"In the Netherlands downloading.mp3s is NOT illegal (AFAIK I think it's even proved in court), but sharing them (making them available for others to download) IS."
So I'm wondering, why hasn't some enterprising company moved offshore, and shared up all the files to places where it is legal to download, but not share? It could be a subscription service, or they could pay with ads etc. Would this solve the legality issue?
"Programmers are more like architects (the good ones, anyway). I walked past a room in college teaching VB programming. That's carpentry for the most part, but the line that separates "Make me a web-site in front-page and put in a message board" versus the more advanced stuff is a line that management NEEDS to see. "
A lot of website projects, where entire teams work on it, have both designers AND programmers. In this case, the programmers ARE in fact the carpenters. The designers are the architects. Now, there's always exceptions, but whenever there is someone handling the look and feel of software, and handing it off to a programmer to make it work, then the programmer becomes the carpenter.
"Or maybe I should go and get my MBA in the next few years"
While furthering your education, particularly honing up your business skills, is always valuable to potential employers, keep in mind MBAs are having a tough time finding jobs these days as well. Even the top ones from Harvard and Wharton and such. Another very beneficial thing you can do to help get a job is to expand your social skills.
Many of the Slashdot crowd do not have them, plain and simple. And lets face it, someone with excellent social skills is more likely to get a job over someone who lacks them. A Dale Carnegie course never hurt anybodies career, thats for sure.
"Yes, it would be more appropriate to commit seppuku opposed to having the child commit the many traffic violations that are possible with a non-paper motorbike."
I really hope you didn't mean this seriously. I can't stand when someone throws out a line like this. "Oh, but the child will get in trouble if he has this...." Obviously some will, some won't. The same as if the kid had a car. Granted, a motorcycle is more dangerous than a car to operate, but some kids can handle it, some can't. It's up to the parents and kid to decide.
"They contain quite amazing animations of the landings, as well as a professional artistic style typically seen in action movie trailers."
Anybody else read that and get kind of disappointed? I mean...I guess it would make it slightly more interesting, but EVERYBODY these days is turning things into action movie trailers. Hell, the whole "War on Terror" on the news seemed like a bunch of teasers and trailers for a big upcoming blockbuster (no pun intended).
I know they're trying to reach a broader audience, and I know they have to compete with Hollywood, but if they need to sink to the level of an action movie trailer to make science interesting then I think we are in trouble.
When this is all over, and Darl is inevitably tossed in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison for securities fraud, I think I will design a "Free Darl!" t-shirt, much in the style of the Kevin Mitnick ones. I think it will be really interesting to see the kinds of reactions I'd get from fellow geeks.
On second thought...perhaps I should put the design on a kevlar vest as opposed to a t-shirt.
And was a real bitch to even find the download link for! That is unless of course you wanted to buy the Real Pro version...but seriously, who has ever bought that?
I'm wondering if this will affect people with Seasonal Affective Disorder. To some degree, humans are all affected by lack of sunlight, we get depressed when we don't get enough. For people with SAD, well..its really bad news when they don't get enough.
So, I'm sure there are plenty of people here on Slashdot who work in robotics. What I'm wondering is how much this thing costs to make now, and how long before it is easy enough to produce and cheap enough for consumers to afford?
Personally, I can't wait to equip mine with weapons and play a slightly updated version of Rock'em Sock'em Robots with my friends.
Surely a better use of your time would be to volunteer at a local hospital?
extended list of uses
on
A.I. Helicopter?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
"'Within a decade armies of tiny helicopter drones will monitor traffic, inspect buildings for maintenance problems, map bushfires, look for faults in powerlines, and join search-and-rescue missions.' "
......follow and record the activities of suspected terrorists, follow and record the activities of people expressing different views than the government, look through your apartment window to monitor your computer use and protect you infringing on copyrights, look down the blouse of the attractive blonde standing at the corner.....(takes off his tinfoil hat)
"If the movie is a personal Blinkenlights Loveletter and you want to get a code to activate your movie yourself at any time, send it to loveletters@blinkenlights.de instead. "
You have a Blinkenlights INSTAkiss! To view your Blinkenlights INSTAkiss, please visit blinkenlights.de and enter your AOL username and password. Somebody loves you, find out who right now! Click here NOW!!!
