Actually what's going on is the mass emailing is setting off spam heuristics left and right. Yahoo is already blocking these emails globally. Oh the irony.
>As long as the information is only used in the aggregate
Well, as of now Tivo data is zipcode specific. It wasn't like this last year? Why? Tivo is hurting for dollars. I wonder how much more specific they'll get as they continue to lose money?
Also, don't overestimate the tivo userbase. Its nothing close to the Neilson system and Tivo simply can't make any money selling this info because Tivo users are far from average. Enough expendable income to own a tivo + cable/satellite and you're a semi-early adopter? This demographic is pretty predicatable already. Tivo has nothing on the Neilsons and the networks agree.
I think virus writers' priorities have changed since. With everyone on the net now, the bragging points have to do with how quickly and how many machines you can infect. Its quantity over quality. Payload? What payload?
Ah yes, the halcyon days of the wazoo virus or when getting a virus meant your disk partitions were officially destroyed.
Thank bob for these. I've been waiting for these for a long while. Hibernate is a real time saver, but I can do with less device problems and without the occasional corrupt MBR when using it.
Interestingly enough, XP does an excellent job at hibernating, but my next laptop will be running OSX. I can't see myself paying out for an XP upgrade. Pretty colors, system restore, and it breaks PGP for only 150-200 dollars? No thanks.
So I'm connected all the time. The Sidekick is my lifesaver on the bus and I get wifi at school, work, and at home.
Personally, I can't see these technologies converging. There's no way in hell 3G will be as affordable as a wireless AP plugged into a LAN. Heck, I could get GPRS (what my sidekick uses) on my laptop through t-mobile and pay per kilobyte, but I really don't feel like paying a 4 or 5 grand cell phone bill every month. T-Mobile still handles the Sidekick with kid-gloves. Developers simply wont be able to use the WAN connection for anything and bandwidth has always been a bone of contention between Danger and T-Mobile. It is assumed this is why they won't release any new apps for it like an ssh client or rss feed reader. Web, email, and IM is all t-mobile wants to provide. Want more? Buy a blackberry.
The sidekick really does let you surf anywhere; it does feel like a slow dial-up but thems the breaks. I do use it driving on occasion like repling to an IM at a red light, getting directions, finding phone numbers, movie times, etc.
You're right though, the data services simply are not that profitable. If the Sidekick was as popular as a palm then there would simply be no unlimited data plan anymore. All those users would be co-opting the cell network and t-mobile would be forced to throttle everyone down and charge them per kilobyte like they do with the GPRS cards.
WPA will replace WEP as the standard 802.11x encryption scheme. It fixes the major problems with WEP e.g. airsnort won't crack keys anymore, and the implementation is supposedly easeir to use than WEP.
The bad part is its no IPSec w/ 3DES, but its better than WEP and many manufacturers will be able to provice WPA by ugrading the firmware on the card and access point, depending on the model of course.
> Kazaa has basically made it's reputation spitting in the face of media companies.
Perhaps, but they also share a complete disdain of anything that gets in the way of profits. I doubt kazaa would have any problems pushing the most draconian DRM app in their newest update. I can picture the hypothetical conversation right now...
"Okay, so we agree. Kazaa gets.001% of the profits and if the user downloads anything but approved RIAA content we do a pop-up warning. After the second warning we wipe their drive. Deal?"
"Umm, can't you do a little better?"
"Okay before we wipe the drive we'll do 20 wipes on their My Documents folder and media files so they can't recover them."
"I like, but its missing something..."
"It'll post their SSN and any personal info we find during install to a newsgroup too."
"And send a 'I quit letter' to their boss and a 'You were never a good mother' email to their mom?"
This has been done with the.kids TLD. Not exactly a smashing success. I would fully disagree with moving anything with nakedness to a.xxx TLD. The question of "what is porn" would be simply be too much for everyone to handle and some hamfisted legislation would make sure anything involving any show of skin short of wearing a burka would be in that domain. Sorry, but once.xxx is created it will be abused by the censorship contingent in the US.
>we can't afford to hire 'extra' Librarians to monitor what's going on
You don't have to. An occasional walk-by to see what's going on is all it takes. We don't need a technological solution to a social problem. Once someone lose privledges to use the internet because of using those computers to view obvious porno sites then the chilling affect would more or less help control human behavoir.
