CASH Music is an entire open source platform designed to support independent musicians, many of whom are adopting and Creative Commons model. Worth checking out and supporting.
http://cashmusic.org/
Seeing as there were only 110 homicides in the whole of Atlanta in 2006 http://www.planetizen.com/node/24869 I find it hard to believe there were 300 murders in English Avenue.
It's worth noting that the large Game Review sites have put themselves in a very vulnerable position by reaching well beyond their supposed core product, the review of games, and instead becoming part of the entire game promo, news and asset cycle. They rely heavily on game producers for "exclusive" access to news, game development info, trailers, screenshots, etc. That makes it that much easier for the large publishers to squeeze off their liveblood if they don't get their way. If you can't get a response from the EA or Ubisoft teams while your competition can, and likewise can't get the newest trailer for the Next Big Game while the other guys can, there go your eyeballs, and there go your advertising dollars.
"As an anarchist geek, let me point out that this is a wrong use of the word "anarchy.""
It might be incorrect if they used the Capital "A" Anarchy, but a dictionary definition of "anarchy" includes:
"a state of disorder due to absense or nonrecognition of authority"
which seems to work just fine.
If anything, Apple needs to distance itself from Disney, not grow closer or merge. One of the most promising future sources of revenue for Apple right now is being the distributer for online video content as well as music. Up to this point, they've had success in getting the networks to test the waters and have shown that customers are willing to purchase TV programs at a profitable price point. The Pixar deal putting Jobs on the Disney board creates a risk for this model. Can the other Network heads expect a fair deal with equal exposure and terms on the iTunes Store? They're scared with the whole new world of distribution already. Buying Disney would only make this situation that much worse.
Google ads are based on relevence as well. Part of the equation for the ranking is that ads with high click-through rates are ranked higher than those with lower. In fact, ads that don't reach a threshold click-through aren't shown at all, no matter how high their bids.
Therefore, clicking on ads that are relevent at the expense of those that are not will tend to increase the relevence of the ads you see. It will also tend to lower the bid amounts for relevent ads due to increased click-through rates.
It's worth keeping in mind that in Google's case the ad priority is largely self-policing. Only the most relevant ads are going to survive top billing, no matter what the bids are, so you as the user truly do have the power to influence what you see. If you don't like ads that appear to be irrelevant on a result page, click on the ones that do.
This is obviously a form letter that was sent to hosts of websites that are adult in nature and mention Nintendo properties. While I can understand Nintendo's concern of having their games and corporate image attached to adult content improperly, this shotgun approach shows the risk of generating negative publicity and looking like, well, boobs.
Actually, I think it's you that missed the nuances. Anarchists can certainly organize, just like any other group, and the bands of them roaming the streets were exactly that.
Come on, this is *way* too limited a view. I mean, right off the top of my head I can give you:
Apple
IBM
Volkswagen
Nokia
Sony
All public companies, all with long track records of innovative products. Public/private and size has far less to do with innovative success than the business model and the minds running the company.
While I'm not arguing that outsourcing is harmless, it would be useful if people educated themselves adequately on the subject. The Economist in particular has had many quality articles on the subject (like this
one). Here's a particular quote of interest...
"Government statisticians reckon that outsourced jobs are responsible for well under 1% of those signed up as unemployed. And the jobs lost to outsourcing pale in comparison with the number of jobs lost and created each month at home. Even here, the rate of job "churn" has, for unclear reasons, been falling since mid-2001."
While it's true that delays in shipping a title can hurt sales and alienate potential customers, I think what it really comes down to is a company keeping its promises, and the way it communicates with those customers. NeverwinterNights is the perfect example. Not only did they fail to deliver on time or as promised, they waited until the very last moment to give any explanation to customers, and even those explanations didn't make sense. They had to have known they weren't going to be able to produce way in advance.
You simply can't treat customers that way. Disney (despite it's current troubles) has made a mint on underpromising and over-delivering, and game companies need to start to take notice that they don't operate under a seperate rule system from the rest of their entertainment competition.
The culture of game development has a great deal wrong with it, and missing deadlines is really only the tip of the iceberg.
I'm sorry, but I cringe every time I see the magazine Wired mentioned along with technology prediction and even current analysis of emerging products. Wired has been a valuable cheerleader of the technology boom, but they have almost without fail fallen for the unexamined hype.
