent a work from entering the public domain [via buying laws/politicians or whatever means] an act of piracy?
It would seem that they're taking what is intended for us, hijacking it as it's on it's way to us, and keeping it for themselves.
That sounds closer to the original definition of piracy, than copying a mate's cd.
Hilary Rosen and Senator Hollins are supporters of piracy.
Doesn't that just soundright?
I've heard early versions are quite buggy.
on
Mood-Sensing Computer
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Computer: "Sir, I have noticed you are feeling a little horny today, and have downloaded some pr0n for you..."
User: "Gah!...How many times do I have to tell you???! I only looked at the dwarf stuff once out of curiosity."
Computer:"Sir I notice you are becoming slightly irritated.... perhaps a wank will calm you down? Observe the dwarf pr0n.... Observe the dwa.. #clik#
"If someone showed up at my company's door with deadly chemicals, we'd have to shut the place down for security reasons, at a cost to the business."
What if they were your deadly chemicals and they were just returning your property to you, because you left it on their doorstep, and...well, didn't really give a fuck?
I can only describe this action by Dow, as the act of cunts. I have nothing but contempt for them.
Falun Gong Hackers, anyone?
on
Tai Chi Robots
·
· Score: 1
I wonder how the Chinese Government will feel if it gets hacked by Falun Gong, and reprogrammed to do their exercises? >:o)
"Let's get one thing straight once and for all. The United States is not a democacy. It is a Republic. In a democacy, everyone gets to vote. In the United States, everyone gets to vote for a representative to vote for them.
Argue all you will. Thoses are the facts."
democracydi-mok'ra-si, n a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people collectively, and is administered by them or by officers appointed by them...
republicri-pub'lik, n a form of government without a monarch, in which the supreme power is vested in the people and their elected representatives.
Offensive? At least it's more historically accurate than Hollywood movies that portray the Indians as the bad guys persecuting the white-folk.
Shit.... these American "heroes" used to cut the vulvas out of slain squaws, and wear them as hat-bands.
Maybe it was political comment? [no.... probably not.]
The reason most people don't sue, is because it's often not worth their while. They've got enough crap to deal with, with their boyfriend/girlfriend, wife/husband, boss, kids, work, parents, etc. etc. etc. without taking some company to court so they can be the snowflake that eventually turns into the avalanche that takes out evil corporate greed/stupidity/inhumanity/corruption.
That's why you can poke a cat, or a dog for a certain amount of time, before it tries to rip your finger off... it just wants peace, and for the hassle to go away. A certain amount is tolerated, in the hope that it'll stop. When it appears to be going to go on and on.... then action is taken.
One or two "intentionally faulty" cd's [as I'd call them] is quite probably within someone's tolerance zone.
But things may change, as time goes on.
Slashdot Mirror
I was, by chance, listening to BBC World Service the other night and heard an advert for a series of programmes they're running on the Music Industry. It mentioned something about the nasty contracts they make up for artists.
/ ScheduleSDT.cgi
The programmes start on the 18th of January, dunno what time, I think it depends on your locale. Here's the schedule page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/worldservice/psims
"That's why I shred all my receipts. And eat the paper."
I like to be doubly-extra safe. I shred all my receipts. Then I eat the paper. And then shred the poop that results.
But that's where I draw the line.
"Exclude yourself from the Settlement Group and then keep on pirating!"
They get royalties on blank media, to make up for non-authorised copied music, therefore they're being paid royalties for bootlegged MP3s [especially when you consider that a lot of blank media is used for software, pictures, legally owned music and other data that the RIAA has no claim for a royalty on.]
And still they bitch and moan and whine and scream.
They get re-imbursed for bootlegging. So, feel free. No?
I was lookiing at a Canon, but mostly because of the "single colour tanks" feature, but I didn't know they had cheper refils too.
Thanks for that.
In that case it seems pretty cut and dried, that Google decided that they felt that SearchKings's incestuous linking scheme, for want of a less accurate term, distorted said pages' relevance to a querie [SearchKing's whole scheme is based upon inflating page ranks by link manipulation, rather than some relevance-based criteria.]
Google tweaked PageRank, to take this attack against Google-users' relevance requirements, and SearchKing is whining it's whiny little arse off about it, to the man in the big chair, when they're obviously the ones in the wrong.
[SearchKing is an anagram of "gerkhin sac"]
I think there's a trend, and has been for some time, where a bunch of idiots decide that they're going to write little "laws" which are quite silly, and give to themselves god-like powers.
I think they're called politicians... b'dum tsshhh!
No, but seriously, all these agreements and contracts you see, especially on the web. It seems like there's these 18 year old's with no clue about the real world, or the law, who get put in charge of writing up these terms of service agreements, EULAs, and the like.
All their feudalistic, "I'm the king of the castle, and you're the dirty rascals" ego-trips come out.
And then the reeeaaaly stupid ones actually believe their own nonsense enough to take their head-up-their-own-arse opinions to court and start wasting everyone's time [and money]...[including their own.]
What they need is a good slap with a wet fish.
What I don't understand is why there isn't a company making [more] expensive printers, and cheap ink.
That's the printer I want. Who'll sell me it? Gotta be someone out there, surely?
This is probably a bit late to be read by anyone, but, I just wrote to Lexmark saying that if this action isn't dropped I will cease to use their products in future, as I don't wish to do business with a company which, in my opinion, is behaving unethically.
