Dragging hundreds of thousands of users into this mess could be a big PR mistake for Metallica. Is there any better way to position yourselves as archaic dinosaurs bent on withstanding change than to draw the average Joe into this? I can't be there in time for this chat, but I'd like to hear their answers to a few key questions:
1) What's the substantial difference between Napster and old-media cassette tape copying?
2) If the online exchange of their music is "sickening", treating their art as a commodity, how is that different from stamping out millions of copies of their work, which can be re-sold freely through used CD shops?
3) How do they envision the music industry working 10 years from now? Will Metallica be remembered as a defender of the industry or a misguided old-school band that missed out on a great opportunity?
4) Does Metallica or Electra Records have any plans in the works to offer music online? Do they have any ideas to offer the Internet Generation other than a Luddite-like prohibitionist stance?
P.S.: Of course the Napster users are stealing, but its massive popularity could well be interpreted as a great market waiting to be catered to, rather than a problem that needs to be wiped out.
I think there are plenty of examples where criminals used their experiences to build themselves a legitamate career. Many teenage hackers have gone on to become network security analysts, as well as traditional burglars who've become consultants to both police agencies and insurance companies.
That said, it's pretty obvious that the Feds consider Mitnick a poster-child for the illegal hacking crowd, and want to cause him as much public grief as they possibly can.
How will artists make their money in the future? That is the real question here. The status quo is highly lucrative for the record labels, so of course they're trying to stifle the Napster thieves as quickly as possible (and they ARE thieves, come on, just admit it - it may be no more serious a crime than speeding, but it's still illegal).
Live performances will always be a great way for artists to earn income - there is simply no replacement for that. Towards that end, a band needs to develop a reputation and following large enough to support them. The free exchange of their work over the Internet is a nice way to get the music out, but they also need a marketing engine behind them to help get heard above all the noise.
The artist could also still make money from the traditional sale of CD's, or whatever medium is in use at the time, but only if that package holds some real value to the consumer. I'm thinking in terms of nifty 70's album cover art that really made someone proud to have it on their shelf.
The relationship between record label and artist has always been a two-way street: the label promotes the artist, and in return gets a cut of the revenue from record sales and/or concerts. In the future, the relationship will still be important, but the first part of that revenue stream will be reduced. That will be a pretty staggering transformation, and it will suck a whole lotta money out of a few fat-cats that refuse to see the change ahead.
The winners will be those first labels who are able to successfully promote a band WITHOUT having a traditional CD release as the core element of the campaign. This Limp Bizkit endeavor is a first step towards that direction, but it's a promotional effort to drive the release of their next album. What I'm talking about is a band that's a) promoted over the web, b) with their music available for free, that c) gets radio airplay as a result, then d) is able to stage a successful concert tour as a result.
That's exactly the type of arrogance I'm talking about. Despite all the technical flaws and "walled garden" architecture of AOL, they understand what Joe User wants far better than 99% of the computing world.
For the average non-sophisticated user who's going to check their email once every few days and likes to just dabble occasionally around the web, AOL works fine. It's certainly not the ISP for everyone, but when I read stuff like "a person using AOL is a person who needs to be saved," and "get a real operating system," it smells like Evangelism.
This qualifies as Insightful? Yeesh... more like the ravings of a disgruntled college student.
Like someone said, this ain't for nerds...
on
Why Do Open Source?
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· Score: 1
This article is talking about a much more general question ("why do open source?"), so the hair-splitting between GPL and DFSG and WXYZ, or any other acronym is irrelevant. They're simply trying to answer a question that many Wall Streeters reasonably ask - why do so many talented individuals pour their hearts and souls into these projects for basically zero compensation? Sure enough, "fun" (which is unique to each person based on their personal preferences) and "investment in human capital" (both in skills and professional reputation) pretty much sum the whole thing up. I don't see the point of your nit-picking. As the saying goes, please "eschew obfuscation."
This site was featured on ZDTV: www.dumbassdrivers.com. You can select from a variety of postcards, give them the license plate number for the idiot who just cut you off, and they'll write your message on the postcard and send it to the idiot's address. All for free!
It seems like free software/open source projects are impressive endeavors, but always trying to play "catch-up" with their commercial counterparts. Without the almighty dollar dangling in front of open source developers the way it does for the commercial software industry, how and/or when will open source start to take the lead in terms of product & feature development?
Hotlines for rape, domestic violence, child abuse, and other problems of that sort are used to report ACTUAL incidents that need to be resolved. This plan, however, asks kids to report POSSIBLE trouble that might or might not occur based on criteria that would normally be used by a mental health professional. This horribly flawed program is not just offensive, but it just won't work in practice.
