The internet has been a wonderful thing for billions of people since it's inception. Why on earth are legislators trying to make it a quagmire like anything else they touch? Really it's a great example of market based forces and what they can accomplish. Please, for all our sakes, leave it alone.
And just because you shouldn't do something, doesn't mean you should be punished for doing it. If something is legal and allowed i should be able to do it no matter how off color it may be. That was the whole point of enumerating our rights and not letting the government trample them. You also have a slight misconception about rights. Society does not give me my rights. They are ingrained in me just by the fact that i exist. Therefore i do no hold any responsibility to society in general. In fact society tries to remove those rights from me. Therefore i have a responsibility to fight society to regain those rights which have been stolen from me.
"The court is just there to interpret laws, and activist rulings undermine democracy." I guess it depends on what country you are in. The US has something called "Jury Nullification" and it is one of the fundamentals that make real democracy work. (The judicial system does not like telling you about it though.)
....ettled; he said that. This is not about simple murder, kidnapping, etc, this is about laws which are changinga ll the time, as fast as the *AA can push their c....
The saddest part is that people seem to take this copyright law and elevate it to pedestals yet unseen. Most people are more feverish about copyright than murder (which is a problem in it's own right).
Murder has a definite ethical impact on most people and so does copyright. We don't consider murder to be a controversial issue because we know what it is and that it is ethically wrong. Likewise most people know how they feel about their property and copyright and feel ethically correct about their decision.
It is a simple issue, not a complicated one. The only complication here are greedy corporations.
I'm sure if they could find a way to profit on murder the way they profit on music, we would see MIAA (Murder Industry Association of America) preaching that some serial killer infringed on their IP of stabbing someone. It's ridiculous and insane and i can't believe that people have put up with this crap for as long as they have.
I'm sorry, but your vocal-cord copy protection scheme has been denied. The constitutional right to free speech shal not be infringed.
Now please report to your nearest ECPE Center(Eardrum Copy Protection Enhancement) for mandatory auditory modification. All violators shal be tried and sentenced at the RIAA RILA (Really idiotic litigating a$$clowns) court system - minimum fine: 24 hours of forced listening to Britney Spears singing "Baby One More Time".
An undisclosed source has confirmed that the firefox browser comes with integrated spyware and phishing software. This stunning news has been reported by the superior R&D labs at Microsoft....
Hold on....
This just in.
In a shocking twist, it has just been discovered that in fact, the browser was actually Internet Explorer, made by Microsoft. In an underhanded tactic, Microsoft contracted a shady company to develop a plugin designed to mimic the popular open source browser.
With the plugin firmly embeded as a "Critical Update" anybody that has recently patched their IE browser would have this new "functionality." After a short period of inactivity, this plugin will start transmitting your vital and personal information. This will enable Microsoft to cry for the ban of the browser "firefox" since all browsers will look like it. After crushing the open source browser, Microsoft would release an "update" that removes the new plugin. Microsoft then will initiate a huge media campain claiming IE is the "Next Best Thing" and much more secure that the evil "Firefox.
For more on this story please tune into/. tomorrow for the daily dupe.
Unfortunately greed is the prime factor in any and every single decision that any human being makes.
All i see is dollar signs instead of retinas when i talk to some people i know.
Cutting the price of photoshop to 15.99 would benefit the populace, but looking at it from another perspective - Adobe is there to make money. A reasonable and balanced approach would both maximize profits and keep the customers happy. If for example, it cost a reasonable 69.99, a ton of people would still buy it, while adobe could still recover the costs of production, and make a heaping profit on the side.
If the margin that the record companies make on selling music troubles you, you'd be in for some sad times indeed if you were to learn where record industry margins fall in relation to margins for the food, clothing and computer accessories and pretty much everything else that you buy. The record industry is, by necessity, a low-margin one. The cry of "artificially inflated prices" makes us feel better about resorting to piracy, but doesn't make much sense to those who understand the realities of speculative markets and the retail industry in general.
I see your point. Now i am not sure what the actual costs are of producing music, movies, etc. is, but i can throw some refrences out there. I used to work both at a hardware store and a car dealership in my younger years, and so i had oportunities to view some of their costs and profit.
