Please provide data that the Kyoto accord would cost US Corporations (which by the way basically run the government, anyways and outsource their labour anyways). I don't think the word punish is appropriate, wealthy countries already punish poorer nations. Maybe retalliation would be more appropriate. Less polluting cars have already been invented, different cleaner fuels (by the way which are more renewable are already developed, thus I shouldn't need to mention cheaper).
It's the very corporations that you are speaking about that are stopping the development/usage of these technology. Yes, Exxon-Mobil didn't want too lose profits, but bribing the president (with campaign donations) shouldn't be an option. Other fuel companies are looking into alternative fuels, why isn't Exxon-Mobil? Perhaps, if the current automobile makers didn't have as much investment from oil companies maybe we'd see alternative fuels used.
Personally, I love the idea of running a VW Jetta TDI with vegetable oil..;) Gasoline is going reach those prices in no time anyways, why are we still embracing it? Or maybe the question is, why are we not embracing alternative fuels? (other that investments from oil companies holding trump cards over automobile companies). If we used a different source of fuel we would already achieve the goal set by Kyoto alone, if not exceed by far.
Let's say if global warming continues as expected and we produce as much pollution as we have(or more),keep eating meat the way we do, and the world reaches 13 billion in 2050, current projections is that there will not be enough grain on the earth to supply us (source Book, David Suzuki Reader). The US is already unable to produce the amount of grain needed to supply itself (but I guess we got oil, great).
Have you not thought that in all of our "progression" all we are actually accomplishing is regression? Do you feel better than people did 50 years ago and not just health wise (mentally, spiritually whatever)? Stats would argue about mentally and spiritually because of crime on the rise, health well that's argueable becuase of air pollution. Yes medicine has evolved, but preventitive is always better than reactive.
Current projections are that Kyoto isn't even enough to prevent global warming, all it will do is slow down. But it's better than nothing, and god knows how long it would take for countries to ratify another accord. At least in Canada we have signed on (however we are still exceeding where we were supposed to be by 18%, much to failure of our current government, far as I know Europe is fairing better (but don't quote me). The next (potentionally) government in Canada wants to scrap the accord as well, even though it's quite likely that Russia is going to ratify it this summer, leaving only the US, which would likely ratify it under a Democratic government.
Assumptions are also quite arrogant. Please don't assume my opinion, on anything.
Statistics based off of the original 1991 Persian Gulf War.
To quote "Shortly after the war, the US Defense Intelligence Agency made a very rough estimate of 100,000 Iraqi deaths, and this order of magnitude is widely accepted -- even improved upon:
* B&J: 50,000 to 100,000
* Compton's: 150,000 Iraqi soldiers killed
* World Political Almanac 3rd: 150,000 incl. civilians.
* Our Times: 200,000."
To quote "According to the 21 March 1998 Times Union (Albany), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 1,000,000 Iraqis, incl. 560,000 children, died as a result of malnutrition and disease caused by the international embargo imposed following the invasion of Kuwait. The article mentions the use of these numbers by an official of the United Church of Christ, and also labels the figures "commonly used -- but also disputed".."
And the count for civilians dead so far from this current war is between 9,000 - 11,000 civilians not including soldiers.
While I do believe that Iraqi's celebrated Hussein's topple (note how many religious factions are in Iraq, I would guarantee somebody is going to celebrate). Yes I could find statistics for how many people Hussein killed and I know they are similar to the numbers quoted up there. Nor am I questioning whether or not Hussein is/was deplorable, however what were Mr. Bush's intentions? Oil or the welfare of people in Iraq? There is many countries in Africa that citizens are suffering just as in Iraq but we don't hear anything about those conflicts. The only good thing about this is that the internation embargo will not be imposed anymore.
Now that's not even speaking of my stance on Bush's drop of the Kyoto accord after taking millions of campaign funding from Exxon-Mobil.
Does the Supreme Court decide again who is the next President of the US and not the voters?
Definately, when 8 of the seats on the Supreme Court are appointed by Republicans.;) Trust me as a Canadian we take great interest, we're sick of the Bush administration as the rest of the world should be. But at the same time we are close to electing an idiot as stupid as Bush. Go figure.
