The closest us nerds can mod "mushy" is "interesting". Take note fellow lonely slashdotters... if you're interested in a bit or romance - we could start a new topic on useful interests and handy hints for the romantic nerd in you. Perhaps we'll all learn how to procreate and the little-slashbots will take over the world!
There's a lot of people who like to rent DVD's. Now they won't need to return them. Or watch them in time. What's not to like?
What a waste of resources... think of the piles of junk that's being created. This is like the genetically modified grain that won't reseed, or the cool HP inkjet drivers that disable printer sharing.
To even think like this is more than a little screwed up.
The problem with today's captialism is the complacency of the consumer.
Perhaps businesses use clever advertising compaigns to _keep_ consumers complacent. They'll show you bright shinning objects and steal from you behind your back (the public domain, environmental disasters, work-place practises etc.)
And it works, and complaining about it does nothing.
The message has to be well advertised, clear, accessible and potent enough to make the average person's blood to boil... because you're fighting against a well designed and scientifically proven advertising machine.
In the face of that, what hope is there for "intelligent consumers" en masse? I think we're heading for a corporate dark age.
JJJ is _so_ much better than any popular Canadian station. Listening to FM radio in Canada made me want to punch the radio... it wasn't just bad, it was brain-washingly horrible. I think the only reason why people didn't realise how bad it was is because they'd never heard anything like JJJ. B105 and MMM are still light-years ahead of commercial radio in Canada
I don't think there's a valid argument that this is the type of profiteering that copyright was meant to protect
It's not about copyright, it's about finding a technical solution to "manage" content after it has been sold to the customer. Copyright law doesn't come into it, that's just smoke and mirrors. Content producers are wetting their pants at the idea of finding new ways to make the customer pay... and the "free market" is dominated by a few very powerful players.
Can'y the firmware we read off the motherboard, or perhaps reverse engineered? Also, there is the possibility of running a virtual machine, which would be reasonably effecient because the instruction set is the same. Do you think there's hope there? I'd love to see OS X opened up to the masses...
Doesn't a siphon only work if you moving water no less than 10m vertically? The atmospheric pressure _pushes_ the water from the lower container to the upper container (via a tube). 1 atmosphere of pressure is only sufficient to push a column of water 10m high.
Maybe they should fix their IP laws instead of trying to fuck up ours just as badly as theirs are.
Some smart people in the US must know that their IP laws will put them at an economic disadvantage... all they have to do is get the whole world to adopt them, and then the party can continue indefinietly!
A bad law breads disrespect for the law, and creates a disfunctional society. Everyone knows it's all about the money of a few rich people. Everyone knows that artists will always create art... and technology has given us cheap high quality recording and distribution. In theory, through democracy, people can create whatever laws they want... we are sold this myth of the worship of the economy, but why don't we just enjoy music and support the _artists_ directly by going to their shows if we feel like having a good time.
A CD is different to downloaded music... since it's a different thing, there will always be people interested in buying them, and artists will try to add value to CDs with, for example, liner notes and artwork. There is also price presure on an overpriced item. Furthermore, I know of many independent artists who have created their own CDs without the draconian contracts of RIAA members, and thus control the artistic content of their creations. Isn't that all for the best?
The truth is that the RIAA members would stifle economic and artistic growth, push for laws that would make most people criminals (in a democracy no less!) and all in the interest of their own wallets... and who can blame them? Hording money is very instinctive.
We must talk about the realities, so we can confront them, resolve them. Otherwise, the fear has won, and we are defeated
Mass fear allows the powerful to rise even higher. The problem isn't just terrorists, criminals etc... it's the people who use this fear as a distraction from their own agenda.
Mediocrity thrives because the public will buy whatever's waved under their nose
I'd call you an elitist prick, except that you're right. Woe be the 10% of the population who actually use their brain right?
right?
Do you think marketers would be able to "create needs" in us if we thought for ourselves. Well they could, but I'm sure they prefer the model corporate citizen who fills the unhappy spaces in their lives with buying products who's images have been branded onto their subconscious cortex.
Don't blame the induhviduals, blame the culture which places making money as more important and worthy than anything else...
Just like you can't put an Athlon into an Intel-socket, you can't use a rpm on debian
If they got everyone in a room to work out exactly what's required for package management, and the most flexible way to let everyone do it their own way, there could be a genuine unified package management system...
That wouldn't mean that software vendors wouldn't have to worry about.deb or.rpm... just like application developers sometimes need to note the 'endianess' of the chip they're programming for.
It's just a matter of separation of concerns, and hiding details that are really just a pain in the neck for vendors.
Ideally, instead of trying to 'fix' all the current methods, something would be designed from scratch, and you'd be able to port.rpms or whatever to this new thing. The reason you might want to start from scratch is that you don't want to create a new system that contains the least-subset of all the existing systems.
On OS X (and Classic), you can install most programs by dragging them (from CD/the internet or whatever) into _any_ folder. If that folder is in your home directory, then the app is available to you,/Applications makes it available to everyone. The applications themselves are folders, which contain shared libraries and whatever else is required to run the application... it is really simple.
