If you want a quick -- nay, exhaustive -- overview of the 5th season of "Buffy," or come across a reference to "Boba Fett" in an online forum and want to learn more, Wikipedia is the site to hit. It's value as a font of pop culture knowledge is augmented by its geek-contributors obsessive behavior. Politics? Religion? Any chapter in History or Current Events involving Politics or Religion? Reader Beware.
1. Pay contributors, i.e., give them revenue. Even micro-payments will do, pennies. (The added side-benefit of this is that it means contributors will most likely need paypal accounts, which most likely means they will be "of age:" No more changing entries as result of bets made in the back of the school bus.)
2. Fire contributors who screw up, depriving them of that revenue.
3. Problem solved.
Anything else is a hippy-dippy feel-good buzz-word Web-X-point-something-or-other that begins with the letter "cluster."
Oh, wait... you still think that Google is some kind of independent tie-wearing, reserved-parking-space, Tuesday-is-Baked-Ziti-Day-in-the-Cafeteria corporate entity? You don't in the least bit suspect that they're a beard for all the domestic spying and privacy-wresting activity that your typical geek would be screaming about if it weren't for the fact that the perpetrator was a golden era dot.com foosball-flicking start-up?
"I don't mind if you spy on me, just do it in a way that consumes less energy than NASCAR." Is that your mantra, Bunky?
Hey, I'd love to stay and chat, but someone is knocking on my door...
...is that the spacecraft is in the shape of a giant robot, and that, upon achieving lunar orbit, it will disassemble itself into three smaller robots, a moon buggy, a six-wheeler truck, and a mouse-class pokemon carrying a katana.
You run cracked software on a workplace PC here in 21st Century Corporate America, you'll be lucky to get away with a strictly worded warning. Get caught again and your employment will be terminated for sure.
On the other hand, install some nice new DRM-free software in the corporate workplace and wave it around enough and it will get copied and brought home by hundreds of non-paying users.
The answer to the man's question lay in just exactly how good and unique his software is. If he's created the new spreadsheet-like paradigm for which their is no competition, he can attach a big ball and chain to the floppy and Corporate America will still make him rich (God Bless the USA!). If it's "Yet Another [fill in the blank]" for which there are better marketed (e.g., MS) or free open-source versions of, then he'll need a friendlier DRM scheme, or folks will just go with what they know/what costs less.
So what about the fundamentalists Christians who want to impose their religion on the rest of the world?
They're about as numerous today as the Vegans and PETAns who want to impose their religion on the rest of the world, except that the Vegans and PETAns are more organized. Really, what Christian sect advocates violence? Name a Christian cleric today who exhorts his flock to criminality -- other than Rev. Al Sharpton? You can't. Or if you google around enough, you find some lone nut job who bombs a mosque or abortion clinic, only to see every Roman collar within a hundred mile radius of the crime piling on him in the press like he was Lucifer himself.
When was the last time any Muslim cleric of any prominence went on record as denouncing the violence done in Allah's name?
Sure, Middle Ages, Witch Burning, Spanish Inquisition, Oliver Cromwell massacring the Catholics (do you count that?)... but that was centuries ago, bro'! We're living in the 21st Century, and a *significantly* large sect of far-right religious fundamentalists are *actively* and *unabashedly* looking to blow up people who worship a god different than their own, and the apologists among their potential victims are looking to shield them in public opinion by pretending they're no worse than bible-thumping evangelists who organize letter campaigns to ban video games. I mean, life is short, Bunky, and if you want to spend a part of yours hammering away at religious right-wingers, that's your call, but why don't you "blog" about the ones who conceal their women in burkhas, riot over cartoons, and strap C4 vests onto children; and save the guys who edit down and re-distribute R-rated movies and march around peacefully in front of abortion clinics for a time when that scimitar isn't pointed at your neck?
And the sad thing is, Muslim society was, once upon a time, way more civilized than the Christian West of the same era. But they dropped the ball, or at the very least took their eyes off it, and now they clamor to re-claim their former glory. With bombs and bullets. Fuck that.