Depends on what you are using. Firefox starts at least as fast as it did in Windows. Openoffice is a little slower, it is marginal though. However, this is on a P4 2.6Ghz. Linux has come a long way from a few years ago, back when we using Netscape..
It depends on what software you are using. I try to keep to applications that use the same toolkit, that way the library is already loaded up. IE, if I use GNOME I try to always use GTK applications.
You seem to be operating under the assumption that resources available to us are finite and irreplaceable. I believe that this assumption is quite false.
Why is it when somebody say resouces, they assume the person is speaking of power for electricity or natural gas? Land, water, plants, etc.. are all resources. Once natural vegetation is gone it's hard to replace, since the soil loses almost all of is nutrients. We may be able to live on concrete but I really do not believe a Tiger is going to be capable or willing to.
This is the problem with humanity, it's self obsessed and running itself into the ground. Science is not the end all answer, it should co-exist with protecting our resources; not be an excuse to abuse them.
As for clean water and clean air, I think those are just engineering problems. There are already desalinization plants in operation throughout the world, and most of our oxygen is purified by algae rather than trees as it is. Nothing a bit of bioengineering won't fix, especially if we are going to have ample manpower and cheap energy.
Engineering problems? Perhaps you should remember all our politicians are bribed with corporate donations during elections. Remember Exxon-Mobil "donating" to Pres. Bush's campaign and then within six months he dropped the Kyoto protocol. Was this your definition of bio-engineering? Oil companies buying stocks of automobile manufacturers to ensure they don't start investing into renewable resources. Maybe we are able to fix things via bio-engineering, but who's going to pay for it? That's what it ultimately comes down too, profit.
While it may be true that algae produces more oxygen, I for one do not want to live in world with no trees.
Depletion of resources is what is going to kill humanity and unfortunately other species that were innocent. Pursuing a longer life only depletes resources quicker. I don't see any action by any government (or corporation, which basically nowadays is the governement) to increase use of -renewable- resources..
Look at how the US is opening up it's borders despite it's terrorism problem.
Terrorism problems? Many countries prior to the precious United States of America have experienced terrorism. Perhaps the military fund could be better cut in half and used to fund a better standard of living instead? This is what encourages terrorism anyways, poor foreign policy.
If there is a scientific way to keep people from the effects of aging, it should be pursued so elderly people can still support themselves.
Support themselves? None of us support ourselves we are dependent on resources. The more people, the more resources depleted, simple fact.
Beyond that, maybe the US could embrace the Kyoto protocol to slow down the effects of aging. Since their is direct links to health effects and pollution.
Sorry, if this sounds as a rant, but this is the very reason why in 100 years we will have no fresh water or trees to produce the oxygen we breathe.
Record labels in the United States have been sensitive to these consumer concerns, worrying particularly about earlier versions of copy-protection technology that had difficulty playing in nontraditional CD players such as game consoles or car stereos. They've released many protected CDs overseas, but only a small number in the United States and United Kingdom, where perceived opposition has been the highest.
Oh please, they are unconcerned with how we feel. They are only concerned with how much money they will make. I don't see how not releasing a copy-protected CD because people will balk is being concerned w/our feelings.
They are not concerned about your feelings, they are worried about their pocket books and potential backlash from consumer response to copy-controlled CDs. I for one will not buy copy controlled CD's. I'm still undecided if I will even buy them second-hand.
3 years in jail? I've heard of people in Canada only getting 5 years for murder.... However, that might be a flaw in the Canadian legal system.. Seriously, isn't 3 years a little excessive?
Also, most of the userland packages you can find for FreeBSD can also be found on Linux. In fact, most of these packages are originally Linux packages. Many programs need Linux-specific features, like/dev/rtc, so FreeBSD provides an emulation layer...that isn't complete and doesn't work well. Etc etc...
I haven't used FreeBSD in a couple of years, however the Linux compatibility ran perfectly then. I have a hard time picturing it got worse.
