The OUTSIDE MMO.. great graphics (if your video hardware can handle it), like AWESOME resolution, and there's billions of players. You can even make real money if you know the right cheats to use. But it's an expensive monthly subscription...
> You don't get to tell me how to use the chair I bought from you
Actually I do; I can tell you that standing on it is dangerous, and that it's not to be used as playground equipment and so forth. But you are correct in that I do not have the right to STOP you from doing those things if you choose to. And if you break it by choosing to, well then I'm not responsible for fixing it.
I also don't have the right to use predatory legal practices--the threat of a meritless lawsuit which I know I would lose, but which you can't afford to fight anyway--to force you to use the chair in JUST those ways I intended you to. Which is basically what Apple is doing. Apparently they are so mightily brilliant that they've already thought up EVERY CONCEIVABLE USE for their iPods and they're confident that everyone else is too dumb and incapable of thinking up any other ones to let them think for themselves.
If they were just for profit, they wouldn't have made their MacBooks' displays "eco-friendly" at the cost of rendering them useless to serious creative professionals. In other words they are now in the process of letting their politics influence the quality of their product, which WILL impact sales and marketshare.
I'm not buying ANY Apple product with that hideous glossy screen.
Oh, I fully understand you. I'm not arguing that there SHOULD be toys made based on Watchmen, I'm simply resigned to the fact that there will be [in addition to the ones that already exist]. I'd only be mildly surprised if the Silk Spectre II figure had removable clothes.
Wow, I guess criticism of Watchmen is another unwelcome idea here on Slashdot. ("Troll"? Unintentional flamebait perhaps, but troll? Someone peed in this mod's cornflakes this morning.. )
Christ almighty. The movie was too long already AS RELEASED. You're saying there's another full hour of material they shot? I'm usually willing to sit through a nearly-three-hour movie but FOUR? They might as well have split it into two movies, "The Fellowship of the Spandex" and "The Two Planets."
> Businesses are a lot more interested in the total value of something than its price tag.
I'll go you one better: businesses, or more accurately, managers in charge of making major spending decisions, don't often understand the difference between value and cost.
If a typical empty-suit gotta-wrap-this-by-2-so-I-can-get-to-the-golf-course middle manager looks at open source software (priced at $0) and then Microsoft software (priced in the thousands or tens of thousands, for company-wide use), he's probably going to make the decision in favor of Microsoft because if it doesn't cost anything, it must not be worth anything.
Small business owners have always dealt with this mindset. If they want contracts from big companies they usually have to inflate their prices (even beyond what they would consider a fair profit margin) in order to even be considered as a potential vendor. This is especially true when trying to do work for governments or Universities.
Your point is taken, but the iPod Touch (in particular) has functionality beyond even that of a $MEDIA delivery device. Even if I only wanted to use it as a pocket internet device, that's a $400 reason to buy it over a Kindle.
I can watch (ripped) movies, listen to music (with no DRM), surf the internet, get my email, etc etc etc with an iPod Touch. I still don't get the joke. Perhaps someone could explain it to me. These are all things the Kindle does too? And fits in my pocket?
That's a good point. Plus, college textbooks are unfathomably expensive. If they could be made available digitally on a Kindle device, for less money, that does make a lot of financial and practical sense.
This makes perfect sense to me if it were marketed as magazine and newspaper e-reader. But Amazon market's the device as one to read books. I realize I may be a unique and precious snowflake, but I like to keep the books I buy. I can lend them to friends or re-read them to my heart's content. Bookshelves also serve as insight into my interests, tastes and politics when guests visit my home (or office). So I have many reasons to want to keep physical books on physical bookshelves. Magazines and newspapers, however, usually hit the dumpster once they've been "consumed".. in fact, I don't even have a newspaper subscription, since I prefer to get my news online.