It was about time for the shit to hit the fan. Let the scientology perverts face eu machine.
You Betcha! Today the Scientologists, tomorrow the Environmentalists. It's always been these religions with the science-y sounding names that have been the most insidious (and seem to have the wealthiest followers, come to think of it...)
Yeah, that's sure to cut you a better than fair sampling of the "youth culture."
And in a related story, a survey of classically-trained teenaged cellists has determined that young people are listening to less hip-hop and have begun to prefer champagne to beer.
Now, how do I text-message "GET OFF OF MY LAWN" ? Anybody...?
But weapons exist for one reason, to make it easier to project force.
And were science-fiction movies documentaries, you'd have a point. But they're not. They're entertainment, and I'm entertained by fancy weapons, loud explosions in space, and planetary princesses whose costumes are held up solely by centrifugal force.
It was a tool used by bad writers and bad producers who didn't have content that was distinctive enough, so had to be distinctive with bling.
"Content?" "Content" is for websites. Movies are a visual medium, and the art direction and photography can be at least as important to the movie as the script, if the director says so. If you don't want the creator mucking up the plot with sounds and visuals, read a novel. Just stay away from E.R. Burroughs, and other classic authors of the genre.
I see a bunch of catering to the lowest-common-denominator intelligence
For the record, I'm smarter than you. And I say, "Bring on the Laser Beams!"
They *DO* have a right to paid holidays, paid weekends off, paid sick days, time-and-a-half over 45 hours weekly, free coffee, free Poland Spring Water, a dental plan, a pharmaceuticals plan, and a 401-K plan.
Calling the channel "Uncensored" is a marketing ploy. Every workplace -- especially radio stations -- have limitations. XM logically figured that an impromptu bit of business in which the US Secretery of State is raped crossed those limitations, particularly since XM's uber-management is in the process of calling in every US government favor it has to grease the skids for a clearly lucrative merger with their lone competitor, Sirius.
It fascinates me that this is framed as a "Free Speech" issue. The airwaves that XM uses aren't of the public variety, it has nothing to do with constitutional amendments.
You know, for a generation raised on digital music, you sure all get caught in the same groove, sounding like broken records, a lot.
Which is correct and as it should be. If someone wants to have their work represented and distributed professionally and through traditional means, they make a deal with a publisher or label or studio to do so. That artist then goes back to making art, and the distributor does the distributing, for a cut. (How big is the cut? How onerous are the terms? They're specified in the contract you just signed. Print too small? You're too naive? Get a lawyer.)
Or you can distribute your stuff yourself, via outlets like YouTube, and let the wonderful viral-ness of the 'net's waves push your masterpiece from desktop to desktop around the world. The promotion is free, and you can get compensated via donations (*ahem*) and by selling tickets to your performances (good luck with that, you novelists...)
Which distribution method is better? Don't know, but at least with Google being forced to obey the law, the artist will have a legitimate choice.
The dirty secret, the Truth Which Dare Not Speak Its Name, in all this, is that the chuckleheads lip-synching to "Barbie Girl" and doing art-school Claymation re-enactments of the Trojan War got off on having their work up there on the virtual shelf next to Madonna's and Jon Stewart's and Spielberg's. Now that they are once again being sent back to the children's table, the whining (ostensibly about "artist's rights" and "fair use") will be deafening.
I just got a flashback of a heavily made-up and pucker-lipped Joel Grey singing "Money Makes The World Go 'Round," which has amused me, but I'll probably have that song in my head now for the rest of the week, which is not so amusing.
Slashdot Mirror
In other words, Earth?
...but video isn't one of them.
Nothing beats the 'net for distribution, however, so we compromise. Water starts to taste like wine when your thirsty and its free.
Many artists will make things for money ONLY. The altruistic spirit of OSS does not translate well to game art
BANG! You nailed it, bud. Except I would not have added the qualifier "game" to the word "art."
If you want a quick -- nay, exhaustive -- overview of the 5th season of "Buffy," or come across a reference to "Boba Fett" in an online forum and want to learn more, Wikipedia is the site to hit. It's value as a font of pop culture knowledge is augmented by its geek-contributors obsessive behavior. Politics? Religion? Any chapter in History or Current Events involving Politics or Religion? Reader Beware.
