" "Street crime" is usually taken care of by the police and is really none of your business. Imagine some moron busting the heads of the local pot dealer out of respect for "justice.""
Well, street crime is everybodies business, however it is the police's job to handle it.
You could very well end up in jail yourself depending on how you went about being a "superhero", or more likely, in court given how litigious we are here. Welcome to the land where burglars successfully sue houseowners when they've sustained injuries robbing the persons house.
" I think it's extremely clever and most engineers would find it pleasant, but I know I couldn't work on many of my projects because I wouldn't want Google to co-opt them.
"
And this is why you never WILL get to work for them. Many people, myself included, have plenty of awesome grand ideas. Unfortunately, my ideas tend to be on the large side and would be completely impossible without serious financial resources. Google provides its people with this opportunity. In addition, I'm sure they give some sort of bonus/promotion if your idea takes off and makes them money. They'd be stupid not to.
The employees of Google aren't just in it for themselves, they're in it for the team, and you obviously don't have that mindset, which is fine, but please understand that the people working there don't feel screwed over by this policy, otherwise they wouldn't be there.
"The results showed that the kidneys quickly filtered free nanoparticles from blood and eliminated them in urine. The researchers found no evidence that nanoparticles were able to leave the bloodstream and enter the brain."
So does this effectively mean that all nanoparticles of that size are safe to use in the body? I always wonder if it is advances like these that will help open up the floodgate for the REAL nano-medicine that will inevitably come.
What I'm wondering is given how fast cancer cells replicate, how long will it take before a mutant cell forms that doesn't need folate and that spreads?
I mean, this is FANTASTIC technology and all, but Darwin still applies, right?
I never used to comprehend how people could be so stupid (fairly computer literate people at that) as to open an.exe file when they downloaded a video.
That was until my brother showed me a ligitimate site (forget which) that required their own "player" to view a trailer or something. As far as I could tell (verified by ad/spyware checks afterwards) it didn't leave anything. So I guess there are companies stupid enough to make those things, and people stupid enough to use them, but at least now I have a connection.
The cool thing about bittorrent is that although it doesn't have a built in moderation system per se (although the trackers often do), you can generally tell if a file is the correct version or not based on how many people are downloading/seeding. Yeah, its not always accurate, but if you see several releases of a movie, and there's one or two seeds on one link, and over 500 on another, you'll pick the latter because you're going to get higher speeds, and presumably it is the correct file.
"Because Disney isn't about animation anymore, its about Parks, Hotels, T-Shirts and films signed off by the sort of people who next week will sign off the building of a 500 room "luxury" hotel."
While I agree about the hotels, I have to say (as I presented in a Brand Planning research project I did) I think you're dead wrong on the park. You see, what made Disney what is was in its glory days was the fact that no one else had the perfect balance between quality animation, and the park that brought it to life and let you experience the magic of Disney.
That was their unique selling point. And if you take a look at profits from their park, you'll realize how vital it really was. And while I can't find the actual figures now, it is also interesting to note that in years where the park took the biggest profitability hits, they also SEVERELY cut its maintenance budget. I felt this was a big factor, since nobody really wants to hang out in a park where half the rides are down, there's spiderwebs on dumbo's ears, and the puke still hasn't been cleaned up.
Another thing that hasn't really been happening with the parks lately is crosspromotion. They have an amazing chance to advertise for the park in the theaters and on DVDs for all of their stuff, but as far as I've seen, they don't ever do that. They need more movie tie-ins with the park, and they need to keep it relevant.
Part of the problem with this is that they don't seem to want to make the investment with rides/amusements based on new titles because they don't want to spend the money unless its a big hit, and frankly with the crap they've been putting out lately, I can't really say I blame them.
But unfortunately, business is about taking risks, especially if you're in the business of creativity. People are getting tired of Cinderella's castle. They want Howl's castle instead. I just wonder if Disney has enough balls to attempt it.
Well, thats not entirely true. They may have a dress code you need to abide by, and if you regularly deal with clients, it may hinder that. So yeah, if you're a code monkey, and just sit in your cube all day, then it should be fine after you have gotten in and proven yourself, but if you deal with the rest of the professional world, expect to need to consistently look and act the part.
