The royalties for the radio stations are linked to the playlists that the RIAA puts out; this is largely the problem faced by the independent radio stations and webcasters; they don't fit into the RIAA's playlist, so the RIAA demands higher royalties.
When people say that the radio stations should be payed for *promoting* the music... THEY ARE, through the reduced royalties.
People buy the crap because it is played over and over and over and over and over and... until you remember it and somehow... manage to like it! If you don't like it, at least you recognize it.
Their system works. If a radio station played three thousand different songs a week, how would anybody remember the four they are supposed to buy?
I don't like it, but at least I understand the business model...
**And, for those people represented by Senators Hollings, Stevens, Inouye, Breaux, Nelson, and Feinstein: Compliment their recognition of "entertainment" as the Killer App for consumer broadband adoption.
The trick is to find a good way to tell them that you don't want to have the government subsidize an obsolete business model.
As much as I agree that most of the people using Napster et al are avoiding paying for the content, the fact remains that the "music industry" has not reached out to the changing desires of consumers.
For myself, I am sick of putting up with the mindless drivel from Sarah and Vinny (SF morning show) or 5 straight minutes of ads. There is a terrible lack of variety or orginality in radio station offerings.
But, I have also grown out of the 300 CD's that I purchased over the past 15 or so years. I need to find new music. I would love a subscription service where I get a DVD full of music each month for $30 (or whatever). If I want a better quality recording for listening to on the stereo, I'll do it. If it is just background noise... I am not going to spend more money on it, period.
In Bangkok, you can get CD's full of MP3's for about $2.50 each. I would go and grab 10-20 of them, just to see what was there... impusle shopping maybe. Same thing with movies: if the price is low enough and there is variety, you don't mind PAYING for "Pearl Harbor" and burning it later.
For me, Gnucleus is a great way to find music en masse, and go from there. When I find something I can't live without... well, I really am obliged to buy it, right?
The greed of the record industry (and the cable companies, movie theaters, etc) keeps me from spending more. AT&T Broadband wants $17/month to give you broadcast TV stations... isn't there something wrong with that?
The thermodynamic efficiency is between 65 and 80%; the transmission efficiency (generator to outlet) is about 80%. So, you have roughly 50-65% of the energy input converted to real power at point of use.
Heat recovery gives you another 10% on the low end of thermodynamic efficiency, maybe 5% on the high end. Best case, you end up with 60-70% efficiency.
The info provided about the unit about 6 months back or so indicated that it would have a firewire port. Maybe just this press release? It is Sony, afterall...
Actually, you could do a point-by-point analysis of the article here, and find major flaws. For now, i will only mention the worst omission... the fact that Rebel.com does make computers, and if Corel has any strength or hope, they can easily do the exact same things that Cobalt and others are doing, and possibly better.
Point is that this "traditional" software company is now having a valuation of a "linux" company, a "concept play." I seriously doubt that any real investment site would suggest that a concept play is a good investment.
The other thing to remember is that/. is what pumped up Corel stock. It pumped it up from $2.00 with stories about NetWinder, and from $6 with stories about Corel Linux. It's US that are inflating the price. Relative to RedHat, though, I think it is still a value for what they can do.
As has been pointed out far too often, a commercial pirate can do a bit-for-bit copy of a DVD at a low cost, and make a reasonable profit.
The interesting thing that people should remember is that MPAA/DVD is concerned about the same things as the RIAA-- changes in the distribution model for entertainment.
The pirate of the future that they are concerned about isn't someone copying the physical media and re-selling it, but someone that provides the content on a black market. The entry barriers in this type of industry would be very low... all you would need is high speed net access.
So, while we all recognize that the specific things they are saying are technically irrelevant, it does still pose a risk to their business model.
My Question is what has to be done to make the studios and the record labels happy, without gouging the consumers? Does this require a paradigm shift (lower cost, higher quantity products)?
HV DC power links are viable for very long distances, often justified by fewer cables, and the ability to use higher voltages. In Russia, they even have some single-wire systems, with the earth as a return path.
The only other real use is frequency conversion and out-of-phase systems, like Japan and Quebec (respectively).
Beyond just the AC and DC issue, Edison lost because you can't have a DC power transformer, so you must distribute power at the utilization voltage, hence higher losses.
Don't think i am too worried about the 15,000th harmonic causing problems on a power supply! (at least not a few mW, anyway)
I don't have the link at hand, but look into the CDMA propaganda; these problems are all solved fairly easily when you think in terms of digital/spread spectrum systems rather than analog.
Seems strange that everybody is thinking of this as a direct replacement for cookies. I would think that the opportunity (for Novell to want to do it) would be to provide some added value.
As I understand it, the biggest hurdle for micropayments is that the processing cost for a typical credit card transaction is about US$0.15, plus profit!
So, my slightly off-topic question would be this: what does it take to make micro-payments work? Is it smart cards that operate in a debit fashion? Something that can aggregate millions of transactions an hour to the point that they are actually WORTH something?
I can walk down the street (HK), and pick up a perfect DVD copy for US$5.00. No encryption will fix that, and that is the kind of piracy that hurts the studios.