That said, I don't blame Pinkerton too much - the real villains are the task force that came up with this recommendation, and a public that doesn't care to get involved with the education system enough. School boards need to be rigourously monitored by the community, and (gasp!) taxpayers must be willing to pay the cost of providing the proper amount and quality of staffing in schools.
What would be useful for those who want to include social concerns into their purchasing decisions would be to have a central source of information listing various technology companies in terms of environmental responsibility, treatment of workers, charitable endeavors, etc. (there probably is one already, I'm just not aware of it) Once enough prominent firms show some altruistic works, there might well be a "me too" effect that draws more companies into the process.
I know there are mutual funds out there that are supposedly made up of "socially responsible" firms, so that might be a good place to start.
That said, I think we'll see these New Economy corporations get more involved with their communities, but it will be a few years off yet, while these companies and their markets mature. With business moving along at "internet speed", charitable works end up ranking pretty low on the priority list. There's simply too much going on right now.
Just wanted to toss this out for the experts to chew on - I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about clustering technology applied in a business setting.
Where I work, there has been a nightmarish endeavor to implement a data warehouse (oodles and oodles of sales history data stored along a variety of dimensions, available for quick access and reporting). I haven't been involved in this project, but I understand that the technical challenges have been daunting, given a reasonable financial limit. One package simply failed to accomodate the amount of data once heavy loads were run, while another failed to process nightly updates within a specified timeframe.
My question is, would one of these clustering technologies be applicable to a data warehouse? I think of the 100 or so PC's that sit around the office doing nothing overnight, and wonder if an investment in some extra disc and some elbow grease might give us at least some functionality while handling that massive amount of data. Just a thought...
There are certainly a zillion good things that could be done on Freenet - I don't argue with that. My point is that turning a blind eye to what this tool will be used for is reckless.
"Is Dyson recklessly ignoring politics or is she maybe redefining them?"
Is it just me, or have I seen this phrase far too often relating to many endeavors in this internet age? Basically it translates, "so-and-so is really bad at something, but if it turns out that I'm wrong, then they're redefining it."
"Ian Clark is quoted on http://freenet.sourceforge.net as saying that he fears that his child may ask what happened to the freedom of the press on the internet. True freedom may have already been distroyed. Freenet is trying to get it back."
When has "true freedom" ever really existed? The fact is, there isn't a good-old-days that Freenet is taking us all back to.
Again, idealism is getting in the way of common sense. There is much more freedom of the press on the internet than there is in the conventional media, and Freenet's philosophy of turning a blind eye to specious content is not just irresponsible, but potentially dangerous to the whole issue of internet privacy. Once enough John Q. Public's get outraged by the stuff flying around Freenet, our beloved saviors in Congress will rally to the cause and take action. We've already seen several attempts like this regarding the internet in general, but if Freenet indeed makes this information flow that much more pervasive, then the chorus calling for restrictions will get only louder.
The fact that Freenet will not just tolerate, but actually provide an easier means to anonymously distribute illicit material (copyright violations, kiddie porn, etc.) will be the doom of this project.
Idealism can be a nice thing, but there is such a thing as focusing so strongly on a central idea that all perspective is lost. Is the world crying out for a means to anonymously share information via the internet? No, not really.
First of all, model ships in a bathtub were good enough for the Godzilla movies, so they're good enough for me!
Secondly, I think the interesting issue relating to CG and filmmaking isn't necessarily the realism or authenticity that becomes more available, but rather the ability to stretch the bounds of creativity in design and visual effects. Michael Moorcock's writing's, for example, are perfect fodder for a daring artist who wants to mess around with an audience's conception of reality - it's been a while since I've read those books, but the Lords of Chaos seemed to bend reality to their whim at any given time.
For the really whacked out film, I'd love to see someone take on the Dancers at the End of Time books, like "An Alien Heat", and the others.
Ever since that awful Dragonheart (or whatever it was called) movie with the CG dragon and Sean Connery's voice, I've been anticipating a movie combining incredible effects with a GREAT story - LoTR. The folks involved seem to sense how much people are looking forward to this, and it seems like it will be a major success. One site worth visiting is www.mckellen.com - it's the site for Sir Ian McKellen, who portrays Gandalf.
But what's next?
Personally, I'd like to see an adventurous, stylish filmmaker take on the Elric of Melnibone story - lots of potential there for an incredible film. But who to cast as Elric?
Those tools might well be out there and used on a regular basis, but there probably isn't much buzz about them because it's considered Programming-Lite. I used a 4GL quite a bit in the HMO biz (Cognos' Powerhouse on the HP3000), as a report writer, file processor, and EDI document generator - nothing I'd get really excited about, but it worked well and is very easy to maintain amongst a team of constantly-changing IT staff.
Frankly, I'm a little surprised that 4GL's haven't prospered - they provide a solid means to satisfy many business needs, and require less training than languages like Cobol, Java, or something else.