Oh cram it you troll. Who are you to decide what is "important" work and what is not? And he never said he had a tech job. What if he is a stock broker? Or any other job that requires real-time data to make accurate business decisions with? What if real-time communication via IM and email is crucial to landing some deals he's working on?
Just because you have a narrow and uneducated view of what qualifies as "important" work, doesn't mean you get to pass judgement on the work of others.
"I'm going to be able to slack off from my virtual life (and say, read slashdot) while I'm slacking off from my real life playing Second Life?"On the plus side, you'll also be able to read Slashdot in Second Life.
The honest groups simply do not sub the licensed material, so after it gets licensed, they drop it to move on to unlicensed material, and this is standard operating procedure for them including Seichi.
And I agree, fansub quality (especially Seichi, and Anbu and Aone I find as well) can be MUCh better than regular paid for subbed versions. Usually what I find makes the difference is the natural language that they use for the subs instead of the forced translation. And also the liner notes and intro notes I've seen. And very rarely will a store bought anime put tiny translations next to every bit of japanese text on the screen so you can read it all.
Also, the high end groups tend to make their subtitles blend with the style of the anime. Like, in the intro's where they show the anime title, they will often have the fansub groups name, and it will be in the same exact crazy fonts and designs. I've seen some pretty crazy ones.
I don't know where the hell you're getting that definition of a video game from, but I hope you don't seriously believe what you say.
Real video games come in infinite varieties. It just so happens you prefer a certain type, which someone else like myself would find to be pointless and never-ending and most likely very frustrating.
Well, if his goal is to free us of corporate rule by giving us a machine that can replicate itself, and open sourcing everything, that is VERY awesome.
However, if he wants to make money off of this...I gotta say, what an idiot. The software is free and you can just get a copy of the hardware from a friend.
Of all the paranoid ranting lunatics......ok, look, I'm going to level with you. I'm in advertising/marketing, and yes, there are some bad eggs in our industry, and yes, our job is to figure out new ways to get you to give us money.
But for the love of christ, not all of us are bloodsucking demons who want to put ads under your eyelids so you can never escape them.
There MIGHT be some companies that use this, but I can ASSURE you that the governing bodies of the advertising industry, as well as the FDA, will make it so that this never becomes standard practice, or even legal.
I know you hate us, and I know that no matter what I say will ease your paranoid fears, but manipulating people chemically like that would be made illegal so fast it would make your head spin, and if anybody was caught doing that, the PR backlash would be massive. You see, while trust is very important to our job, we understand how delicate it is (well, those of us who are good at what we do) and would never do this for fear of the risk of the backlash since anybody who was found out doing this would pretty much be out of business because of all the inevitable lawsuits.
"People today are using BT to download games for their modern consoles and PCs. Instead of relying on game reviews and rentals, they're making their own digital duplicates and then deciding if it's worth their money.
That's not how it's supposed to work.
You either make an informed decision or gamble. Either way, you pay for the game.
"
Using your own words, how is using bit torrent NOT just an improvement of the way people make an informed decision? You say yourself they download it, then decide if its worth their money. The real issue the industries have with this is before, they were getting money from those who "gambled", and today more and more of those people are becoming informed customers who have more information available at their fingertips than ever before. So ultimately it comes down to whether they have quality product or not, as it should be, and the free market will determine everything else.
" I mean, just look at all the complaints on the forums when the Naruto license was announced, when their free flow of episodes was in danger of getting shut down."
While there is certainly some being paid for upfront, the vast majority of companies wait to guage fan response. Its simply safe business practice.
However, I take issue with your statement about how you think that people bitching about Naruto being licensed = them not purchasing the series. You obviously do not know much about the anime community if you think that these people would not have purchased it if the series had remained unlicensed. These people would purchase it even if they had downloaded the entire series. They would purchase the uber-special-deluxe boxed set even if they owned the original as long as it came with new box art.
