"With "Me Media" I can point a microscope at one story, and delve far beneath the surface."
Is that really true though? Is it actually possible to look at an inssue in such microscopic depth on the internet? Let's say there is a story posted on CNN about Joe Politician doing something naughty. Where can I go to get more detailed, accurate information that is better than what the major news outlets publish? It strikes me that the vast majority of so-called "me media" sites are nothing more than collections of unverified, unadulterated personal opinion. Take Slashdot for example. The stories posted here are almost invariably links to other, more mainstream news articles. The comments are usually nothing more than personal opinion and commentary. They may let me know how you and others "feel" about something, but they usually offer little in the way of substantially new information pertaining directly to the story in question. When you get right down to it, "me media" offers little more than a whole lot of "me too" comments from the public. There aren't a lot of places that accurately cover news stories in more depth than CNN or MSNBC or the AP, since most of the alternative sites simply repeat what the major sites publish. In that sense I think the original article overstates the problem. I believe the internet actually does provide a shared expereince in that regardless of where you hear about something, you're usually reading the same basic set of facts about an issue as everyone else.
The real power in the internet is in the establishment of focused portal sites that aggregate information about specific subjects so people can get more breadth (not depth) to their informaiton consumption. If I am interested in some particular issue, I can frequent sites that focus on that issue and collect a large number of references to many articles that help me get a better overall picture of the issue. Such sites usually don't offer any new or deeper information, but they do make it easy to access what is already out there so that I am able to better filter the information by checking one source against another.
And what an idiot you must be for replying to my post, since as you say, this is stuff you "already know."
Nothing is more ridiculous than a critic engaging in exactly what he is being critical of. What a dipshit.
Well guess what Dave, your opinions are completely irrelevant. There are a LOT of people who visit/. quite frequently, and enjoy participating in the community. I am now more hopeful than ever that/. goes to a subscription-based model since it will probably keep "3 times a week" trolls like you away.
Of course, we all know you visit/. much more than three times a week. You're a closet addict. No better than the crack head down the street. Ashamed of your addiction. Well I say come clean Dave. Admit to the world that you are like a cocaine-addicted lab rat, hitting the refresh button over and over until you're ready to collapse. You can't get enough of it, Dave. The monkey's on your back and it controls you. *I* control you. You respond to me like a finely tuned instrument. You will at first not want to respond, because you know that's what I want you to do. But you won't be able to help yourself. It will eat at you. The burning desire to flame will gnaw at your very being. It's hopeless, Dave. Flame me and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Everyone keeps talking about how, if they want to surf ad-free, they can just use Junkbuster. That's not the point. The point is supporting the sites which you value and want to see continue. Slashdot is a resource that I use constantly. I enjoy reading things here, and I would be willing to pay a fee to continue using it. I would even be willing to pay a fee AND keep seeing the ads, since the ads on/. are not the obtrusive. My primary interest would be to ensure that/. gets enough money to keep on doing what it currently does. If the current banner ad system is more lucrative than a subscription-based service, then keep the ads. If, however, subscriptions would generate more income, then I am more than willing to pay. Well-maintained sites need to have a source of income to continue to provide service. I for one do not relish the prospect of the Internet becoming nothing more than a collection of personal blogs and fan sites run by people as part-time hobbies. For a site to rise above that noise it needs to generate some income so the maintainers can enhance the service offered.
Rob, if you want to sell subscriptions, I will pay. I even suggest taking a look at Qpass to see if they might be a solution. They offer support for subscriptions.
Uh huh. I still haven't seen a rendered-on-the-fly animation that I can't immediately tell was computer generated. And I don't mean piddly little GeForce cards either. I'm talking about million-dollar SGI workhorses. The need for processing power doesn't come from pushing polygons. It comes from realistically making the objects in the environment behave in a realistic fashion. There isn't a computer in existence that can realistically render the motion of hair blowing in the wind. Even if we get to the point where a computer can render an animation of a human being that is indistiguishable from a film of the real article, we still won't have enough power. The environments get larger and larger. Once you can simulate one person, you need to be able to simulate a thousand at the same time. Think massively multiplayer environments. We aren't even close to having the raw processing power necessary to simulate large-scale environments with thousands of objects.
