Why doesn't MS just pay itself, thus complying with "fair use of marketing capital." (WTF does that mean anyway?)
Really, this guy's argument is that since Google pays for this, it is OK to happen, but since MS owns both the Search and the Browser, they shouldn't be allowed to do it. It seems a bit on the shallow side to me.
I once emailed my local station and suggested that they have a separate Internet feed for people who have given money. That would be the reward for donating: a beg-a-thon free version.
The one problem with this is that those who have donated once already are more likely to donate again, possibly with even a larger amount, so that would most likely be a big hit in their pocket books, though extra sales from people who would pay just not to hear the pledge drives any more would help with that. It would still widen the gap between rich stations and poor stations spoken of in the article, because not all local stations would be able to put up an online feed (my local still hasn't, and it's probably the most popular station in town), so people would become members of the larger stations not in their area, and stop giving to the small ones.
This is the Tuttle Times' write up of the incedent... it's pretty funny in its own right, though it makes me damn sad any city has an administration as dense as that one.
But that isn't because Apple has the policy "14-day refunds or 15 days because what the hell it's close enough." You got a new Mac Mini because the people actually working the store had a heart. You're confusing the part for the whole. Really, I've had great costomer service from one company, just to turn around 6 months later to have aweful costomer service. Yes, some companies are great at screening people to be its costomer service reps, or attract neet people (Apple would be in that category), but it isn't necessarily because the company has better costomer service in general.
that someone is wrong won't make them see the light. Show them what the system can do for them and how easy it is to switch over, and they will. Until then, the arguments against switching might be stupid, but arguments against those are even worse. Many many people and companies use Linux, it is the most used OS in many academic pursuits (I know for a fact Astronomy), and has its great points. But it isn't Windows, and if people are happy with Windows and use it efficiently, even if it's just because they are familiar with it, to them that's the best possible reason not to switch, and unless you can show them they can do something new and much better, they just won't care to switch. And even then, the familiarity argument will keep many where they are. People don't like change, and arguing that not linking change is stupid won't get you anywhere.
Well, if this is the first step, let's hope that other companies who aren't Valve and who will get this episodic content to us in a fairly timely manner (not over a year after HL2 was released). I mean, I love the Half-Life series, but for an episodic model to work, I'd say every 6 months would be much better timeline than every year or so. That way people won't feel cheated when they expect a pretty decent sized add-on (a la HL1's additions) after waiting so long, and get an 8 hour episode instead. And, for 20-30 dollars, I'd expect a bit more too.
I'm from semi-rural Alaska (though I go to college in New England), and in my neck of the woods, it's usually cheaper to get broadband access. There are a couple of phone companies who service the area, and if you catch one of them at the right time with the right promotion, you can get DSL + new phone service, or cable + cable modem, at the same price as dial up, or maybe slightly more. My family did this, if only so that we could be online at any time without tying up the phone lines. That's what was the most painful about dial up, not being able to use the phone at the same time. Long download times are a pain, but can be delt with; missed phone calls cannot.
We recently got DSL access to my house, and as soon as the option was there took it, since they were only letting a few households from the area on at the time. However, now that I'm out of the house, I think the only good thing about my family having DSL is the phone issue: otherwise, we have a lot of bandwidth going unused. But at least when my dad "screws up the internet," I can call and walk him through getting it working without having to hang up every time he wants to check to make sure it works.
Then why don't you unplug the ethernet port on your computer until you've changed the "internet options" to be more secure and are ready to download updates? It's really not that hard.
The alternative is DRM free mp3.. but then you lose the ability to protect your music.
It's what many smaller, indie artists do. See Emusic.com.
Plus when your HDD dies.. you cant regain your music.
This isn't completely true. One, the music can still be copied to CD, to another hard drive, or to any number of iPods to be backed up. Secondly--and I have no first-hand knowledge of this--it is said that Apple will allow you to redownload the songs you have bought, once, if something happens and you lose them all.
I'm no Apple fanboy, but wanted to point those parts out.
That being said, the first part is largely true. You can scrub the music with something such as JHymn, but that doesn't work with iTunes 6.0, and is quasi-legal at best (or maybe downright illegal, not sure). I would debate, however, that an artist must use Fairplay DRM to become a success (both due to the abiguity of the word and to acts that haven't been on iTunes for very long, such as Madonna), or that MS's Plays For Sure is any better.
Sound and fury, understanding nothing. Typical of OSNews, but sad that Slashdot's carrying this crap.
As an OS News reader, I'd say it's much more typical of Thom, the lead editor and author of that article, than OS News in general. Most the other editors are rather rational. Of course, some of the readership comes up wanting...
The page linked to is that of the woman's lawyer. "Let's automatically believe something the lawyer said" is the last thing I'd ascribe to the typical Slashdot reader.
I have to agree. Do a view page source on their website, and you'll see that the comments in the HTML are loaded with "keywords" so they'll get a higher pagerank. Something is fishy about the site, or the lawyers. Publicity stunt maybe?