Hardware store: box of screws: cost: 1.50 retail: 2.99
can of paint (1gal) cost:15.99 retail: 19.99
key blank: cost:.99 retail: 1.99
25' garden hose: cost:8.99 retail:11.99
trash bags: cost:2.99 retail: 3.99
elmers glue: cost1.29 retail: 1.99
lightbulbs: cost.79 (4pack) retail: 1.39 (4pack)
Dealership:
windsheild wipers:cost:8.99 retail: 21.99
air filter: cost:3.99 retail 12.99
Now as you can see, the markup in a dealership is greater than a hardware store. Getting to the point - most of the things are being sold at twice the price of cost. Now this is not all profit, we have to deduct wages, bills, building costs, permits, etc. and the actual profit drops down.
I got side tracked there, let me get back to the point:
Those screws cost x amount to manufacture. The manufacturer has to make a profit, then the shipping company, then the distributor, then the retailer. Now i am assuming that on each transaction the price is doubled to cover costs, and produce SOME profit.
The box of screws cost the retailer a $1.50. Now the hardware store buys from the fanchise HQ, which does it's own manufacturing(in this case). The retailer also pays shipping. So lets suppose that those screwes cost only.75 in material to make,.75 markup for manufacturer, distributer (one business) and retailer pays shipping. Retailer then doubles price to cover all costs.
If you notice most of what you pay here has to cover costs of the material, manufacturing, shipping, storage, labor and everything else i missed. This leaves a small profit margin in the end.
Now i'm not pretending that i know how much it costs to manufacture a song, or a movie because i do not have knowledge of that. All i'm saying is that since you can get the songs online, there is no more shipping cost, no storage, no labor, none of the costs associated before.
Now i can see how that can be a little short sighted, because they still have costs associated with buildings, servers, hard disks for storage, internet pipe, etc.
I'm figuring that those costs must be less than the real world costs of moving thousands of cd's cross country, cost of storage for those cd's, cost of the plastic, etc.
The industry is moving from an expensive form of physical product distribution, to a method that costs virtually nothing. How can the cost of music stay the same?
we wouldn't have to buy pirated copies. Heck, i could pay $1 to watch Star Wars, but i sure as hell don't want to pay $10. Piracy is so rampart because people don't see the value in spending so much for so little. It's as if you had to pay $10 for a pack of gum, when we all know that such a price is ridiculous.
I would even pay $2 for it, if i knew that the money went to the artist, producer, etc. - in other words the people actually responsible for the content of the media, instead of the distributor.
Thinking about that a little, what right does *AA have to sue anybody? Is the media actually THEIR property, or is it the property of the artist? You know what, that is not even the point. The point is that we shouldn't have to deal with these artificially inflated prices. Every time i hear about the industry suing somebody i picture a playground bully. Knocks everybody around until everybody turns around and one by one puch the bully in the nose.
Yep we as taxpayers and citizens of this country should decide how everything should be ran and not let a MEGA CORP CEO decide for us...
Re:Is it just me, or couldn't posts about Dev thin
on
Eclipse 3.1 Released
·
· Score: 1
Hey, I said it was full of holes.
(looking at your low UID, I really don't think you need an explanation though... ):) Cheers!!
Re:Is it just me, or couldn't posts about Dev thin
on
Eclipse 3.1 Released
·
· Score: 1
In a nutshell, and with a bunch of holes - it's a IDE to create java programs. It's written in java.
It definitely can. I have not used a floppy at least for 2 or 3 years now. It's usage will slowly fade and some time in the future, they will just stop making them.
The problem is this: A company hires an electrician (computer programmer, good with User Interfaces ). Then he is commisioned to build a 5 story sky scraper, where he is tasked with designing the building, putting in the plumbing, electrical, walls, elevators, fire system, heating and air, all the while supplying himself with the cheapest tools bought at the local Ace Hardware - while the owner keeps cutting his time and budget in half every two management meetings. Oh and did i mention he is only paid 10 cents an hour?
Since he is an electrician, the lights might work, but i wouldn't expect the thing to stand very long, if at all.
We have a ton of tradesmen, but no architects in the industry.
Me: Hey boss, i'm thinking of installing this new software package across all the pc's. It's called Open Office and is a replacement for Microsoft Office. It's free, and the money saved can go to other uses. Many businesses have been switching and so have shools. It seems that this would be a good thing.
Boss: hmmm....Ok, stop your Microsoft bashing you linux hippie. I've tried Open Office and it sucks. I didn't know where anything was. It sucks. You suck. Now go suck in your closet that you call a cubicle. Oh and while your at it, go take a look at my laptop. I installed something called Kazza, and now i get these screens that pop up constantly. I expect that to be fixed by the time i leave today.
but then again, why should *my* works be subject to *your* whims?
Oh and why should my whims be limited by your works?
