Flattr might fit the bill. Though primarily intended for (media)content providers, I don't see any reason why it should not work for giving micropayments to sites such as Cryptome (which of course is also a content provider in a way).
Gold still has a much better weight/value ratio. One kilo of gold costs more than 25.000 euros, so it costs more than twice as much as the highest quality saffron in your example. Gold also has much less issues with quality (easier to certify/quantify the quality), and is much easier to sell quickly. Besides, a private individual (as in: not a professional saffron dealer) selling large amounts of saffron might attract a lot of attention...
At 320kbps you are pretty close to the size that FLAC compression would produce, so at that point you might as well go lossless even if you can't tell the difference (at least you could get back to wave files that way). Also you may not have "tin ears," because I've found it takes thousands of dollars of audio equipment to tell the difference at 192kbps. However, any true audio file will say do what you think sounds good (even if it happens to be the tape deck in your car), it is only the snobby ones who are douche bags.
FLAC often has a bitrate higher than 1000kbps, so there is a significant difference between the size of a 320 version and a FLAC version. So it takes about 200% more storage space, takes 3 times as long to copy, etc. That being said, if possible, I'd still go for FLAC, especially for important things (original work, a rip of a rare CD/LP, etc.). With FLAC, you can always make lossy derivative copies, but if you start at 320kpbs (let alone 192 or, god forbid, 128), you will never get better sound from that source, it will only get worse. So if it isor whatever, go for FLAC, other
As far as I know, Gideon International, famous for their distribution of bibles, only distribute the New Testament. Not sure what the reason is, but I am sure efficiency plays a big role if you are going to distribute more than 1,5 billion copies...
Let's try an example. Kings of Leon is enjoying some pretty good success right now with songs from their most recent album reaching the top 5 of Billbaord, Hot 100, and other charts. But the band formed in 1999. For for the better part of a decade they were only "good" to a small number as you put it. But then how did they suddenly jump out of relative obscurity to the top of mainstream charts?
You seem to assume that Kings of Leon have produced music for 10 years of a constant quality. Perhaps their "Only By The Night" album (2008) and the associated singles just were so good that the quality of the music made that their popularity grew?
I am not saying that this true, but just because they make good music and are popular now does not necessarily mean that they "deserved" to be popular all along.
What if they track both the pet and the owner, and then only register the pets location on the website (behind a password of course) when the pet and owner are more than n meters away from each other? The irony of this system is of course that in order to increase the privacy of the owner, he/she too needs to be tracked initially...
So... to give our (great?) grand-children a free world, we should be killing off all the creators now right?:)
"Well you see son, there used to be this thing called a 'rock star', and they made music. But we had to kill them all to set the music free. It was the only way."
I don't think we should bother too much with the rock stars, they usually kill themselves quite quickly in one way or another. Let's focus our attention on the Backstreet Boys, Miley Cyrus, etc. Then again, we should ask ourselves; is this really the kind of music we want in de public domain?
I've come across a couple of examples of inappropriate use of Excel
A friend worked at the UK Treasury as a statistician. One of his jobs was testing and improving the Treasury's model of the UK enconomy. I was impressed and asked what tools they used for this. Erm, none, it's just a huge Excel spreadsheet.
Yeah, but it's only the UK economy, it's not like its the German or the Japanese economy or anything.;)
(...) anorexic (which would have killed you a few centuries ago). As opposed to nowadays?
Anorexia is thought to have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder, with approximately 10% of those who are diagnosed with the disorder eventually dying due to related causes. The suicide rate of people with anorexia is also higher than that of the general population and is thought to be the major cause of death for those with the condition. A recent review suggested that less than one-half recover fully, one-third improve, and 20% remain chronically ill.
as soon as we get a pandemic disease, all the weak thin people will die, and the fat and strong will rule the earth. MWAHAHAHAHAAAA!! I do not share your confidence in the natural selection merits of pandemics. According to this blog, during the 1918 pandemic, the death rate for people aged between 25 and 34 was as high as that for people between 1 and 4 and between 70 and 80 (graph).
(...) the beauty canon. I, for one, welcome our new artillery wielding supermodel overlords. Oh wait.
I am not sure if you are trolling, but there is definitely homebrew and other purposes other than playing copied games for the xbox. For example; playing DVDs from all regions and using some homebrew media player to play your fairly acquired mp3s and videos for example.