In the ideal FSF world, the GPL would cease to exist. It would no longer be needed. The GPL is a reaction to outdated and counterproductive copyright law. Without those laws, the GPL is unnecessary.
Maybe, just maybe, the whole point is that the notion of anyone owning or controlling *any* information is simply wrong. Sure, the law currently says that distributing copyrighted information without permission is illegal in certain cases, but just because the law says it doesn't make it right. Perhaps people's notions of copyright needs to change. If the result of strong copyright laws is that a few large corporations get to keep realizing outrageous profit margins, then maybe such laws no longer serve the public interest. There is nothing that says a company is entitled to continue to make money. Things change. The distribution modality of digital information is such that it costs $0.00 to distribute unlimited copies once the work has been created. This has an economic impact on the value of the work created. It is now worth less, and any law that attempts to erect road blocks to prevent digital distribution in order to artificially maintain high prices will fail. Big distribution companies have to take this econonomic reality into consideration and either find new revenue streams, or be satsified with smaller margins. Ultimately this benefits the artists themselves because they are free to take advantage of this new channel and market directly to consumers. Maybe they will only get $.25 per song downloaded, but that's more than they currently get from the record companies. Maybe some artists won't become millionaires. There's nothing wrong with that. It's simply a reflection of a changing economy. Artificially maintaining the status quo has never worked in the long run, and it won't work in this case.
mp3's? Okay, thats a valid use. What's the sound quality like, how many mp3's can you store on it at one time? What is the battery life going to be if I want to listen to mp'3s all day long? I'll get a walkman and listen to tapes for next to nothing if I want mobile music.
My iPaq has better sound quality than my portable CD player, and it's LOUD. With a 2GB microdrive I can store my entire mp3 collection. Batttery life is no worse than my CD player, and it recharges rapidly.
Portable gaming machine? Okay, another neat app. So I'm going to play quake and doom on this little tiny screen? And that will be fun how???? Sure that's cool, but it's a gimick. What else...tetris??? come on...
Graphics quality is actually very good, even with the little screen. Doom is perfectly playable. There is one problem with it not being able to recognize multiple keypresses, but that may be fixed via a ROM update. What's really fun is using a stowaway keyboard. Doom works great with that. I play tetris all the time on mine as well.
ebook reader? Okay, another neat use. I'm going to read a book on that little tiny screen? No. I don't even read books on my PC with my nice big screen and my cushy chair. It's a strain on my eyes and not nearly as enjoyable as a dead tree.
The eBook reader is probably one of the best things about the iPaq. I have now switched almost entirely to reading books using it. I've read about five books so far on it, and I have about six more stored on the thing that I'm currently reading. The clear type technology makes the print quality VERY good. It's easy on the eyes, and more convenient than a paper book. I would say that in terms of time spent using the thing, the majority has been for reading books. Baen offers a subscription-based sci-fi book club that has tons of titles.
As for demand, Compaq can't keep them on the shelves. The iPaq is currently the most popular PDA in terms of sales growth out there. They've been going on eBay for as much as $1500. Everyone who has seen mine immediately wants to buy one. It's a desktop machine the size of a Palm III.
That was their big flagship location. The economics of these things don't scale to large, expensive installations. The overhead is too high. You need to be in a small space, with 20-30 machines. Most of the other small Wizards stores have game machines too, and they are opening more and more of them. If you've ever been to the big Wizards location in the U district, you can just imagine that the rent on that place alone probably cost more than what they were taking in. There was a lot of wasted space in that place
If you like, contact me at geekxx@hotmail.com. I'd be really interested in talking to your friend about this. Maybe we could help each other out. My revenue predictions indicate you should be able to do quite well running one of these.
Oh, we're doing all that. The gaming rigs will be 1.2 Ghz Athlons with 256 MB RAM, GeForce 2 Ultras, Razer Boomslang mice, and 19" trinitrons. They will all be configured exactly alike for tournament play, so no advantage from having a better rig (we'll be imaging the HDs and restoring them every night. Players will be able to store their personal configurations on the server).
