Even if you understand that it's wrong and agree that the RIAA should be compensated when they do sue someone who is guilty, that doesn't mean you agree that they're asking for reasonable compensation. $750 per song? Do you really think that every time a person puts a song in their shared folder, they deprive the RIAA of an average of 750 legal downloads? Particularly if no one has to have ever downloaded the song from you to get sued?
If they were asking for $5 or $10 a song - and being more careful about who they sued - sure there'd still be some people claiming they should never ever sue anyone, but I think many people would be at least a little more sympathetic. At least I'd only think they were being silly and self-destructive for clinging to an outdated business model, rather than seeing them as extortionists and fear-mongerers. And given that they're settling for $3000, you can't tell me that they actually need the whole $750/song for legal fees, etc. They use it as a scare tactic, plain and simple, so they can get their $3k with no fuss and muss.
Right now, the #1 song download is 1234 by Feist (the song in the new iPod nano commercial) and the #1 artist downloaded is "The Apples in Stereo." I've never even heard of them; how much you bet that neither of these is actually the top download and someone at Amazon just put them at the top to get cute?
Type his name into the slashdot search box or click on the "related articles" at the top of this page for a complete overview. In short: He's a rabid anti-video-game lawyer who gets a lot of publicity and is possibly insane and may soon be disbarred.
On one hand, I'm excited to see Spaces. I like Desktop Manager fine, but it has some Tiger blips and I'm curious how Apple does it. I can't imagine what took them so long; who creates an OS that's based on Unix without multiple desktops? However, Stacks entirely cancels that out for me, unless there's a way to disable it. I have my Applications, Documents, and Photos folders on my dock. The last two, particularly, are big with many subfolders within subfolders, and the last thing I need is all of it trying to be "pretty" for me, complete with freaking thumbnails. Just let me right-click and see my nested lists.
I've always wondered if anyone, anywhere, other than Steve, actually uses CoverFlow. It's like it's his little personal toy that he just loves to show off to anyone, anywhere, but that nobody else really cares much about.
then the only possible reason for the DRM in the first place is that the record company hopes that a certain percentage of people will slip up in bypassing the hoops, and have to pay a second or third time for the same product
Fixed that for you. Or did you miss the many stories in the past few months about Apple trying to get record companies to go DRM-free, EMI taking them up on it, and other labels getting pissy about it?
You think any of this is a drop in the bucket compared to Scott Krueger's death a decade ago? Shit happens - and when it happens at a high-profile school, it happens with a higher profile. Things that would barely make the local news at the average state school because they happen at least once a year (if not more) there get weeks of national attention when they happen at MIT once. Somehow, MIT survives.
And if you think the national attention a couple of incidents receive is intense, try the Boston-area coverage for even smaller issues.
That's a ridiculous definition of merit-based scholarships. If Joe has a 1600 SAT and won a national-level competition, but his parents are millionaires, and Bob has a 1580 and only won state-level competitions but his parents make below the median, Bob will get better financial aid at MIT than Joe (who likely won't get a dime). Yes, admission is merit-based, but once admissions decisions are made, the only way that admitted students compete with each other for MIT-provided funding is by need.
Yes, there is a tiny minority that actually use Apple because they are actually more productive in what they do with it...
I'm not sure it's a "tiny minority." My sister has an eMac. My mother and brother have windows. My sister doesn't, by any definition "need" a Mac - she's not a graphic artist or a film editor or a music-mixer or any of those artisty-types that are the only ones many people think "need" a Mac.
But you know what? My mom's next computer will be a Mac. Your typical 40-something computer-clueless soccer mom. Why? Because she's paid to have viruses wiped off her & my brother's machines several times in the past few years, and lost a lot of data. By that measure, my sister has been much more productive on her machine, in the ways that matter to these average computer users. You don't have to use FinalCut Pro to be more productive on a Mac.
Common English usage is for something that's old, but honorable or respected because of (in part) that age. Something to be venerated. XP may be old, but the rest...
Sorry, I know a lot of people think it's better than Vista, but when did XP become venerable?? Is there some secret meaning for that word that I don't know?
Does it matter how much it is? I'm still paying money for something I didn't want to receive. I'm just lucky that most of my communication is via the internet - I'm sure there are people paying far more than me for unwanted text messages.
I have never bought a Heinlein book, and don't intend to pay to download stuff. But if I were exposed to it via a free website, it might just pique my interest enough to buy a book (which has happened NUMEROUS times to me with technical books).