This reached its peak with the "Push" edition of the magazine, which you will no doubt remember if you were a subscriber/reader at the time. The technology never really made that much sense, certanly not in the "world-changing" ways they were talking about at the time. Add in the "new economy", those Cue-Cat scanners and the (again) world changing supposed effects of satellite phones (just to name a few off the top of my head) and Wired has quickly become the equivalent of the Sports Illustrated cover curse.
Woe to any futurologist or technologist that should find themselves prognosticating within the pages of Wired!
I think anything that gets more people out of their own territories and out into a different part of the world where they have the opportunity to see what it's like in other places can only help in the long run. Sure, a fluid labor force is a "good thing", but people who have experienced different cultures, laws, religions, biases and viewpoints is even more valuable.
This just makes me wonder why similar technology hasn't been used for the giant advertisements that cover the entire side of buildings. From what I've seen, these are all done by living human artists, who do a remarkable job in most cases. But it would seem very realistic, and I'd think cheaper to use some kind of robotic painter that could replicate art on anything. Have I just missed the news, or is it Clear Channel holding back the progress of technology?
One thing to keep in mind before getting too excited about anything replacing the major label system as it stands, is that the labels are capable of providing artists with exposure and press far beyond what any independant union, CDBaby, etc. can do. And it's that marketing and promotion money that the most valuable to an aspiring band, not the money to make the actual music.
If you're talking about being a truly successful act, making the music is the easy part. It's getting people to buy it that's hard. It's great to have alternative methods to get your music out to people, but really, if there are ~54,000 bands on CDBaby, what are your chances of significantly increasing your sales simply by having your music there. It helps, but nothing like signing with a label.
Maybe, with critical mass online distribution will be able to have the exposure and clout the labels currently possess, but be careful, that's just putting the power of king-makers into different hands, that hopefully are more benevolent to the artist, but there is no guarantee they will be.
Slashdot Mirror
CASH Music is an entire open source platform designed to support independent musicians, many of whom are adopting and Creative Commons model. Worth checking out and supporting. http://cashmusic.org/
This is essentially the same issue Penny Arcade ran into with their infamous American McGee's Strawberry Shortcake comic.
You can parody American McGee's Alice, you can parody Strawberry Shortcake, but you can't parody one by using the other.
What really pisses me off about this whole situation is I can't seem to find the pictures anywhere.
I'd left justify it, like this: the Existence of IT
It's Philz Coffee. No idea why there's an issue in sharing that info. http://philzcoffee.com/
Seeing as there were only 110 homicides in the whole of Atlanta in 2006 http://www.planetizen.com/node/24869 I find it hard to believe there were 300 murders in English Avenue.
It's worth noting that the large Game Review sites have put themselves in a very vulnerable position by reaching well beyond their supposed core product, the review of games, and instead becoming part of the entire game promo, news and asset cycle. They rely heavily on game producers for "exclusive" access to news, game development info, trailers, screenshots, etc. That makes it that much easier for the large publishers to squeeze off their liveblood if they don't get their way. If you can't get a response from the EA or Ubisoft teams while your competition can, and likewise can't get the newest trailer for the Next Big Game while the other guys can, there go your eyeballs, and there go your advertising dollars.
"As an anarchist geek, let me point out that this is a wrong use of the word "anarchy."" It might be incorrect if they used the Capital "A" Anarchy, but a dictionary definition of "anarchy" includes: "a state of disorder due to absense or nonrecognition of authority" which seems to work just fine.
If anything, Apple needs to distance itself from Disney, not grow closer or merge. One of the most promising future sources of revenue for Apple right now is being the distributer for online video content as well as music. Up to this point, they've had success in getting the networks to test the waters and have shown that customers are willing to purchase TV programs at a profitable price point. The Pixar deal putting Jobs on the Disney board creates a risk for this model. Can the other Network heads expect a fair deal with equal exposure and terms on the iTunes Store? They're scared with the whole new world of distribution already. Buying Disney would only make this situation that much worse.
Google ads are based on relevence as well. Part of the equation for the ranking is that ads with high click-through rates are ranked higher than those with lower. In fact, ads that don't reach a threshold click-through aren't shown at all, no matter how high their bids. Therefore, clicking on ads that are relevent at the expense of those that are not will tend to increase the relevence of the ads you see. It will also tend to lower the bid amounts for relevent ads due to increased click-through rates.
