I think it implies due respect for nature. All too often humans seem to think that the natural world is something they manipulate at whim. The ESA is tilting at asteroids hoping to learn something, and their mission name reflects the situation with a little humor and humility.
I can't imagine that people wouldn't have numerous circumventions for this, the easiest being simply not wearing the aparatus. How many gamers are going to endure this rather than simply disabling it somehow and just playing it like any other videogame? The honors system rarely holds up among online gamers when physical pain isn't involved... I don't think this would fare much better.
I think another important issue is the amount of waste generated by throw-away CDs and DVDs. How long do you want the average mix-CD made by Joe Teenager to last? He probably won't be using that thing longer than a year. Biodegradable media may serve the purpose for 90% of optical storage, and more permanent metal/plastic discs could be used for archiving pictures, documents, and the like. Answering the data-life question is important for determining how long biodegradable media should last. Plus, the life of the disc doesn't determine the life of the data. If you have something really important, you can probably spare the time once every 20-25 years to copy it to a new medium before the old one becomes unusable. I'm sure most of us wish that those AOL CDs would biodegrade before they ever made it to our mailboxes and front doors.
I agree. I think that a significant factor in the willingness of the general public to "steal" music by downloading it is due to the perception that buying a CD puts a lot of money in the pockets of executives with little benefit to the artist (not to imply that this perception isn't true). If internet-based companies, instead of labels, acted as the distribution media for artists that recorded and owned their own songs, most of the profit would go straight to the artist. With the labels out of the loop, the price could drop dramatically without the artists seeing a drastic change in revenue. I believe people would purchase music more for three reasons: Basic supply and demand saying that there's more demand for a cheaper product; there's less incentive to break the law to download music when you're paying 5c per song instead of 99; and the change in perception that now you're stealing from artists instead of companies. Some people will always take free music with no regard for those who made it, but I bet that this plan would significantly reduce the amount of illegal downloading.
How feasible is a pocket cell-phone jammer? I can't tell you how much I would love to be able to jam the transmissions of those I encounter daily who use cell phones at all sorts of rude times and places. If I could build one from an old cell phone or something, I'd do it in a minute.
Are stores legally responsible for enforcing video game ratings, as movie theaters are responsible for regulating admittance, or are the warnings simply advisories for parents? If the later is the case, then none of these companies are to blame.
"Dr. Cerf said part of the reason their protocols took hold quickly and widely was that he and Dr. Kahn made no intellectual property claims to their invention. They made no money from it, though it did help their careers. "It was an open standard that we would allow anyone to have access to without any constraints," he said."
What would the internet be today if they'd tried to squeeze every last cent out of this idea?
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Many Bonhams died to bring you this information.
I think it implies due respect for nature. All too often humans seem to think that the natural world is something they manipulate at whim. The ESA is tilting at asteroids hoping to learn something, and their mission name reflects the situation with a little humor and humility.
Sounds like you'd better start carving the x86 instruction set onto stone tablets!
I can't imagine that people wouldn't have numerous circumventions for this, the easiest being simply not wearing the aparatus. How many gamers are going to endure this rather than simply disabling it somehow and just playing it like any other videogame? The honors system rarely holds up among online gamers when physical pain isn't involved... I don't think this would fare much better.
I think another important issue is the amount of waste generated by throw-away CDs and DVDs. How long do you want the average mix-CD made by Joe Teenager to last? He probably won't be using that thing longer than a year. Biodegradable media may serve the purpose for 90% of optical storage, and more permanent metal/plastic discs could be used for archiving pictures, documents, and the like. Answering the data-life question is important for determining how long biodegradable media should last. Plus, the life of the disc doesn't determine the life of the data. If you have something really important, you can probably spare the time once every 20-25 years to copy it to a new medium before the old one becomes unusable. I'm sure most of us wish that those AOL CDs would biodegrade before they ever made it to our mailboxes and front doors.
I agree. I think that a significant factor in the willingness of the general public to "steal" music by downloading it is due to the perception that buying a CD puts a lot of money in the pockets of executives with little benefit to the artist (not to imply that this perception isn't true). If internet-based companies, instead of labels, acted as the distribution media for artists that recorded and owned their own songs, most of the profit would go straight to the artist. With the labels out of the loop, the price could drop dramatically without the artists seeing a drastic change in revenue. I believe people would purchase music more for three reasons: Basic supply and demand saying that there's more demand for a cheaper product; there's less incentive to break the law to download music when you're paying 5c per song instead of 99; and the change in perception that now you're stealing from artists instead of companies. Some people will always take free music with no regard for those who made it, but I bet that this plan would significantly reduce the amount of illegal downloading.
How feasible is a pocket cell-phone jammer? I can't tell you how much I would love to be able to jam the transmissions of those I encounter daily who use cell phones at all sorts of rude times and places. If I could build one from an old cell phone or something, I'd do it in a minute.
Are stores legally responsible for enforcing video game ratings, as movie theaters are responsible for regulating admittance, or are the warnings simply advisories for parents? If the later is the case, then none of these companies are to blame.