The RIAA fears Peer to Peer file sharing. There is something they fear even worse:
The new technology allows for small operators to distribute music. The RIAA has imposed a tax on
Internet Radio so right now this is not much of a threat.
In movie land however:
"This Is Not A Love Song - the new feature from Full Monty writer Simon Beaufoy - stalled almost as soon as organisers flicked the switch allowing viewers around the world to stream it to their screens.... Organisers of the online screening have since said they had not expected the project to spark such international interest and their website simply could not handle overwhelming demand."
Is Microsoft going to make a break with the old WIN32 past with Longhorn? Will it be like when WIN32 replaced WIN16 with Windows 95 and NT?
WIN16 sucked so bad we were ready to leave it behind as soon as we had the chance. Win 2K and XP actually work OK. I do not think people will be lining up to replace it.
When I first installed Linux, it had all kinds of daemons on by defualt. I had no idea what they were and I had no idea how to turn them off. Because I did not know what they did, I did not want to shut them off.
This was a very insecure installation. Lucky I was behind a NAT.
The Oronico PCMCIA card is working with one of those PCI to PCMCIA bridges.
This seems to be the only thing that is working. Frame Buffer to scroll bootlog text and show Penguin is not working. (845G graphics) USB is not working, sound (ens1371) is not working.
If I knew more, I would sbmit bug reports. I likely screwed up build the options. But I do not know that for sure.
The wireless networking is the last thing I expected to work!
The Knoppix CD has QTparted. This is a great GUI wrapper for various tools to partition and resise partitions. You can even shrink NTFS partitions. The Knoppix CD boots to Linux without doing anything to the hard drive. It is great. Free download of ISO image is available.
You can also use the Knoppix CD to install Debian Unstable to the hard drive. 2 warnings: 1) It will put LiLo on the MBR. ( I prefer to put it on the boot record of the/boot partition.) 2) After hard drive intall it will first boot with KDE in German! It is hard to find the right GUIs to get it into English. There are instructions on the internet on how to find these GUIs.
$18 a CD. The artists (most of them at least) do not get a cent from the CD sales. The CDs and packaging cost pennies to make.
But the record companies are losing money. This is like screwing up a wet dream! So they now decide to screw the artists even more!
They need to change to a new business model. Promoting Artists should not be so expensive. Web sites and Internet Radio are inexpensive... Wait - The internet Radio stations have to pay a tax to the RIAA.
The Music business will not get better until some of the major labels go under. It is a shame the record stores are going under first.
Here is a way to help the record stores and keep money out of the hands of the major labels: Buy the CDs used. Copy - Then sell the CD back to the record store at a lower price.
Record companies give very bad contracts to the new bands they sign up. If that band does not sign up to those terms there are 20 more out there who will sign up. These bands get none of that 12 cents. It all goes to "expenses" of the record companies.
Now the record companies are coming to us with big crocodile tears saying "pirates' and P2P file shares are ripping off the artist. But the "pirates" are not ripping off the artists. They are ripping off the record companies who are ripping off the artists.
The cost of making CDs has dropped. Now the cost of copying CDs has dropped too. The industry is fighting the new technology instead of embracing it.
Yes "Piracy" is wrong. Paying $16 for a lump of plastic where not a cent goes to the artist is wrong too. The demand for music is very elastic. Lower the price and more people will buy.
A DRMed song is not anywhere neer as valueable as a CD that can be played anywher. It should be a hell of a lot cheaper than a buck a song. The marginal cost of supplying that DRMed music is close to nothing.
There is no reason for record stores to inventory all those different over priced lumps of plastic. They should burn the CDs on demand, print up the paper and print the decorations on the CD in the store. The technology exists to lower the costs. It is up to the industry to embrace new technolgy.
If the music industry does not embrace new technology, we will embrace it without them. They can adapt or die.
I think you raise a good point. Before all of this, SCO was just fading away. They were losing money. They were almost out of cash. There was no way SCO would last more than 3 years.
Now they get a cash flow from Microsoft as long as they make IBM and Linux look bad. They have some chance of getting bought. They have an outside chance of winning in court. This is a lot better for SCO than certain bankruptcy.
