So what came first: the chicken or the egg? I get what you're puttin' out there, it just seems like a stupid unmanagable solution to a nearly non-existant problem. So they tell the FCC to find a solution to this problem, gives the FCC a timeframe to come up with something workable and implement it and then... it happens? We all have to buy new hardware to meet this "standard", as per the article? I would think making a broadcast flag for digital media would be intensely worthless, what with so much "outdated" hardware hanging around and such a growing home-brew community.
Suppose you lend someone a lot of money, they pay you back but still take that attitude towards you and insult you all the time? What would you call them?
According to a statement from Mr. Shapiro's office earlier this week, the RIAA revealed in a letter to Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) that they have "no technical specification for an audio flag," and that the "RIAA has stayed away from the Copy Protection Technical Working Group in part because it has nothing to propose."
So around where I work we have a bit of not-so-clever anology for things like this: "gifts from the good idea fairy". Someone comes up with a marvelous idea with no idea how to make it work and plays "pass the trash" handing it off to the nerd patrol hoping they can find a solution to implement their very clever, over-thought, and probably useless idea. There is no arguing fact against the GIF and its basket of joy.
So what happens when you have a broadcaster that isn't meeting the requirements of a broadcast flag that has no standard, protocol, or you know, form of any mention? How do you hold someone to a standard that doesn't exist?
If garbage like this gets through, I expect to see many, many different flags created by different companies that don't play well together, aren't cross platform for the range of hardware used for both broadcasting and listening, and create a broadcast flag format war. Maybe this is the goal: to create such a murky and fuddled bit of legislation that the end goal is blurred even more and it becomes more difficult to find a standard and common ground, further extending the mess that's already created.
I don't know who wins in such a situation, but I know it's not me as a consumer.
I have a father-in-law that's Ret. USAF and multiple family members that were in some branch of service. Holidays on leave or weekend trips seem to have at least one moment of all of us gathered around a table playing cards, drinking beer, and having a military stupidity one-up contest.
It is unfortunately very hard to win due to the many, many quality entrants.
I was on a flight to Kuwait deploying with my unit. We were waiting to fly out of Ft. Campbell and these guys are running around telling us we have to pack our Gerbers, Folding knives, and lighters in our stow bags and that they cannot be on your person or in your carry on.
All of our guns though - no problem. We didn't even take out the bolts.
I understand that a military flight vs a civilian flight is totally different, but c'mon. You let me bring my GUN on the plane?
I was living in Georgia years ago and had a pre-paid cell phone. I was at a car dealership wrapping up my car purchase when I looked across the street into the "mobile residence" and saw a dude DRAGGING HIS WIFE OUT OF THE TRAILER BY HER HAIR!
I called 9-1-1 and told the operator what was happening, the guy I was buying the car from was inside signing the title and I didn't know the address, only the street. The operator told me no problem, they were able to tell by my phone. I was shocked.
On a good note, the police actually showed up at a timely manner before I'd crossed the street to confront the dude. Considering the area though, I'm not so surprised at the speed of their arrival.
So: it's been done.
Now feel free to start with the Georgia / hick / trailer park jokes.
The double underlines thing drives me freakin' wild, man. The thing that bothers me about that is I think it's (un?)intentionally teaching people that the link that has been inserted into the article you're reading may not be endorsed by the site writing the piece, and getting people a bit paranoid about what they click on.
Of course, this can all be cured by taking your information from "reputable" websites - but sometimes I like to visit the other side of the tracks, and it just makes me that much more cautious. Embedded ads and content just seem like a really bad idea to me. But what the hell do I know.
Nah, the only way I come remotely close to internet advertising is the banner ads on my personal website - and 3/4 of those are for friends of mine, the other 1/4 generate the "revenue" (HAHAHAHAHA) and they're all for products and websites that I heartily endorse. No spammy popup garbage for me, but then again I have that luxury of being able to say, "No sir, I don't like it."
"In fact, it's been shown in our in-house studies that really annoying ads work better than ones that are not."
I know man, that's the part that depresses me the most: when someone thinks you can "punch a monkey and get to have sex with Neil Diamond!*" It's not that I don't think it would work as a marketing tactic, or that I don't think that people can/do/will use it. It's more the, "Uh, why now?" factor that has me puzzled.
*I personally have never seen this ad, nor would I click it.
"...including: Ad boxes, Pop-ups, Spinners, and Tabs. Easy ways to show and hide content on the page."/i>
Did we really need php/dhtml ad boxes and pop-ups? What, the good-ol' fashioned ones weren't annoying enough, or was there a strong demand for pretty dynamic pop-ups? This is one of those things that you see, and read the article and think, "Oh boy, I can't want to see this get implemented poorly and exploited." Anyone care to take any bets on how long it takes before this annoying crap is assulting us in ad format on a wide scale - or is it already?
I have zero experience with this, but I've heard good things about freecycle.org. Either your stuff ends up in the hands of another packrat (+1 for you) or ends up in the hands of someone who *needs* it (+1 for you). Give it a look-see, the end result looks good either way.
