Well stated. I would also like to add that I think IBM only chose to use these four basic ones because they didn't want to spend the time and/or money to bitchslap SCO with thousands of others.
I hope IBM patents the process of shoving their patent portfolio up Darl's ass!
"People aren't forced on the leveling treadmill, they jump on voluntarily. People hop on the leveling treadmill because they want more power, for its own sake or for the social status that comes with leveling."
What you miss is that they may get on the treadmill for those reasons, but many quickly get bored of it, yet are unable to get off the treadmill. Why you ask? Cuz its a bloody Skinner Box. There is a very well written article on it here. Its simple psychological addiction. I'd love to see what the MMORPG creators from those various companies would have to say about THAT.
"Why not develop a game which throws the D&D/MUD convention of levelling out the window entirely?"
You should look into some of the free UO shards that have sprung up. I play on one called Darkenwood, where roleplaying is enforced. When you start out, you get a crap load of money to practice up your skills with. When you do that, they train up to however much you decide to spend, but it doesn't happen instantly, it happens over a long period of time, many hours in fact. You can still level up skills by going out and doing them, but if you don't want to, you can roleplay, and they'll STILL go up. No levelling treadmill whatsoever aside from making some quick cash to practice more skills with, but even that is simple to do.
The problem with making content digital is that it DESTROYS the inherent scarcity of it. Sure you can try to introduce artificial scarcity (RIAA?), but due to its digital nature, it will find a away to avoid that. I'm sorry, but once content turns digital, its value drops considerably. Companies can't have their cake and eat it too.
Now, I should mention that when I speak of content, I'm speaking of things like music, movies, text, etc. Those things lose most, if not all, of their value once they become digital and reach the internet. So what can be sold?
Experiences. Slashdot is an experience, live broadcasts (think pay-per-view) are experiences, chats with famous people are experiences, etc, etc, etc.
Certain types of things DO have value on the internet, just not all of them. What is currently going on right now as the internet comes of age is that people are experimenting with it to see what sells and what doesn't. Not everything is guaranteed to sell, in fact, you may ruin your chance of selling a physical version of it as well if you unsuccessfully try to sell something on the net (RIAA again). Its a big gamble, and there will be lots of casualties, but eventually we will learn what can and cannot be sold on the internet.
A good example of how this works is in Snowcrash. Hiro does a search for something with the librarian, and filters for free content only. Yet when he needs something rare or specific, he has to pay for it. In fact, a whole profession (gargoyles) has sprung up around this business of rare/hard to obtain/unique information. Well, just my two (or fifty) cents worth.
"Maybe a site like Slashdot could charge "micropayments" but rebate to it's users that have high moderation. This may have an effect on eliminating troll posts and encourage well thought out responses."
Except this would have a drastic effect on the forums here. Yes I realize it might be a 'good thing' to have people striving for highly moderated posts, but most likely what you'd have is people simply karma whoring. The other problem is that sometimes, a lot of very good posts get made, but get modded down because they're not 'popular opinion' such as anything pro M$, or anti filesharing. In order to have a good forum, you need people arguing for both sides of the discussion. Nice idea in theory, but I'm afraid the reality probably wouldn't work out.
"Hell, I don't even trust sites that require a login. It's fair game if you post messages/articles on the site, or when you head to the checkout, but if they want me to log in just to read the content, then I'll be hitting that back button."
Exactly, there is absolutely NO reason for them to require me to register on their site to read the 'free' content aside from collecting data about me. So its not really free you see, because I'm paying with my privacy. I can guarantee that the only reason for registration on those kinds of sites is to gather user information to sell. So they make money either way.
"The pay-for-no-ads/extra-feature model seems to be the best that they can hope for, IMO. If the content isn't spectacularly unique, people will go elsewhere. The idea is to get 'em hooked on free content, then probe for a few bucks for some extra features."
Except this can REALLY backfire. Lets take IGN for example. Many people hate them with a passion now. They used to be an excellent source of media for video games on all systems. Reviews (not the best, but informative), previews, pics, and movies. Then they decided to charge for taking ads away. Fine. Then they give some added media for pay. Fine. Then they make most of the content you could previously get for free and decided to charge for it. Not Fine.
What many companies do is say "hey, they pay for extra content.....and if I take the free content, and charge for it instead, they'll have no choice but to pay!". Wrong, they will find one of a million more sites that give that exact content for free.
Unless you have an EXTREMELY unique business/product/website, people will leave to find the free alternative. Even if it offers a little less, the price makes up for it.