Let me introduce you to this wonderful new invention. It is called the public library. Here, you can borrow - for free - books of all types, including Heinlein novels, to do exactly what you say! Try them out, see if you like the book and the author, and then you can go buy it yourself if you'd like. Or don't! And just read every last book he wrote, without paying for a single one, from the library!
With the introduction of the "world wide internets," many libraries even allow you to search their catalogs online, see if they have the book you want, and reserve it - even have it shipped to the branch closest to you - without leaving your computer. Yes, stopping by for thirty seconds to pick the book up is a real pain, but so is reading a novel from a computer screen.
I'd also like to point out that I currently pay cable companies $0, but I'd totally pay $10-15 a month in 80c/hr increments just to get the shows I want. Maybe even $20-25, though I'm really not sure I watch enough TV to spend that.
At 40c for a half-hour show, you'd have to watch 62.5 hours of TV a month to spend the $50 that is the cheapest decent cable package in my area (not counting the $20 broadcast-plus-shopping package - I can't figure out why I'd pay $20 for channels I can already get plus shopping channels). So a little over two hours a day. I know that's below average, but then there are also the people who pay $100 a month for the fancier packages - they could get four hours a day by paying 40c an episode. And they'd actually be getting *more* content than you get in four hours now, since it's ad-free.
I would also point out that maybe if making people pay per show leads to slightly reduced TV watching then it's not necessarily a BAD thing - but I know that's not the business you're in.
I have not say, I agree with this. I'm always amazed when this issue comes up, how many people say "Yeah, I'm so sick of paying twice as much as I want to for a few channels!" Soooo... stop paying it? I don't have cable, and I won't til I can get it for the price I want to pay. I use Netflix for anything I can't get with my rabbit ears, and I've got enough shows to catch up on that I'll be kept plenty busy til this season comes out on DVD next year. Plus, plenty of shows are now offered free via streaming on networks' websites, or for download over iTunes, and there's always tv.co.uk - there are options, people! Stop paying if you don't want to pay, and maybe they'll lower their damn prices to get you back! Yes, their business model is outdated - so why are you propping it up?
You don't "have" to pay for all those, you know. Trade in cable for Netflix. Sure, you have to wait for stuff to come out on DVD, but I'm sure there's plenty you haven't seen yet in the meantime. I won't be getting cable til I can get the few channels I want for $30/month or less, and Netflix is serving my needs just fine until then.
Wow, my dream cable. Out of curiosity, what is the pricing scheme like? (How much is the basic monthly fee, how much is an average channel on top of it, do the different channels have different prices?)
Is it just me, or does this post say "I can't get laid, so I don't think women should whine about not getting hired"??
(I'll admit, at first I thought it was a post by a woman saying that she faced more discrimination and pressure because of society's expectations for her appearance than from her male geek counterparts. But then the last sentence didn't make sense, nor did the comments. Then I realized what it actually says, and I wasn't at all surprised that this person isn't getting laid.)
Slashdot Mirror
But even with the eggplant, is hummus really capable of such a high energy output?
If they were asking for $5 or $10 a song - and being more careful about who they sued - sure there'd still be some people claiming they should never ever sue anyone, but I think many people would be at least a little more sympathetic. At least I'd only think they were being silly and self-destructive for clinging to an outdated business model, rather than seeing them as extortionists and fear-mongerers. And given that they're settling for $3000, you can't tell me that they actually need the whole $750/song for legal fees, etc. They use it as a scare tactic, plain and simple, so they can get their $3k with no fuss and muss.
Ah, so they *did* set that one up. I'm sure the choice of bands was no coincidence.
Right now, the #1 song download is 1234 by Feist (the song in the new iPod nano commercial) and the #1 artist downloaded is "The Apples in Stereo." I've never even heard of them; how much you bet that neither of these is actually the top download and someone at Amazon just put them at the top to get cute?
You can also sign up for the free trial, get 25-35 free songs, then cancel before you're charged anything.
Type his name into the slashdot search box or click on the "related articles" at the top of this page for a complete overview. In short: He's a rabid anti-video-game lawyer who gets a lot of publicity and is possibly insane and may soon be disbarred.
Unbox would probably have even less content without DRM than this service. Sadly.
On one hand, I'm excited to see Spaces. I like Desktop Manager fine, but it has some Tiger blips and I'm curious how Apple does it. I can't imagine what took them so long; who creates an OS that's based on Unix without multiple desktops? However, Stacks entirely cancels that out for me, unless there's a way to disable it. I have my Applications, Documents, and Photos folders on my dock. The last two, particularly, are big with many subfolders within subfolders, and the last thing I need is all of it trying to be "pretty" for me, complete with freaking thumbnails. Just let me right-click and see my nested lists.
