Of course, all of the comments from the Hellmouth series *are* still freely available to anyone who wants them. If you want the coments in nice, convenient book form, buy the book. If not, read them here.
If you send comments to ANY public forum, whether it be Slashdot, a newspaper or a magazine, the publisher has the right to re-publish those comments. Period. If the New York Times wants to a publish a compilation of letters to the editor, do you think they need to contact the author of every letter they intend to publish? I think not.
It's almost funny seeing people whining about having comments republished. I'd be curious to see how many of the whiners have even one ill-gotten mp3 somewhere on their boxes. I would have thought the Slashdot crowd would have lauded this effort. Not only are Katz & Co. drawing needed attention to what's going on in our schools and country at large, but they are using the proceeds for charitable purposes. Of all people, I would have thought my fellow advocates of free and open information would be tickled by this. In fact, I'm quite astonished that such staunch advocates of free-everything would suddenly cave under the prospect that, *gasp* someone might republish their comments made on a PUBLIC forum. I applaud this effort, and hope it reaches deeply into every corner of America.
As for my comments, feel free to publish them wherever you want. And if you make a million bucks from it, I don't care if I don't see one cent.
This discussion sure seems to have separated the men from the boys.
This is just awful! This would make being a soldier totally suck! When the lieutenant sends you off on a recon mission, how are you supposed to go off to the nearest stream, go skinny dipping, sun yourself on a rock, have a smoke, and then go back and pretend you did what you were told when they can track your every movement? This is America dammit! Soldiers have a right, no a God-given DUTY to slack off! Oh the humanity!
Bahhhhhhh....my Newton MessagePad 130 still rocks. I like it better than any PDA I ever tried. Perfect form factor (it's big enough to actually WRITE on the thing!), quick, long battery life. The only thing I wish it had was the ability to play mp3s.
What about people who, for one reason or another, never took the SAT (e.g. prior military service allows one to be accepted at a university without SATs)? Are admissions handled on a case-by-case basis, or are the rules rigid in this regard?
FWIW, (I'm a consultant and have worked for everything from Fortune 500 companies to internet start-ups) I think smaller companies tend towards being more ethical than larger companies. Big companies usually talk a nice line about their social responsibility, but ultimately they are beholden to the stockholders and the bottom-line is paramount. Small companies, especially ones that are privately held, are more tied to an individual's conscience. They're more human.
Ultima Underworld was the *first* FPS. It was out two years before Doom, and two months before Wolfenstein. IMHO, UU was better than either. I spent a LOT of time playing that.
I know who the first people I'd turn in would be. All those goons brutalizing each other on that big field out back of the school. I mean, they even wear ARMOR! I just play with a nice safe computer. These guys actually manifest their sociopathic, violent fantasies on other living humans! Talk about mal-adjusted, unbalanced youth. Then there's those other guys down in that big room. You know the ones. They wear tights (now THAT'S normal) and rub up against each other and lie on the floor together, getting all sweaty. Ugh. Yeah, I'm all for this program. What's the 1-800 number again?
"There is a cost to reproducing digital content especially something like a DVD. The bandwidth alone to download a DVD is to prohibitive so yes you can create as many copies as you want but who will have access to this infinite media?"
But these currently minimal costs are purely the result of technological limitations that are rapidly fading. It won't be long when the typical end user has enough bandwidth to download the average mp3 in a second or two. It won't be much longer after that that you will be able to grab a whole movie in a matter of seconds. Mass storage capacity will get cheaper and cheaper, allowing you to store whatever you want. Actually, by that point bandwidth will probably be enough that you won't need to store things locally. Just DL it every time you use it. The cost of distribution *will* go to zero, sooner than later. The only option at that point is to figure out other profit models that don't directly charge for the content. We'll live in a world where you can grab a copy of The Phantom Menace anywhere for free. But you might want to get a compilation of every scene from every movie that Natalie Portman has appeared in. For this I would be willing to pay a small fee. I think micropayments are one of the keys. Profit will be based on volume. Services will also be big too. I think the most rapidly evolving segment of eCommerce is the service industry. There are all kinds of things, from information search and retrieval services, to financial services, and others people haven't even thought of yet that are going to be real profit drivers.
"What are those rules? I don't claim to know; I don't think the Net has yet been around long enough that one could form a set which works. The old economic laws certainly don't work; the Net itself violates even the most basic law of supply and demand (supply is essentially infinite, but demand is clearly nonzero). The Open-Source ethic might be an answer, but it also might not."