To me this demonstrates the tradeoff between the convenience and concepts of 'property' issues that emerge when content is moved from a real-world media (book) to a digital one. Where in this transition is it implied that the original content creator has the right to demand how the product is to be used? If I buy a [real] book from Amazon, am I to expect that if Amazon cancels my account--for a legitimate reason or not--they have the right to come to my house and take back all the books I've bought (or been gifted by friends/family) from them? That word "unacceptable" is not near forceful enough to express how wrong that is. But somehow if I buy an e-book for the Kindle, suddenly that same exact behavior is greeted with, eh, whatever, it's just DRM.
My parents actually ordered me a Kindle for a graduation present, but fortunately it had not arrived in time for them to give it to me at graduation. I had them cancel the order. (They got me an iPod Touch instead.) There's no way in hell I'm willing to accept ridiculous levels of DRM for the benefit of being able to read a book on an electronic device. BOOKS ARE CHEAP and they do not NEED an electronic delivery mechanism! I don't quite understand why on earth a product like the Kindle needs to exist.
> And I am sure that the naming of the Enterprise had nothing to do with the fact there are multiple Enterprise Ships in the history of the United States
You'd be correct. It's common knowledge--or maybe it's not, for a younger generation--that the test shuttle Enterprise was in fact named for the fictional vessel of Star Trek fame. NASA was not even asking the public for suggestions at the time and had another name already chosen.
Exactly what is the POINT of running a poll then, if they are going to pay no mind whatsoever to the results? I agree the "Colbert" voters were being tools, but the other entries on the list were perfectly acceptable and the winner of the poll, Serenity, is a perfectly appropriate name. It is also consistent with the NASA convention of naming things after particularly popular and inspirational science fiction vessels, as was the test shuttle Enterprise named for the starship Enterprise thanks to a massive write-in campaign by Trek fans. Naming the module Serenity would have shown that NASA still honors science fiction storytellers in the modern age, without whom the largest portion of interest in space and technology wouldn't be there.
Besides.. 'tranquility' IS SYNONYMOUS WITH 'serenity'. Same exact concept, but NASA wanted to use their own word, not the people's. This is NASA giving the middle finger to Serenity fans, no other way to interpret it. Dumb, dumb, stupid, idiot move, NASA. Way to be pricks for no good reason.
I'm not a lawyer, but from what Law and Order I watch (which is a lot), I would suggest that professional evidence-gatherers (aka the police) who do not follow strict guidelines on how to go about acquiring evidence routinely have said evidence disregarded by the court, and so, yes, the jury and the attorneys involved very much indeed MUST pretend they didn't find what the police actually found. I think it happens quite a lot, actually.
The real irony here is that the MPAA is paying someone who did NOT create the content for the use of that content (the emails and the information therein), which to anyone with common sense is plainly a crime. I am quite confident Anderson will distribute his earnings to the content creators in a manner consistent with that in which the MPAA distributes their earnings to their artists.
It's gratifying to see this issue getting some exposure here. God knows this is not a story that the doting MSM would ever run on its own, without significant blogosphere activity forcing them to acknowledge it.
Yeah, I signed on to eMusic as well after trying out a promotion they were running in Car and Driver. I wasn't expecting them to have many artists I liked, but I was pleasantly very surprised at the selection and opted to stay. You pay a monthly fee for a fixed number of downloads.. I am paying twelve bucks for 30 downloads a month, and I have no problem finding 30 tracks each month to get my money's worth.
Also, Millisong is a site where you pay into an account, and then make purchases that deduct from that account. Very high quality MP3s, very low per-track prices, biiiiig selection.
Slashdot Mirror
The OUTSIDE MMO .. great graphics (if your video hardware can handle it), like AWESOME resolution, and there's billions of players. You can even make real money if you know the right cheats to use. But it's an expensive monthly subscription ...
> You don't get to tell me how to use the chair I bought from you
Actually I do; I can tell you that standing on it is dangerous, and that it's not to be used as playground equipment and so forth. But you are correct in that I do not have the right to STOP you from doing those things if you choose to. And if you break it by choosing to, well then I'm not responsible for fixing it.
