Shark jumpage started with the 1997 re-release of Empire, when Lucas changed the scene of Luke jumping off the Cloud City platform by adding that hollering scream all the way down. Suddenly Luke wasn't a Jedi nobly accepting his own death rather than turning to the dark side. He was just a blithering idiot falling off a cliff, in strangely accurate foreshadowing of the whole Star Wars franchise for the next decade.
Revenge of the Sith didn't redeem the mess... it was just good enough to remind you of how good the prequels could have been, if someone had taken George's crayons away and hired a screenwriter. ILM should release a Special Edition using CGI to replace the entire trilogy.
For that matter, how do they justify the claim that the economy suffers when businesses pirate software? The supposed missing revenue they claim would be offset by the increased productivity of the businesses using it. If their claim is true and the net result is still a decrease in GDP, it means the productivity value of using the software is LESS than the purchase price. Therefore, no one should buy the software at all.
The company and service officially emerge from behind their stealth shield tomorrow armed with a flashy bundling agreement from laptop maker Acer.
Most likely, the reason behind this awesomely silly "feature" is getting people to pay more for laptops with larger hard drives, with marketing promising "search the web without an internet connection!"
And, of course, selling a subscription service that lets you download updates of your favorite internet content to your laptop... a technology formerly known as, well, "browsing the web". Using slick marketing to sell people stuff they already have, was a huge success for the bottled water industry... can't blame these guys for trying it on the internets.
I agree Britannica makes some good points against the Nature study, but they're extremely slanted to try to show "Britannica was far more accurate than Wikipedia". They fail to mention that many of the same types of errors are counted against Wikipedia -- possibly more. Compare the lists of errors for yourself: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/ex tref/438900a-s1.doc
The Wikipedia error list is full of many of the same objections over grammar, obscure details that the reviewer thought should be included, matters that could be considered opinion, etc. Compare the lists for the Paul Dirac or Stephen Wolfram articles, or the details on discussing motivation for the Nobel Prize Committee. Some of the "errors" logged against Wikipedia are truly silly:
Pythagoras' Theorem
Reviewer: Geoff Smith, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Bath, UK.
1. "This means that knowing the lengths of two sides of a right triangle is enough to calculate the length of the third - something unique to right triangles.'' is misleading. If you know two sides of a triangle and the included angle then you can always calculate the length of the third side.
Granted, there are some real questions about methodology here, but Britannica loses a lot of credibility trying to slant the whole thing as a one-sided attack on them.
There really are people who think all those "free markets" should exist. They apparently believe some invisible hand will appear and sweep away markets for slavery and child prostitution... ignoring the fact that nothing in human history has ever made a dent in those atrocities except government intervention.
Generally those same people complain about any regulation of markets, from the comfort of their homes maintained by electric and heating services, using the phone and cable network availability guaranteed to them by public utilities, with the free time guaranteed them by labor protections, in the safety and health provided them by food and drug, health care, and housing safety laws. There are countries free of all such regulations like Cambodia and Haiti, but strangely, they never seem to move there.
It doesn't fit well into easy black-and-white thinking, but the best solution is a balance. It ain't sexy or revolutionary or exciting, but there it is. Too little or too much government regulation cripples the economy; get it just right and the private sector will take off like a rocket. Public regulations of basic minimums ensure a stable platform and OS; private industry builds the applications. And we've all seen the results when the OS is built for the profits of the few instead of the benefits to everyone...
That comes under #8... "Approach someone with the signature white ear buds, smile, and trade headphone jacks to get an earful of your new friend's music."
You have to seriously wonder what the people who came up with this were thinking. Computers don't work right, they crash and destroy your data, they're riddled with usability problems and bugs that enrage users? Obviously the solution to THAT is not to fix it, but to kludge on a big pile of bioelectric sensors to give some warning when the user's about to go postal.
I don't want a car that emits soothing Muzak and aromatherapy when the wheels fall off. I just want the wheels to stay on.
That's what I need... a toaster that needs fixing every few days, constantly pops up toast containing viruses and Spam, and keeps telling me how great it'll be when it starts working correctly, probably sometime in 2007.
If this ever really launched, I give the advertising industry one month to catch up and start spamming the players with lots and lots and lots of ads.
No way, they'll never figure it out. This is cutting-edge, 21st century technology. Think of it... music pushed to you through the air, for free, and all you need is a small electronic device to receive it!
