Digital business and personal mail
on
Snail Mail As E-Mail
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I'm sure there are many (especially here!) that celebrate the movement away from physical communications. Sure, it saves paper, it's faster (especially when compared to the slightly derogatory "snail mail", it's portable, etc. But let me wax a little sentimental here...
There's just a little something that you get from actual mail, especially hand-written mail. True, it's terribly archaic, but when you're far, far away, a letter is one of the nicest things to receive someone willing to spend a buck and some time. Maybe it's just the amount of time invested in handwriting, or the lack thereof when typing an email, but the physical presence of personal mail is something people should not, in my opinion, be so eager to discard.
That being said, business mail, provided it is sent via secure trasnmissions, seems perfectly suited for movement towards digitalization. The businesses themselves, though, should take more initiative to move themselves away from the massive and expensive paper usages and try billing electronically. I can only imagine the vast amounts of paper used by banks every month for high-speed printed glossy credit card applications.
I'm all for transparency in government and the rights of the press to publish stories as they see fit, but am I the only one that is at least a LITTLE concerned that groups and/or individuals reading this and related articles will get the idea that they can compromise important governmental systems through electronic means?
I'm not absolving the State Department of responsibility for this error; they messed up somewhere, they need to fix it. I think, though, that they could at least do some "damage control" by keeping the problem undisclosed until the security hole is rendered benign. Unfortunately, I have no idea how the State Department could keep something this large under wraps, but I'd think using a little more discretion in internal communications is in order.
Then again, if someone doesn't drop the ball in a big ignorant entity, Slashdot readers wouldn't have an easy target to insult...
Someone care to comment on the possible health effects of having a headset that creates a magnetic field next to your head? When people are concerned about having a cellphone's radiation near their head for a few minutes to perhaps an hour or so a day, I'm sure there is more of a concern with a headset that might be worn for several hours a day. Is the field strong enough to cause health problems?
if they can't protect their stuff in the first place, why are they suing people?
Probably because litigation is the only action the RIAA seems to be willing to take. They have can't seem to protect their stuff; as soon as some new "protection" device is established, someone inevitably finds a way to defeat or circumvent it (I found the black marker trick the most amusing of these circumventions). They obviously won't just let everyone get away with file sharing. In my opinion, the sensible and probably inevitable option will have to be a reworking of the entire business model of music retailing, an idea that large corporations like record companies and organizations like the RIAA have been slow to embrace.
1. Don't worry about upgrading. I believe your settings are stored wherever you have your user profile, usually at/Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/Thunderbird/ for Windows users. The program folder is replaced, but your local saved messages and settings are not. Note that Mozilla recommends you delete your Thunderbird 0.1 folder before installing the new folder, though.
2. Thunderbird does not bounce mail, AFAIK. Usually email bouncing occurs when an email is returned to its sender for some reason or another, such as sending to an invalid email address. Eudora, if I am reading their website correctly, doesn't bounce email either.
The Slashdot readers will correct me on this hopefully, but I believe email bouncing via SpamAssassin needs to happen at the mail server level, not from within your email application. Any spam that does or doesn't get through to you locally using Eudora will or will not get through using Thunderbird. Perhaps your brother is either running his own mail server, or has mistaken Eudora's internal junk mail filtering--which only moves email from your inbox to a "junk" folder--for email bouncing.
That said, as a Thunderbird user, I'd highly recommend upgrading, especially since it's a free upgrade with better stability and speed (for most people, anyway).
Just throw Spielberg in there and we can have all swords, bows and other weapons replaced by innoucuous, family-friendly items. What's the Middle Earth equivalent of a walkie-talkie?
"...mainly because meat in the diet is in itself a source of creatine, and it would be difficult to gauge exactly how much an individual had consumed."
Pardon my ignorance, but would a plausible explanation be that vegetarians have a creatine deficiency, thereby making them hypersensitive to the supplements? Is it also possible to consider that the sample group had less muscle mass than their carnivorous counterparts, thereby further lowering the amount of regular creatine within their bodies?
I really don't know if publishing theories from research journals is prudent or responsible reporting; the distillation of findings, capped by the bold statement that "Creatine 'boosts brain power'" seems hasty. Don't tell me about the disclaiming effect of the quotation marks around 'boosts brain power'--the statement still has the same effect to most casual news readers.