It's worth keeping in mind that in Google's case the ad priority is largely self-policing. Only the most relevant ads are going to survive top billing, no matter what the bids are, so you as the user truly do have the power to influence what you see. If you don't like ads that appear to be irrelevant on a result page, click on the ones that do.
This is obviously a form letter that was sent to hosts of websites that are adult in nature and mention Nintendo properties. While I can understand Nintendo's concern of having their games and corporate image attached to adult content improperly, this shotgun approach shows the risk of generating negative publicity and looking like, well, boobs.
Actually, I think it's you that missed the nuances. Anarchists can certainly organize, just like any other group, and the bands of them roaming the streets were exactly that.
Come on, this is *way* too limited a view. I mean, right off the top of my head I can give you: Apple IBM Volkswagen Nokia Sony All public companies, all with long track records of innovative products. Public/private and size has far less to do with innovative success than the business model and the minds running the company.
While I'm not arguing that outsourcing is harmless, it would be useful if people educated themselves adequately on the subject. The Economist in particular has had many quality articles on the subject (like this one). Here's a particular quote of interest...
"Government statisticians reckon that outsourced jobs are responsible for well under 1% of those signed up as unemployed. And the jobs lost to outsourcing pale in comparison with the number of jobs lost and created each month at home. Even here, the rate of job "churn" has, for unclear reasons, been falling since mid-2001."
Food for thought at least...
While it's true that delays in shipping a title can hurt sales and alienate potential customers, I think what it really comes down to is a company keeping its promises, and the way it communicates with those customers. NeverwinterNights is the perfect example. Not only did they fail to deliver on time or as promised, they waited until the very last moment to give any explanation to customers, and even those explanations didn't make sense. They had to have known they weren't going to be able to produce way in advance.
You simply can't treat customers that way. Disney (despite it's current troubles) has made a mint on underpromising and over-delivering, and game companies need to start to take notice that they don't operate under a seperate rule system from the rest of their entertainment competition.
The culture of game development has a great deal wrong with it, and missing deadlines is really only the tip of the iceberg.
This is obviously a plot by SCO to further discredit the Linux and Open Source community. Does their evil know no end?!
I'm sorry, but I cringe every time I see the magazine Wired mentioned along with technology prediction and even current analysis of emerging products. Wired has been a valuable cheerleader of the technology boom, but they have almost without fail fallen for the unexamined hype.
This reached its peak with the "Push" edition of the magazine, which you will no doubt remember if you were a subscriber/reader at the time. The technology never really made that much sense, certanly not in the "world-changing" ways they were talking about at the time. Add in the "new economy", those Cue-Cat scanners and the (again) world changing supposed effects of satellite phones (just to name a few off the top of my head) and Wired has quickly become the equivalent of the Sports Illustrated cover curse.
Woe to any futurologist or technologist that should find themselves prognosticating within the pages of Wired!
I think anything that gets more people out of their own territories and out into a different part of the world where they have the opportunity to see what it's like in other places can only help in the long run. Sure, a fluid labor force is a "good thing", but people who have experienced different cultures, laws, religions, biases and viewpoints is even more valuable.
This just makes me wonder why similar technology hasn't been used for the giant advertisements that cover the entire side of buildings. From what I've seen, these are all done by living human artists, who do a remarkable job in most cases. But it would seem very realistic, and I'd think cheaper to use some kind of robotic painter that could replicate art on anything. Have I just missed the news, or is it Clear Channel holding back the progress of technology?
One thing to keep in mind before getting too excited about anything replacing the major label system as it stands, is that the labels are capable of providing artists with exposure and press far beyond what any independant union, CDBaby, etc. can do. And it's that marketing and promotion money that the most valuable to an aspiring band, not the money to make the actual music.
If you're talking about being a truly successful act, making the music is the easy part. It's getting people to buy it that's hard. It's great to have alternative methods to get your music out to people, but really, if there are ~54,000 bands on CDBaby, what are your chances of significantly increasing your sales simply by having your music there. It helps, but nothing like signing with a label.
Maybe, with critical mass online distribution will be able to have the exposure and clout the labels currently possess, but be careful, that's just putting the power of king-makers into different hands, that hopefully are more benevolent to the artist, but there is no guarantee they will be.