Look at how well "be quiet in the library" signs work. Most simply obey the sign at face value, knowing they could be kicked out for disobeying it. Once people become loud the librarian asks them to quiet down. We don't need decibal meters and special laws to take care of this. The same can be applied to the internet.
I'd much rather have someone be able to sneak in a little porno than make the internet unusable for everyone else. SCOTUS can learn a lot from saying, "It is better than 100 guilty men go free than for one innocent man to goto prison."
Also, I'm highly skeptical of the constitutionality of "pulling federal funding" as extortion on the part of the federal government. This is clearly, in my opinion, a check against local government that is not in the constition.
Regardless, this is a big win for the pro-censorship organizations (big religion), the big federal government people, the anti-local government people (why cant we vote on this on a state by state basis AND get federal funds), etc. SCOTUS could have simply said that this greatly threatens first amendment protections and thrown the whole thing out. Its very telling that they didn't.
Is a small company I founded. We're current working on these titles:
Zoraster: the return of Zarathrustra! Fight heathens, greeks, and Muslims in this action-packed adventure. 32 levels of puzzle solving fun. Don't let them call you the Jesus of Persia anymore!
Quest for National Autonomy: Suicide Bombing as last resort. Kabloom you go in this multi-cultural tale of political infighting and intrigue. Recruit men, women, and children to fight the holy fight. (virgin cut scene only available in Europe)
Children's Crusade: 11-14 year olds run off to the middle east to fight the good fight. Game impossible to win.
Culture War: bring Christ back to America. Micromanage conservative pundits and media outlets to push abstinace, cover-up pedophilia, push pro-corporate views, and support the war on drugs. There is also no way to win this game.
Greek Gods: getting it on! (adult title only) Turn into an ox and pick up chicks. Think Leisure Suit Larry, but with lightning bolts!
Lemmings IX: Janists strike back! Control a Janist who must shoo all lemmings trying to jump over a cliff into safety. Must not step on any bugs using holy broom. Fun for the whole family!
Caste Attack: Brahmins vs. Shudras. Play a Brahmin, a chosen superior man and punish the Shudras untouchables when they get uppity. Whips, chains, and bonus level where police don't bother investigating a shudra murder.
I can't think of a better way to discredit my critics and emasculate them at the same time than taking a smiling photo with them. It helps if protesters you know protested, shouted, and got a little angry.
"See, we're all friends, its all overblown. Go back to your daily routine. Don't worry about some silly lawsuit."
I'm not sure about that. Let's see theres a BILLION dollar lawsuit, linux's reputation has been tarnished, IBMs AIX licenses are now in question, Linus himself is getting threatened, and now they're hurling insults under the guise of "just kidding!"
Its like that wanna-be bully in gradeschool who insults you then says, "I'm kidding!" Its a lame attempt to bait OSS types and get them angry thus producing more negative press.
They want Linux users and OSS types to fly off the handle thus creating more negative press, just ignore them. Right now they're only making themselves look bad. Really bad. Man, these are adults?
This has been true, but has any nuclear enabled nation been overtaken in combat? Nope.
You are absolutely correct that power comes and goes but the combo of ICBMs and Nuclear weapons means that there's a much greater certainty that the "nuclear club" will establish what Europe calls a multipolar world: many powers competiting for a greater good (like in this article) and hopefully not starting WWIII.
Once we're all happily armed with nukes it will only be internal unrest that changes power from now on. I think thats a good thing and a step in the right direction. Its a very arguable point, but the policies of MAD may very well continue into the next few centuries if not for the rest of the time humans populate the planet. At the very least, there will not be an incentive to begin true global disarmament until everyone is about equally armed.
>The Slashdot crowd is all about boycotts, except when it makes life inconvenient for them.
Not really, its been pointed out before that boycotts really don't do anything in the age of uber-big business, conosildated monopolies, companies running in the red for years, etc.
The boycott is just archaic and more or less useless now. Its the negative press that follows the word boycott that really ever gets anything done. Considering the *IAA couldn't care less about their image its even more useless.
Amusingly enough, I think the slashdot/techie crowd would be best at a modern "boycott." They have the skills to find, download, and never pay for anything the *IAA sells. Of course, no one would consider it a boycott, just piracy, but if it hurts the bottom line then its really all the same.