The only thing online distribution of a series does is provide a preview that is significantly longer and more useful than an uninformational/spliced together trailer. This ultimately will boost sales of series that are good more than would have happened without BT distribution. But it cuts both ways, and shows that MIGHT have gained traction without bittorrent but sucked, will now never gain traction because the fans often times rely on download stats of a series to see if its even worth their time and effort (after checking on animenfo.com first).
You couldn't be more right on if you wanted. I would go a step further and add that I personally think it would be a fantastic idea for the studio who created the series to put several of the first episodes online for free via bittorrent, and simply "outsource" the fansub to one of the various reputable groups, give them an "exclusive" license to distribute it online (every single anime group out there would jump at this chance, even if they didn't get paid), and then use that as a promotional tool.
Net cost to them: The time it takes for someone to approve their subs and make any corrections and approve the final distributed piece.
Plus, if they had this exclusive deal, they could give the raw to the group earlier than just recording it on release, and have it be released at the same time as the show on tv. Not to mention the profit the company could get from requiring users to register and then using that as marketing data (not saying that would be a good thing, just saying thats what might help get them to bite at this).
The truth of the matter is, it doesn't matter if the entire series is online or not. Anime fans will STILL go out and buy the uber-special edition boxed set. I don't know how true that would be of other markets but don't underestimate the buying power of otaku. Especially teen/preteen suburban, white, middle-class kids who live with their parents and get an allowance.
Can you please explain how you figured out the total number of people who have downloaded it? I've been interesting in tracking and charting these trends, but don't know how to coordinate my statistics between the various download sites for Naruto.
Also, I would like to add that you are dead on with the process. I use to be head of distribution for Seichi (when they used to be Anime Fury) and the speed that some of these fansubbing groups work at is almost frightening.
However, to people who are very experienced with fansubs, there is a very noticeable difference in the quality of a "rushed" sub versus one that took say....a week to make.
For example, its generally accepted in the community that Naruto subbed by Aone is of better quality than Dattebayo. Just in terms of subtitle and translation quality as well as additional notes.
Of course, this is all changing with improved software, and more translators getting involved in the fansubbing community.
However, what I find interesting is that a lot of people I know will download the rushed DB version, and then download the Aone version when it comes out for their collection.
I'd be curious if there were a way to compile all the IPs of those who downloaded the DB version, and compare it to the list and timestamps of those on the Aone version to see the real numbers behind that.
The reason you will never see some of these ideas come to pass is not technology, but rather the greedy industry.
You see, if it uses no energy in heavy traffic and refuels itself in the sun, gas companies would never let it come to pass.
If it would no longer require a lot of maintenance, or give you reason to get a new car every 5 years or so, the auto industry would shit a brick, and also never let it come to pass.
"Besides, most of what Chuck E. Cheese offered was something other than videogames. Actual physical things you could interact with."
Exactly, and thats why there was that point when you were too old to go in, but snuck in anyways. Gamers LIKE fucking around in those tubes and ball cages and slides and everything else. We just need them to be adult size and without any kids to get in our way from our violent fun.
I personally hate games that are becoming more EQish. I also am finding that I don't like games that simply come back to the Skinner model of MMORPGs, like CoH. I mean, as much fun as that game is, its basically EQ stripped down to its purest form.
What I want is an MMORPG that comes along and actually requires some degree of coordination/twitch skill. I know a lot of hardcore gamers don't like that, but theres a lot of us FPS players who like MMORPGs as well, and I think there is a ripe market for a well made hybrid.
But as soon as it comes down to the level grind, or when you realize that everybody's powers are all pretty much affecting the same thing, it gets boring.
"Fact is, by the time a production makes it to broadcast television, it's made all the money it's going to make. Companies purchase advertising time"
True. Ad space is purchased up front, however if a show does not receive sufficient numbers of viewers, advertisers will not purchase time from them in the future, so while you may not see an IMMEDIATE effect, there might well be one in the future.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, street crime is everybodies business, however it is the police's job to handle it.
You could very well end up in jail yourself depending on how you went about being a "superhero", or more likely, in court given how litigious we are here. Welcome to the land where burglars successfully sue houseowners when they've sustained injuries robbing the persons house.
