I think few people would find your deceased dad's Beatles collection on MP3 (or CD) or Star Wars in AVI (or Blu-Ray) as part of an inhertance of any practical or even sentimental interest. What's the point of passing down something that can, and surely is, in 1 to a gazillion other places in 100% identical digital form?
Records, for example, at least harbor sentimentality in their little grooves, because you know the same music was scraped up and spewed out of your father's speakers, that he heard the same pops and hissing. The music actually "exists" on the vinyl to some extent.
Given some sentimentality does still exist inside the DVD box, but it's not much and will probably not even be possible to buy them some day. And digital rights transfers are not exactly tearjearkers.
This is indeed an over-reaction. Think of how many boxes can be found outside on a given day in the UK, and how many have bombs in them, really. It's not a rational fear, period. If one goes around with this mentality he or she will never feel safe, anywhere, ever.
Well, what you say about Fox News and such all makes sense, but only really functions if we are (as we theoretically should be) all consuming all the available news sources and judging them in keeping with the general idea of a marketplace of ideas. But, in fact, Fox News in many senses, to the untrained mind, does not serve as a tool to hone the "bullshit detector". I know from experience that many people view it and it's news as the truth and their world view is very much shaped by it.
of calling mobiles in Europe from landlines or VOIP services? My Swedish (ex) girlfriend came with me to California one time and couldn't believe that you had to pay to receive calls when she was giving my cell number to her mom. I had to concede that it is pretty ridiculous, since you can easily get screwed from spam, etc with SMS. But, my experience has been generally that calling cell phones in Europe is incredidly expensive (almost 30 cents a minute to call a Spanish cell from Skype) while the same price in the US as to call a landline (2 cents a minute or whatever they charge now). Also, might I add that landlines with inluded unlimited local calling makes calling cell phones free for the caller at least. Now, with unlimited long-distance and other developments the idea of local vs long distance is another issue... but at least you could call someone with the same area code for free no matter where the cell phone user is.
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I think few people would find your deceased dad's Beatles collection on MP3 (or CD) or Star Wars in AVI (or Blu-Ray) as part of an inhertance of any practical or even sentimental interest. What's the point of passing down something that can, and surely is, in 1 to a gazillion other places in 100% identical digital form? Records, for example, at least harbor sentimentality in their little grooves, because you know the same music was scraped up and spewed out of your father's speakers, that he heard the same pops and hissing. The music actually "exists" on the vinyl to some extent. Given some sentimentality does still exist inside the DVD box, but it's not much and will probably not even be possible to buy them some day. And digital rights transfers are not exactly tearjearkers.
This is indeed an over-reaction. Think of how many boxes can be found outside on a given day in the UK, and how many have bombs in them, really. It's not a rational fear, period. If one goes around with this mentality he or she will never feel safe, anywhere, ever.
Well, what you say about Fox News and such all makes sense, but only really functions if we are (as we theoretically should be) all consuming all the available news sources and judging them in keeping with the general idea of a marketplace of ideas. But, in fact, Fox News in many senses, to the untrained mind, does not serve as a tool to hone the "bullshit detector". I know from experience that many people view it and it's news as the truth and their world view is very much shaped by it.
of calling mobiles in Europe from landlines or VOIP services? My Swedish (ex) girlfriend came with me to California one time and couldn't believe that you had to pay to receive calls when she was giving my cell number to her mom. I had to concede that it is pretty ridiculous, since you can easily get screwed from spam, etc with SMS. But, my experience has been generally that calling cell phones in Europe is incredidly expensive (almost 30 cents a minute to call a Spanish cell from Skype) while the same price in the US as to call a landline (2 cents a minute or whatever they charge now). Also, might I add that landlines with inluded unlimited local calling makes calling cell phones free for the caller at least. Now, with unlimited long-distance and other developments the idea of local vs long distance is another issue... but at least you could call someone with the same area code for free no matter where the cell phone user is.