You'll probably never read this, but I'll post a rebuttle anyway:
This man said nothing about quality of speach in the part of his post that I quoted. He said he singles out Chinese people. That is racist. Also, if he meant "people who don't speak very good English" when he said simply "Chinese" people, then he is begging the question, saying that Chinese == poor command of English. That's not true of any of the Chinese kids I go to college with, and none of them farm either, even though many do play video games. Look up begging the question and generalization. And as to the straw man argument, the US government is run by the people of the government, and any decision made through the senate or house is indirectly tied to the citizens of the (and my) country. So I do consider a single person not playing video games with people from a certain country in the same vein as not letting people of a certain heritage use a plane. The same fallacy, begging the question, is behind each action.
"I got robbed by a guy who spoke bad English, thus I will avoid being robbed by not not associating with those who speak bad English" == generalization, begging the question.
"Chinese people speak English poorly" == generalization.
Also, I did not commit the slippery slope fallacy. If everyone were racist and nationalistic, then we would be in a situation far worse than pre-WWII Germany. Not everyone is racist/nationalistic, nor did I suggest that everyone will be, but that would be the outcome if it were so. I simply pointed out what a similar mentality has lead to in the past.
The logical fallacies commited in the original parent's post were far greater than anythign I committed (and I don't think I committed any).
"It might be racist to screen out chinese players but let me tell you that it DOES save you from being ninja looted randomly."
In that case, it would be better if the US government doesn't let people with dark skin on airplanes, so that we won't get Muhammed 9/11'ed, eh?
If you agree with the first, and not with the second, then you don't understand logic. If you agree with the second, well... let's just say that's not nice, and if everyone thought about that, we'd be back in a WWII era mentality.
I've heard of him. His band, OK Go, is pretty popular among the college indie kids. I went up to see him and his band play with Rufus Wainwright in Northampton, MA (I go to school in New Haven, CT) and I swear half the kids were there to see OK Go dance. Link via OKGo.net, where you'll find both the band's albums in streamable format, the whole things, as well as a bunch of movies, a podcast, a blog... these guys like thier listeners.
2a Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: "Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated" (Richard Kain). b An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity.
Slashdot Mirror
Why doesn't MS just pay itself, thus complying with "fair use of marketing capital." (WTF does that mean anyway?)
Really, this guy's argument is that since Google pays for this, it is OK to happen, but since MS owns both the Search and the Browser, they shouldn't be allowed to do it. It seems a bit on the shallow side to me.
Ummm....
I'd be more worried about their tracking your movements based on where you log into your gmail address from.
I once emailed my local station and suggested that they have a separate Internet feed for people who have given money. That would be the reward for donating: a beg-a-thon free version.
The one problem with this is that those who have donated once already are more likely to donate again, possibly with even a larger amount, so that would most likely be a big hit in their pocket books, though extra sales from people who would pay just not to hear the pledge drives any more would help with that. It would still widen the gap between rich stations and poor stations spoken of in the article, because not all local stations would be able to put up an online feed (my local still hasn't, and it's probably the most popular station in town), so people would become members of the larger stations not in their area, and stop giving to the small ones.
This is the Tuttle Times' write up of the incedent... it's pretty funny in its own right, though it makes me damn sad any city has an administration as dense as that one.
But that isn't because Apple has the policy "14-day refunds or 15 days because what the hell it's close enough." You got a new Mac Mini because the people actually working the store had a heart. You're confusing the part for the whole. Really, I've had great costomer service from one company, just to turn around 6 months later to have aweful costomer service. Yes, some companies are great at screening people to be its costomer service reps, or attract neet people (Apple would be in that category), but it isn't necessarily because the company has better costomer service in general.
Shh!!!
Don't give them any more ideas!
that someone is wrong won't make them see the light. Show them what the system can do for them and how easy it is to switch over, and they will. Until then, the arguments against switching might be stupid, but arguments against those are even worse. Many many people and companies use Linux, it is the most used OS in many academic pursuits (I know for a fact Astronomy), and has its great points. But it isn't Windows, and if people are happy with Windows and use it efficiently, even if it's just because they are familiar with it, to them that's the best possible reason not to switch, and unless you can show them they can do something new and much better, they just won't care to switch. And even then, the familiarity argument will keep many where they are. People don't like change, and arguing that not linking change is stupid won't get you anywhere.
Don't forget the silver bullets and holy water!!!
Well, if this is the first step, let's hope that other companies who aren't Valve and who will get this episodic content to us in a fairly timely manner (not over a year after HL2 was released). I mean, I love the Half-Life series, but for an episodic model to work, I'd say every 6 months would be much better timeline than every year or so. That way people won't feel cheated when they expect a pretty decent sized add-on (a la HL1's additions) after waiting so long, and get an 8 hour episode instead. And, for 20-30 dollars, I'd expect a bit more too.
