They didn't make money. That's why they went under.
Then resurfaced, then went under again. They're back once more; not sure how good of a deal it is...I get spammed from them because I was an original member (they can't seem to locate my account, but somehow I keep getting spam from them as if I were...go figure).
The first time they were alive (had a lot of employees, too), I made maybe a hundred or two out of them. Most of that was VC, though. The search engines they used (Lycos was one, I believe. Don't recall Google being one, as another poster mentioned, but it was a long time ago), which were the bulk of their revenue, refused to pay out. (search engines don't like incentivized clicks for obvious reasons) Freeride lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $500K because they already paid it out thanks to the VC!
The advantage satellite has, though, is the ability to get to many users simultaneously.
Several channels can be reserved. Users can make their selections the night (or several days) beforehand. The information gets uploaded. Then, the satellite company tallies up who wanted what. Presumably new releases will be asked for by more than one person.
The TiVo will know to turn into a specific channel at a specific time to record the requested movie. Users can also pay more for priority delivery. Say I want to watch LOTR but I don't care if I get it tonight, or the next week...so I can give it low priority. The company will send it out when it has spare bandwidth, or when a certain threshhold of users request it (thereby sending it to more than one person).
Sure there are kinks (bad weather in one area preventing reception, etc) but I think it's doable.
The baseball game that came out for the computer module (not the original computer module that had limited distribution, but the scaled back one) also made use of the IntelliVoice. It wasn't mandatory to use it, but did make the game slightly more interesting.
Is they'll abandon the idea entirely, and just go back to copyprotected CDs. Then they won't have to worry about the royalties, but will remain harder for the average joe to get their music that they paid for.
Not that it will really stop anyone determined to get the music, but might slow down the uninformed quite a bit from using these CDs in their cars, thus continuing to aggravate the masses.
In a statement, the DMA said that while it welcomed the ruling, it "acknowledges the wishes of millions of U.S. consumers who have expressed their preferences not to receive" telemarketing solicitations.
Gee, I guess that never occurred to them before this list was created. Now that it has occurred to them, any bets on if they'll actually respect those wishes?
This just shows that technical solutions aren't the silver bullet to stopping spam (although they do help tremendously).
If these logs are indeed correct, and people are indeed buying these products, then these are the people we need to educate. By them responding to the spam, they are reinforcing the notion that spam is indeed profitable, and the spammers will continue their assault on our mailboxes.
Methinks the only way for spam to truly stop is to make it not worth it for the spammer. Besides blocking techniques, we have to make sure they get no positive responses to those message that do get through.
Unfortunately, this is a society issue. If people really do want this junk, then they are going to buy it.
-Phlack
I'll vouch for this posting, although I have no hard numbers to back it up, just observation.
Between my two kids, I am constantly charging batteries of some sort (have the old battery manager sold by real goods, the one with the LCD readout, not the newer one they sell...I quite like it). Mainly using AA's and some C's, NiMHs.
It seems that the batteries that are left, even for a couple of days after charging, have significantly reduced charge left in them. Sometimes a set of batteries left for two weeks have very little charge in them at all.
For now, I'm just rotating the batteries in and out of the charger...whichever was most recently in them, gets put into the toy. I'll probably figure out a better system soon. I'm not sure if the battery manager trickle charges or not...I'll have to determine that as well.
But basically...yes, NiMHs definitely have a high self-discharge rate!
-Phlack
It was available in Yonkers, NY with Cablevision. I didn't have it, but a friend did. For $10/month, you had a choice of 20 games. They swapped games in and out every month, keeping some, changing others. They sent you the overlays and documentation of all the games the month before (I believe you got to keep them). My friend absolutely loved it.
When they terminated it (Intellivision really wasn't too popular...at least in my area...ColecoVision came out too quickly) they offered each subscriber 5 games of their choice. My friend was sorry to see it go.
I thought it was a pretty nifty idea myself.
Didn't Sega try something similar with the Genesis?
Spending your energy to try and get people to assign a different meaning is like trying to get people to use words like "womyn" and "freedom fries". It's wasted energy
Not necessarily.