Arguably, this tactic is working, even if the downloaders don't realize they were "boycotting" at all. Napster et al are tools written for the layman to share media files. Now there are four or five legal song downloading services. Coincidence?
>The task of the "artist" themselves varies depending on the particular group, but as a general rule, they are more replaceable than a highly-trained engineer
I wouldn't call that a general rule at all. Each artist/band is its own brand. If your post was true we would be happy to buy whatever the newest Sony record is, but that's not at all how it works.
Look at any band that has had a significant line-up change. This is often professional suicide.
>It truly is built on huge economies of scale, and just like that car
Not true at all. Its a tiny scale and albums mixed in someone's basement can easily be good as the stuff in the store. In fact, I would go as far as saying that it is naturally a cottage industry that is artfically pumped up to be a mass industry through stuff like payola, lack of diversity, incredible amounts of advertising focused on a small part of the available catalog, etc. In other words the labels have a vested interested to treat music as something only made by the talented (they decide who) and who deserve celebrity status because of their amazing skills, when in reality their skill level is fairly common.
>These figures, in short, are simply proof that free markets are working well.
The article states that 12% is average. Only high-successful acts can do better and they are completely free not to opt-in to Apple's music store like Radiohead and Linkin Park have decided to do.
Secondly, these are growing pains. 12% is excellent for a non-MTV/Clearchannel down your throat 24/7 mega-pop band. As diversity in the catalog continues and less money is funneled into four or five pop sensations, but instead funneled into exposing more artists then smaller advertising and word of mouth will produce more varied sales. Bands that start as nobodies and end as nobodies will be getting 12%. That's pretty good.
Personally, I think moving to singles and a diverse selection is a step in the proper direction to satisfy both fans and artists. We're going to look back to the days of big radio and MTV and not believe our rampant fandom and misplaced loyalties, not to mention taste.
> Come on, you can't have it both ways. > You're either pro government control or against it,
Why not?
Things are rarely polar opposites. You can't just say, "Well kid, are you a communist or for a lassiez-fair market." There's tons of middle ground. The formal name for this is the False Dichotomy.More
Extremes only really exist as abstract concepts.
Advocating regulation or laws to protect against abuse is hardly pro-DMCA.
>Every single article you read misrepresents people in the same way.
I wouldn't say misrepresents. I would say the interpretation might not be to your liking.
Itâ(TM)s the same with all media, and the best example is movies. Make a movie about pilots and real pilots will say that itâ(TM)s fake and inaccurate. Make a movie about war and history buffs will complain that itâ(TM)s fake and inaccurate. The only "real" movie that can be made is a movie about making a movie, as that's what they're really doing.
I think you're right that no one likes how he or she is portrayed in the media. A glowing piece is usually followed by a statement like, "I'm not a hero, Iâ(TM)m just an ordinary guy." A more or less objective piece forces the grim light of another personâ(TM)s perspective on your life and the results are usually never to the liking of the subject. And of course a bad piece will always solicit a negative response.
This is going to be month two on Vonage for me (voip phone service through a cable modem) and its a good service but...
1. They have significant voicemail problems. I think the consensus at dslreport's voip forums is that they are overselling/pushing their VM system too hard or they just expanded too quickly. Its not just lost VM but sometimes my phone wont ring when VM is enabled. Workaround: use a plain-jane answering machine. Afterall, you get a normal POTS phone jack from the Cisco ATA they send you.
2. Be mindful of you upload speed and what apps you're running on your home lan. You don't want to use this when kazaa or whatever is maxing out your upload cap. Throttle bandwidth to leave yourself 100kbs. Vonage also has a 30kbs compressed codec for people without much bandwidth.
3. Of course, if you lose network connectivity (or power for that matter) you lose phone. That probably isn't much of a concern in a world of cell phones, but its something to consider if you don't have a cell phone and are far from your neighbors.
The pros
1. It sounds excellent. Its POTS quality as far as I can tell. Think of it as MP3 compared to CD.
2. If you're already paying for broadband its a smart investment. Telling the local monopoly to piss off is very gratifying. Not to mention you have built in number portability. Just plug that Cisco ATA anywhere and you have your old phone number.
3. The geek quotient of using VoIP without the other party know or asking, "What are you calling me on, a damn tin can?"
>we look like we do largely because, like glowing fish, we find ourselves "cute".