I do not think they are serious about the lawsuit. SCO is serious about making a lot of noise.
IBM did not offer to buy them. So SCO will try to raise the noise level some more.
But now all they can do is sound like the Iraqi disinformation minister.
"Those penquins are infidels. There is no way penguins can write SMP code without our help. We will slaughter all the penquins and have them for dinner"
Apple has the "Markler" project in it's back pocket. This is a port of OS-X to X86. At some point Apple may play this card. If Microsoft cuts off providing Office apps, Apple could release OS-X for the X86.
Apple is reluctant to do this. They are more of a hardware company than a software company.
I have a Tivo that happens to use Linux. TiVo provides links to a web site where I can download the source code. This makes a very good impression on me.
It also provides me with usefull information. I can look at the build switches to see what USB-ethernet adapters are supported and which ones are not.
Tivo did not make public their own PVR source code. I do not think they should make that public. You can mix GPL code on the same box with proprietary stuff.
I think I will take Linksys off my own approved vendor list until they support the spirit of the GPL.
Maybe this is how they can lower the TCO numbers with little expense on their part.
They bundle -- oops I mean integrate-- the virus scanner into the OS. We do not have to pay money to Norton.
On the other hand virus software is subscription based. You subscribe to recieve updates to the virus database. Microsoft wants to move to a subscription based business model.
Foundstone sues Glaser in one of these "arbitration" kangaroo courts. They get to select the kangaroo count. This all starts out stacked in their favor.
But Founstone has been breaking the law big time. And a lot of people knew it.
So this whole thing blows up in their face. And now this has so much attention the "arbitration" court has to deal off the top of the deck.
This reminds me of those scenes in the old TV show "Max Headroom". The television executives would have these meters showing the ratings instantaneously. The needles on these meters were fluctuating second by second. They had instant access to the aggregate viewing of the public.
The natives are restless. Microsoft is starting to wake up to the fact the peasants are restless, and they are starting to find alternatives.
This is a minor concession. Is it like the Czar creating the Duma to hold back the revolution?
Microsoft has not lowered prices for corporate customers. They are continuing to rely on the fact that business customers are dumb about business. The airlines soaked the business customers for years and look at where the airlines are now.
Micrsoft has tossed a few bones. Maybe their trapped and unwilling customers will not feel as ripped off now.
SCO was a little slow on the uptake here. They claim Linux code violates their IP. They file a lawsuit about it. After they make this claim they continue to distribute Linux under the GPL.
If Linux does contain SCO's IP, they gave the whole world a GPL License to it!!
Now they are trying to close the barn door after the horse left.
I agree. I destest the fact that our goverment information is kept in undocumented file formats that require a secret decoder ring from a particular supplier to access it.
I agree there should be no preference for Open Source software. However these 2 factors are esential in selecting software for government use:
4. avoid the acquisition of products that do not comply with open standards for interoperability or data storage;
5. avoid the acquisition of products that are known to make unauthorized transfers of information to, or permit unauthorized control of or modification to the state government's computer systems by, parties outside the control of the state government."
It is obvious software for government use should meet these criteria. It is also obvious a lot of proprietary does not meet these requirements.
It is not wonder the mouthpieces for MSFT are at this hearing to head this off.
I am listening to the hearing ( had to fast forward past the HMO stuff. Some notes:
They removed a preference for Open Source from the Bill.
"The Initiative for Software Choice" was there to say they support software choice, but actualy to fight it. Their representive talked about getting together with government IT managers to " help them make their decisions". Scarry stuff.
The Business Software Alliance was there to oppose it. (Hey, if more people used Open source software, there would be less piracy!)
The FUD meisters kept bringing up the one time costs of training people to use new software. The FUD meisters trotted out their favorite words. "Free Market" (as long as they control it). "Innovation" (now a much abused word).
Slashdot Mirror
The new technology allows for small operators to distribute music. The RIAA has imposed a tax on Internet Radio so right now this is not much of a threat.
In movie land however:
"This Is Not A Love Song - the new feature from Full Monty writer Simon Beaufoy - stalled almost as soon as organisers flicked the switch allowing viewers around the world to stream it to their screens. ... Organisers of the online screening have since said they had not expected the project to spark such international interest and their website simply could not handle overwhelming demand."