However, before you get your hopes up too high, read the introduction to the Videotopia project: "VIDEOTOPIA explores humanity's first giant leap into interactive electronic media - - the videogame. As the industry grew, its influence on developing technologies grew as well. The goal of this exhibition is to communicate the dramatic impact these games have had on our lives and our culture."
There are nonetheless some VERY remarkable games in the exhibit, including one of my personal favorites, the 1983 "3-D" Star Wars game!
Artificial lighting can cause disorientation and misorientation of both adults and hatchlings. Turtle hatchlings are attracted to light, ignoring or coming out of the ocean to go towards a light source, increasing their chances of death or injury. In addition, as nesting females avoid areas with intense lighting, highly developed areas may cause problems for turtles trying to nest.
Sorry, it had to be mentioned eventually. Not that it would actually happen, but it would be amusing to find that a homegrown, word-of-mouth supported creation were to beat out a more highly-funded studio's work.
There are strategy guides out there. These so-called "bibles" of the MMOG vary widely in their approach, but when reduced kind of say the same thing. Unfortunately, most are not written very clearly, so some confusion and/or player frustration is to be expected after attempting to interpret said guides. Then again, you could just have someone else interpret the guidebooks' instructions for you, as many choose to do.
What an extended metaphor this makes.
Here's my take on why it's only the private sector. I apologize if it is misinformed, this is how I believe "the system" to work:
Lawmakers are painfully unaware of how the digital world works. To quote the article:
"Frankly, I'm finding a lack of attention and a lack of understanding by the Congress and the (Bush) administration as to the serious nature of the threat"
How do lawmakers then legislate over such issues? They create special investigative subcommittees, comprised of individuals of the same body, to research the issue through study and hearings. The subcomittees' hearings involve individuals and groups pertaining to the issue, most often lobbyists working for... you guessed it, the private sector. Obviously, the few months, maybe a year that that legislators have for their individual study leaves their knowledge of the workings of the digital world laughably small in comparision to the professional lobbyists for the large private sector organizations. The lawmakers, pressed for time, must rely upon their newly-found knowledge and the possibly (probably?) slanted "testimony" from said private sector organizations to make their decisions. Of course, by this time, developments over the past six months to a year may render the investigation, hearings and study obsolete.
Even if the digital rights issue were to become general relevance, could there be enough of a "grassroots" effort to have a noticeable effect? I defer to a recent interview on "Now with Bill Moyers" for my answer, spoken by one of my favorite political commentators, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart:
The country is, look,the general dialogue is being swayed by-- the people who are ideologically driven.
The five percent on each side that are so ideological driven that they-- will dictate the terms of the discussion. The other 90 percent of the country have lawns to mow, and kids to pick up from schools, and money to make, and-- things to do. Their lives are, they have entrusted-- we live in a representative democracy.
And so, we elect representatives to go do our bidding, so that we can-- get the leaves out of the gutter, and-- -- do the things around the house that-- need to be done. What the representatives have done over 200 years is set up a periphery, I think they call it the Beltway--
that is a-- obtuse enough that we can't penetrate it anymore, unless we spend all of our time. This is the way that it's been set up purposefully by both sides. And-- the financial industry, as well. They don't want average people to easily penetrate the workings. Because then we call them on it.
"Products and Promotions That Have Limited Value for Mosquito Control: Electronic Repellers"
"Hand-held electronic devices that rely on high-frequency sound to repel mosquitoes have become surprisingly popular in recent years. Prices range from $9.95 to $29.95 for units advertised in magazines. Heavy-duty repellers that claim to keep away spiders, hornets, and rats, in addition to mosquitoes may sell for more than $100.00. The manufacturer's rationale for using sound as a repelling factor varies from one device to the next. Some claim to mimic the wing beat frequency of a male mosquito. This, supposedly, repels females who have already mated and do not wish to be mated a second time. Others claim to mimic the sound of a hungry dragonfly, causing mosquitoes to flee the area to avoid becoming the predator's next meal. Most of the electronic repellers on the market hum on a single frequency. Top of the line devices allow for adjustment by the user to achieve the most effective frequency for the mosquito causing the problem. Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that electronic mosquito repellers do not prevent host seeking mosquitoes from biting. In most cases, the claims made by distributors border on fraud. Mated female mosquitoes do not flee from amorous males, and mosquitoes do not vacate an area hunted by dragonflies. Electronic mosquito repellers do little in the way of reducing mosquito annoyance."