Sorry i don't mean to rag on you, or sound condescending, but if you want to provide something to society you have to also abide by societies rules - so i guess you can call my whims, societies whims. Until we remove the part of our brains that want to gain power, money, etc. there will be laws and we will have to bow to other peoples whims.
Just a thought from the other face of the same coin.
Microsoft is working with Ford Motor Co towards car that can't crash.
I'm not sure how that is possible. We would have to completely eliminate the human factor.
The future of cars according to Gates will involve high-definition screens, speech recognition technology, cameras, digital calendars and navigation equipment with directions and road conditions."
Well that is kind of what we have nowdays anyway, with all those "pimped out" cars. Granted it is not commonplace, but you can still have a car made with all of the stuff listed there. I've seen HDTV's in cars, cameras, navigation equipment with directions. I believe there are a couple cars made with speech rec. but i can't think of them off the top of my head. Digital calendars? Well, i can screw my palm pilot to the dashboard - does that count? The one thing i'd like to see is full blown road condition and traffic reporting.
From the article: "Also on Friday, Microsoft unveiled its Performance Peak Initiative -- a line of computer systems to help the auto industry better coordinate supply chains, streamline design, production and sales and fill vehicles with computer gadgets."
Right. Can someone say proprietary. If anyone has tried to put in an aftermarket radio in their new car, they know what i'm talking about. Change your radio without integrating your old one into the setup and kiss half your electrical system goodbye. Everything is routed through your RADIO - windshield wipers, dimmer, fog lights, main lights, interior lights, brake lights, turn signals, hazard lights, ac/heating system, electric seats, starter - pick at random, they all connect to the radio in some way.
If they want to coordinate supply chains, streamline design, production and sales and fill vehicles with computer gadgets, it's only to lock in technology even further. Soon you will be able to put in any gadget in your car - as long as it's from Microsoft.
....it looks like they will only prohibit access to porn, etc, at correctional facilities.
Wait, so what your telling me is that the guy who just robbed my neighbor and stole his pc is going to get free internet access, while in JAIL and i have to fork over my liver to get dsl IN ADDITION to paying for HIS????
You know, those Canadians and their vast streches of forest - They don't look so bad anymore....
But, again, if you relish a caveman lifestyle, you're 200,000 years too late.
No no, it's not that. It's just that i have a tendency to automatically argue when i hear people say "This is the way the universe is" when in reality it's a human based law (and a recent one at that).
I just hate when people tell me that life is static and you have to accept things the way they are. I think that one person with the right mindset can change the rules the world lives by. Otherwise we would still be under the rule of the Crown.
Thankfully, technology allows this to happen, so it should be enacted so the State can fulfil it's obligation of protecting the life of the citizens.
While i agree with this philosophical thought, i find that in reality the government's role is to protect their cash flow and not their citizens. Protection of the citizens is just a by-product.
Fundamentally we all have a right to do whatever the hell we want to do, but in the interest of society we give up our rights and make them PRIVELAGES. I argue that we shouldn't forget that these PRIVELAGES are man made laws and can be changed to suit the "Citizens" and not government.
Slashdot Mirror
Screw little double din plug in units. This is how it's done: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.mr2forum.de/thread.php%253Fthreadid%253D42132%26tbb%3D1%26usg%3DALkJrhh99PEv9yDW3PB3qSJPiLQWKs6GVQ&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en
The internet has been a wonderful thing for billions of people since it's inception. Why on earth are legislators trying to make it a quagmire like anything else they touch? Really it's a great example of market based forces and what they can accomplish. Please, for all our sakes, leave it alone.
And just because you shouldn't do something, doesn't mean you should be punished for doing it. If something is legal and allowed i should be able to do it no matter how off color it may be. That was the whole point of enumerating our rights and not letting the government trample them. You also have a slight misconception about rights. Society does not give me my rights. They are ingrained in me just by the fact that i exist. Therefore i do no hold any responsibility to society in general. In fact society tries to remove those rights from me. Therefore i have a responsibility to fight society to regain those rights which have been stolen from me.
"The court is just there to interpret laws, and activist rulings undermine democracy." I guess it depends on what country you are in. The US has something called "Jury Nullification" and it is one of the fundamentals that make real democracy work. (The judicial system does not like telling you about it though.)
....ettled; he said that. This is not about simple murder, kidnapping, etc, this is about laws which are changinga ll the time, as fast as the *AA can push their c....
The saddest part is that people seem to take this copyright law and elevate it to pedestals yet unseen. Most people are more feverish about copyright than murder (which is a problem in it's own right).