1. Pay contributors, i.e., give them revenue. Even micro-payments will do, pennies. (The added side-benefit of this is that it means contributors will most likely need paypal accounts, which most likely means they will be "of age:" No more changing entries as result of bets made in the back of the school bus.)
2. Fire contributors who screw up, depriving them of that revenue.
3. Problem solved.
Anything else is a hippy-dippy feel-good buzz-word Web-X-point-something-or-other that begins with the letter "cluster."
"Tap it"? Why would the NSA have to "tap it"?
Oh, wait... you still think that Google is some kind of independent tie-wearing, reserved-parking-space, Tuesday-is-Baked-Ziti-Day-in-the-Cafeteria corporate entity? You don't in the least bit suspect that they're a beard for all the domestic spying and privacy-wresting activity that your typical geek would be screaming about if it weren't for the fact that the perpetrator was a golden era dot.com foosball-flicking start-up?
"I don't mind if you spy on me, just do it in a way that consumes less energy than NASCAR." Is that your mantra, Bunky?
Hey, I'd love to stay and chat, but someone is knocking on my door...
...is that the spacecraft is in the shape of a giant robot, and that, upon achieving lunar orbit, it will disassemble itself into three smaller robots, a moon buggy, a six-wheeler truck, and a mouse-class pokemon carrying a katana.
Where do you work? A Deli? 1996?
You run cracked software on a workplace PC here in 21st Century Corporate America, you'll be lucky to get away with a strictly worded warning. Get caught again and your employment will be terminated for sure.
On the other hand, install some nice new DRM-free software in the corporate workplace and wave it around enough and it will get copied and brought home by hundreds of non-paying users.
The answer to the man's question lay in just exactly how good and unique his software is. If he's created the new spreadsheet-like paradigm for which their is no competition, he can attach a big ball and chain to the floppy and Corporate America will still make him rich (God Bless the USA!). If it's "Yet Another [fill in the blank]" for which there are better marketed (e.g., MS) or free open-source versions of, then he'll need a friendlier DRM scheme, or folks will just go with what they know/what costs less.
So what about the fundamentalists Christians who want to impose their religion on the rest of the world?
They're about as numerous today as the Vegans and PETAns who want to impose their religion on the rest of the world, except that the Vegans and PETAns are more organized. Really, what Christian sect advocates violence? Name a Christian cleric today who exhorts his flock to criminality -- other than Rev. Al Sharpton? You can't. Or if you google around enough, you find some lone nut job who bombs a mosque or abortion clinic, only to see every Roman collar within a hundred mile radius of the crime piling on him in the press like he was Lucifer himself.
When was the last time any Muslim cleric of any prominence went on record as denouncing the violence done in Allah's name?
Sure, Middle Ages, Witch Burning, Spanish Inquisition, Oliver Cromwell massacring the Catholics (do you count that?)... but that was centuries ago, bro'! We're living in the 21st Century, and a *significantly* large sect of far-right religious fundamentalists are *actively* and *unabashedly* looking to blow up people who worship a god different than their own, and the apologists among their potential victims are looking to shield them in public opinion by pretending they're no worse than bible-thumping evangelists who organize letter campaigns to ban video games. I mean, life is short, Bunky, and if you want to spend a part of yours hammering away at religious right-wingers, that's your call, but why don't you "blog" about the ones who conceal their women in burkhas, riot over cartoons, and strap C4 vests onto children; and save the guys who edit down and re-distribute R-rated movies and march around peacefully in front of abortion clinics for a time when that scimitar isn't pointed at your neck?
And the sad thing is, Muslim society was, once upon a time, way more civilized than the Christian West of the same era. But they dropped the ball, or at the very least took their eyes off it, and now they clamor to re-claim their former glory. With bombs and bullets. Fuck that.
The public interest vis a vis copyright can be broken down into three parts: ... 2) the public wants more derivative works created and published, ...