Plus, more mosquito info (like you care): http://www.njmosquito.org http://www.mosq uito.org/mosquito.html
...by the same people that were responsible for the PATRIOT act. Or is it? It's certainly possible that, by posting sentiments of dissent here, one could attract an extra bit of attention from the people that monitor internet communications. Hope you aren't in the habit of downloading "questionable content"...
If the "artists" can explain, in their own words, why their collection of songs needs to be presented in an album format, then perhaps I (and many others) would care about preserving the album intact. Otherwise, I suggest they stop being pretentious and afford their fans and supporters the same freedom that radio stations and MTV have when they play their (one or two popular) singles.
why do they wish to extend the copyrights to these massive back catalogs that they dont' even DO anything with?
It's that thing about future use there. For example, movies often rummage through the back catalog and voila, an oldie becomes popular again. Take Dusty Springfield's "Son Of A Preacher Man", blasted back into the charts by Pulp Fiction.
There is an idea of copyright to progress those fields in which things are copyrighted (I think). Unfortunately, as many have said, current copyright law does not apply adequately to intellectual property. Many businesses today don't actually sell a "thing", an object if you will, but rather are selling either an idea or pure data. So there's quite a difficult question, made overly simplistic by the RIAA: who owns something intangible, and how do you make it fair for both its creator and its users to use?
There seems to me to be another factor in this equation that maybe traditional brick-and-mortar stores don't have: massive available back catalogs. To use Tokerat's numbering system: 2a. Have stuff that no one else has or is hard to get. (More selection of units available for purchase.)
So that's pretty simple economics too, as is slowly being proven by the iTunes store: have something unique to sell, in this case individual songs at (somewhat) low prices. I mean, come on, Eileen, no one I know wants to buy an entire album for just the one-hit-wonder song.
Seems that most analyses of why traditional music stores are not doing well seem to migrate towards the "buzzworthy" answers like P2P. How about the other reasons, such as a lack of demand for entire albums? Short attention spans aside, a piece in the puzzle is that people don't want to buy an entire album for one song, especially back catalog titles with one-hit wonders. I mean, come on, Eileen.
Also, speaking of which, do traditional music stores make money off of back catalog sales? It seems that online shops are the future of back catalog sales, since no brick-and-mortar store actually wants to keep one or two copies of older stuff in stock.
I recall a few years ago when an article speculated that the future music store would be nothing but a computer terminal with a burner, CD labeller and a high-resolution color printer. No one but home users seemed to pick up on that idea.
swillden:The truth is that pretty much everybody knows that downloading copyrighted music is illegal, and pretty much everybody figures it falls into somewhat the same category as driving five miles per hour over the posted speed limit, except that maybe speeding is a little worse, since it can actually hurt someone.
For some reason, I once had a naive idea that if the general majority of people thought that something was pretty much OK to do without really hurting people, then somehow the people had some sort of way to voice their opinions and change existing laws towards the general consensus. I think it involved something with writing to your elected representatives. I don't think that works anymore; it would seem that our elected representatives are not representing the general opinion of the districts they serve. So much for "public servants".
As it relates to the RIAA, their idea of "education" seems more like the common notion of "news" nowadays. One must filter out the opinionated statements, slanted ideas and outright propaganda to find what is really going on. Education? Sounds like positive spin on their personal interpretations of the existing laws in an attempt at self-righteousness.
Not that I am totally against the RIAA, just that the interests in which it protects seems (to me) to be hindering the progress of the arts entailed in the Constitution.
I'm a hypocrite; propaganda in a statement against propaganda.
We all know that fraudulent releases of anime run rampant around eBay, Amazon and the like. However, I have not heard any sort of official responses from the companies that produce and license the legitimate releases speak out against products which clearly infringe upon their licensing and distribution rights. I have attempted to contact a few companies in regards to what action fans should take (most notably Bandai), but have yet to receive any responses.