Which is exactly how natural selection works. There's a glut of information out there on how traditional elements of beauty (face symmetry, clear skin, physical fitness, etc) translates into a fit and healthy mate most likely to produce healthy children. And so it goes with the next generation.
We don't have some magical sense of aesthetics; what we find cute, attractive, etc is most likely a feedback mechanism directly related to reproduction.
Funny, American companies in the EU have no problem keeping their divisions profitable within the EU's pro-employee and long vacation laws.
There's nothing magical about either system, there are just different ways of doing things. A good business adapts to its environment be it the market or local labor laws. A bad business is one that can't adapt and "needs" more government-mandated "pro-business" legislation like the US habitually gives out.
>Whenever I hear "there is no proven link" I am always shocked by the extreme ignorance.
Correlation vs. causation. Which is which here?
Look at the society we're talking about, a deeply religious isolated culture suddenly turned on to western concepts like the freedom from religion and the free expression of ideas. If this culminates into the Jerry Springer show then so be it. Better than than the vice police arresting Springer et al for disrupting the minds of the masses, like they do in places like Saudi Arabia. Or banning movies like the Matrix in Egypt.
So now they've encountered a glut of information and some of it is violent fiction. I hate to break this to you but human nature IS VERY violent. These people are expressing their human nature in a way that was most likely repressed by the eight-fold path of Buddhism.
Now they're going to have to develop a new moral and legal system to control their new found appreciation for hedonistic activities and criminal actions. Instead of a feudal lord dictating what is right from a dusty text they have embraced the western idea of democratic consensus.
Instead of endless hours in meditation in prayer there will be arguments on what the role of government should be e.g. shoud we make pot legal? What about gay sex? Women's rights?
Like someone already said exposing a kid to the ARTS channel will not make them a lover of classical music. TV just doesn't work that well. But when you expose people to something that frees them from their religion repression, then you've got a pretty hot situation on your hands.
Hopefully, it will take care of itself theough liberalizing democratic actions and not through reactionary religion crackdowns like in the Muslim world.
Arguably, something VERY GOOD is happening here. The ideals of the enlightenment are powerful and help make the individual more autonomous than in tradition monarchal or feudal societies. Sorry but no people deserve to be kept in a jar just because their culture is changing and westerners just don't like it. Get over western guilt and realize that stuff like porn and Jackass: The Movie are very much examples of free individuals acting out their lives without too much top-down control.
Perhaps the puzzling part of the article (how the dollar and market don't look so bad but unemployment is) can be answered by the negative effects of giving ultra-big business all these "pro-business" concessions via government mandate.
Small and medium size business employ more people than all large companies combined in the US. Yet, every stimulus package from Congress only benefits the big boys who can afford a team of lobbyists and a legal department that dwarfs most law firms.
Where does this leave the real innovators? Its hardly contested that innovation and new markets are usually created by those willing to go at it with a small company and do it or fail trying as opposed to some big-business top-down master plan. In the tech industry you have to fight the legal departments of potential competitors, fight the patent junkies, fight potential adversaries like the massive and powerful content industry, etc before you can even come up with a decent business plan.
Someone somewhere is sitting on a billion dollar idea but its not going to go anywhere because investors fear retribution from unfair competitors. Or perhaps she cannot get enough money to pay for years of IP challenges. In a legal war of attrition its the little guy who loses, and loses badly.
I think we might be seeing a loss of innovation and a loss in small to medium sized businesses. How can these companies compete with sweetheart deals, crony capitalism, and legal tricks?
If this little thesis is correct it would explain why Joe from Winnekta can't find a job, even though the economy isn't as bad as it was in the 80s, why PCs are still ugly and loud beige boxes, and why relatively new tech like cellphones are a better deal and a better product overseas. Or why broadband is so expensive here in the States.
Everytime congress cuts a deal for some business it raises a barrier to entry for small business to walk in and compete. Enough barriers and you've got an economy that isn't moving, but is dependant or more crony capitalism to keep it going. I hope I'm wrong as I'd hate to be here when this all hits critical mass.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually what's going on is the mass emailing is setting off spam heuristics left and right. Yahoo is already blocking these emails globally. Oh the irony.
>As long as the information is only used in the aggregate
Well, as of now Tivo data is zipcode specific. It wasn't like this last year? Why? Tivo is hurting for dollars. I wonder how much more specific they'll get as they continue to lose money?