Wizards of the Coast are quite successful at running network game centers. Everytime I go into one all the computers are occupied with players paying $6.00 an hour.
I'm actually starting up a game center myself. Any suggestions on the kinds of things you'd like to see at a place like that would be great.
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think we will ever return to anything like the heyday of RPGs. The market simply isn't large enough to sustain many competing game systems, especially with the release of 3rd Ed. D&D. Wizards has pretty much trounced all other competitors. It's sad.
Of course, in a way pen and paper RPGs are kind of like Linux. It doesn't really matter if other game systems are not supported, since I can play anything I want. I don't *need* Wizards of the Coast or some other company to publish modules and books. I have everything I need to run several different systems, and the knowledge to make my own. RPGs are first and foremost games that take place within your head. It's entirely up to your imagination.
Since the "Lone Gunmen" have shown us that it is possible to hack into the primary flight controls of an airliner in flight, hacking this bad boy should be no problem. What this thing REALLY needs is a couple of Octium IVs (tm).
not every application has a close button. Since wince actually splits memory into "program memory" and "storage memory" this eats up alot of ram, unless you enjoy closing the program manually with control panel or using the highly efficient and intuitive "ctrl-q" (which of course means bringing up the keyboard).
At first I thought this would be a problem too, but after using my iPaq for a few months, it actually hasn't turned out to be an issue. I haven't had any memory problems, and if I'm going to fire up a real hog I just hit the Compaq menu button and select "close all tasks." No need to use the keyboard at all.
there's also no easy way to switch between open applications without using the "memory" app in control panel. This gets really annoying after awhile.
The start menu shows recently used apps. You can easily go directly to what you want.
the file explorer always defaults to My Documents. This doesn't sound too bad....until you've drilled down in the hierarchy and click on an image. Hey cool, it opens in IE. Lets look at the other images in that directory... use the icons at the top of the start menu to switch back to the file explorer....and you're back at My Documents. Not fun to have to switch directories again.
In day-to-day use, it's not a big problem. I suspect someone will write a better file manager, if it hasn't been done already.
As for the Casio, it is slow. The iPaq with a 206 Mhz processor is just as snappy as a Palm though. The only app that ever takes a noticable amount of time to load is MS Reader, and it only takes a couple of seconds to load.
As much as I hate Micro$oft, I gotta admit they did a lot of things right with PocketPC. I've got an iPaq and the thing is blazing fast (it'll run Quake fer Chrissakes!) and they've trimmed down the UI so it works in a palm-sized device. It also plays mp3 and mpeg video. I've had no problems with mine at all; it's the best PDA I've ever had (I've used Palm and Newton previously). Topping it off, M$ released, for free, complete C++ and VB IDEs for it, making it a snap to develop for it.
-Jeff -Vercingetorix
In the Army, we didn't shoot at people. We shot at equipment. The Geneva convention does not limit what you can use against equipment. A rucksack is equipment. Boots are equipment. If a person happens to be wearing that equipment when you are shooting at it, oh well.
Ever see a 20mm Vulcan autocannon employed in the anti-personnel role? It's standard practice for the US military, and believe me, there is NO chance a human being has any chance of surviving a hit from that thing. Pink mist baby.
Uh, somebody should tell DigitalConvergence that the::():#()*#CueCat is a failed product. Even a SuperBowl commercial won't get this cat out of the bag.
Movies are already easily copied onto tape, yet people still pay to rent them, buy them, and see them in theaters. Music is free on Napster, yet CD sales are at a record high.
The only downside of this model is that some industries will probably not see the same profit margins they currently enjoy. Instead of making $171 million, a movie like The Matrix might make only $100 million. Oh well. Nobody said any industry is gauranteed to maintain profits at a certain level.
