It's alreadybeenshown that the record industry is not losing money because of p2p. That's accepted as fact by everyone who's looked at the numbers except the RIAA, because admitting that efffectively admits that they were wrong in the first place. Regardless, I believe in the inherent goodness of most people and that people will pay for what they feel is worth their money. I don't download music via p2p very often but when I do, it's to decide whether or not I want to buy music or not. I've purchased many CDs recently directly because of songs I downloaded and liked.
I will purchase an album if the songs I download from the album warrant the purchase. If not, no purchase is made. The difference is, I get to make up my own mind about what songs I want to hear from that album, instead of the record companies making that choice (for radio broadcast).
I'm also not limited to music that's current or not, including individual songs from decades ago that weren't released through RIAA-controlled channels.
If it were up to the RIAA, I'd have much fewer choices. That's what this crusade of theirs to equate music sharing with music stealing comes down to.
Apple and Microsoft, having a better understanding of their customers and the internet in general, probably figured out years ago the benefits of letting the customers fight for their products in the open market. They are selling (well, licensing, in the case of MS). The RIAA is a legal entity whose power over the marketplace rests with lawyers and courts, and that's the only place they know how to conduct their business.
The RIAA knows this, but they are deliberately ignoring it because they are more concerned with control of the product before profitability. They have the data which shows that music sharing increases sales. But for them the issue is about control of the distribution, so they can be the arbiters of who's "hot" and who's not. They have many artists' careers to control and profit from. Surrendering that control renders them effectively useless, so they will spend millions prosecuting 14 year olds to intimidate people away from making their own decisions about what music they want.
Apple (and Microsoft) basically have one product they're responsible for, and they want that product to succeed both PR-wise and financially, so they'll take advantage of things like "quality control" and "customer preferences".. you know, those evil capitalist things that actually involves paying attention to the customer.
Nah, he learned his lesson when he tried to eat my Atari 400 (because I referred to it by its codename).
On a C64 keyboard, the quotation marks are found on the 2 key and the dollar-sign is on the 4 key. To search for the directory of a floppy disk, the command is LOAD"$",8, which was arguably one of the most commonly used commands on a Commodore 64./useless info
I still have my original $595 C64, the milk-chocolate model, which is missing the 2 and 4 keys (real Commodore owners will know why), and still fires up when I turn it on. I've nicknamed it "Old Faithful".
I've also got a 128D, which IMO was the coolest evolution of the C64 computer, as well as two 64Cs, one of which is still in use.
Key word is "knowingly". Probably 70%+ of people who buy music online don't know, and don't think to ask, about what it is they're actually buying. Microsoft's long-term chances of survival though are dim, as opposed to iTMS. They will have maybe a year, maybe two of sales, but by then the sum of complaints of angry customers who lost access to their "legally purchased" music will hit the mainstream and people will know better.
On the other hand iTunes has very weak (token) DRM that is painless to circumvent and allows a great deal of freedom of use of the files.
Rather than waste a burned CD in order to convert one song, see if you can find a program that captures all sound output going to the video card, and saves it as an AIFF file. I know there's one for OS X called WireTap.. surely there are many such apps for Windows.
Works for converting any playable sound file, and you get a DRM-free sound file of decent quality you can convert into whatever you like.
This, from Serenity's trivia page: "According to an interview with Alan Tudyk, this is the first movie in a three-picture Firefly contract with Universal."
Happened to me just last week. I posted "first post" on an article making some crack about how it is a Slashvertisement. That started people modding it down as "Troll" and "Offtopic", countered by others modding it up "Funny" and "Insightful". In less than a day, I could no longer post AC "due to excessive bad posting". It was one freakin post. I dunno, maybe people who make "Slashvertisement" jokes are automatically put into timeout...
A trend right now? Trilogies have been "the trend" in Hollywood for decades. Raiders of the Lost Ark? Star Wars? The Godfather? They've just gotten more shrewd about keeping options for trilogies open when launching a movie with possible trilogy potential.
Personally, I think they should stuff the whole "trilogy" concept where Firefly is concerned.. just keep making movies, a la Star Trek, as long as they bring the money in. Who cares how many there are?
Btw, wouldn't it be cool to have a scene where the Serenity crew meets up with The Betty for some kind of caper?
> His promise: Longhorn, the next version of the Windows operating system, will make malicious software (malware) that gets onto computers without the users' knowledge 'a thing of the past'."
It increasingly sounds to me like Longhorn itself is the Mother of All Malware and that once you install it on your machine, you're pretty much hosed anyway. But at least it's installed with your knowledge.