Also, don't overestimate the tivo userbase. Its nothing close to the Neilson system and Tivo simply can't make any money selling this info because Tivo users are far from average. Enough expendable income to own a tivo + cable/satellite and you're a semi-early adopter? This demographic is pretty predicatable already. Tivo has nothing on the Neilsons and the networks agree.
Here's how to opt-out of Tivo information collection.
DirecTivo owners will have to call 1-800-DIRECTV
I think virus writers' priorities have changed since. With everyone on the net now, the bragging points have to do with how quickly and how many machines you can infect. Its quantity over quality. Payload? What payload?
Ah yes, the halcyon days of the wazoo virus or when getting a virus meant your disk partitions were officially destroyed.
Thank bob for these. I've been waiting for these for a long while. Hibernate is a real time saver, but I can do with less device problems and without the occasional corrupt MBR when using it.
Interestingly enough, XP does an excellent job at hibernating, but my next laptop will be running OSX. I can't see myself paying out for an XP upgrade. Pretty colors, system restore, and it breaks PGP for only 150-200 dollars? No thanks.
Just use the Star Wars name generator.
Err, something about "give us your mother's maiden name and city you were born in" is more than tad suspicious.
So I'm connected all the time. The Sidekick is my lifesaver on the bus and I get wifi at school, work, and at home.
Personally, I can't see these technologies converging. There's no way in hell 3G will be as affordable as a wireless AP plugged into a LAN. Heck, I could get GPRS (what my sidekick uses) on my laptop through t-mobile and pay per kilobyte, but I really don't feel like paying a 4 or 5 grand cell phone bill every month. T-Mobile still handles the Sidekick with kid-gloves. Developers simply wont be able to use the WAN connection for anything and bandwidth has always been a bone of contention between Danger and T-Mobile. It is assumed this is why they won't release any new apps for it like an ssh client or rss feed reader. Web, email, and IM is all t-mobile wants to provide. Want more? Buy a blackberry.
The sidekick really does let you surf anywhere; it does feel like a slow dial-up but thems the breaks. I do use it driving on occasion like repling to an IM at a red light, getting directions, finding phone numbers, movie times, etc.
You're right though, the data services simply are not that profitable. If the Sidekick was as popular as a palm then there would simply be no unlimited data plan anymore. All those users would be co-opting the cell network and t-mobile would be forced to throttle everyone down and charge them per kilobyte like they do with the GPRS cards.
WPA will replace WEP as the standard 802.11x encryption scheme. It fixes the major problems with WEP e.g. airsnort won't crack keys anymore, and the implementation is supposedly easeir to use than WEP.
The bad part is its no IPSec w/ 3DES, but its better than WEP and many manufacturers will be able to provice WPA by ugrading the firmware on the card and access point, depending on the model of course.
I believe Windows XP support is already here.
> Kazaa has basically made it's reputation spitting in the face of media companies.
.001% of the profits and if the user downloads anything but approved RIAA content we do a pop-up warning. After the second warning we wipe their drive. Deal?"
Perhaps, but they also share a complete disdain of anything that gets in the way of profits. I doubt kazaa would have any problems pushing the most draconian DRM app in their newest update. I can picture the hypothetical conversation right now...
"Okay, so we agree. Kazaa gets
"Umm, can't you do a little better?"
"Okay before we wipe the drive we'll do 20 wipes on their My Documents folder and media files so they can't recover them."
"I like, but its missing something..."
"It'll post their SSN and any personal info we find during install to a newsgroup too."
"And send a 'I quit letter' to their boss and a 'You were never a good mother' email to their mom?"
"Deal. No one reads these EULAs anyway."
>Why not voluntarilly move to a .xxx tld?
.kids TLD. Not exactly a smashing success. I would fully disagree with moving anything with nakedness to a .xxx TLD. The question of "what is porn" would be simply be too much for everyone to handle and some hamfisted legislation would make sure anything involving any show of skin short of wearing a burka would be in that domain. Sorry, but once .xxx is created it will be abused by the censorship contingent in the US.
This has been done with the
>we can't afford to hire 'extra' Librarians to monitor what's going on
You don't have to. An occasional walk-by to see what's going on is all it takes. We don't need a technological solution to a social problem. Once someone lose privledges to use the internet because of using those computers to view obvious porno sites then the chilling affect would more or less help control human behavoir.