If anything, a subscription based service like I outlined can serve to offset potential revenue losses from digital piracy. 500,000 people each paying $1 a month to get to the premium movie web site will more than make up for lost box-office revenue. The idea is to build a community around the product that can't be had anywhere else, and that people would be willing to pay a small fee for. You'll never stop outright piracy of digital content, but the real value isn't in the content. It's how the content is aggregated into a bundle of services and other products.
It all comes down to economics. When the cost of distribution becomes effectively $0.00, then consumers will not be motivated to pay. They can get it illicitly for free, and consumers have shown overwhelmingly that even if it is illegal, they will do it. The question is, what is the value proposition of online content? What would consumers be willing to pay for? I think the answer lies in services and other value-add models where the content is basically free, but you pay for the added services. I'll give you an example of what I mean.
Let's say a new movie comes out that has a killer soundtrack. I, as a consumer, could use Napster or Gnutella to download the song for free, but what if the movie studio offered a web site that included not only the ability to download the tracks, but also had screen savers tied into the movie, downloadable trailers and teasers, and occaisonal online chat sessions with the stars and production crew? Essentially they could provide a whole range of products and services that I simply can't get in one place anywhere else. They aggregate the content, making it searchable and easy to get from one source. Consumers might be willing to pay for this service that offers value over and above what the mere content is worth. Perhaps they could charge $1.00 a month for access. This could tie in to a whole service offering for the studio. For a small subscription fee you could access a whole range of services for all their movies. Searchable movie databases, old scripts, etc.
This model is essentially the Free Software model. The content (software) is free. What companies charge for is the service that supports the content.
As for power usage on this PC, even if it was the same as a regular laptop (which it isn't since it doesn't have the same kind of power management as a laptop), you'd still only get a couple of hours of use out of it. A wearable needs to get a minimum of eight hours of continuous usage.
The problem is, the proponents of some really bad ideas do not engage in rational discourse on the subject, so there is no way to show the fallacies of their position in rational debate. Take Holocaust deniers as an example. Nothing you can say can disuade them from their perverse view of history. They are committed to an *idealogical* view that has no basis in fact. Their tactics are to simply spew endlessly about their position without regard to rational argument, in the hopes that enough non-thinking, ill-educated people hear their call and latch on to their viewpoint. In such cases, and in certain venues, I can't help but to think censorship is the only real way to deal with it. If I were a teacher, I would probably prohibit any of my students from writing a paper that denies the Holocaust, becasue if I allowed something like that, I would be forced into a position of having to rip apart the paper in front of the class in an effort to demonstrate that fallacious reasoing behind the arguments. This would only lead to ridiculing the student who wrote the paper, and that wouldn't be good for anyone. Elementary and high-school classes are not the place to cloud discusion with idealogy-based diatribes and pseudoscientific claptrap. In general, kids that age are not mature or sophisticated enough to handle the subtleties of epistemology and logic such discussions usually raise
Slashdot Mirror
Is that really true though? Is it actually possible to look at an inssue in such microscopic depth on the internet? Let's say there is a story posted on CNN about Joe Politician doing something naughty. Where can I go to get more detailed, accurate information that is better than what the major news outlets publish? It strikes me that the vast majority of so-called "me media" sites are nothing more than collections of unverified, unadulterated personal opinion. Take Slashdot for example. The stories posted here are almost invariably links to other, more mainstream news articles. The comments are usually nothing more than personal opinion and commentary. They may let me know how you and others "feel" about something, but they usually offer little in the way of substantially new information pertaining directly to the story in question. When you get right down to it, "me media" offers little more than a whole lot of "me too" comments from the public. There aren't a lot of places that accurately cover news stories in more depth than CNN or MSNBC or the AP, since most of the alternative sites simply repeat what the major sites publish. In that sense I think the original article overstates the problem. I believe the internet actually does provide a shared expereince in that regardless of where you hear about something, you're usually reading the same basic set of facts about an issue as everyone else.
The real power in the internet is in the establishment of focused portal sites that aggregate information about specific subjects so people can get more breadth (not depth) to their informaiton consumption. If I am interested in some particular issue, I can frequent sites that focus on that issue and collect a large number of references to many articles that help me get a better overall picture of the issue. Such sites usually don't offer any new or deeper information, but they do make it easy to access what is already out there so that I am able to better filter the information by checking one source against another.
