That might not be such a bad idea, if they market it as a national ISP alongside AOL, but without the fluff that would keep knowledgeable users away, not wanting to use AOL branded service...
First up is some Netscape 7.x news. Netscape 7.0 and 7.01 have had a total of over 14 million downloads. To quote an AOL exec, this fact is "impressive compared to AOL 8's 10 million downloads which were backed by AOL's marketing muscle."
Proof the AOL community is coming of age and realizing that AOL != the internet...?
Media companies pay radio stations to play their songs, so you go buy their CDs...
Businesses pay radio stations to play their commercials, so you go buy their products...
Either way, to the consumer, who's gaining free "entertainment", amounts to nothing more than mind control. I can't imagine why anyone would willingly tune into this.
now, if a radio station came about where all the songs played (or a majority) were paid for by the record companies, and ran no commercials, then it would be a little easier to swallow. However, at the rate we're going, where someone is paying the radio stations for everything they play, its no wonder why corporations like ClearChannel are weeding out whatever competition they run across.
IIRC, the FCC had a rule in place that restricted one person or corporation from owning more than X% of the radio stations or TV stations in a particular market?
Hmm, now we've got ClearChannel, the 800-pound gorilla of broadcasting owning practically every radio station in many towns, and the public complains that every station sounds the same.
i generally don't listen to broadcast radio, or for that matter watch much TV.
in the car, i've got a subscription to XM, which is diverse enough that no matter what format I want to listen to, its available. true, its 101 stations run by one corporation, but truly the best part about it is the fact that since its subscription based, most channels aren't advertising-revenue driven, so there's no incentive to play the latest hit single four times an hour.
i don't know, if XM goes to hell, back to CDs for me.
i remember back in chemistry class in high school, we were dealing with creating perfect stoichiometric ratios to get an optimal chemical reaction.
so, to demonstrate this, my chemistry teacher built a spud gun out of solid ABS plastic (stronger and not as likely to put off noxious fumes when burned, as PVC would), and put a ratio of pure isooctane and oxygen into the combustion chamber, and ignited it by applying a current to a sparkplug from a tesla coil.
we also tested out several different ignition mixtures, including starting fluid (ether), hairspray, propane, and yes, even acetylene. we had the whole chem lab at our disposal, and (pardon the pun) the octane mixture truly provided the most horsepower from our cannon.
1) Television shows in syndication don't show the same exact set of commercials each time the show is rerun. This would be changing the way advertisers purchase ad-time from the networks, being that their advertisements would be a permanent part of the show being distributed for free via the corporate website/p2p.
2) The content that makes its way for distribution on p2p networks, will, most likely have the advertising stripped out of it. Have you ever seen an episode of The Simpsons on a p2p network with the commercials intact?
Okay, so they're building a road across Antarctica. Are they going to clear all the snow and ice, and build the road on actual terra firma? Or are they just going to build it on top of ice?
If they build it on ice, and in 20-50 years that ice melts down somewhat because of (manmade global warming/natural global warming/my ass), the road would be in fairly rough shape if not impassable. I'm imagining this is going to be a costly project and any roadway that they're going to pour THAT kind of money into they are going to expect a fairly long lifespan from.
I remember reading something recently here on/. where the recording companies want to file an ISP surcharge to recoup losses to piracy...
media tax, isp surcharges, what are we consumers ever going to get in return for this? No, they're not going to drop the issue and stop acting like a bunch of crybabies, but the fees imposed on end-users are only going to inflate their warchest so they can afford more powerful influence in the government.
AFAIK, there are many, many different people in charge of the various formats available on XM radio. I'm a subscriber, and the true joy of it is the variety you can find in the channels, you can find some of the most obscure pre-grunge alternative on stations like Fred, to bluegrass, and of course they've gotta have a Top 20 station to keep the kiddies happy. Basically, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot by trying to homogenize their programming, because there's no incentive for any one station to have the largest listener share.
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That might not be such a bad idea, if they market it as a national ISP alongside AOL, but without the fluff that would keep knowledgeable users away, not wanting to use AOL branded service...
Businesses pay radio stations to play their commercials, so you go buy their products...
Either way, to the consumer, who's gaining free "entertainment", amounts to nothing more than mind control. I can't imagine why anyone would willingly tune into this.
now, if a radio station came about where all the songs played (or a majority) were paid for by the record companies, and ran no commercials, then it would be a little easier to swallow. However, at the rate we're going, where someone is paying the radio stations for everything they play, its no wonder why corporations like ClearChannel are weeding out whatever competition they run across.
Hmm, now we've got ClearChannel, the 800-pound gorilla of broadcasting owning practically every radio station in many towns, and the public complains that every station sounds the same.
I'm sure it's nothing the public ever asked for.
in the car, i've got a subscription to XM, which is diverse enough that no matter what format I want to listen to, its available. true, its 101 stations run by one corporation, but truly the best part about it is the fact that since its subscription based, most channels aren't advertising-revenue driven, so there's no incentive to play the latest hit single four times an hour.
i don't know, if XM goes to hell, back to CDs for me.
so, to demonstrate this, my chemistry teacher built a spud gun out of solid ABS plastic (stronger and not as likely to put off noxious fumes when burned, as PVC would), and put a ratio of pure isooctane and oxygen into the combustion chamber, and ignited it by applying a current to a sparkplug from a tesla coil.
we also tested out several different ignition mixtures, including starting fluid (ether), hairspray, propane, and yes, even acetylene. we had the whole chem lab at our disposal, and (pardon the pun) the octane mixture truly provided the most horsepower from our cannon.
2) The content that makes its way for distribution on p2p networks, will, most likely have the advertising stripped out of it. Have you ever seen an episode of The Simpsons on a p2p network with the commercials intact?
Okay, so they're building a road across Antarctica. Are they going to clear all the snow and ice, and build the road on actual terra firma? Or are they just going to build it on top of ice? If they build it on ice, and in 20-50 years that ice melts down somewhat because of (manmade global warming/natural global warming/my ass), the road would be in fairly rough shape if not impassable. I'm imagining this is going to be a costly project and any roadway that they're going to pour THAT kind of money into they are going to expect a fairly long lifespan from.
I remember reading something recently here on /. where the recording companies want to file an ISP surcharge to recoup losses to piracy...
media tax, isp surcharges, what are we consumers ever going to get in return for this? No, they're not going to drop the issue and stop acting like a bunch of crybabies, but the fees imposed on end-users are only going to inflate their warchest so they can afford more powerful influence in the government.
AFAIK, there are many, many different people in charge of the various formats available on XM radio. I'm a subscriber, and the true joy of it is the variety you can find in the channels, you can find some of the most obscure pre-grunge alternative on stations like Fred, to bluegrass, and of course they've gotta have a Top 20 station to keep the kiddies happy. Basically, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot by trying to homogenize their programming, because there's no incentive for any one station to have the largest listener share.
they'll get lots and lots of shooting practice :)
After all, what more is an airline terrorist than just a pirate in the sky?