Actually this is a breakthrough of sorts. It's an analog-to-digital upgrade of that annoying guy on the subway who plays his radio at top volume - now your PDA can listen to it so you don't have to.
That is a little weird... almost sounds like Intel's so preoccupied with its losing race against AMD they stuffed it into the slogan itself. Does the average PC user really want an emblem stuck on their machine reminding them they're part of some competition or technogeek arms race? They already paid for the damn thing, let em enjoy their email and porn.
What if other companies put their corporate issues right there in the customer's face?
Microsoft: Now 86% DOJ approved!
Burger King: Have it your way, or at least not THEIR way
Sony: Our CDs give you great music... and so much more!
Have to agree. For entertainment or fun, people will enjoy watching a video of, say a celebrity interview. But for news or viewpoints from the average blogger or media shlub, talking-head video has got to be the least efficient way of transmitting information. It requires 10x the time and 1000x the bandwidth, can't be indexed or searched easily, and adds all sorts of side information that distracts from the intended content. For this purpose, plain text is an amazingly efficient compression scheme, refined by genetic algorithm over millenia; why do I need MPEG?
Personally, I'm hopelessly addicted to technology, I'm just behind the curve. I'm spending over a hundred a month on electricity, and when there's an outage, all my personal habits are affected. If I spend more than a week or two without using a telephone, my life gets completely snarled up. If I go too long without health care technology like bloodwork or flu shots, my body gets physically sick! Please, can't someone help me?
The real weakness is the industry's STILL thinking in terms of consumer electronics gear. My computer does a better job, handles all the decoding necessary, gives me plenty more options to customize and tinker with, and I can add the latest video upsampling and audio processing filters whenever I want. Why would I want to go buy a big dedicated hardware box just to spin DVDs, when they get obsoleted every year or two and the industry keeps coming up with new ways to cripple them?
The more methods they come up with to cripple consumer electronics, the more they'll drive people away to the HTPC market permanently. Once there, they'll discover they not only never have to buy big dumb component boxes ever again, but every possible DRM scheme to extort money from them is cracked for free within months, if not days. And there goes the ball game -- you didn't just lose a sale, you lost a lifetime customer. Bring it on, guys... can't wait to watch the fun!
Having consulted with my colleagues and based on the information gathered from the Martian Chambers Of Commerce And Industry, I have the privilege to request your assistance to transfer the sum of $47,500,000.00 (forty seven million, five hundred thousand Earth dollars) into your accounts. The above sum resulted from an over-invoiced contract, executed, commissioned and paid for about five years (5) ago by an alien contractor. This action was however intentional and since then the fund has been in a suspended account at The Central Bank Of Mars...
Or, instead of on highways, install them as speed bumps on suburban streets with a low speed limit, and just feed the power back into the grid. Put in a movement damper and angle the ramp so the forward slope is a bit steeper than the downward slope, so that speeders pay more of a penalty. It's still a dumb idea, just a bit less dumb.
If you wanted highways to be more power-efficient, why not sink them 50 feet into the ground? You'd get a boost from potential energy and burn less fuel on a downhill on-ramp, when you're accelerating and burning inefficiently anyway... but the real savings come when you hit the uphill off-ramp, and have to bleed off less waste energy braking to a stop.
From the article: The desktop UI is successful for a reason, not simply because it has a familiar analogue in the physical world, but rather because it behaves in that same useful way that real desks behave. It takes advantage of a well-established ability; spatial memory. You put something down and it stays there.
Males tend to be better at spatial memory, while females tend to be better at verbal and communication skills... the 2D interface has been male-centric up till now. Maybe the next step is to take a shot at a female-centric interface. Not that anyone on/. would know where to start, of course:)
I'd like to see stdev and mean values as well. And, since they're measuring the count of verifiable statements of fact that were judged false, it would be interesting to see a count of facts that were judged accurate. That would be a better measure than "errors per kilobyte" and add a whole new dimension to the findings.
No way... they just upgraded "ad-skipping technology" to "TV-show-skipping technology". Most TV is barely watchable as it is; if characters are going to start hawking Wal-Mart perfume at me, I'll find something else to do. Product placement is more offensive than a fart in an elevator.
It's standard bullshit... find the highest piracy figures you can get away with claiming, assume everyone would have paid $1000 for each copy of MS Office or whatever, multiply 'em together and quote the result with a straight face. RIAA's been doing it for years.
