I would say there is no expectation of privacy from outer space or from the street.
So if you own a house out in the middle of nowhere, and decide to go nude sunbathing in your backyard, and a satellite happens to be passing over with a powerful enough camera that you're visible in all your glory, you wouldn't feel your privacy had been invaded?
Besides, in this case it appears that Google didn't take a picture from the street -- they were on the people's driveway, on private property, where signs were posted notifying them that they were on private property. The lawsuit may be a bit much, but Google is in the wrong here.
After seeing the map, I think the owners have a point -- the private road is essentially their driveway, and they have a line of trees screening their house from outside view. These people want privacy, and Google violated it. I don't know if it's worth $25,000, but on top of the incident where the Google Street View van drove onto a military base in contravention of Google's rules, I think this is a sign that the people taking the pictures are inadequately trained and lack common sense.
No. Because of the openness conditions Google made the FCC include, other companies can use that part of the spectrum and undercut Verizon if they charge too much. But for the openness conditions to go into effect, Google had to run the price up.
Nor are the airwaves "free" -- they're a natural resource that the government claims ownership of. Use of them is rented out under certain conditions, which is how the FCC can get around the First Amendment.
Have you ever download the.flv file for a YouTube movie? We're only talking about 2 megs per minute of video -- in other words, one video is the same size as two 4-minute 128kbps songs from iTunes. A website with a ton of pictures probably uses as much bandwidth.
I just checked the ten most recent albums I've bought to see how many of them are available through iTunes Plus
PJ Harvey, White Chalk - NO
Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers - NO
Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight - NO
You Say Party We Say Die, Lose All Time - YES
The New Pornographers, Challengers - NO
The Kills, Midnight Boom - NO
The Killers, Sawdust - NO
Besnard Lakes, Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse - NO
Marissa Nadler, Songs III - NO
Keren Ann, Keren Ann - YES
That's only 20%. 100% are available from Amazon DRM free. Conclusion - iTunes Plus is an inferior store for anyone who doesn't want to be locked in to iPods.
Have you heard of iTunes Plus? No? Then investigate it and then kindly STFU.
I have. The selection is sucktastic. Get back to me when they have more than one label on board, those labels include all their music, and the prices are competitive with Amazon. Until then, I'll complain about iTunes being for suckers.
The part that I don't get is why the labels aren't offering to Apple, and thus Apple to its customers album discounts. Sell me an entire Regina Spektor album for the $6 or $7 and I'll gladly pay for it, instead of otherwise buying 4 tracks individually.
Albums with more than 10 songs do get that discount; those with less do occasionally as well. Of course, her albums are less than that on Amazon, and DRM free.
As an aside, I'd appreciate iTunes letting me easily select blocks of music I could keep in the same order, even when listening to randomized music.
Download Audacity and use it to edit the tracks together.
Card counting isn't a scam, but some of the tricks they used to keep the house from twigging to what they were doing comes pretty close -- disguises, aliases, having lookouts stationed at different tables waiting for a hot deck, at which point they'd signal a team-mate to come over and law down the big bucks.
Just think if your company set this up on you, what would your reactions be?
"Wow, you boneheads fell for that? What a bunch of 1uzors! I hope it learned you a lesson -- but if not, you'd better give me your credit cards for safe keeping."
Yeah, I like that the ads are integrated into the show as part of the entertainment content, and aren't an annoying interruption. All of Leo Laporte's podcasts are sponsored by Audible audio books, and it basically serves as an excuse for his co-hosts to discuss what they're reading.
I don't know what the fate of Twitter will be. It seems like it's not doing anything complicated, so even if the concept lives on, it might be that Twitter itself goes under.
The real problem with Twitter is they don't have anyway of monetizing it. It's basically a standalone version of Facebook and MySpace status updates, or blogs for SMS users. You don't have to go to their site to view tweets, or use their proprietary software, so there's nowhere for them to stick ads, except in the messages themselves. And the messages have a 140 character limit, and I don't think anyone is going to use a medium where the signal:ad ratio is less than 50%.
