It really is nice to receive the rental that I want to watch, but not have to worry that I have to watch it tonight before driving out of my way (a bit) to return it the next morning. Quite often, I have received a netflix disk and hung on to it for a week. Sure, it increases my per disk charge on my $8.95/mo rental charge... it's still cheaper than renting that disk for $4.00 at the rental store. It's even cheaper per disk/movie now that I can stream through my Wii or computer. My kids thoroughly enjoy being able to choose their video themselves and watching it over and over and over and then put it away for a week and then watch it again later. I don't have to worry about scratched disks; and, perhaps, it might cost me more in the long run for that particular movie, I would not have the wide variety and collection if I had to buy the movies myself that I would have using Netflix.
Trepidity: Not to be too semantic, but I got a little confused.
For the rest of you who might still be confused, what he meant to say was:
That means that the recording industry wants a licensing fee of 2/3 of your revenue?
In other words. Say your profit margin, before this licensing fee, could be 45% of your revenue. [insert Police Squad joke here) That means the licensing fee will take 100% of your profit, and you'd still owe 21.67% of your revenues.
Let's see if my math works out correctly. Revenue = $100. Expenses, not including license fee = $55. Profit = $45. License fee = $66.67. 66.67 - 45 = 21.67!
But wait! He said the higher of the two - 2/3rds revenue or $0.0075 per song. Suppose your revenue comes in at less than $0.0075 per song. Let's say your company earns $0.005 per song with a 45% profit margin before license fee. That means, the profit, per song is $0.00225. You would have to give all of that up, plus $0.00525 more.
Throughout the day on Pandora, I listen to approximately 50 songs (maybe more, maybe less). If I were in.ca, Pandora would be losing over $0.25 on me per day. That get's expensive when you multiply it by thousands... and it's no way to run a business.
I'm using the Blackberry client on the Sprint network. I only get a little text advert that fills up a third of the screen real estate. I usually don't even see it. Occassionally, like once every couple of days, there is a 15-30 second audio advert for the service.
When I'm at home and have the website up, I've never noticed any adverts. The one annoying thing is that it will stop playing after 30+ minutes to ask you if you are still there. -click the Yes button and I'm off again-
I don't know about Canada, but in the USA online streaming music services still have to pay a holding company for the right to play the indie music... whether the indie music in question belong to a RIAA joined company or not. I don't have the reference at the moment.
But that costs you $4.99/mo. Pandora's service is "free", non-gratis. They get paid through adverts sent with the music. Every song I stream on my blackberry is free to me minus the cost of the very non-intrusive ad they display. I don't know what they get per advert displayed (can someone enlighten us?) it possibly isn't $0.0075 per song for which the CRIA is asking for.
You know... I was feeling that way with my rig's really nice sound card and front panel dials and inputs. Thankfully, though, I've had need of them... I've finally taken my soundcard "off-road" in the past year. Of course, if utilizing the EAX or THX features of my card is off-road, then I've been taking it off-road for awhile now. My graphics card goes off-road everyday.
Comodo Internet Security. Their firewall is top notch. Their AV is as good as the others. I haven't really put it to the test, other than I know my computer has been clean for years.
I don't know if your chef analogy holds up. I know plenty of master chefs and corporations who come up with their own creations and copyright those works. Coke, KFC, those restaurant style chocolate chip cookies where the recipe was leaked back in 199x, any brand name snack (Oreo, Snickers, etc) - these recipes are all protected using one method or another to guarantee the secret stays that way.
Some recipes chefs do have to pay to get, and probably under strict penalty if leaked - franchising is a good example.
It's like the magic industry - once a magician shows you the trick, you've bought it and it's time to lay down the cash for it.
That's not to say I agree with the heavy handed tactics of the **AA industries, but then, I don't support them very much.
As a fellow American, looking forward to the 2012 election season ever since McCain won the GOP nomination (how the heck?!), I tend to agree with this kid.
Or do we believe that people in other countries shouldn't be able to express negative opinions about our leaders?
Seriously, we give illegal aliens as much rights as any citizen, why not afford this kid the same treatment?