I understand that for many of the smaller anime companies (AnimEigo, CPM, etc.) legal action is finscally difficult and logistically unfeasable to puruse, given the location of most 'bootleg' discs (southeast Asia) and the lax copyright infringement laws in place there.
Still, it would be nice to hear from as many representatives of the anime production community possible regarding what a fan concerned about the legality of his/her purchases should do, if anything, when they come across a website selling illegal material.
Along that same vein, perhaps it would be enlightening to find out if the animators, voice actors and musicians get any sort of royalties from sales, or if they are only paid under a one-shot deal contract. For example, musicians (London Philharmonic, I think) were paid a one-time fee for recording the Star Wars soundtrack. They receive nothing else from sales of soundtracks or movies. I'm not saying if that situation is good or bad, that's business.
However, either way, 'bootlegging' can and will affect the animators some way; either the animators won't make as much directly from residuals and/or the animation distributors and studios will have lower sales numbers, leading to less possibilities for new works to be created and licensed. This in turn can hurt fans; if sales aren't good for a series, there is less of a chance that the series spin-offs, extra episodes and related movies will be released.
Maybe this guy is on to something. This could be the new modders' realm, the Motherboard Mod. With the current batch of uber-gearheads out there that not only understand WHAT computer parts do but HOW they do it, this could be a new horizon in interoperability. Creative people could not only swap in and out parts from computer to computer, but also between anything that employs some sort of internal computer--which, nowadays, is almost everything electronic.
Oh my, does that mean that companies like Intel could rearrange chip architecture to a generic format to work in many different appliances? Could they gain a strangle hold on world electronic device manufacturing?!? The future is uncertain; however, I would point out that the idea of 'smart appliances' has been tossed around for many years; this guy is a prime example of the next step in electronics evolution.
Then again, maybe I'm full of it and don't know what the heck I'm talking about.
Me and my dirty mind. I think HP, given the function and description of this project, should rename it to something other than "BiReality", unless they are pursuing a client base of alternative lifestyle teleconferencers.
For one, anyone know what the usable range of these chips are? Must they be activated at point-blank distance, or can the stack of bills be IDd at once from a scanner a few feet away? The article says "With such tags, a stack of notes can be passed through a reader and the sum added in a split second, similar to how inventory is tracked in an RFID-based system." If said tags can then be activated at a distance, would they qualify as more of a surveillance device than a security feature?
Also, is there (or isn't there) the possibility of malfunction, intentional or not? Couldn't someone shoot some sort of HERF gun-type thing at a bag of loot and fry all the chips at once? Does a malfunctioning chip warrant the investigation of individual cases? Many questions down what looks to be the proverbial "slippery slope"...
Slashdot Mirror
There's just a little something that you get from actual mail, especially hand-written mail. True, it's terribly archaic, but when you're far, far away, a letter is one of the nicest things to receive someone willing to spend a buck and some time. Maybe it's just the amount of time invested in handwriting, or the lack thereof when typing an email, but the physical presence of personal mail is something people should not, in my opinion, be so eager to discard.
That being said, business mail, provided it is sent via secure trasnmissions, seems perfectly suited for movement towards digitalization. The businesses themselves, though, should take more initiative to move themselves away from the massive and expensive paper usages and try billing electronically. I can only imagine the vast amounts of paper used by banks every month for high-speed printed glossy credit card applications.
I'm not absolving the State Department of responsibility for this error; they messed up somewhere, they need to fix it. I think, though, that they could at least do some "damage control" by keeping the problem undisclosed until the security hole is rendered benign. Unfortunately, I have no idea how the State Department could keep something this large under wraps, but I'd think using a little more discretion in internal communications is in order.
Then again, if someone doesn't drop the ball in a big ignorant entity, Slashdot readers wouldn't have an easy target to insult...
Someone care to comment on the possible health effects of having a headset that creates a magnetic field next to your head? When people are concerned about having a cellphone's radiation near their head for a few minutes to perhaps an hour or so a day, I'm sure there is more of a concern with a headset that might be worn for several hours a day. Is the field strong enough to cause health problems?
Wait a minute... Doesn't that mean that
We apologise for the karma-whoring in this post. Those user responsible has been sacked.
