> If you can't install Linux on it or otherwise do with it as you please, it's not anywhere near as useful as it should be.
I apply the same litmus test to all decisions in my life, including my choice of girlfriends and pets. That's why I masturbate a lot and have a hamster that runs Ubuntu.
> What gets me is that people seem to want to be able to get their content via internet...
For free, yes.
> So why the hell does the MPAA and riaa not see this as a sign to tell them where to switch their buisness model to.
To a great degree, they have. iTunes just sold what, its eleventy billionth song? How many movies have they sold? Those numbers are definitely gaining steam as well. iTunes is fairly priced, easy to use, and ultra-convenient, and yet these students have chosen to steal (and before anyone chimes in with "it's not stealing, it's sharing!" please take a moment to assume that I'll tell you to fuck off) their media instead of taking the legal route. I have a feeling that it's not iTunes users who are being penalized for their actions. In this particular case it's really a leap of logic to argue with the **AA's business models when they're going after people who don't seem to want to do business at all. That's like telling the fire department that they need to change their business model of putting out fires because you're an arsonist. Or something.
> They switched it to no better than the mafia give us your lunch money.
I have no idea what that means.
> What i would like to see is Digital Streaming broadcasts of movies where you can buy a viewing ticket and watch it on opening night from your home.
As of a couple of days ago, it seems that that will be happening by the end of the year. $10 says that people will still be whining when they get caught downloading Spiderman 4 the night before it opens theatrically. I've said it before and I'll say it again, complaining about the **AA's business models becomes a seriously weak argument when those complaining aren't willing to go without something that they say is overpriced, but steal it instead.
> The problem with blocking BitTorrent is that there are a lot of legitimate uses for it.
The problem with *not* blocking BitTorrent is that when it works properly, it scales to a point where three or four harmless Linux distro downloads can eat up enough bandwidth to slow an entire campus to a crawl. Yes, there are legitimate uses for torrents, but in the context of a campus setting it's going to be pretty rare that those uses are actually something that's directly related to a student's primary purpose for being at the school. Same for online radio, streaming video, etc. Yes, they're perfectly legit and yes, they're wonderful little niceties that the IT departments shouldn't get their broadband panties in a bunch over, but asking a university to spend large amounts of man-hours and hardware supporting things that - at the end of the day - are really just frills, then you really have to look at *why* that network's there anyway.
Not disagreeing with you, just playing Devil's abacus.
...yes, you, Ashley Heyer! You could have left it alone, but you went the bratty way and got your gang of Facebook friends and sorority sisters to start a fight with a woman who just might be the coolest bartender ever and now your story is on Slashdot. Congratulations, Ashley! Thanks to the power of Slashdot, your political career will never be able to get this story off the top link in a Google search for your name. Here's to you, Ashley Heyer, you're a real American Hero!
(hum the theme song as you click the link, folks...)
> I have bought a total of about 3 cds in my entire life, but i've also purchased 5-6 songs from the itunes store.
You own three cds and 6 mp3s from iTunes and you bought an iPod? Let me guess, you also bought two books once and then built a library to keep them in.
True. However, you must keep in mind that though there is no way of punishing you for doing X, doing X is frequently its own punishment as it causes you to spend far too much time listening to blippy music and pledging your undying love to girls in angel wings who won't be *nearly* as hot the next morning.
> Seriously, I can't believe you said that. Child porn? Where the hell did that come from?
Not that it's mentioned in the question at all, but I guarantee you that this is what happened.
Parent: "ZOMGBABYRAPERSONTHEINTERNETS!!1!1"
School: "What?"
Parent: "Don't you watch TV? Some man tried to buttrape Miss America on Facebook!
School: "Fine. We'll block Myspace and Facebook at school."
Parent: "THINK OF THE CHILDREN FOR GREAT JUSTICE!"
one day later on answers.yahoo.com...
ASHLEYROX: N E 1 no how to get on myspace at skool? LiLbAbIsExIgUrL: What are prxies? xXmandiXx: Anyone have working proxies? PoNyGiRl: I NEED MYSPACE PROXIES PLZ PLZ PLZ!!
School: We can't block every proxy site out there, so we're just going to start suspending you if you won't stay off the fucking Facebook. Miss America got sodomized by a boar that way, you know?