Although not the exact same thing, remember the deal with Apple and SCSI...they wanted it pronounced "sexy". That didn't go over too well. Probably because everyone else didn't like it, so they called it "scuzzy".
With DRM being something no-one will like, if enough people will refer to it as Restrictions, then they'll realize what it is and reject it.
Yeah, a long shot, I know, but it couldn't hurt. At the very least it would spur conversation and get more people thinking about it just a little more.
Having two kids (one just a month ago) I've learned a few things.
1) Definitely the TiVo! I don't know how I'd watch anything without it. 2) Garage Sales are your friend. You can get some very cheap clothing there. Babies grow out of things so fast, it isn't worth buying new stuff. Toys and stuff: same thing. The kid isn't going to know (or care) if it's new or used. 2a) Do NOT buy items like car seats or strollers at garage sales, unless you know they are still new, and haven't been recalled. You'd be amazed how often these things are recalled. Check the companies' web sites for recall notices. 3) Breastfeed if possible. Cheaper, and better for the baby. 4) But formula at night...takes baby a little longer to digest, thus giving you an extra hour or so to sleep. Also try to keep baby up right before you go to sleep (you'll find your sleep schedule will depend on baby, though), so it will sleep longer. This has worked wonders with both my kids. 1 month old, and almost 6 hours at a shot now! 5) When having a baby shower thrown, ask people not to only get you newborn outfits. Baby will outgrow them instantly, and you'll have stuff you'll never have worn. 6) You'll still need to bottle feed. Have lots of bottles & nipples handy...you go through them fast. 7) Walmart has nice cheap baby stuff. Do shop around, and check out your local warehouse club (like Sams); they tend to have good prices on diapers & formula. 8) Don't grab baby the instant it cries. Maybe initially, but don't get it used to it. Otherwise he/she will develop the idea that "I cry, I get attention". The kid will need to deal with the situation. Half the time, baby will go back to sleep anyway. (Moms have a tougher time with this than dads, obviously!) 9) Don't plan on having much of a social life. BUT do attempt to get to know couples that have a kid around the same age. If your place of residence has a community playground, that's an excellent place to meet other parents. Join (or form) playgroups. Sometimes you'll find ads in the newspaper (or community newsletter). You'll have people in your same situation, and your kids will have new friends when they get a little older, since they'll be used to them. 9a) This also helps with baby-swapping. You watch their kid, they watch yours when you want a night out. MUCH CHEAPER than hiring a babysitter. Sometimes churches organize these officially, but you can do it on your own with the new people you meet.
I think everything else is covered by others. Congrats, and good luck! -Phlack
I won't disregard their software in the future; I'm always impressed by good customer service.
I don't think their customer service was great at the start (and still don't think so either). They did try to dodge this as much as they could, sticking to their guns about everything they did, all in the guise of protecting their product from piracy (shesh, TurboTax is probably the most popular tax product, selling millions, how much are they actually worried about?). I think they were more worried about their egos than public opinion. Heck, even in their conference call (or was it an annual meeting) they called the complainers a "vocal minority". Unfortunately, that's what it usually takes. Joe Sixpack isn't going to know anything about C-Dilla.
Now, all that said, it's nice to know they finally listened and will be changing it for next year. Who knows what they will do, but it's nice to see they are listening, even if slightly.
Everyone is allowed a mistake. This was a bad one on their part, and they handled it poorly. Hopefully next year they can redeem themselves. I for one, will be waiting to see what "feature" they implement before I consider buying it. I'm willing to give them a second chance. But it would be nice to hear from them "Ok, we screwed up, we admit it, we apologize". That would give me more of a warm fuzzy.
I wasn't opposed to the VCR. The MPAA tried to establish by law that the VCR was infringing on copyright. Then we would go to the Congress and get a copyright royalty fee put on all blank videocassettes and that would go back to the creators [to compensate for videocassette piracy].
To compensate for all those people that made home videos? All those people that copied all those home videos? Are they getting compensated? Come-on Jack! I'm not paying YOU because I want to film my 3 year old!
"Now that the court has ordered Verizon to live up to its obligation under the law, we look forward to contacting the account holder whose identity we were seeking so we can let them know that what they are doing is illegal," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America.
