I wish I had mod points to bump your post up. This is one reason I've been so stoked about the Kindle... Access to Amazon's distribution network and the ability to sell my content using the 'brand' of Amazon.com to back me (for free, BTW). Not only that, I also get to set my own prices, choose my content without interference from a publisher, set my own publishing schedules, etc... This isn't revolutionary because we couldn't market and sell e-content before, but it IS revolutionary because of the ease in which such self-publishing can now be done. In my opinion, the Kindle is the spark which will kick off the 'digital book revolution' in exactly the same way that the iPod was the spark which kicked off the 'digital music revolution.' All the pieces were in place before, but the Kindle brings convergence to the table.
"One of the chief activities of the RIAA is coordinating the Big Four labels' legal campaign, and those thousands of lawsuits have done nothing but generate ill will from record fans, while costing the labels millions of dollars and doing little (if anything) to actually reduce the amount of file-sharing going on." And in other news, water is wet, air is necessary for life, and people would rather pet cute baby bunnies than stab themselves in the eyes with icepicks...
...and like many of you, I say 'so what?' Today the informed go out of their way to be informed, and the ignorant go out of their way to be ignorant. This seems to say that in the future it will... well... pretty-much still be like that. Yawn.
Personally I think in the future the big media conglomerate will be called SlashGooZon, but only 'cause it's so damn much fun to say...
"Bottom line, as much as I'd like to have my DAW and my musical instrument rack be all Linux, the sacrifices I'd have to make, in order to make that happen, are not anywhere near worth it."
Well said. You took the words right out of my mouth. My The non-existent Linux software packages that I was referring to in my original post were all in the Audio/Video production space. My company does audio and video post-production, and really haven't see the level of development by software manufacturers necessary in order to warrant the transition.
But, in the sense that you can suggest Mozilla and OpenOffice to an office worker and they can get their work done with something like the same workflow on software with an equivalent featureset, this situation does not exist yet in the Audio production world.
Bingo. If I want to go about the process of assembling a set of products and attempting to make them all work and play well together, in addition to developing the necessary add-ons to accommodate for functionality that isn't currently available in Linux, then Linux would work just fine for me. But I'm not a programmer, and I don't want to be a programmer! I have a hard enough time getting the several software packages I use on a daily basis to play nicely with one another... Why would I want to go and add a couple orders of complexity to my process?
Setting aside the 'foaming at mouth' nature of the rant that Chris goes on the farther into his open letter he gets, there is one thing that I don't think gets addressed a lot in the inevitable 'Linux vs. Windows' Geek Debates that we all manage to get ourselves into. The thing is that it's really the Achilles heel in most of the 'alternative' (to Windows) platforms that are around, or have been around over the previous 20 years- availability of applications.
Fact is that with the company I work for I am using anywhere from 5 to 15 software packages in a given week that are not available for Linux. If all I wanted to do was surf the web, or word process then Linux would probably do just fine, but when my option is to run the Windows software I need through an Windows emulator that will 'probably work, most of the time,' then I have a problem because I'm paid to do my job, not spend hours trying to figure out how to tweak my OS to make my critical business apps work for me instead of against me.
I definitely agree that Linux is a more secure platform. A faster platform. A more flexible platform. A better platform. But until there is a groundswell of companies which choose to release their software packages for Linux, I don't think the critical mass of users is going to be there to unseat Windows. This was, and continues to be, the biggest problem with the Mac platform. A problem which all the snazzy looking computers and 'Think Different' marketing cannot overcome. Linux should take heed as well- critical mass is not gained through security, or speed, or even in being 'better' than the other guy- it's gained by the quality and variety of applications that can be run on a platform.
That makes sense. Personally I think that technology certainly means that more 'crap' gets through, but on the flip side it means that more talented people who never would have had the means to create something great are able to produce something that I'll be able to see. I may have to do a bit more searching to find it because the larger amount of junk, however I think the tradeoff it worth it.
Couldn't disagree more with you on this. I am in the film 'industry' (what there is of it, anyway) here in Washington and have worked on many productions for both television and film over the past dozen years or so. There are few 'hard and fast' rules that the industry lives by, but two that do exist are:
- A great script will nearly always overcome terrible production values - The best production values cannot overcome a crappy script
Sure, sure, everyone can point to 'this movie,' or 'that movie' to disprove the above, but I'm here to tell you that in the real world, day-to-day, a strong script will always outperform a poor one in any and every metric that you try to assign to the production. (in equivelant scales, of course- no fair comparing 'Attack of the Clones' to 'Donnie Darko'!)