Consumer piracy, the petty copying of files that can be done with the DeCSS or with "unsecure" MP3 files is really trivial. Concern with that type of copying is nothing more than greed!
Find a way to punish the companies for their greed... or let the markets do it for them!
While it is a no-brainer to agree with you on that, I have seen some fairly light batteries recently. They were circa 1985, and used as a power source for a fairly large (lugable) IR Thermographic camera. It was a belt, weighing about 4 pounds, and could provide power for 8 hours to what is essentially a PC.
I understood they were made from an obscure division of ABB. Anybody else know more?
From the MP3 jukebox company also mentioned today comes the Y2PC
Haven't seen one, but it is exactly what you are asking for. Not as small or light as i would hope, but... no integral display! Only downside that I see with it is there is only one PS2 port, so your mouse would need to be USB.
Just how much time in the day do you have to read/.?
1,000 comments for calendar 27th... a slow day! We need moderation, so that you can find the most interesting things first, and then nod off when the discussion gets too trivial.
I agree that too many comments are too low on the moderation scale, but my attention span for most articles is about 50 posts; after that, it better be interesting!
Historically, hourly wages and timeclocks are used for unskilled labor, where the only contribution you make is your time. When you move up to a point where your skills or ideas are the basis for your pay, you move to a salary position.
Some industries value people as "professionals," but rely on the employees to work overtime. If this is the case, hourly (straight time) overtime is fair. It is an incentive to the worker, but not a penalty to the employer. As long as it is not abused, it works fairly well for 2-3 years. After that... people want to be on straight salary, and often avoid the overtime if possible.
Ultimately, though, if you are talking about skilled labor, you never really get more than a week's worth of productivity out of someone if they are working scheduled overtime... so in the end it is best if people only work a regular week except in crunch situations.
Actually, I think the funniest part of that quote is the idea that someone is liable if anything ever goes wrong! Look at the license for the software! Software companies are not liable for anything!
As for service contracts... If an exchange server crashes, how long will it take to fix? 99% Uptime! (1% unscheduled down-time is 20 working hours per year that the system will be unavailable!)
Slashdot Mirror
check out this link. It goes into various types of EMP bombs, device hardness, etc.
The royalties for the radio stations are linked to the playlists that the RIAA puts out; this is largely the problem faced by the independent radio stations and webcasters; they don't fit into the RIAA's playlist, so the RIAA demands higher royalties.
When people say that the radio stations should be payed for *promoting* the music... THEY ARE, through the reduced royalties.
People buy the crap because it is played over and over and over and over and over and... until you remember it and somehow... manage to like it! If you don't like it, at least you recognize it.
Their system works. If a radio station played three thousand different songs a week, how would anybody remember the four they are supposed to buy?
I don't like it, but at least I understand the business model...
**And, for those people represented by Senators Hollings, Stevens, Inouye, Breaux, Nelson, and Feinstein: Compliment their recognition of "entertainment" as the Killer App for consumer broadband adoption.
The trick is to find a good way to tell them that you don't want to have the government subsidize an obsolete business model.
As much as I agree that most of the people using Napster et al are avoiding paying for the content, the fact remains that the "music industry" has not reached out to the changing desires of consumers.
For myself, I am sick of putting up with the mindless drivel from Sarah and Vinny (SF morning show) or 5 straight minutes of ads. There is a terrible lack of variety or orginality in radio station offerings.
But, I have also grown out of the 300 CD's that I purchased over the past 15 or so years. I need to find new music. I would love a subscription service where I get a DVD full of music each month for $30 (or whatever). If I want a better quality recording for listening to on the stereo, I'll do it. If it is just background noise... I am not going to spend more money on it, period.
In Bangkok, you can get CD's full of MP3's for about $2.50 each. I would go and grab 10-20 of them, just to see what was there... impusle shopping maybe. Same thing with movies: if the price is low enough and there is variety, you don't mind PAYING for "Pearl Harbor" and burning it later.
For me, Gnucleus is a great way to find music en masse, and go from there. When I find something I can't live without... well, I really am obliged to buy it, right?
The greed of the record industry (and the cable companies, movie theaters, etc) keeps me from spending more. AT&T Broadband wants $17/month to give you broadcast TV stations... isn't there something wrong with that?
Remember Divix!
Take a look at your credit report... It's amazing what you can glean from it...
Don't have the exact numbers, but ROT gives this:
The thermodynamic efficiency is between 65 and 80%; the transmission efficiency (generator to outlet) is about 80%. So, you have roughly 50-65% of the energy input converted to real power at point of use.
Heat recovery gives you another 10% on the low end of thermodynamic efficiency, maybe 5% on the high end. Best case, you end up with 60-70% efficiency.
but does it run windows?
I'm a moron who saved my password in a cyber cafe.
The info provided about the unit about 6 months back or so indicated that it would have a firewire port. Maybe just this press release? It is Sony, afterall...
Actually, you could do a point-by-point analysis of the article here, and find major flaws. For now, i will only mention the worst omission... the fact that Rebel.com does make computers, and if Corel has any strength or hope, they can easily do the exact same things that Cobalt and others are doing, and possibly better.
