I dunno man... I think it should be legal to send unsolicited mail if the sender has a reasonable amount of certainty that the recipient would benefit from the mail. I would have to say that a large portion of my company's business comes from respondents to bulk email. We spend a lot of time visiting industry sites and searching in Google to identify potential customers, and the diligence pays off in sales figures. If it became totally illegal to email people who you 'don't have a business relationship with' it'd force a lot of small businesses to abandon a very effective advertising method. We'd probably have to resort to looking up their phone numbers and cold calling them instead...
As long as IE/Windows is the dominant browser and chooses to ignore the standards, the standards are irrelevant. If I can design a page that is totally out of standards compliance which looks great to 80% of the people online and funny but functional to the other 20%, I'm ignoring the standards.
While I think P2P is great, I want to know seriously how many of you have ever used it for legal purposes? It just seems to me that people are shouting about P2P and 'their rights' and 'the future of technology' and 'RIAA greed', when the underlying sentiment is "Where am I going to get my MP3s, warez and pr0n?!"
Furthermore, any comparison to VCRs or tape decks is bunk. When was the last time you made a tape of a CD and instantly handed perfect duplicates, for less than a penny each, to 20,000 strangers?
Despite the silly name, CDBaby rocks balls. I've ordered a number of amazing indie discs from them (The Big Creak's "Just Left Town" comes to mind) and they've always been inexpensive, friendly, and rediculously fast. I mean like ordered on Monday and the disc arrived on Tuesday type stuff. They're a model for all other music distributors.
Frankly, it's not the commercials and DJs that bother me... it's the music. I used to intern at a station (WEBN, Cincinnati) and I know how the stuff is done. It's a sad, viscious cycle... the station plays about 200 songs, the public doesn't listen to anything else, so they request those 200 songs... the people who request anything outside of the list get ignored.
The best decision I ever made was to stop listening to anything but NPR... after listening to it I feel smart, not annoyed.
God willing, the entire industry will go splat and people will be forced to pay attention to their local scene again. If you want variety, quit letting marketing directors tell you what's good.
I had heard so much about the movie that I finally rented the "directors cut" and watched it. It nearly put me to sleep. I mean, I guess the visual concept of the future was cool, but the film itself bored me to tears. I kind of felt the same way about 2001, which I've tried to watch twice and have fallen asleep through both times. Oh well.
Mad props to the guy who mentioned "Space Hunter" though... any movie with Molly Ringwald in a 3-D vague futuristic bondage scene gets my vote.:)
Nice trailer, although I think they should stick with the familiar green tongue-out smiley logo. Oh, and the big 42 in the stars was way subtle, yo. Drew
I've bought their "service plan" on two different items now and have used it twice without a problem. Once it was to get a replacement TV when my (out of warranty) one died on me. The other was to get a newer, nicer dvd/vcr combo when mine died and the manufacturer didn't make or fix mine anymore. I also like their sales... sure the rebates are a pain in the ass, but if you actually do send in the forms and get the cash, it's a great deal.
Drew
Actually, it's not the musicians... it's the contracts. Sometimes the artist only has 7 good songs and the contract says there have to be 10 on the album. The artist is often forced into writing 'filler' tracks. It's nothing new. Look back at the Beatles albums... the British versions of their discs had more songs than the American label wanted, so they'd crop off a couple of tunes and then re-package the leftovers as a whole other album.
I haven't had cable at home in about 6 years now, and since moving to DSL last summer, I haven't turned my TV on for anything but DVDs. Trust me people... if you stop watching TV for a few weeks, you won't miss it. Save yourself $50 alacarte or otherwise, and just stop watching.:)
That being said, if there was a $20 package for Comedy Central and my local channels, I'd buy.
There's a lot of singing in the book... if they stick to "period" style music and Tolkein-esquue lyrics (instead of any 'Rent' style modern crap), they should be OK. Or maybe they could do it as an opera... Wagner-esque... sort of 'Lord of the Ring Cycle.' I just hope they don't go whole-hog on the spectacle and settle for a weak script and music. Even the movie script was iffy at times... it's no easy adaptation into any medium.
I saw a blacklight life-size puppet production of LOTR once when I was a kid... it was pretty slick... the set looked like a chessboard and all of the characters would pop up out of the floor and move around. Lots of pyro and crazy light effects...
What I still wonder is why inexpensive cars have to look so cheap. I mean, what's there to prevent a designer from making a $22,000 coupe that looks like a Dodge Viper or something? Why not an $18,000 coupe that looks like a Porsche? Is there some rule that says you can't make a stylish body design for under $40,000?
Drew
"Mr. Gates, we simply can't get the security holes in our own OS patched fast enough... the users keep finding new ones! What about if we just include a virus scanner instead of fixing the problems that let them do damage?"