I'm sure they're only going to knock on the filesharer's door, and politely say "Excuse me, what you did was illegal, please don't do it again. As a token of our appreciation, here's a LEGITIMATE CD of Justin Timberlake...we seem to have plenty of these leftover."
This sounds like a good reason to offer distant locals in HD on DirecTV. Obviously this would require regulatory approval (here in the Orlando area I can't get NYC locals since DirecTV provides Orlando locals). But if there can be one (or two) HD feeds of distant local networks (say, NYC and LA) and throw that up CONUS, that can solve the bandwidth problem. Subscribers can get their local stations for news, while network shows can still be received in HD on the distant networks.
This of course assumes all the local channels of those distance cities are doing HD broadcasts.
I'm sure broadcasters would howl and moan about this anyway, but it seems like a reasonable solution to the bandwidth issue. Otherwise it will be a long time before DirecTV can provide HD locals in every market.
It amazes me that, in this era of cheaper (and more available) communications, including WiFi, and national cellular phone plans, hotels are still charging obnoxious rates for local (and even long distance/1-800) calls.
But I suppose that as long as people are willing to pay them, then the hotel chains are willing to charge for them.
Another thing I find interesting, speaking of Marriots, is that the higher class the Marriott, the more they charge. The "bottom of the barrel" Marriotts (Fairfield Inn, Townplace Suites) have free local calls, yet your higher class Marriots (the resorts, the normal "Marriots", and, I guess, Residence Inns) charge up the wazoo.
I stay in Alexandria, VA a lot for work, actually. I usually stay at the Marriott Courtyard on Eisenhower. There it's $.50/local call, no fee for 1-800 calls, and $9.95 for the high speed internet access (which includes long distance)/day.
That $.50 bugs me, even though I'm a Platinum Marriott member, and therefore that gets waived. We pay $150/night there (government rate, most pay higher), and they still find the need to charge 4 bits for a freakin phone call?
According to this article DirecTV is complaining they had no input into the digital tv standard, along with some other non-cable operators (unclear if this meant EchoStar). It seems to me the industry should be together 100% on this.
'Course, according to other posters on here, it might be easier for DirecTV signals to go through anyway, but nonetheless, everyone should be involved, or else we're back to the Beta/VHS situation again.
how can you make sure that people will be responsible enough not just trash them in a regular trash can
Battery deposit, of some arbitrary amount. May not make everyone return these things to their rightful place, and the infrastructure would be need to be set up (imagine a collection center at every Radio Shack). Similar to alluminum cans in states where there is a deposit required...stores that sell soda cans usually are mandated to take the returns as well. If you sell these "nuclear batteries", then you must take them back as well. The incentive for the consumer is they get their $3 back (or whatever amount is decided on).
Yeah, there will be people who won't return them, but it will help. Assuming, of course, this is indeed an important issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Then resurfaced, then went under again. They're back once more; not sure how good of a deal it is...I get spammed from them because I was an original member (they can't seem to locate my account, but somehow I keep getting spam from them as if I were...go figure).
The first time they were alive (had a lot of employees, too), I made maybe a hundred or two out of them. Most of that was VC, though. The search engines they used (Lycos was one, I believe. Don't recall Google being one, as another poster mentioned, but it was a long time ago), which were the bulk of their revenue, refused to pay out. (search engines don't like incentivized clicks for obvious reasons) Freeride lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $500K because they already paid it out thanks to the VC!
Was fun while it lasted, though.
Several channels can be reserved. Users can make their selections the night (or several days) beforehand. The information gets uploaded. Then, the satellite company tallies up who wanted what. Presumably new releases will be asked for by more than one person.
The TiVo will know to turn into a specific channel at a specific time to record the requested movie. Users can also pay more for priority delivery. Say I want to watch LOTR but I don't care if I get it tonight, or the next week...so I can give it low priority. The company will send it out when it has spare bandwidth, or when a certain threshhold of users request it (thereby sending it to more than one person).
Sure there are kinks (bad weather in one area preventing reception, etc) but I think it's doable.