Well, I'm 20, and was using the internet when it first started going. Guess what, my parents tried very hard to stop me from getting porn and stuff like that. Guess what, I got it anyway. In fact, it made me seek it out with much more interest because it was something my parents were withholding from me.
Eventually, they gave up on protecting me from the internet (especially when I knew WAY more than them about it and they became powerless) and instead tried to educate me about the things they were concerned about.
My 12 year old brother uses the net a lot now. But they don't try to restrict him from doing things on it. They try to educate him. And ya know what? He isn't as interested in those things now (well, maybe not the porn...). But these are facts of life. Death, sex, all of it. Sooner or later your child WILL learn about them. Either educate them, or let them educate themselves (not recommended) but don't think for a second that you can stand in their way and stop them from learning about it. I'm not trying to argue with ya here, I'm just telling you how kids are, and what WILL inevitably happen.
"That makes perfect sense! The aliens, feeling like outsiders in this new place, built gigantic 802.11 antennas to download porn and MP3s from their home planet.
If it wasn't for the unacceptably long ping times, they would still be with us today."
Naw, their version of the RIAA took care of that a LOOONG time ago. You think all the people being abducted here are random? Nope, they are interstellar music thieves in disguise.
"Yes. He does have rights. As an American citizen, he is innocent until proven guilty beyond the shadow of a doubt. He is an alleged terrorist. Quite a difference."
" It doesn't apply directly to the RIAA, since there is no similar situation where a legal copy would more or less have to be purchaced, as with photoshop and companies -- with music, once you have a pirated copy there probably won't be any reason beyond morality to go get a CD."
Perhaps they need to shift away from selling JUST CDs as their primary source of revenue. Perhaps they need to use the free downloadable music as a marketing tool for other content. I'm not really sure what they could do in its place, but I'm sure they could think of something. Whether or not they'd be willing to switch to a system where they give something of value from their system of fleecing us for one or two songs is a whole different story.
"Your reactionary "This guy is an insult to us Jews" comment is proof that it certainly touched a sore spot in you. Perhaps not a persecution complex, but some such similar pathology is at work. Have you considered seeking therapy for this? Does being Jewish bother you?"
Perhaps you've never heard someone make a sarcastic remark about their religion. It didn't touch any sore spot with me, it made me laugh, and in fact I was making a joke with that Jewish bit, so drop it already.
My favorite bit about Realplayer is when I try to listen to the Essential Mix on the BBC's Radio1 Webpage, and the bitstream steadily drops into the low 20's. Nothing I can do about it.....and I'm on a T1, can't figure out why it does that for the life of me. Really a shame that the music quality starts out great and is near shite by the end.
The other good business practice of Adobe that I'd like to point out is this:
Photoshop has to be THE most pirated piece of software on the internet. Does Adobe know this? Yes. Do they do much? No. Why? Because they realize that they are getting everybody hooked on it. And when these people go to their job, and need to use graphics software, what are they gonna say to the person who buys it? "Get me Adobe Photoshop." I mean, aside from freelancers, corporations are the only ones willing to pony up the 600 bucks or whatever it runs these days. And you know what? Last I checked, Adobe wasn't doing half bad financially. The RIAA and other companies could learn something from them.
"The catch is, you name you company "Scat-Fetish-Jizz-Gobbler Corporation", or something really sick and embarassing.
You bank on the fact that most people wouldnt suffer the embarassment of facing the bank teller for 5 or 10 bucks."
Thank god for ATMs that let you deposit the check in the envelope all from the privacy of your own car.
Ok.....all the funny SCO antics that have been lately have kept me amused, but this is fucking ridiculous. As many of us believe, this is an elaborate (or not so elaborate) scheme of the SCO execs to pump and dump the stock. I dunno, maybe its just me, but I thought the first rule of illegal trading practices was:
DON'T FUCK WITH THE GOVERNMENT
Seriously.....this seems to be the equivelant of buzzing on the SEC's front door and begging to be investigated and tossed in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
There is no persecution complex at work here my cowardly friend, I made that remark as an offhanded sarcastic joke. Not everybody takes religious matters seriously.
"Exactly. So why are you making a big deal out of it? The article simply points out his shady past (neo-Nazi) and then points out his shady present (spammer). You are simply objecting that the reason for the change, namely that his father is Jewish, was mentioned.
Sheesh... enough with the persecution complex already!"