So why-oh-why would anybody chose FreeBSD, since it's basically GNU/Linux without the Linux portion, with the FreeBSD kernel instead, with some Linux compatibility bits, minus the performance and hardware support? and please don't tell me it's good for routers, NetBSD or OpenBSD are better for that.
Actually, I always found FreeBSD when I used along side Linux to be more stable and performance was at least as good. Remember, competition is a good thing. Yes, the hardware support isn't quite as good, but ask a Windows user is Linux's hardware support is good. Right now I'm using Linux, but it's comments like this that make me want to switch away. I'm sorry, but Linux is not the holy grail.
I hate to point out to you that you don't have to pay for their mistakes.:) There is alternatives.
Beyond that, how do you define a price increase that reflects a fine? Could they just not add some useless feature and call it a new product and thus justify the price increase?
I don't know if security hole is the appropriate term for this. Wouldn't that suggest the author of the sasser worm had implemented security into the worm?
Perhaps due to the fact an interface is just that, an interface (a tool, nothing more). If you can't create something truly intuitive yourself is it wrong to copy another's idea? If copying is wrong than perhaps you shouldnt' be using Linux, considering it's concept is originally a Unix-like clone.
Most people learn from familiarity (which I expect is statistically proven somewhere, sorry I didn't google it).
Are GNOME or KDE developers trying to recreate Windows? Or are they trying to create something they know will be easy to use for the average (ie non-slashdot reader) user and still powerful enough for the avid user. Remember, GNOME and KDE are both infants compared to MS, MS initially stole ideas to come up with their "own" interface.
Right now, I believe they've worked enough on look and feel and need to really need to work on bloat, which doesn't necessarily mean just stripping out features. Perhaps, this is another way open-source could (and should) out perform in the total cost ownership is that it could run effiecently on lower hardware specs (without having to retrain the whole staff). Also for god's sake can we please just have cut-and-paste that really works.
You'll find 60 or 70 year old records that sound and play just fine. There is next to no deterioration of either the sleeve or the record if they're stored and unplayed. I'd imagine the lifespan would easily be hundreds of years.
So if I don't listen to the music then it will last hundreds of year, great.
Sure, you get some deterioration in the form of clicks and pops but you'll never get a complete failure like a digital or even magnetic medium
Those clicks and pops on a Hi-fi music system are untolerable.
Now that MP3-for-pay is coming of age, finding a stable medium is going to be a top priority for the average person. Heck, most people don't even backup their hard drives and duping CD-Rs is time consuming and wasteful.
However, mp3's are never of high enough quality to play on a Hi-fi system. Why is it that nobody on Slashdot cares about audio quality? You would think on a website about computers & technology that their interest in technology would go further than just the computer.
However, it may be the same movie, doesn't mean it has the exact same content... Which is what you are paying the license for. IE, it could have new features or a higher sampling rate and it would be a different product (ie content).
Thankfully living in Canada I can back up all the CD's I like. Haven't tried any copy-controlled "CD"'s (seeing as I'm convinced they interfere with my right to back up my cd, I won't buy them)
Yeah, I'm optimistic too. Our friend Mr. Gates has said that in the future, hardware will be free or almost free. I'm wondering how or in what world that is reasonable. You'd have to sell a lot of advertising built into the OS to pay for a dual core 6ghz machine.
Maybe we need to read into this more, how willing is Bill Gates to lock everybody into the desktop? Create an almost free computer that comes with Windows and can only run Windows....
Now with this you create Windows only protocols and take over the server market and companies will pay whatever asked to pay.
Yeah I know not much different than today, other than taking a slightly more forceful approach.
Sounds reasonable to me, he's rich enough to take short term loss for long term gain. Seriously, if he wanted to lock everybody in, well there you go.
Don't even mention antitrust suits, once the government gets involved it's already too late. Beyond that, do this while the Republican party and they will help the deployment of this technology.
A GIMP user with a lot of experience with the program, may have the same problems when migrating to Photoshop
I seriously doubt that and find this argument a little boring, to be honest. Everytime someone talks about usability of an open source software, the OSS community unite itself under the voice of "That's because you're not used to it".
