Example of open-source idea that hasn't taken off: the endless work that has been done to create an workflow/information management system.
There have been at least a half-dozen attempts to plan such a system, but AFAIK none have made it to the point of being well-documented, let alone well-coded.
This is a shame, because its one of those "killer apps" that could rocket Linux into mainstream business use.
Here's how you, and other artists, and RIAA can all make bucketloads of money:
1) Release free lowish-quality editions of your work (better than AM, perhaps worse than FM). Make it easy for me to find it. That is the tricky bit.
2) Make it really easy and really cheap for me to purchase high-quality (CD-quality, not MP3) single tracks. Something under a buck a pop.
To resolve #1 (easy to find) someone's going to have to get smarter. Set up a recommendations site, have a sensible tagging system and a kick-ass database search system that lets me seek music similar to that which I like. Figure out how to do cross-genre recommendation (perhaps if you like A, B, and C, and I like A and B, it should recommend I listen to C?)
Anyway, point is it needs to facilitate music exploration.
For #2, I want the best possible quality. No shitty 128kbps MP3s that are barely better than FM quality: I didn't spend thousands of dollars on my home system to listen to wrecked music. And it needs to be at least as easy for me to pay you 50 cents for a track, as it is for me to steal your track.
And if #2 can be arranged to cut RIAA out of the equation, so much the better.
Most people who hop on a motorcycle for the first time simply can't figure it out, either. That doesn't prevent anyone from learning how to operate it, even if they take it up at a late stage of life (like my 70+yr old neighbour did!)
I don't think it's accurate to say that Windows suffers a usability problem.
And with the advent of Windows 2000 and, so I hear, Windows XP, the reliability is pretty good, too. Speaking for myself, my Win2K has never blue-screened, and has been seized-up-tight only by beta versions of Xxxxx.
Linux loses the battle for my dollar in two areas:
1) Applications -- it simply *does not* have the applications I use to make money. Period.
2) Ease of Use -- I'm not going to dedicate days of hurdle-jumping to set up the damn system. Give me an easy, complete install and sensible, safe defaults. I've grown out of tweaking and geeking, having come to realize the importance in spending my time productively (ie. making money using my system).
AFAIK, all new residential developments in Canada have fibre to the door.
The expensive part of providing new service is laying the lines. Fibre itself is as cheap as borsht, so the telcos have been throwing it down for a good half-dozen years or so, just in case they need to use it.
I'm looking forward to that dark fibre being lit up, and bringing me audio/video/data/voice/everything services for under $100/mo, with pay-to-keep options on the audio/video...
(That, of course, entails the entirely hypothetical scenario of RIAA finally catching a clue and realizing that if I could have (a) free, low-quality (FM) songs as samples, and (b) a buck-a-pop high-quality (CD) songs as keepers, I'd never pirate again...)
Further to that, it's time for everyone to wake up and realize that the telcos are losing money on local services. It costs them *more* to provide you with local service than your line charges account for.
Deep pockets, business calling, and long-distance charges are helping offset the loss.
Lasers? Good god, man, you'd get wall burn-in! Imagine how embarassed you're gonna be when you freeze-frame the money-shot, and end up with it etched in your wall just a few hours before your mom comes over for Thanksgiving dinner!
Well, perhaps not Libertarian as practiced, but the basic concept is sound.
Which is, in summary: "Consenting adults should be allowed to do anything they please, so long as it doesn't cause harm to non-consenting other's person or property."
It is the only rational modus operandi for a population that desires freedom and responsibility.
(Of course, that's not to say the public wants to be free or responsible. Indeed, I suspect they want to be ruled by a benevolent dictator, and handed everything on a golden platter...)
What is "the slashdot type"? A generally underinformed, overopinionated, social outcast with far too much interest in programming languages and far too little interest in things like face-to-face human interaction?
Gotta agree with ya there. IIRC, some of the terrorist pilots had been in the US for a half-dozen years. And there's word going 'round that bin Laden may be telling the truth: he didn't order the WTC strike -- the guys who executed the strike planned it. (bin Laden funded them, I'm willing to bet, but gave them free reign.)
Well, if the terrorists had access to flight training and enough airport knowledge to pull their attack off, what's to say we don't also have terrorists working in oil refineries, chemical factories, construction jobs, what-have-you?
bin Laden might have changed the rules a decade ago, and the US had no idea... he's not training them, he's had them planted and had them develop their own plans.
And it's way too fucking late to stop them now: they're in the country, doing their 9-to-5 like the rest of us, and are just waiting for the opportunity to pull off their own attack.
There's one problem with your line of reasoning: it doesn't address what I actually said.
I did not say "don't get bin Ladin."
I did say "don't use the brute squad."
This is the time to be killing with the stilletto, not the machete. The time to kill with a.22, not a bazooka. The time to kill with discretion, not mass destruction.
Pissing off the mid-East is foolish. Very, very foolish.