What would be even better is if all libraries had meta information in them, and when a library is copied onto your multiple times, a smart filing system tracks them, and possibly even saves disk space by using symlinks. If the applications also had meta data (I need libxyz version 2.2 exactly, or >= 3), then a unified tool (like apt-get) could update all required libraries, and leave the user free to move everything anywhere they want.
It could be designed such that it's very hard to break your system by fiddling with it.
It's a dream, but the powers would do well to start thinking about combining their resources on this problem.
Evil is a word to describe human beings... Corporations are not evil... they are ingenious devices with which to make money and have no responsability.
The board is legally required to maximize profits.
The shareholders are practically immune to the consequences of their investment.
So as far as moral standards are concerned, each company is in a race to the bottom. Some SCOundrals go to far... but in general it has been proved that a nice advertising campaign and a few good deeds will repair even the most tarnished image.
Primary Industries of all types... usualy happen in rural areas. I'm not sure what primary exports are worth to the US... probably a lot less than other exports, however, if you divide the exports by the population base, I think you'll find that the rural areas contribute a lot to the wealth of the cities.
It's got nothing to do with either law or morality. It's just got to do with how far you're willing to delude yourself. Is that it?
Fancy talking about people deluding themselves! Ha!
Maybe, in their heart, people feel that downloading music is just fun, and they'll buy a CD when they want to hold something in their hand?
Maybe copyright law has been gamed into rent behaviour by a rich few?
Maybe people know that steeling from shops really DOES cost shops, printers, insurance companies etc.
Perhaps a democracy shouldn't have laws that make most of the voters criminals?
Perhaps it has EVERYTHING to do with law and morality, but you missed the point on how these concepts are supposed to function in society (and right now copyright law is very disfunctional)
I hereby label you a zebra, since you've covered yourself in BLACK and WHITE... except that zebra's are probably much more rockin'.
They always have... for example, Word and Excel were avaliable in 1984 (I think) on the Mac.
I have no idea about ActiveX on classic, but whenever you install M$ software, you get a metric tonne of "shared libraries" (extensions) loaded into your system folder. I've never come across an IE-only website that can't be used with IE for the Mac.
Slashdot Mirror
Fear is an emotion that rules our lives from moment to moment. Losing fear doesn't mean losing sanity, actually is usually means the opposite.
The closest us nerds can mod "mushy" is "interesting". Take note fellow lonely slashdotters... if you're interested in a bit or romance - we could start a new topic on useful interests and handy hints for the romantic nerd in you. Perhaps we'll all learn how to procreate and the little-slashbots will take over the world!
Perhaps the RIAA is trying to get us to equate infringement with theft... to screw with our own moral judgements
There's a lot of people who like to rent DVD's. Now they won't need to return them. Or watch them in time. What's not to like?
What a waste of resources... think of the piles of junk that's being created. This is like the genetically modified grain that won't reseed, or the cool HP inkjet drivers that disable printer sharing.
To even think like this is more than a little screwed up.
Isn't the goal of economics to increase wealth?
No matter where you are or what you acheive, one is never truly happy
And then he was enlightened =)
The problem with today's captialism is the complacency of the consumer.
Perhaps businesses use clever advertising compaigns to _keep_ consumers complacent. They'll show you bright shinning objects and steal from you behind your back (the public domain, environmental disasters, work-place practises etc.)
And it works, and complaining about it does nothing.
The message has to be well advertised, clear, accessible and potent enough to make the average person's blood to boil... because you're fighting against a well designed and scientifically proven advertising machine.
In the face of that, what hope is there for "intelligent consumers" en masse? I think we're heading for a corporate dark age.
Australian radio sucks, and sucks hard.
JJJ is _so_ much better than any popular Canadian station. Listening to FM radio in Canada made me want to punch the radio... it wasn't just bad, it was brain-washingly horrible. I think the only reason why people didn't realise how bad it was is because they'd never heard anything like JJJ. B105 and MMM are still light-years ahead of commercial radio in Canada
I don't think there's a valid argument that this is the type of profiteering that copyright was meant to protect
It's not about copyright, it's about finding a technical solution to "manage" content after it has been sold to the customer. Copyright law doesn't come into it, that's just smoke and mirrors. Content producers are wetting their pants at the idea of finding new ways to make the customer pay... and the "free market" is dominated by a few very powerful players.
Can'y the firmware we read off the motherboard, or perhaps reverse engineered? Also, there is the possibility of running a virtual machine, which would be reasonably effecient because the instruction set is the same. Do you think there's hope there? I'd love to see OS X opened up to the masses...
anti-American and anti-globalization hackers
So according to the CIA, they are related... speaks volumes
IANAP (I am not a physicist), but...
Doesn't a siphon only work if you moving water no less than 10m vertically? The atmospheric pressure _pushes_ the water from the lower container to the upper container (via a tube). 1 atmosphere of pressure is only sufficient to push a column of water 10m high.
Maybe they should fix their IP laws instead of trying to fuck up ours just as badly as theirs are.