-Vercingetorix
Nothing is more ridiculous than a critic engaging in exactly what he is being critical of. What a dipshit.
Well guess what Dave, your opinions are completely irrelevant. There are a LOT of people who visit /. quite frequently, and enjoy participating in the community. I am now more hopeful than ever that /. goes to a subscription-based model since it will probably keep "3 times a week" trolls like you away.
Of course, we all know you visit /. much more than three times a week. You're a closet addict. No better than the crack head down the street. Ashamed of your addiction. Well I say come clean Dave. Admit to the world that you are like a cocaine-addicted lab rat, hitting the refresh button over and over until you're ready to collapse. You can't get enough of it, Dave. The monkey's on your back and it controls you. *I* control you. You respond to me like a finely tuned instrument. You will at first not want to respond, because you know that's what I want you to do. But you won't be able to help yourself. It will eat at you. The burning desire to flame will gnaw at your very being. It's hopeless, Dave. Flame me and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
-Vercingetorix
Rob, if you want to sell subscriptions, I will pay. I even suggest taking a look at Qpass to see if they might be a solution. They offer support for subscriptions.
-Vercingetorix
Uh huh. I still haven't seen a rendered-on-the-fly animation that I can't immediately tell was computer generated. And I don't mean piddly little GeForce cards either. I'm talking about million-dollar SGI workhorses. The need for processing power doesn't come from pushing polygons. It comes from realistically making the objects in the environment behave in a realistic fashion. There isn't a computer in existence that can realistically render the motion of hair blowing in the wind. Even if we get to the point where a computer can render an animation of a human being that is indistiguishable from a film of the real article, we still won't have enough power. The environments get larger and larger. Once you can simulate one person, you need to be able to simulate a thousand at the same time. Think massively multiplayer environments. We aren't even close to having the raw processing power necessary to simulate large-scale environments with thousands of objects.
-Vercingetorix
In the ideal FSF world, the GPL would cease to exist. It would no longer be needed. The GPL is a reaction to outdated and counterproductive copyright law. Without those laws, the GPL is unnecessary.
-Vercingetorix
Maybe, just maybe, the whole point is that the notion of anyone owning or controlling *any* information is simply wrong. Sure, the law currently says that distributing copyrighted information without permission is illegal in certain cases, but just because the law says it doesn't make it right. Perhaps people's notions of copyright needs to change. If the result of strong copyright laws is that a few large corporations get to keep realizing outrageous profit margins, then maybe such laws no longer serve the public interest. There is nothing that says a company is entitled to continue to make money. Things change. The distribution modality of digital information is such that it costs $0.00 to distribute unlimited copies once the work has been created. This has an economic impact on the value of the work created. It is now worth less, and any law that attempts to erect road blocks to prevent digital distribution in order to artificially maintain high prices will fail. Big distribution companies have to take this econonomic reality into consideration and either find new revenue streams, or be satsified with smaller margins. Ultimately this benefits the artists themselves because they are free to take advantage of this new channel and market directly to consumers. Maybe they will only get $.25 per song downloaded, but that's more than they currently get from the record companies. Maybe some artists won't become millionaires. There's nothing wrong with that. It's simply a reflection of a changing economy. Artificially maintaining the status quo has never worked in the long run, and it won't work in this case.
-Vercingetorix
My iPaq has better sound quality than my portable CD player, and it's LOUD. With a 2GB microdrive I can store my entire mp3 collection. Batttery life is no worse than my CD player, and it recharges rapidly.
Portable gaming machine? Okay, another neat app. So I'm going to play quake and doom on this little tiny screen? And that will be fun how???? Sure that's cool, but it's a gimick. What else...tetris??? come on...