Wal-Mart is becoming the DIY headquarters for the sleepless youth of America. I remember hatching wonderous schemes with my friends and heading off to the Wal-Mart in the wee shelf-stocking hours to buy the materials needed to accomplish our plans... with interesting results.
The absolute best however was the idea to combine solid-fuel model rocket engines, large toy cars, and almost abandoned parking garages. A very stupid and dangerous activity of questionable legality was made all the more fun by seeing the checkers faces at that ungodly hour, trying to figure out why we were buying:
An assortment of large plastic cars
2 rolls of gaffers tape
Large stage solid rockets
Ignitors
Off brand Barbie dolls
Flashlights
Goggles
Liquid graphite
The conversations were always hilarious - and considering our share was coming from a bunch of "punk kids" with a random assortment of hair colors, piercings, stages of (un)dress, and associated stereotypes - we always had a good time.
Late Night Checker: Soooo... what are you fellas up to? Punk Kids: We're building rocket cars. LNC: *vacant expression* PK's: We're going to attach these motors to the cars, and shoot them up ramps in parking garages. LNC: Right, so the goggles are for protection... uh, the barbies? PK's: Someone has to drive, dude. LNC: And the liquid graphite is for the axles? (Every now and then we got a bright one) PK's: Nah, that's just "personal lubricant".
Now, that's all gone. With self-checkout I can buy any assortment of bizzaire and crazy crap with no-one to question me with the exception of the few flagged items that require "customer service" checks - although this may not be true depending on how late the self-checkouts are open in your area.
In any case the idea of Wal-Mart doing this has Dell beat on one thing, if not price: instant gratification. A lot of times I'll dump an extra couple of bucks on something I can get right now as opposed to waiting for delivery. And if I can custom configure a box, get it at a competitive(ish) price with quality hardware, and pay say $50 bucks more to take it home and commence the fiddlin' associated with a new computer purchase - I'll probably do it.
On the same note however, if they can't beat the prices available online by a good margin or stay very close to prices available online - the only added incentive to me becomes: ease of return and instant gratification. I've become more savvy with my online shopping to accomodate for shipping times, returns, etc. My matra has become buy before you run out and have scheduled purchases. Which brings up yet another issue with selling locally and cutting in on the online sales of computers:
Taxes.
Where I live in Tennessee (By force, not by choice) we pay a "fair use" tax on internet and out of state sales, i.e., if you buy it online or in Kentucky (no sales tax) you're supposed to voluntarily give the State the sales tax. I am very dubious as to how often this actually happens by anyone who is not forced to do so by their employer, as I am.
I think for the people that are interested in spending the time to research best prices and save a buck are not going to be lured into buying their computers from Wal-Mart (especially the "high end" gaming market) or anything other than emergency peripherals. (If you ever need that kind of thing,. I have a box so full of mice you could choke a thousand donkeys with it.) But the sheer volume and monlith that is Wal-Mart is so saturated and in so many markets that "Average Joe American" cannot help but notice that their best friend and retailer of everything is now selling custom configuration computers.
Slashdot Mirror
Truer words were never spoken.
oh, windows cursor!
your vista features amaze!
where is my O/S?
DirectX.
DirectX! DirectX! DirectX!
PETAB sounds like a flavor of cola gone very, very wrong.
Sonofa... well, I guess I just got voted off the "Open Source Investment Team".
Five bucks says he used Vi to make the whole thing.
DAMMIT! I knew I should have gone with France!
So what came first: the chicken or the egg? I get what you're puttin' out there, it just seems like a stupid unmanagable solution to a nearly non-existant problem. So they tell the FCC to find a solution to this problem, gives the FCC a timeframe to come up with something workable and implement it and then... it happens? We all have to buy new hardware to meet this "standard", as per the article? I would think making a broadcast flag for digital media would be intensely worthless, what with so much "outdated" hardware hanging around and such a growing home-brew community.
And the award for most creative analogy involving both Vanilla Ice and consumer operating systems goes to....
VINIVIDIVICI!
Bravo, my friend. Bravo.
So what happens when you have a broadcaster that isn't meeting the requirements of a broadcast flag that has no standard, protocol, or you know, form of any mention? How do you hold someone to a standard that doesn't exist?
If garbage like this gets through, I expect to see many, many different flags created by different companies that don't play well together, aren't cross platform for the range of hardware used for both broadcasting and listening, and create a broadcast flag format war. Maybe this is the goal: to create such a murky and fuddled bit of legislation that the end goal is blurred even more and it becomes more difficult to find a standard and common ground, further extending the mess that's already created.
I don't know who wins in such a situation, but I know it's not me as a consumer.
Nope, I sure didn't.
Here's the super scary part:
Anyone could have had ammo.
Yikes!
So tehcyder already beat me to my answer. In any case, spot on brother.