I also don't have the right to use predatory legal practices--the threat of a meritless lawsuit which I know I would lose, but which you can't afford to fight anyway--to force you to use the chair in JUST those ways I intended you to. Which is basically what Apple is doing. Apparently they are so mightily brilliant that they've already thought up EVERY CONCEIVABLE USE for their iPods and they're confident that everyone else is too dumb and incapable of thinking up any other ones to let them think for themselves.
If they were just for profit, they wouldn't have made their MacBooks' displays "eco-friendly" at the cost of rendering them useless to serious creative professionals. In other words they are now in the process of letting their politics influence the quality of their product, which WILL impact sales and marketshare.
I'm not buying ANY Apple product with that hideous glossy screen.
Oh, I fully understand you. I'm not arguing that there SHOULD be toys made based on Watchmen, I'm simply resigned to the fact that there will be [in addition to the ones that already exist]. I'd only be mildly surprised if the Silk Spectre II figure had removable clothes.
Wow, I guess criticism of Watchmen is another unwelcome idea here on Slashdot. ("Troll"? Unintentional flamebait perhaps, but troll? Someone peed in this mod's cornflakes this morning .. )
> You make that money selling cheap action figures in the Walmart toy aisle. Except Watchmen will not do that.
You're not nearly cynical enough. I'd lay money they're on the shelves by Christmas.
Christ almighty. The movie was too long already AS RELEASED. You're saying there's another full hour of material they shot? I'm usually willing to sit through a nearly-three-hour movie but FOUR? They might as well have split it into two movies, "The Fellowship of the Spandex" and "The Two Planets."
I like your thinking! In fact, let's develop a brand new bureaucracy that duplicates the efforts of one we already have.
http://www.afcyber.af.mil/
> Businesses are a lot more interested in the total value of something than its price tag.
I'll go you one better: businesses, or more accurately, managers in charge of making major spending decisions, don't often understand the difference between value and cost.
If a typical empty-suit gotta-wrap-this-by-2-so-I-can-get-to-the-golf-course middle manager looks at open source software (priced at $0) and then Microsoft software (priced in the thousands or tens of thousands, for company-wide use), he's probably going to make the decision in favor of Microsoft because if it doesn't cost anything, it must not be worth anything.
Small business owners have always dealt with this mindset. If they want contracts from big companies they usually have to inflate their prices (even beyond what they would consider a fair profit margin) in order to even be considered as a potential vendor. This is especially true when trying to do work for governments or Universities.
Your point is taken, but the iPod Touch (in particular) has functionality beyond even that of a $MEDIA delivery device. Even if I only wanted to use it as a pocket internet device, that's a $400 reason to buy it over a Kindle.
I can watch (ripped) movies, listen to music (with no DRM), surf the internet, get my email, etc etc etc with an iPod Touch. I still don't get the joke. Perhaps someone could explain it to me. These are all things the Kindle does too? And fits in my pocket?
That's a good point. Plus, college textbooks are unfathomably expensive. If they could be made available digitally on a Kindle device, for less money, that does make a lot of financial and practical sense.
This makes perfect sense to me if it were marketed as magazine and newspaper e-reader. But Amazon market's the device as one to read books. I realize I may be a unique and precious snowflake, but I like to keep the books I buy. I can lend them to friends or re-read them to my heart's content. Bookshelves also serve as insight into my interests, tastes and politics when guests visit my home (or office). So I have many reasons to want to keep physical books on physical bookshelves. Magazines and newspapers, however, usually hit the dumpster once they've been "consumed" .. in fact, I don't even have a newspaper subscription, since I prefer to get my news online.
My iPod Touch plays my MP3 collection. Did you have a question?
Thank you! Was wondering that myself ....