I'm from semi-rural Alaska (though I go to college in New England), and in my neck of the woods, it's usually cheaper to get broadband access. There are a couple of phone companies who service the area, and if you catch one of them at the right time with the right promotion, you can get DSL + new phone service, or cable + cable modem, at the same price as dial up, or maybe slightly more. My family did this, if only so that we could be online at any time without tying up the phone lines. That's what was the most painful about dial up, not being able to use the phone at the same time. Long download times are a pain, but can be delt with; missed phone calls cannot.
We recently got DSL access to my house, and as soon as the option was there took it, since they were only letting a few households from the area on at the time. However, now that I'm out of the house, I think the only good thing about my family having DSL is the phone issue: otherwise, we have a lot of bandwidth going unused. But at least when my dad "screws up the internet," I can call and walk him through getting it working without having to hang up every time he wants to check to make sure it works.
Then why don't you unplug the ethernet port on your computer until you've changed the "internet options" to be more secure and are ready to download updates? It's really not that hard.
No way Apple would do this. In the mind of consumers, it isn't an iPod without the click wheel.
Watch me eat my words though....
The alternative is DRM free mp3 .. but then you lose the ability to protect your music.
It's what many smaller, indie artists do. See Emusic.com.
Plus when your HDD dies .. you cant regain your music.
This isn't completely true. One, the music can still be copied to CD, to another hard drive, or to any number of iPods to be backed up. Secondly--and I have no first-hand knowledge of this--it is said that Apple will allow you to redownload the songs you have bought, once, if something happens and you lose them all.
I'm no Apple fanboy, but wanted to point those parts out.
That being said, the first part is largely true. You can scrub the music with something such as JHymn, but that doesn't work with iTunes 6.0, and is quasi-legal at best (or maybe downright illegal, not sure). I would debate, however, that an artist must use Fairplay DRM to become a success (both due to the abiguity of the word and to acts that haven't been on iTunes for very long, such as Madonna), or that MS's Plays For Sure is any better.
Sound and fury, understanding nothing. Typical of OSNews, but sad that Slashdot's carrying this crap.
As an OS News reader, I'd say it's much more typical of Thom, the lead editor and author of that article, than OS News in general. Most the other editors are rather rational. Of course, some of the readership comes up wanting...
At least it isn't as bad as digg though....
The page linked to is that of the woman's lawyer. "Let's automatically believe something the lawyer said" is the last thing I'd ascribe to the typical Slashdot reader. I have to agree. Do a view page source on their website, and you'll see that the comments in the HTML are loaded with "keywords" so they'll get a higher pagerank. Something is fishy about the site, or the lawyers. Publicity stunt maybe?
You'll probably never read this, but I'll post a rebuttle anyway:
This man said nothing about quality of speach in the part of his post that I quoted. He said he singles out Chinese people. That is racist. Also, if he meant "people who don't speak very good English" when he said simply "Chinese" people, then he is begging the question, saying that Chinese == poor command of English. That's not true of any of the Chinese kids I go to college with, and none of them farm either, even though many do play video games. Look up begging the question and generalization. And as to the straw man argument, the US government is run by the people of the government, and any decision made through the senate or house is indirectly tied to the citizens of the (and my) country. So I do consider a single person not playing video games with people from a certain country in the same vein as not letting people of a certain heritage use a plane. The same fallacy, begging the question, is behind each action.
"I got robbed by a guy who spoke bad English, thus I will avoid being robbed by not not associating with those who speak bad English" == generalization, begging the question.
"Chinese people speak English poorly" == generalization.
Also, I did not commit the slippery slope fallacy. If everyone were racist and nationalistic, then we would be in a situation far worse than pre-WWII Germany. Not everyone is racist/nationalistic, nor did I suggest that everyone will be, but that would be the outcome if it were so. I simply pointed out what a similar mentality has lead to in the past.
The logical fallacies commited in the original parent's post were far greater than anythign I committed (and I don't think I committed any).
"It might be racist to screen out chinese players but let me tell you that it DOES save you from being ninja looted randomly."
In that case, it would be better if the US government doesn't let people with dark skin on airplanes, so that we won't get Muhammed 9/11'ed, eh?
If you agree with the first, and not with the second, then you don't understand logic.
If you agree with the second, well... let's just say that's not nice, and if everyone thought about that, we'd be back in a WWII era mentality.
I've heard of him. His band, OK Go, is pretty popular among the college indie kids. I went up to see him and his band play with Rufus Wainwright in Northampton, MA (I go to school in New Haven, CT) and I swear half the kids were there to see OK Go dance. Link via OKGo.net, where you'll find both the band's albums in streamable format, the whole things, as well as a bunch of movies, a podcast, a blog... these guys like thier listeners.
from dictionary.com:
Irony:
2a Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: "Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated" (Richard Kain).
b An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity.
Well, at least when it is online, the existance of the .org at the end of OpenOffice will be justified.