If the software companies behind this "study" are really concerned with economic impact, why aren't they including the billions of dollars lost to viruses, exploits and ongoing maintenance due to their own security holes? Or their own predatory business practices? Microsoft's statement on the BSA study would become a lot more interesting with those phrases swapped in.
"We support the Business Software Alliance's ongoing efforts to raise awareness about the economic impact of global software piracy. Every year, millions of consumers and businesses are hurt by counterfeit software which they have purchased unwittingly, and many companies that sell legitimate software have difficulty competing with low prices offered by software pirates.
"At Microsoft we believe that our customers want to be sure they are purchasing and using genuine software. We remain committed to advancing education among consumers to identify and obtain genuine software. Microsoft is also continuing to invest heavily in engineering world-class anti-counterfeiting technologies to protect our intellectual property, and to supporting government and law enforcement on enforcement actions against counterfeiters."
Slashdot Mirror
If it catches on, they'll be expanding it to phone service next...
Buddy calls you up: "Hey, want to hang out tonight and watch the football game?"
You hear: "Hey, want to hang out tonight and watch THE THRILLING SEASON PREMIERE OF EXTREME MAKEOVER, TONIGHT AT 8, ONLY ON ABC!"
Shark jumpage started with the 1997 re-release of Empire, when Lucas changed the scene of Luke jumping off the Cloud City platform by adding that hollering scream all the way down. Suddenly Luke wasn't a Jedi nobly accepting his own death rather than turning to the dark side. He was just a blithering idiot falling off a cliff, in strangely accurate foreshadowing of the whole Star Wars franchise for the next decade.
Revenge of the Sith didn't redeem the mess... it was just good enough to remind you of how good the prequels could have been, if someone had taken George's crayons away and hired a screenwriter. ILM should release a Special Edition using CGI to replace the entire trilogy.
Anyone else start to hear the movie trailer guy's voice reading the summary?
In a world of drivers gone mad... one man with drive, tenacity, and no funding does what no one else can do...
For that matter, how do they justify the claim that the economy suffers when businesses pirate software? The supposed missing revenue they claim would be offset by the increased productivity of the businesses using it. If their claim is true and the net result is still a decrease in GDP, it means the productivity value of using the software is LESS than the purchase price. Therefore, no one should buy the software at all.
If only Ubuntu didn't have such a weird naming scheme... Linux users would be recognized worldwide for the oversexed rockstars we really are. Drat!
I'm posting through AOL and they don't censor anything I send... in fact, I'll post the "censored" URL right n
And, of course, selling a subscription service that lets you download updates of your favorite internet content to your laptop... a technology formerly known as, well, "browsing the web". Using slick marketing to sell people stuff they already have, was a huge success for the bottled water industry... can't blame these guys for trying it on the internets.
Out of curiousity, did you include that referral-payola Amazon link as an example of deceptive navigation technology?
The Wikipedia error list is full of many of the same objections over grammar, obscure details that the reviewer thought should be included, matters that could be considered opinion, etc. Compare the lists for the Paul Dirac or Stephen Wolfram articles, or the details on discussing motivation for the Nobel Prize Committee. Some of the "errors" logged against Wikipedia are truly silly:
Pythagoras' Theorem Reviewer: Geoff Smith, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Bath, UK.
1. "This means that knowing the lengths of two sides of a right triangle is enough to calculate the length of the third - something unique to right triangles.'' is misleading. If you know two sides of a triangle and the included angle then you can always calculate the length of the third side.
Granted, there are some real questions about methodology here, but Britannica loses a lot of credibility trying to slant the whole thing as a one-sided attack on them.
Generally those same people complain about any regulation of markets, from the comfort of their homes maintained by electric and heating services, using the phone and cable network availability guaranteed to them by public utilities, with the free time guaranteed them by labor protections, in the safety and health provided them by food and drug, health care, and housing safety laws. There are countries free of all such regulations like Cambodia and Haiti, but strangely, they never seem to move there.
It doesn't fit well into easy black-and-white thinking, but the best solution is a balance. It ain't sexy or revolutionary or exciting, but there it is. Too little or too much government regulation cripples the economy; get it just right and the private sector will take off like a rocket. Public regulations of basic minimums ensure a stable platform and OS; private industry builds the applications. And we've all seen the results when the OS is built for the profits of the few instead of the benefits to everyone...
That comes under #8... "Approach someone with the signature white ear buds, smile, and trade headphone jacks to get an earful of your new friend's music."
I don't want a car that emits soothing Muzak and aromatherapy when the wheels fall off. I just want the wheels to stay on.
That's what I need... a toaster that needs fixing every few days, constantly pops up toast containing viruses and Spam, and keeps telling me how great it'll be when it starts working correctly, probably sometime in 2007.
No way, they'll never figure it out. This is cutting-edge, 21st century technology. Think of it... music pushed to you through the air, for free, and all you need is a small electronic device to receive it!
Actually this is a breakthrough of sorts. It's an analog-to-digital upgrade of that annoying guy on the subway who plays his radio at top volume - now your PDA can listen to it so you don't have to.
What if other companies put their corporate issues right there in the customer's face?
Have to agree. For entertainment or fun, people will enjoy watching a video of, say a celebrity interview. But for news or viewpoints from the average blogger or media shlub, talking-head video has got to be the least efficient way of transmitting information. It requires 10x the time and 1000x the bandwidth, can't be indexed or searched easily, and adds all sorts of side information that distracts from the intended content. For this purpose, plain text is an amazingly efficient compression scheme, refined by genetic algorithm over millenia; why do I need MPEG?
Personally, I'm hopelessly addicted to technology, I'm just behind the curve. I'm spending over a hundred a month on electricity, and when there's an outage, all my personal habits are affected. If I spend more than a week or two without using a telephone, my life gets completely snarled up. If I go too long without health care technology like bloodwork or flu shots, my body gets physically sick! Please, can't someone help me?
The more methods they come up with to cripple consumer electronics, the more they'll drive people away to the HTPC market permanently. Once there, they'll discover they not only never have to buy big dumb component boxes ever again, but every possible DRM scheme to extort money from them is cracked for free within months, if not days. And there goes the ball game -- you didn't just lose a sale, you lost a lifetime customer. Bring it on, guys... can't wait to watch the fun!
The title of a song is part of the creative work as well. Will they be suing anyone who mentions a song's existence?
Dear Sir,
Confidential Interplanetary Business Proposal
Having consulted with my colleagues and based on the information gathered from the Martian Chambers Of Commerce And Industry, I have the privilege to request your assistance to transfer the sum of $47,500,000.00 (forty seven million, five hundred thousand Earth dollars) into your accounts. The above sum resulted from an over-invoiced contract, executed, commissioned and paid for about five years (5) ago by an alien contractor. This action was however intentional and since then the fund has been in a suspended account at The Central Bank Of Mars...
If you wanted highways to be more power-efficient, why not sink them 50 feet into the ground? You'd get a boost from potential energy and burn less fuel on a downhill on-ramp, when you're accelerating and burning inefficiently anyway... but the real savings come when you hit the uphill off-ramp, and have to bleed off less waste energy braking to a stop.
Males tend to be better at spatial memory, while females tend to be better at verbal and communication skills... the 2D interface has been male-centric up till now. Maybe the next step is to take a shot at a female-centric interface. Not that anyone on /. would know where to start, of course :)
I'd like to see stdev and mean values as well. And, since they're measuring the count of verifiable statements of fact that were judged false, it would be interesting to see a count of facts that were judged accurate. That would be a better measure than "errors per kilobyte" and add a whole new dimension to the findings.
No way... they just upgraded "ad-skipping technology" to "TV-show-skipping technology". Most TV is barely watchable as it is; if characters are going to start hawking Wal-Mart perfume at me, I'll find something else to do. Product placement is more offensive than a fart in an elevator.
It's standard bullshit... find the highest piracy figures you can get away with claiming, assume everyone would have paid $1000 for each copy of MS Office or whatever, multiply 'em together and quote the result with a straight face. RIAA's been doing it for years.
If the software companies behind this "study" are really concerned with economic impact, why aren't they including the billions of dollars lost to viruses, exploits and ongoing maintenance due to their own security holes? Or their own predatory business practices? Microsoft's statement on the BSA study would become a lot more interesting with those phrases swapped in.
"We support the Business Software Alliance's ongoing efforts to raise awareness about the economic impact of global software piracy. Every year, millions of consumers and businesses are hurt by counterfeit software which they have purchased unwittingly, and many companies that sell legitimate software have difficulty competing with low prices offered by software pirates.
"At Microsoft we believe that our customers want to be sure they are purchasing and using genuine software. We remain committed to advancing education among consumers to identify and obtain genuine software. Microsoft is also continuing to invest heavily in engineering world-class anti-counterfeiting technologies to protect our intellectual property, and to supporting government and law enforcement on enforcement actions against counterfeiters."