Teens: WE NEEDS OUR FACESPACEBOOK!!
School: Banhammer.
Parents: HOW DARE YOU SUSPEND MY PRECIOUS, PERFECT, ANGEL DUMPLING! CALL SCANDALCHANNEL 10 AND THE NEWS CHOPPA!
School: Sigh.
Parents: Class-action lawsuit against involved party with most liquid cash.
> Dude, lots of people on Slashdot were predicting Gamecube-level sales for the Wii before launch.
I think the key there is "people on Slashdot." People from Nintendo, who have a lot more experience selling game systems than people from Slashdot, were predicting a great launch.
> If you can find me someone who seriously predicted sales of this magnitude, I'll accept your research skills, at least.
I don't think anyone predicted sales at this level, not even at Nintendo. However, I stand by my original point which is that Nintendo has been using the same well-documented battle strategies since they got into the video game business and there's no reason to believe that the current "shortage" is anything other than a better-than-expected repeat of the same thing.
Truly, your insight into the matter is bewildering.
> If shortages really created this sort of buzz and sales, then Sony would have held back on PS3s as much as possible to keep demand low.
Demand *was* low, which is why all those people who tried eBaying their PS3s for $10,000 are now returning them to stores. Or do you just not know what "demand" means?
> Honestly, I tend to believe Nintendo when they say they are cranking out at max production.
You keep on doing that, li'l buddy.
> They have no real reason not to, since they are not meeting current demand.
Except that by *not* meeting current demand, they keep interest high. Have you ever read *anything* about marketing?
> This buzz-factor is bull-shit.
Again with the insight and wisdom. Thanks for helping out.
> I have wanted a Wii since before launch and still have been unable to find one, and I know I am not alone in this regard.
Oh, okay. Now I see your point. I stand corrected. You sure got me on that one. Yep. You're the man now, dog. A winner is you!
Artificial shortages have been a Nintendo tactic for years now, and that book documents it in great detail. I can't prove that they're doing it *now*, but I really can't imagine Nintendo's CEO saying "Hey, guys. Remember that tactic that's worked like crazy for 20 years? Let's stop doing that and try something completely new." Nintendo doesn't care more about buzz than profits but they *do* know that buzz is a critical marketing tool, especially when it comes to a product that's talked about on a zillion reader-interest-driven blogs and sites and boards and such.
They never had trouble of any sort. Any "shortages" were completely under Nintendo's control and manipulated to keep demand and buzz surrounding their products high. It worked then and it's working now. People are salivating over the Wii now and a "shortage" is just the right thing to have when there are pictures everywhere of mounds of unsold PS3s. What do you think happens when a customer finds out that there are only three Wiis at Wal-Mart? They're damned sure not going to take a leisurely drive over to the store, look at the merch, and think "naah, rent's due. I can always get one next week." They're going to drive 90mph the whole way there (not even stopping for women pushing strollers full of cans through a crosswalk), hurtle into the store, scream "FUCK THE RENT! I GOTS TO GET MAH WIIIIII!", and buy every spare controller, memory gizmo, and game that they can get their hands on... just like when Super Mario 3 came out.
This is Slashdot - there is no such thing as stealing! As long as the person you're taking the work from... erm, sharing their work from... erm, sharing *your* work *with* retains a copy of the thing you shared from them, then you have committed no ethical breach of any kind. Suggesting otherwise clearly reveals you to be a corporate stooge, homosexual communist, and lackey of the ZOMGMAFIAA!
In other news, I'm just about to release my very own FPS entitled Half-Liff 2, starring Norman Freeman. He looks a little like the guy from that other game, but he has a moustache and his crowbar doesn't have that bend at the end.
> whoa there, you can't just make a jump from music genre to race slander
In my opinion, that's exactly what the OP did. He didn't say "dumb people like popular music," he said "the least educated people tend to listen to rap 'music'," and even added the condescending double-quotes to make sure we knew that not only are rap fans uneducated, they're too dumb to even realise that they're not listening to music. I only used the dreaded n-word because it's always easier to just try to cut to the truth than to sit around using all those flouncy euphemisms like "those people" and "urban" and "well-spoken" and the like. Anyone who's going to reduce the entire spectrum of rap to "music for dumb people" doesn't strike me as someone who's going to be very open-minded about race, either.