I've always wondered if anyone, anywhere, other than Steve, actually uses CoverFlow. It's like it's his little personal toy that he just loves to show off to anyone, anywhere, but that nobody else really cares much about.
Fixed that for you. Or did you miss the many stories in the past few months about Apple trying to get record companies to go DRM-free, EMI taking them up on it, and other labels getting pissy about it?
Dude, that's old meme. Get with the times.
And if you think the national attention a couple of incidents receive is intense, try the Boston-area coverage for even smaller issues.
That's a ridiculous definition of merit-based scholarships. If Joe has a 1600 SAT and won a national-level competition, but his parents are millionaires, and Bob has a 1580 and only won state-level competitions but his parents make below the median, Bob will get better financial aid at MIT than Joe (who likely won't get a dime). Yes, admission is merit-based, but once admissions decisions are made, the only way that admitted students compete with each other for MIT-provided funding is by need.
I'm not sure it's a "tiny minority." My sister has an eMac. My mother and brother have windows. My sister doesn't, by any definition "need" a Mac - she's not a graphic artist or a film editor or a music-mixer or any of those artisty-types that are the only ones many people think "need" a Mac.
But you know what? My mom's next computer will be a Mac. Your typical 40-something computer-clueless soccer mom. Why? Because she's paid to have viruses wiped off her & my brother's machines several times in the past few years, and lost a lot of data. By that measure, my sister has been much more productive on her machine, in the ways that matter to these average computer users. You don't have to use FinalCut Pro to be more productive on a Mac.
So, basically it's things like http://www.chicagocrime.org?
Common English usage is for something that's old, but honorable or respected because of (in part) that age. Something to be venerated. XP may be old, but the rest...
Sorry, I know a lot of people think it's better than Vista, but when did XP become venerable?? Is there some secret meaning for that word that I don't know?
Does it matter how much it is? I'm still paying money for something I didn't want to receive. I'm just lucky that most of my communication is via the internet - I'm sure there are people paying far more than me for unwanted text messages.
Let me introduce you to this wonderful new invention. It is called the public library. Here, you can borrow - for free - books of all types, including Heinlein novels, to do exactly what you say! Try them out, see if you like the book and the author, and then you can go buy it yourself if you'd like. Or don't! And just read every last book he wrote, without paying for a single one, from the library!
With the introduction of the "world wide internets," many libraries even allow you to search their catalogs online, see if they have the book you want, and reserve it - even have it shipped to the branch closest to you - without leaving your computer. Yes, stopping by for thirty seconds to pick the book up is a real pain, but so is reading a novel from a computer screen.
I'd also like to point out that I currently pay cable companies $0, but I'd totally pay $10-15 a month in 80c/hr increments just to get the shows I want. Maybe even $20-25, though I'm really not sure I watch enough TV to spend that.
I would also point out that maybe if making people pay per show leads to slightly reduced TV watching then it's not necessarily a BAD thing - but I know that's not the business you're in.
I have not say, I agree with this. I'm always amazed when this issue comes up, how many people say "Yeah, I'm so sick of paying twice as much as I want to for a few channels!" Soooo... stop paying it? I don't have cable, and I won't til I can get it for the price I want to pay. I use Netflix for anything I can't get with my rabbit ears, and I've got enough shows to catch up on that I'll be kept plenty busy til this season comes out on DVD next year. Plus, plenty of shows are now offered free via streaming on networks' websites, or for download over iTunes, and there's always tv.co.uk - there are options, people! Stop paying if you don't want to pay, and maybe they'll lower their damn prices to get you back! Yes, their business model is outdated - so why are you propping it up?
You don't "have" to pay for all those, you know. Trade in cable for Netflix. Sure, you have to wait for stuff to come out on DVD, but I'm sure there's plenty you haven't seen yet in the meantime. I won't be getting cable til I can get the few channels I want for $30/month or less, and Netflix is serving my needs just fine until then.
Wow, my dream cable. Out of curiosity, what is the pricing scheme like? (How much is the basic monthly fee, how much is an average channel on top of it, do the different channels have different prices?)
(I'll admit, at first I thought it was a post by a woman saying that she faced more discrimination and pressure because of society's expectations for her appearance than from her male geek counterparts. But then the last sentence didn't make sense, nor did the comments. Then I realized what it actually says, and I wasn't at all surprised that this person isn't getting laid.)