Graphics quality is actually very good, even with the little screen. Doom is perfectly playable. There is one problem with it not being able to recognize multiple keypresses, but that may be fixed via a ROM update. What's really fun is using a stowaway keyboard. Doom works great with that. I play tetris all the time on mine as well.
ebook reader? Okay, another neat use. I'm going to read a book on that little tiny screen? No. I don't even read books on my PC with my nice big screen and my cushy chair. It's a strain on my eyes and not nearly as enjoyable as a dead tree.
The eBook reader is probably one of the best things about the iPaq. I have now switched almost entirely to reading books using it. I've read about five books so far on it, and I have about six more stored on the thing that I'm currently reading. The clear type technology makes the print quality VERY good. It's easy on the eyes, and more convenient than a paper book. I would say that in terms of time spent using the thing, the majority has been for reading books. Baen offers a subscription-based sci-fi book club that has tons of titles.
As for demand, Compaq can't keep them on the shelves. The iPaq is currently the most popular PDA in terms of sales growth out there. They've been going on eBay for as much as $1500. Everyone who has seen mine immediately wants to buy one. It's a desktop machine the size of a Palm III.
-Vercingetorix
That was their big flagship location. The economics of these things don't scale to large, expensive installations. The overhead is too high. You need to be in a small space, with 20-30 machines. Most of the other small Wizards stores have game machines too, and they are opening more and more of them. If you've ever been to the big Wizards location in the U district, you can just imagine that the rent on that place alone probably cost more than what they were taking in. There was a lot of wasted space in that place
-Vercingetorix
If you like, contact me at geekxx@hotmail.com. I'd be really interested in talking to your friend about this. Maybe we could help each other out. My revenue predictions indicate you should be able to do quite well running one of these.
-Vercingetorix
Oh, we're doing all that. The gaming rigs will be 1.2 Ghz Athlons with 256 MB RAM, GeForce 2 Ultras, Razer Boomslang mice, and 19" trinitrons. They will all be configured exactly alike for tournament play, so no advantage from having a better rig (we'll be imaging the HDs and restoring them every night. Players will be able to store their personal configurations on the server).
-Vercingetorix
I'm actually starting up a game center myself. Any suggestions on the kinds of things you'd like to see at a place like that would be great.
-Vercingetorix
Of course, in a way pen and paper RPGs are kind of like Linux. It doesn't really matter if other game systems are not supported, since I can play anything I want. I don't *need* Wizards of the Coast or some other company to publish modules and books. I have everything I need to run several different systems, and the knowledge to make my own. RPGs are first and foremost games that take place within your head. It's entirely up to your imagination.
-Vercingetorix
Since the "Lone Gunmen" have shown us that it is possible to hack into the primary flight controls of an airliner in flight, hacking this bad boy should be no problem. What this thing REALLY needs is a couple of Octium IVs (tm).
-Vercingetorix
not every application has a close button. Since wince actually splits memory into "program memory" and "storage memory" this eats up alot of ram, unless you enjoy closing the program manually with control panel or using the highly efficient and intuitive "ctrl-q" (which of course means bringing up the keyboard).
At first I thought this would be a problem too, but after using my iPaq for a few months, it actually hasn't turned out to be an issue. I haven't had any memory problems, and if I'm going to fire up a real hog I just hit the Compaq menu button and select "close all tasks." No need to use the keyboard at all.
there's also no easy way to switch between open applications without using the "memory" app in control panel. This gets really annoying after awhile.
The start menu shows recently used apps. You can easily go directly to what you want.
the file explorer always defaults to My Documents. This doesn't sound too bad....until you've drilled down in the hierarchy and click on an image. Hey cool, it opens in IE. Lets look at the other images in that directory... use the icons at the top of the start menu to switch back to the file explorer....and you're back at My Documents. Not fun to have to switch directories again.
In day-to-day use, it's not a big problem. I suspect someone will write a better file manager, if it hasn't been done already.
As for the Casio, it is slow. The iPaq with a 206 Mhz processor is just as snappy as a Palm though. The only app that ever takes a noticable amount of time to load is MS Reader, and it only takes a couple of seconds to load.
-Vercingetorix
All of this is currently possible with an iPaq.
