"Being able to download (ONLY FROM the vendor's store) over 3G wireless seems like more of a tether, to me. You're locked in..."
This is a misconception that I find annoying. I have a Kindle (a gift) and haven't had the 3G on in months. It may be true that Amazon _wants_ me to buy their eBooks, but I don't. I have books from Baen, authors' sites, Guttenberg, and publishers sites on my Kindle.
It all became trivial when I found Calibre.
"I can shove ~90 gigabytes of books into this thing (at present)."
So? 90gigs of eBooks is absurd. I have about a dozen books on the Kindle now, which will last me a couple more months. (Some are books I love and like to have around and some are books I'll read and jettison). For a dedicated reader, built-in ram is usually plenty. Now, using a memory card to load books could be useful... Does the Sony support that? (I really don't know and just thought to wonder about it now, but suddenly I'm curious.)
If I were to purchase an eReader, I might go for a Sony, but the Kindle is a really nice device as long as you honor Amazon's phantom lock-in.
I keep hoping that someday I'll read a Slashdot article headlined, "Is xxx doomed?" and the answer is... Yes!
So far... no.
Maybe we could see something like, "Is this the year that the Linux desktop doomed?"
I'm a "technofetishist" and so are many of my friends. We all think voting should be paper. It's a hell of a lot easier to fix the hanging chad bug than to build, debug, and secure a system like that.
I've heard people cite the ATM network when they talk about big, distributed hardware/software systems that anybody can access, and it works pretty well. It's a false-equivalence though. You get a paper statement at the end of every month (or online, immediately) which provides the paper trail. If my account gets hacked, I don't get the wrong president. And you have Visa, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, etc... all with a vested interest in it working properly. Compare that to the Democratic and Republican parties eternal war and they look like best friends forever.
eVoting? No thanks.
That's crap. According to the Bee, they've been trying for 10 years to get support to upgrade the system. You can't fire someone for failing to fix a problem you won't let them fix.
Fable just felt shallow. Yes, Planescape Torment and the Fallout series probably have spoiled me for life but even the bards tale was more of an RPG. Both these recent "RPG"'s light just seem to be more about hack&slash then about story and roleplaying.
Give us the lone hero, the troubled pragmatist worried about his soul, the evil maffia boss who own everything but has nothing. Give us STORY!
It remains my favorite genre, but there's never any real role playing in any of these RPGs. I grew up with Dungeons and Dragons, played some Shadow Run and a few others. There is no comparison.
When you play a role-playing game, you are telling a story that nobody has ever told before (even when you use packaged content). The game is alive. The DM must take the player's actions into account and make up the story as it goes. It is a creative act for the DM and for all the players. The best stuff happens when you have a great DM and innovative players who know the rules well enough not to let them get in the way of the story.
With computer games, the player is not creating anything. The entire genre is misnamed. These are all adventure games. They might be fun and some of them are terrific, but they are all more like reading a story than writing one.
Although the PS3's price sounds sky-high, particularly compared to the Wii and last-generation's still-playable consoles, this generation isn't really that far out of whack.
When you compare release prices for consoles over the years, they tend to get cheaper, not pricier. What the manufacturers get with lower prices in higher market penetration. When they raise the price, they just sell fewer units. What Sony, in particular, is trying to do is have its cake and eat it too.
They want the PS3 to sell like the PS2, but at a new, higher price point. However, they're not stupid. Really. I believe that what they want to do is take advantage of the early adopters. Early adopters always help fund R&D, but with the new systems, I think we're going to see this become even more blatant.
As soon as the Wii and PS3 are out, the 360's price will start to fall. It's been the only next-gen system in the game for a while, so Microsoft has no competition (except, of course, the PS2).
The PS3, as the final release of the generation, will have immediate competition. Sony will sell as many as possible at $800, then drop to $700, $550, and so on until they sell as many as possible.
All they're doing is taking the early adopters for all they're worth. We'll see if it works.
Re:Ebert has the wrong definition of art
on
Why Ebert Was Right
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The reason why academics can never create art is because they never have 'fun playing around'.