The baseball game that came out for the computer module (not the original computer module that had limited distribution, but the scaled back one) also made use of the IntelliVoice. It wasn't mandatory to use it, but did make the game slightly more interesting.
Wouldn't sending Spirit up with a divining rod been easier?
Not that it will really stop anyone determined to get the music, but might slow down the uninformed quite a bit from using these CDs in their cars, thus continuing to aggravate the masses.
A nice quote from that article:
Gee, I guess that never occurred to them before this list was created. Now that it has occurred to them, any bets on if they'll actually respect those wishes?Money flying out the window!
If these logs are indeed correct, and people are indeed buying these products, then these are the people we need to educate. By them responding to the spam, they are reinforcing the notion that spam is indeed profitable, and the spammers will continue their assault on our mailboxes.
Methinks the only way for spam to truly stop is to make it not worth it for the spammer. Besides blocking techniques, we have to make sure they get no positive responses to those message that do get through.
Unfortunately, this is a society issue. If people really do want this junk, then they are going to buy it. -Phlack
I'll vouch for this posting, although I have no hard numbers to back it up, just observation. Between my two kids, I am constantly charging batteries of some sort (have the old battery manager sold by real goods, the one with the LCD readout, not the newer one they sell...I quite like it). Mainly using AA's and some C's, NiMHs. It seems that the batteries that are left, even for a couple of days after charging, have significantly reduced charge left in them. Sometimes a set of batteries left for two weeks have very little charge in them at all. For now, I'm just rotating the batteries in and out of the charger...whichever was most recently in them, gets put into the toy. I'll probably figure out a better system soon. I'm not sure if the battery manager trickle charges or not...I'll have to determine that as well. But basically...yes, NiMHs definitely have a high self-discharge rate! -Phlack
When they terminated it (Intellivision really wasn't too popular...at least in my area...ColecoVision came out too quickly) they offered each subscriber 5 games of their choice. My friend was sorry to see it go.
I thought it was a pretty nifty idea myself.
Didn't Sega try something similar with the Genesis?
But if the computer contains more than one CPU, will the RIAA demand that the song be purchased twice?
soviet-russia.slashdot.org
Oh wait, that could be an alias to:
yro.slashdot.org
Not necessarily.
Although not the exact same thing, remember the deal with Apple and SCSI...they wanted it pronounced "sexy". That didn't go over too well. Probably because everyone else didn't like it, so they called it "scuzzy".
With DRM being something no-one will like, if enough people will refer to it as Restrictions, then they'll realize what it is and reject it.
Yeah, a long shot, I know, but it couldn't hurt. At the very least it would spur conversation and get more people thinking about it just a little more.
Having two kids (one just a month ago) I've learned a few things.
1) Definitely the TiVo! I don't know how I'd watch anything without it.
2) Garage Sales are your friend. You can get some very cheap clothing there. Babies grow out of things so fast, it isn't worth buying new stuff. Toys and stuff: same thing. The kid isn't going to know (or care) if it's new or used.
2a) Do NOT buy items like car seats or strollers at garage sales, unless you know they are still new, and haven't been recalled. You'd be amazed how often these things are recalled. Check the companies' web sites for recall notices.
3) Breastfeed if possible. Cheaper, and better for the baby.
4) But formula at night...takes baby a little longer to digest, thus giving you an extra hour or so to sleep. Also try to keep baby up right before you go to sleep (you'll find your sleep schedule will depend on baby, though), so it will sleep longer. This has worked wonders with both my kids. 1 month old, and almost 6 hours at a shot now!
5) When having a baby shower thrown, ask people not to only get you newborn outfits. Baby will outgrow them instantly, and you'll have stuff you'll never have worn.
6) You'll still need to bottle feed. Have lots of bottles & nipples handy...you go through them fast.
7) Walmart has nice cheap baby stuff. Do shop around, and check out your local warehouse club (like Sams); they tend to have good prices on diapers & formula.
8) Don't grab baby the instant it cries. Maybe initially, but don't get it used to it. Otherwise he/she will develop the idea that "I cry, I get attention". The kid will need to deal with the situation. Half the time, baby will go back to sleep anyway. (Moms have a tougher time with this than dads, obviously!)