If you start reading the global press, you start to get the sense that perhaps a *lot* of the mid-East is not so happy with this attack on Afghanistan, and is, in fact, quite impressed with bin Laden's video monologue.
Nearest I can figure is that this "war" on the rubble of Afghanistan is going to just create an excuse for more terrorist attacks against US civilians.
Ol' Dubya has just initiated a tit-for-tat war of attrition. This is not going to be a good time to be an American citizen.
And, finally, an interesting bit of thought from Michael Moore:
"Orwell warned us about this one. Big Brother, in order to control the population, knew that it was necessary for the people to always believe they were in a state of siege, that the enemy was getting closer and closer, and that the war would take a very long time.
That is EXACTLY what George W. Bush said in his speech to Congress, and the reason he said it is because he and his buddies want us all in such a state of fear and panic that we would gladly give up the cherished freedoms that our fathers and those before them fought and died for. Who wouldn't submit to searches, restrictions of movement, and the rounding up of anyone who looks suspicious if it would prevent another September 11?
In order to get these laws passed that will strip us of our rights, they have been telling us that we are in a LONG and PROTRACTED war that has no end in sight."
If you can't march on down to your representative's office and bitchslap the silly ass, you gotta use POSTAL MAIL.
Not to mention, IT'S TOO LATE. If you didn't want this to go through, you should have been hustling your ass a year ago. Every freakin' indication made it pretty damn clear that the government was going to restrict your rights more and more.
Slashdot Mirror
Example of open-source idea that hasn't taken off: the endless work that has been done to create an workflow/information management system.
There have been at least a half-dozen attempts to plan such a system, but AFAIK none have made it to the point of being well-documented, let alone well-coded.
This is a shame, because its one of those "killer apps" that could rocket Linux into mainstream business use.
Here's how you, and other artists, and RIAA can all make bucketloads of money:
1) Release free lowish-quality editions of your work (better than AM, perhaps worse than FM). Make it easy for me to find it. That is the tricky bit.
2) Make it really easy and really cheap for me to purchase high-quality (CD-quality, not MP3) single tracks. Something under a buck a pop.
To resolve #1 (easy to find) someone's going to have to get smarter. Set up a recommendations site, have a sensible tagging system and a kick-ass database search system that lets me seek music similar to that which I like. Figure out how to do cross-genre recommendation (perhaps if you like A, B, and C, and I like A and B, it should recommend I listen to C?)
Anyway, point is it needs to facilitate music exploration.
For #2, I want the best possible quality. No shitty 128kbps MP3s that are barely better than FM quality: I didn't spend thousands of dollars on my home system to listen to wrecked music. And it needs to be at least as easy for me to pay you 50 cents for a track, as it is for me to steal your track.
And if #2 can be arranged to cut RIAA out of the equation, so much the better.
Most people who hop on a motorcycle for the first time simply can't figure it out, either. That doesn't prevent anyone from learning how to operate it, even if they take it up at a late stage of life (like my 70+yr old neighbour did!)
I don't think it's accurate to say that Windows suffers a usability problem.
And with the advent of Windows 2000 and, so I hear, Windows XP, the reliability is pretty good, too. Speaking for myself, my Win2K has never blue-screened, and has been seized-up-tight only by beta versions of Xxxxx.
Linux loses the battle for my dollar in two areas:
1) Applications -- it simply *does not* have the applications I use to make money. Period.
2) Ease of Use -- I'm not going to dedicate days of hurdle-jumping to set up the damn system. Give me an easy, complete install and sensible, safe defaults. I've grown out of tweaking and geeking, having come to realize the importance in spending my time productively (ie. making money using my system).
AFAIK, all new residential developments in Canada have fibre to the door.
The expensive part of providing new service is laying the lines. Fibre itself is as cheap as borsht, so the telcos have been throwing it down for a good half-dozen years or so, just in case they need to use it.
I'm looking forward to that dark fibre being lit up, and bringing me audio/video/data/voice/everything services for under $100/mo, with pay-to-keep options on the audio/video...
(That, of course, entails the entirely hypothetical scenario of RIAA finally catching a clue and realizing that if I could have (a) free, low-quality (FM) songs as samples, and (b) a buck-a-pop high-quality (CD) songs as keepers, I'd never pirate again...)
Further to that, it's time for everyone to wake up and realize that the telcos are losing money on local services. It costs them *more* to provide you with local service than your line charges account for.
Deep pockets, business calling, and long-distance charges are helping offset the loss.
That, and per-minute cellphone charges...
What about Spherical Magnets ?
:)
Pretty cool. Now if I could only think of a use for them...
Whenever I read the words Toyota Prius I always think Toyota Priapism.
Which is, frankly, a little scary.
LOL!
Susie: MMmmmmmsmack!kissgrope!
David: MMmmsmack!gropekiss!
Susie: Slurpgurglesuck!
David: Slurplicklicklick!