:)
[Holds out hat for karma....]
Well, I don't know how mod_throttle works exactly, [cursory glance at details] but what about some sort of page a requester could arrive at, if a site was getting slashdotted, triggered by the throttle, where they saw a "Due to the large number of requests for this page, you are number n in a queue... continue browsing in a new window, and the page will load when ready."
And then, the server serves up the pages on a first come first served basis, and nothing melts? Is that possible? It would seem a sensible alternative to either no page loading, it taking a long time without any known reason or time when the page will be available.
Isn't there some sort of automatic throttle, you could use, which lets only a pre-determined amount of traffic through in a given time?
An anonymous coward, and a twat to boot.
My point, was that it's pretty sad to have people so scared of being misunderstood; so fearful of losing some "karma" that they have to end every joke with a "For the hard of understanding, and humour impared: that was a joke," addendum.
So, AC.... too scared of being called a Troll,to say what you think without anonymity? I suppose that's why they call you guys Anonymous Cowards.
"--if you don't find it funny, don't waste your points modding me down. Use your mod points to promote world peace, or something... "
Oh dear Lord.... has it come to this?
It seems like a reasonable suggestion.
Only yesterday, I was thinking of making a post saying, "Y'know, one of these days, someone's going to post the meaning of life, the certain way to happiness, and fulfilment, on Slashdot, and it's going to get moderated -1 Offtopic; and
no one is going to see it."
Well, obviously a few people.
It seems like a worthwhile option.
Yeah, yeah... Offtopic... yada yada.
Thanks. If could be arsed to moderate anymore, I'd give you a +1 Informative. :D
"Why does everyone assume that the only alternative to capitalism is communism? (Why does everyone assume that because I'm not a Republican I'm a Democrat?)"
Because people still think politically [not to mention in other areas] in a dualistic sense.
Want an alternate model? Try the Political Compass
If Mickey Mouse is a trademark, Disney have failed to aggressively defend it.
There's at least two instances where Mad Magazine have parodied Mickey Mouse (Mickey Rodent) using exact copies of his, and Donald's, Goofy's and Pluto's image, for the purposes of parody, which isn't allowed under Trademark Law, I believe.
The cartoons went unchallenged, and were created in the early 50's, so their Trademark could be argued to have lapsed. [IANAL etc.]
I wonder if we can call the act of copyright cartels and corporations trying to prevent a work from entering the public domain [via buying laws/politicians or whatever means] an act of piracy?
It would seem that they're taking what is intended for us, hijacking it as it's on it's way to us, and keeping it for themselves.
That sounds closer to the original definition of piracy, than copying a mate's cd.
Hilary Rosen and Senator Hollins are supporters of piracy.
Doesn't that just sound right ?
Computer: "Sir, I have noticed you are feeling a little horny today, and have downloaded some pr0n for you..."
User: "Gah!...How many times do I have to tell you???! I only looked at the dwarf stuff once out of curiosity."
Computer:"Sir I notice you are becoming slightly irritated.... perhaps a wank will calm you down? Observe the dwarf pr0n.... Observe the dwa.. #clik#
"If someone showed up at my company's door with deadly chemicals, we'd have to shut the place down for security reasons, at a cost to the business."
What if they were your deadly chemicals and they were just returning your property to you, because you left it on their doorstep, and...well, didn't really give a fuck?
I can only describe this action by Dow, as the act of cunts. I have nothing but contempt for them.
I wonder how the Chinese Government will feel if it gets hacked by Falun Gong, and reprogrammed to do their exercises? >:o)
"Let's get one thing straight once and for all. The United States is not a democacy. It is a Republic. In a democacy, everyone gets to vote. In the United States, everyone gets to vote for a representative to vote for them.
Argue all you will. Thoses are the facts."
democracy di-mok'ra-si, n a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people collectively, and is administered by them or by officers appointed by them...
republic ri-pub'lik, n a form of government without a monarch, in which the supreme power is vested in the people and their elected representatives.
Oh yeah.... totally fsking different.
It's not just offensive, it's unplayably bad.
Offensive? At least it's more historically accurate than Hollywood movies that portray the Indians as the bad guys persecuting the white-folk.
Shit.... these American "heroes" used to cut the vulvas out of slain squaws, and wear them as hat-bands.
Maybe it was political comment? [no.... probably not.]
"If you clone yourself and it gives you a BJ, is it considered oral sex or masturabation? "
Neither, it's called incest. Eww.
"Actually, there's nothing wrong with the word "cult"."
I totally agree. Several people have told me that they think I'm a cult.
At least I think that's what they said.
The reason most people don't sue, is because it's often not worth their while. They've got enough crap to deal with, with their boyfriend/girlfriend, wife/husband, boss, kids, work, parents, etc. etc. etc. without taking some company to court so they can be the snowflake that eventually turns into the avalanche that takes out evil corporate greed/stupidity/inhumanity/corruption.
That's why you can poke a cat, or a dog for a certain amount of time, before it tries to rip your finger off... it just wants peace, and for the hassle to go away. A certain amount is tolerated, in the hope that it'll stop. When it appears to be going to go on and on.... then action is taken.
One or two "intentionally faulty" cd's [as I'd call them] is quite probably within someone's tolerance zone.
But things may change, as time goes on.