"Customer segmentation. If your website is devoted to, say, West Coast Christian hiphop-jazz fusion and you already attract fan traffic to your site, you can gain an addition revenue stream by offering a wide selection of West Coast Christian hiphop-jazz fusion music. Since you can offer this without any investment in infrastructure, it's money in the bank. The provider is happy becuase they don't need to spend much to get you up and running, so they can increase sales through an aggregator model of boutique stores."
You hit the nail on the head. I predict we will be seeing a lot of specialty services popping up very VERY soon. What I'm wondering though is if I want to use this service with multiple sites, will I have to download new software for each separate site? Or will it just be a front end, and load each sites music catalogue when I need it?
Also, I think this sort of thing would be great for local/college radio stations that play a lot of local bands and such. Imagine a radio station where you can listen to the new local music, then hop on their service and purchase it right away. Does anybody know of any free services that currently do this? Where you can listen to a net radio station, and if you like a song, click a button and it downloads instantly?
"AMD has announced it will be producing even lower cost chips that while rated for lower resolution, achieve higher resolution, but only when used with much larger cooling solutions."
Greaaaat. Next thing you know you'll walk into your friends dorm room to be confronted with a huge flat panel tv, with a transparent case, internal strobe lights, and liquid nitrogen cooling systems.
"Are we going to have to upgrade our TVs as often as we upgrade computers?"
Perhaps. And if M$ manages to entrench themselves into all of our tvs in the future, expect to have to download service packs for your tv too. Oh, and don't bother trying to change the channel, you'll just get a BSOD.
"This could result in high-resolution 7"-thick rear-projection TV costing around $1000 by next Christmas (not to mention cheap projectors). "
Yeah...it'll cost $1000, and the RIAA will start offering non-DRMed music at a reasonable price in whatever format we want. I absolutely HATE how these types of articles make things sound affordable, simply by adding the qualifier "could". Yeah, it COULD also cost $1, but it'll never happen. When this new technology comes out, they will gouge us for all they can, and the early adopters will pay whatever they ask. Then, once the early adopters have all bought them, then and only then will we start seeing the price drop to a more reasonable level.
"People will do that sort of thing with almost any rpg system, it's simply that Whitewolf's games, for one reason or another, seem to be more popular in this fashion (maybe because it's far more popular to fantasize that you're a vampire than a lvl 1 dwarven fighter).
"
You're right, I completely forgot about that. But as far as I know, D&D never had official rule books released for D&D LARP. Whitewolf has done that with its games, and has basically spawned whole new games out of this.
"If you shop around for a good card, you even get "rewards" for using the card instead of cash, like a % back, or points/miles towards purchases/plane tix."
The current issue of Money Magazine has a very informative article on these reward cards. Be sure to check it out if you are considering getting one. It may not necessarily be beneficial to get certain types if you don't have certain spending habits. They list the top ones for the various types of rewards as well.
""Despite a number of very good games in the tabletop RPG marketplace, none of them have ever managed to topple D&D as the #1 game in the field."
While in pure dollars, none have managed to topple D&D, many have stolen large numbers from its playerbase. In the article (yes I did RTFA) they mention that while new games coming out may be innovative, they will never steal a significant portion of EQs 500,000 playerbase. Let me give an example of why this may not necessarily hold true.
Whitewolf.
If the points made in this article were true, D&D would have absorbed the innovative features Whitewolf games have, and Whitewolf would be histroy. Yet Whitewolf has its own thriving playerbase that grows every day, in large part due to their many innovations (LARP?). There are always exceptions, and the points made in this article are most CERTAINLY not the rule.
Slashdot Mirror
So I'm wondering, why hasn't some enterprising company moved offshore, and shared up all the files to places where it is legal to download, but not share? It could be a subscription service, or they could pay with ads etc. Would this solve the legality issue?
A lot of website projects, where entire teams work on it, have both designers AND programmers. In this case, the programmers ARE in fact the carpenters. The designers are the architects. Now, there's always exceptions, but whenever there is someone handling the look and feel of software, and handing it off to a programmer to make it work, then the programmer becomes the carpenter.
You do realize steampunk is a fantasy genre right? I believe what you are referring to is the Victorian Age where steam power first took off.
While furthering your education, particularly honing up your business skills, is always valuable to potential employers, keep in mind MBAs are having a tough time finding jobs these days as well. Even the top ones from Harvard and Wharton and such. Another very beneficial thing you can do to help get a job is to expand your social skills.