And this is why you never WILL get to work for them. Many people, myself included, have plenty of awesome grand ideas. Unfortunately, my ideas tend to be on the large side and would be completely impossible without serious financial resources. Google provides its people with this opportunity. In addition, I'm sure they give some sort of bonus/promotion if your idea takes off and makes them money. They'd be stupid not to.
The employees of Google aren't just in it for themselves, they're in it for the team, and you obviously don't have that mindset, which is fine, but please understand that the people working there don't feel screwed over by this policy, otherwise they wouldn't be there.
Johnny Five is alive!
So does this effectively mean that all nanoparticles of that size are safe to use in the body? I always wonder if it is advances like these that will help open up the floodgate for the REAL nano-medicine that will inevitably come.
I mean, this is FANTASTIC technology and all, but Darwin still applies, right?
That was until my brother showed me a ligitimate site (forget which) that required their own "player" to view a trailer or something. As far as I could tell (verified by ad/spyware checks afterwards) it didn't leave anything. So I guess there are companies stupid enough to make those things, and people stupid enough to use them, but at least now I have a connection.
The cool thing about bittorrent is that although it doesn't have a built in moderation system per se (although the trackers often do), you can generally tell if a file is the correct version or not based on how many people are downloading/seeding. Yeah, its not always accurate, but if you see several releases of a movie, and there's one or two seeds on one link, and over 500 on another, you'll pick the latter because you're going to get higher speeds, and presumably it is the correct file.
While I agree about the hotels, I have to say (as I presented in a Brand Planning research project I did) I think you're dead wrong on the park. You see, what made Disney what is was in its glory days was the fact that no one else had the perfect balance between quality animation, and the park that brought it to life and let you experience the magic of Disney.
That was their unique selling point. And if you take a look at profits from their park, you'll realize how vital it really was. And while I can't find the actual figures now, it is also interesting to note that in years where the park took the biggest profitability hits, they also SEVERELY cut its maintenance budget. I felt this was a big factor, since nobody really wants to hang out in a park where half the rides are down, there's spiderwebs on dumbo's ears, and the puke still hasn't been cleaned up.
Another thing that hasn't really been happening with the parks lately is crosspromotion. They have an amazing chance to advertise for the park in the theaters and on DVDs for all of their stuff, but as far as I've seen, they don't ever do that. They need more movie tie-ins with the park, and they need to keep it relevant.
Part of the problem with this is that they don't seem to want to make the investment with rides/amusements based on new titles because they don't want to spend the money unless its a big hit, and frankly with the crap they've been putting out lately, I can't really say I blame them.
But unfortunately, business is about taking risks, especially if you're in the business of creativity. People are getting tired of Cinderella's castle. They want Howl's castle instead. I just wonder if Disney has enough balls to attempt it.
And it also wouldn't last very long since doing so would make them a target for every data thief out there, just to prove them wrong.
Just because you have a narrow and uneducated view of what qualifies as "important" work, doesn't mean you get to pass judgement on the work of others.
And I agree, fansub quality (especially Seichi, and Anbu and Aone I find as well) can be MUCh better than regular paid for subbed versions. Usually what I find makes the difference is the natural language that they use for the subs instead of the forced translation. And also the liner notes and intro notes I've seen. And very rarely will a store bought anime put tiny translations next to every bit of japanese text on the screen so you can read it all.
Also, the high end groups tend to make their subtitles blend with the style of the anime. Like, in the intro's where they show the anime title, they will often have the fansub groups name, and it will be in the same exact crazy fonts and designs. I've seen some pretty crazy ones.
I don't know where the hell you're getting that definition of a video game from, but I hope you don't seriously believe what you say.
Real video games come in infinite varieties. It just so happens you prefer a certain type, which someone else like myself would find to be pointless and never-ending and most likely very frustrating.
However, if he wants to make money off of this...I gotta say, what an idiot. The software is free and you can just get a copy of the hardware from a friend.
But for the love of christ, not all of us are bloodsucking demons who want to put ads under your eyelids so you can never escape them.
There MIGHT be some companies that use this, but I can ASSURE you that the governing bodies of the advertising industry, as well as the FDA, will make it so that this never becomes standard practice, or even legal.