The Microsoft Age began to unravel when programmers all over the earth connected and demonstrated that they could create a viable, ethical alternative operating system, sharing freely what was costing everybody else billions. </LINUX JUNKIE SUCK-UP>
<NEW-AGE HORSE$HIT>Perhaps the post-Microsoft world began between when Linus Torvald began his software experiment and Judge Jackson's eerily retro ruling yesterday. Why eerie? Because it pitted a string of l9th-century laws and institutions against a 21st-century economic system.</NEW-AGE HORSE$HIT>
Anti-competitive monopolists are just as dangerous to the 21st-century economy as any other - the big difference being that they have a cadre of techno-linguists on hand to confuse the issue for the public.
Much like AOL, they know what the lay person wants to hear, and they make oodles keeping them entertained. The editor of the WWN was interviewed on TV a couple years ago, and he had a great answer when asked about the journalistic integrity of the paper's outrageous articles:
"We don't want to question ourselves out of a good story."
"let's face it, the piecemeal, state-by-state, country-by-country, corporation-by-corporation, approach to everything from data privacy to encryption to Net taxes isn't working."
Who says? By all accounts, the Net is having enormous success across countless areas of human endeavor - in business, education, communication, etc. Sure, the hodge-podge of differing MO's can be frustrating to deal with, but it pales in comparison to the benefits that are being realized.
Just another "the Internet is a globalizing force that will bring down the barriers... (blah blah blah)" article. Nothing new or interesting here as far as I can see... sorry!
Slashdot Mirror
Allow me to refine that comment for all the pinheads out there who are just looking to be offended.
Of course, those Napster users trading in copyrighted material are stealing.
1) What's the substantial difference between Napster and old-media cassette tape copying?
2) If the online exchange of their music is "sickening", treating their art as a commodity, how is that different from stamping out millions of copies of their work, which can be re-sold freely through used CD shops?
3) How do they envision the music industry working 10 years from now? Will Metallica be remembered as a defender of the industry or a misguided old-school band that missed out on a great opportunity?
4) Does Metallica or Electra Records have any plans in the works to offer music online? Do they have any ideas to offer the Internet Generation other than a Luddite-like prohibitionist stance?
P.S.: Of course the Napster users are stealing, but its massive popularity could well be interpreted as a great market waiting to be catered to, rather than a problem that needs to be wiped out.
That said, it's pretty obvious that the Feds consider Mitnick a poster-child for the illegal hacking crowd, and want to cause him as much public grief as they possibly can.
Live performances will always be a great way for artists to earn income - there is simply no replacement for that. Towards that end, a band needs to develop a reputation and following large enough to support them. The free exchange of their work over the Internet is a nice way to get the music out, but they also need a marketing engine behind them to help get heard above all the noise.
The artist could also still make money from the traditional sale of CD's, or whatever medium is in use at the time, but only if that package holds some real value to the consumer. I'm thinking in terms of nifty 70's album cover art that really made someone proud to have it on their shelf.
The relationship between record label and artist has always been a two-way street: the label promotes the artist, and in return gets a cut of the revenue from record sales and/or concerts. In the future, the relationship will still be important, but the first part of that revenue stream will be reduced. That will be a pretty staggering transformation, and it will suck a whole lotta money out of a few fat-cats that refuse to see the change ahead.
The winners will be those first labels who are able to successfully promote a band WITHOUT having a traditional CD release as the core element of the campaign. This Limp Bizkit endeavor is a first step towards that direction, but it's a promotional effort to drive the release of their next album. What I'm talking about is a band that's
a) promoted over the web,
b) with their music available for free, that
c) gets radio airplay as a result, then
d) is able to stage a successful concert tour as a result.
For the average non-sophisticated user who's going to check their email once every few days and likes to just dabble occasionally around the web, AOL works fine. It's certainly not the ISP for everyone, but when I read stuff like "a person using AOL is a person who needs to be saved," and "get a real operating system," it smells like Evangelism.
Blech.
AOL user = idiot
This qualifies as Insightful? Yeesh... more like the ravings of a disgruntled college student.
This article is talking about a much more general question ("why do open source?"), so the hair-splitting between GPL and DFSG and WXYZ, or any other acronym is irrelevant. They're simply trying to answer a question that many Wall Streeters reasonably ask - why do so many talented individuals pour their hearts and souls into these projects for basically zero compensation? Sure enough, "fun" (which is unique to each person based on their personal preferences) and "investment in human capital" (both in skills and professional reputation) pretty much sum the whole thing up. I don't see the point of your nit-picking. As the saying goes, please "eschew obfuscation."