Now, if we are not getting the whole story and the kid actually put actual threats in his e-mail, then the FBI has no choice. But if it was only because he called him a prick (is that a bad word? I thought it means he's a jerk) then what's the big deal?
We are nerds; and, as such, tend to use wise judgment on how we want to spend our time;^)
If one likes spending their time waiting for combofix and whatever else scanning their PCs for an hour, then fine, that person may click that link. I'd rather engage in other nerd-like tendencies...
/Mom! Where's that sammich! The Beast is gettin' hungry in his lair...
The problem with your argument is that in many cases the government has given us a multitude of opportunity to be suspicious of it. There has always been a distrust of government in the US.
So, extending this distrust to all government agencies is a natural thing to do, whether it is true or not. Try bribing a policeman - a large percentage of the time, you'll end up in jail. Try bribing a politician... oh, wait.
The patent system is made up of scientists and engineers, and the attorneys all have these backgrounds as well.
If that is the case, then why do they mess some patents up by not seeing prior art? Yes, mistakes happen and I suppose there is a process to work it all out. But while that process is rolling, the patent holder is out there drying up the coffers in attorneys fees of all potentially infringing users.
OH, I see 60Hz, it drives me crazy! It's 75Hz or 85Hz if possible. If not, the monitor gets tossed.
Interestingly, I did work at a CRT repair facility many years ago. My job was to test for convergence and clean the crt's RGB connecters with a cool electro-shock device (best degausser device) before we sent it out the door. I have fun adjusting a monitor to its optimum levels.
Yeah, Baby Einstein, Dora, Back Yardigans stuff is TV baby sitting. Programs that actually teach things (such as sign language) will work. My daughters (14 and 35 months) use sign all the time.
If you don't see the previous comments and images from before, the laptop is patently bad idea. Stick with an old desktop and a CRT monitor. $5 keyboard and mouse, so it doesn't cost much to replace it. I've seen some good suggestions for games, my daughters like Reader Rabbit. Sesame Street has a good site. Youtube has some fun videos.
I disagree with your TV comment. Granted, if all you are watching are the baby-sitter programs, then they will not be as engaged. However, my daughters (14 months and 35 months) have learned practical sign language and use it to communicate with us. Even though it looks like they are staring blankly at the TV, they are learning from it. Now, since the 35 month old is starting to talk more, she uses the signs a little less.
A little addition to this. Even some appropriate TV is fine. My daughters love Baby Signing Time. Before they can talk, they can communicate with sign language. It is really awesome when they come to you signing "milk", "juice", or "water", instead of just crying out for it and letting you guess what they want. Or, more typically, saying "ba", "ma", or some other nonsense and letting you figure out what the context the "ba", "ma", or "da" is about.
My daughter was doing fine with the keyboard and mouse. By the time she got to 2.5 years (she'll be 3 this month), she realized that when the mouse hovered on an object in the Reader Rabbit games, the objects would respond and she was intelligent enough to place the object in the correct place. At 18+ months she, and now her sister, just enjoyed the sounds and moving the mouse around.
Now, I have been trying to find a decent child's keyboard. I've found some, but they've been unrealistically expensive. I can understand $30-$50. But I've seen some in the $100 range. I'm also thinking of a trackball for the pointing device, but they seem to do well with a mouse.
Just make sure to keep the cheap computer out of reach and use an older monitor, CRT if possible. They can take the hits. A lot of the games don't need special graphics (the Reader Rabbit games were designed at 1024x768 or 800x600 and have a definite Windows 98 VGA feel to them.)
Oh, and let me add that there are some pretty cool videos on youtube for kids. Do a search for children songs or on nursery rhymes. They Might Be Giants "Here Come the 123s" and "Here Come the ABCs" are faves, as well as Eric Herman songs.