9) Don't plan on having much of a social life. BUT do attempt to get to know couples that have a kid around the same age. If your place of residence has a community playground, that's an excellent place to meet other parents. Join (or form) playgroups. Sometimes you'll find ads in the newspaper (or community newsletter). You'll have people in your same situation, and your kids will have new friends when they get a little older, since they'll be used to them.
9a) This also helps with baby-swapping. You watch their kid, they watch yours when you want a night out. MUCH CHEAPER than hiring a babysitter. Sometimes churches organize these officially, but you can do it on your own with the new people you meet.
I think everything else is covered by others. Congrats, and good luck!
-Phlack
April Dupe's Day!
I don't think their customer service was great at the start (and still don't think so either). They did try to dodge this as much as they could, sticking to their guns about everything they did, all in the guise of protecting their product from piracy (shesh, TurboTax is probably the most popular tax product, selling millions, how much are they actually worried about?). I think they were more worried about their egos than public opinion. Heck, even in their conference call (or was it an annual meeting) they called the complainers a "vocal minority". Unfortunately, that's what it usually takes. Joe Sixpack isn't going to know anything about C-Dilla.
Now, all that said, it's nice to know they finally listened and will be changing it for next year. Who knows what they will do, but it's nice to see they are listening, even if slightly.
Everyone is allowed a mistake. This was a bad one on their part, and they handled it poorly. Hopefully next year they can redeem themselves. I for one, will be waiting to see what "feature" they implement before I consider buying it. I'm willing to give them a second chance. But it would be nice to hear from them "Ok, we screwed up, we admit it, we apologize". That would give me more of a warm fuzzy.
-Phlack
To compensate for all those people that made home videos? All those people that copied all those home videos? Are they getting compensated? Come-on Jack! I'm not paying YOU because I want to film my 3 year old!
And I'm sure those 60 million people (plus university students) will all be watching LOTR huddled around their 17" monitors. Try again, Jack.
They've got some really shitty snow on that slope.
I'm sure they're only going to knock on the filesharer's door, and politely say "Excuse me, what you did was illegal, please don't do it again. As a token of our appreciation, here's a LEGITIMATE CD of Justin Timberlake...we seem to have plenty of these leftover."
This of course assumes all the local channels of those distance cities are doing HD broadcasts.
I'm sure broadcasters would howl and moan about this anyway, but it seems like a reasonable solution to the bandwidth issue. Otherwise it will be a long time before DirecTV can provide HD locals in every market.
But I suppose that as long as people are willing to pay them, then the hotel chains are willing to charge for them.
Another thing I find interesting, speaking of Marriots, is that the higher class the Marriott, the more they charge. The "bottom of the barrel" Marriotts (Fairfield Inn, Townplace Suites) have free local calls, yet your higher class Marriots (the resorts, the normal "Marriots", and, I guess, Residence Inns) charge up the wazoo.
I stay in Alexandria, VA a lot for work, actually. I usually stay at the Marriott Courtyard on Eisenhower. There it's $.50/local call, no fee for 1-800 calls, and $9.95 for the high speed internet access (which includes long distance)/day.
That $.50 bugs me, even though I'm a Platinum Marriott member, and therefore that gets waived. We pay $150/night there (government rate, most pay higher), and they still find the need to charge 4 bits for a freakin phone call?
'Course, according to other posters on here, it might be easier for DirecTV signals to go through anyway, but nonetheless, everyone should be involved, or else we're back to the Beta/VHS situation again.
Battery deposit, of some arbitrary amount. May not make everyone return these things to their rightful place, and the infrastructure would be need to be set up (imagine a collection center at every Radio Shack). Similar to alluminum cans in states where there is a deposit required...stores that sell soda cans usually are mandated to take the returns as well. If you sell these "nuclear batteries", then you must take them back as well. The incentive for the consumer is they get their $3 back (or whatever amount is decided on).
Yeah, there will be people who won't return them, but it will help. Assuming, of course, this is indeed an important issue.
When I bought my nephews a new Backstreet Boys CD, I asked why they hadn't downloaded it instead.
I'd like to know how many members of the male persuasion actually ADMIT to listening to the Backstreet Boys?