I know you hate us, and I know that no matter what I say will ease your paranoid fears, but manipulating people chemically like that would be made illegal so fast it would make your head spin, and if anybody was caught doing that, the PR backlash would be massive. You see, while trust is very important to our job, we understand how delicate it is (well, those of us who are good at what we do) and would never do this for fear of the risk of the backlash since anybody who was found out doing this would pretty much be out of business because of all the inevitable lawsuits.
Using your own words, how is using bit torrent NOT just an improvement of the way people make an informed decision? You say yourself they download it, then decide if its worth their money. The real issue the industries have with this is before, they were getting money from those who "gambled", and today more and more of those people are becoming informed customers who have more information available at their fingertips than ever before. So ultimately it comes down to whether they have quality product or not, as it should be, and the free market will determine everything else.
While there is certainly some being paid for upfront, the vast majority of companies wait to guage fan response. Its simply safe business practice.
However, I take issue with your statement about how you think that people bitching about Naruto being licensed = them not purchasing the series. You obviously do not know much about the anime community if you think that these people would not have purchased it if the series had remained unlicensed. These people would purchase it even if they had downloaded the entire series. They would purchase the uber-special-deluxe boxed set even if they owned the original as long as it came with new box art.
The only thing online distribution of a series does is provide a preview that is significantly longer and more useful than an uninformational/spliced together trailer. This ultimately will boost sales of series that are good more than would have happened without BT distribution. But it cuts both ways, and shows that MIGHT have gained traction without bittorrent but sucked, will now never gain traction because the fans often times rely on download stats of a series to see if its even worth their time and effort (after checking on animenfo.com first).
Net cost to them: The time it takes for someone to approve their subs and make any corrections and approve the final distributed piece.
Plus, if they had this exclusive deal, they could give the raw to the group earlier than just recording it on release, and have it be released at the same time as the show on tv. Not to mention the profit the company could get from requiring users to register and then using that as marketing data (not saying that would be a good thing, just saying thats what might help get them to bite at this).
The truth of the matter is, it doesn't matter if the entire series is online or not. Anime fans will STILL go out and buy the uber-special edition boxed set. I don't know how true that would be of other markets but don't underestimate the buying power of otaku. Especially teen/preteen suburban, white, middle-class kids who live with their parents and get an allowance.
Also, I would like to add that you are dead on with the process. I use to be head of distribution for Seichi (when they used to be Anime Fury) and the speed that some of these fansubbing groups work at is almost frightening.
However, to people who are very experienced with fansubs, there is a very noticeable difference in the quality of a "rushed" sub versus one that took say....a week to make.
For example, its generally accepted in the community that Naruto subbed by Aone is of better quality than Dattebayo. Just in terms of subtitle and translation quality as well as additional notes.
Of course, this is all changing with improved software, and more translators getting involved in the fansubbing community.
However, what I find interesting is that a lot of people I know will download the rushed DB version, and then download the Aone version when it comes out for their collection.
I'd be curious if there were a way to compile all the IPs of those who downloaded the DB version, and compare it to the list and timestamps of those on the Aone version to see the real numbers behind that.
You see, if it uses no energy in heavy traffic and refuels itself in the sun, gas companies would never let it come to pass.
If it would no longer require a lot of maintenance, or give you reason to get a new car every 5 years or so, the auto industry would shit a brick, and also never let it come to pass.
Exactly, and thats why there was that point when you were too old to go in, but snuck in anyways. Gamers LIKE fucking around in those tubes and ball cages and slides and everything else. We just need them to be adult size and without any kids to get in our way from our violent fun.
What I want is an MMORPG that comes along and actually requires some degree of coordination/twitch skill. I know a lot of hardcore gamers don't like that, but theres a lot of us FPS players who like MMORPGs as well, and I think there is a ripe market for a well made hybrid.
But as soon as it comes down to the level grind, or when you realize that everybody's powers are all pretty much affecting the same thing, it gets boring.
True. Ad space is purchased up front, however if a show does not receive sufficient numbers of viewers, advertisers will not purchase time from them in the future, so while you may not see an IMMEDIATE effect, there might well be one in the future.