Hmm, do I want to stay with the highly restrictive, proprietary software on my mostly open hardware? Or do I go with the highly restrictive, proprietary software AND hardware platform (with an inflated price point, albeit decent software and support)? Tough choice, there, I'll go with the open hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
It really is nice to receive the rental that I want to watch, but not have to worry that I have to watch it tonight before driving out of my way (a bit) to return it the next morning. Quite often, I have received a netflix disk and hung on to it for a week. Sure, it increases my per disk charge on my $8.95/mo rental charge... it's still cheaper than renting that disk for $4.00 at the rental store. It's even cheaper per disk/movie now that I can stream through my Wii or computer. My kids thoroughly enjoy being able to choose their video themselves and watching it over and over and over and then put it away for a week and then watch it again later. I don't have to worry about scratched disks; and, perhaps, it might cost me more in the long run for that particular movie, I would not have the wide variety and collection if I had to buy the movies myself that I would have using Netflix.
For the rest of you who might still be confused, what he meant to say was:
That means that the recording industry wants a licensing fee of 2/3 of your revenue?
In other words. Say your profit margin, before this licensing fee, could be 45% of your revenue. [insert Police Squad joke here) That means the licensing fee will take 100% of your profit, and you'd still owe 21.67% of your revenues.
.ca, Pandora would be losing over $0.25 on me per day. That get's expensive when you multiply it by thousands... and it's no way to run a business.
Let's see if my math works out correctly. Revenue = $100. Expenses, not including license fee = $55. Profit = $45. License fee = $66.67. 66.67 - 45 = 21.67!
But wait! He said the higher of the two - 2/3rds revenue or $0.0075 per song. Suppose your revenue comes in at less than $0.0075 per song. Let's say your company earns $0.005 per song with a 45% profit margin before license fee. That means, the profit, per song is $0.00225. You would have to give all of that up, plus $0.00525 more.
Throughout the day on Pandora, I listen to approximately 50 songs (maybe more, maybe less). If I were in
I'm using the Blackberry client on the Sprint network. I only get a little text advert that fills up a third of the screen real estate. I usually don't even see it. Occassionally, like once every couple of days, there is a 15-30 second audio advert for the service.
When I'm at home and have the website up, I've never noticed any adverts. The one annoying thing is that it will stop playing after 30+ minutes to ask you if you are still there. -click the Yes button and I'm off again-
I don't know about Canada, but in the USA online streaming music services still have to pay a holding company for the right to play the indie music... whether the indie music in question belong to a RIAA joined company or not. I don't have the reference at the moment.
But that costs you $4.99/mo. Pandora's service is "free", non-gratis. They get paid through adverts sent with the music. Every song I stream on my blackberry is free to me minus the cost of the very non-intrusive ad they display. I don't know what they get per advert displayed (can someone enlighten us?) it possibly isn't $0.0075 per song for which the CRIA is asking for.
CRIA... CRIA me a freaking river?
You know... I was feeling that way with my rig's really nice sound card and front panel dials and inputs. Thankfully, though, I've had need of them... I've finally taken my soundcard "off-road" in the past year. Of course, if utilizing the EAX or THX features of my card is off-road, then I've been taking it off-road for awhile now. My graphics card goes off-road everyday.
To add to this, because any tech savvy user is also likely testing out new sites, software, etc... any of which may be vulnerable or a virus.
See above comments for Comodo's firewall. Apparently, Microsoft's built in version does the trick, too.
Comodo Internet Security. Their firewall is top notch. Their AV is as good as the others. I haven't really put it to the test, other than I know my computer has been clean for years.
Intel?
I don't know if your chef analogy holds up. I know plenty of master chefs and corporations who come up with their own creations and copyright those works. Coke, KFC, those restaurant style chocolate chip cookies where the recipe was leaked back in 199x, any brand name snack (Oreo, Snickers, etc) - these recipes are all protected using one method or another to guarantee the secret stays that way.
Some recipes chefs do have to pay to get, and probably under strict penalty if leaked - franchising is a good example.
It's like the magic industry - once a magician shows you the trick, you've bought it and it's time to lay down the cash for it.
That's not to say I agree with the heavy handed tactics of the **AA industries, but then, I don't support them very much.
But information wants to be free!
/laugh, it's good for the body.
Or do we believe that people in other countries shouldn't be able to express negative opinions about our leaders?
Seriously, we give illegal aliens as much rights as any citizen, why not afford this kid the same treatment?