If by this you mean more Buffy and Battlestar Galactica fan fiction, um, no, no we don't.
It was about time for the shit to hit the fan. Let the scientology perverts face eu machine.
You Betcha! Today the Scientologists, tomorrow the Environmentalists. It's always been these religions with the science-y sounding names that have been the most insidious (and seem to have the wealthiest followers, come to think of it...)
Yeah, that's sure to cut you a better than fair sampling of the "youth culture."
And in a related story, a survey of classically-trained teenaged cellists has determined that young people are listening to less hip-hop and have begun to prefer champagne to beer.
Now, how do I text-message "GET OFF OF MY LAWN" ? Anybody...?
When it's juvenile and ridiculous, that's when you know you're doing it correctly.
(Take it from and Old Guy.)
>>tour groups avoid New York
As they say in Mid-Town, "From Your Lips to God's Ears"!!!
The IRS.
But weapons exist for one reason, to make it easier to project force.
And were science-fiction movies documentaries, you'd have a point. But they're not. They're entertainment, and I'm entertained by fancy weapons, loud explosions in space, and planetary princesses whose costumes are held up solely by centrifugal force.
It was a tool used by bad writers and bad producers who didn't have content that was distinctive enough, so had to be distinctive with bling.
"Content?" "Content" is for websites. Movies are a visual medium, and the art direction and photography can be at least as important to the movie as the script, if the director says so. If you don't want the creator mucking up the plot with sounds and visuals, read a novel. Just stay away from E.R. Burroughs, and other classic authors of the genre.
I see a bunch of catering to the lowest-common-denominator intelligence
For the record, I'm smarter than you. And I say, "Bring on the Laser Beams!"
They *DO* have a right to paid holidays, paid weekends off, paid sick days, time-and-a-half over 45 hours weekly, free coffee, free Poland Spring Water, a dental plan, a pharmaceuticals plan, and a 401-K plan.
Don't they...?
Calling the channel "Uncensored" is a marketing ploy. Every workplace -- especially radio stations -- have limitations. XM logically figured that an impromptu bit of business in which the US Secretery of State is raped crossed those limitations, particularly since XM's uber-management is in the process of calling in every US government favor it has to grease the skids for a clearly lucrative merger with their lone competitor, Sirius.
It fascinates me that this is framed as a "Free Speech" issue. The airwaves that XM uses aren't of the public variety, it has nothing to do with constitutional amendments.
You know, for a generation raised on digital music, you sure all get caught in the same groove, sounding like broken records, a lot.
He seemed kind of adamant that corn fuels were the way to go...
Which is correct and as it should be. If someone wants to have their work represented and distributed professionally and through traditional means, they make a deal with a publisher or label or studio to do so. That artist then goes back to making art, and the distributor does the distributing, for a cut. (How big is the cut? How onerous are the terms? They're specified in the contract you just signed. Print too small? You're too naive? Get a lawyer.)
Or you can distribute your stuff yourself, via outlets like YouTube, and let the wonderful viral-ness of the 'net's waves push your masterpiece from desktop to desktop around the world. The promotion is free, and you can get compensated via donations (*ahem*) and by selling tickets to your performances (good luck with that, you novelists...)
Which distribution method is better? Don't know, but at least with Google being forced to obey the law, the artist will have a legitimate choice.
The dirty secret, the Truth Which Dare Not Speak Its Name, in all this, is that the chuckleheads lip-synching to "Barbie Girl" and doing art-school Claymation re-enactments of the Trojan War got off on having their work up there on the virtual shelf next to Madonna's and Jon Stewart's and Spielberg's. Now that they are once again being sent back to the children's table, the whining (ostensibly about "artist's rights" and "fair use") will be deafening.
LABELLING beta!
Get it Right, Dammit!
fascist rouge
I just got a flashback of a heavily made-up and pucker-lipped Joel Grey singing "Money Makes The World Go 'Round," which has amused me, but I'll probably have that song in my head now for the rest of the week, which is not so amusing.
"A Fork In The Road"
"Vuja De"
You're on fire this morning, Bud.