This site was featured on ZDTV: www.dumbassdrivers.com. You can select from a variety of postcards, give them the license plate number for the idiot who just cut you off, and they'll write your message on the postcard and send it to the idiot's address. All for free!
It seems like free software/open source projects are impressive endeavors, but always trying to play "catch-up" with their commercial counterparts. Without the almighty dollar dangling in front of open source developers the way it does for the commercial software industry, how and/or when will open source start to take the lead in terms of product & feature development?
I like the way you think!
That said, I don't blame Pinkerton too much - the real villains are the task force that came up with this recommendation, and a public that doesn't care to get involved with the education system enough. School boards need to be rigourously monitored by the community, and (gasp!) taxpayers must be willing to pay the cost of providing the proper amount and quality of staffing in schools.
I know there are mutual funds out there that are supposedly made up of "socially responsible" firms, so that might be a good place to start.
That said, I think we'll see these New Economy corporations get more involved with their communities, but it will be a few years off yet, while these companies and their markets mature. With business moving along at "internet speed", charitable works end up ranking pretty low on the priority list. There's simply too much going on right now.
Where I work, there has been a nightmarish endeavor to implement a data warehouse (oodles and oodles of sales history data stored along a variety of dimensions, available for quick access and reporting). I haven't been involved in this project, but I understand that the technical challenges have been daunting, given a reasonable financial limit. One package simply failed to accomodate the amount of data once heavy loads were run, while another failed to process nightly updates within a specified timeframe.
My question is, would one of these clustering technologies be applicable to a data warehouse? I think of the 100 or so PC's that sit around the office doing nothing overnight, and wonder if an investment in some extra disc and some elbow grease might give us at least some functionality while handling that massive amount of data. Just a thought...
TopShelf is a hockey term - a shot that scores up high over the goalie's shoulder. Writing about hockey is a hobby of mine, hence the nick...
There are certainly a zillion good things that could be done on Freenet - I don't argue with that. My point is that turning a blind eye to what this tool will be used for is reckless.
Is it just me, or have I seen this phrase far too often relating to many endeavors in this internet age? Basically it translates, "so-and-so is really bad at something, but if it turns out that I'm wrong, then they're redefining it."
When has "true freedom" ever really existed? The fact is, there isn't a good-old-days that Freenet is taking us all back to.
Again, idealism is getting in the way of common sense. There is much more freedom of the press on the internet than there is in the conventional media, and Freenet's philosophy of turning a blind eye to specious content is not just irresponsible, but potentially dangerous to the whole issue of internet privacy. Once enough John Q. Public's get outraged by the stuff flying around Freenet, our beloved saviors in Congress will rally to the cause and take action. We've already seen several attempts like this regarding the internet in general, but if Freenet indeed makes this information flow that much more pervasive, then the chorus calling for restrictions will get only louder.
Idealism can be a nice thing, but there is such a thing as focusing so strongly on a central idea that all perspective is lost. Is the world crying out for a means to anonymously share information via the internet? No, not really.
Secondly, I think the interesting issue relating to CG and filmmaking isn't necessarily the realism or authenticity that becomes more available, but rather the ability to stretch the bounds of creativity in design and visual effects. Michael Moorcock's writing's, for example, are perfect fodder for a daring artist who wants to mess around with an audience's conception of reality - it's been a while since I've read those books, but the Lords of Chaos seemed to bend reality to their whim at any given time.
For the really whacked out film, I'd love to see someone take on the Dancers at the End of Time books, like "An Alien Heat", and the others.
I've since moved into the AS/400 world, and appreciate Powerhouse even more now that I don't have it!
But what's next?
Personally, I'd like to see an adventurous, stylish filmmaker take on the Elric of Melnibone story - lots of potential there for an incredible film. But who to cast as Elric?
Frankly, I'm a little surprised that 4GL's haven't prospered - they provide a solid means to satisfy many business needs, and require less training than languages like Cobol, Java, or something else.
<NEW-AGE HORSE$HIT>Perhaps the post-Microsoft world began between when Linus Torvald began his software experiment and Judge Jackson's eerily retro ruling yesterday. Why eerie? Because it pitted a string of l9th-century laws and institutions against a 21st-century economic system.</NEW-AGE HORSE$HIT>
Anti-competitive monopolists are just as dangerous to the 21st-century economy as any other - the big difference being that they have a cadre of techno-linguists on hand to confuse the issue for the public.
"We don't want to question ourselves out of a good story."
Who says? By all accounts, the Net is having enormous success across countless areas of human endeavor - in business, education, communication, etc. Sure, the hodge-podge of differing MO's can be frustrating to deal with, but it pales in comparison to the benefits that are being realized.
Just another "the Internet is a globalizing force that will bring down the barriers... (blah blah blah)" article. Nothing new or interesting here as far as I can see... sorry!