Probably because litigation is the only action the RIAA seems to be willing to take. They have can't seem to protect their stuff; as soon as some new "protection" device is established, someone inevitably finds a way to defeat or circumvent it (I found the black marker trick the most amusing of these circumventions). They obviously won't just let everyone get away with file sharing. In my opinion, the sensible and probably inevitable option will have to be a reworking of the entire business model of music retailing, an idea that large corporations like record companies and organizations like the RIAA have been slow to embrace.
1. Don't worry about upgrading. I believe your settings are stored wherever you have your user profile, usually at /Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/Thunderbird/ for Windows users. The program folder is replaced, but your local saved messages and settings are not. Note that Mozilla recommends you delete your Thunderbird 0.1 folder before installing the new folder, though.
2. Thunderbird does not bounce mail, AFAIK. Usually email bouncing occurs when an email is returned to its sender for some reason or another, such as sending to an invalid email address. Eudora, if I am reading their website correctly, doesn't bounce email either.
The Slashdot readers will correct me on this hopefully, but I believe email bouncing via SpamAssassin needs to happen at the mail server level, not from within your email application. Any spam that does or doesn't get through to you locally using Eudora will or will not get through using Thunderbird. Perhaps your brother is either running his own mail server, or has mistaken Eudora's internal junk mail filtering--which only moves email from your inbox to a "junk" folder--for email bouncing.
That said, as a Thunderbird user, I'd highly recommend upgrading, especially since it's a free upgrade with better stability and speed (for most people, anyway).
Just throw Spielberg in there and we can have all swords, bows and other weapons replaced by innoucuous, family-friendly items. What's the Middle Earth equivalent of a walkie-talkie?
Pardon my ignorance, but would a plausible explanation be that vegetarians have a creatine deficiency, thereby making them hypersensitive to the supplements? Is it also possible to consider that the sample group had less muscle mass than their carnivorous counterparts, thereby further lowering the amount of regular creatine within their bodies?
I really don't know if publishing theories from research journals is prudent or responsible reporting; the distillation of findings, capped by the bold statement that "Creatine 'boosts brain power'" seems hasty. Don't tell me about the disclaiming effect of the quotation marks around 'boosts brain power'--the statement still has the same effect to most casual news readers.
I believe you're referring to the XXXGAMESTATION.
However, before you get your hopes up too high, read the introduction to the Videotopia project: "VIDEOTOPIA explores humanity's first giant leap into interactive electronic media - - the videogame. As the industry grew, its influence on developing technologies grew as well. The goal of this exhibition is to communicate the dramatic impact these games have had on our lives and our culture."
There are nonetheless some VERY remarkable games in the exhibit, including one of my personal favorites, the 1983 "3-D" Star Wars game!
Artificial lighting can cause disorientation and misorientation of both adults and hatchlings. Turtle hatchlings are attracted to light, ignoring or coming out of the ocean to go towards a light source, increasing their chances of death or injury. In addition, as nesting females avoid areas with intense lighting, highly developed areas may cause problems for turtles trying to nest.
Guess they missed the PBS special.
Comedy is an art form.
There are strategy guides out there. These so-called "bibles" of the MMOG vary widely in their approach, but when reduced kind of say the same thing. Unfortunately, most are not written very clearly, so some confusion and/or player frustration is to be expected after attempting to interpret said guides. Then again, you could just have someone else interpret the guidebooks' instructions for you, as many choose to do. What an extended metaphor this makes.
Here's my take on why it's only the private sector. I apologize if it is misinformed, this is how I believe "the system" to work:
Lawmakers are painfully unaware of how the digital world works. To quote the article:
"Frankly, I'm finding a lack of attention and a lack of understanding by the Congress and the (Bush) administration as to the serious nature of the threat"
How do lawmakers then legislate over such issues? They create special investigative subcommittees, comprised of individuals of the same body, to research the issue through study and hearings. The subcomittees' hearings involve individuals and groups pertaining to the issue, most often lobbyists working for... you guessed it, the private sector. Obviously, the few months, maybe a year that that legislators have for their individual study leaves their knowledge of the workings of the digital world laughably small in comparision to the professional lobbyists for the large private sector organizations. The lawmakers, pressed for time, must rely upon their newly-found knowledge and the possibly (probably?) slanted "testimony" from said private sector organizations to make their decisions. Of course, by this time, developments over the past six months to a year may render the investigation, hearings and study obsolete.