How about ask you a question since you seem to be an expert on this.. How come I found the Gimp quite easy to use the first time I used it? Second of all, I used the Gimp first (unlike many people here, including yourself I will presume so I have a little different view on it.) and then tried out Photoshop and Photoshop seemed backwards to me and took quite a lot to get used to.. But I guess you'll just write me off as of OSS fanatic. You also to have acknowledge the fact that Adobe has spent thousands of dollars in research on usability.
I didn't have to get used to Photoshop, I just found all the stuff I needed naturally.
Now The Gimp is another matter altogether. I don't know anyone that got used to its clumsy 12 windows that fill in your task bar. None of the user interactions are standard (Like Esc to simulate "Cancel", Tab, Space, Enter,...) nothing works like the rest. If that is the price for writing a portable app, then they might as well forget about the portability. For a normal Windows user, The Gimp is a step back of 15 years in terms of UI.
I will agree with that it takes up to much of a "taskbar" (if you use one). 15 years back? That would bring us back to say what Windows 3.1? (ouch) Now there was a well thought out GUI.
Now I'm going to say what I always say (this will get written off as a OSS fanatic statement again) if you don't like it you have three options a) fix it yourself b) submit suggestions to the actual developers (ie not Slashdot) c) stop complaining about something you are not even using yourself and use the proprietary application that you have no control over and costs you hundred's of dollars and can only hope that the bug you are stuck with is fixed.
Now I'm personally going to thank developers that volunteer to develop these applications. Personally, I would be quite pissed with people that criticize my volunteer work. How about I ask you a question, if I were voluntarily cleaning up the garbage on the side of the street and missed a piece of garbage would you a) criticize my work b) be thankful I was doing it in the first place? or c) join in and help me (two of these responses should be obvious, hopefully)
Really, the time of DVD on desktop computers for anything other than loading software and (if it's a burner) burning DVDs is gone, gone, gone. Long live the cheapo "hacked by Chinese" DVD player.
Nothing better than a little slave labour to save your precious pocket book.
That's interesting. I've met a few record label owners. They put lots of sweat and blood into their jobs, often working ridiculously long hours, and they don't make huge amounts of money. They often do give themselves pay cuts to keep their business afloat. In short, they don't match the description you give at all. Maybe you're thinking of one of the "big five" labels? Sure, they've got hugely paid executives, but there are thousands of indie labels out there whose working environment isn't anything at all what you describe.
However, many of the "indie labels" are distributed by the big five labels. And if they are not the cost of production is up, because they don't mass produce.
However, it's comparing apples with oranges. Let's do some more math:
CD: $20.25 / 100 (hours of listening) = $0.20 per hour
DVD: $15.00 / 12 (4 times watching + features) = $1.25 per hour
I sit and listen to music any chance I get. The most I've ever watched a movie that I own is maybe 4 times. A PS2 game would come close to the approximate cost of a DVD (per hour) if you were to think of the time I've been playing Need For Speed...:)
My problem with this statement, is that I have over 300 CD's and listen to almost all of them. However, maybe I'm just an oddity because I like the music I listen too..:)
Do you actually sit and listen to the album or do you skip to the single that you heard on the radio? However, maybe the question is, do you consider yourself a music lover?
I agree with you that CD's sound much better. I only download music to sample it. However, most of the CD's I buy are at a used CD shop on average are $9.00 (Canadian) and are in mint condition and you can listen to them. Can't go wrong with that...:)
You have to understand if someone is going to spend $1000's of dollars on Hi-Fi equipment (primarily for music) then they are not going to waste it with poor quality mp3's.
Do you listen to music all day or should I say at any moment where it might be considered possible? Now do you watch movies all day? Personally, I listen to music all day, that means a I get a lot more bang for the buck with a CD.
Nvidia drivers don't always work, their last set of drivers (5336) 'cause my system to hang when booting into X, beyond that having to go back to the command line to install a new driver would be annoying for a new user.