Car: Oooh! Happy moment! Everybody smile! [photoflash!]
...next day...
Mom: Susie, I just had the car photos processed... I wanna have a word with you...
...from my morning bran muffin. Not to mention cookie crumbs and bits of chocolate bar.
Fiber on my motherboard? Wouldn't surprise me... just keep the coca-cola off it, okay?
Fuck IBM.
And, hell, while at it, fuck the patent office with a broomstick.
Actually, I meant Afghans. That's what's happening anyway...
...I've become angry enough about the RIAA bullshit that I'm now actively interested in pirating music.
IIRC, Napster is pretty much toast.
What's a good place to start to begin tracking down jazz, blues, world music, and seventies/eighties pop?
Hey, wasn't Bush mouthing off about "ridding the world of evil-doers" the other week?
When the US government going to solve all our problems by dropping RIAA executives and lawyers on the Afghans?
[but, then, most of the Afghans don't deserve that much punishment!]
Lasers? Good god, man, you'd get wall burn-in! Imagine how embarassed you're gonna be when you freeze-frame the money-shot, and end up with it etched in your wall just a few hours before your mom comes over for Thanksgiving dinner!
God forbid the cat get in the way. Poof!
Well, perhaps not Libertarian as practiced, but the basic concept is sound.
Which is, in summary: "Consenting adults should be allowed to do anything they please, so long as it doesn't cause harm to non-consenting other's person or property."
It is the only rational modus operandi for a population that desires freedom and responsibility.
(Of course, that's not to say the public wants to be free or responsible. Indeed, I suspect they want to be ruled by a benevolent dictator, and handed everything on a golden platter...)
After I collect interest on investing it.
Hell, $3M compounding 10% per annum calculated monthly would net $314 000 in interest.
That's a decent enough annual income. Howzabout you all loan me some money for a year or two? I *promise* I'll give it back!
What is "the slashdot type"? A generally underinformed, overopinionated, social outcast with far too much interest in programming languages and far too little interest in things like face-to-face human interaction?
Wally! Hugz, man!
Gotta agree with ya there. IIRC, some of the terrorist pilots had been in the US for a half-dozen years. And there's word going 'round that bin Laden may be telling the truth: he didn't order the WTC strike -- the guys who executed the strike planned it. (bin Laden funded them, I'm willing to bet, but gave them free reign.)
Well, if the terrorists had access to flight training and enough airport knowledge to pull their attack off, what's to say we don't also have terrorists working in oil refineries, chemical factories, construction jobs, what-have-you?
bin Laden might have changed the rules a decade ago, and the US had no idea... he's not training them, he's had them planted and had them develop their own plans.
And it's way too fucking late to stop them now: they're in the country, doing their 9-to-5 like the rest of us, and are just waiting for the opportunity to pull off their own attack.
Scary.
Inneresting. Whatcha make of it?
Looks to me like India could make a move against Pakistan. I hope like hell they're not stupid enough to attempt that.
See response to the fellow who replied to my post before you.
There's one problem with your line of reasoning: it doesn't address what I actually said.
.22, not a bazooka. The time to kill with discretion, not mass destruction.
I did not say "don't get bin Ladin."
I did say "don't use the brute squad."
This is the time to be killing with the stilletto, not the machete. The time to kill with a
Pissing off the mid-East is foolish. Very, very foolish.
I worry about my heatsink falling off about as much as I worry about my dink falling off, i.e.: not at all.
If you start reading the global press, you start to get the sense that perhaps a *lot* of the mid-East is not so happy with this attack on Afghanistan, and is, in fact, quite impressed with bin Laden's video monologue.
Nearest I can figure is that this "war" on the rubble of Afghanistan is going to just create an excuse for more terrorist attacks against US civilians.
Ol' Dubya has just initiated a tit-for-tat war of attrition. This is not going to be a good time to be an American citizen.
And, finally, an interesting bit of thought from Michael Moore:
"Orwell warned us about this one. Big Brother, in order to control the population, knew that it was necessary for the people to always believe they were in a state of siege, that the enemy was getting closer and closer, and that the war would take a very long time.
That is EXACTLY what George W. Bush said in his speech to Congress, and the reason he said it is because he and his buddies want us all in such a state of fear and panic that we would gladly give up the cherished freedoms that our fathers and those before them fought and died for. Who wouldn't submit to searches, restrictions of movement, and the rounding up of anyone who looks suspicious if it would prevent another September 11?
In order to get these laws passed that will strip us of our rights, they have been telling us that we are in a LONG and PROTRACTED war that has no end in sight."
EMAIL DON'T DO DICK.
If you can't march on down to your representative's office and bitchslap the silly ass, you gotta use POSTAL MAIL.
Not to mention, IT'S TOO LATE. If you didn't want this to go through, you should have been hustling your ass a year ago. Every freakin' indication made it pretty damn clear that the government was going to restrict your rights more and more.