Unfortunately, movies have exactly the same problem (as pointed out by TFA) as TV shows - and that is, that only a tiny tiny portion of them are actually worth my time. And since movies are churned out at a MUCH slower rate than TV shows (nearly one movie per year per production team versus 20-25 TV shows per year per production team). Using the figures in the articles, (4 42 minute shows per week, 100 channels, 110 minutes per movie) we'll try and find out how many movies hollywood would have to put out to keep up with the TV guys, assuming they have the same portion of crap versus non-crap (and in my opinion that seems about right).
Here's the math(s)
4 out of 24 x 100 x 7
= 4 out of 16,800
= 1 out of 4,200 watchable shows per week.
42min + 42min + 42min + 42min = 168min
168min/110min ~ 1.527 movies per week (IF every movie was watchable)
Given that only 1 in 4200 are watchable, 1.527 * 4200 = 6,413.4 movies per week.
Now, if we take all the effort that hollywood puts into anti-piracy movements and put it into making movies, we might just be able to squeeze out one more movie per year; but I'm just not sure that that would cut it...
Money isn't "virtual". Bank notes are real, tangible things. The only "virtual" thing about them is that they only have value because everyone agrees that they have a value - otherwise they only have the same value as would their photocopies (except for countries which laminate their money, which would probably increase material value). How does trying to take out 10 grand prove anything? Most people don't even have 10 grand just sitting around in their bank accounts.
[On Topic] This is just like bottled water. 15 years ago, people would have been aghast to hear that you could SELL water at $1/Litre, when it's practically free. Playing a game which is intrinsically hard work is ridiculous; why would people spend so much time "levelling up" in game when they could go out and "level up" on some irl skills that might actually prove useful? Paying for something which exists purely as a concept is the same as charging $20 for a CD - it's ludicrous that demand is enough that you can extort people for something which has a value approaching nothing (as more copies are made), yet supply is artificially restricted. I applaud ebay for discouraging something which goes against the very premise of the game (albeit a flawed premise), regardless of their reasons.
It's far more effort to work out how to buy things online as it is to illegally download them. Watch: (Legal[iTunes] vs torrent)
Download and Install iTunes & Quicktime || Download and install torrent client (or just download if its uTorrent)
Open iTunes || Open Web Browser
Click on ITMS || Go to torrent site (via google, they aren't exactly hard to come by)
Find song you like || Find song you like
Give them your credit card number || Give that nice nigerian man your credit card number
Download song and add it to your library || Download and run torrent
Wait for download to complete || Wait for download to complete
Cry because the quality makes your ears bleed || Cry because your razor blade makes your face bleed
Yell at DRM for not working on a third party player || Yell at the pizza boy for taking 29 minutes and 30 seconds
It's always perplexed me that all the illegal stuff (cracking programs, torrent sites, ) are both more comprehensive AND more user friendly than legal stuff; if they weren't operating below the law they'd certainly have my business. /
I've thought about this one; what's stopping the "shunt" (the thing between the government and military) from not acting in the best interests of the people? Sure, the government doesn't necessarily act in the best interests of the people (even though the whole point of democracy is to keep the government in check - not in cheque). Probably the most effective system against corruption would be to split the military in three (economically controlled by a central civil government to ensure that neither faction has more power) and put some sort of unsplittable, uncorruptable prize for the three factions to compete over (thus preventing them from allying against the civil government). The civil government would stay uncorrupted via the process of democracy (I know it doesn't work in reality but shh), and make it a capital penalty for there to be any (fiscal or otherwise) ties between the government and the media (thus avoiding control by propoganda), and a capital offence for the military faction leaders to communicate with each other outside of a public forum. If 2 factions ally to destroy the third, the government reproportions the resources to favour the underdog until calm is restored.
Perhaps the unsplittable/uncorruptable prize can be that you can only contend for civil government leadership if you have served as leader of one of the military faction, and the civil government leadership position is much more favourable than leading a military faction (maybe the supreme-generals are forced to live in near-poverty, kept only in good enough health that they can adequately do their jobs). Of course, once corruption gets in it would eat the system from the inside out, much like a virus getting into a firewalled network. And it would mean that the country is unable to strike a foreign enemy with the full force of it's power (because of the political rivalry of the three faction leaders).