Bullshit. I know plenty of academics who have fun playing around. It's just that their media is art. Mozart riffed on musical themes, Shakespeare riffed on humanity (as he saw it), and I've known academics who riff on Mozart, Shakespeare, TS Elliot, Jesus, and plenty of others, and had a ball doing it.
Your definition of academics as "people who don't have fun" is blatantly wrong.
$5 * 6 months * 500 USERS (not songs) uploaded to in a given month is...$15000. I'd bet that in most cases it is much less than 500 unique users who get all or part of a file from your machine when logged into P2P. In any case $15K is mcuh less ridiculous than millions but still enough to remind the offenders that it is wrong.
One other point: 5 bucks per month gets you "over 1 million songs", according to Yahoo!Music. Therefore, one song is worth 1 millionth of $5 per month, or.0005 cents per month.
So if I'm an egregious uploader and have 10,000 songs on my server, sholdn't that be worth 5 cents per user per month? Assume, again, 500 downloaders every month for six months, the actual damages should be 5 cents * 6 months * 500 users = $150.
Yes, let's take a look at the NHLPA. They just offered owners a 24% decrease in salary, which the owners rejected. How many/. readers are offering to work for 76% of their current salary for the same work?
I know they're making a bundle, but the owners signed the contracts...
I occasionally plug my laptop in (using the headphone jack and a 1/8" to rca cable) to listen to mp3s and Rhapsody. The reason I haven't gone further is I don't want to have to turn my TV on in order to navigate my music collection.
I have seen some media center PCs with LCDs to give you some feedback, but in general, it seems you need to turn the TV on to navigate, find, and play from your media collection. I don't need the TV on to play a cd or listen to the radio. I don't want to turn it on to listen to MP3s either.
Slashdot Mirror
"Being able to download (ONLY FROM the vendor's store) over 3G wireless seems like more of a tether, to me. You're locked in..." This is a misconception that I find annoying. I have a Kindle (a gift) and haven't had the 3G on in months. It may be true that Amazon _wants_ me to buy their eBooks, but I don't. I have books from Baen, authors' sites, Guttenberg, and publishers sites on my Kindle. It all became trivial when I found Calibre. "I can shove ~90 gigabytes of books into this thing (at present)." So? 90gigs of eBooks is absurd. I have about a dozen books on the Kindle now, which will last me a couple more months. (Some are books I love and like to have around and some are books I'll read and jettison). For a dedicated reader, built-in ram is usually plenty. Now, using a memory card to load books could be useful... Does the Sony support that? (I really don't know and just thought to wonder about it now, but suddenly I'm curious.) If I were to purchase an eReader, I might go for a Sony, but the Kindle is a really nice device as long as you honor Amazon's phantom lock-in.
I keep hoping that someday I'll read a Slashdot article headlined, "Is xxx doomed?" and the answer is... Yes!
So far... no.
Maybe we could see something like, "Is this the year that the Linux desktop doomed?"
I'm a "technofetishist" and so are many of my friends. We all think voting should be paper. It's a hell of a lot easier to fix the hanging chad bug than to build, debug, and secure a system like that.
I've heard people cite the ATM network when they talk about big, distributed hardware/software systems that anybody can access, and it works pretty well. It's a false-equivalence though. You get a paper statement at the end of every month (or online, immediately) which provides the paper trail. If my account gets hacked, I don't get the wrong president. And you have Visa, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, etc... all with a vested interest in it working properly. Compare that to the Democratic and Republican parties eternal war and they look like best friends forever.
eVoting? No thanks.
That's crap. According to the Bee, they've been trying for 10 years to get support to upgrade the system. You can't fire someone for failing to fix a problem you won't let them fix.
Absolutely! I can't wait to use Jester to find the funniest pron in the intertubes!
Oh God! Thanks a lot... now I've read it and they're lawerys are coming for me.
You'll be hearing from my lawyer!
Yes.
I read that as a "paramedic story line".