BBC
Is Microsoft going to make a break with the old WIN32 past with Longhorn? Will it be like when WIN32 replaced WIN16 with Windows 95 and NT?
WIN16 sucked so bad we were ready to leave it behind as soon as we had the chance. Win 2K and XP actually work OK. I do not think people will be lining up to replace it.
Microsoft products have been stagnating for years. XP is just NT with anti-aliased fonts. Not much new there.
I am sure Microsoft will come out with some cosmetic releases fo windows while waiting for the 5 year clock to expire.
The srpipt will help to shut down uneeded daemons. It will configure things to minimize the attack surface presented by the computer.
When I first installed Linux, it had all kinds of daemons on by defualt. I had no idea what they were and I had no idea how to turn them off. Because I did not know what they did, I did not want to shut them off.
This was a very insecure installation. Lucky I was behind a NAT.
The Oronico PCMCIA card is working with one of those PCI to PCMCIA bridges.
This seems to be the only thing that is working.
Frame Buffer to scroll bootlog text and show Penguin is not working. (845G graphics)
USB is not working,
sound (ens1371) is not working.
If I knew more, I would sbmit bug reports. I likely screwed up build the options. But I do not know that for sure.
The wireless networking is the last thing I expected to work!
The Knoppix CD has QTparted. This is a great GUI wrapper for various tools to partition and resise partitions. You can even shrink NTFS partitions. The Knoppix CD boots to Linux without doing anything to the hard drive. It is great. Free download of ISO image is available.
/boot partition.)
You can also use the Knoppix CD to install Debian Unstable to the hard drive. 2 warnings:
1) It will put LiLo on the MBR. ( I prefer to put it on the boot record of the
2) After hard drive intall it will first boot with KDE in German! It is hard to find the right GUIs to get it into English. There are instructions on the internet on how to find these GUIs.
$18 a CD. The artists (most of them at least) do not get a cent from the CD sales. The CDs and packaging cost pennies to make.
... Wait - The internet Radio stations have to pay a tax to the RIAA.
But the record companies are losing money. This is like screwing up a wet dream! So they now decide to screw the artists even more!
They need to change to a new business model. Promoting Artists should not be so expensive. Web sites and Internet Radio are inexpensive
The Music business will not get better until some of the major labels go under. It is a shame the record stores are going under first.
Here is a way to help the record stores and keep money out of the hands of the major labels:
Buy the CDs used. Copy - Then sell the CD back to the record store at a lower price.
Record companies give very bad contracts to the new bands they sign up. If that band does not sign up to those terms there are 20 more out there who will sign up. These bands get none of that 12 cents. It all goes to "expenses" of the record companies.
Now the record companies are coming to us with big crocodile tears saying "pirates' and P2P file shares are ripping off the artist. But the "pirates" are not ripping off the artists. They are ripping off the record companies who are ripping off the artists.
The cost of making CDs has dropped. Now the cost of copying CDs has dropped too. The industry is fighting the new technology instead of embracing it.
Yes "Piracy" is wrong. Paying $16 for a lump of plastic where not a cent goes to the artist is wrong too. The demand for music is very elastic. Lower the price and more people will buy.
A DRMed song is not anywhere neer as valueable as a CD that can be played anywher. It should be a hell of a lot cheaper than a buck a song. The marginal cost of supplying that DRMed music is close to nothing.
There is no reason for record stores to inventory all those different over priced lumps of plastic. They should burn the CDs on demand, print up the paper and print the decorations on the CD in the store. The technology exists to lower the costs. It is up to the industry to embrace new technolgy.
If the music industry does not embrace new technology, we will embrace it without them. They can adapt or die.
I think you raise a good point. Before all of this, SCO was just fading away. They were losing money. They were almost out of cash. There was no way SCO would last more than 3 years.
Now they get a cash flow from Microsoft as long as they make IBM and Linux look bad. They have some chance of getting bought. They have an outside chance of winning in court. This is a lot better for SCO than certain bankruptcy.