My favorite recommendations are when I am comparing different versions of the same cd for example. I sometimes see that "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" the same item, but the the hard back version, deluxe edition, etc. This can perhaps be attributed to the fact that such differen editions appear later and that some people buy both versions, but it's still dubious.
Or when looking at this cd by a band called Goose, Amazon says that "Other customers suggested these items:", followed by items such as "Favourite Christmas Recipes (Favourite Recipes)"...
I think the analog step that is being referred to is the step from speakers (audio source) to ears. That will always be captureable as long as that step is not digital. One option would be to remove the eardrums from everyone and then install some kind of digital receptor that translates the digital DRM'ed signal directly to the auditory nerve (or the optical nerve in case of video/images). Somehow, I think that all this will take a bit more than "5 maybe 10 years".
With "proper" DRM in the receptor/translator, that system would be pretty fool proof. Although even then you could try and tap the auditory nerve and record the signal, or maybe even use somekind of brain scan to interpret the signals being received in the brain.
First of all, the worst-case scenario for a computer virus infection is much, much worse than $1000. Image a scenario where spyware steals all your login details, sends out all kinds of emails in your name, charges your creditcard(s), exposes all your purchases and visits, wipes your hard drive, steals your Steam account;) , etc.
Especially the loss of data can be devastating. Big companies probably have things pretty well secured and backed up, but for small businesses and institutions an infection can be very nasty (client information compromised, years of research lost, temporarily being unable to operate, etc.). And what about cases where all precious family photo's are lost?
And of course the ultimate worst-case scenario for an STD infection is death, but I think that a worst-case scenario in a computer virus situation is more common than death from an STD.
(I am European and while by no means an expert, I'm taking a EU Law course)
A EU directive is quite different than "a simple request" to EU member states, though you are partly right. A directive is binding for all the member states to which it is addressed (in this case; all member states), but it does not specify the measures that should be taken, only the goals. Thus, the member states are obliged to implement measures in their own national law that will achieve the goals set in the directive.[1]
[1] Mathijsen, P., (2004). A Guide to European Union Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell.
Slashdot Mirror
http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/02/13/0251259/Ex-Pirate-Bay-Admin-Launches-Micropayment-Service
Flattr might fit the bill. Though primarily intended for (media)content providers, I don't see any reason why it should not work for giving micropayments to sites such as Cryptome (which of course is also a content provider in a way).
Gold still has a much better weight/value ratio. One kilo of gold costs more than 25.000 euros, so it costs more than twice as much as the highest quality saffron in your example. Gold also has much less issues with quality (easier to certify/quantify the quality), and is much easier to sell quickly. Besides, a private individual (as in: not a professional saffron dealer) selling large amounts of saffron might attract a lot of attention...
I don't know, let's hope that someone has the time to shed some light on this matter...
Godwin's Law
a visually and aurally pleasing game
Sure, but is it orally pleasing?
At 320kbps you are pretty close to the size that FLAC compression would produce, so at that point you might as well go lossless even if you can't tell the difference (at least you could get back to wave files that way). Also you may not have "tin ears," because I've found it takes thousands of dollars of audio equipment to tell the difference at 192kbps. However, any true audio file will say do what you think sounds good (even if it happens to be the tape deck in your car), it is only the snobby ones who are douche bags.
FLAC often has a bitrate higher than 1000kbps, so there is a significant difference between the size of a 320 version and a FLAC version. So it takes about 200% more storage space, takes 3 times as long to copy, etc. That being said, if possible, I'd still go for FLAC, especially for important things (original work, a rip of a rare CD/LP, etc.). With FLAC, you can always make lossy derivative copies, but if you start at 320kpbs (let alone 192 or, god forbid, 128), you will never get better sound from that source, it will only get worse. So if it isor whatever, go for FLAC, other
As far as I know, Gideon International, famous for their distribution of bibles, only distribute the New Testament. Not sure what the reason is, but I am sure efficiency plays a big role if you are going to distribute more than 1,5 billion copies...
...you should see the other universes!
Let's try an example. Kings of Leon is enjoying some pretty good success right now with songs from their most recent album reaching the top 5 of Billbaord, Hot 100, and other charts. But the band formed in 1999. For for the better part of a decade they were only "good" to a small number as you put it. But then how did they suddenly jump out of relative obscurity to the top of mainstream charts?
You seem to assume that Kings of Leon have produced music for 10 years of a constant quality. Perhaps their "Only By The Night" album (2008) and the associated singles just were so good that the quality of the music made that their popularity grew?