To me this demonstrates the tradeoff between the convenience and concepts of 'property' issues that emerge when content is moved from a real-world media (book) to a digital one. Where in this transition is it implied that the original content creator has the right to demand how the product is to be used? If I buy a [real] book from Amazon, am I to expect that if Amazon cancels my account--for a legitimate reason or not--they have the right to come to my house and take back all the books I've bought (or been gifted by friends/family) from them? That word "unacceptable" is not near forceful enough to express how wrong that is. But somehow if I buy an e-book for the Kindle, suddenly that same exact behavior is greeted with, eh, whatever, it's just DRM.
My parents actually ordered me a Kindle for a graduation present, but fortunately it had not arrived in time for them to give it to me at graduation. I had them cancel the order. (They got me an iPod Touch instead.) There's no way in hell I'm willing to accept ridiculous levels of DRM for the benefit of being able to read a book on an electronic device. BOOKS ARE CHEAP and they do not NEED an electronic delivery mechanism! I don't quite understand why on earth a product like the Kindle needs to exist.
> And I am sure that the naming of the Enterprise had nothing to do with the fact there are multiple Enterprise Ships in the history of the United States
You'd be correct. It's common knowledge--or maybe it's not, for a younger generation--that the test shuttle Enterprise was in fact named for the fictional vessel of Star Trek fame. NASA was not even asking the public for suggestions at the time and had another name already chosen.
Exactly what is the POINT of running a poll then, if they are going to pay no mind whatsoever to the results? I agree the "Colbert" voters were being tools, but the other entries on the list were perfectly acceptable and the winner of the poll, Serenity, is a perfectly appropriate name. It is also consistent with the NASA convention of naming things after particularly popular and inspirational science fiction vessels, as was the test shuttle Enterprise named for the starship Enterprise thanks to a massive write-in campaign by Trek fans. Naming the module Serenity would have shown that NASA still honors science fiction storytellers in the modern age, without whom the largest portion of interest in space and technology wouldn't be there.
Besides .. 'tranquility' IS SYNONYMOUS WITH 'serenity'. Same exact concept, but NASA wanted to use their own word, not the people's. This is NASA giving the middle finger to Serenity fans, no other way to interpret it. Dumb, dumb, stupid, idiot move, NASA. Way to be pricks for no good reason.
I'm not a lawyer, but from what Law and Order I watch (which is a lot), I would suggest that professional evidence-gatherers (aka the police) who do not follow strict guidelines on how to go about acquiring evidence routinely have said evidence disregarded by the court, and so, yes, the jury and the attorneys involved very much indeed MUST pretend they didn't find what the police actually found. I think it happens quite a lot, actually.
The real irony here is that the MPAA is paying someone who did NOT create the content for the use of that content (the emails and the information therein), which to anyone with common sense is plainly a crime. I am quite confident Anderson will distribute his earnings to the content creators in a manner consistent with that in which the MPAA distributes their earnings to their artists.
The economy was cruising on the downslope after the internet bubble burst in mid-2000. That happened on Clinton's watch.
It's gratifying to see this issue getting some exposure here. God knows this is not a story that the doting MSM would ever run on its own, without significant blogosphere activity forcing them to acknowledge it.
Yeah, I signed on to eMusic as well after trying out a promotion they were running in Car and Driver. I wasn't expecting them to have many artists I liked, but I was pleasantly very surprised at the selection and opted to stay. You pay a monthly fee for a fixed number of downloads .. I am paying twelve bucks for 30 downloads a month, and I have no problem finding 30 tracks each month to get my money's worth.
Also, Millisong is a site where you pay into an account, and then make purchases that deduct from that account. Very high quality MP3s, very low per-track prices, biiiiig selection.
Cyberspace. William Gibson, Neuromancer
> $ -- dollar. Not string. Although worth about the same
Ah, but there's a snag, you see. Due to bad planning, the hundred and twenty-two thousand miles is in three-inch lengths. So it's not very useful.