> Also notice that the least educated people tend to listen to rap "music"...
Anyone who modded that insightful should be permanently stripped of all mod privileges. If I wanted to hang out on a forum where "niggers are dumb" is considered insight I'd be over at Stormfront and trolling the skins with pedo chat about Prussian Blue.
Nintendo has been using "supply shortages" as a business tactic dating all the way back to the NES. It keeps retailers and licensees in line, keeps anticipation high, and helps them leverage their software rollout strategy to the highest level.
And I'll apologize for using the "leverage" buzzword by providing documentation to back up my facts.
FTA: "During their correspondence with Sony as preparation for the story, the company asked them very specifically not to run the story."
If they were actually corresponding with Sony about the story then I'd say this looks much more like "proprietary information that, if you guys will just sit tight on it for a few days, we'll show off to you at that conference we invited you to next week."
> to not be "under the thumb" of any one company they report on,
Again, they're hardly "under Sony's thumb." That's more like Nintendo Power. This is simply a case of "Just like every other business in the world, we like to have press conferences and announce things on a set schedule. If you'll just play along and help us maintain our schedule then we'll give you inside access that other outlets don't get. Oh, no? Well, see you later."
> and to do their journalism in as unbiased and unthreatened a fashion as possible.
Sony did neither. They simply refused them further access to inside information.
That being said, DIE IN A FIRE YOU AMORAL ROOT-KITTING BASTARDS!
Don't be silly. Zeppelin are on a major label, therefore they suck. If they were any good then no one would have heard of them and they'd be playing to six art school students in a disused lavatory in the basement of an old boot-black factory somewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
> If you can't install Linux on it or otherwise do with it as you please, it's not anywhere near as useful as it should be.
I apply the same litmus test to all decisions in my life, including my choice of girlfriends and pets. That's why I masturbate a lot and have a hamster that runs Ubuntu.
> What gets me is that people seem to want to be able to get their content via internet...
For free, yes.
> So why the hell does the MPAA and riaa not see this as a sign to tell them where to switch their buisness model to.
To a great degree, they have. iTunes just sold what, its eleventy billionth song? How many movies have they sold? Those numbers are definitely gaining steam as well. iTunes is fairly priced, easy to use, and ultra-convenient, and yet these students have chosen to steal (and before anyone chimes in with "it's not stealing, it's sharing!" please take a moment to assume that I'll tell you to fuck off) their media instead of taking the legal route. I have a feeling that it's not iTunes users who are being penalized for their actions. In this particular case it's really a leap of logic to argue with the **AA's business models when they're going after people who don't seem to want to do business at all. That's like telling the fire department that they need to change their business model of putting out fires because you're an arsonist. Or something.
> They switched it to no better than the mafia give us your lunch money.
I have no idea what that means.
> What i would like to see is Digital Streaming broadcasts of movies where you can buy a viewing ticket and watch it on opening night from your home.
As of a couple of days ago, it seems that that will be happening by the end of the year. $10 says that people will still be whining when they get caught downloading Spiderman 4 the night before it opens theatrically. I've said it before and I'll say it again, complaining about the **AA's business models becomes a seriously weak argument when those complaining aren't willing to go without something that they say is overpriced, but steal it instead.
> The problem with blocking BitTorrent is that there are a lot of legitimate uses for it.
The problem with *not* blocking BitTorrent is that when it works properly, it scales to a point where three or four harmless Linux distro downloads can eat up enough bandwidth to slow an entire campus to a crawl. Yes, there are legitimate uses for torrents, but in the context of a campus setting it's going to be pretty rare that those uses are actually something that's directly related to a student's primary purpose for being at the school. Same for online radio, streaming video, etc. Yes, they're perfectly legit and yes, they're wonderful little niceties that the IT departments shouldn't get their broadband panties in a bunch over, but asking a university to spend large amounts of man-hours and hardware supporting things that - at the end of the day - are really just frills, then you really have to look at *why* that network's there anyway.
Not disagreeing with you, just playing Devil's abacus.
...yes, you, Ashley Heyer! You could have left it alone, but you went the bratty way and got your gang of Facebook friends and sorority sisters to start a fight with a woman who just might be the coolest bartender ever and now your story is on Slashdot. Congratulations, Ashley! Thanks to the power of Slashdot, your political career will never be able to get this story off the top link in a Google search for your name. Here's to you, Ashley Heyer, you're a real American Hero!