I am not saying that this true, but just because they make good music and are popular now does not necessarily mean that they "deserved" to be popular all along.
... obviously it is DRE (700), serial number 34491.
Let's hope that this new system prevents premature revelation of election results...
What if they track both the pet and the owner, and then only register the pets location on the website (behind a password of course) when the pet and owner are more than n meters away from each other? The irony of this system is of course that in order to increase the privacy of the owner, he/she too needs to be tracked initially...
Life + 70 means the creator's life + 70 years
So... to give our (great?) grand-children a free world, we should be killing off all the creators now right? :)
"Well you see son, there used to be this thing called a 'rock star', and they made music. But we had to kill them all to set the music free. It was the only way."
I don't think we should bother too much with the rock stars, they usually kill themselves quite quickly in one way or another. Let's focus our attention on the Backstreet Boys, Miley Cyrus, etc. Then again, we should ask ourselves; is this really the kind of music we want in de public domain?
I think that that Linux loving Monrovian is responsible for the driver compatibility of the chalk board (CUPS?) . That, or he does the LaTeX ...
Yeah, but does it run Linux?
...
I've come across a couple of examples of inappropriate use of Excel
Yeah, but it's only the UK economy, it's not like its the German or the Japanese economy or anything. ;)
I'd think twice about doing this. You will end up killing 99% of the bugs, but the 1% that survive will be sunlight resistant! You'll kill us all!
Daywalkers!
as soon as we get a pandemic disease, all the weak thin people will die, and the fat and strong will rule the earth. MWAHAHAHAHAAAA!! I do not share your confidence in the natural selection merits of pandemics. According to this blog, during the 1918 pandemic, the death rate for people aged between 25 and 34 was as high as that for people between 1 and 4 and between 70 and 80 (graph).
(...) the beauty canon. I, for one, welcome our new artillery wielding supermodel overlords. Oh wait.
CmdrTaco has bought a Swedish-made penis-enlargement pump!
you must be new here. I think you underestimate Slashdotters.
"It seems paid customers have been having problems since day one of release"
Why did the customers get paid?
I am not sure if you are trolling, but there is definitely homebrew and other purposes other than playing copied games for the xbox. For example; playing DVDs from all regions and using some homebrew media player to play your fairly acquired mp3s and videos for example.
My favorite recommendations are when I am comparing different versions of the same cd for example. I sometimes see that "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" the same item, but the the hard back version, deluxe edition, etc. This can perhaps be attributed to the fact that such differen editions appear later and that some people buy both versions, but it's still dubious.
Or when looking at this cd by a band called Goose, Amazon says that "Other customers suggested these items:", followed by items such as "Favourite Christmas Recipes (Favourite Recipes)"...
I think the analog step that is being referred to is the step from speakers (audio source) to ears. That will always be captureable as long as that step is not digital. One option would be to remove the eardrums from everyone and then install some kind of digital receptor that translates the digital DRM'ed signal directly to the auditory nerve (or the optical nerve in case of video/images). Somehow, I think that all this will take a bit more than "5 maybe 10 years".
With "proper" DRM in the receptor/translator, that system would be pretty fool proof. Although even then you could try and tap the auditory nerve and record the signal, or maybe even use somekind of brain scan to interpret the signals being received in the brain.
*puts on tinfoil hat.
First of all, the worst-case scenario for a computer virus infection is much, much worse than $1000. Image a scenario where spyware steals all your login details, sends out all kinds of emails in your name, charges your creditcard(s), exposes all your purchases and visits, wipes your hard drive, steals your Steam account ;) , etc.
Especially the loss of data can be devastating. Big companies probably have things pretty well secured and backed up, but for small businesses and institutions an infection can be very nasty (client information compromised, years of research lost, temporarily being unable to operate, etc.). And what about cases where all precious family photo's are lost?
And of course the ultimate worst-case scenario for an STD infection is death, but I think that a worst-case scenario in a computer virus situation is more common than death from an STD.
(I am European and while by no means an expert, I'm taking a EU Law course)
A EU directive is quite different than "a simple request" to EU member states, though you are partly right. A directive is binding for all the member states to which it is addressed (in this case; all member states), but it does not specify the measures that should be taken, only the goals. Thus, the member states are obliged to implement measures in their own national law that will achieve the goals set in the directive.[1]
[1] Mathijsen, P., (2004). A Guide to European Union Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell.