Uh, not quite. The standard of proof is lower. In a criminal case the standard is 'Beyond a Resonable Doubt'. With civil, it is 'Preponderance of Evidence'. This means that if it is more likely that the defendant committed an infraction than not, then they are found in judgment.
This is an important advantage to the plaintiff, in this case the RIAA, because they don't have to have rock solid proof to convince the judge/jury of wrong doing. This is why OJ Simpson was not convicted in his criminal trial, yet was so in his civil trial.
Let's be honest here (snicker), *nobody* can stop the digital progression of humanity. Not even music. You can't shut off someone's electricity because they were watching a pirated Blue-Ray disc on their PS3. Internet access is becoming utility.
As much as they'd like to, they're going to have to figure something else out.
For the time being, I'm going to operate under the assumption that it is not. It seems to me that if it were a scam, it would seem that the labels would have come out with stronger language than 'we don't have a contract with QTRAX'.
I would ere on the side that QTRAX started blitzing before anything final had been secured.
It seems to me that this is egg in the face of QTRAX, but quite telling of the recording industry as a whole. It seems that if they want to turn the proverbial ship around as far as their business model, it would seem that they would be willing to try a lot of new things, hoping to refine a business model to the point where they're making the profits they once enjoyed.
With the failures of all these 'attempts' to reach out to consumers, it seems to only weaken consumer's expectations of what a music experience should be. I think QTRAX failure is one equal, if not greater, to the failure of the industry to innovate.
A cursory Google search revealed this forum with that pic and some more interesting ones like what the flashlight looks like, the battery pack needed to power it, as well as some more illuminating photos (pun intended).
Plays Guitar Hero. While he is terrible at it, he loves to hop around to the rhythm while playing and dance around to the beat when I'm playing.
I don't know if I see much value in letting him play an FPS title like Halo or Half-Life, but there are plenty of valuable things kids can learn from video games.
Most people I have spoken to have some significant misconceptions about what limits Steam imposes, or they just don't care. Or at least they don't care until Steam has problems.
SPOILER!
8/10
I missed the corkscrew and the glass/abstract photo (not even sure what it is).
BMW - As a thumbnail, this one would look real, but upon closer inspection the cobblestones are too uniformly alike. The depth of field seems to be deep until you immediately hit the fence and then it suddenly goes shallow. I'm no photography expert, but it seems that the depth of field would gradually loose focus instead of being sudden like that.
Coffee - Obviously fake.
Corkscrew - This is one that I missed. There weren't any obvious clues that this one was real.
Diamonds - Shadows don't look natural. Plus, if they were real diamonds, there would be light reflections spotting the shadows.
Bolt and Nut - Definitely real. Look at the imperfections in the machine work on the very end of the bolt and side of the nut. Those could be simulated enough, but didn't think they would take so much effort. The photo has a shallow depth of field, which lends itself to a real photograph, not a CG image.
Wire whisks - the reflections on the counter top don't look natural as does the shadow on the counter itself.
Car hood - This could very well be CG, except that you can see the imperfections/texture of the hood in the finish. This too could be CG, but for reasons noted above, why go through the effort to model this?
Glass bits(who knows) - I didn't even know what this was suppose to be so it was a coin toss--and I lost.
Green Bell Peppers - This one was a little bit more difficult. They have a plastic like look to them. But anyone who cooks with bell peppers knows that they put a wax-like substance on them to give them that kind of luster. All the peppers had a unique shape/texture, plus it had a shallow depth of field, lending itself to a real photo.
I must not be one of George's typical children. I'm a Generation Xer (Y depending on who defines the range). Everything that I've done in life I attribute to good parents who gave me opportunities. I opine that without those opportunities, I would not have had as much success as I enjoy. What's interesting is I have a brother who not quite two years younger than I, had the same exact (if not greater opportunities than I) and blames my parents for all his personal problems and misfortunes. Generation gap, perhaps?
Not to mention the fact that you can't run a tone generator over fiber to find a cable inside of a bundle on the other side of the building. All you have to do is stick in a test laser device such as this and wave the bundle over your hand until you 'see' which pair it is coming out of. You obviously don't want to look directly into the port/termination, but it is no more difficult (if not easier) than waving a tone wand around.
Vapornet. This holds especially true on the States side where an oligopoly controls the communications infrastructure. They promise a ton to keep people's hopes alive for a thriving 'Net, but we don't ever see it.
The WiMax promise is still unfulfilled. The 'fiber in every pot' (am I confusing something here?;) promises are gone. This is the newest Telecom Tale that definitely deserves to be labeled 'Vapornet'.
When the school bully gets beat up, you tend to not feel as sorry for him as you do for your friend. I don't think it's the school bully getting much of a black eye, but those that trust him to protect them when they use his services, even if 'Friends don't let friends use M$ products'.
If Silverlight works as well and is free to start developing with, I can see it overtaking Flash. And if there is a fully open-source implementation of it, I can also see it overtaking Flash in platform independence. Don't confuse 'free' with 'open source'.
I'm not opposed to Silverlight; this would give Adobe the competitive nudge to give away its development tools as well. As MSFT gives away free, dumbed down versions of its IDEs (Express Versions), Adobe may be forced to follow suit.
That is my biggest concern. Maybe it's part of an overall strategy to get you sucked into their Windows Live platform. Basically you can only find their stuff through *their* search engine.
that they haven't made it one if its 'critical updates' or even the proverbial forced 'back door' updates that no one knows about until you suddenly find it on your machine.
The idea of Silverlight seems pretty cool since I'm a.Net junky myself, but still like the ubiquity and semi-platform independence of Flash.
Slashdot Mirror
Who pays for XP, burning, AV, music tools, backup, etc. but still uses it? Yarr!
Uh, not quite. The standard of proof is lower. In a criminal case the standard is 'Beyond a Resonable Doubt'. With civil, it is 'Preponderance of Evidence'. This means that if it is more likely that the defendant committed an infraction than not, then they are found in judgment.
This is an important advantage to the plaintiff, in this case the RIAA, because they don't have to have rock solid proof to convince the judge/jury of wrong doing. This is why OJ Simpson was not convicted in his criminal trial, yet was so in his civil trial.
Let's be honest here (snicker), *nobody* can stop the digital progression of humanity. Not even music. You can't shut off someone's electricity because they were watching a pirated Blue-Ray disc on their PS3. Internet access is becoming utility.
As much as they'd like to, they're going to have to figure something else out.
For the time being, I'm going to operate under the assumption that it is not. It seems to me that if it were a scam, it would seem that the labels would have come out with stronger language than 'we don't have a contract with QTRAX'.
I would ere on the side that QTRAX started blitzing before anything final had been secured.
It seems to me that this is egg in the face of QTRAX, but quite telling of the recording industry as a whole. It seems that if they want to turn the proverbial ship around as far as their business model, it would seem that they would be willing to try a lot of new things, hoping to refine a business model to the point where they're making the profits they once enjoyed.
With the failures of all these 'attempts' to reach out to consumers, it seems to only weaken consumer's expectations of what a music experience should be. I think QTRAX failure is one equal, if not greater, to the failure of the industry to innovate.
Excise said offending code from the codebase, then, make it available as a free plugin hosted outside of the United States.
Done.
A cursory Google search revealed this forum with that pic and some more interesting ones like what the flashlight looks like, the battery pack needed to power it, as well as some more illuminating photos (pun intended).
Favorite quote from Innerspace:
"Play with it, pal, but don't talk to it."
Plays Guitar Hero. While he is terrible at it, he loves to hop around to the rhythm while playing and dance around to the beat when I'm playing.
I don't know if I see much value in letting him play an FPS title like Halo or Half-Life, but there are plenty of valuable things kids can learn from video games.
Atari - Pac-Man
Nintendo - Pro Wrestling (yes, I played that one before super mario brothers)
PC - Space Quest I(CGA version-yes!)
Overseas users? I still use that city/zip all the time. There's no reason for anyone to know where I really live.
There, now you're a good programmer.
Oh, wait.
I must not be one of George's typical children. I'm a Generation Xer (Y depending on who defines the range). Everything that I've done in life I attribute to good parents who gave me opportunities. I opine that without those opportunities, I would not have had as much success as I enjoy. What's interesting is I have a brother who not quite two years younger than I, had the same exact (if not greater opportunities than I) and blames my parents for all his personal problems and misfortunes. Generation gap, perhaps?
Vapornet. This holds especially true on the States side where an oligopoly controls the communications infrastructure. They promise a ton to keep people's hopes alive for a thriving 'Net, but we don't ever see it. The WiMax promise is still unfulfilled. The 'fiber in every pot' (am I confusing something here? ;) promises are gone. This is the newest Telecom Tale that definitely deserves to be labeled 'Vapornet'.
Not to be surprised if there were, but to be fair, Flash has its own history, too
I'm not opposed to Silverlight; this would give Adobe the competitive nudge to give away its development tools as well. As MSFT gives away free, dumbed down versions of its IDEs (Express Versions), Adobe may be forced to follow suit.
This a reference to MSFT's Stealth Update that happened last fall.
That is my biggest concern. Maybe it's part of an overall strategy to get you sucked into their Windows Live platform. Basically you can only find their stuff through *their* search engine.
that they haven't made it one if its 'critical updates' or even the proverbial forced 'back door' updates that no one knows about until you suddenly find it on your machine. The idea of Silverlight seems pretty cool since I'm a .Net junky myself, but still like the ubiquity and semi-platform independence of Flash.