I'm not trying to troll, but has anyone else noticed that slashdot is slowly repositioning itself from pro-google to anti-google? There used to be dozens of stories about the initiatives google was making to help out the little guy etc, but this is the second story today that's been critical of google.
(Stupidity is the most painful thing in my life. Your sig is completely wrong.)
Well then, just have a smart person cut off your foot (and refuse anaesthetic). That way, the most painful thing in your life will be INTELLIGENCE and your hatred will end up cancelling itself out.
Plus it'd be pretty (mo/i)ronic if you had your foot cut off to combat stupidity, unncecessary amputation itself being stupid.
(on topic) I'd like to be as optomistic as Torvalds, but technology has a funny habit of throwing in crap with the positive advances - take for example;
-The internet/spammers
-Higher and higher spec computers/crappy & wasteful bloatware
-Wii/broken wiimotes & TVs
-Next-gen DVDs/DRM
-More clockspeed/more power consumption
-Slashdot/Flamers & Trolls
-Cars/Pollution
-MP3 Players/DRM (again)
I could go on for ages. I'm betting that DRM take the path of popups & spam messages, it'll just be one group fighting another until they reach a "stalemate" like we have today - ie, many people can keep their [computer popup-free/inboxes spam-free] if they use good software and keep their security in order. DRM will end up only being a nuisance, especially for those without computer know-how.
If you were dealing with illegal pictures, would you store them on your own computer?
If I were some sort of low life scum (rephrase: if I were a CHILD PORN VIEWING low life scum and not just regular-low life scum) I sure would. It'd mean offline access, and I'd just fein computer ignorance/to be an "innocent" (as in, pretend to be like the people this article is about). If they catch you connected to an innocent's computer and come and find that you QUITE OBVIOUSLY have the computer know-how to keep yourself clean, then the "I'm an innocent" defence would fall to crap. Just install a few trojans, XP, IE, OE and a bunch of trojans and bob's your uncle, you're just a link in the chain and not the anchor. It's harder to find a piece of hay in a stack of hay than it is to find a needle.
Ah, but therein lies the flaw in your statement. I *know* I would pay more for DRM'less media, but no-one offers me the option between cheaper/DRM/crippled/low-bitrate audio and the same song but more expensive/non-crippled/non-DRM'd/high bitrate IF THEY OFFERED IT, solely for the reason of telling the industry just how pissed off I am at DRM. But they don't offer it. And I know that I can help change their minds by voting with my chequebook - the entertainment industry DOES understand what consumers want through their purchases. Look at how many shows have been revived with DVD sales, or how musicians on tour always sing the songs that were popular as singles or popular online.
And I buy online music because I may like one song off an album but don't want to fork over $20 for additional songs I don't care for, a-la CD Music. It's unfortunate that there's no LEGAL DRM free alternative (as far as I'm aware), but since the DRM'd folks have a cartel on the market, there's not a lot I can do about it.
To be fair, no-one really DESERVES to die for their mistakes - but at the same time, it's "survival of the fittest" (especially including mental fitness these days) - people must be careful before doing anything (especially voluntarily) that would stress their bodies. And MOST of the darwin awards are exactly this kind of thing - they weren't robbing banks or killing babies, they were just doing something particularly stupid that led indirectly or directly to their deaths. Yes it is a tragedy, especially for the woman's family, but mothers die and leave behind children without being responsible for their own deaths all the time. Why should this mother's death illicit more concern than the thousands of mothers in the western world who die of disease/violence/misfortunes they weren't themselves responsible for, let alone the millions of mothers in second-and-third world countries who die of avoidable disease/starvation/civil conflict? Your concern may be warranted but that doesn't mean it's fairly distributed.
And besides, I don't think you should be so harsh on people who's scorn will probably help discourage people from doing the same or similar things in the future (peer pressure and whatnot. It's like that token fat kid in your class everyone made fun of but came to the reunion looking like a bodybuilder; it has bad intentions but good effects.
That's what I thought when I read this, surely it should fall under the category of "adware", or possibly "malware". But I'd be willing to bet that the expert used the term "spyware" because the idiot judge/jury don't know that there's any sort of bad "-ware" apart from "spyware".
