~$8k on Amazon so the copyrights are probably worth a lot but I think that a lot of these titles are public domain...I'm a computer scientist so I don't know how realistic this would be. Of course, they could probably host Project Gutenberg for free if they wanted.
There is an old rule of thumb that a classic has to be re-translated and re-introduced in every generation to remain inviting and accesible to the student and general reader. Preserving the original texts is a trival problem in comparison.
If you know Plato, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare only as assigned English reading you'll recognize the truth of this.
Dr. Suess, anyone? I mean, how do you license a loved one's works and continually soak up money for them? To me, the work of Disney in this respect is just plain rotten and ruined some good guidelines to release works to the public domain.
The truths about Disney that the Geek ignores is that the Disney archives remain intact and the Disney product remains accessible and to affordable. You want Bambi in pristine digital restoration? You'll find it at your corner drugstore selling for under $20.
Bambi was filmed in three-strip technicolor. The matte paintings on glass survive. The pencil tests survive. Steamboat Willie was distributed on unstable nitrate stock with synchronized sound on phonographic disks. Conservation costs money. Restoration costs money.
The skills required are rare and demanding.
But you don't need Big Daddy Warbucks to "rescue" Mickey Mouse. The Mouse is still on stage.
the only path to desktop revenue growth for the OS is to tighten the DRM noose until it is the equivalent of your cable/satellite set top box. Any other path is too risky/difficult.
There is no consumer market for an OS distribution that doesn't support DRM'd media play out of the box.
Apple understands this. Microsoft understands this. Linspire -- which has a modest presence in big box retail -- understands this.
The only one with his head still stuck in the sand is the Geek.
After I've seen my 40 year old car start every day, summer or winter for two years, and after I marveled at every part of it beeing way older then me, and still not rusted, not broken, not even worn, it's obvious to me contemporary cars are designed to live short lives.
There is the Winter in Arlington, Virgina and there is Winter in Buffalo, New York. 22" of snow overnight in mid October. So color me a touch skeptical when I hear stories about your rust-free vintage Fiat.
Home User: No real downside since most home users surf the internet, send e-mail, do a little word processing, play some MP3's. Pretty basic stuff, easily covered by a Mac.
If this is true, why is it that in over twenty years the Mac's share of the home market has never creeped above a single digit.
Despite iTunes, iLife, etc.
As an exercise for the reader, just suppose for a moment that the home market is more complex than the Geek imagines. More than e-mail. More than the web. That it is not simply games that holds OSX and Linux back.
Could automakers make the million mile car that was super reliable, got good mileage, had decent power, and because of that, actually be cost effective for the consumer..? I bet they could, but there wouldn't be much incentive for them to remain in the car making business, as sales would dreop off severely eventually. The fixit shops would hate it. The oil companies would hate it. Stockholders would hate it.
Henry Ford thought he had the perfect car in the Model T and so it was in 1915.
But times change. The definition of perfection changes.
The electric starter means you don't have to be a young adult male in his physical prime to drive an automobile. Without risking a broken arm or cardiac arrest every time you crank her up.
Hard surfaced roads and reliable low presure tires means you can build for speed and comfort.
Mass production means you can build an all-metal, all-weather, closed car, the four door sedan, and price it within reach of anyone with a middle class income.
Software that installs without the user's knowledge or consent is by definition malware.
Microsoft asks users to temporarily disable AV when installing IE7 because the installer makes complex changes to the Registry. The install can be trashed by something as simple as an out-of-date signature file.
See, owners of intellectual property are charged with a responsibility called due diligence. They are required to take reasonable action to protect their property, or they lose the ability to enforce their rights at all.
Unlike trademarks, copyrights have explicit constitutional protection in the United States.
Actually the administration is merely pandering to the evangelicals. They aren't actually getting much of what they want. This group in office has their own agenda. They just convince the religious to support it.