The company I work for sells a resume/job tracking database software called PCRecruiter, which has it's own integrated job board system. I can tell you for sure that while a lot of companies are still posting jobs on Monster and Careerbuilder, et al, more and more are starting to get into hosting their very own job board systems, or are grouping with other companies in their industry to host a smaller local board. Sure, it'll mean that job seekers have a less centralized place to do their hunting, but it also means that the people applying to the jobs you have open will be much more likely the ones you were looking for in the first place...
I have said from day one that I didn't want to rot in the ground, be burned to a crisp, chopped up, embalmed or dismembered. I want a form of burial where my body is preserved as it is when I died... if they could chuck me out into space without cremating me first, I'd pay $10K for the priveledge.
And in related news, "Curious George" authors H.A. and Margaret Rey filed suit today against Linux vendor "Red Hat" for infringing on the name of their "Man in the Yellow Hat" character...
I feel your pain... we had the same thing. We do use Adwords (and Overture, and Mamma, and every other one out there), but the plain old Google keyword search is still the largest source of traffic to our site. When they changed the indexing methods, we lost a lot of potential business. We haven't changed a thing on our site, but suddenly we're bleeding traffic left and right... I understand the need to make these changes, but it still hurts businesses who rely on Google for income.
My company advertises with and appears on lots of search sites and listing pages. Despite being listed in dozens of locations, Google still creates 35% or more of our web traffic. We're not putting all our eggs in one basket at all, but the sheer popularity of Google makes it comprise over a third of our online presence.
We used to appear in the first few search result pages or so before they altered their ranking system, and now we're well out of the top 60 and scrambling to figure out the new formula.
The point isn't so much that Google is going to "break us", but every time they change the ranking algorithms, they cut out a large chunk of our sales leads. It's their business, and I understand why they have to make changes and try to prevent system gaming, but when you spend several thousand dollars a month on AdWords and remain almost impossible to locate with in the regular search engine using the same terms that brought you up first a week ago, it's a bit of a slap in the face.
The problem with Froogle is that it ignores non-web based businesses. My company sells software, but we do not have an web-based purchase option because the price is high and we want to deal with the customers directly before they buy. Froogle would not list us because we don't have online ordering. If Froogle becomes as big as Google, we'll have to hose our business model.
Drew
Slashdot Mirror
Just remembering highschool algebra and the TI-81 I was required to buy gives me the jibblies. I never understood algebra and I doubt I ever will.
I dunno man... I think it should be legal to send unsolicited mail if the sender has a reasonable amount of certainty that the recipient would benefit from the mail. I would have to say that a large portion of my company's business comes from respondents to bulk email. We spend a lot of time visiting industry sites and searching in Google to identify potential customers, and the diligence pays off in sales figures. If it became totally illegal to email people who you 'don't have a business relationship with' it'd force a lot of small businesses to abandon a very effective advertising method. We'd probably have to resort to looking up their phone numbers and cold calling them instead...
As long as IE/Windows is the dominant browser and chooses to ignore the standards, the standards are irrelevant. If I can design a page that is totally out of standards compliance which looks great to 80% of the people online and funny but functional to the other 20%, I'm ignoring the standards.
While I think P2P is great, I want to know seriously how many of you have ever used it for legal purposes? It just seems to me that people are shouting about P2P and 'their rights' and 'the future of technology' and 'RIAA greed', when the underlying sentiment is "Where am I going to get my MP3s, warez and pr0n?!"
Furthermore, any comparison to VCRs or tape decks is bunk. When was the last time you made a tape of a CD and instantly handed perfect duplicates, for less than a penny each, to 20,000 strangers?
- more information about each artist
- integrated voting-based ' radio stations'
- unsegregated indie and major label content
- forums
- lossless encoding
- unbiased professional review panels
- tie-ins with music placement services for more indie recognition
Yup.I'm planning to have a marathon 12 hour party with all three extended DVDs when this comes out. Gotta get surround before then...
Despite the silly name, CDBaby rocks balls. I've ordered a number of amazing indie discs from them (The Big Creak's "Just Left Town" comes to mind) and they've always been inexpensive, friendly, and rediculously fast. I mean like ordered on Monday and the disc arrived on Tuesday type stuff. They're a model for all other music distributors.
Frankly, it's not the commercials and DJs that bother me... it's the music. I used to intern at a station (WEBN, Cincinnati) and I know how the stuff is done. It's a sad, viscious cycle... the station plays about 200 songs, the public doesn't listen to anything else, so they request those 200 songs... the people who request anything outside of the list get ignored.
The best decision I ever made was to stop listening to anything but NPR... after listening to it I feel smart, not annoyed.
God willing, the entire industry will go splat and people will be forced to pay attention to their local scene again. If you want variety, quit letting marketing directors tell you what's good.
This reminds me of the time my physics teacher confiscated a VHS of "Naked Lunch" from me because she thought it was a porno. :)
I had heard so much about the movie that I finally rented the "directors cut" and watched it. It nearly put me to sleep. I mean, I guess the visual concept of the future was cool, but the film itself bored me to tears. I kind of felt the same way about 2001, which I've tried to watch twice and have fallen asleep through both times. Oh well.