While I don't have all the answers, here's one possible solution. As the poster said, the net creates a "zone of abundance" where digital products essentially exist in infinite supply. Economics dictates that the cost of an item in infinite supply should be zero. So how does someone continue to earn money in such a situation? The answer, I think, is service. The net is a vast terrain of information. With enough work, anything can be had for free. The profit model that can work in this situation is to provide services that make it easier to navigate this sea of information, or services that provide some value over and above the $0.00 cost of the information itself. For example, while I can probably find any song I want on the net for free, I would rather pay a modest fee, say $.50 a song, to go to a place that allows me to search and download easily. Similarly, when I want to buy something, I could spend the time to research the available products myself, but I would much rather pay a small fee to someone who would do that work for me. Essentially I am no longer paying for the information on the the internet, I am paying for the work of the individuals who bring context to the information, or provide some other service over and above the granular information item. As the net grows, this model has to become more commonplace. It is simply getting too big to find everything you want efficiently. The best search engine out there only indexes what, 30% or 40% of the internet? When content is free, context will become king. Those that fail to recognize this may be lost in the shuffle.
I have a Windows 98 CD here. Does this mean I OWN Windows and can do whatever I want with it? I bet the law would disagree if I started burning copies and handing 'em out on the street corner.
Yes, but it has been widely recognized for years that copying software for your personal use is perfectly legitimate. I can burn 1000 copies of Win200 and use them to wallpaper my house if I choose. I can make backups to my hearts content. The same thing for music. I buy CDs once, rip them to my computer, and then put the CD away never to be used again. I ONLY listen to music on my computer. The record company hasn't lost a dime, and I am a happy consumer. This is why I see nothing wrong with Beam-It. I already own the CD. I have a perfect right to listen to the music contained on that CD whenever and wherever I want. The distribution medium is irrelevant. As long as the recordning company got my money in exchange for a copy of the music, how I choose to listen to it is my business.
FWIW, the developers are probably not involved with things like the video or the soundtrack. These things are usually handled by other teams, or even other companies. In other words, they are done by people who, if they weren't working on that stuff, wouldn't be working on anything that contributed directly to the game anyway. Things like title screens, intros, marketing fluff, and in many cases the start-up UI are usually not handled by the game developers, at least not at larger game companies like Blizzard.
I'm a godless heathen and I still thought it was a pretty sick place to get married. This is something that you will (hopefully) only do once in your entire life. Twenty years from now I wouldn't want to look back and reminesce fondly over how the best man took a rocket up the arse as he was delivering his speach. Or talk to my grandchildren about how grandma's bloody severed head flew across the room instead of a bouquet.
Isn't htis kind of twisted?
on
Quake Wedding
·
· Score: 1
Don't get me wrong, I love fragging as much as the next guy, but isn't there something seriously wrong with staging your wedding in the Quake milieu? (ooh! a chance to use the word "milieu" in a sentence. Doesn't happen every day, ya' know) Seriously, weddings are supposed to be times of happiness, love, peace, yadda, yadda, yadda. What does it say about people when they choose to commit their lives to each other in an atmosphere of guns, death, blood, etc.? Who here would want their wedding to take place in a world of ultra-violence? Kinda creepy if you ask me.
>This is very much like the situation with Americans on the Internet. They are always so sure that they run the entire world. That pisses me off as well.
Yeah? Well how many aircraft carriers do *you* have?;)
People keep talking about how great this would be for creating Quake levels and such, and how easy it would be to digitize whole rooms. THE CAMERA CANNOT DO THIS! It can ONLY create 3D models of relatively small objects. Something the size of a human would be pushing its limits. The website explicitly states the camera cannot create models of rooms or buildings. The thing this will be really big for is merchants wanting to put 3D models of the products they want to sell onthe web for consumers to look at.
Read my earlier comment about Reaction Research Society, a group of amateur hobbyists who put a rocket into space in 1996. If a few guys can do that as a hobby, I don't think it will be long before commercial manned space flight really takes off.
Space is definately within the reach of just about anyone nowadays. You don't even need big government backing to do it. Check out Reaction Research Society, a group of amateur rocket builders who put a 65 lb. payload into space in 1996 (it achieved an altitude of 50 miles - the videos of the flight are simply incredible). They did this as a *hobby*! This has to be one of the ultimate geek projects of the decade.
c is only a constant in a vacuum. The speed of light slows down in other media due to refraction. The distance hasn't increased nor has time slowed down. Light is just slower in other media.
There would, however, be a localized time dilation effect in a vortex medium that was moving at near-c velocities.
RE: Power - I like the wind generator idea. Another possibility would be to grab some ice, melt it, and electrolyze H and O out of it. Use the H for a fuel cell. Another possibility: air drop blivets of gas and let the rover find them and fuel itself. I wonder of you could make biodegradable blivets?