Murder has a definite ethical impact on most people and so does copyright. We don't consider murder to be a controversial issue because we know what it is and that it is ethically wrong. Likewise most people know how they feel about their property and copyright and feel ethically correct about their decision.
It is a simple issue, not a complicated one. The only complication here are greedy corporations.
I'm sure if they could find a way to profit on murder the way they profit on music, we would see MIAA (Murder Industry Association of America) preaching that some serial killer infringed on their IP of stabbing someone. It's ridiculous and insane and i can't believe that people have put up with this crap for as long as they have.
How dare you call us "idiot voters".
:)
Most Americans don't vote - so next time get your facts straight.
Why is this fact? Isn't this the troll. So you troll on /. and it becomes a fact.
I'm sorry, but your vocal-cord copy protection scheme has been denied. The constitutional right to free speech shal not be infringed.
Now please report to your nearest ECPE Center(Eardrum Copy Protection Enhancement) for mandatory auditory modification. All violators shal be tried and sentenced at the RIAA RILA (Really idiotic litigating a$$clowns) court system - minimum fine: 24 hours of forced listening to Britney Spears singing "Baby One More Time".
This stunning news has been reported by the superior R&D labs at Microsoft....
Hold on....
This just in.
In a shocking twist, it has just been discovered that in fact, the browser was actually Internet Explorer, made by Microsoft. In an underhanded tactic, Microsoft contracted a shady company to develop a plugin designed to mimic the popular open source browser.
With the plugin firmly embeded as a "Critical Update" anybody that has recently patched their IE browser would have this new "functionality." After a short period of inactivity, this plugin will start transmitting your vital and personal information.
This will enable Microsoft to cry for the ban of the browser "firefox" since all browsers will look like it. After crushing the open source browser, Microsoft would release an "update" that removes the new plugin. Microsoft then will initiate a huge media campain claiming IE is the "Next Best Thing" and much more secure that the evil "Firefox.
For more on this story please tune into /. tomorrow for the daily dupe.
You were thinking about it huh? A couple of days ago you say? It's a good thing i got to the patent office first then... MUAHAHAHA!
All i see is dollar signs instead of retinas when i talk to some people i know.
Cutting the price of photoshop to 15.99 would benefit the populace, but looking at it from another perspective - Adobe is there to make money. A reasonable and balanced approach would both maximize profits and keep the customers happy. If for example, it cost a reasonable 69.99, a ton of people would still buy it, while adobe could still recover the costs of production, and make a heaping profit on the side.
I see your point. Now i am not sure what the actual costs are of producing music, movies, etc. is, but i can throw some refrences out there. I used to work both at a hardware store and a car dealership in my younger years, and so i had oportunities to view some of their costs and profit. .99 retail: 1.99 .79 (4pack) retail: 1.39 (4pack)
Hardware store:
box of screws: cost: 1.50 retail: 2.99
can of paint (1gal) cost:15.99 retail: 19.99
key blank: cost:
25' garden hose: cost:8.99 retail:11.99
trash bags: cost:2.99 retail: 3.99
elmers glue: cost1.29 retail: 1.99
lightbulbs: cost
Dealership:
windsheild wipers:cost:8.99 retail: 21.99
air filter: cost:3.99 retail 12.99
Now as you can see, the markup in a dealership is greater than a hardware store. Getting to the point - most of the things are being sold at twice the price of cost. Now this is not all profit, we have to deduct wages, bills, building costs, permits, etc. and the actual profit drops down.
I got side tracked there, let me get back to the point: Those screws cost x amount to manufacture. The manufacturer has to make a profit, then the shipping company, then the distributor, then the retailer. Now i am assuming that on each transaction the price is doubled to cover costs, and produce SOME profit. The box of screws cost the retailer a $1.50. Now the hardware store buys from the fanchise HQ, which does it's own manufacturing(in this case). The retailer also pays shipping. So lets suppose that those screwes cost only .75 in material to make, .75 markup for manufacturer, distributer (one business) and retailer pays shipping. Retailer then doubles price to cover all costs.
If you notice most of what you pay here has to cover costs of the material, manufacturing, shipping, storage, labor and everything else i missed. This leaves a small profit margin in the end.
Now i'm not pretending that i know how much it costs to manufacture a song, or a movie because i do not have knowledge of that. All i'm saying is that since you can get the songs online, there is no more shipping cost, no storage, no labor, none of the costs associated before.
Now i can see how that can be a little short sighted, because they still have costs associated with buildings, servers, hard disks for storage, internet pipe, etc.