Hmm... Seems more appropriate my way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yrH-BDhkNc
Hmmm... Colbert seems to make the same mistake with some regularity.
That might work better. All we have to do is stop pronouncing the Ts. I can hear him now... "Nor Dakoa. It's French, bitch!"
Whew. Glad I'm 36!
Fable just felt shallow. Yes, Planescape Torment and the Fallout series probably have spoiled me for life but even the bards tale was more of an RPG. Both these recent "RPG"'s light just seem to be more about hack&slash then about story and roleplaying.
Give us the lone hero, the troubled pragmatist worried about his soul, the evil maffia boss who own everything but has nothing. Give us STORY!
It remains my favorite genre, but there's never any real role playing in any of these RPGs. I grew up with Dungeons and Dragons, played some Shadow Run and a few others. There is no comparison.
When you play a role-playing game, you are telling a story that nobody has ever told before (even when you use packaged content). The game is alive. The DM must take the player's actions into account and make up the story as it goes. It is a creative act for the DM and for all the players. The best stuff happens when you have a great DM and innovative players who know the rules well enough not to let them get in the way of the story.
With computer games, the player is not creating anything. The entire genre is misnamed. These are all adventure games. They might be fun and some of them are terrific, but they are all more like reading a story than writing one.
I couldn't agree more. Incidentally, my services are available and I guarantee I'd suck as much as any of these guys.
Although the PS3's price sounds sky-high, particularly compared to the Wii and last-generation's still-playable consoles, this generation isn't really that far out of whack.
When you compare release prices for consoles over the years, they tend to get cheaper, not pricier. What the manufacturers get with lower prices in higher market penetration. When they raise the price, they just sell fewer units. What Sony, in particular, is trying to do is have its cake and eat it too.
They want the PS3 to sell like the PS2, but at a new, higher price point. However, they're not stupid. Really. I believe that what they want to do is take advantage of the early adopters. Early adopters always help fund R&D, but with the new systems, I think we're going to see this become even more blatant.
As soon as the Wii and PS3 are out, the 360's price will start to fall. It's been the only next-gen system in the game for a while, so Microsoft has no competition (except, of course, the PS2).
The PS3, as the final release of the generation, will have immediate competition. Sony will sell as many as possible at $800, then drop to $700, $550, and so on until they sell as many as possible.
All they're doing is taking the early adopters for all they're worth. We'll see if it works.
The wealthiest 5% of households hold nearly 60% of all the wealth.
They also pay 35% of the total federal tax revenue.
Shoudln't they pay... 60% then?
Thanks. I needed that.
The reason why academics can never create art is because they never have 'fun playing around'.
Bullshit. I know plenty of academics who have fun playing around. It's just that their media is art. Mozart riffed on musical themes, Shakespeare riffed on humanity (as he saw it), and I've known academics who riff on Mozart, Shakespeare, TS Elliot, Jesus, and plenty of others, and had a ball doing it.
Your definition of academics as "people who don't have fun" is blatantly wrong.
One other point: 5 bucks per month gets you "over 1 million songs", according to Yahoo!Music. Therefore, one song is worth 1 millionth of $5 per month, or .0005 cents per month.
So if I'm an egregious uploader and have 10,000 songs on my server, sholdn't that be worth 5 cents per user per month? Assume, again, 500 downloaders every month for six months, the actual damages should be 5 cents * 6 months * 500 users = $150.
Let's see the RIAA get rich off that...
(YMMV: Your Math May Vary)
July 6, 2005
s erinput&sstring=serenity
http://darkhorse.com/search/search.php?frompage=u
Yes, let's take a look at the NHLPA. They just offered owners a 24% decrease in salary, which the owners rejected. How many /. readers are offering to work for 76% of their current salary for the same work?
I know they're making a bundle, but the owners signed the contracts...
I have seen some media center PCs with LCDs to give you some feedback, but in general, it seems you need to turn the TV on to navigate, find, and play from your media collection. I don't need the TV on to play a cd or listen to the radio. I don't want to turn it on to listen to MP3s either.