Reminds me of all those "Gold Professional Premium Plus with Real Gold Connectors" USB cables. I don't care how nice the connectors are, I still have cheap aluminum in the back of my PC.
Well of course that would solve the problem except most people don't want to do that with their blogs. They want their friends and/or public to hear what they have to say. Places like MySpace are all about the publicity.
I remember when I took a law class my first year in college, the professor spent a good three lectures going over what rights you have in college versus what you have available to you in high school and below. IIRC until you leave the primary/secondary grades, you are not entitled to free speech. This does not mean you can't express yourself, only that you are not of sound mind/age to be granted legal protection for your consitutional rights.
The private school I attended before college actually had written in its charter that no student should be restricted from expressing themselves in any manner outside of school. They did place restrictions on what you could do on the campus as well as what you could do with the school's computers.
IMHO, it really comes down to how much was signed away when the parents' enrolled their children in the school to begin.
You need to remember that when you're entire business model revolves around holding customers merely as revenue streams thanks to licensing and contracts, of course someone over there will start a hissy fit when groups/agencies/government bodies realize they still have choices.
And that's really that hard part here, how do you maintain a monopoly when there are still legitimate options you don't own and control?
While the article is pretty informative, this, from the beginning is still favorite idea presented. And yes, I did remove a piece of the quote so I could talk about one (but not both) of the ideas presented by it.
"Breaking the DRM... may expose you to liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) even if you're not making any illegal uses."
The part removed talk about disturbuting tools to break DRM and, yes boys and girls, that does tend to be illegal. However, if I sit at home and break the code without telling anyone nor handing out information on how I did it, does that mean anyone will even notice?
Unless the **AA have a vast network of surveillance equipment monitoring us all, I really don't think I'm going to be dragged into court for something no one knew about.
The ability to store up to 100GB is remarkable but who will really use these discs? I understand that the movie industry will propably get the most out them (can you say "exceedingly bloated DRM?") but what about Mr. Average Q. Joe? What are the real benefits for the typical consumer?
Most consumers have a difficult job filling up a regular CD with their vacation photos and, with a 100GB to play around with, the only way a lot of them will get the "full" usuage out of these DVD's is backing up their entire HDD. But, as anyone who has ever served as tech support for their friends can asert, system backups are wasted on the general Windows 98 crowd.
how long will it be before this store closes? It just doesn't seem viable to me to operate such a large store at the location they are shooting for. Granted if all they are looking for is a place to showcase all things Nintendo, why not build a museum and offer a giftshop?
Very few PC manufacturers do real design work partly because they know there already is a market for the products they're making but mostly because they lack really strong design departments. Apple has managed to break away from the pack by actually hiring qualified industrial designers.
The PC world could be a beautiful place with simple, ergonomic devices and interfaces if companies devoted money to hiring (and maintaining) a department of competent designers.
There is a comfort factor in having a laptop with, at least, a comprablely sized keyboard. People like to work on things that are familiar to them and, speaking only for myself, I've worked on laptops with some dinky keyboards and I can't say I liked it. I don't have the largest hands but constantly bumping fingers and missing keys steered me clear away from such devices.
VR glasses would be rather nifty but we're talking battery life here. If you're doing real work (and not just typing), any given laptop is gonna last you 2 hours tops.
I would have thought that the passage of the Patriot Act (and the abuses of it) would have caused a ruckus but it hasn't.
Enter the Gulf War 2.0. Should have got people up in arms over the fact that Osama was still walking about alive and well (and with his dialysis machine no less) but again, nothing doing.
Sad to say but the bulk of the American voting public doesn't really give a shit about voting and would much rather whine instead of making a difference.
It looks so bad coming out of Microsoft because it's distinctly lacks the sleek appeal of Apple products. The Xbox is bulky, has buttons on the console which are way too large, and simply could look less like a computer and more like a game system.
Now, if Apple were to do design the very same system, we could expect to see the machine being at least twice as thin and buttons on the face being more intelligently placed. The form factor as well wouldn't be a brick shape.
Slashdot Mirror
Reminds me of all those "Gold Professional Premium Plus with Real Gold Connectors" USB cables. I don't care how nice the connectors are, I still have cheap aluminum in the back of my PC.
Blog anonymously? That should solve the problem.
Well of course that would solve the problem except most people don't want to do that with their blogs. They want their friends and/or public to hear what they have to say. Places like MySpace are all about the publicity.
I remember when I took a law class my first year in college, the professor spent a good three lectures going over what rights you have in college versus what you have available to you in high school and below. IIRC until you leave the primary/secondary grades, you are not entitled to free speech. This does not mean you can't express yourself, only that you are not of sound mind/age to be granted legal protection for your consitutional rights.
The private school I attended before college actually had written in its charter that no student should be restricted from expressing themselves in any manner outside of school. They did place restrictions on what you could do on the campus as well as what you could do with the school's computers.
IMHO, it really comes down to how much was signed away when the parents' enrolled their children in the school to begin.
You need to remember that when you're entire business model revolves around holding customers merely as revenue streams thanks to licensing and contracts, of course someone over there will start a hissy fit when groups/agencies/government bodies realize they still have choices.
And that's really that hard part here, how do you maintain a monopoly when there are still legitimate options you don't own and control?
Damn, I get labelled redundant by posting a similiar idea as someone else within a minute.
With all the recent articles about Microsoft, I could have sworn that it read "When Microsoft Ate the Ocean".
The ability to store up to 100GB is remarkable but who will really use these discs? I understand that the movie industry will propably get the most out them (can you say "exceedingly bloated DRM?") but what about Mr. Average Q. Joe? What are the real benefits for the typical consumer?
Most consumers have a difficult job filling up a regular CD with their vacation photos and, with a 100GB to play around with, the only way a lot of them will get the "full" usuage out of these DVD's is backing up their entire HDD. But, as anyone who has ever served as tech support for their friends can asert, system backups are wasted on the general Windows 98 crowd.
how long will it be before this store closes? It just doesn't seem viable to me to operate such a large store at the location they are shooting for. Granted if all they are looking for is a place to showcase all things Nintendo, why not build a museum and offer a giftshop?
Very few PC manufacturers do real design work partly because they know there already is a market for the products they're making but mostly because they lack really strong design departments. Apple has managed to break away from the pack by actually hiring qualified industrial designers.
The PC world could be a beautiful place with simple, ergonomic devices and interfaces if companies devoted money to hiring (and maintaining) a department of competent designers.
There is a comfort factor in having a laptop with, at least, a comprablely sized keyboard. People like to work on things that are familiar to them and, speaking only for myself, I've worked on laptops with some dinky keyboards and I can't say I liked it. I don't have the largest hands but constantly bumping fingers and missing keys steered me clear away from such devices.
VR glasses would be rather nifty but we're talking battery life here. If you're doing real work (and not just typing), any given laptop is gonna last you 2 hours tops.
I would have thought that the passage of the Patriot Act (and the abuses of it) would have caused a ruckus but it hasn't.
Enter the Gulf War 2.0. Should have got people up in arms over the fact that Osama was still walking about alive and well (and with his dialysis machine no less) but again, nothing doing.
Sad to say but the bulk of the American voting public doesn't really give a shit about voting and would much rather whine instead of making a difference.
It looks so bad coming out of Microsoft because it's distinctly lacks the sleek appeal of Apple products. The Xbox is bulky, has buttons on the console which are way too large, and simply could look less like a computer and more like a game system.
Now, if Apple were to do design the very same system, we could expect to see the machine being at least twice as thin and buttons on the face being more intelligently placed. The form factor as well wouldn't be a brick shape.