Many of the Slashdot crowd do not have them, plain and simple. And lets face it, someone with excellent social skills is more likely to get a job over someone who lacks them. A Dale Carnegie course never hurt anybodies career, thats for sure.
I really hope you didn't mean this seriously. I can't stand when someone throws out a line like this. "Oh, but the child will get in trouble if he has this...." Obviously some will, some won't. The same as if the kid had a car. Granted, a motorcycle is more dangerous than a car to operate, but some kids can handle it, some can't. It's up to the parents and kid to decide.
Anybody else read that and get kind of disappointed? I mean...I guess it would make it slightly more interesting, but EVERYBODY these days is turning things into action movie trailers. Hell, the whole "War on Terror" on the news seemed like a bunch of teasers and trailers for a big upcoming blockbuster (no pun intended).
I know they're trying to reach a broader audience, and I know they have to compete with Hollywood, but if they need to sink to the level of an action movie trailer to make science interesting then I think we are in trouble.
On second thought...perhaps I should put the design on a kevlar vest as opposed to a t-shirt.
And was a real bitch to even find the download link for! That is unless of course you wanted to buy the Real Pro version...but seriously, who has ever bought that?
Personally, I can't wait to equip mine with weapons and play a slightly updated version of Rock'em Sock'em Robots with my friends.
......follow and record the activities of suspected terrorists, follow and record the activities of people expressing different views than the government, look through your apartment window to monitor your computer use and protect you infringing on copyrights, look down the blouse of the attractive blonde standing at the corner.....(takes off his tinfoil hat)
You have a Blinkenlights INSTAkiss!
To view your Blinkenlights INSTAkiss, please visit blinkenlights.de and enter your AOL username and password. Somebody loves you, find out who right now! Click here NOW!!!
You hit the nail on the head. I predict we will be seeing a lot of specialty services popping up very VERY soon. What I'm wondering though is if I want to use this service with multiple sites, will I have to download new software for each separate site? Or will it just be a front end, and load each sites music catalogue when I need it?
Also, I think this sort of thing would be great for local/college radio stations that play a lot of local bands and such. Imagine a radio station where you can listen to the new local music, then hop on their service and purchase it right away. Does anybody know of any free services that currently do this? Where you can listen to a net radio station, and if you like a song, click a button and it downloads instantly?
Yes, I know exactly how you feel.
DAMN YOU DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION!!!!
Greaaaat. Next thing you know you'll walk into your friends dorm room to be confronted with a huge flat panel tv, with a transparent case, internal strobe lights, and liquid nitrogen cooling systems.
Perhaps I should register www.tvcasemods.com.
Perhaps. And if M$ manages to entrench themselves into all of our tvs in the future, expect to have to download service packs for your tv too. Oh, and don't bother trying to change the channel, you'll just get a BSOD.
Keanu Reeves isn't chinese you insensitive clod!
Yeah...it'll cost $1000, and the RIAA will start offering non-DRMed music at a reasonable price in whatever format we want. I absolutely HATE how these types of articles make things sound affordable, simply by adding the qualifier "could". Yeah, it COULD also cost $1, but it'll never happen. When this new technology comes out, they will gouge us for all they can, and the early adopters will pay whatever they ask. Then, once the early adopters have all bought them, then and only then will we start seeing the price drop to a more reasonable level.
You're right, I completely forgot about that. But as far as I know, D&D never had official rule books released for D&D LARP. Whitewolf has done that with its games, and has basically spawned whole new games out of this.
Unfortunately, it IS illegal, its just nobody has had the cash/balls to sue over it yet. That is why I sense a class-action in the near future.
The current issue of Money Magazine has a very informative article on these reward cards. Be sure to check it out if you are considering getting one. It may not necessarily be beneficial to get certain types if you don't have certain spending habits. They list the top ones for the various types of rewards as well.
While in pure dollars, none have managed to topple D&D, many have stolen large numbers from its playerbase. In the article (yes I did RTFA) they mention that while new games coming out may be innovative, they will never steal a significant portion of EQs 500,000 playerbase. Let me give an example of why this may not necessarily hold true.
Whitewolf.
If the points made in this article were true, D&D would have absorbed the innovative features Whitewolf games have, and Whitewolf would be histroy. Yet Whitewolf has its own thriving playerbase that grows every day, in large part due to their many innovations (LARP?). There are always exceptions, and the points made in this article are most CERTAINLY not the rule.