First off, I have no persecution complex, I wasn't making this into a whole "i'm jewish, they shouldn't have said that" kinda thing. I could care less about that. I just found it odd that they linked those two things together. If they had mentioned them seperately, no biggie, but I found it odd that they connected them, and posted a comment pointing this out. The connection makes no sense, which is why I was questioning it. Understand?
" You missed the part about former neo-Nazi, didn't you?
Makes me wonder which one's dumber."
I don't know if you were referring to me being on par with the stupidity of this guy (I don't really see the need to make comments like that), but no, I didn't miss that part about him being a neo-Nazi. I realize he musta been real pissed when he foudn out his father was a Jew. What I was pointing out is how that quote from the article makes no sense. So you get really pissed about a family/race issue....so....you turn to spamming? What kind of sense does that make? There's no real connection.
Someone already posted this guys address, so hopefully he will be receiving several tons of mail a day now. But the information I would REALLY like to get my hands on is the 6000 people on that list. I would like to conduct interviews with them to figure out the exact reasons (aside from small dicks) they bought, and why the typical spammer tricks didn't set off warning sirens.
Once I have this information, I would like to give it to Spamhaus or some other organization, preferably one with an advertising budget, and have them do a spot on tv explaining the dangers of spam.
Maybe the government should do a public service announcement about it. You see, the majority of people who buy this crap are not internet savvy, but you better believe they are television savvy.
I think the FTC would be much better off spending its money to educate potential victims of spam than it would going after the actual spammers.
"An investigation (registration to Salon.com required) last month revealed that Bournival's mentor and business partner is Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a chess expert and former neo-Nazi leader who turned to the spam business in 1999 after it became public that his father was Jewish."
Oh, well, if his father's jewish...it only make sense that he become a spammer.....Seriously, WTF is with that?!?!?! This guy is an insult to us Jews.
"They'll even be able to tell what brand of locks are on people's houses, whether any large defensive dogs live on the property, and the guns a person owns."
So the agents in real life might say something like:
"Unforunately no one can be told what the Matrix is.....well....actually, we could tell you, but then we'd have to kill you.......o wait....you're a terrorist, we'll just kill you anyway."
Slashdot Mirror
I hope IBM patents the process of shoving their patent portfolio up Darl's ass!
What you miss is that they may get on the treadmill for those reasons, but many quickly get bored of it, yet are unable to get off the treadmill. Why you ask? Cuz its a bloody Skinner Box. There is a very well written article on it here. Its simple psychological addiction. I'd love to see what the MMORPG creators from those various companies would have to say about THAT.
You should look into some of the free UO shards that have sprung up. I play on one called Darkenwood, where roleplaying is enforced. When you start out, you get a crap load of money to practice up your skills with. When you do that, they train up to however much you decide to spend, but it doesn't happen instantly, it happens over a long period of time, many hours in fact. You can still level up skills by going out and doing them, but if you don't want to, you can roleplay, and they'll STILL go up. No levelling treadmill whatsoever aside from making some quick cash to practice more skills with, but even that is simple to do.
Now, I should mention that when I speak of content, I'm speaking of things like music, movies, text, etc. Those things lose most, if not all, of their value once they become digital and reach the internet. So what can be sold?
Experiences. Slashdot is an experience, live broadcasts (think pay-per-view) are experiences, chats with famous people are experiences, etc, etc, etc.
Certain types of things DO have value on the internet, just not all of them. What is currently going on right now as the internet comes of age is that people are experimenting with it to see what sells and what doesn't. Not everything is guaranteed to sell, in fact, you may ruin your chance of selling a physical version of it as well if you unsuccessfully try to sell something on the net (RIAA again). Its a big gamble, and there will be lots of casualties, but eventually we will learn what can and cannot be sold on the internet.
A good example of how this works is in Snowcrash. Hiro does a search for something with the librarian, and filters for free content only. Yet when he needs something rare or specific, he has to pay for it. In fact, a whole profession (gargoyles) has sprung up around this business of rare/hard to obtain/unique information. Well, just my two (or fifty) cents worth.
Except this would have a drastic effect on the forums here. Yes I realize it might be a 'good thing' to have people striving for highly moderated posts, but most likely what you'd have is people simply karma whoring. The other problem is that sometimes, a lot of very good posts get made, but get modded down because they're not 'popular opinion' such as anything pro M$, or anti filesharing. In order to have a good forum, you need people arguing for both sides of the discussion. Nice idea in theory, but I'm afraid the reality probably wouldn't work out.
Exactly, there is absolutely NO reason for them to require me to register on their site to read the 'free' content aside from collecting data about me. So its not really free you see, because I'm paying with my privacy. I can guarantee that the only reason for registration on those kinds of sites is to gather user information to sell. So they make money either way.