Look at how well "be quiet in the library" signs work. Most simply obey the sign at face value, knowing they could be kicked out for disobeying it. Once people become loud the librarian asks them to quiet down. We don't need decibal meters and special laws to take care of this. The same can be applied to the internet.
I'd much rather have someone be able to sneak in a little porno than make the internet unusable for everyone else. SCOTUS can learn a lot from saying, "It is better than 100 guilty men go free than for one innocent man to goto prison."
Also, I'm highly skeptical of the constitutionality of "pulling federal funding" as extortion on the part of the federal government. This is clearly, in my opinion, a check against local government that is not in the constition.
Regardless, this is a big win for the pro-censorship organizations (big religion), the big federal government people, the anti-local government people (why cant we vote on this on a state by state basis AND get federal funds), etc. SCOTUS could have simply said that this greatly threatens first amendment protections and thrown the whole thing out. Its very telling that they didn't.
Is a small company I founded. We're current working on these titles:
Zoraster: the return of Zarathrustra! Fight heathens, greeks, and Muslims in this action-packed adventure. 32 levels of puzzle solving fun. Don't let them call you the Jesus of Persia anymore!
Quest for National Autonomy: Suicide Bombing as last resort. Kabloom you go in this multi-cultural tale of political infighting and intrigue. Recruit men, women, and children to fight the holy fight. (virgin cut scene only available in Europe)
Children's Crusade: 11-14 year olds run off to the middle east to fight the good fight. Game impossible to win.
Culture War: bring Christ back to America. Micromanage conservative pundits and media outlets to push abstinace, cover-up pedophilia, push pro-corporate views, and support the war on drugs. There is also no way to win this game.
Greek Gods: getting it on! (adult title only) Turn into an ox and pick up chicks. Think Leisure Suit Larry, but with lightning bolts!
Lemmings IX: Janists strike back! Control a Janist who must shoo all lemmings trying to jump over a cliff into safety. Must not step on any bugs using holy broom. Fun for the whole family!
Caste Attack: Brahmins vs. Shudras. Play a Brahmin, a chosen superior man and punish the Shudras untouchables when they get uppity. Whips, chains, and bonus level where police don't bother investigating a shudra murder.
Man, Rockstar has nothing on us.
I can't think of a better way to discredit my critics and emasculate them at the same time than taking a smiling photo with them. It helps if protesters you know protested, shouted, and got a little angry.
"See, we're all friends, its all overblown. Go back to your daily routine. Don't worry about some silly lawsuit."
>(ie they have a sense of humour).
I'm not sure about that. Let's see theres a BILLION dollar lawsuit, linux's reputation has been tarnished, IBMs AIX licenses are now in question, Linus himself is getting threatened, and now they're hurling insults under the guise of "just kidding!"
Its like that wanna-be bully in gradeschool who insults you then says, "I'm kidding!" Its a lame attempt to bait OSS types and get them angry thus producing more negative press.
They want Linux users and OSS types to fly off the handle thus creating more negative press, just ignore them. Right now they're only making themselves look bad. Really bad. Man, these are adults?
>Powers comes and goes.
This has been true, but has any nuclear enabled nation been overtaken in combat? Nope.
You are absolutely correct that power comes and goes but the combo of ICBMs and Nuclear weapons means that there's a much greater certainty that the "nuclear club" will establish what Europe calls a multipolar world: many powers competiting for a greater good (like in this article) and hopefully not starting WWIII.
Once we're all happily armed with nukes it will only be internal unrest that changes power from now on. I think thats a good thing and a step in the right direction. Its a very arguable point, but the policies of MAD may very well continue into the next few centuries if not for the rest of the time humans populate the planet. At the very least, there will not be an incentive to begin true global disarmament until everyone is about equally armed.
Sounds scary, then again so is human nature.
>The Slashdot crowd is all about boycotts, except when it makes life inconvenient for them.
Not really, its been pointed out before that boycotts really don't do anything in the age of uber-big business, conosildated monopolies, companies running in the red for years, etc.
The boycott is just archaic and more or less useless now. Its the negative press that follows the word boycott that really ever gets anything done. Considering the *IAA couldn't care less about their image its even more useless.
Amusingly enough, I think the slashdot/techie crowd would be best at a modern "boycott." They have the skills to find, download, and never pay for anything the *IAA sells. Of course, no one would consider it a boycott, just piracy, but if it hurts the bottom line then its really all the same.