I have a father-in-law that's Ret. USAF and multiple family members that were in some branch of service. Holidays on leave or weekend trips seem to have at least one moment of all of us gathered around a table playing cards, drinking beer, and having a military stupidity one-up contest.
It is unfortunately very hard to win due to the many, many quality entrants.
I was on a flight to Kuwait deploying with my unit. We were waiting to fly out of Ft. Campbell and these guys are running around telling us we have to pack our Gerbers, Folding knives, and lighters in our stow bags and that they cannot be on your person or in your carry on.
All of our guns though - no problem. We didn't even take out the bolts.
I understand that a military flight vs a civilian flight is totally different, but c'mon. You let me bring my GUN on the plane?
I was living in Georgia years ago and had a pre-paid cell phone. I was at a car dealership wrapping up my car purchase when I looked across the street into the "mobile residence" and saw a dude DRAGGING HIS WIFE OUT OF THE TRAILER BY HER HAIR! I called 9-1-1 and told the operator what was happening, the guy I was buying the car from was inside signing the title and I didn't know the address, only the street. The operator told me no problem, they were able to tell by my phone. I was shocked.
On a good note, the police actually showed up at a timely manner before I'd crossed the street to confront the dude. Considering the area though, I'm not so surprised at the speed of their arrival.
So: it's been done.
Now feel free to start with the Georgia / hick / trailer park jokes.
What happens when you road rage and whip it out the window? They text message your ticket to... no-one?
I only bring this up due to the dent in my buddies car from a cell phone road rage incident.
Uh dude, I think you mean "Hacking the Gibson".
The third arm that they sprout will serve as a good warning. A bit after the fact though.
The double underlines thing drives me freakin' wild, man. The thing that bothers me about that is I think it's (un?)intentionally teaching people that the link that has been inserted into the article you're reading may not be endorsed by the site writing the piece, and getting people a bit paranoid about what they click on.
Of course, this can all be cured by taking your information from "reputable" websites - but sometimes I like to visit the other side of the tracks, and it just makes me that much more cautious. Embedded ads and content just seem like a really bad idea to me. But what the hell do I know.
*I personally have never seen this ad, nor would I click it.
I have zero experience with this, but I've heard good things about freecycle.org. Either your stuff ends up in the hands of another packrat (+1 for you) or ends up in the hands of someone who *needs* it (+1 for you). Give it a look-see, the end result looks good either way.
The absolute best however was the idea to combine solid-fuel model rocket engines, large toy cars, and almost abandoned parking garages. A very stupid and dangerous activity of questionable legality was made all the more fun by seeing the checkers faces at that ungodly hour, trying to figure out why we were buying:
The conversations were always hilarious - and considering our share was coming from a bunch of "punk kids" with a random assortment of hair colors, piercings, stages of (un)dress, and associated stereotypes - we always had a good time.
Late Night Checker: Soooo... what are you fellas up to?
Punk Kids: We're building rocket cars.
LNC: *vacant expression*
PK's: We're going to attach these motors to the cars, and shoot them up ramps in parking garages.
LNC: Right, so the goggles are for protection... uh, the barbies?
PK's: Someone has to drive, dude.
LNC: And the liquid graphite is for the axles? (Every now and then we got a bright one)
PK's: Nah, that's just "personal lubricant".
Now, that's all gone. With self-checkout I can buy any assortment of bizzaire and crazy crap with no-one to question me with the exception of the few flagged items that require "customer service" checks - although this may not be true depending on how late the self-checkouts are open in your area.
In any case the idea of Wal-Mart doing this has Dell beat on one thing, if not price: instant gratification. A lot of times I'll dump an extra couple of bucks on something I can get right now as opposed to waiting for delivery. And if I can custom configure a box, get it at a competitive(ish) price with quality hardware, and pay say $50 bucks more to take it home and commence the fiddlin' associated with a new computer purchase - I'll probably do it.
On the same note however, if they can't beat the prices available online by a good margin or stay very close to prices available online - the only added incentive to me becomes: ease of return and instant gratification. I've become more savvy with my online shopping to accomodate for shipping times, returns, etc. My matra has become buy before you run out and have scheduled purchases. Which brings up yet another issue with selling locally and cutting in on the online sales of computers:
Taxes.
Where I live in Tennessee (By force, not by choice) we pay a "fair use" tax on internet and out of state sales, i.e., if you buy it online or in Kentucky (no sales tax) you're supposed to voluntarily give the State the sales tax. I am very dubious as to how often this actually happens by anyone who is not forced to do so by their employer, as I am.
I think for the people that are interested in spending the time to research best prices and save a buck are not going to be lured into buying their computers from Wal-Mart (especially the "high end" gaming market) or anything other than emergency peripherals. (If you ever need that kind of thing,. I have a box so full of mice you could choke a thousand donkeys with it.) But the sheer volume and monlith that is Wal-Mart is so saturated and in so many markets that "Average Joe American" cannot help but notice that their best friend and retailer of everything is now selling custom configuration computers.