And Lawrence Kasdan is one of the best writers in the industry. If it weren't for his inclusion in the Star Wars franchise early on, those movies would probably have been disasters too. It's too bad he couldn't have helped write/written Eps I, II and III, because if he had, even with Lucas' highly questionable directing, the movies would have been MUCH better.
I agree the acting has sucked the past two movies, but that partly had to do with sucky writing. "Are you an angel?" "Just being around her again is intoxicating." "I'm haunted by the kiss you never should have given me. My heart is beating, hoping that kiss will not become a scar."
Lucas is directing and writing these three movies. That's what's wrong with them.
I have lost pretty much all respect for George Lucas as a storyteller at this point. Yes, Eps. 4, 5 and even 6 were great movies. And I had nothing but respect for the man when he refused to license his characters to advertisers who wanted to exploit them (C3POs cereal notwithstanding). Unfortunately, now that this is his so-called "last movie" (yeah, right), he is milking his franchise for every last penny.. Yoda is now selling Pepsi, Chewbacca is selling cellular phones.. it's so patently whoreish it makes me ill.
Lucas: "Well, this is the last chance I'll get to make a few hundred million more bucks off of these guys, might as well take the bucks while I can. Cause hey, I can never have too much money. Principles? Yeah, I used to have those."
I feel sorry for the kids growing up today.. they'll never really understand what it was like to grow up with Star Wars.
Lightsabers cast shadows in the Star Wars films. I believe there's a scene in ROTJ where Luke and Darth are going at it, and Darth's saber casts a very noticable shadow on the floor; the camera is angled downward. I dunno, maybe that was Empire..
Yeah well, the way I understand it, Lucas used the word incorrectly in his script and then he (or another author/writer) made up a suitable explanation for it later to "explain" it. Sure, the explanations are inventive, but ultimately it was a goof.
Slashdot Mirror
It's already been shown that the record industry is not losing money because of p2p. That's accepted as fact by everyone who's looked at the numbers except the RIAA, because admitting that efffectively admits that they were wrong in the first place. Regardless, I believe in the inherent goodness of most people and that people will pay for what they feel is worth their money. I don't download music via p2p very often but when I do, it's to decide whether or not I want to buy music or not. I've purchased many CDs recently directly because of songs I downloaded and liked.
I will purchase an album if the songs I download from the album warrant the purchase. If not, no purchase is made. The difference is, I get to make up my own mind about what songs I want to hear from that album, instead of the record companies making that choice (for radio broadcast).
I'm also not limited to music that's current or not, including individual songs from decades ago that weren't released through RIAA-controlled channels.
If it were up to the RIAA, I'd have much fewer choices. That's what this crusade of theirs to equate music sharing with music stealing comes down to.
Apple and Microsoft, having a better understanding of their customers and the internet in general, probably figured out years ago the benefits of letting the customers fight for their products in the open market. They are selling (well, licensing, in the case of MS). The RIAA is a legal entity whose power over the marketplace rests with lawyers and courts, and that's the only place they know how to conduct their business.
Yeah, that's whoring your karma karma.
The RIAA knows this, but they are deliberately ignoring it because they are more concerned with control of the product before profitability. They have the data which shows that music sharing increases sales. But for them the issue is about control of the distribution, so they can be the arbiters of who's "hot" and who's not. They have many artists' careers to control and profit from. Surrendering that control renders them effectively useless, so they will spend millions prosecuting 14 year olds to intimidate people away from making their own decisions about what music they want.
Apple (and Microsoft) basically have one product they're responsible for, and they want that product to succeed both PR-wise and financially, so they'll take advantage of things like "quality control" and "customer preferences" .. you know, those evil capitalist things that actually involves paying attention to the customer.
Nah, he learned his lesson when he tried to eat my Atari 400 (because I referred to it by its codename).
On a C64 keyboard, the quotation marks are found on the 2 key and the dollar-sign is on the 4 key. To search for the directory of a floppy disk, the command is LOAD"$",8, which was arguably one of the most commonly used commands on a Commodore 64./useless info
I still have my original $595 C64, the milk-chocolate model, which is missing the 2 and 4 keys (real Commodore owners will know why), and still fires up when I turn it on. I've nicknamed it "Old Faithful".
I've also got a 128D, which IMO was the coolest evolution of the C64 computer, as well as two 64Cs, one of which is still in use.
Ahh, the days before planned obsolescence ..
The VIC made it up to 64K? I wasn't aware it had more than 16.
IIRC, the C64 was selling for $179 towards the end of its lifespan.