One poster mentioned earlier that it's hard for the distributions to include these drivers, they shouldn't have too; nvidia, ati if they don't want to open-source their drivers should include them on the CD's.
I agree with your statement that is the only way the recording industry is going to get the message, however lawsuits are also another good message. Depending on your countries laws, in Canada I believe that we have the right to take a class-action lawsuit to the record companies. I have the legal right to borrow a cd and copy it, I can also legally backup my cd, would the recording industry not be in violation of my rights?
Beyond that I do not want to pay the same amount of money for a sub-standard product. A copy-controlled cd is a non-redbook standard cd that has errors built into the cd. By doing this, they have effectively made it so a lot of cdroms won't play them, thus you can't copy them. Another problem I have with them is my cd player (as with any cd player) can only correct so many errors until it starts 'skipping' (and as far as I'm concerned a skipping cd is useless).
They are not just violating my rights to copy my music and they are also trying to make me purchase a sub-standard product that won't even play on all my machines for the same price. Whatever happened to companies trying to give the consumer what they want? I didn't know that was such a hard concept.
Slashdot Mirror
It's the very corporations that you are speaking about that are stopping the development/usage of these technology. Yes, Exxon-Mobil didn't want too lose profits, but bribing the president (with campaign donations) shouldn't be an option. Other fuel companies are looking into alternative fuels, why isn't Exxon-Mobil? Perhaps, if the current automobile makers didn't have as much investment from oil companies maybe we'd see alternative fuels used.
Personally, I love the idea of running a VW Jetta TDI with vegetable oil.. ;) Gasoline is going reach those prices in no time anyways, why are we still embracing it? Or maybe the question is, why are we not embracing alternative fuels? (other that investments from oil companies holding trump cards over automobile companies). If we used a different source of fuel we would already achieve the goal set by Kyoto alone, if not exceed by far.
Let's say if global warming continues as expected and we produce as much pollution as we have(or more),keep eating meat the way we do, and the world reaches 13 billion in 2050, current projections is that there will not be enough grain on the earth to supply us (source Book, David Suzuki Reader). The US is already unable to produce the amount of grain needed to supply itself (but I guess we got oil, great).
Have you not thought that in all of our "progression" all we are actually accomplishing is regression? Do you feel better than people did 50 years ago and not just health wise (mentally, spiritually whatever)? Stats would argue about mentally and spiritually because of crime on the rise, health well that's argueable becuase of air pollution. Yes medicine has evolved, but preventitive is always better than reactive.
Current projections are that Kyoto isn't even enough to prevent global warming, all it will do is slow down. But it's better than nothing, and god knows how long it would take for countries to ratify another accord. At least in Canada we have signed on (however we are still exceeding where we were supposed to be by 18%, much to failure of our current government, far as I know Europe is fairing better (but don't quote me). The next (potentionally) government in Canada wants to scrap the accord as well, even though it's quite likely that Russia is going to ratify it this summer, leaving only the US, which would likely ratify it under a Democratic government.
Statistics based off of the original 1991 Persian Gulf War. To quote "Shortly after the war, the US Defense Intelligence Agency made a very rough estimate of 100,000 Iraqi deaths, and this order of magnitude is widely accepted -- even improved upon: * B&J: 50,000 to 100,000 * Compton's: 150,000 Iraqi soldiers killed * World Political Almanac 3rd: 150,000 incl. civilians. * Our Times: 200,000."
To quote "According to the 21 March 1998 Times Union (Albany), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 1,000,000 Iraqis, incl. 560,000 children, died as a result of malnutrition and disease caused by the international embargo imposed following the invasion of Kuwait. The article mentions the use of these numbers by an official of the United Church of Christ, and also labels the figures "commonly used -- but also disputed".."
And the count for civilians dead so far from this current war is between 9,000 - 11,000 civilians not including soldiers.