Arguably, this tactic is working, even if the downloaders don't realize they were "boycotting" at all. Napster et al are tools written for the layman to share media files. Now there are four or five legal song downloading services. Coincidence?
>The task of the "artist" themselves varies depending on the particular group, but as a general rule, they are more replaceable than a highly-trained engineer
I wouldn't call that a general rule at all. Each artist/band is its own brand. If your post was true we would be happy to buy whatever the newest Sony record is, but that's not at all how it works.
Look at any band that has had a significant line-up change. This is often professional suicide.
>It truly is built on huge economies of scale, and just like that car
Not true at all. Its a tiny scale and albums mixed in someone's basement can easily be good as the stuff in the store. In fact, I would go as far as saying that it is naturally a cottage industry that is artfically pumped up to be a mass industry through stuff like payola, lack of diversity, incredible amounts of advertising focused on a small part of the available catalog, etc. In other words the labels have a vested interested to treat music as something only made by the talented (they decide who) and who deserve celebrity status because of their amazing skills, when in reality their skill level is fairly common.
>These figures, in short, are simply proof that free markets are working well.
Funny. No wonder you posted anonymously.
The article states that 12% is average. Only high-successful acts can do better and they are completely free not to opt-in to Apple's music store like Radiohead and Linkin Park have decided to do.
Secondly, these are growing pains. 12% is excellent for a non-MTV/Clearchannel down your throat 24/7 mega-pop band. As diversity in the catalog continues and less money is funneled into four or five pop sensations, but instead funneled into exposing more artists then smaller advertising and word of mouth will produce more varied sales. Bands that start as nobodies and end as nobodies will be getting 12%. That's pretty good.
Personally, I think moving to singles and a diverse selection is a step in the proper direction to satisfy both fans and artists. We're going to look back to the days of big radio and MTV and not believe our rampant fandom and misplaced loyalties, not to mention taste.
> Come on, you can't have it both ways.
> You're either pro government control or against it,
Why not?
Things are rarely polar opposites. You can't just say, "Well kid, are you a communist or for a lassiez-fair market." There's tons of middle ground.
The formal name for this is the False Dichotomy. More
Extremes only really exist as abstract concepts.
Advocating regulation or laws to protect against abuse is hardly pro-DMCA.
>Every single article you read misrepresents people in the same way.
I wouldn't say misrepresents. I would say the interpretation might not be to your liking.
Itâ(TM)s the same with all media, and the best example is movies. Make a movie about pilots and real pilots will say that itâ(TM)s fake and inaccurate. Make a movie about war and history buffs will complain that itâ(TM)s fake and inaccurate. The only "real" movie that can be made is a movie about making a movie, as that's what they're really doing.
I think you're right that no one likes how he or she is portrayed in the media. A glowing piece is usually followed by a statement like, "I'm not a hero, Iâ(TM)m just an ordinary guy." A more or less objective piece forces the grim light of another personâ(TM)s perspective on your life and the results are usually never to the liking of the subject. And of course a bad piece will always solicit a negative response.
This is going to be month two on Vonage for me (voip phone service through a cable modem) and its a good service but...
1. They have significant voicemail problems. I think the consensus at dslreport's voip forums is that they are overselling/pushing their VM system too hard or they just expanded too quickly. Its not just lost VM but sometimes my phone wont ring when VM is enabled. Workaround: use a plain-jane answering machine. Afterall, you get a normal POTS phone jack from the Cisco ATA they send you.
2. Be mindful of you upload speed and what apps you're running on your home lan. You don't want to use this when kazaa or whatever is maxing out your upload cap. Throttle bandwidth to leave yourself 100kbs. Vonage also has a 30kbs compressed codec for people without much bandwidth.
3. Of course, if you lose network connectivity (or power for that matter) you lose phone. That probably isn't much of a concern in a world of cell phones, but its something to consider if you don't have a cell phone and are far from your neighbors.
The pros
1. It sounds excellent. Its POTS quality as far as I can tell. Think of it as MP3 compared to CD.
2. If you're already paying for broadband its a smart investment. Telling the local monopoly to piss off is very gratifying. Not to mention you have built in number portability. Just plug that Cisco ATA anywhere and you have your old phone number.
