more than 99 cents per song doesn't work. 99 cents per song, OTOH, does work
This reminds me of "There's Something About Mary", when the Hitchhiker was telling Ted that his 7-Minute Abs will be more popular than the 8-Minute Abs.
Digital song prices is determined by market forces, and with unlimited supply and limited demand, the price can only fall, because for every demand, there is a supply (and more) to match.
If music industry really wants to command the price, they should limit how many downloads per song iTunes is allowed to sell, then iTunes will automatically change its pricing to maximize its profit.
And the music industry on the other hand, will also automatically change its limit based on a song's (expected) popularity, so that it won't sell less than it should have been because of the stupid limit.
However I think the major problem here is, iTunes is not set up to make profit out of songs, it just wants to sell as many at the cheapest possible price because the profit comes from iPod.
Maybe it's time for the music industry to drop iTunes and find a proper online music store that is set up to maximize its profit, then the supplier and retailer will have the same goal.
And as a side question, are music CDs currently priced differently based on their popularity? I haven't been to a music shop for 5 years, but last time I went there, "Vanilla Ice" sold for the same price as "Step By Step".
The friendly article didn't say it, but I assumed these schools will be using OO.o, not MS Office on WINE?
This is a strong movement because children tend to come back home and fiddle with home PCs (like installing games/trojans), so it's now more likely that more Macedonian homes will be running Linux too.
What I am not sure is the career future of these children of the future. Will they be better off in their career now that they are primed with OpenSource ideas, will they become the valuable elites in "knowledge-based exports" market, or will they be forced to re-learn MS once they enter workfoce?
Seeing the planet next to its bright star has been compared to trying to discern, from a hundred meters away, the light of a match held up next to the glare of an automobile's headlight.
I thought a planet must be illuminated by light from a star, and not emitting light itself?
Anyway, this technology might be useful for photography, so that one will never get an overexposed shot again.
Am I seeing a commercial trend where hardware companies are increasing confident to roll out their products even if they are not thoroughly tested, simply because these companies know they have enough fanboys to buy anything they sell?
It's also interesting to see that these hardware companies are also software companies, who are regularly rolling out "beta" software to the public.
I think most companies know the importance of security on firewall, server, application and database, but trying to get a budget for such measures is another matter.
So maybe to most companies, extreme-security is a gamble they are willing to take, or they simply don't value customer data as much as customers do.
We have seen so many cases of stolen universitydata, or even credit card details, but when have we heard a Press Release saying "no worries, the data is crypto-protected with this how-many-bit technology".
Will this be the first case of never-ending SOE similar to the never-ending Beta?
This way consumers get to use the service first, and companies get to roll out their services without having to abide strict regulations and/or an actual committment.
Yeah sure, they'd better party like it is twenty-zero-five, sooner or later they'll run out of idiots like dotcoms ran out of VCs.
Cybercrime requires constant training, otherwise your hacking skills can be out of date in just a few months. On the contrary, a crowbar-trained criminal can still make a living in today's high-tech security world.
I foresee in 5-10 years' time, traditional crimes will go mainstream again as many cyber-criminals will be out of jobs^H^H^H^Hcrimes by then.
If enough people bypass these phone systems, maybe the big companies will finally get a clue and start providing real customer service again
Or, big companies will simply introduce more sophisticated system. I think people get carried away and forget who is still behind and in control of the system.
And I do believe companies do want to provide real customer service, this whole phone system thing is merely herding clueless customers to designated areas, it's not going (and unable) to answer questions anyway, you will eventually talk to a human being.
Moreover, some companies already have their own IVR guide, for example a bank here, this is something to be encouraged.
The reason why there were so many IT students 5-10 years ago is because IT jobs were paying higher-than-others wages during the dotcom boom. So as you can expect from average students, they (or their parents) would be more interested in getting an IT job, even if IT wasn't what they wanted as a career.
Now, IT skills have been commoditized, and companies are paying standard wages for IT jobs. As a result, students are moving away from this ordinary job and either looking for something more lucurative, or simply choosing something that they are interested in (like Arts, History etc).
Since companies' needs ( as in wages, not the actual work demand ) for IT have been downsized, shouldn't colleges and universities do the same?
Cassette factory had its time, and it may still be producing cassettes, but it also has to make room for CDs/DVDs.
Slashdot Mirror
If they threatened to swich to Linux, then they'll get to use the same MS products at Linux price.
more than 99 cents per song doesn't work. 99 cents per song, OTOH, does work
This reminds me of "There's Something About Mary", when the Hitchhiker was telling Ted that his 7-Minute Abs will be more popular than the 8-Minute Abs.
Digital song prices is determined by market forces, and with unlimited supply and limited demand, the price can only fall, because for every demand, there is a supply (and more) to match.
If music industry really wants to command the price, they should limit how many downloads per song iTunes is allowed to sell, then iTunes will automatically change its pricing to maximize its profit.
And the music industry on the other hand, will also automatically change its limit based on a song's (expected) popularity, so that it won't sell less than it should have been because of the stupid limit.
However I think the major problem here is, iTunes is not set up to make profit out of songs, it just wants to sell as many at the cheapest possible price because the profit comes from iPod.
Maybe it's time for the music industry to drop iTunes and find a proper online music store that is set up to maximize its profit, then the supplier and retailer will have the same goal.