Well, yes I Am A Lawyer... But I don't go around admitting that to people because everyone has either a lawyer horror story, or they want free legal advice (or if I'm really lucky, both). Only to my close personal friends- and the entire/. community- know my Secret Identity. Shhhh- don't tell anyone.;-)
I don't know how much of an improvement this is for us, really. Yes, it is now marginally easier to get our hands on our credit reports, but what it doesn't really address is the fundimentally backwards system that is the credit reporting agencies themselves.
Consider this: if there is incorrect information in your credit report, it is up to you to find that out, and persue action in order to get it corrected. The burden of proof is squarely on your shoulders- you are in effect guilty until you prove yourself to be innocent. In addition, I (a blood-sucking lawyer, I'm ashamed to admit) have found with several of my clients that only the legitimate threat of legal action moves these monolithic companies to get things changed, even when a preponderance of evidence shows that the information in the report is incorrect.
Ultimately, I believe that the system is broken, and nothing short of a wholesale reworking of the laws surrounding debt collection, and debt collection agencies will fix this problem. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was a good start, but there needs to be more done in order to protect Joe and Jane Consumer.
...how huge corporations can extol the virtues of the 'American way,' 'free trade,' 'competition,' and the like only until the moment that they realize that they've become completely obsolete? Then they fight like drowning rats using silly arguments like 'not giving us your money any more will be BAD for you... Pay no attention to the progress behind the curtain.' This sounds durprisingly similar to the arguement that Verizon threw up earlier this week to prevent municipal Wi-Fi. Whatever. I say good riddance to 'em and bring on the progress.
Couldn't agree more. Who wants to look at a talking head, anyway? (and all the other posts extoling the bonuses of phone sex with this phone aside, I'm betting most of us spend the VAST majority of our time using the phone for more... mundane... activities).
It's interesting to note that while this process appears to be much cheaper than plasma screen technology and probably cheaper than current rear-projection methods in use, the industry still has a long way to go in making this technology as inexpensive as the good 'ol picture tube televisions that we've had all along.
Ultimately that is the real brass ring, because there are a whole lot more people that can't afford the new technology, than can. Especially when considered on a global scale. Bottom line: I don't think we're going to be hearing about the 'death' of tube-based televisions for many years to come...
Well, yes. People also steal music because the DRM hoops that users need to jump through in order to get and keep the music that they have purchased through a free service.
Not that I'm saying anything particularly new here, but if people are made to feel like criminals when they purchase music, some of them are going to avoid purchasing music altogether, or they're going to 'become criminals' and steal it in order to avoid the hoops.
Call me crazy, but I think the person who invents a transparent DRM system that doesn't intrude on users that have purchased the music is going to make a bazillion dollars.
I make no value judgements on the quality of the work. Being both a musician and a filmmaker I've seen some damn good work come out of basements (including my own). I say that lowering the barriers to admission will let crap through, but it also lowers the barriers for folks with amazing talent and little $$$ or no family connections to succeed as well. Is the learning curve 'enormous?' Well, I'm not arguing that it is 'flat' by any stretch of the imagination, but 'enormous?' No way. Not today.
One thing you can count on is 14-year olds will have no taste whatsoever, but unfortunately this is prime real-estate for movie studios and music companies. Would I trade the fact that I have to wade through more shit to find the good stuff for having less great music or film available to me? Not on your life. I'm willing to put the time searching...
The thing I find interesting about game programming is that it is the'last frontier' of art created for consumption by a mass audience that still requires a huge learning curve and cost expendature to be successful in.
Think about it- used to be that you needed a bazillion dollars, a ton of talent, and a lot of connections in order to successfully make a movie, or a record. Now? People are doing it in their basements with equipment that costs a few hundred dollars.
The big question is how long will it take for someone to figure out how to make designing a video game 'accessible to the masses' the way Digital Video and computer-based audio recording have done for those industries. I'll bet it won't take as long as you think...
...that such recalls must necessarily result in a ton of negative publicity for the company recalling the product with... ummm... 'challenges'?
Seems to me that there's no better way to ensure that companies will do all they can to cover up the problems with their products when they know that any admittal of problems is only going to cause negative publicity, lawsuits, etc.
Yeah, the question is... which state are we going to house 'em in? I mean literally- which state are we going to have to kick all the citizens out of in order to be able to hold every lawbreaker...