Some smart people in the US must know that their IP laws will put them at an economic disadvantage... all they have to do is get the whole world to adopt them, and then the party can continue indefinietly!
Kids are so smart, be genuine... eventually they'll understand. Lies aren't necessary.
A bad law breads disrespect for the law, and creates a disfunctional society. Everyone knows it's all about the money of a few rich people. Everyone knows that artists will always create art... and technology has given us cheap high quality recording and distribution. In theory, through democracy, people can create whatever laws they want... we are sold this myth of the worship of the economy, but why don't we just enjoy music and support the _artists_ directly by going to their shows if we feel like having a good time.
A CD is different to downloaded music... since it's a different thing, there will always be people interested in buying them, and artists will try to add value to CDs with, for example, liner notes and artwork. There is also price presure on an overpriced item. Furthermore, I know of many independent artists who have created their own CDs without the draconian contracts of RIAA members, and thus control the artistic content of their creations. Isn't that all for the best?
The truth is that the RIAA members would stifle economic and artistic growth, push for laws that would make most people criminals (in a democracy no less!) and all in the interest of their own wallets... and who can blame them? Hording money is very instinctive.
We must talk about the realities, so we can confront them, resolve them. Otherwise, the fear has won, and we are defeated
Mass fear allows the powerful to rise even higher. The problem isn't just terrorists, criminals etc... it's the people who use this fear as a distraction from their own agenda.
The trouble is, DRM is a (poor) technical fix for a social problem
Maybe law should be _in synnc_ with the society they purpote to structure and serve.
I'm not saying criminal activity on a large scale justifies said criminal activity
In theory a democracy would never have a law that would make most of it's voters into criminals. It would be quite disfunctional...
Do the thing that IE would never do. Implement something as powerful as Windows Forms (or it's Linux equivelent)
XUL... it's already there
Mediocrity thrives because the public will buy whatever's waved under their nose
I'd call you an elitist prick, except that you're right. Woe be the 10% of the population who actually use their brain right?
right?
Do you think marketers would be able to "create needs" in us if we thought for ourselves. Well they could, but I'm sure they prefer the model corporate citizen who fills the unhappy spaces in their lives with buying products who's images have been branded onto their subconscious cortex.
Don't blame the induhviduals, blame the culture which places making money as more important and worthy than anything else...
Just like you can't put an Athlon into an Intel-socket, you can't use a rpm on debian
.deb or .rpm... just like application developers sometimes need to note the 'endianess' of the chip they're programming for.
.rpms or whatever to this new thing. The reason you might want to start from scratch is that you don't want to create a new system that contains the least-subset of all the existing systems.
/Applications makes it available to everyone. The applications themselves are folders, which contain shared libraries and whatever else is required to run the application... it is really simple.
If they got everyone in a room to work out exactly what's required for package management, and the most flexible way to let everyone do it their own way, there could be a genuine unified package management system...
That wouldn't mean that software vendors wouldn't have to worry about
It's just a matter of separation of concerns, and hiding details that are really just a pain in the neck for vendors.
Ideally, instead of trying to 'fix' all the current methods, something would be designed from scratch, and you'd be able to port
On OS X (and Classic), you can install most programs by dragging them (from CD/the internet or whatever) into _any_ folder. If that folder is in your home directory, then the app is available to you,
What would be even better is if all libraries had meta information in them, and when a library is copied onto your multiple times, a smart filing system tracks them, and possibly even saves disk space by using symlinks. If the applications also had meta data (I need libxyz version 2.2 exactly, or >= 3), then a unified tool (like apt-get) could update all required libraries, and leave the user free to move everything anywhere they want.
It could be designed such that it's very hard to break your system by fiddling with it.
It's a dream, but the powers would do well to start thinking about combining their resources on this problem.
No, not all corporations are evil
Evil is a word to describe human beings... Corporations are not evil... they are ingenious devices with which to make money and have no responsability.
The board is legally required to maximize profits.
The shareholders are practically immune to the consequences of their investment.
So as far as moral standards are concerned, each company is in a race to the bottom. Some SCOundrals go to far... but in general it has been proved that a nice advertising campaign and a few good deeds will repair even the most tarnished image.
Corporations aren't evil, they're amoral
What are these export $$$ you talk of?
Primary Industries of all types... usualy happen in rural areas. I'm not sure what primary exports are worth to the US... probably a lot less than other exports, however, if you divide the exports by the population base, I think you'll find that the rural areas contribute a lot to the wealth of the cities.
Far too much money in this country (USA) is wasted subsidizing services for people who choose to live in rural areas.
Perhaps because the export $$$ those rural areas generate go some way to pay for the huge import bills that cities generate.
Fancy talking about people deluding themselves! Ha!
I hereby label you a zebra, since you've covered yourself in BLACK and WHITE... except that zebra's are probably much more rockin'.
They always have... for example, Word and Excel were avaliable in 1984 (I think) on the Mac.
I have no idea about ActiveX on classic, but whenever you install M$ software, you get a metric tonne of "shared libraries" (extensions) loaded into your system folder. I've never come across an IE-only website that can't be used with IE for the Mac.