Now, if we are not getting the whole story and the kid actually put actual threats in his e-mail, then the FBI has no choice. But if it was only because he called him a prick (is that a bad word? I thought it means he's a jerk) then what's the big deal?
We are nerds; and, as such, tend to use wise judgment on how we want to spend our time ;^)
If one likes spending their time waiting for combofix and whatever else scanning their PCs for an hour, then fine, that person may click that link. I'd rather engage in other nerd-like tendencies...
/Mom! Where's that sammich! The Beast is gettin' hungry in his lair...
So, extending this distrust to all government agencies is a natural thing to do, whether it is true or not. Try bribing a policeman - a large percentage of the time, you'll end up in jail. Try bribing a politician... oh, wait.
The patent system is made up of scientists and engineers, and the attorneys all have these backgrounds as well.
If that is the case, then why do they mess some patents up by not seeing prior art? Yes, mistakes happen and I suppose there is a process to work it all out. But while that process is rolling, the patent holder is out there drying up the coffers in attorneys fees of all potentially infringing users.
OH, I see 60Hz, it drives me crazy! It's 75Hz or 85Hz if possible. If not, the monitor gets tossed.
Interestingly, I did work at a CRT repair facility many years ago. My job was to test for convergence and clean the crt's RGB connecters with a cool electro-shock device (best degausser device) before we sent it out the door. I have fun adjusting a monitor to its optimum levels.
How about www.afterthedeadline.com?
Check out the Reader Rabbit stuff. Yes, it's old, but it'll work with Win XP. (probably works on Wine.)
Yeah, Baby Einstein, Dora, Back Yardigans stuff is TV baby sitting. Programs that actually teach things (such as sign language) will work. My daughters (14 and 35 months) use sign all the time.
If you don't see the previous comments and images from before, the laptop is patently bad idea. Stick with an old desktop and a CRT monitor. $5 keyboard and mouse, so it doesn't cost much to replace it. I've seen some good suggestions for games, my daughters like Reader Rabbit. Sesame Street has a good site. Youtube has some fun videos.
I disagree with your TV comment. Granted, if all you are watching are the baby-sitter programs, then they will not be as engaged. However, my daughters (14 months and 35 months) have learned practical sign language and use it to communicate with us. Even though it looks like they are staring blankly at the TV, they are learning from it. Now, since the 35 month old is starting to talk more, she uses the signs a little less.
A kite doesn't fly without restraint. Nor do humans grow without boundaries and guidance.
A little addition to this. Even some appropriate TV is fine. My daughters love Baby Signing Time. Before they can talk, they can communicate with sign language. It is really awesome when they come to you signing "milk", "juice", or "water", instead of just crying out for it and letting you guess what they want. Or, more typically, saying "ba", "ma", or some other nonsense and letting you figure out what the context the "ba", "ma", or "da" is about.
My daughter was doing fine with the keyboard and mouse. By the time she got to 2.5 years (she'll be 3 this month), she realized that when the mouse hovered on an object in the Reader Rabbit games, the objects would respond and she was intelligent enough to place the object in the correct place. At 18+ months she, and now her sister, just enjoyed the sounds and moving the mouse around.
Now, I have been trying to find a decent child's keyboard. I've found some, but they've been unrealistically expensive. I can understand $30-$50. But I've seen some in the $100 range. I'm also thinking of a trackball for the pointing device, but they seem to do well with a mouse.
Just make sure to keep the cheap computer out of reach and use an older monitor, CRT if possible. They can take the hits. A lot of the games don't need special graphics (the Reader Rabbit games were designed at 1024x768 or 800x600 and have a definite Windows 98 VGA feel to them.)
Oh, and let me add that there are some pretty cool videos on youtube for kids. Do a search for children songs or on nursery rhymes. They Might Be Giants "Here Come the 123s" and "Here Come the ABCs" are faves, as well as Eric Herman songs.
Hmm, do I want to stay with the highly restrictive, proprietary software on my mostly open hardware? Or do I go with the highly restrictive, proprietary software AND hardware platform (with an inflated price point, albeit decent software and support)? Tough choice, there, I'll go with the open hardware.