I'm figuring that those costs must be less than the real world costs of moving thousands of cd's cross country, cost of storage for those cd's, cost of the plastic, etc.
The industry is moving from an expensive form of physical product distribution, to a method that costs virtually nothing. How can the cost of music stay the same?
we wouldn't have to buy pirated copies. Heck, i could pay $1 to watch Star Wars, but i sure as hell don't want to pay $10. Piracy is so rampart because people don't see the value in spending so much for so little. It's as if you had to pay $10 for a pack of gum, when we all know that such a price is ridiculous.
I would even pay $2 for it, if i knew that the money went to the artist, producer, etc. - in other words the people actually responsible for the content of the media, instead of the distributor.
Thinking about that a little, what right does *AA have to sue anybody? Is the media actually THEIR property, or is it the property of the artist? You know what, that is not even the point. The point is that we shouldn't have to deal with these artificially inflated prices. Every time i hear about the industry suing somebody i picture a playground bully. Knocks everybody around until everybody turns around and one by one puch the bully in the nose.
Yep we as taxpayers and citizens of this country should decide how everything should be ran and not let a MEGA CORP CEO decide for us...
Hey, I said it was full of holes.
:) Cheers!!
(looking at your low UID, I really don't think you need an explanation though... )
In a nutshell, and with a bunch of holes - it's a IDE to create java programs. It's written in java.
It definitely can. I have not used a floppy at least for 2 or 3 years now. It's usage will slowly fade and some time in the future, they will just stop making them.
I agree completely, but let me add this:
Programmers: masons, electricians, plumbers, etc.
Software Developers: Architects.
The problem is this: A company hires an electrician (computer programmer, good with User Interfaces ). Then he is commisioned to build a 5 story sky scraper, where he is tasked with designing the building, putting in the plumbing, electrical, walls, elevators, fire system, heating and air, all the while supplying himself with the cheapest tools bought at the local Ace Hardware - while the owner keeps cutting his time and budget in half every two management meetings. Oh and did i mention he is only paid 10 cents an hour?
Since he is an electrician, the lights might work, but i wouldn't expect the thing to stand very long, if at all.
We have a ton of tradesmen, but no architects in the industry.
Exactly.
....Sigh....
I recall an incident late last year:
Me: Hey boss, i'm thinking of installing this new software package across all the pc's. It's called Open Office and is a replacement for Microsoft Office. It's free, and the money saved can go to other uses. Many businesses have been switching and so have shools. It seems that this would be a good thing.
Boss: hmmm....Ok, stop your Microsoft bashing you linux hippie. I've tried Open Office and it sucks. I didn't know where anything was. It sucks. You suck. Now go suck in your closet that you call a cubicle. Oh and while your at it, go take a look at my laptop. I installed something called Kazza, and now i get these screens that pop up constantly. I expect that to be fixed by the time i leave today.
Me: *glances at clock: 4:48 PM*
Sorry i don't mean to rag on you, or sound condescending, but if you want to provide something to society you have to also abide by societies rules - so i guess you can call my whims, societies whims. Until we remove the part of our brains that want to gain power, money, etc. there will be laws and we will have to bow to other peoples whims.
Just a thought from the other face of the same coin.
If they want to coordinate supply chains, streamline design, production and sales and fill vehicles with computer gadgets, it's only to lock in technology even further. Soon you will be able to put in any gadget in your car - as long as it's from Microsoft.
It's not about currency. It's about distance. Six feet downwards to be exact.
Wait, so what your telling me is that the guy who just robbed my neighbor and stole his pc is going to get free internet access, while in JAIL and i have to fork over my liver to get dsl IN ADDITION to paying for HIS????
You know, those Canadians and their vast streches of forest - They don't look so bad anymore....
Well, i got a tax refund this year, so my underpants are in the mail.
I don't remember a clause in the constitution limiting my right to speak only to votes.
No no, it's not that. It's just that i have a tendency to automatically argue when i hear people say "This is the way the universe is" when in reality it's a human based law (and a recent one at that).
I just hate when people tell me that life is static and you have to accept things the way they are. I think that one person with the right mindset can change the rules the world lives by. Otherwise we would still be under the rule of the Crown.
While i agree with this philosophical thought, i find that in reality the government's role is to protect their cash flow and not their citizens. Protection of the citizens is just a by-product.
Fundamentally we all have a right to do whatever the hell we want to do, but in the interest of society we give up our rights and make them PRIVELAGES. I argue that we shouldn't forget that these PRIVELAGES are man made laws and can be changed to suit the "Citizens" and not government.