Can you show that podcast has propelled any of these new business models into actual profitability?
Given the number of podcasts Leo Laporte does, it's either profitable, or he has way too much time on his hands. Revision 3, the podcasting arm of Digg, seems to be making out pretty well, as well. TWIT and Rev3 both run ads during shows, same as radio, so it's not like a huge leap from one medium to the other.
My last attempt at synchronizing them over the internet resulted in Google deleting the vast majority of my bookmarks
Do what I do -- install a synchronization program and point it at the Firefox profile. Not only will it keep your bookmarks synced, but it'll ensure all your installations have the same extensions.
If you're designing a government with the fundamental idea that all governments are corrupt, then you've failed before you've even begun.
How is it a failure to design for an optimal system instead of an ideal one? Would you criticize an engineer for assuming that all cars are capable of killing people and trying to design one that will minimize the danger as much as possible?
Slashdot Mirror
Besides, in this case it appears that Google didn't take a picture from the street -- they were on the people's driveway, on private property, where signs were posted notifying them that they were on private property. The lawsuit may be a bit much, but Google is in the wrong here.
After seeing the map, I think the owners have a point -- the private road is essentially their driveway, and they have a line of trees screening their house from outside view. These people want privacy, and Google violated it. I don't know if it's worth $25,000, but on top of the incident where the Google Street View van drove onto a military base in contravention of Google's rules, I think this is a sign that the people taking the pictures are inadequately trained and lack common sense.
No. Because of the openness conditions Google made the FCC include, other companies can use that part of the spectrum and undercut Verizon if they charge too much. But for the openness conditions to go into effect, Google had to run the price up.
Nor are the airwaves "free" -- they're a natural resource that the government claims ownership of. Use of them is rented out under certain conditions, which is how the FCC can get around the First Amendment.
Have you ever download the .flv file for a YouTube movie? We're only talking about 2 megs per minute of video -- in other words, one video is the same size as two 4-minute 128kbps songs from iTunes. A website with a ton of pictures probably uses as much bandwidth.
I just checked the ten most recent albums I've bought to see how many of them are available through iTunes Plus PJ Harvey, White Chalk - NO Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers - NO Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight - NO You Say Party We Say Die, Lose All Time - YES The New Pornographers, Challengers - NO The Kills, Midnight Boom - NO The Killers, Sawdust - NO Besnard Lakes, Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse - NO Marissa Nadler, Songs III - NO Keren Ann, Keren Ann - YES That's only 20%. 100% are available from Amazon DRM free. Conclusion - iTunes Plus is an inferior store for anyone who doesn't want to be locked in to iPods.
Too bad for Apple, but the bottom line is that only idiots will go with iTunes over Apple under these conditions.
Card counting isn't a scam, but some of the tricks they used to keep the house from twigging to what they were doing comes pretty close -- disguises, aliases, having lookouts stationed at different tables waiting for a hot deck, at which point they'd signal a team-mate to come over and law down the big bucks.
"Wow, you boneheads fell for that? What a bunch of 1uzors! I hope it learned you a lesson -- but if not, you'd better give me your credit cards for safe keeping."
Yeah, I like that the ads are integrated into the show as part of the entertainment content, and aren't an annoying interruption. All of Leo Laporte's podcasts are sponsored by Audible audio books, and it basically serves as an excuse for his co-hosts to discuss what they're reading.
So if I want to use an ad-supported site, I need to make sure Flash and Java are installed, and JavaScript enabled on my browser? Horsehockey!
This isn't humor -- the story came out yesterday, March 31st.
Yes, that's all well and good for developers. But what does it offer me, the end user?
Nope, still too slow to make a viable kiddie porn distribution channel.
I've read your explanation, but I still have no clue what AIR actually does. Am I supposed to watch YouTube on it or play web games?
April Fools is tomorrow.
These aren't the real Anons. And no true Scotsman wears underwear beneath his kilt.