"A new memoir by David Kuo, former second-in-command of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has the White House on the defensive with its account of an Administration that mocked Evangelicals in private while using them at election time to bolster its support." Why a Christian in the White House Felt Betrayed
I am not a historian, but wasn't the whole point of broadcast licenses to prevent frequency interference?
The issues have never been exclusively technical.
The arguments are usually framed in terms of the "Public Interest, Convenience and Necessity."
NBC grew so big in the twenties and thirties that it was broadcasting across two national radio networks, the Red and the Blue, and if left unconstrained would have probably spun off a White.
--- and you thought Clear Channel had a lock on the airwaves,
Microsoft was not a niche player in the era of the eight bit micro.
That said. The alternate reality probably looks like this. Digital Research gets the contract for the 16 bit IBM PC. IBM with its broad experience in office machines delivers an easily upgradeable, very solid product.
Apple's embyronic GUI looks promising. But price and performance issues take it out of the running.
Microsoft is very strong in development tools for the new micro and is agressively pursuing opportunites in applications like word processing.
There are no PC clones. But there is a commercially successful PCJr with color graphics and sound. There is Commander Keen, King's Quest, Wolfenstein and, ultimately, Doom.
In short, this alternate reality begins to look very much like our reality. The IBM PC becomes solidly anchored in the business and instutional markets and quickly becomes competitive even in the home.
What's with this interest in companies trying to rent games to people instead of selling them? How many more reasons is the gaming industry going to come up with to push gamers to piracy?
The rental model looks good when you tire of spending hours trolling the P2P nets for files that would be a one-click download from a legit, trusted source.
---and all the better, if it means a painless install, updated graphics and sound, and perhaps other enhancements to a classic game.
Nobody cares about a cut-scene in 1080p and 7.1, really nobody.
The reality is that the next-gen consoles are competing in the market for HD content:
The NFL on cable or satellite. The video rental from Netflix.
Once you make the commitment to wide screen, large screen, HD projection and theatrical quality digital sound you don't look back. No more than the PC gamer looks back to the MIDI soundtracks and 320x240 graphics of Doom.
This is a new restriction being placed on an existing use of a material. The risks haven't changed since the 1960's, yet now these people need to have a federal background check just to partisipate in there hobby?
Its wrong, and its an abuse of power by our federal government.
Last week you could fly a private aircraft down the East River without being in contact with air traffic control. FAA restricts Manhattan flight path "The risks haven't changed since the 1060s..."
The rules governing the use, storage and handling of hazardous materials have changed profoundly since the 1960s. You have no constitutionally protected right to build a rocket or to pursue any other hobby that presents a clear and present danger to others.
Where else could you get an unlimited supply of coolant?
The supply is unlimited only so long as the cooling system remains intact and operational.
What are the risks of corrosion, if any, in using cold salt water as a coolant?
Hell, if this goes pear shaped, you could drop the core miles beneath the sea never to be seen again.
You could. But the barge is anchored inshore. Where is the nearest drop point? How much time and personnel and equiptment do you need to do this under artic conditions?
I'd suggest that whatever sexual activity takes place between consenting adults...is their own business.
It doesn't logically follow that Ireland is obliged to tolerate the commercialization of sex or provide a public forum for the pornographer. You want it private? Keep it private.
Did anybody wake up this morning wanting to do less with their computer?
Microsoft Just Doesn't Get It.
Microsoft markets to home, office, the enterprise and institutional markets. The school, the hospital, the government, the military. The Geek gets the crumbs which fall off the table.
But an awful lot of home users rely on the advice of their knowledgeable friends and family members in making decisions.
I couldn't trap a live Geek on the ground here if I used a keg of beer and my cousin, an eye-catching young Hooters gal, as bait.
I don't believe the species is to be found off-campus. Our somnambulist regional LUG hasn't updated its home page since the first Clinton administration. There is no community outreach whatsoever.
The world looks very different when you are running Windows. Classes for seniors, for kids, at every school, college, public library and community center within a seventy-five mile radius.