In theory, yes, but unfortunately, we live here in the REAL WORLD, where nothing works like it's supposed to. And yes, yes it is a privelege - I don't recall ever denying that fact. It doesn't cancel out the fact that without good reason, very few people would bother developing their ideas, and that system of reward is the one we have now. As much as I am all for chaining up every single creative-type worker and whipping them for not meeting their idea-quota [/sarcasm], rewarding people for ideas seems to work (or at least it used to, before big corporations started bastardising the system). Without the PRIVILEGE of patents, noone would come up with ideas. It's not a perfect system by any measure, but we don't have anything better.
PS.
the freedom to try virtually enterprise to make a living.
"virtually enterprise", That doesn't make any sense, did you mean "try virtually ANYTHING", or "virtual enterprise" (which still wouldn't make sense)?
silly troll, it's called "capitalism". Like it or not, our societ(y/ies) work on the basis that people are rewarded for work/contributing to society, and the more you contribute the more you're rewarded. Granted, ideas are for the most part more heavily rewarded than they should be, and there is a LOT of disproportion in general regarding how much some types of work is worth versus others, but unfortunately it's the best system we have.
Progress in a capitalist society happens precisely when people DO profit from their ideas, since otherwise they wouldn't bother trying to develop them. And no, there is no real moral reason why you should profit for something that's essentially free (ignoring production/development/other costs), but try saying to every artist/scientist/inventor/programmer/hollywood-typ e in the world "hey, how about you do the same thing you do now, but we won't pay you for it!". The law DOES recognise that ideas need encouragement, and that's why we still have the patent office/IP protection (although this, like modern capitalism, is a bastion of corruption and injustice favouring the powerful).
Simple - use your (or borrow a friend's) install CD, and make a "post boot" (call it what you want) disc, which contains all the installers for every application you use and a fistful of driver packages. Once you get your new portable, wipe the hard drive and install everything (if you want windows, they should have included your cd key). It's about the same amount of effort as if you'd built it yourself (but not as fun).
Better yet, since a lot of OEM manufacturers charge on a scale, get a model with the right ram/cpu/graphics/sound/IO/networking but too little hard disk space, replace the hard disk with one bought seperately, and bam, just like a fresh install. You can sell the hard disk it shipped with, and you'll probably end up breaking even.
That's a terrible example. Every tower-type case motherboard on-board chipset also has an external version of it that can be put on the PCI/PCI-e/AGP bus; Sound/Video/SATA/ATA/FireWire/Ethernet/COM/USB/PS2 (hard to find, but just use a simple adapter and USB-PCI card). In fact, I currently use, or have used the external version of most of the stuff there at one point or another. I know that with laptops you are stuck with onboard.. but you don't have to carry around your media centre, so it can afford to be bulky. Even though they are specifically trying to keep size/weight down, they still provide for expansion (ie, PCMCIA). Besides, this illustrates GP's point really well - any gamer could tell you that onboard graphics blows chunks - and take a look in an audiophile's PC; you can bet that they aren't using onboard sound. Most external/expansion cards are better than their onboard counterparts.
Since hard drives fail, you should have more than one of them
You could set it up in a RAID-0 (if it's only 2 disks) or RAID-5 with 1 redundancy (3 or more disks). But you could also consider CDFS or UDF... put your data on CDs/DVDs. If you have overly large files, you could use RAR to break them up into little pieces to burn to CD. If you want free online storage for few gigs of very important files, just open up as many gmail accounts as you need, compress your files with RAR into 1MB pieces and upload each of them attached to an email. You'd have to remember to visit your account within every 90 days though - I think that's how long they give you before they close your account down.
When I first read the article I thought "gloves".. but then, who carries a spare pair of sweatproof gloves with them? This would only work if the person was PLANNING to drink-drive, and most people only have the brilliant idea of drink-driving because they're too drunk to realise how stupid it is.
Could you also sabotage someone's car by throwing a bit of alcohol all over the steering wheel? There'd probably be a lot of this come April Fools..
I think he means adding more and more sports, but yeah, I suppose you could expand within the sport itself.
In theory I agree with episodic gaming - I like the idea of having exactly the same sort of power to "switch it off" if/when it turns rotten, just like I can with TV shows. But I can't help but shake the nagging feeling that, like TV shows, all the good games will be cancelled long before their times (Firefly, anyone?). There's enough frustration with COMPLETED but unpopular games with lacklustre support, having a game stop halfway throught the STORYLINE would be a nightmare.