Even if the digital rights issue were to become general relevance, could there be enough of a "grassroots" effort to have a noticeable effect? I defer to a recent interview on "Now with Bill Moyers" for my answer, spoken by one of my favorite political commentators, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart:
The country is, look,the general dialogue is being swayed by-- the people who are ideologically driven.
The five percent on each side that are so ideological driven that they-- will dictate the terms of the discussion. The other 90 percent of the country have lawns to mow, and kids to pick up from schools, and money to make, and-- things to do. Their lives are, they have entrusted-- we live in a representative democracy.
And so, we elect representatives to go do our bidding, so that we can-- get the leaves out of the gutter, and-- -- do the things around the house that-- need to be done. What the representatives have done over 200 years is set up a periphery, I think they call it the Beltway--
that is a-- obtuse enough that we can't penetrate it anymore, unless we spend all of our time. This is the way that it's been set up purposefully by both sides. And-- the financial industry, as well. They don't want average people to easily penetrate the workings. Because then we call them on it.
http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/proprom.htm
q uito.org/mosquito.html
"Products and Promotions That Have Limited Value for Mosquito Control: Electronic Repellers"
"Hand-held electronic devices that rely on high-frequency sound to repel mosquitoes have become surprisingly popular in recent years. Prices range from $9.95 to $29.95 for units advertised in magazines. Heavy-duty repellers that claim to keep away spiders, hornets, and rats, in addition to mosquitoes may sell for more than $100.00. The manufacturer's rationale for using sound as a repelling factor varies from one device to the next. Some claim to mimic the wing beat frequency of a male mosquito. This, supposedly, repels females who have already mated and do not wish to be mated a second time. Others claim to mimic the sound of a hungry dragonfly, causing mosquitoes to flee the area to avoid becoming the predator's next meal. Most of the electronic repellers on the market hum on a single frequency. Top of the line devices allow for adjustment by the user to achieve the most effective frequency for the mosquito causing the problem. Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that electronic mosquito repellers do not prevent host seeking mosquitoes from biting. In most cases, the claims made by distributors border on fraud. Mated female mosquitoes do not flee from amorous males, and mosquitoes do not vacate an area hunted by dragonflies. Electronic mosquito repellers do little in the way of reducing mosquito annoyance."
Plus, more mosquito info (like you care):
http://www.njmosquito.org
http://www.mos
...by the same people that were responsible for the PATRIOT act. Or is it? It's certainly possible that, by posting sentiments of dissent here, one could attract an extra bit of attention from the people that monitor internet communications. Hope you aren't in the habit of downloading "questionable content"...
If the "artists" can explain, in their own words, why their collection of songs needs to be presented in an album format, then perhaps I (and many others) would care about preserving the album intact. Otherwise, I suggest they stop being pretentious and afford their fans and supporters the same freedom that radio stations and MTV have when they play their (one or two popular) singles.
It's that thing about future use there. For example, movies often rummage through the back catalog and voila, an oldie becomes popular again. Take Dusty Springfield's "Son Of A Preacher Man", blasted back into the charts by Pulp Fiction.
There is an idea of copyright to progress those fields in which things are copyrighted (I think). Unfortunately, as many have said, current copyright law does not apply adequately to intellectual property. Many businesses today don't actually sell a "thing", an object if you will, but rather are selling either an idea or pure data. So there's quite a difficult question, made overly simplistic by the RIAA: who owns something intangible, and how do you make it fair for both its creator and its users to use?
There seems to me to be another factor in this equation that maybe traditional brick-and-mortar stores don't have: massive available back catalogs. To use Tokerat's numbering system: 2a. Have stuff that no one else has or is hard to get. (More selection of units available for purchase.) So that's pretty simple economics too, as is slowly being proven by the iTunes store: have something unique to sell, in this case individual songs at (somewhat) low prices. I mean, come on, Eileen, no one I know wants to buy an entire album for just the one-hit-wonder song.