3. The geek quotient of using VoIP without the other party know or asking, "What are you calling me on, a damn tin can?"
>we look like we do largely because, like glowing fish, we find ourselves "cute".
Which is exactly how natural selection works. There's a glut of information out there on how traditional elements of beauty (face symmetry, clear skin, physical fitness, etc) translates into a fit and healthy mate most likely to produce healthy children. And so it goes with the next generation.
We don't have some magical sense of aesthetics; what we find cute, attractive, etc is most likely a feedback mechanism directly related to reproduction.
>not the 2 hours of celebrity mutual masturbation
Err, what DVD are you referring to? I'd like to know for, umm, academic purposes.
Funny, American companies in the EU have no problem keeping their divisions profitable within the EU's pro-employee and long vacation laws.
There's nothing magical about either system, there are just different ways of doing things. A good business adapts to its environment be it the market or local labor laws. A bad business is one that can't adapt and "needs" more government-mandated "pro-business" legislation like the US habitually gives out.
>Whenever I hear "there is no proven link" I am always shocked by the extreme ignorance.
Correlation vs. causation. Which is which here?
Look at the society we're talking about, a deeply religious isolated culture suddenly turned on to western concepts like the freedom from religion and the free expression of ideas. If this culminates into the Jerry Springer show then so be it. Better than than the vice police arresting Springer et al for disrupting the minds of the masses, like they do in places like Saudi Arabia. Or banning movies like the Matrix in Egypt.
So now they've encountered a glut of information and some of it is violent fiction. I hate to break this to you but human nature IS VERY violent. These people are expressing their human nature in a way that was most likely repressed by the eight-fold path of Buddhism.
Now they're going to have to develop a new moral and legal system to control their new found appreciation for hedonistic activities and criminal actions. Instead of a feudal lord dictating what is right from a dusty text they have embraced the western idea of democratic consensus.
Instead of endless hours in meditation in prayer there will be arguments on what the role of government should be e.g. shoud we make pot legal? What about gay sex? Women's rights?
Like someone already said exposing a kid to the ARTS channel will not make them a lover of classical music. TV just doesn't work that well. But when you expose people to something that frees them from their religion repression, then you've got a pretty hot situation on your hands.
Hopefully, it will take care of itself theough liberalizing democratic actions and not through reactionary religion crackdowns like in the Muslim world.
Arguably, something VERY GOOD is happening here. The ideals of the enlightenment are powerful and help make the individual more autonomous than in tradition monarchal or feudal societies. Sorry but no people deserve to be kept in a jar just because their culture is changing and westerners just don't like it. Get over western guilt and realize that stuff like porn and Jackass: The Movie are very much examples of free individuals acting out their lives without too much top-down control.
Perhaps the puzzling part of the article (how the dollar and market don't look so bad but unemployment is) can be answered by the negative effects of giving ultra-big business all these "pro-business" concessions via government mandate.
Small and medium size business employ more people than all large companies combined in the US. Yet, every stimulus package from Congress only benefits the big boys who can afford a team of lobbyists and a legal department that dwarfs most law firms.
Where does this leave the real innovators? Its hardly contested that innovation and new markets are usually created by those willing to go at it with a small company and do it or fail trying as opposed to some big-business top-down master plan. In the tech industry you have to fight the legal departments of potential competitors, fight the patent junkies, fight potential adversaries like the massive and powerful content industry, etc before you can even come up with a decent business plan.
Someone somewhere is sitting on a billion dollar idea but its not going to go anywhere because investors fear retribution from unfair competitors. Or perhaps she cannot get enough money to pay for years of IP challenges. In a legal war of attrition its the little guy who loses, and loses badly.
I think we might be seeing a loss of innovation and a loss in small to medium sized businesses. How can these companies compete with sweetheart deals, crony capitalism, and legal tricks?
If this little thesis is correct it would explain why Joe from Winnekta can't find a job, even though the economy isn't as bad as it was in the 80s, why PCs are still ugly and loud beige boxes, and why relatively new tech like cellphones are a better deal and a better product overseas. Or why broadband is so expensive here in the States.
Everytime congress cuts a deal for some business it raises a barrier to entry for small business to walk in and compete. Enough barriers and you've got an economy that isn't moving, but is dependant or more crony capitalism to keep it going. I hope I'm wrong as I'd hate to be here when this all hits critical mass.