While I do believe that Iraqi's celebrated Hussein's topple (note how many religious factions are in Iraq, I would guarantee somebody is going to celebrate). Yes I could find statistics for how many people Hussein killed and I know they are similar to the numbers quoted up there. Nor am I questioning whether or not Hussein is/was deplorable, however what were Mr. Bush's intentions? Oil or the welfare of people in Iraq? There is many countries in Africa that citizens are suffering just as in Iraq but we don't hear anything about those conflicts. The only good thing about this is that the internation embargo will not be imposed anymore.
Now that's not even speaking of my stance on Bush's drop of the Kyoto accord after taking millions of campaign funding from Exxon-Mobil.
Is it a deja vu?
;) Trust me as a Canadian we take great interest, we're sick of the Bush administration as the rest of the world should be. But at the same time we are close to electing an idiot as stupid as Bush. Go figure.
Does the Supreme Court decide again who is the next President of the US and not the voters?
Definately, when 8 of the seats on the Supreme Court are appointed by Republicans.
It depends on what software you are using. I try to keep to applications that use the same toolkit, that way the library is already loaded up. IE, if I use GNOME I try to always use GTK applications.
Why is it when somebody say resouces, they assume the person is speaking of power for electricity or natural gas? Land, water, plants, etc.. are all resources. Once natural vegetation is gone it's hard to replace, since the soil loses almost all of is nutrients. We may be able to live on concrete but I really do not believe a Tiger is going to be capable or willing to.
This is the problem with humanity, it's self obsessed and running itself into the ground. Science is not the end all answer, it should co-exist with protecting our resources; not be an excuse to abuse them.
As for clean water and clean air, I think those are just engineering problems. There are already desalinization plants in operation throughout the world, and most of our oxygen is purified by algae rather than trees as it is. Nothing a bit of bioengineering won't fix, especially if we are going to have ample manpower and cheap energy.
Engineering problems? Perhaps you should remember all our politicians are bribed with corporate donations during elections. Remember Exxon-Mobil "donating" to Pres. Bush's campaign and then within six months he dropped the Kyoto protocol. Was this your definition of bio-engineering? Oil companies buying stocks of automobile manufacturers to ensure they don't start investing into renewable resources. Maybe we are able to fix things via bio-engineering, but who's going to pay for it? That's what it ultimately comes down too, profit.
While it may be true that algae produces more oxygen, I for one do not want to live in world with no trees.
Look at how the US is opening up it's borders despite it's terrorism problem.
Terrorism problems? Many countries prior to the precious United States of America have experienced terrorism. Perhaps the military fund could be better cut in half and used to fund a better standard of living instead? This is what encourages terrorism anyways, poor foreign policy.
If there is a scientific way to keep people from the effects of aging, it should be pursued so elderly people can still support themselves.
Support themselves? None of us support ourselves we are dependent on resources. The more people, the more resources depleted, simple fact.
Beyond that, maybe the US could embrace the Kyoto protocol to slow down the effects of aging. Since their is direct links to health effects and pollution.
Sorry, if this sounds as a rant, but this is the very reason why in 100 years we will have no fresh water or trees to produce the oxygen we breathe.
They are not concerned about your feelings, they are worried about their pocket books and potential backlash from consumer response to copy-controlled CDs. I for one will not buy copy controlled CD's. I'm still undecided if I will even buy them second-hand.
3 years in jail? I've heard of people in Canada only getting 5 years for murder.... However, that might be a flaw in the Canadian legal system.. Seriously, isn't 3 years a little excessive?
Beyond that, how do you define a price increase that reflects a fine? Could they just not add some useless feature and call it a new product and thus justify the price increase?
I don't know if security hole is the appropriate term for this. Wouldn't that suggest the author of the sasser worm had implemented security into the worm?
Most people learn from familiarity (which I expect is statistically proven somewhere, sorry I didn't google it).
Are GNOME or KDE developers trying to recreate Windows? Or are they trying to create something they know will be easy to use for the average (ie non-slashdot reader) user and still powerful enough for the avid user. Remember, GNOME and KDE are both infants compared to MS, MS initially stole ideas to come up with their "own" interface.
Right now, I believe they've worked enough on look and feel and need to really need to work on bloat, which doesn't necessarily mean just stripping out features. Perhaps, this is another way open-source could (and should) out perform in the total cost ownership is that it could run effiecently on lower hardware specs (without having to retrain the whole staff). Also for god's sake can we please just have cut-and-paste that really works.