Subsidized CEU and certification programs for the disabled, those on welfare. Marketable skills, too.
MSDOS and Windows have been in the home for twenty-five years. What my friends and family know is Windows.
Slashdot Mirror
There is an old rule of thumb that a classic has to be re-translated and re-introduced in every generation to remain inviting and accesible to the student and general reader. Preserving the original texts is a trival problem in comparison.
If you know Plato, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare only as assigned English reading you'll recognize the truth of this.
Dr. Suess, anyone? I mean, how do you license a loved one's works and continually soak up money for them? To me, the work of Disney in this respect is just plain rotten and ruined some good guidelines to release works to the public domain.
The truths about Disney that the Geek ignores is that the Disney archives remain intact and the Disney product remains accessible and to affordable. You want Bambi in pristine digital restoration? You'll find it at your corner drugstore selling for under $20.
Bambi was filmed in three-strip technicolor. The matte paintings on glass survive. The pencil tests survive. Steamboat Willie was distributed on unstable nitrate stock with synchronized sound on phonographic disks. Conservation costs money. Restoration costs money.
The skills required are rare and demanding.
But you don't need Big Daddy Warbucks to "rescue" Mickey Mouse. The Mouse is still on stage.
There is no consumer market for an OS distribution that doesn't support DRM'd media play out of the box.
Apple understands this. Microsoft understands this. Linspire -- which has a modest presence in big box retail -- understands this.
The only one with his head still stuck in the sand is the Geek.
There is the Winter in Arlington, Virgina and there is Winter in Buffalo, New York. 22" of snow overnight in mid October. So color me a touch skeptical when I hear stories about your rust-free vintage Fiat.
If this is true, why is it that in over twenty years the Mac's share of the home market has never creeped above a single digit.
Despite iTunes, iLife, etc.
As an exercise for the reader, just suppose for a moment that the home market is more complex than the Geek imagines. More than e-mail. More than the web. That it is not simply games that holds OSX and Linux back.
What is there that the Geek doesn't see?
The old-time reporter this kind of story an evergreen.
Something to be tossed off betwen a round of beers at the gin mill across the street.
Hitler was born Austrian and Catholic and raised in an environment that was deeply anti=semetic.
Henry Ford thought he had the perfect car in the Model T and so it was in 1915.
But times change. The definition of perfection changes.
The electric starter means you don't have to be a young adult male in his physical prime to drive an automobile. Without risking a broken arm or cardiac arrest every time you crank her up.
Hard surfaced roads and reliable low presure tires means you can build for speed and comfort. Mass production means you can build an all-metal, all-weather, closed car, the four door sedan, and price it within reach of anyone with a middle class income.
It's a fair question.
Software that installs without the user's knowledge or consent is by definition malware.
Microsoft asks users to temporarily disable AV when installing IE7 because the installer makes complex changes to the Registry. The install can be trashed by something as simple as an out-of-date signature file.
Trouble shooting conflicts with AV software can be a nightmare for non-technical end users and Kaspersky is no exception: Kapersky Lab Forums > Protection for Home Users
Where does that leave the user who doesn't know and cannot know that KAV is resident on his system?
Microsoft targets distinct market segments with Vista. In which the Geek is conspicuously absent.
Windows and the Mac split the PC market because users do not want to mess with the internals of an operating system.
The second rule of Usenet is that AOL wasn't the first or last provider to drop the service.
Unlike trademarks, copyrights have explicit constitutional protection in the United States.
The exercise of "due diligence" may -- someday -- limit damages for the infringement in good faith of so-called orphaned works. Infringement Is Everywhere: Congress Addresses 'Orphaned Works"
But the owner's rights remain intact. The infringement ends or you will be back in court and in a much more hostile environment.