(hum the theme song as you click the link, folks...)
http://www.google.com/search?q=ashley+heyer
> I have bought a total of about 3 cds in my entire life, but i've also purchased 5-6 songs from the itunes store.
You own three cds and 6 mp3s from iTunes and you bought an iPod? Let me guess, you also bought two books once and then built a library to keep them in.
True. However, you must keep in mind that though there is no way of punishing you for doing X, doing X is frequently its own punishment as it causes you to spend far too much time listening to blippy music and pledging your undying love to girls in angel wings who won't be *nearly* as hot the next morning.
> Seriously, I can't believe you said that. Child porn? Where the hell did that come from?
Not that it's mentioned in the question at all, but I guarantee you that this is what happened.
Parent: "ZOMGBABYRAPERSONTHEINTERNETS!!1!1"
School: "What?"
Parent: "Don't you watch TV? Some man tried to buttrape Miss America on Facebook!
School: "Fine. We'll block Myspace and Facebook at school."
Parent: "THINK OF THE CHILDREN FOR GREAT JUSTICE!"
one day later on answers.yahoo.com...
ASHLEYROX: N E 1 no how to get on myspace at skool?
LiLbAbIsExIgUrL: What are prxies?
xXmandiXx: Anyone have working proxies?
PoNyGiRl: I NEED MYSPACE PROXIES PLZ PLZ PLZ!!
School: We can't block every proxy site out there, so we're just going to start suspending you if you won't stay off the fucking Facebook. Miss America got sodomized by a boar that way, you know?
Teens: WE NEEDS OUR FACESPACEBOOK!!
School: Banhammer.
Parents: HOW DARE YOU SUSPEND MY PRECIOUS, PERFECT, ANGEL DUMPLING! CALL SCANDALCHANNEL 10 AND THE NEWS CHOPPA!
School: Sigh.
Parents: Class-action lawsuit against involved party with most liquid cash.
It's actually owned by Warner-Chappell now, and the "guy" who had the rights before was actually the two sisters who wrote the song.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Happy_Birthday%22
I know him! He's over there next to the 12 inch pianist. Oh, wait... that's MY 12 inch pianist!
/try the veal
ba-dum-PSSSSH!
> Dude, lots of people on Slashdot were predicting Gamecube-level sales for the Wii before launch.
I think the key there is "people on Slashdot." People from Nintendo, who have a lot more experience selling game systems than people from Slashdot, were predicting a great launch.
> If you can find me someone who seriously predicted sales of this magnitude, I'll accept your research skills, at least.
I don't think anyone predicted sales at this level, not even at Nintendo. However, I stand by my original point which is that Nintendo has been using the same well-documented battle strategies since they got into the video game business and there's no reason to believe that the current "shortage" is anything other than a better-than-expected repeat of the same thing.
> Wow, the freaks come in all kinds today.
Truly, your insight into the matter is bewildering.
> If shortages really created this sort of buzz and sales, then Sony would have held back on PS3s as much as possible to keep demand low.
Demand *was* low, which is why all those people who tried eBaying their PS3s for $10,000 are now returning them to stores. Or do you just not know what "demand" means?
> Honestly, I tend to believe Nintendo when they say they are cranking out at max production.
You keep on doing that, li'l buddy.
> They have no real reason not to, since they are not meeting current demand.
Except that by *not* meeting current demand, they keep interest high. Have you ever read *anything* about marketing?
> This buzz-factor is bull-shit.
Again with the insight and wisdom. Thanks for helping out.
> I have wanted a Wii since before launch and still have been unable to find one, and I know I am not alone in this regard.
Oh, okay. Now I see your point. I stand corrected. You sure got me on that one. Yep. You're the man now, dog. A winner is you!
Evidence? Yeah.
n ue/dp/0966961706/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1676673-52286 18?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176322150&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Press-Start-Conti
Artificial shortages have been a Nintendo tactic for years now, and that book documents it in great detail. I can't prove that they're doing it *now*, but I really can't imagine Nintendo's CEO saying "Hey, guys. Remember that tactic that's worked like crazy for 20 years? Let's stop doing that and try something completely new." Nintendo doesn't care more about buzz than profits but they *do* know that buzz is a critical marketing tool, especially when it comes to a product that's talked about on a zillion reader-interest-driven blogs and sites and boards and such.