I've always been intrigued to see that the vegetarians are often part of the same mob as those who buy "organic" food - for humans who have evolved as omnivores (thats why we have both molars in incissors, because we eat meat AND vegetables), manufacturing the proteins/vitamis/nutritional value only naturally derived from meat that our bodies require is quite unnatural/inorganic. Ironically, the moral quandry of vegetarians (who are typically left-winged) compliments the moral quandry of anti-cloning pundits (typically right-winged), which is that "no sentient being should have to involuntarily die to help the life of another sentient being". Stories like this are a sort of curveball between the two arguments...
PS.
The thought of eating meat brings to my mind a caveman ripping the leg off of some pre-historic cow and ripping into it with his razor-sharp teeth. Just unnecessary and anti-evolutionary
You do realise that monkeys/apes (which we evolved FROM) are vegetarian?
Uh... making a satire of the other point of view by replying to your own post only really works if you post AC in one... otherwise you just look sort of insane for arguing with yourself. Your second post is insane enough that any moderately intelligent person could tell it's satire, without you having to spell it out.
I'm really looking forward to (video) games being more and more useful in real life; for example, the end of 2006 saw the launch of Wii, which helps nerds excersize (of course, let's not forget DDR for the same reasons:)). Then there have been games which inadvertently teach problem solving skills (although somewhat limited to real-life application) since the dawn of computer games. And then there's MMOs, which encourage social interaction. I'd like to see 2007 herald more and more "useful" games - perhaps in the games becoming more realistic, we'll see skills (like driving, marksmanship, dating?) translating to ability in real life.
Slashdot Mirror
4 out of 24 x 100 x 7
= 4 out of 16,800
= 1 out of 4,200 watchable shows per week.
42min + 42min + 42min + 42min = 168min
168min/110min ~ 1.527 movies per week (IF every movie was watchable)
Given that only 1 in 4200 are watchable, 1.527 * 4200 = 6,413.4 movies per week.
Now, if we take all the effort that hollywood puts into anti-piracy movements and put it into making movies, we might just be able to squeeze out one more movie per year; but I'm just not sure that that would cut it...No! It's This guy!
I'm not trying to troll, but has anyone else noticed that slashdot is slowly repositioning itself from pro-google to anti-google? There used to be dozens of stories about the initiatives google was making to help out the little guy etc, but this is the second story today that's been critical of google.
Sure we do! Posting our testicles' diameters on /..
Oh thanks for that, I wasn't trying to be pedantic - I really didn't know what GP meant.
That's what I thought when I read this, surely it should fall under the category of "adware", or possibly "malware". But I'd be willing to bet that the expert used the term "spyware" because the idiot judge/jury don't know that there's any sort of bad "-ware" apart from "spyware".
That's a terrible example. Every tower-type case motherboard on-board chipset also has an external version of it that can be put on the PCI/PCI-e/AGP bus; Sound/Video/SATA/ATA/FireWire/Ethernet/COM/USB/PS2 (hard to find, but just use a simple adapter and USB-PCI card). In fact, I currently use, or have used the external version of most of the stuff there at one point or another. I know that with laptops you are stuck with onboard.. but you don't have to carry around your media centre, so it can afford to be bulky. Even though they are specifically trying to keep size/weight down, they still provide for expansion (ie, PCMCIA). Besides, this illustrates GP's point really well - any gamer could tell you that onboard graphics blows chunks - and take a look in an audiophile's PC; you can bet that they aren't using onboard sound. Most external/expansion cards are better than their onboard counterparts.
Uh... making a satire of the other point of view by replying to your own post only really works if you post AC in one... otherwise you just look sort of insane for arguing with yourself. Your second post is insane enough that any moderately intelligent person could tell it's satire, without you having to spell it out.
I'm really looking forward to (video) games being more and more useful in real life; for example, the end of 2006 saw the launch of Wii, which helps nerds excersize (of course, let's not forget DDR for the same reasons :)). Then there have been games which inadvertently teach problem solving skills (although somewhat limited to real-life application) since the dawn of computer games. And then there's MMOs, which encourage social interaction. I'd like to see 2007 herald more and more "useful" games - perhaps in the games becoming more realistic, we'll see skills (like driving, marksmanship, dating?) translating to ability in real life.