Great. Another way for big corporations to use my tax dollars to go find abusers in other countries while here at hope we are still stuck with the same laws that still don't work- no matter how hard the politicians try to make the DMCA relevant. You know, originally copyright was intended to protect individual folks like me- people who create stuff. Now it seems to be the dominion of corporate giants who use it to bludgeon those for which the law was put in place for.
Now I know that *really* updating copyright law is akin to abolishing Medicare or Social Security on the list of things that 'won't be discussed by those who want to keep their cushy political jobs... EVER,' but we can dream, can't we?
Slashdot Mirror
I wish I had mod points to bump your post up. This is one reason I've been so stoked about the Kindle... Access to Amazon's distribution network and the ability to sell my content using the 'brand' of Amazon.com to back me (for free, BTW). Not only that, I also get to set my own prices, choose my content without interference from a publisher, set my own publishing schedules, etc... This isn't revolutionary because we couldn't market and sell e-content before, but it IS revolutionary because of the ease in which such self-publishing can now be done. In my opinion, the Kindle is the spark which will kick off the 'digital book revolution' in exactly the same way that the iPod was the spark which kicked off the 'digital music revolution.' All the pieces were in place before, but the Kindle brings convergence to the table.
"I have a 15" laptop and have used a number of lap desks over the years, and none have satisfied me." ...that's what she said. :-P
Proving yet again my long held point that cell phone users are a cancer across the land.
...and like many of you, I say 'so what?' Today the informed go out of their way to be informed, and the ignorant go out of their way to be ignorant. This seems to say that in the future it will... well... pretty-much still be like that. Yawn.
Personally I think in the future the big media conglomerate will be called SlashGooZon, but only 'cause it's so damn much fun to say...
Well said. You took the words right out of my mouth. My The non-existent Linux software packages that I was referring to in my original post were all in the Audio/Video production space. My company does audio and video post-production, and really haven't see the level of development by software manufacturers necessary in order to warrant the transition.
But, in the sense that you can suggest Mozilla and OpenOffice to an office worker and they can get their work done with something like the same workflow on software with an equivalent featureset, this situation does not exist yet in the Audio production world.
Bingo. If I want to go about the process of assembling a set of products and attempting to make them all work and play well together, in addition to developing the necessary add-ons to accommodate for functionality that isn't currently available in Linux, then Linux would work just fine for me. But I'm not a programmer, and I don't want to be a programmer! I have a hard enough time getting the several software packages I use on a daily basis to play nicely with one another... Why would I want to go and add a couple orders of complexity to my process?
Setting aside the 'foaming at mouth' nature of the rant that Chris goes on the farther into his open letter he gets, there is one thing that I don't think gets addressed a lot in the inevitable 'Linux vs. Windows' Geek Debates that we all manage to get ourselves into. The thing is that it's really the Achilles heel in most of the 'alternative' (to Windows) platforms that are around, or have been around over the previous 20 years- availability of applications.
Fact is that with the company I work for I am using anywhere from 5 to 15 software packages in a given week that are not available for Linux. If all I wanted to do was surf the web, or word process then Linux would probably do just fine, but when my option is to run the Windows software I need through an Windows emulator that will 'probably work, most of the time,' then I have a problem because I'm paid to do my job, not spend hours trying to figure out how to tweak my OS to make my critical business apps work for me instead of against me.
I definitely agree that Linux is a more secure platform. A faster platform. A more flexible platform. A better platform. But until there is a groundswell of companies which choose to release their software packages for Linux, I don't think the critical mass of users is going to be there to unseat Windows. This was, and continues to be, the biggest problem with the Mac platform. A problem which all the snazzy looking computers and 'Think Different' marketing cannot overcome. Linux should take heed as well- critical mass is not gained through security, or speed, or even in being 'better' than the other guy- it's gained by the quality and variety of applications that can be run on a platform.
At the risk of being modded into oblivion:
I got's ta axe all y'all, who cares, yo? At least the U.S.'s English n' speeling skills be gooder than all them otha wack countries, ya feel me, dog?
That makes sense. Personally I think that technology certainly means that more 'crap' gets through, but on the flip side it means that more talented people who never would have had the means to create something great are able to produce something that I'll be able to see. I may have to do a bit more searching to find it because the larger amount of junk, however I think the tradeoff it worth it.