:)
Mad props to the guy who mentioned "Space Hunter" though... any movie with Molly Ringwald in a 3-D vague futuristic bondage scene gets my vote.
Nice trailer, although I think they should stick with the familiar green tongue-out smiley logo. Oh, and the big 42 in the stars was way subtle, yo.
Drew
I've bought their "service plan" on two different items now and have used it twice without a problem. Once it was to get a replacement TV when my (out of warranty) one died on me. The other was to get a newer, nicer dvd/vcr combo when mine died and the manufacturer didn't make or fix mine anymore. I also like their sales... sure the rebates are a pain in the ass, but if you actually do send in the forms and get the cash, it's a great deal. Drew
Heh... reminds me of my office, where we often knock on the bathroom door and ask if the occupant is "downloading or streaming". :)
Actually, it's not the musicians... it's the contracts. Sometimes the artist only has 7 good songs and the contract says there have to be 10 on the album. The artist is often forced into writing 'filler' tracks. It's nothing new. Look back at the Beatles albums... the British versions of their discs had more songs than the American label wanted, so they'd crop off a couple of tunes and then re-package the leftovers as a whole other album.
I haven't had cable at home in about 6 years now, and since moving to DSL last summer, I haven't turned my TV on for anything but DVDs. Trust me people... if you stop watching TV for a few weeks, you won't miss it. Save yourself $50 alacarte or otherwise, and just stop watching. :)
That being said, if there was a $20 package for Comedy Central and my local channels, I'd buy.
There's a lot of singing in the book... if they stick to "period" style music and Tolkein-esquue lyrics (instead of any 'Rent' style modern crap), they should be OK. Or maybe they could do it as an opera... Wagner-esque... sort of 'Lord of the Ring Cycle.' I just hope they don't go whole-hog on the spectacle and settle for a weak script and music. Even the movie script was iffy at times... it's no easy adaptation into any medium.
I saw a blacklight life-size puppet production of LOTR once when I was a kid... it was pretty slick... the set looked like a chessboard and all of the characters would pop up out of the floor and move around. Lots of pyro and crazy light effects...
May I state for the record that I played and won Night Trap, and it was the most godawful boring game I've ever played.
What I still wonder is why inexpensive cars have to look so cheap. I mean, what's there to prevent a designer from making a $22,000 coupe that looks like a Dodge Viper or something? Why not an $18,000 coupe that looks like a Porsche? Is there some rule that says you can't make a stylish body design for under $40,000? Drew
"Mr. Gates, we simply can't get the security holes in our own OS patched fast enough... the users keep finding new ones! What about if we just include a virus scanner instead of fixing the problems that let them do damage?"
The company I work for sells a resume/job tracking database software called PCRecruiter, which has it's own integrated job board system. I can tell you for sure that while a lot of companies are still posting jobs on Monster and Careerbuilder, et al, more and more are starting to get into hosting their very own job board systems, or are grouping with other companies in their industry to host a smaller local board. Sure, it'll mean that job seekers have a less centralized place to do their hunting, but it also means that the people applying to the jobs you have open will be much more likely the ones you were looking for in the first place...
I have said from day one that I didn't want to rot in the ground, be burned to a crisp, chopped up, embalmed or dismembered. I want a form of burial where my body is preserved as it is when I died... if they could chuck me out into space without cremating me first, I'd pay $10K for the priveledge.
And in related news, "Curious George" authors H.A. and Margaret Rey filed suit today against Linux vendor "Red Hat" for infringing on the name of their "Man in the Yellow Hat" character...
I feel your pain... we had the same thing. We do use Adwords (and Overture, and Mamma, and every other one out there), but the plain old Google keyword search is still the largest source of traffic to our site. When they changed the indexing methods, we lost a lot of potential business. We haven't changed a thing on our site, but suddenly we're bleeding traffic left and right... I understand the need to make these changes, but it still hurts businesses who rely on Google for income.
My company advertises with and appears on lots of search sites and listing pages. Despite being listed in dozens of locations, Google still creates 35% or more of our web traffic. We're not putting all our eggs in one basket at all, but the sheer popularity of Google makes it comprise over a third of our online presence.
We used to appear in the first few search result pages or so before they altered their ranking system, and now we're well out of the top 60 and scrambling to figure out the new formula.
The point isn't so much that Google is going to "break us", but every time they change the ranking algorithms, they cut out a large chunk of our sales leads. It's their business, and I understand why they have to make changes and try to prevent system gaming, but when you spend several thousand dollars a month on AdWords and remain almost impossible to locate with in the regular search engine using the same terms that brought you up first a week ago, it's a bit of a slap in the face.
Drew
The problem with Froogle is that it ignores non-web based businesses. My company sells software, but we do not have an web-based purchase option because the price is high and we want to deal with the customers directly before they buy. Froogle would not list us because we don't have online ordering. If Froogle becomes as big as Google, we'll have to hose our business model. Drew