Seems that most analyses of why traditional music stores are not doing well seem to migrate towards the "buzzworthy" answers like P2P. How about the other reasons, such as a lack of demand for entire albums? Short attention spans aside, a piece in the puzzle is that people don't want to buy an entire album for one song, especially back catalog titles with one-hit wonders. I mean, come on, Eileen.
Also, speaking of which, do traditional music stores make money off of back catalog sales? It seems that online shops are the future of back catalog sales, since no brick-and-mortar store actually wants to keep one or two copies of older stuff in stock.
I recall a few years ago when an article speculated that the future music store would be nothing but a computer terminal with a burner, CD labeller and a high-resolution color printer. No one but home users seemed to pick up on that idea.
For some reason, I once had a naive idea that if the general majority of people thought that something was pretty much OK to do without really hurting people, then somehow the people had some sort of way to voice their opinions and change existing laws towards the general consensus. I think it involved something with writing to your elected representatives. I don't think that works anymore; it would seem that our elected representatives are not representing the general opinion of the districts they serve. So much for "public servants".
As it relates to the RIAA, their idea of "education" seems more like the common notion of "news" nowadays. One must filter out the opinionated statements, slanted ideas and outright propaganda to find what is really going on. Education? Sounds like positive spin on their personal interpretations of the existing laws in an attempt at self-righteousness.
Not that I am totally against the RIAA, just that the interests in which it protects seems (to me) to be hindering the progress of the arts entailed in the Constitution.
I'm a hypocrite; propaganda in a statement against propaganda.
I understand that for many of the smaller anime companies (AnimEigo, CPM, etc.) legal action is finscally difficult and logistically unfeasable to puruse, given the location of most 'bootleg' discs (southeast Asia) and the lax copyright infringement laws in place there.
Still, it would be nice to hear from as many representatives of the anime production community possible regarding what a fan concerned about the legality of his/her purchases should do, if anything, when they come across a website selling illegal material.
Along that same vein, perhaps it would be enlightening to find out if the animators, voice actors and musicians get any sort of royalties from sales, or if they are only paid under a one-shot deal contract. For example, musicians (London Philharmonic, I think) were paid a one-time fee for recording the Star Wars soundtrack. They receive nothing else from sales of soundtracks or movies. I'm not saying if that situation is good or bad, that's business.
However, either way, 'bootlegging' can and will affect the animators some way; either the animators won't make as much directly from residuals and/or the animation distributors and studios will have lower sales numbers, leading to less possibilities for new works to be created and licensed. This in turn can hurt fans; if sales aren't good for a series, there is less of a chance that the series spin-offs, extra episodes and related movies will be released.
Maybe this guy is on to something. This could be the new modders' realm, the Motherboard Mod. With the current batch of uber-gearheads out there that not only understand WHAT computer parts do but HOW they do it, this could be a new horizon in interoperability. Creative people could not only swap in and out parts from computer to computer, but also between anything that employs some sort of internal computer--which, nowadays, is almost everything electronic.
Oh my, does that mean that companies like Intel could rearrange chip architecture to a generic format to work in many different appliances? Could they gain a strangle hold on world electronic device manufacturing?!? The future is uncertain; however, I would point out that the idea of 'smart appliances' has been tossed around for many years; this guy is a prime example of the next step in electronics evolution.
Then again, maybe I'm full of it and don't know what the heck I'm talking about.
Me and my dirty mind. I think HP, given the function and description of this project, should rename it to something other than "BiReality", unless they are pursuing a client base of alternative lifestyle teleconferencers.
For one, anyone know what the usable range of these chips are? Must they be activated at point-blank distance, or can the stack of bills be IDd at once from a scanner a few feet away? The article says "With such tags, a stack of notes can be passed through a reader and the sum added in a split second, similar to how inventory is tracked in an RFID-based system." If said tags can then be activated at a distance, would they qualify as more of a surveillance device than a security feature?
Also, is there (or isn't there) the possibility of malfunction, intentional or not? Couldn't someone shoot some sort of HERF gun-type thing at a bag of loot and fry all the chips at once? Does a malfunctioning chip warrant the investigation of individual cases? Many questions down what looks to be the proverbial "slippery slope"...