"A new memoir by David Kuo, former second-in-command of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has the White House on the defensive with its account of an Administration that mocked Evangelicals in private while using them at election time to bolster its support." Why a Christian in the White House Felt Betrayed
explain to me again what is good about driving wages and working conditions down to third world levels.
The issues have never been exclusively technical.
The arguments are usually framed in terms of the "Public Interest, Convenience and Necessity."
NBC grew so big in the twenties and thirties that it was broadcasting across two national radio networks, the Red and the Blue, and if left unconstrained would have probably spun off a White.
--- and you thought Clear Channel had a lock on the airwaves,
Microsoft was not a niche player in the era of the eight bit micro.
That said. The alternate reality probably looks like this. Digital Research gets the contract for the 16 bit IBM PC. IBM with its broad experience in office machines delivers an easily upgradeable, very solid product.
Apple's embyronic GUI looks promising. But price and performance issues take it out of the running.
Microsoft is very strong in development tools for the new micro and is agressively pursuing opportunites in applications like word processing. There are no PC clones. But there is a commercially successful PCJr with color graphics and sound. There is Commander Keen, King's Quest, Wolfenstein and, ultimately, Doom.
In short, this alternate reality begins to look very much like our reality. The IBM PC becomes solidly anchored in the business and instutional markets and quickly becomes competitive even in the home.
Yes, of course.
Your first thought is to go out and buy fresh fruit from the same vendor whose vegetables are contaminated with e.Coli.
The rental model looks good when you tire of spending hours trolling the P2P nets for files that would be a one-click download from a legit, trusted source.
---and all the better, if it means a painless install, updated graphics and sound, and perhaps other enhancements to a classic game.
The reality is that the next-gen consoles are competing in the market for HD content:
The NFL on cable or satellite. The video rental from Netflix.
Once you make the commitment to wide screen, large screen, HD projection and theatrical quality digital sound you don't look back. No more than the PC gamer looks back to the MIDI soundtracks and 320x240 graphics of Doom.
but, seriously dude, an app that screams "CRPPLED!" to anyone but a Geek is going nowhere fast.
and nine year old farm boys were hired to pack black powder into bore holes for the construction of the Erie Canal in the 1820s.
freedom ought to mean more than the exploitation of the innocent. freedom ought to mean more than a demonstration of your own lethal incompetence.
Its wrong, and its an abuse of power by our federal government.
Last week you could fly a private aircraft down the East River without being in contact with air traffic control. FAA restricts Manhattan flight path "The risks haven't changed since the 1060s..."
The rules governing the use, storage and handling of hazardous materials have changed profoundly since the 1960s. You have no constitutionally protected right to build a rocket or to pursue any other hobby that presents a clear and present danger to others.
The supply is unlimited only so long as the cooling system remains intact and operational.
What are the risks of corrosion, if any, in using cold salt water as a coolant?
Hell, if this goes pear shaped, you could drop the core miles beneath the sea never to be seen again.
You could. But the barge is anchored inshore. Where is the nearest drop point? How much time and personnel and equiptment do you need to do this under artic conditions?
If it can be done at all.
It doesn't logically follow that Ireland is obliged to tolerate the commercialization of sex or provide a public forum for the pornographer. You want it private? Keep it private.
Microsoft Just Doesn't Get It.
Microsoft markets to home, office, the enterprise and institutional markets. The school, the hospital, the government, the military. The Geek gets the crumbs which fall off the table.
I couldn't trap a live Geek on the ground here if I used a keg of beer and my cousin, an eye-catching young Hooters gal, as bait.
I don't believe the species is to be found off-campus. Our somnambulist regional LUG hasn't updated its home page since the first Clinton administration. There is no community outreach whatsoever.
The world looks very different when you are running Windows. Classes for seniors, for kids, at every school, college, public library and community center within a seventy-five mile radius.
Subsidized CEU and certification programs for the disabled, those on welfare. Marketable skills, too.
MSDOS and Windows have been in the home for twenty-five years. What my friends and family know is Windows.