/. is what pumped up Corel stock. It pumped it up from $2.00 with stories about NetWinder, and from $6 with stories about Corel Linux. It's US that are inflating the price. Relative to RedHat, though, I think it is still a value for what they can do.
Point is that this "traditional" software company is now having a valuation of a "linux" company, a "concept play." I seriously doubt that any real investment site would suggest that a concept play is a good investment.
The other thing to remember is that
As has been pointed out far too often, a commercial pirate can do a bit-for-bit copy of a DVD at a low cost, and make a reasonable profit.
The interesting thing that people should remember is that MPAA/DVD is concerned about the same things as the RIAA-- changes in the distribution model for entertainment.
The pirate of the future that they are concerned about isn't someone copying the physical media and re-selling it, but someone that provides the content on a black market. The entry barriers in this type of industry would be very low... all you would need is high speed net access.
So, while we all recognize that the specific things they are saying are technically irrelevant, it does still pose a risk to their business model.
My Question is what has to be done to make the studios and the record labels happy, without gouging the consumers? Does this require a paradigm shift (lower cost, higher quantity products)?
Is this the Monty from Swell?
The technology covered aside, doesn't spread spectrum solve these problems?
HV DC power links are viable for very long distances, often justified by fewer cables, and the ability to use higher voltages. In Russia, they even have some single-wire systems, with the earth as a return path.
The only other real use is frequency conversion and out-of-phase systems, like Japan and Quebec (respectively).
Beyond just the AC and DC issue, Edison lost because you can't have a DC power transformer, so you must distribute power at the utilization voltage, hence higher losses.
Don't think i am too worried about the 15,000th harmonic causing problems on a power supply! (at least not a few mW, anyway)
I don't have the link at hand, but look into the CDMA propaganda; these problems are all solved fairly easily when you think in terms of digital/spread spectrum systems rather than analog.
Check out DEC/Compaq WRL's factoid
not as much of a UI...
Seems strange that everybody is thinking of this as a direct replacement for cookies. I would think that the opportunity (for Novell to want to do it) would be to provide some added value.
As I understand it, the biggest hurdle for micropayments is that the processing cost for a typical credit card transaction is about US$0.15, plus profit!
So, my slightly off-topic question would be this: what does it take to make micro-payments work? Is it smart cards that operate in a debit fashion? Something that can aggregate millions of transactions an hour to the point that they are actually WORTH something?
I can walk down the street (HK), and pick up a perfect DVD copy for US$5.00. No encryption will fix that, and that is the kind of piracy that hurts the studios.
Consumer piracy, the petty copying of files that can be done with the DeCSS or with "unsecure" MP3 files is really trivial. Concern with that type of copying is nothing more than greed!
Find a way to punish the companies for their greed... or let the markets do it for them!
Sounds like Star Trek.
Seriously, though, a wireless visor device with semi-transparent display and 3d imaging! Images rendered on the background of real life!
Connect it back to the processor module with bluetooth, and away you go!
While it is a no-brainer to agree with you on that, I have seen some fairly light batteries recently. They were circa 1985, and used as a power source for a fairly large (lugable) IR Thermographic camera. It was a belt, weighing about 4 pounds, and could provide power for 8 hours to what is essentially a PC.
I understood they were made from an obscure division of ABB. Anybody else know more?
From the MP3 jukebox company also mentioned today comes the Y2PC
Haven't seen one, but it is exactly what you are asking for. Not as small or light as i would hope, but... no integral display! Only downside that I see with it is there is only one PS2 port, so your mouse would need to be USB.
Just how much time in the day do you have to read /.?
1,000 comments for calendar 27th... a slow day! We need moderation, so that you can find the most interesting things first, and then nod off when the discussion gets too trivial.
I agree that too many comments are too low on the moderation scale, but my attention span for most articles is about 50 posts; after that, it better be interesting!
of course, if you have a better idea...
Historically, hourly wages and timeclocks are used for unskilled labor, where the only contribution you make is your time. When you move up to a point where your skills or ideas are the basis for your pay, you move to a salary position.
Some industries value people as "professionals," but rely on the employees to work overtime. If this is the case, hourly (straight time) overtime is fair. It is an incentive to the worker, but not a penalty to the employer. As long as it is not abused, it works fairly well for 2-3 years. After that... people want to be on straight salary, and often avoid the overtime if possible.
Ultimately, though, if you are talking about skilled labor, you never really get more than a week's worth of productivity out of someone if they are working scheduled overtime... so in the end it is best if people only work a regular week except in crunch situations.
Actually, I think the funniest part of that quote is the idea that someone is liable if anything ever goes wrong! Look at the license for the software! Software companies are not liable for anything!
As for service contracts... If an exchange server crashes, how long will it take to fix? 99% Uptime! (1% unscheduled down-time is 20 working hours per year that the system will be unavailable!)
Just wondering... would it be easier to destroy a sattelite from ground or space?
If it is easier from space... that has some interesting implications for the military establishment...