Why would Microsoft even want to spy on us. Maybe after they tried out the spyware they noticed it was not worth the effort!
I do not think they are serious about the lawsuit. SCO is serious about making a lot of noise.
IBM did not offer to buy them. So SCO will try to raise the noise level some more.
But now all they can do is sound like the Iraqi disinformation minister.
"Those penquins are infidels. There is no way penguins can write SMP code without our help. We will slaughter all the penquins and have them for dinner"
Apple has the "Markler" project in it's back pocket. This is a port of OS-X to X86. At some point Apple may play this card. If Microsoft cuts off providing Office apps, Apple could release OS-X for the X86. Apple is reluctant to do this. They are more of a hardware company than a software company.
I have a Tivo that happens to use Linux. TiVo provides links to a web site where I can download the source code. This makes a very good impression on me.
It also provides me with usefull information. I can look at the build switches to see what USB-ethernet adapters are supported and which ones are not.
Tivo did not make public their own PVR source code. I do not think they should make that public. You can mix GPL code on the same box with proprietary stuff.
I think I will take Linksys off my own approved vendor list until they support the spirit of the GPL.
Maybe this is how they can lower the TCO numbers with little expense on their part.
They bundle -- oops I mean integrate-- the virus scanner into the OS. We do not have to pay money to Norton.
On the other hand virus software is subscription based. You subscribe to recieve updates to the virus database. Microsoft wants to move to a subscription based business model.
Foundstone sues Glaser in one of these "arbitration" kangaroo courts. They get to select the kangaroo count. This all starts out stacked in their favor.
But Founstone has been breaking the law big time. And a lot of people knew it.
So this whole thing blows up in their face. And now this has so much attention the "arbitration" court has to deal off the top of the deck.
This reminds me of those scenes in the old TV show "Max Headroom". The television executives would have these meters showing the ratings instantaneously. The needles on these meters were fluctuating second by second. They had instant access to the aggregate viewing of the public.
After the History Channel show.
The natives are restless. Microsoft is starting to wake up to the fact the peasants are restless, and they are starting to find alternatives.
This is a minor concession. Is it like the Czar creating the Duma to hold back the revolution?
Microsoft has not lowered prices for corporate customers. They are continuing to rely on the fact that business customers are dumb about business. The airlines soaked the business customers for years and look at where the airlines are now.
Micrsoft has tossed a few bones. Maybe their trapped and unwilling customers will not feel as ripped off now.
The license for Matlab give permision to install a second copy on a home PC.
Beyond that, Matlab ships with both a Windows CD and a Unix/Linux CD!
Is this a crack in another Berlin Wall?
Ballmer should have done his Monkey Dance for the people of Munich!
SCO was a little slow on the uptake here. They claim Linux code violates their IP. They file a lawsuit about it. After they make this claim they continue to distribute Linux under the GPL.
If Linux does contain SCO's IP, they gave the whole world a GPL License to it!!
Now they are trying to close the barn door after the horse left.
I agree. I destest the fact that our goverment information is kept in undocumented file formats that require a secret decoder ring from a particular supplier to access it.
I agree there should be no preference for Open Source software. However these 2 factors are esential in selecting software for government use:
4. avoid the acquisition of products that do not comply with open standards for interoperability or data storage;
5. avoid the acquisition of products that are known to make unauthorized transfers of information to, or permit unauthorized control of or modification to the state government's computer systems by, parties outside the control of the state government."
It is obvious software for government use should meet these criteria. It is also obvious a lot of proprietary does not meet these requirements.
It is not wonder the mouthpieces for MSFT are at this hearing to head this off.
I am listening to the hearing ( had to fast forward past the HMO stuff. Some notes:
They removed a preference for Open Source from the Bill.
"The Initiative for Software Choice" was there to say they support software choice, but actualy to fight it. Their representive talked about getting together with government IT managers to " help them make their decisions". Scarry stuff.
The Business Software Alliance was there to oppose it. (Hey, if more people used Open source software, there would be less piracy!)
The FUD meisters kept bringing up the one time costs of training people to use new software. The FUD meisters trotted out their favorite words. "Free Market" (as long as they control it). "Innovation" (now a much abused word).