Given that off-the-shelf components are relatively cheap, it strikes me that it would be feasible to cobble together an open source rover for exploration of remote areas. Cameras and sensors are cheap. A ham radio satellite link can be used for communication. Just get someone to take the rover along on an Antarctic resupply mission (I live right by the company that supports the Antarctic research stations - I could talk to someone there), set it down and let 'er go. Even if no valuable data is gained from the project, it would at least be fun. And we all know that's the most important thing anyway.
Heck, this could even lead to amateur-built, open source space probes;) Make something small and relatively self-sufficient, and you could buy some space on the shuttle or an Arianne rocket. That's how hams get their satellites up. I think it would be WAY cool to have our own, cheap orbiting web cam:)
Prior use buddy. I've been shooting lawyers since waaaay back. I'll see you in court pal. That is, if I can find some intact lawyers around here. Seems there all dead....
I would agree with you if ICrave was rebroadcasting the signal sans advertisements or any network branding. As it is, they are sending a completely unedited signal. I highly doubt anyone is going to watch the latest dorky NBC miniseries and then tell his friends "guess what I saw on ICrave last night?" They are going to identify the show as an NBC show. Same thing for news. No one is going to start calling "Dateline NBC," "Dateline ICrave."
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, all of the comments from the Hellmouth series *are* still freely available to anyone who wants them. If you want the coments in nice, convenient book form, buy the book. If not, read them here.
If you send comments to ANY public forum, whether it be Slashdot, a newspaper or a magazine, the publisher has the right to re-publish those comments. Period. If the New York Times wants to a publish a compilation of letters to the editor, do you think they need to contact the author of every letter they intend to publish? I think not.
As for my comments, feel free to publish them wherever you want. And if you make a million bucks from it, I don't care if I don't see one cent.
This discussion sure seems to have separated the men from the boys.
This is just awful! This would make being a soldier totally suck! When the lieutenant sends you off on a recon mission, how are you supposed to go off to the nearest stream, go skinny dipping, sun yourself on a rock, have a smoke, and then go back and pretend you did what you were told when they can track your every movement? This is America dammit! Soldiers have a right, no a God-given DUTY to slack off! Oh the humanity!
Bahhhhhhh....my Newton MessagePad 130 still rocks. I like it better than any PDA I ever tried. Perfect form factor (it's big enough to actually WRITE on the thing!), quick, long battery life. The only thing I wish it had was the ability to play mp3s.
What about people who, for one reason or another, never took the SAT (e.g. prior military service allows one to be accepted at a university without SATs)? Are admissions handled on a case-by-case basis, or are the rules rigid in this regard?
FWIW, (I'm a consultant and have worked for everything from Fortune 500 companies to internet start-ups) I think smaller companies tend towards being more ethical than larger companies. Big companies usually talk a nice line about their social responsibility, but ultimately they are beholden to the stockholders and the bottom-line is paramount. Small companies, especially ones that are privately held, are more tied to an individual's conscience. They're more human.
I know who the first people I'd turn in would be. All those goons brutalizing each other on that big field out back of the school. I mean, they even wear ARMOR! I just play with a nice safe computer. These guys actually manifest their sociopathic, violent fantasies on other living humans! Talk about mal-adjusted, unbalanced youth. Then there's those other guys down in that big room. You know the ones. They wear tights (now THAT'S normal) and rub up against each other and lie on the floor together, getting all sweaty. Ugh. Yeah, I'm all for this program. What's the 1-800 number again?
But these currently minimal costs are purely the result of technological limitations that are rapidly fading. It won't be long when the typical end user has enough bandwidth to download the average mp3 in a second or two. It won't be much longer after that that you will be able to grab a whole movie in a matter of seconds. Mass storage capacity will get cheaper and cheaper, allowing you to store whatever you want. Actually, by that point bandwidth will probably be enough that you won't need to store things locally. Just DL it every time you use it. The cost of distribution *will* go to zero, sooner than later. The only option at that point is to figure out other profit models that don't directly charge for the content. We'll live in a world where you can grab a copy of The Phantom Menace anywhere for free. But you might want to get a compilation of every scene from every movie that Natalie Portman has appeared in. For this I would be willing to pay a small fee. I think micropayments are one of the keys. Profit will be based on volume. Services will also be big too. I think the most rapidly evolving segment of eCommerce is the service industry. There are all kinds of things, from information search and retrieval services, to financial services, and others people haven't even thought of yet that are going to be real profit drivers.