Except this can REALLY backfire. Lets take IGN for example. Many people hate them with a passion now. They used to be an excellent source of media for video games on all systems. Reviews (not the best, but informative), previews, pics, and movies. Then they decided to charge for taking ads away. Fine. Then they give some added media for pay. Fine. Then they make most of the content you could previously get for free and decided to charge for it. Not Fine.
What many companies do is say "hey, they pay for extra content.....and if I take the free content, and charge for it instead, they'll have no choice but to pay!". Wrong, they will find one of a million more sites that give that exact content for free.
Unless you have an EXTREMELY unique business/product/website, people will leave to find the free alternative. Even if it offers a little less, the price makes up for it.
Eventually, they gave up on protecting me from the internet (especially when I knew WAY more than them about it and they became powerless) and instead tried to educate me about the things they were concerned about.
My 12 year old brother uses the net a lot now. But they don't try to restrict him from doing things on it. They try to educate him. And ya know what? He isn't as interested in those things now (well, maybe not the porn...). But these are facts of life. Death, sex, all of it. Sooner or later your child WILL learn about them. Either educate them, or let them educate themselves (not recommended) but don't think for a second that you can stand in their way and stop them from learning about it. I'm not trying to argue with ya here, I'm just telling you how kids are, and what WILL inevitably happen.
Naw, their version of the RIAA took care of that a LOOONG time ago. You think all the people being abducted here are random? Nope, they are interstellar music thieves in disguise.
The PATRIOT Act would disagree with you.
Perhaps they need to shift away from selling JUST CDs as their primary source of revenue. Perhaps they need to use the free downloadable music as a marketing tool for other content. I'm not really sure what they could do in its place, but I'm sure they could think of something. Whether or not they'd be willing to switch to a system where they give something of value from their system of fleecing us for one or two songs is a whole different story.
Perhaps you've never heard someone make a sarcastic remark about their religion. It didn't touch any sore spot with me, it made me laugh, and in fact I was making a joke with that Jewish bit, so drop it already.
Photoshop has to be THE most pirated piece of software on the internet. Does Adobe know this? Yes. Do they do much? No. Why? Because they realize that they are getting everybody hooked on it. And when these people go to their job, and need to use graphics software, what are they gonna say to the person who buys it? "Get me Adobe Photoshop." I mean, aside from freelancers, corporations are the only ones willing to pony up the 600 bucks or whatever it runs these days. And you know what? Last I checked, Adobe wasn't doing half bad financially. The RIAA and other companies could learn something from them.
Thank god for ATMs that let you deposit the check in the envelope all from the privacy of your own car.
DON'T FUCK WITH THE GOVERNMENT
Seriously.....this seems to be the equivelant of buzzing on the SEC's front door and begging to be investigated and tossed in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
There is no persecution complex at work here my cowardly friend, I made that remark as an offhanded sarcastic joke. Not everybody takes religious matters seriously.
First off, I have no persecution complex, I wasn't making this into a whole "i'm jewish, they shouldn't have said that" kinda thing. I could care less about that. I just found it odd that they linked those two things together. If they had mentioned them seperately, no biggie, but I found it odd that they connected them, and posted a comment pointing this out. The connection makes no sense, which is why I was questioning it. Understand?
I don't know if you were referring to me being on par with the stupidity of this guy (I don't really see the need to make comments like that), but no, I didn't miss that part about him being a neo-Nazi. I realize he musta been real pissed when he foudn out his father was a Jew. What I was pointing out is how that quote from the article makes no sense. So you get really pissed about a family/race issue....so....you turn to spamming? What kind of sense does that make? There's no real connection.
Once I have this information, I would like to give it to Spamhaus or some other organization, preferably one with an advertising budget, and have them do a spot on tv explaining the dangers of spam.
Maybe the government should do a public service announcement about it. You see, the majority of people who buy this crap are not internet savvy, but you better believe they are television savvy.
I think the FTC would be much better off spending its money to educate potential victims of spam than it would going after the actual spammers.
Oh, well, if his father's jewish...it only make sense that he become a spammer.....Seriously, WTF is with that?!?!?! This guy is an insult to us Jews.
........how much tin foil you buy...
.........how much tin foil you buy per month.
"Unforunately no one can be told what the Matrix is.....well....actually, we could tell you, but then we'd have to kill you.......o wait....you're a terrorist, we'll just kill you anyway."