They never had trouble of any sort. Any "shortages" were completely under Nintendo's control and manipulated to keep demand and buzz surrounding their products high. It worked then and it's working now. People are salivating over the Wii now and a "shortage" is just the right thing to have when there are pictures everywhere of mounds of unsold PS3s. What do you think happens when a customer finds out that there are only three Wiis at Wal-Mart? They're damned sure not going to take a leisurely drive over to the store, look at the merch, and think "naah, rent's due. I can always get one next week." They're going to drive 90mph the whole way there (not even stopping for women pushing strollers full of cans through a crosswalk), hurtle into the store, scream "FUCK THE RENT! I GOTS TO GET MAH WIIIIII!", and buy every spare controller, memory gizmo, and game that they can get their hands on... just like when Super Mario 3 came out.
This is Slashdot - there is no such thing as stealing! As long as the person you're taking the work from... erm, sharing their work from... erm, sharing *your* work *with* retains a copy of the thing you shared from them, then you have committed no ethical breach of any kind. Suggesting otherwise clearly reveals you to be a corporate stooge, homosexual communist, and lackey of the ZOMGMAFIAA!
In other news, I'm just about to release my very own FPS entitled Half-Liff 2, starring Norman Freeman. He looks a little like the guy from that other game, but he has a moustache and his crowbar doesn't have that bend at the end.
> whoa there, you can't just make a jump from music genre to race slander
In my opinion, that's exactly what the OP did. He didn't say "dumb people like popular music," he said "the least educated people tend to listen to rap 'music'," and even added the condescending double-quotes to make sure we knew that not only are rap fans uneducated, they're too dumb to even realise that they're not listening to music. I only used the dreaded n-word because it's always easier to just try to cut to the truth than to sit around using all those flouncy euphemisms like "those people" and "urban" and "well-spoken" and the like. Anyone who's going to reduce the entire spectrum of rap to "music for dumb people" doesn't strike me as someone who's going to be very open-minded about race, either.
> Also notice that the least educated people tend to listen to rap "music"...
Anyone who modded that insightful should be permanently stripped of all mod privileges. If I wanted to hang out on a forum where "niggers are dumb" is considered insight I'd be over at Stormfront and trolling the skins with pedo chat about Prussian Blue.
I'm pretty sure that's how the whole "Macarena" thing got started.
Nintendo has been using "supply shortages" as a business tactic dating all the way back to the NES. It keeps retailers and licensees in line, keeps anticipation high, and helps them leverage their software rollout strategy to the highest level.
n ue/dp/0966961706/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-2040246-58511 46?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175043506&sr=1-2
And I'll apologize for using the "leverage" buzzword by providing documentation to back up my facts.
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Press-Start-Conti
...when I saw the words "empower" and "mashup" in the same sentence. Did anyone make it to the end of this story without losing consciousness?
Seriously. That Reagan guy was a laugh a minute.
> It's in Kotaku's interest to publish rumors,
This is hardly "rumor," though.
FTA: "During their correspondence with Sony as preparation for the story, the company asked them very specifically not to run the story."
If they were actually corresponding with Sony about the story then I'd say this looks much more like "proprietary information that, if you guys will just sit tight on it for a few days, we'll show off to you at that conference we invited you to next week."
> to not be "under the thumb" of any one company they report on,
Again, they're hardly "under Sony's thumb." That's more like Nintendo Power. This is simply a case of "Just like every other business in the world, we like to have press conferences and announce things on a set schedule. If you'll just play along and help us maintain our schedule then we'll give you inside access that other outlets don't get. Oh, no? Well, see you later."
> and to do their journalism in as unbiased and unthreatened a fashion as possible.
Sony did neither. They simply refused them further access to inside information.
That being said, DIE IN A FIRE YOU AMORAL ROOT-KITTING BASTARDS!
Mehhh... your band was better before they sold out. Adding that third brain cell was just sucking up to MTV and the suits at the label.
Don't be silly. Zeppelin are on a major label, therefore they suck. If they were any good then no one would have heard of them and they'd be playing to six art school students in a disused lavatory in the basement of an old boot-black factory somewhere.
And don't forget... http://imdb.com/title/tt0040746/