While I don't have all the answers, here's one possible solution. As the poster said, the net creates a "zone of abundance" where digital products essentially exist in infinite supply. Economics dictates that the cost of an item in infinite supply should be zero. So how does someone continue to earn money in such a situation? The answer, I think, is service. The net is a vast terrain of information. With enough work, anything can be had for free. The profit model that can work in this situation is to provide services that make it easier to navigate this sea of information, or services that provide some value over and above the $0.00 cost of the information itself. For example, while I can probably find any song I want on the net for free, I would rather pay a modest fee, say $.50 a song, to go to a place that allows me to search and download easily. Similarly, when I want to buy something, I could spend the time to research the available products myself, but I would much rather pay a small fee to someone who would do that work for me. Essentially I am no longer paying for the information on the the internet, I am paying for the work of the individuals who bring context to the information, or provide some other service over and above the granular information item. As the net grows, this model has to become more commonplace. It is simply getting too big to find everything you want efficiently. The best search engine out there only indexes what, 30% or 40% of the internet? When content is free, context will become king. Those that fail to recognize this may be lost in the shuffle.
Yes, but it has been widely recognized for years that copying software for your personal use is perfectly legitimate. I can burn 1000 copies of Win200 and use them to wallpaper my house if I choose. I can make backups to my hearts content. The same thing for music. I buy CDs once, rip them to my computer, and then put the CD away never to be used again. I ONLY listen to music on my computer. The record company hasn't lost a dime, and I am a happy consumer. This is why I see nothing wrong with Beam-It. I already own the CD. I have a perfect right to listen to the music contained on that CD whenever and wherever I want. The distribution medium is irrelevant. As long as the recordning company got my money in exchange for a copy of the music, how I choose to listen to it is my business.
FWIW, the developers are probably not involved with things like the video or the soundtrack. These things are usually handled by other teams, or even other companies. In other words, they are done by people who, if they weren't working on that stuff, wouldn't be working on anything that contributed directly to the game anyway. Things like title screens, intros, marketing fluff, and in many cases the start-up UI are usually not handled by the game developers, at least not at larger game companies like Blizzard.
Anyone know how much the Aura costs? I GOTTA get one!
I'm a godless heathen and I still thought it was a pretty sick place to get married. This is something that you will (hopefully) only do once in your entire life. Twenty years from now I wouldn't want to look back and reminesce fondly over how the best man took a rocket up the arse as he was delivering his speach. Or talk to my grandchildren about how grandma's bloody severed head flew across the room instead of a bouquet.
Don't get me wrong, I love fragging as much as the next guy, but isn't there something seriously wrong with staging your wedding in the Quake milieu? (ooh! a chance to use the word "milieu" in a sentence. Doesn't happen every day, ya' know) Seriously, weddings are supposed to be times of happiness, love, peace, yadda, yadda, yadda. What does it say about people when they choose to commit their lives to each other in an atmosphere of guns, death, blood, etc.? Who here would want their wedding to take place in a world of ultra-violence? Kinda creepy if you ask me.
Yeah? Well how many aircraft carriers do *you* have? ;)
Read my earlier comment about Reaction Research Society, a group of amateur hobbyists who put a rocket into space in 1996. If a few guys can do that as a hobby, I don't think it will be long before commercial manned space flight really takes off.
c is only a constant in a vacuum. The speed of light slows down in other media due to refraction. The distance hasn't increased nor has time slowed down. Light is just slower in other media.
There would, however, be a localized time dilation effect in a vortex medium that was moving at near-c velocities.
RE: Power - I like the wind generator idea. Another possibility would be to grab some ice, melt it, and electrolyze H and O out of it. Use the H for a fuel cell. Another possibility: air drop blivets of gas and let the rover find them and fuel itself. I wonder of you could make biodegradable blivets?
Given that off-the-shelf components are relatively cheap, it strikes me that it would be feasible to cobble together an open source rover for exploration of remote areas. Cameras and sensors are cheap. A ham radio satellite link can be used for communication. Just get someone to take the rover along on an Antarctic resupply mission (I live right by the company that supports the Antarctic research stations - I could talk to someone there), set it down and let 'er go. Even if no valuable data is gained from the project, it would at least be fun. And we all know that's the most important thing anyway.
;) Make something small and relatively self-sufficient, and you could buy some space on the shuttle or an Arianne rocket. That's how hams get their satellites up. I think it would be WAY cool to have our own, cheap orbiting web cam :)
Heck, this could even lead to amateur-built, open source space probes
Prior use buddy. I've been shooting lawyers since waaaay back. I'll see you in court pal. That is, if I can find some intact lawyers around here. Seems there all dead....
I would agree with you if ICrave was rebroadcasting the signal sans advertisements or any network branding. As it is, they are sending a completely unedited signal. I highly doubt anyone is going to watch the latest dorky NBC miniseries and then tell his friends "guess what I saw on ICrave last night?" They are going to identify the show as an NBC show. Same thing for news. No one is going to start calling "Dateline NBC," "Dateline ICrave."