Key word is "knowingly". Probably 70%+ of people who buy music online don't know, and don't think to ask, about what it is they're actually buying. Microsoft's long-term chances of survival though are dim, as opposed to iTMS. They will have maybe a year, maybe two of sales, but by then the sum of complaints of angry customers who lost access to their "legally purchased" music will hit the mainstream and people will know better.
On the other hand iTunes has very weak (token) DRM that is painless to circumvent and allows a great deal of freedom of use of the files.
Rather than waste a burned CD in order to convert one song, see if you can find a program that captures all sound output going to the video card, and saves it as an AIFF file. I know there's one for OS X called WireTap .. surely there are many such apps for Windows.
Works for converting any playable sound file, and you get a DRM-free sound file of decent quality you can convert into whatever you like.
You mean girls will lie about being in a relationship, and boys will lie about not being in one?
At least we didn't have to hear him talk.
Indeed. I have very high hopes for Serenity.
This, from Serenity's trivia page: "According to an interview with Alan Tudyk, this is the first movie in a three-picture Firefly contract with Universal."
Happened to me just last week. I posted "first post" on an article making some crack about how it is a Slashvertisement. That started people modding it down as "Troll" and "Offtopic", countered by others modding it up "Funny" and "Insightful". In less than a day, I could no longer post AC "due to excessive bad posting". It was one freakin post. I dunno, maybe people who make "Slashvertisement" jokes are automatically put into timeout ...
Kira Nerys is indeed hot .. she'd probably be my first pick, just over Jennifer Lien. (Not all the women on ST:V were bitches.)
A trend right now? Trilogies have been "the trend" in Hollywood for decades. Raiders of the Lost Ark? Star Wars? The Godfather? They've just gotten more shrewd about keeping options for trilogies open when launching a movie with possible trilogy potential.
Personally, I think they should stuff the whole "trilogy" concept where Firefly is concerned .. just keep making movies, a la Star Trek, as long as they bring the money in. Who cares how many there are?
Btw, wouldn't it be cool to have a scene where the Serenity crew meets up with The Betty for some kind of caper?
Yanking the power cord = the user reminding the computer who controls whom. :)
> His promise: Longhorn, the next version of the Windows operating system, will make malicious software (malware) that gets onto computers without the users' knowledge 'a thing of the past'."
It increasingly sounds to me like Longhorn itself is the Mother of All Malware and that once you install it on your machine, you're pretty much hosed anyway. But at least it's installed with your knowledge.
And Lawrence Kasdan is one of the best writers in the industry. If it weren't for his inclusion in the Star Wars franchise early on, those movies would probably have been disasters too. It's too bad he couldn't have helped write/written Eps I, II and III, because if he had, even with Lucas' highly questionable directing, the movies would have been MUCH better.
I agree the acting has sucked the past two movies, but that partly had to do with sucky writing. "Are you an angel?" "Just being around her again is intoxicating." "I'm haunted by the kiss you never should have given me. My heart is beating, hoping that kiss will not become a scar."
Lucas is directing and writing these three movies. That's what's wrong with them.
> there are three separate reviews at TheForce.net.
Is anybody really surprised the reviews were positive, judging by where they were gathered?
I have lost pretty much all respect for George Lucas as a storyteller at this point. Yes, Eps. 4, 5 and even 6 were great movies. And I had nothing but respect for the man when he refused to license his characters to advertisers who wanted to exploit them (C3POs cereal notwithstanding). Unfortunately, now that this is his so-called "last movie" (yeah, right), he is milking his franchise for every last penny .. Yoda is now selling Pepsi, Chewbacca is selling cellular phones .. it's so patently whoreish it makes me ill.
Lucas: "Well, this is the last chance I'll get to make a few hundred million more bucks off of these guys, might as well take the bucks while I can. Cause hey, I can never have too much money. Principles? Yeah, I used to have those."
I feel sorry for the kids growing up today .. they'll never really understand what it was like to grow up with Star Wars.
Lightsabers cast shadows in the Star Wars films. I believe there's a scene in ROTJ where Luke and Darth are going at it, and Darth's saber casts a very noticable shadow on the floor; the camera is angled downward. I dunno, maybe that was Empire ..
Must be Slashvertisement Day ..
Toys for 8-year-olds with moneyed parents who grew up with Star Wars .. that's why the graphics are from Eps 4-5-6. AlienWare knows what they're doing.
I'm just surprised they're not marketing them as "collectors items".
Yeah well, the way I understand it, Lucas used the word incorrectly in his script and then he (or another author/writer) made up a suitable explanation for it later to "explain" it. Sure, the explanations are inventive, but ultimately it was a goof.