-Vercingetorix
As much as I hate Micro$oft, I gotta admit they did a lot of things right with PocketPC. I've got an iPaq and the thing is blazing fast (it'll run Quake fer Chrissakes!) and they've trimmed down the UI so it works in a palm-sized device. It also plays mp3 and mpeg video. I've had no problems with mine at all; it's the best PDA I've ever had (I've used Palm and Newton previously). Topping it off, M$ released, for free, complete C++ and VB IDEs for it, making it a snap to develop for it. -Jeff
-Vercingetorix
Ever see a 20mm Vulcan autocannon employed in the anti-personnel role? It's standard practice for the US military, and believe me, there is NO chance a human being has any chance of surviving a hit from that thing. Pink mist baby.
-Vercingetorix
Were they at the last meeting?
-Vercingetorix
The only downside of this model is that some industries will probably not see the same profit margins they currently enjoy. Instead of making $171 million, a movie like The Matrix might make only $100 million. Oh well. Nobody said any industry is gauranteed to maintain profits at a certain level.
If anything, a subscription based service like I outlined can serve to offset potential revenue losses from digital piracy. 500,000 people each paying $1 a month to get to the premium movie web site will more than make up for lost box-office revenue. The idea is to build a community around the product that can't be had anywhere else, and that people would be willing to pay a small fee for. You'll never stop outright piracy of digital content, but the real value isn't in the content. It's how the content is aggregated into a bundle of services and other products.
-Vercingetorix
Let's say a new movie comes out that has a killer soundtrack. I, as a consumer, could use Napster or Gnutella to download the song for free, but what if the movie studio offered a web site that included not only the ability to download the tracks, but also had screen savers tied into the movie, downloadable trailers and teasers, and occaisonal online chat sessions with the stars and production crew? Essentially they could provide a whole range of products and services that I simply can't get in one place anywhere else. They aggregate the content, making it searchable and easy to get from one source. Consumers might be willing to pay for this service that offers value over and above what the mere content is worth. Perhaps they could charge $1.00 a month for access. This could tie in to a whole service offering for the studio. For a small subscription fee you could access a whole range of services for all their movies. Searchable movie databases, old scripts, etc.
This model is essentially the Free Software model. The content (software) is free. What companies charge for is the service that supports the content.
-Vercingetorix
As for power usage on this PC, even if it was the same as a regular laptop (which it isn't since it doesn't have the same kind of power management as a laptop), you'd still only get a couple of hours of use out of it. A wearable needs to get a minimum of eight hours of continuous usage.
-Vercingetorix
Power draw on this thing is probably way to high for any hopes of using it as a wearable. Unless you want to tote around 20 lbs. of batteries that is.
-Vercingetorix
The problem is, the proponents of some really bad ideas do not engage in rational discourse on the subject, so there is no way to show the fallacies of their position in rational debate. Take Holocaust deniers as an example. Nothing you can say can disuade them from their perverse view of history. They are committed to an *idealogical* view that has no basis in fact. Their tactics are to simply spew endlessly about their position without regard to rational argument, in the hopes that enough non-thinking, ill-educated people hear their call and latch on to their viewpoint. In such cases, and in certain venues, I can't help but to think censorship is the only real way to deal with it. If I were a teacher, I would probably prohibit any of my students from writing a paper that denies the Holocaust, becasue if I allowed something like that, I would be forced into a position of having to rip apart the paper in front of the class in an effort to demonstrate that fallacious reasoing behind the arguments. This would only lead to ridiculing the student who wrote the paper, and that wouldn't be good for anyone. Elementary and high-school classes are not the place to cloud discusion with idealogy-based diatribes and pseudoscientific claptrap. In general, kids that age are not mature or sophisticated enough to handle the subtleties of epistemology and logic such discussions usually raise
-Vercingetorix
I think Andover should spring for the $50K to launch a SlashSat, complete with a compact flash card containing the goatse.cx image.
-Vercingetorix
Launching a rocket to 15,000 ft. is not terribly expensive. You can hit that for around $150 using commercially available high-power rockets.
-Vercingetorix