And as a side question, are music CDs currently priced differently based on their popularity? I haven't been to a music shop for 5 years, but last time I went there, "Vanilla Ice" sold for the same price as "Step By Step".
The friendly article didn't say it, but I assumed these schools will be using OO.o, not MS Office on WINE?
This is a strong movement because children tend to come back home and fiddle with home PCs (like installing games/trojans), so it's now more likely that more Macedonian homes will be running Linux too.
What I am not sure is the career future of these children of the future. Will they be better off in their career now that they are primed with OpenSource ideas, will they become the valuable elites in "knowledge-based exports" market, or will they be forced to re-learn MS once they enter workfoce?
I was referring to the headlight + match light example those scientists gave, which is not quite the same as sun + planet.
Seeing the planet next to its bright star has been compared to trying to discern, from a hundred meters away, the light of a match held up next to the glare of an automobile's headlight.
I thought a planet must be illuminated by light from a star, and not emitting light itself?
Anyway, this technology might be useful for photography, so that one will never get an overexposed shot again.
First iPod Nano then Xbox 360.
Am I seeing a commercial trend where hardware companies are increasing confident to roll out their products even if they are not thoroughly tested, simply because these companies know they have enough fanboys to buy anything they sell?
It's also interesting to see that these hardware companies are also software companies, who are regularly rolling out "beta" software to the public.
Problems included screens going black and the appearance of a variety of error messages.
Black Screen Of Death?
making it harder to depress the gas pedal
Why doesn't this monitoring device simply slow the car down to the legal speed limit by cutting off gas?
I did read the friendly article but couldn't quite connect RIAA with Linux and DVDs.
There's no mention of RIAA/music/movie in the article, and hardly any mention of Linux.
So what's happening now? Is it some kind of bullets, leathers and baked beans? Someone please enlighten me.
My bad, had I posted the following, it might have a different outcome:
I wish it gives users the option to still retrieve the virus if they insist.
GMail has been my faithful virus depository, now where can I go today? HoTMaiL?
That's it, that's EVIL and I'm quitting GMail now!
That's it, that's EVIL and I'm quitting GMail now!
GMail has been my faithful virus depository, now where can I go today? HoTMaiL?
I wish it gives users the option to still retrieve the virus if they insist.
I thought ESRB has introduced a "F'king" rating so that stuff like hot coffee can fall into it.
I think most companies know the importance of security on firewall, server, application and database, but trying to get a budget for such measures is another matter.
So maybe to most companies, extreme-security is a gamble they are willing to take, or they simply don't value customer data as much as customers do.
We have seen so many cases of stolen university data, or even credit card details, but when have we heard a Press Release saying "no worries, the data is crypto-protected with this how-many-bit technology".
First FireFox 1.5 is out, now IBM FSS Team Speak is out too!
Why five?
Will this be the first case of never-ending SOE similar to the never-ending Beta?
This way consumers get to use the service first, and companies get to roll out their services without having to abide strict regulations and/or an actual committment.
Yeah sure, they'd better party like it is twenty-zero-five, sooner or later they'll run out of idiots like dotcoms ran out of VCs.
Cybercrime requires constant training, otherwise your hacking skills can be out of date in just a few months. On the contrary, a crowbar-trained criminal can still make a living in today's high-tech security world.
I foresee in 5-10 years' time, traditional crimes will go mainstream again as many cyber-criminals will be out of jobs^H^H^H^Hcrimes by then.
It'll be great if the sensors on these bionic hands can be switched on and off at the user's will.
This way, the users can grab burning lottery ticket out of a fire place.
3,200,000 vs 1,780,000
0.05 seconds vs 0.20 seconds
So more people are afraid of Google, but people are more afraid of Microsoft?
Google itself? Is it afraid of itself becoming and doing evil eventually?
Oh, one thing that Google hasn't done is Database, although its existance is almost solely based on databases. When are we seeing GoogleSQL?
If enough people bypass these phone systems, maybe the big companies will finally get a clue and start providing real customer service again
Or, big companies will simply introduce more sophisticated system. I think people get carried away and forget who is still behind and in control of the system.
And I do believe companies do want to provide real customer service, this whole phone system thing is merely herding clueless customers to designated areas, it's not going (and unable) to answer questions anyway, you will eventually talk to a human being.
Moreover, some companies already have their own IVR guide, for example a bank here, this is something to be encouraged.
Not that this is the first and only thing in my mind, but if phone sex operators are using this service......
Depends if it's "Hiring Frenzy" or "PhD Hiring Frenzy".
The reason why there were so many IT students 5-10 years ago is because IT jobs were paying higher-than-others wages during the dotcom boom. So as you can expect from average students, they (or their parents) would be more interested in getting an IT job, even if IT wasn't what they wanted as a career.
Now, IT skills have been commoditized, and companies are paying standard wages for IT jobs. As a result, students are moving away from this ordinary job and either looking for something more lucurative, or simply choosing something that they are interested in (like Arts, History etc).
Since companies' needs ( as in wages, not the actual work demand ) for IT have been downsized, shouldn't colleges and universities do the same?
Cassette factory had its time, and it may still be producing cassettes, but it also has to make room for CDs/DVDs.