Couldn't disagree more with you on this. I am in the film 'industry' (what there is of it, anyway) here in Washington and have worked on many productions for both television and film over the past dozen years or so. There are few 'hard and fast' rules that the industry lives by, but two that do exist are:
- A great script will nearly always overcome terrible production values
- The best production values cannot overcome a crappy script
Sure, sure, everyone can point to 'this movie,' or 'that movie' to disprove the above, but I'm here to tell you that in the real world, day-to-day, a strong script will always outperform a poor one in any and every metric that you try to assign to the production. (in equivelant scales, of course- no fair comparing 'Attack of the Clones' to 'Donnie Darko'!)
Well, yes I Am A Lawyer... But I don't go around admitting that to people because everyone has either a lawyer horror story, or they want free legal advice (or if I'm really lucky, both). Only to my close personal friends- and the entire /. community- know my Secret Identity. Shhhh- don't tell anyone. ;-)
Consider this: if there is incorrect information in your credit report, it is up to you to find that out, and persue action in order to get it corrected. The burden of proof is squarely on your shoulders- you are in effect guilty until you prove yourself to be innocent. In addition, I (a blood-sucking lawyer, I'm ashamed to admit) have found with several of my clients that only the legitimate threat of legal action moves these monolithic companies to get things changed, even when a preponderance of evidence shows that the information in the report is incorrect.
Ultimately, I believe that the system is broken, and nothing short of a wholesale reworking of the laws surrounding debt collection, and debt collection agencies will fix this problem. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was a good start, but there needs to be more done in order to protect Joe and Jane Consumer.
"Get your stinking hooves off me you damn dirty sheep..."
...how huge corporations can extol the virtues of the 'American way,' 'free trade,' 'competition,' and the like only until the moment that they realize that they've become completely obsolete? Then they fight like drowning rats using silly arguments like 'not giving us your money any more will be BAD for you... Pay no attention to the progress behind the curtain.' This sounds durprisingly similar to the arguement that Verizon threw up earlier this week to prevent municipal Wi-Fi. Whatever. I say good riddance to 'em and bring on the progress.
Ultimately that is the real brass ring, because there are a whole lot more people that can't afford the new technology, than can. Especially when considered on a global scale. Bottom line: I don't think we're going to be hearing about the 'death' of tube-based televisions for many years to come...
Not that I'm saying anything particularly new here, but if people are made to feel like criminals when they purchase music, some of them are going to avoid purchasing music altogether, or they're going to 'become criminals' and steal it in order to avoid the hoops.
Call me crazy, but I think the person who invents a transparent DRM system that doesn't intrude on users that have purchased the music is going to make a bazillion dollars.
I make no value judgements on the quality of the work. Being both a musician and a filmmaker I've seen some damn good work come out of basements (including my own). I say that lowering the barriers to admission will let crap through, but it also lowers the barriers for folks with amazing talent and little $$$ or no family connections to succeed as well. Is the learning curve 'enormous?' Well, I'm not arguing that it is 'flat' by any stretch of the imagination, but 'enormous?' No way. Not today. One thing you can count on is 14-year olds will have no taste whatsoever, but unfortunately this is prime real-estate for movie studios and music companies. Would I trade the fact that I have to wade through more shit to find the good stuff for having less great music or film available to me? Not on your life. I'm willing to put the time searching...
The thing I find interesting about game programming is that it is the'last frontier' of art created for consumption by a mass audience that still requires a huge learning curve and cost expendature to be successful in.
Think about it- used to be that you needed a bazillion dollars, a ton of talent, and a lot of connections in order to successfully make a movie, or a record. Now? People are doing it in their basements with equipment that costs a few hundred dollars.
The big question is how long will it take for someone to figure out how to make designing a video game 'accessible to the masses' the way Digital Video and computer-based audio recording have done for those industries. I'll bet it won't take as long as you think...
...is figuring out how *I* can make *your* cellphone explode when you're being a loud a**hole and chatting away at the next table, or what have you...
Seems to me that there's no better way to ensure that companies will do all they can to cover up the problems with their products when they know that any admittal of problems is only going to cause negative publicity, lawsuits, etc.
Copyright Gnome? The Fairy Godmother of of Copyright? Dr. Evil? Maybe we should just call him... Shaft.
Yeah, the question is... which state are we going to house 'em in? I mean literally- which state are we going to have to kick all the citizens out of in order to be able to hold every lawbreaker...
Gimme an 1... Gimmie an 9... Gimmie an 8... Gimmie an 4. What's that spell? Goodbye freedom. Helllooo Big Brother.
Now I know that *really* updating copyright law is akin to abolishing Medicare or Social Security on the list of things that 'won't be discussed by those who want to keep their cushy political jobs... EVER,' but we can dream, can't we?