Thankfully living in Canada I can back up all the CD's I like. Haven't tried any copy-controlled "CD"'s (seeing as I'm convinced they interfere with my right to back up my cd, I won't buy them)
Now with this you create Windows only protocols and take over the server market and companies will pay whatever asked to pay.
Yeah I know not much different than today, other than taking a slightly more forceful approach. Sounds reasonable to me, he's rich enough to take short term loss for long term gain. Seriously, if he wanted to lock everybody in, well there you go.
Don't even mention antitrust suits, once the government gets involved it's already too late. Beyond that, do this while the Republican party and they will help the deployment of this technology.
Now I'm going to say what I always say (this will get written off as a OSS fanatic statement again) if you don't like it you have three options a) fix it yourself b) submit suggestions to the actual developers (ie not Slashdot) c) stop complaining about something you are not even using yourself and use the proprietary application that you have no control over and costs you hundred's of dollars and can only hope that the bug you are stuck with is fixed.
Now I'm personally going to thank developers that volunteer to develop these applications. Personally, I would be quite pissed with people that criticize my volunteer work. How about I ask you a question, if I were voluntarily cleaning up the garbage on the side of the street and missed a piece of garbage would you a) criticize my work b) be thankful I was doing it in the first place? or c) join in and help me (two of these responses should be obvious, hopefully)
However, many of the "indie labels" are distributed by the big five labels. And if they are not the cost of production is up, because they don't mass produce.
CD: $20.25 / 100 (hours of listening) = $0.20 per hour
DVD: $15.00 / 12 (4 times watching + features) = $1.25 per hour
I sit and listen to music any chance I get. The most I've ever watched a movie that I own is maybe 4 times. A PS2 game would come close to the approximate cost of a DVD (per hour) if you were to think of the time I've been playing Need For Speed... :)
Do you actually sit and listen to the album or do you skip to the single that you heard on the radio? However, maybe the question is, do you consider yourself a music lover?
I agree with you that CD's sound much better. I only download music to sample it. However, most of the CD's I buy are at a used CD shop on average are $9.00 (Canadian) and are in mint condition and you can listen to them. Can't go wrong with that... :)
You have to understand if someone is going to spend $1000's of dollars on Hi-Fi equipment (primarily for music) then they are not going to waste it with poor quality mp3's.
Do you listen to music all day or should I say at any moment where it might be considered possible? Now do you watch movies all day? Personally, I listen to music all day, that means a I get a lot more bang for the buck with a CD.
Actually, you have it the wrong way... :) That's the actual results that it wasn't supposed to show you...
Nvidia drivers don't always work, their last set of drivers (5336) 'cause my system to hang when booting into X, beyond that having to go back to the command line to install a new driver would be annoying for a new user.
One poster mentioned earlier that it's hard for the distributions to include these drivers, they shouldn't have too; nvidia, ati if they don't want to open-source their drivers should include them on the CD's.
Stop purchasing copy controlled industry CDs!
(otherwise they'll blame it on copying)
I agree with your statement that is the only way the recording industry is going to get the message, however lawsuits are also another good message. Depending on your countries laws, in Canada I believe that we have the right to take a class-action lawsuit to the record companies. I have the legal right to borrow a cd and copy it, I can also legally backup my cd, would the recording industry not be in violation of my rights?
Beyond that I do not want to pay the same amount of money for a sub-standard product. A copy-controlled cd is a non-redbook standard cd that has errors built into the cd. By doing this, they have effectively made it so a lot of cdroms won't play them, thus you can't copy them. Another problem I have with them is my cd player (as with any cd player) can only correct so many errors until it starts 'skipping' (and as far as I'm concerned a skipping cd is useless).
They are not just violating my rights to copy my music and they are also trying to make me purchase a sub-standard product that won't even play on all my machines for the same price. Whatever happened to companies trying to give the consumer what they want? I didn't know that was such a hard concept.